Ode to a Frog

Dear Frog,

Why jump you with such grace and height

From tables, hands and chairs?

Do you aim to bring yourself a death

More dreadful in despair

Than the poor passing of our dear

Broccoli butterfly

So beautiful, so tame and sweet

Who rarely yearned to fly?

Does your sweet moist home

So full of bugs

Not fill you with desire

To spend another day with us

And hear the wee town criers?

I must confess.

There are some days

I'd rather lounge with you

among the crickets

Plastic plants

Within safe walls to rest.

Today we took you in the yard

You jumped among the grass.

How lovely and how camouflaged

You seemed until at last

We saw that crow hovering nearby you

His eyes a sharp clear stare

And off we hustled you back in

To your new home fresh and clean.

Eat my friend now

Enjoy your home,

It can't be all that bad.

If you were to leave us by feast

or feat

We would all be slightly sad.

Body Art

Mia is a really great little girl. She's most generally kind, loving, understanding and freakishly intuitive for a girl of only two and a half. And Mia loves to colour her body. Daily it seems.

Wednesdays are Rob's day off and he generally takes the kids out for the morning so that I can do some marking. However this last Wednesday we decided that Mia would stay home with me for whatever reason. I worried that I would get nothing done, but on the contrary she was a pleasure. She sat with me playing playdough and stringing beads while I marked, and only interrupted me for milk or apples about every ten minutes or so. Really, this is not bad!

When it came time to have a shower for work, we decided that bringing her markers and paper into the bathroom would be the best aversion. And what a lovely, quiet shower I had! And what a lovely, colourful zebra Mia made! So funny.

This bottom picture is this afternoon's blue goo - created by Lucas and enjoyed thoroughly by Mia. I had to cut her blue legs out of the picture due to my son's bareness!

Aaaahhhhhhhhhh.....

A smiley day at the beach with good friends puts songs in my heart.

It's hard to believe that this pic of the same two little guys at the beach was only a few short years ago.

Random Catch-Up

So, I sure am not very good at this blogging thing anymore. Life has become very full indeed and I find it increasingly frustrating to get any time to myself that does not involve marking or teaching. Ergh. Compounding this has been the fact that our computer died (largely due in part to a jumbo cup of cold,cold milk being poured over it.) That computer, now dubbed old faithful, has been brought back to life by a kind student and has taken the role of the kid and nanny computer since all our data was mysteriously lost in it's last illness. The irony is that the speedy sleek new computer does not want to connect to the internet for long periods of time. I spent a large part of mother's day growling to an innocent man in the Philippines who kept telling me that I could not avail of his service until I gave him my credit card number. When I finally buckled, against all my better sense, he instructed me to download an upgrade for vista from the internet. Bastards. It still doesn't work well and I refuse to call again after refusing their six calls for sixty bucks deal. Bastards, I repeat. So do I return the new and very expensive computer, buy a new modem or swallow my pride and call Linksys again? A greedy part of me loves to be able to surf at the same time as a kid or Rob. It's a novelty in our our house that I could (and am) quickly getting used to!

The last few weeks passed with a realization that I am simply not as important as I once was. Ha! Rob and I passed incredibly boring birthdays that saw ourselves hosting our own family festivities and cleaning up the mess afterwards. The old thrill of surprises and parties has obviously gone the way of the cuckoo bird and somehow messages posted on my facebook wall just don't cut it. When commiserating with Julia, I was relieved to hear that she felt much the same way. Next year I vow I will just go ahead and make a fuss out of ourselves! Get your dancing shoes on!

Rob worked all day mother's day and I spent the afternoon (post linksys call) with my mom and the kids. The kids were CRANKY all day, we ordered sushi (dry and bland) and laughed at ourselves - what else could we do?! The best part of the celebration was the Friday before when Lucas' preschool hosted a mother's day tea complete with wrapped gifts of kid-made jewellery, kid-baked scones with kid-mushed strawberry jam and hand-printed cards. Too cute.

Work has been really, really busy for me as I am deep into my nine-week stint teaching two English 12 classes. I am very pleased with my ability to cope with the prep and marking, not to mention the meal planning and making, housework and driving(!) but it has been quite a feat with Rob's schedule not letting up at all. I fully deserve the title of SuperMom right now. And, might I be so bold to say, super teacher? Ha! That one may be less than true! It has been really rewarding, however, to teach a great group of students who are (mostly) keen and interested in the material and process alike. I still can't wait for summer though!

Speaking of summer, will it ever come? Last year I vowed to not buy summer clothes, and I'm sticking to that again this year. It has been such a cold spring. The only light in that is that when we have had lovely warm days, we've made great use of them. This last Sunday Rob dropped us off at Coal Harbour on his way to work and we rode into Stanley Park on our bikes. Lucas was a hero weaving through pedestrians and bikers, backpack on and teddy hanging like a dead bear from his handlebars. We made several stops to adjust sunglasses and look at the wildlife, but the crowning moment was his sudden braking when we reached second(?) beach and he saw the playground, beach and pool. We spent the afternoon swimming in the surprisingly warm pool and crab hunting under the rocks - pure bliss. As was the beer can chicken for dinner when we arrived home!

Lucas and Mia, dare I say it, are getting along very well these days. I feel grateful and blessed to see them interacting together, mostly happily. Mia is so easy-going to go along with Lucas' plans and Lucas is quite content to help her when she can't quite get it. Most of the time... I'm beginning to see the light at times, thank the Lord. But no, we're not having a third. I think our friend Jeff convinced us of that! Maybe another dog though...?!

I'm sure I have thousands of other things to tell you, my anonymous readers, but at this point in the chaotic morning, I must revert back to looking after food and floors.

Hope all is well with each of you. xox Ting

"Go Canucks Go! Go Golfing!"

(As heard by most of 41st ave from Lucas yelling out the window of the truck while waving a Canucks flag post game six.)