"Change, when it comes, cracks everything open."
Dorothy Allen

Monday, October 4, 2010

Weekend

So, once again, life caught up with me, and I have fallen behind on the blogging.  Well, actually, since I have no real commitment to any timeframe at all, I can't be behind.  But I would like to blog more than once per week, so to me- I'm behind.

We had a busy weekend.  We ALWAYS have a busy weekend.  But this one in particular was jam-packed full.

Thursday night, Sawyer had her first swimming lesson.  I wasn't sure how she was going to be, since she has recently started being afraid of the water.  That's why we wanted to get her into lessons, to nip the fear in the bud.  It is parent/tot lessons, which means that one of us has to go in the water with her.  Since Geoff is more afraid of the water than she is, that means it's me.  Now, I am not thrilled about being in a bathing suit in a room full of university students, but I would do anything for my kids, including subjecting myself to a humiliating situation.  It went pretty well.  A lot of the kids cried at first, which freaked Sawyer out.  They got over it quickly, she didn't.  Eventually though, I got her walking and running in the water, going through a tunnel, and "jumping" in (she didn't really jump so much as lean her way in, but it's a start!).  By the end, she was having fun, and so was I.
We left swimming, went to McD's for dinner (as is tradition) with my dad, who came to watch.  He always watched Sebastian's lessons, so he was excited to see Sawyer do something.  From there, we went and checked into Great Wolf Lodge.  We had taken part in the charity fundraiser car wash they do in the summer- $100 car wash gets you a night stay and 4 passes to the water park.  We had to use them by October 7th, so this was our last chance.  Sebastian Geoff and I have been a couple of times now, but this was the first time Sawyer had been to the water park.  When we checked in, we found out they had upgraded us to a Wolf Den room.  I had no idea what that was, but was super excited to be "upgraded".  I have never been upgraded before.  I kinda liked it.

The Wolf Den turned out to be a super cool room, with a little fort-type area for the kids to sleep in.  It had bunk beds, a TV in the corner, and a cool mural with wolves, humming birds and other cool things.  Both kids loved it.  We spent the first night at the arcade.  Both kids got $20 in tokens, and Geoff and I walked them through the arcade, picking cool games and helping them play.  Sebastian is funny.  Because of his autism, he gets overloaded very easily in those types of environments.  Instead of getting crazy, he goes the opposite way, and shuts down.  I think it is a self-preservation mechanism.  It helps him deal with the stimuli one at a time, when he tunes out everything else, including Geoff and I. 


Poppin' the corn.

One of his favorite games is a Popcorn one.  Ping pong balls come bouncing out of the "popper" and you have to move the popcorn bucket and catch as many as you can.  Sebastian loves it, but when it runs, he just stands in front of it, like he is in a trance.  He doesn't move the bucket, he doesn't track the balls with his eyes, he just stands and stares.  But inevitably, when it's over he asks to "do it again, please".  I don't know if it is the motion, the popping noise- I don't know what soothes him.  But who am I to judge?  It makes him happy, does no harm, so I will drop a hundred dollars in there if he wants.



Sawyer and the fire truck.

Sawyer, of course, ran around like a crazy person.  She loved the lights, the noise - all of it.  She is a whirlwind herself, so this just played into that part of her. 
After a while though, the kids were exhausted, so I played out the tokens on some Monopoly game (which I was pretty good at, I must say) and got as many tickets for the kids as I could.  Sebastian ended up getting a stuffed Supergirl, which was pretty cool, and Sawyer was satisfied with a hackeysack ball, 2 happy face erasers and a rubber ball. 
We went to the room, after ordering a hugely expensive pizza and Geoff bought me a chocolate mousse ball and a awesome brownie.  Of course, I ate most of both of them.  So worth it.  The kids went down easy, and so did I. Get your mind out of the gutter, Geoff.

The next morning, we went down to breakfast and met my mom and dad.  They come out for breakfast every time we stay there.  The buffet was good, and filling.  We hung out in the lobby for a bit, and took some pictures, then it was time for the water park.

Jesus, out in public in my bathing suit, twice in two days.  Horrid.  But we had a blast.  The kids were great, had lots of fun.  Sawyer crashed on me for about an hour and a half, and woke up in a good mood.  We had fries and drinks, and as the park started to fill up (it was a ghost town most of the day), we packed it in.
Good times.

We headed home, unpacked a bit, tidied up, and then got ready and headed out for Sawyer's gymnastic lesson.  Now, before you think I am some crazy mother that puts her kids in everything, I don't.  I think we have covered previously that I am inherently lazy, and i don't like commitment and organized sports.  But I want the kids to have opportunities to experience different things, and have some fun, and with Sebastian, the programs are limited and few and far between, so I have to take what I can find, when I can find it.  Right now, each of them are enrolled in two things- Bastian has his social skills group on Tuesdays, and he is starting gymnastics on Saturdays in October.  Sawyer has swimming on Thursdays and gymnastics on Friday. 
Gymnastics was good.  Geoff was going to do it with her, since I have to do the swimming, but she freaked out and wanted me for some reason.  So I got the pleasure of getting all sweaty, hauling her all over, boosting her onto balance beams etc.  But I also got to see her freak out with joy when she finally got her turn on the tramp, and got to play boat, and get bounced all over hell's creation.  So, it was a good time. 

After that, the kids went to my mom and dad's to sleep over, and Geoff and I went out with friends to the Welland Food Festival.  Good times.  Had beers, watched people get humped (they would trip over the hump that hid all the cords and we would laugh hysterically, like we were 12 year olds).  There was this band playing- no idea of the name- but it should have been called "Ipod Shuffle".  They just played random shit, no rhyme or reason to it.  Shakira, followed by Duran Duran, followed by Kanye.  I did enjoy their unwitting tributes to Glee, and Kevin would get pissed each time I asked them to "Glee it up!!".  They even had an awesome keyboard guitar.  They were horrible and incredibly awesome at the same time. 

We all bought flashing black bunny ears (I don't know why, but it seemed like a great idea at the time) and of course, everyone had to have their turn wearing them. 


Dirty, sexy bunnies.

We maintained a "douche bag free" zone around us, but as we were in Welland, this was virtually impossible to maintain.  And even though we were at a food festival, none of us, save Geoff, ate anything, so we had to order pizza and wings afterwards.  We are dinks. 

But all in all, great night.  Drunk Teresa came out to play, and brought her A game.  Lynn, even though she was stone-cold sober, was hilarious, and wonderful.  Michelle and Terressa, when they were there, were funny and drew in tons of people.  Kevin, of course, awesome.  He loves whores.  And he still hasn't shared the taxi cab story.  Apparently I have heard it before, but since I have zero recollection of this, I want to hear it again.  Everyone else that came and went- thanks for the laughs.

Chelle and me.
Teresa and me





Kevin and I playing nice after our dance off.  He mastered the side to side, I did the sprinkler.


Geoff drove me home, of course, and was gracious enough to accommodate my drunken requests- first for a snickers bar, then for a shot of the weird banana moon.  The shot didn't turn out, of course- but he was nice enough to not say I told you so, and even commiserated as I swore a blue streak.  He puts up with a lot.

Wow.  That was just Thursday and Friday.  I will do Saturday and Sunday, later.

Later...

OK, Saturday.  Got up, went and got my hair done.  I had thought about doing white streaks with dark, but it would take too long to strip the colour out of my hair.  So we went with copper highlights this time, and next time, we might sew in extensions.  Unless of course I see something different that I want by then. :)  I love changing my mind.

After that, came home- some drama.  Not getting into it here.  Took off later in the afternoon, did some scouting for photography, and went to the Food Festival- AGAIN.  Took the kids.  Sebastian got a gluten free sausage, I got ribs, Geoff got pulled pork, and Sawyer had baked potato soup.  We went back to the car, and had a little picnic.  It was actually really fun, and the kids had a blast.  It was rainy and cold, but we almost always have a good time when we are together.

Today, we had an early morning appointment with the couple that we are shooting for their Halloween wedding.  We went through our contract, and some of our ideas, and got to check out the venue.  The meeting went well, and both Geoff and I walked away with a good feeling about it.  It is a bit out of our comfort zone, since we will be primary photographers for the event, and that is a lot of pressure, to perform, to be creative, and to be a smart business person, make contacts and present a good product.  Hope we can pull it off.  After that, we had the yum, yum, yummiest brekkie at Cora's.

Once we headed home, I pulled out the Thanksgiving decorations and did it up a little bit.  I have way more Halloween stuff, but that will come out next week.  We tidied up a little bit, played with the kids, watched some TV, and just chilled inside, out of the rain.  Once the rain broke, we headed to Welland, one last time. This time we got to try more stuff.  I had a pulled pork crepe (AWESOME) and a chicken enchilada- really good.  Sebastian shared the chicken with me and got more sausage.  It can be really hard to find stuff for him to eat at these types of things, so chicken and fries are our usual go to.  Geoff had some jerk chicken and fish and chips, which he enjoyed.  Sawyer had roasted corn, which she DEVOURED.  It was actually pretty hilarious. 
On the way out, we stopped so that I could get my deep fried Mars bar, and Geoff got Loganberry.  Awesome, wrapped in dough, and deep fried.  I love them. 

Sergeant Sawyer, reporting for duty.

Piiiimp.

After that- off to Walmart.  We picked up a Halloween costume for Sebastian.  He's going to be the count.  Can't wait.  The costume looks great.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.  Dinner, bed, and I went for a run.  Sheesh.  Now, I am watching Season 2 of "Sons of Anarchy",  my new favorite obsession.

Wow.  If you made it this far, congrats.  God, I even bore myself! :)


Rosie N. Grey
 The N stands for "never ending".



2 comments:

  1. Wow, went for a run eh? I went for a run the other day with Eric. I ran the length of two houses, then walked the length of 10, then ran the length of 3 houses, then walked the length of 10, then ran the length of 4 houses, you see where this is going. But I keep telling myself I lengthened it each time, so it's a start. Haven't gone for a run since.

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  2. I can send you a pod cast...the music isn't great, it's hip hop, but she chimes in and tells you when to walk, when to run etc...it's from the couch to 5 K program. I am in week 2, and all is well. So far, anyway.

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