Update in Photos

Lots has been happening. Here's an update in photos . . .

This is a photo of the awesome Costco cake we got for the boys. Last Friday, we had a pool party for them. The idea was to give them an opportunity to say good-bye to all their school chums, as well as celebrate their upcoming birthdays now since they won't be able to do that with friends when we're on the road. They agreed to our suggestion to use this as a fundraising opportunity for Sauti Moja, since we cannot take a bunch of toys and doo-dads on the road either.

Waiting for the rope swing. The boys were allowed to invite about 12 friends each. The guys (and one little girl) had a blast. We had tunes and none was more popular than Alice Cooper's "School's Out", of course. The best part was we raised several hundred dollars for Sauti Moja!

Prior to the pool party, Mitchell had his Gr. 6 graduation. When we started this blog, he was just in Gr. 4. And here we are now. Yup, time flies. He could not be happier to be graduating. You can interpret that however you wish :) Mitchell did a reading at the ceremony and did a great job!

And Jackson was only in SK . . . now he's completed Gr. 2! And he even finished the stress-inducing castle. Actually he loved building that castle and will probably play with it for a long time to come (when we get back, that is - definitely not taking that on the road). Best of all, Jackson received something called the "Christian Spirit" award during the last week of school. As best I can figure, this is the "nice kid" award. He deserves it! We'll have to get that laminated and stick it in storage with all his other treasures :)

Settling into their bunks at camp. On Saturday, the morning after the pool party, we packed up and headed down to the Adirondack Mountains of New York. Both Mitchell and Jackson are at a "sleep-away" camp for a week. The camp is a combined Ranch and Ranger camp, offered by Word of Life. We had heard great things about it. This is Jackson's first ever time away from us for this long; Mitchell's 2nd. In June, Mitchell got to attend a camp for Gr. 6 students in Orillia, so he's an old hand at sleep-away camp now. We're glad he's there to watch out for his little brother!


Beautiful Schroon Lake, NY.


Back to reality . . .we have a week to get tons done before we go back to pick up the boys next Saturday. Does this basement look finished?? Help! Just over two weeks to go now . . .

A good news post

There is also good news. I will save the best for last.

The tiles have arrived! Phoning twice a day for a solid week clearly paid off. Squeaky wheel and all that.

Our new stove arrived! The first night I baked a casserole in it and the oven got so incredibly hot that I almost singed my eyebrows off when I reached in to remove it. I had become used to a lukewarm oven and forgot what heat feels like. So what I'm trying to say is I no longer feel like sticking my head in an oven, ha, ha.

I have a powerful new laptop! I purchased a new laptop through my employer's purchase program, so I got a bit of a deal. Now we need to get busy and load the various software we'll need for home-schooling.

And now for something quite exciting . . . I got to observe a cleft lip repair at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO)! Dr. Duncan, a well-respected pediatric plastic surgeon, graciously agreed to let me watch the two-hour surgery. There is a fabulous nurse, Sue Hunt, who is the backbone of the Cleft Palate Team at CHEO, and she got me into the OR. They gave me scrubs to put on and a mask (which I put on backwards, I felt lik a dork when one of the nurses had to fix it). The morning of the surgery I was up by 5:30am to get to the hospital very early as they start right away. Dr. Duncan even brought in one of her massive textbooks to show me the procedure she was using. It was fascinating. She narrated everything she was doing and why, so I certainly learned a great deal. I wanted to see this as I hope to volunteer with Operation Smile in either Africa or South-East Asia during our year away.

I have to say I found it tiring to stand in one spot for two hours and I was not even doing anything with my hands. I don't think I could ever be a surgeon. I also could not really differentiate what I was seeing. For example, the surgeon would point out the obicularis oris muscle that she was attaching but it looked nothing like pictures of muscle fibers in an anatomy book. The little baby was 3 months old, a very gorgeous chunky little fellow. I met his parents and you could feel how concerned they were about everything. The lip surgery went well and he will probably have his cleft palate repaired around age one year. It's hard to imagine that in many developing countries these kids grow up into adults (well, the lucky ones actually do get to grow up) with these gaping clefts unrepaired.

One amazing coincidence occurred in the Operating Room. The anesthetist actually knows my sister Lori - they went to med school together in Saskatchewan. I forget exactly how we figured this out. I think someone mentioned Sask., so I mentioned I grew up there which led the ansthetist to comment she went to med school there, to which I added "so did my sister", etc. etc. Lori, if you're reading this, Dr. Marion Gould says hi!



I also spent some time observing in the various Cleft Palate Clinics, including speech pathology of course (thank you Sussie!) as well as the dental clinic, ENT and audiology. Thanks CHEO for some great PD!

Warning: Head Explosion Coming Soon

35 days until we leave Ottawa and yes, I do feel as though my head might explode soon. Lots of good things have been happening that are bringing us closer to our goal, but here is just a quick summary of a few recent ordeals:

- someone hit our car in a parking lot - no-one was hurt and it could've been worse but still an annoyance and inconvenience that we did not need.

- we've had to replace our stove - sure why not? Why not have a major appliance break down 1 month before you leave on a major trip? Just adds to the general merriment around one's home. New stove arrives from Sears this Thursday.

- have had to replace our laptop - if you've been reading along with us for awhile, you may recall me bragging last summer that I had loaded all kinds of home-schooling curriculum onto my laptop. Programs from Nectar that parallel the Ontario curriculum in math, English and science. All for naught. Built-in obsolescence wins again and we are getting a new laptop. I will have to borrow and re-load all the same software. Good times.

- our washer and dryer are currently unhooked so work can proceed in the laundry room. I don't know how other people spend their Friday nights but I took three garbage bags full of dirty clothes to a laundromat on Bank St. and spend a fun-filled few hours doing my loads. I forgot my book and the only thing to read was the Ottawa Sun. Brutal.

- Jackson arrived home from school with 3 new assignments. Memorize and perform a poem. Complete 5 spelling worksheets. And - here's the grandaddy - construct a toy that has moving parts, using found objects and materials from home, that must make use of at least two simple machines. Oh, and complete the 7-page booklet that goes along with it. My heart sank as I took stock of this new sh**load of homework. Is the teacher aware it's now the middle of June?? Apparently not.

- still mired in the basement reno - now there's a whole other topic - despite having the services of an excellent handyman, work may stall out as bathroom tiles have not arrived. Tiles were ordered 5 weeks ago. Deposit made as required. Store estimated 3 weeks to get tiles in. Checked back a few days ago. Tiles, for some inexplicable reason, had not yet been ordered. Bit of an oops. I have been trying mightily not to freak out. I figure this is just good practice for staying calm when crises happen on the road, as they surely will from time to time. Like my mom says, "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger". She's also fond of saying "low aim is worse than failure". My aim right now is just to keep my head from exploding.

Enough whining. I will write a happier post soon, I promise.

Servas Success

Good news. With only 47 days to go on our Countdown Clock (yikes!), we are now officially members of Servas. We had a 75-minute interview last night with a designated Servas volunteer here in Ottawa, and she deemed us to be sufficiently acceptable to be welcomed into the fold. I must say the boys were exceptionally well-behaved, notwithstanding Jackson's occasional tendency to slide off her couch and sprawl spread-eagled on her living room carpet. It was pretty boring for Jackson but Mitchell surprised us with a few excellent questions that he tossed the volunteer's way. At one point, she said something about him taking over her job. That's quite okay, we have enough on our plates right now. What happens now is another volunteer will send us the "host lists" for the countries we're planning to visit and we can gradually start contacting local families for potential homestays. Bye for now.