where did my boys go?

I was looking through my photos from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, and I literally started to cry. I know, I’m a doofus .  It’s like, for the first time I really saw my sons …

They are growing into men. Even little Keigan Michael, isn’t really “little” Keigan Michael, anymore – he’s 11 now, and I can see the vestiges of his childhood beginning to fade from his precious face. His mannerisms have always been ‘old’ – well, for years anyway.  He’s a more mature young man, at 11, than some are at 16 and 18 .  Why must they grow up so fast?  At the same time, I must get on my knees and say thank you, Jesus, for letting them grow up into such fine young men.  Oh, they are certainly not perfect, and have a good journey ahead of them yet, in many ways, even the older fella – but God has been incredibly gracious to me, as a mother, and to each of His children.

God, I love them – thank you.

A story

In loving memory of my Mumsie, Judith Lynne, June 23rd, 1943 – November 2nd, 2002.

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Mem’ries of Mumsie

I was sitting down here today, to write you a poem. The poem would not come. This is what came instead.

Mem’ries,
Light the corners of my mind
Misty water-colored memories
Of the way we were
Scattered pictures,
Of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another
For the way we were . . .

by Alan and Marilyn Bergman

sung by: Barbara Streisand

I remember it well.

Picture It . . . Amherst, NS, September 23^rd, 2002 . . .

I remember the last time we touched, smiled with each other, laughed together, sparkled together. I remember the last stroke on your soft cheek. I can see the twinkle in your hazel eyes as we shared a moment. I remember the last very long and very loud raspberry kiss I gave you on your soft cheek. You giggled and jokingly rolled your eyes, and said, “Get going you!”, just like you always did, at my long smooshie loud raspberry kisses. Yet, you still proffered your cheek to receive my goofy kisses every single time. We had been doing this silly little ritual, at all our good-byes, for as long back as I can remember. I don’t even know when, or how they started – they just did. It is one of those happy little family moments which you can’t explain, but you don’t really need or want to anyway. It’s what makes it all so special.

I remember the last time I called you Mumsie, in the lovely, silly way I had for years and years. I can still feel your shoulders as I pressed you to me in our very last hug. I remember gently brushing your tangled hair, making order of it again. The long hours in bed everyday stole all the health and beauty from your hair, but not from you. I remember tweaking your nose and telling you, again, “Hey Mum, your nose is cold!” It was always cold, even in the heat of the summer. You use to say it was because it was such a long nose, like a ski slope! You were very proud of that nose, it was your father’s nose. I would often joke and say, “So when are you going to give it back, Mum?” You’d roll your eyes, grin like a Cheshire cat, eyes sparkling with mirth, and tell me how weird you’d look with a different nose. Then you’d tell me I was jealous, and off we go on another round of hilarity and comedy. The Judy and Lisa comedy hour. We’d have my children rolling with laughter and gasping for air.  Ah, mem’ries.

I remember joking with you about everything, anything and nothing. Boy did we use to laugh a lot together. We had very similar funny bones, you and I. We spent a lot of time laughing together, often over the most banal of things. Other folks would often just shake their heads and roll their eyes at us. We didn’t care though, did we?

I remember gathering my children together to give “Nannie one last hug before we leave”. I remember Keara climbing up on your bed and squeezing her tiny self in tight for a snuggle with Nannie. I remembered how you told me “I wish I could really hug her back.” Your arms had long since let you down, betrayed you, in the name of Multiple Sclerosis. She would lay close to you, even when she was a brand new babe, and just look deep into your eyes. As she got older she’d stroke your cheeks, giggle and wiggle and give your nose kisses.

I remember Corbin lifting Keigan Michael’s small 4 year old body up so he could kiss Nannie’s cheek too. He always kissed a whole bunch of times. He can never, even now, give just one hug to anyone and scoot. He needs to keep coming back for “just one more” hug before he leaves, goes to bed, whatever. It’s always, “Just one more”.

I remember Izaac’s fast hug and then beating a path for the back door. Izaac has never been a big hugger for anyone outside of his Mum and Dad. Yet, he would hug you, and then run! I remember Corbin and Denver both lingering, a bit, over their goodbyes, then laughing and running out to the van. It didn’t strike me as odd, until years afterward, how long they both lingered that day. Corbin kept telling you he loved you. Denver kept asking questions and leaned in close to say he loved you too – more than once. Sometimes I wonder if somehow, without really knowing, they really knew what was going to take place.

I remember my very last kiss on your forehead. I didn’t linger. After joking around with you, and doing all my long smooshie raspberry kisses, I got busy being a Mum. After I had organised the troops, I just had time for one hurriedly bestowed kiss on your forehead. Then I walked out the door, tossing back a “I’ll see you next summer, Mumsie. Take care, and I love you.”

What I did not realise, at the time, was that all these things really were the ‘lasts’ I’d have with you, this side of Heaven. I truly did believe it was just ‘until next year’. Of course, I would see you again next summer. You were always there, day in, day out. Year in, year out, you were simply always there. I really believed in some way you were invincible and you’d just continue to always be there. I think most children believe – hope – that about their parents.

Superman and Wonder Woman are invincible . . . immortal even. They have their weaknesses, but they always seem to keep on thriving. Mums and Dads, not so much. We always seem to think of them as Superman and Wonder Woman, just the same. However, unlike cartoon superheroes, they are victims of their humanness and their frailties. Diseases prey on some of them, accidents and old age are awaiting the remainder. No matter how you slice it, parents just aren’t the immortal heroes we all wish they were. Disease was conquering my Mum. Well, it was conquering her body, her soul and spirit belonged to Jesus, and that can’t be extinguished. Jesus is a wonderful hope for us children.

One special memory, from that day in September 2002, which I bring out and roll around, then tuck away again, both saddens me and comforts me too. I remember sharing with joy, that I had finally been able to put the money together to buy Michael a small marble remembrance to mark his resting spot, here on Earth. He was my brother, and we had been very close. Losing him was one of the hardest things I had had to go through, to that point in my life. Knowing that there was nothing to mark his resting spot, really hurt my heart. I remember your tears of joy, when you realised that your baby would finally have his headstone. I had never seen your anguish about this, and you had never seen mine. We both kept up the appearances to keep the other from feeling sad, heartsick … helpless to do anything about it. God had other plans.

I remember after you asked me how much it had cost, and how I had got the money for it, you sent me to fetch the “Vitamin C” jar – your piggy bank. I remember snickering and giggling about it, actually. I mean who keeps their life savings in a large vitamin C jar? However, a few minutes later, I was no longer snickering, or giggling. I was weeping. I vividly recall counting out, in wonder, 100 loonies. A treasure trove. I was so choked up, over flowing with feelings, as you explained you had been putting your spare loonies away, since Michael had passed into Jesus’ arms 6 years before, in 1996. By the world’s standard, you were not a wealthy woman – in dollars and cents, that is. This $100 dollars in loonies, was akin to the widow’s portion spoken of in the Bible. It is all you had. It is all you could scrounge and save over all those years. It was like a $100,000 to a wealthy man. I truly remember the joy and those tears. I remember them as if I was sitting beside your bed, today, witnessing the whole thing, all over again. So vivid are my memories, now, of our last day together.

I laugh as I write this, because I think to myself “I always knew she was a stubborn lady!” You fought your disease, tooth and nail. You fought back after divorce. You fought back after betrayal. You railed against the prison you were in. You smiled through it all. It is rather fitting that this final mark on this earth, for you, is one that the world can look at, and not even know the heart, soul and fight that went into it. You would fight. You would win. You would lose. Then you’d go on to the next battle. This was your last battle though, and then blessed rest was yours.

This had been your dream, for six years, and you scraped and saved, doing everything in your limited power to achieve it. It sustained you. It kept you going. It strengthened you to remain here, in pain, in solitude, in a prison your body had made for you. It encouraged you to pray and ask the Lord to just let you do this one thing before you went home. What I didn’t realise was just how much this dream meant to you. It was what was keeping you here with me. It is part of the legacy you left for me. Your faith, your strength, your tenacity, your will to live and keep going, no matter what life tossed at you. This is what you taught me too.

Sometimes in my weak moments, I wonder if I’d known then, what I know now, would I have still obeyed the Lord’s prompting on my heart, and used our vacation money to buy that headstone? Probably. I knew you were tired. I knew your body was weakening. I just didn’t let myself really grasp how tired, how weak. I didn’t want to know. I kept believing in your strength, in your will to live. My but you were stubborn! You kept your dream alive, and your body alive, one loonie – one dollar – at a time.

At the time, I didn’t know any of this. The Lord has revealed your heart to me, throughout these 6 years, since you have been gone. What a gift this has been for me too. To have this insight into your heart . . . your mother’s heart . . . your mother’s love . . . has brought me such comfort over the years. I know I have survived my own struggles here, due in part to that same strength and tenacity you instilled in me. Jesus’ grace, mercy and strength have fully rounded out the foundation you began in me, Mumsie.

Over six years after he was laid to rest, on October 19^th 2002, Michael’s headstone was finally placed on his grave, October 26^th you ventured out to see it. Off you went in your electric wheelchair, over the bumpy semi-frozen October ground, to see this long awaited and prayed for marble marker, with your very own eyes. You weren’t taking anyone’s words for it. You had waited, prayed and saved too long to take another’s word for it. In typical tenacious Judith spirit, you needed to lay your own peepers on it! In my mind’s eye, I can see you. You were bundled up warmly, with your beloved cowboy hat shoved down over your forehead, and your hilarious gianormous fuzzy teddy bear head slippers on your feet. You had your make up on, your most Judith-y clothes on, and a smile on your face. I wasn’t there to see the joy, mixed with the sadness, on your face that day – but I can sure imagine it. Who wouldn’t be happy with a memory like that?

November 2^nd, 2002, at just after 8:00 in the morning, while the nurses sang Christmas carols to you, you passed away from this earth, into Jesus’ arms. It was a well deserved rest, after a very long and arduous journey. I miss you, Mumsie.

Happy 6^th Heaven-versary, Mumsie.

Love you oodles and oodles,

Sarah Jane.

vacation 2008 – day 7

Another beautiful day to wake up to.

We all got up, dressed and ate. As we were about 15 minutes from heading off up the field to church, my Denver and Izaac and their recent simmering hostilities, boiled over. I sent the littles on ahead with big brother and the Hodders to the 10am Bible Study class, which would be followed by a 11am church service.

I tried to reason with the boys for a while, and then Izaac said something that just hurt me so – so I quietly got up, put on my shoes and headed out the door and up the dirt road (didn’t want to get my feet wet in the field) for a walk. After a few minutes Izaac followed me, and after some stubborn reluctance to let go of my anger and hurt, he and I stood on that dirt road, about a 1/2 a mile from the church and just had it out. I poured out my heart to him, about how I felt the Lord was trying to guide me to teach him and guide him, into his adult years. I talked to him about family, respect, focus, faith and his actions showing where his heart is, or isn’t in that faith walk, and a lot about forgiveness. How he was just this big prickly pear on the outside, with this delicious sweet compassionate fella inside, but his prickles just scare most folks away. The Lord brought to mind verses, ideas and scriptures from His word, to help me teach my man-child that morning. We talked on and on. We both cried.

Eventually, we headed back to the church. We had completely missed the 45 minute Bible Study, the 15 minute “free time” and were now 15minutes into the actual service. I had being late, but I know why the good Lord put me on that old dirt road, in Upper Stewiake on that particular Sunday morning, with my stubborn, unyielding, unforgiving, sweet prickly son! Much to his, and my complete amazement, Dave’s preaching was on …. forgiveness, respect, family, focus etc. The most amazing thing? Many of the verses, scriptures and stories (illustrations) I had used and been given to share with my son, were the crux of Dave’s teaching that day. Izaac was blown away. I was blown away.

At one point, after about the 6th or 7th duplication in scriptures (my talk and Dave’s sermon), Izaac turned to me and said, “I guess God felt I needed to hear all this twice, to make it sink into my thick head, right?” He was laughing. I laughed and said, “We all need to hear things more than once, as a rule. But, yes. God does know every millimeter of Izaac, and He will know you do need to be reminded again and again.”

We had a delightful sit down meal with all 12 of us at Dave and Eva’s beautiful dining room set. A down home cooked Turkey meal, with all the fixins! Delicious. After the late lunch, we had to pack up our cars and get moving. We were off to first Truro (gas and Frenchies!), then River Hebert, to visit my brother and his fiancee for the next 4 days and nights.

We arrived, after only two wrong turns, at Kevin and Sally’s place, at about 9pm. Kevin, Sally and I chatted for about 3 hours. Everyone settled in for the night, and we fell asleep content and happy with our day, and finally getting to hug Kevin again, and meet Sally for the very first time.

Lisa

vacation 2006 – day 6

Day 6.

The day dawned beautiful, warm and bright.

All the older children seemed to pair off or get up in groups with the Hodder’s children. This left Keara, Keigan Michael and I to spend some time with my dear friend Eva. Eva and I chatted, at their place, for quite a while, then decided to go down to the Mastodon Ridge tourist spot. I had heard they were suppose to be having a wonderful sale, and I wanted to check it out.

Keigan Michael, at the last minute, decided to stay and have some big brother time with Corbin. He’d really been missing his brother, as Corbin had spent most of his time at the Hodders with Blake and his fiancee.

Keara, Eva and I headed out for a girl’s afternoon out! We went shopping and did some laughing, sharing and crying, and back to more laughing! Eva bought me this beautiful pendent made from sterling silver and Amethyst (my absolute favourite gem stone). I was so touched by her thoughtfulness and affection and love for me.

After we finished up at the store, we decided to nip over to Elizabeth’s place. Elizabeth is Dave’s sister, so Eva’s sister-in-law, and she has been my close friend, as well, for 17 years. We all spent a wonderful afternoon, on into the evening, sharing, and talking and laughing and just being girls again. It was an awesome way to spend our last full day with our dear ones in that part of Nova Scotia.

Back to the Hodder’s and off to bed for everyone. It had to be an early nigh for all, as Dave and everyone had to be up early for church in the morning. Dave is the pastor, after all.

Lisa

vacation 2008 – day 5

Back to our story.

Day 5 began beautiful bright and warm. I lovely day, after a string of rainy wet days. We rose a bit late, just about 9:30am. Denver and Izaac had already headed off with Mitchell, Hodder’s 16yr old son, for a day at the Transfer Station – a.k.a. the dump. Mitchell works there for the summer, and thought my boys would like to see what it was like. They, apparently, had a blast. Who knew you could have oodles of fun at the dump, working, for 8 hours.

Corbin and David and I chatted on the front lawn, of their place, for about 2.5 hours. It was a great talk. I enjoyed sharing about our mutual love for Jesus, talking over what had gone on in each family’s life in the past 2.5 years, since we last saw each other. Well, we just gabbed for a long time.

Eventually, I roused Keara, Keigan Michael and myself, enough to collect up and head towards, Elizabeth’s place for the day. Due to our long chat with David and Corbin, we were running about 1hr late, at this point, and still had a 35 minute drive to get to Elizabeth’s.

Corbin decided to stay and sharpen the blades on Dave’s 3 lawn mowers. He has a lot because he’s got to mow about an acre of land (church and manse) every week. Just as the kids and I were pulling out of the drive, I noticed Corbin holding his elbow and walking quickly for the house. I called out and asked him what was wrong. He said, “Everything is okay. We’re good.” Still, being the concerned Mum that I am, I waited until he emerged from the house, with a band-aid on his elbow. He said he had spun the blade, and forgotten a standard safety procedure – to block the blade from being able to do a 360 turn. The newly sharpened edge cut a spot close to his elbow. He assured me again that he was alright – so remembering he is nearly 20, I shrugged my shoulders, told him I loved him and the kids and left.

The children and I got to Elizabeth’s place just in time to pile into her van and head for the Truro ER. It seems it was the day for accidents. Her 16 year old daughter, Kyla, had ‘grazed’ her finger at work, on the meat slicer, and though it was healing up well, they (work) insisted she head to the ER to have it looked at. Workmen’s compensation and all that stuff to deal with, so protocol had to be observed. Off we went. The visit was blessedly short, as the triage nurse was able to just put a band-aid on her wound and send us on our way.

We spent some of the afternoon shopping in Shubenacadie for shoes for Keara. We finally found a pair, and even bought a couple of great priced T’s for Izaac and a Nova Scotia, full-sized flag for Denver’s bedroom back home. Then we headed back to Elizabeth’s to have tea and chat for the rest of the afternoon. We had a scrumptious supper of homemade chicken salad subs and beverages – it was great.

Lisa

vacation 2008 – day 4

We had a wonderful sleep in the comfort of our friends’ home.

Our plans for this day were simple. Denver and Izaac wanted to stay at the Hodder’s and enjoy their flat screen TV with satellite connection. Corbin and Blake spent the day with one another, and then the evening with Blake’s fiancee as well.

Keara, Keigan Michael and I spent the morning relaxing, and then headed off to visit my dear friend, Sue, in Upper Sackville. This is about a 1.5 hour drive from where the Hodder’s are. I haven’t seen Sue in just over 2.5 years, so it was wonderful to catch up with her. Sue is my oldest friend ….not that she’s old, same age as me actually, but we have been friends since 2nd grade. She stood with me at my wedding, and she was the first person, besides my then DH to hold my first born son. Corbin danced at her wedding, at the tender age of 11.5 months of age. We have remained close friends throughout the majority of our lives, with only distance managing to separate us. After years of fertility issues, she was blessed … rather quickly, with 4 beautiful children. Unfortunately, for my younger kiddos, all of her kiddos were gone from home when we got there. Two were at Grandma’s place in Lyons Brook, N.S. and two were at day soccer camp. So they played on their backyard playground until Katie and Alex got home at 4pm from soccer camp.

At 4:35pm, the children and I headed back to Upper Stewiacke. By this time we were back to the pounding rain torrents we had experienced on Monday night and Tuesday night. The drive back was tedious and difficult with visibility, at times, only about 2 – 3 feet in front of my car. We arrived back safe, and maybe not so sound as we would have liked to be … but safe.

The original plan for today, was that we were suppose to all meet up on the Dartmouth side of the harbour at 4pm. The Hodders and the Browns were going to go and enjoy the International Buskers Fair on the Halifax Water front. I haven’t been to see the buskers since Corbin was in diapers! However, at about 3:30pm, it started to rain – again. So Dave and I talked and we decided, along with Eva Jane, that we would have to fore go this pleasure, as the rain was getting heavier and heavier. Everyone was disappointed, but it did give Sue and I longer to visit, and did allow the kids 1/2 an hour of play time with Sue’s older two kiddos too.

We enjoyed a nice supper together and then our other family friend, Dave’s sister, Elizabeth, arrived with a couple of her children to visit for the evening. It was another night of laughter, fun and chuckles together … and we had no less than 9 teenagers and the two younger children, playing board games in the family room too. It was a blast.

Elizabeth and I made plans to spend the next day together. She took her clan and headed for home, and then we all filtered off to our various sleeping and resting areas.

It was a quieter day, but no less enjoyable than the other more frenetic days.

End of day 4, Day 5 to come . . .

Lisa

vacation 2008 – day 3

We woke up to a nice sunny day, after the torrential rains of last night. We were heading down to Upper Stewiacke later today, so we broke camp. The tents, clothes and stuffies were all packed back in their assigned places. The children were gathered up from the play ground where they waited for the older members of the family to gather up the campsite and tuck it away.

We had a rather sad breakfast of un-toasted bagels with jam or pb on them. Then we set off for our day. We knew we weren’t really expected in Upper Stewiacke until about 8:30pm or so, so we had our day to ourselves to wander and explore as we desired.

We were on the highway no more than 10 – 15 minutes, when I saw the Springhill exit sign looming. I had an idea. I radioed Corbin’s car and said, “Let’s head into Springhill.” He agreed, and we turned off the road and followed the old highway into the quaint small town of Springhill, Nova Scotia . . . home of the infamous, Anne Murray.

Our first stop ….
We had a blast exploring the Anne Murray Centre. When Keigan Michael asked them how up-to-date the museum was, they replied “It starts at the birth of Anne Murray and is up-to-date as of two weeks ago. We constantly add to the museum, all the things that Anne is still doing with her career and life.” That excited me. I love the idea of a “living” museum, as it were.

Now, none of my children had really ever heard of Anne Murray, as the bulk of her career was in the late sixties, seventies and mid to late eighties. However, they watched and looked and learned with great interest. I had an absolute blast though. I remembered many of the awards shows, and variety shows and televised concerts, specials and performances that Anne and so many of the other country and pop legends and entertainers, had done together during my childhood, teen years and into adult hood. She was my mother’s and my grandmother’s all time favourite singer/entertainer. I grew up on Anne Murray.

The thing that made me most proud of Anne Murray though? How unaffected she is/was even in the midst of all this notoriety and infamy and all that opened to her, regarding meeting dignitaries and entertainers and even sports heroes of the day. She still honoured her roots. When she could have had a big Hollywood, or Memphis, or even Toronto or Vancouver museum site … she chose her tiny little hometown, 45 minutes from the border of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Her museum now helps support the local economy of the very place she learned to walk, talk, ride her bicycle, stop for ice cream, went to school, played with friends, …. began her life and lived her life, until she left for teachers college in Truro, Nova Scotia.

After we left the Anne Murray Centre (AMC) we realised we were all starving. We chose this quaint little restaurant/pub just to the side of the AMC. J.& B.’s Restaurant and Pub. I have to tell you, they make the absolute best homemade beef and vegetable soup I have ever tasted – bar none. Their fish and chips were awesome too – fresh caught that day – YUMMY. Our waitress was a hoot and cheery and sweet too, and Keara “loved” her hair. Her hair was poker straight and right down to the middle of her bottom. She even turned off the sappy stupid soap opera on the big screen TV for us, and put on the Olympics!

After we finished up at the restaurant, I asked the children if they’d like to go tour a real mine? Of course, they all jumped at the chance. Off we went to explore the Springhill Coal Mine museum and experience the tour. It was awesome. Our tour guide, Brenda, was incredibly knowledgeable … and well she should be. Her father had worked for nearly 30 years as a coal miner throughout Canada, and had finished his career working at the Springhill mines from 1956 through 1978. Her father was one of the miners who turned the now defunct mine, into the current tourism site it is now. They used miners to create the tourist friendly mine shafts (with beamed roofs, shingled floors, and rails running 350 feet down into the 5000ft mine shafts.

One of the interesting things we learned about the mineshaft we were walking down through, was that 4650feet of the shaft is completely, from floor to roof, under water!!! We couldn’t do the whole tour because over the last winter the entire mineshaft, including where we walked to explore the feel and look of the mines, were submerged in water. The managed to pump out 300ft of the shaft, but were unable, due to some equipment issues (being resolved) to pump out the last 50ft of the shaft. The part where we would have been shown and able to mine our own coal was still completely submerged – we could even see the waters, as we completed our tour 300ft underground.

One of the most eye-opening moments of the tour was where we experienced absolute darkness. It was incredible. Here we all were, wearing bright yellow rain slickers, yellow or white hard hats, standing side by side, in a tight group. However, when Brenda shut this big door . . . absolute darkness enveloped us. I had Keara standing directly in front of me – touching me – yet she simply disappeared in that darkness. It was like you were completely and utterly alone, not even a glimmer of light or shadows anywhere – pitch black – like a void. Brenda told us that when a mineshaft collapses or miners are trapped in them, sometimes for days on end . . . the utter darkness we experienced for 2 minutes, is how they would live their lives until rescued . . . or death. My respect for miners, their families, and mining itself, grew exponentially due to this short 45 minute tour, and the 15 minutes, or less, we were underground.

We finished our tour, bought some souvenirs and headed back on the road. We passed the town of Oxford, the self proclaimed “Blueberry Capitol of the World!” and continued on down to Truro, Nova Scotia – our next stop.

Where did we go in Truro, you ask? FRENCHIES!!! lol. We were still looking for the elusive pair of shoes/sandals for Keara, to replace her broken ones. We bought a few clothing items, but didn’t find any shoes. Then we stopped to eat some supper at Wendy’s and then headed for the Hodder’s place in Upper Stewiacke.

We arrived, with absolute perfect timing, at the Hodder’s, just as they arrived back home from the Wednesday night Bible Study service they attend – just in their backyard. Dave Hodder is the pastor for the Stewiacke Valley Baptist Church. Dave finished his schooling, at the age of 42, and was hired to pastor this quiet little church in the Upper Stewiacke, Stewiacke valley area. He’s been there a year and just loves it. They live at the manse, and take care of it, the grounds, the church (just a 2 minute walk away through a mowed field) and the spiritual life of these communities.

We ended our third day, in the midst of our family (for the Hodder’s have been family for over 22 years). We hugged, laughed, shared, cried and hugged some more. We bedded down in the comfort of love, and comfy beds/couches etc. for the next few days.

I loved that third day!

Lisa
if you want to see more pictures of our whole vacation, visit my Facebook page )

vacation 2008 – day 2

This morning found us waking up at a busy truck stop, where we had taken shelter for the night and slept in our cars. We still had a good 4.5 hours or more, of driving to do, to reach our first destination of Amherst, NS.

We woke, sorted our cars back out, repacked the pillows and bedding, put away the umbrella, and ordered some breakfast from the truck stop restaurant. After this, we checked the air pressure in our tires, topped them up and got on our way.

Our next stop was about 20 minutes outside Moncton, NB. We were only about an hour from our ultimate destination. We stopped for potty emergencies, and to have some delicious ice creams. It was raining – again. At least this time it wasn’t the streaming down refrigerators and microwaves, as before, this was a nice gentle rain. Refreshed, we got back out on the road, once again. We made plans to stop about 45 minutes from here, to gas up the cars in New Brunswick. New Brunswick has, historically, lower gas prices than Nova Scotia. We made our final NB gas stop in Sackville, just about 1/2 a kilometer from where my Dad’s house use to stand. His house and land was bought, about 13 – 15 years ago – the house was moved, and the land was turned into a parking lot for the local Pizza Delight store!

Shortly after this last stop, we joyfully passed by the beautiful “Welcome to Nova Scotia” border sign. What, you ask, is the first thing we did upon entering Amherst? 1. We all laughed and shared a hearty “We’re home!!!” message between us via the 2 way radio system we had been using for our trip. 2. Headed directly for Frenchies. Frenchies is a 2nd hand clothing and household items franchise mostly found in NS and NB. They have the best prices on used merchandise of any discount/used items store we have ever been in throughout all of Canada and Texas. The store in Amherst is one of the better ones too. It’s clean, well run, well managed, with a lot of daily turn-over of items. We stopped here to pick up some shorts for Keara, shirts for Izaac, and warm sweaters for me, Izaac and Corbin. Keara had also had a shoe mishap, so we were looking for a new pair for her – we all only take one pair of footwear on vacation, and hers were broke. We found everything else we wanted, but nothing to replace her shoes.

Then we went to Greco pizza and donairs. We had all been anticipating this treat for the last several weeks, and since we hadn’t eaten anything beyond the ice creams since breakfast, it was the logical choice for a late lunch for all of us.

By this time it was getting on for late afternoon, so we went on to Loch Lomond Campground, bought our night’s lodgings, and proceeded – IN THE RAIN AGAIN – to set up camp.
The mosquitoes were awful and the gentle rain was irritating. We also discovered we had failed to pack one of the sleeping bags! Once we set up the tent and tidied the campsite back up, we gathered up the younger children from the camp playground and headed off to Walmart to purchase a sleeping bag, some bottled water, marshmallows and a few other sundry needs.

When we got back from the stores, the rain began in earnest, much like the rains that had forced us off the roads and into the truck stop the night before. Our tent, we discovered, leaked. This was a brand new tent and we had forgotten/ran out of time to seam seal it. The older two boys went out in the pounding rain and fashioned some tarps over the bulk of the tent, so we could sleep in somewhat dry circumstances.

Corbin tried for quite some time to get a campfire going, but eventually the rains defeated all his efforts. We would not be able to have our wienie and marshmallow roasts tonight. Off to bed with somewhat empty bellies for all of us. It was okay though … at least we were sleeping in far more comfort than the previous night.

As everyone got into Pj’s and sleeping bags, and prepared to tuck in for the night, Keigan Michael piped up and told everyone not to worry about critters and such invading our campsite or possibly hurting us. He had, he said “taken care of it.” Being a curious bunch, by nature, we questioned him on how he took care of this for us. We discovered, that my ultra modest son, under the cover of both darkness and pouring rain, had gone out and peed around the perimeter of our tent. After the laughter died down at the hilarious mental picture this had popped into everyone’s heads, and the total incongruity of the most private and modest member of our family peeing around the tent, had faded away, we asked why he had done it. He told us that he remembered Corbin sharing with him a tidbit about a man who spent a few years living among wolves, to record their habits for a scientific study he was doing. It appears the man protected himself from harm, from the wolves and such, by peeing, every night, around his campsite. He did this to ‘mark his territory’ so no other animal would disturb him or cross into his sleeping area. So Keigan Michael decided it was his job to mark “our” territory, so no harm could come to his family as they slept. We all roared with laughter – even Keigan Michael did! We thanked him for his fore thought and for protecting us through.

Traditionally, every night we are camping, I read for 1 – 2 hours until either I’m too tired to keep reading, or everyone has fallen asleep. I got out the book out, which we had just bought at Frenchies, earlier in the day. The book was hilarious – No More Dead Dogs. We ended up laughing so hard, that sleep just wasn’t going to be happening, for most of us. As my voice finally began to tire, and we were still only about half way through the book, I put it aside, and off we all went.

So the end of day 2 found us more comfortable, at our first destination, somewhat dry, full of laughter and feeling contented.

Day 3 to follow. . .

Lisa

vacation 2008 – day 1

August 11th, 2008.

Well, as the old saying goes, “The best laid plans of mice and men . . .” the day did not start well. We all had had a day-before-we-leave-on-our-much-anticipated-road-trip melt down the previous Sunday night. It was a very busy weekend leading up to our day of departure on our vacation.

1st we had the mad rush to get kiddos to their Dad’s (about 45 minute round trip from home) time on Friday (Aug 8th).

2nd we had a very early morning start to the Section Finals Swim competition between our home pool and 6 other rival community pools, on Saturday (Aug 9th). This event started at ~7:30am and lasted until about 2:00pm.

3rd we had a very very early morning start on Sunday (Aug 10th) for the Dive Finals event, where our pool/divers competed against about 20 or so other pools for top diving honours. Our pool hosted the event, and the whole family turned out to help/volunteer, as well as three members were diving too. That event finished, for us, at about 3:30pm.

4th we had to finish all the housecleaning so we could go on vacation – BIG PROBLEM #1.

5th we had to finish all the packing for six people, and two vehicles, heading out on a two week, 2500+ km road trip, which included camping – BIG PROBLEM #2.

So, by about 10pm on Sunday night … Mum had a meltdown. By the time the meltdown had finished, the children slunk off to their beds, assuming the vacation was at best postponed, and at the worst canceled in it’s entirety. This all resulted in us sleeping in the next morning, rising, finishing the housework I wanted done, than packing, than securing the house, dealing with the pets, and finally leaving at 11am, instead of the 5:30am, we had originally planned for.

We finally got out of Montreal city about 1 hour later, at approximately 12noon. We stopped at the dinosaur truck stop along the way.

Other than a few frayed nerves, and a long tedious, and somewhat boring drive through North East Quebec, most things seemed to have worked themselves out. We did have a couple of lads still simmering grumpy attitudes and holding onto unnecessary anger, but we kept them in different vehicles and things seemed to wander on okay, for the most part. In the end, after a major sibling quarrel meltdown in Edmunston, NB, at 10:30pm+ (about 6.5 to 7hrs into our road trip) in the evening, things finally seemed to settle down. The two young men made their peace, and everyone had a group hug, some Wendy’s and we filled the cars with gas and we set out on our way.

Let me just say about the gas! Did the Lord ever have His hand on our vehicles! We had started clocking how many kilometers our vehicles were getting, per tank of gas, about a month before our intended trip. We knew my vehicle would go approximately 524km/tank with my average city/highway driving habits, and Corbin’s would get about 575km/tank. We filled up, the night before our trip, in Lancaster, Ontario – about a 34km (one way) trip, from home. We went there because our gas was at 139.4 per liter, and they were at 119.8 per liter. It was more than worth it, when considering you were dealing with TWO cars. We managed to get 725 – 768km on each tank of gas, with strictly highway driving. Instead of gas costing us nearly $930 for the round trip, as I had estimated it to, it was only $612. Huge blessing.

Our first day of travel ended at St. Andres, New Brunswick – just over 8 hours after we had started out, late, that morning. It had begun raining, thundering and lightning so bad, we couldn’t see the road markings or the ditches … so we pulled over at the nearest truck stop and slept in our cars the first night.

Day two …. later tonight, or sometime tomorrow.
Lisa

gone camping … visiting … driving … crazy … whatever

I’ll write about it when I get back. See you soon.

Pray for safe travel for us, please.

Lisa