Cayden: AKA Captain Underpants

 

It was one of the most humorous Tuesday mornings I can remember.  I had dropped Cayden off with my sister while I attended a meeting.  She took him to our church’s Women’s Ministry morning Bible study, where Cayden played with the other children.  I came to pick Cayden up and my sister asked me if I knew that Cayden was wearing three pairs of underwear.   Pardon? Three pairs of underwear?

I asked Cayden why he was wearing three pairs of underwear.  With a serious look on his face he answered, “I’m Captain Underpants.” Now, I have heard about a Captain Underpants.  I was aware that there is a series of novels about such an underwear wearing, red caped character that is  for fourth and fifth grade readers.

I had no idea wear Cayden would have learned about this subject so I quizzed him to find out what he knew. Cayden stated with confidence that Captain Underpants was a Super Hero.  He wore a red cape and he  slings underwear as his Super hero power.  I’m pretty certain that the slinging of underwear was drummed up by Caydens own imagination, but it certainly was very funny.

Almost One Year Ago

The past year has been a roller coaster ride for our family.  Almost one year ago I wrote about how our adoption story had to come to an abrupt halt.  I must admit, I was never clear on the reasoning behind this. The finality of the adoption of those two precious children was  not by our choice but because of the rules of the Ministry for Children and Families.  It was not because we had done anything wrong, but due to the fact that we were crazily surprised and blessed with a pregnancy of our own.

One November 4, 2010, our precious daughter, Peyton joined our family.  She was born weighing in at an even 7 lbs, 19 inches long and with an amazingly full head of hair . I never thought it possible that I could have such a tiny bundle of pure sweetness.   Her entrance to the world was one I will never forget.  (This is a story of it’s own)

 

It was difficult to have to take the abrupt end to the adoption that we had spent over 1 1/2 years to prepare for. If I would have had my way, I would be a mother of four children right now. But I would never trade the pain I felt then, for the joy I feel now.  We feel truly blessed to have our precious little girl join our family. 

I like to think that our adoption story is just on hold.  Where it will take us in the future is unknown.

Nine Years Ago

We celebrate nine years of marriage today.  Seems like a lifetime ago that I said “I Do”.  The years have been great for Jeremy and I.  We have had our ups and downs.  But the ups far outweigh the downs. 

We celebrated our anniversary this year a few days early.  It was nothing spectacular.  Simply a dinner and a movie.  Something Jeremy and I both enjoy.  We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Frankie’s, followed by “The Unkown” at the new theatre in town.  We even threw in popcorn as a special treat.  It has been nine years you know.  Nine years of marriage equals a little extra splurge.  Even better, we added butter!  By the way,  the movie was fantastic in case your wondering.

This anniversary reminded me on the one we celebrated three years ago.  It was incredibly memorable.  I’m not kidding.

We decided to celebrate our sixth anniversary in much the same way as we did this year.  The plan was to first go to a movie, then go to dinner.  Nothing went as planned.  There is a great story here.

We arrived at the theatre a little late. We got our tickets together, then I thought it would be nice for Jeremy to catch the beginning of the movie while I waited in line for the pop and popcorn. (Yes, we splurged on pop and popcorn all those years ago as well).  So, I sent Jeremy on ahead to wait in the theatre for me just inside. 

I finally got through the line and headed to the theatre will our pop and popcorn in hand.  I got to the theatre where “The Breach” was playing.  I walked in.  Expected to see Jeremy standing there, waiting for his Bride of six years.  Hmmm.  He wasn’t there.  So, I stepped back out, thinking that maybe he had gone to the washroom.  No Jeremy in the hall.  I went back into the theatre and quickly scanned the crowd.  Expecting him to wave at me, had he  gone and sat down.  Nope.  No Jeremy waving at me.

I stepped back out in the hall.  Pop and popcorn still in hand.  The movie had been playing at least ten minutes by now.   I was getting concerned.  Maybe he was sick in the washroom.  I went to the mens-room.  Stepped into the entrance and quietly yelled his name. (I think it was more loud than quiet)  No response.  I asked the ticket-taker if he had seen a tall guy in a white sweatshirt.  No, was his reply.

Then I started to wonder if he had gone into the wrong theatre.  So, pop and popcorn in hand, off I go into each and every theatre.  A quick scan of the crowd.  Expecting a wave.  Nothing.  OK. Now at least half an hour had passed by now.  So, all I could do was wonder and start to fume. What the heck?   Where on earth could Jeremy be?

I sat down at the little table with a Famous Players magazine.  I felt like an idiot. Sitting there all by myself at the lonely table in the hall of the theatre, with our pop and popcorn. I called my sister and told her all about it. What else was I to do to pass the next hour. She said the exact thing that was on my mind. “Why has he not come looking for you?” she said in shock.  I know, why hasn’t he, was my response.

So, the hour passes.  The time has come for the movie that I was supposed to be enjoying, to come to an end.  The crowd comes out into the hall.  And there comes Jeremy in the middle of it.

He sees me.  Comes over.  And questions me about why I didn’t come and find him in the theatre.   He had to sit all by himself.  And without his pop and popcorn at that. 

Pardon?  I couldn’t believe that he was upset with me!  I was the the one sitting at the lonely table in the hall!  I thought it was humorous until this point.  I’m at fault?

We walk out to the car.  Start driving in silence.  We pass Lou’s Bar and Grill.  Jeremy says to me, “Aren’t we going to dinner?” I lose it.  I shouted,  “Are you kidding me?  Do you really think that I want to sit across the table from you now? After you watch the movie while I sit in the hall?  Then get mad at me for not finding you?  And drive home in silence we did. 

Three years later I still laugh about it.  If it is ever brought up, it’s by him.  And we laugh some more about it.  It’s these memories that I treasure.  These moments that I chalk up to two people going through life together, sometimes not the same road, but always with the same destination.

How About We Become Friends?

My sweet child, Cayden.  The social butterfly of our family. He really comes up with some interesting things.

The other day, Cayden and I  were headed out to visit some friends in our old neighborhood.  This was our first trip past our old home since we said goodbye a few weeks ago. As we were getting near, Cayden made the suggestion that we should stop,say ‘hi’ to the new homeowners, and then become friends.  He finished off be saying, ‘That’s a really good idea that I had, right mom?’

Cayden is such a people magnet.  He draws people to him with his sparkle and zest for life.  I didn’t stop to ‘make friends’ with the new homeowners.  But I did tell him that it was a good idea, but we just didn’t have time at the moment.  We’ll have to see if he has the same ‘good idea’, next time we go past.

Weathering the Drama of ‘Life’

It’s been a crazy long time since I’ve written anything.  It seems like an eternity since those wonderful 2010 Winter Games memories.  But really, it hasn’t beet that long, has it?

The past few months have been rather interesting. Almost never a dull moment, really.  From the first week of March to now, it seems that we’ve been on a wee bit of a roller coaster ride.

First, we finally finished our home study for our adoption.  All the meetings and paperwork were finally completed and approved in the first week of March.  We went ‘live’ for matching with children who were waiting for their ‘forever’ families.  By that point it had been a year and a half since the very beginning of our adoption journey.

Within a few days, we got the call.  The much anticipated call.  The one were were looking forward to for the past year and a half.  We had been matched with a sibling group.  A 31 month old boy and his 16 month old sister.  You can imagine our excitement! We could hardly believe it. 

With this fabulous news, we felt that it would be a good time for us to sell our house.  We put the ‘for sale’ sign up a few weeks later.  It went onto MLS a week later.  Then, 4 days later, it was sold! 

Wow, we felt so blessed by all the direction we were heading. We started sharing pictures and stories with the children’s foster family  in the meantime.  It was getting more real and so exciting.  Because of the speediness of our house sale, and the busyness that comes with moving, we had to wait a little longer for the children’s final placement with us.  So, we continued with the busyness of packing, preparing, and even to add to the list of things to do, selling our tractor and our travel trailer. 

Sccccrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeech! Yes, I mean to a halt.  Not everything.  We still packed all our things and moved into our new home.  The new owners still moved into our lovely home.  Our close friends still moved a long way out of town.  Our tractor still got sold. Our travel trailer still went to its new owners.

But our adoption of these two highly anticipated children did come to a halt.  It was a bitter-sweet situation.  I will not trade anything, but still feel at a loss for it all.  Our adoption story is not complete, just on hold.  We do not write our own stories.  God had other plans for our family. It is for this reason that I say it is all bitter'-sweet.

Michelle

Our Big Day in Vancouver

I don’t know when exactly it hit me that I had better make plans to head into Vancouver to capture some of the Olympic fever. But I’m so glad I did.  I listened to all the stories of how busy it was. How long the line-ups would be.  But, WOW. Tuesday was a perfect day to play sightseer.

Jeremy, Cayden and I headed out to catch the Sky Train in Surrey fairly early in the day.  That was probably my first great decision of the day.  We caught the Rail early enough to all get a seat for the long ride in.

We didn’t really have a lot planned.  This was a very good thing.  That way we wouldn’t go home disappointed by what we  didn’t get to see.  The benefit of my personality type is that we are very good at ‘winging it’.  Something that my husband is not so good at.  But he was a trooper and let me ‘wing it’ all day with not a complaint.

We got off at Science World, and were almost immediately faced with probably the longest line-up I have ever seen in my life.  The Russian Pavilion.  It must have been something to see.  We carried on and followed our nose through the day. Moving from one neat sight to see, to the next. 

I was so impressed by our little boy, Cayden.  He walked right along side us and never complained.  We did of course have to stop from time to time for a ‘special treat’ to keep him moving along.  I loved watching his excitement at all the things we seen.  I was even especially surprised when we were heading down to see the Cauldron.  As soon as it came in sight he shouted, “That’s the thingy they put on fire on TV that I saw!!”

I was wondering how the heck he even new about the Lighting of the Cauldron.  He told me all about how he watched on TV as his friend Josh’s house.  His eyes were filled with joy as he got to see it ‘for real.’ 

When people as what we did when we went to see the Olympic celebrations in Vancouver, I could only say that we really didn’t do anything specific, but we did see allot.  And it was really, really, really worth the trip. 

One thing  I did learn is that Canadians Rock! At least most of us. We are so polite. We know how to have a good time.  We love our Country.  I AM CANADIAN.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Suprise Email

I had just sat down with a nice hot cup of Tim Horton's coffee, when I received notification of receiving a new email on my iphone.  I opened up the email and what did I see…? 

Pants on the ground, pants on the ground, lookin like a fool with your pants on the ground...

I thought to myself… is that American Idol song “Pants On The Ground” making the news again? It was a tough tune to get out of many peoples head after the first time it was sung.

I opened up the attached picture and nearly sent my coffee flying in my surprise.

There on the ground was a picture of ‘my pants on the ground’ at the office.  Apparently in my hurry to make a quick wardrobe change between installing sawdust and then sitting back in the dispatch seat, I forgot to collect all my clothing from the bathroom floor.

I quickly became the office joke of the day.  It sounds like all my co-workers got a field trip to the bathroom to see my ‘pants on the ground.’

If you have no idea what song I’m talking about you will have to take a quick look at the video on you tube.  My only warning is, beware. It is a very catchy tune.