Well it's Monday again…I would give this weekend a 6 out of 10 on the
scale. Friday night we didn't do much with the kids. Owen had his
tubes checked (everything appears OK) Friday afternoon. For those of
you who are interested, Dale has had a job offer from a company within
his current company so at the very least, he is employed as of Feb
1st. He has some other interviews and some other things "up in the
air" so I am not exactly sure where he is planning on going. As soon
as I found this out, I started to sleep much better. I must have been
over stressing over his employment situation. I guess worrying about
money can keep you up at night.
It also snowed last week so the kids were quite excited. Saturday we
had the Winter Jamboree (which if you are a lifetime 'shaw resident,
you know either always has NO snow, or it rains and is a joke) so we
took the kids to the Snow Goose Egg hunt (basically tossing eggs in
the snow and you try to find them) at the library. The kids had a
good time…We then went to lunch at La Estacion. The kids ate large
plates of rice with chips and Mya almost fell asleep in her food. It
was also my dad's birthday (Happy Birthday Dad!). We were going to
try and get to Madison to see Robin, but she got off shift late and
slept till around 2:30, so sadly we didn't see her.
We invited Toni around for dinner since Fred has been in Florida for
weeks so I figured hey, she might be lonely on a Saturday night. It
forced me to clean the house pretty good (bathrooms and vac. Floors,
and mop kitchen, and clean kitchen). We had Fazollis-yum (three days
worth of leftovers!) and the kids were mental happy because she was
there. Saturday night I watched a bit more of "Long Way Round" (so
good), did some cross stitch, nothing special.
Sunday it snowed (a lot) and so we took the kids outside to my moms to
shovel, then went home to shovel with dale for an hour. Had Subway,
went back to parents and had birthday cake…Mya knows how to write her
name and signed the birthday card all by herself. This was a big deal
for her. The kids then went home for a 2 hour nap. Our house is a
bilevel (if you have never been) and our windows really need to be
replaced. In the basement it was 4 degrees cooler than upstairs
because of the shit windows. We built a fire in the basement (managed
to keep the kids away) and were able to raise the temp 10 degrees with
one 5 hour fire.
After dinner (more spaghetti) brought the kids outside again. Owen
had a snowsuit on and kept getting stuck in the snow piles saying
"help me up, I can\'t get up." It was like The Christmas Story. Very
funny. Last night the Bears won (yuck) and also The Colts (yippie!).
I could not watch the Colts game when the score was 21-3. I watched
the rest of Long Way Round.
The last 2 hours were especially moving for someone (like me) who has
barely ever been out of the US. The guys were riding the Road of
Bones in Siberia. For those who don\'t know: The Road of Bones is a
notorious road through far Eastern Russia. It connects Magadan and
Yakutsk. The road is 2000 km long. It was built in the Stalin era of
the USSR by political prisoners, who were often imprisoned in gulags,
or concentration camps.
The road is treated by some as a memorial, as the bones of the people
who constructed it were incorporated into the road.
The area is extremely cold during the winter. Two towns by the
highway, Tomtor and Oymyakon (in the Oymyakon region), both claim the
coldest inhabited place on earth (often referred to as -71.2°C, but
might be -67.7°C) outside of Antarctica. Some believe actual winter
temperatures reached in nearby highlands may be in the -80°Cs.
",1] ); //-->shovel, then went home to shovel with dale for an hour. Had Subway,
went back to parents and had birthday cake…Mya knows how to write her
name and signed the birthday card all by herself. This was a big deal
for her. The kids then went home for a 2 hour nap. Our house is a
bilevel (if you have never been) and our windows really need to be
replaced. In the basement it was 4 degrees cooler than upstairs
because of the shit windows. We built a fire in the basement (managed
to keep the kids away) and were able to raise the temp 10 degrees with
one 5 hour fire.
After dinner (more spaghetti) brought the kids outside again. Owen
had a snowsuit on and kept getting stuck in the snow piles saying
"help me up, I can't get up." It was like The Christmas Story. Very
funny. Last night the Bears won (yuck) and also The Colts (yippie!).
I could not watch the Colts game when the score was 21-3. I watched
the rest of Long Way Round.
The last 2 hours were especially moving for someone (like me) who has
barely ever been out of the US. The guys were riding the Road of
Bones in Siberia. For those who don't know: The Road of Bones is a
notorious road through far Eastern Russia. It connects Magadan and
Yakutsk. The road is 2000 km long. It was built in the Stalin era of
the USSR by political prisoners, who were often imprisoned in gulags,
or concentration camps.
The road is treated by some as a memorial, as the bones of the people
who constructed it were incorporated into the road.
The area is extremely cold during the winter. Two towns by the
highway, Tomtor and Oymyakon (in the Oymyakon region), both claim the
coldest inhabited place on earth (often referred to as -71.2°C, but
might be -67.7°C) outside of Antarctica. Some believe actual winter
temperatures reached in nearby highlands may be in the -80°Cs.
The road is in a state of disrepair and is not traversable by standard
road vehicles because of washed-out bridges and sections of road
reclaimed by streams. During winter, frozen water actually helps river
crossings.
Ewan and Charlie had about the most miserable time on this stretch.
They physically had to create roads on this path to Magadan because
rivers washed the roads away. Its just unbelieveable this part of the
world.
The part that hit me strongly (and also hit the guys) when they
finally got to America and could go to (for instance) a gas station
and buy gas and snack foods and crap. In Mongolia and Russia people
are few and far between, they have no real villages (maybe a hut here
and there, but the people are nomadic) and the roads (if you can call
them that) are dirt or sand or Bog (some places looked like they were
riding through the dead marshes from LOTR)-then you get here and
Canada and its just glorious.
Obviously I am sure I take things like good roads and petrol stations
for 100% granted. I am also sure that people like Laura who are in
various countries in Africa right now, find this normal to not have a
good road, or a McDonalds, or a large city next to another large city.
It really makes you think about how lucky you are to live here vs
there. That being said, Mongolia looks freaking amazing and its going
on my list of places I would like to visit someday…(if only Ulaan
Bataar).
Watched Battlestar last night. Crap so good. I can not believe I
wasn't watching this fron the start. I'm glad we have the first
seasons on DVD, I'm planning on buying a program to rip my Dvd's so I
can put them on my ipod. Want to watch all this on the plane down to
Miami and to DC.
This week is a funny week for us…Toni is in Florida again (twice this
month) so instead of paying for 5 days for each kid, it was more
economical for one of us to stay home with the kids..so Dale is home
with the girls today. It was good timing since today at 1:45 Mya has
her 1st speech therapy over at Whitter School. I think he and Malinda
are going to Kmart while Mya has her lesson. Tonight I have a facial
and brow wax at WW. Considering that I feel like Ugly Betty with
caterpillers on my brows, this is welcome…and a facial and head
massage is always a plus….and even better I am using my Christmas gift
cards so its free. The bad part is orginally I was going to have
today off with the girls so I had a hour long hot stone massage
scheduled, (which now I can not do) and I was looking forward to that
like you wouldn't believe.
I also get to bail from work tomorrow for a follow up (well oct…) appt
with my doctor, its only 3 months late, but oh well. So I have to
work extra hours to make up for time lost. I guess I could be like
other coworkers and just never punch out for breaks or lunch, but I
guess I'm just to honest for that. Stupid me.
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