Time Warp

No I’m not talking Rocky Horror, although I could discuss the subject in great length, I’m talking about the time warp that comes before a holiday.  Those few days/weeks whatever while you anticipate a vacation and time begins to play tricks. It moves at a snail’s pace one moment and the next it feels like time is skipping ahead days at a time.

While I’ve felt this kind of time slip a few times before never has it been so pronounced as with our next vacation.  From the moment our oldest was born Disney became the ideal place to go, the most anticipated something we would HAVE to do.  

Disney World is of course quite far from Winnipeg and while it may be the most magical place on earth it is also one of the most expensive.  So it got put off again and again until finally we realized that time was slipping by and the only way it would happen is if we made it happen.

The girls are now 13 and 8 respectively and it feels like they are just the right age to go now.  The more I think about it the better I feel that we waited until now to make it happen.  At 13 our oldest is not so far gone up the parent’s are un-cool path to harbor any negativity about family vacations and our youngest isn’t so young that she won’t remember the trip.

I went to Disneyland when I was 5 and besides a few snippets which may not be memories at all but often heard stories I remember almost nothing.  I would rather they both remember this trip because we may never get a chance to go again.  Mind you it felt like we would never get this first chance to go yet here I am in the ever shortening time until we leave.

I’m enjoying the anticipation to be honest, and in some ways I don’t want to get there because then it will mean we’re that much closer to it being over.  Where though has the time flown?  How can each minute seem so agonizingly long, my mind packed with thoughts and plans but the days themselves disappearing so quickly.

It is a time warp, a magical place where anticipation and enthusiasm create a strange state of mind.  It’s all in my head and as a favorite book once said “why should that make it any less real?”

Picture day - Dog or Cat

I think I understand why some people will often say that they are dog people or cat people.  Many people will when asked if they prefer one pet over another will answer quite resolutely. I’m a dog person, or I’m a cat person.  I almost always find that those answers stem from a single childhood experience which was good or bad or sometimes even neutral that they had with a pet.

I was quite lucky to have had wonderful experiences with pets of all shapes and sizes growing up and into adulthood so I am neither I just love all pets. Wait scratch that I wasn’t too fond of my husband’s tarantula, icky spiders.  One thing is certain for me however and that is that my home is not complete without an animal wandering about.

Some pets are of course recalled with more affection than others.  Three stand out in my mind.

Scooter my cat.  It’s not hard to reason why she will always be the first pet I think of as I got her at the age of 5 and she remained a part of my life for 24 years.  She was affectionate and smart and she worshiped the ground I walked on.  I was her person I suppose you would say, she allowed me to dress her up in bonnets and doll clothes without complaint and never failed to choose my lap over someone else’s.

Duchesse the first dog I really remember was silly and not all that smart but loveable all the same.   She is also the mother of the dog who really did capture my heart.  Born under my brother’s bed I was the one to find him and after exclaiming “there’s a puppy under here!” Kody was cemented into my memory as one of the best things ever.

My two favorites got along in a way that many cats and dogs do not, they played together slept together and sometimes cuddled with me together.  It is something I’ve always hoped my own children would get to experience with their own pets and luckily enough Lucy and Chase are as great a pair to them as Scooter and Kody were to me.  

Silliness and Middle "C"

With summer's door closed and winter's chill creeping in, time outside is dwindling.  FAST.

And, of course, having three five-year olds' bundled energy indoors can be trying at times.  They are kids and they are active kids.  I get that and Sarah and I are pleased that our girls are active.  Yes - Allie, Anna and Emily have their time in front of the television but they spnd much more time playing.  And they get goofy.  And silly.  And wild too.

This is a little clip of them being silly but cute (of course).  The first part is at the piano which we recently moved out of the girls' playroom into the kitchen area so it doesn't serve as a shelf anymore - it serves as a piano! 

Emily says she wants to take piano lessons....

Costume Time

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and for us it begins long before October 31^st.  As a family we watch spooky movies, visit Boo at the Zoo and go to at least one of several haunted farm/corn mazes which pop up on the outskirts of Winnipeg each fall.  

Something about Halloween just captures the imagination of both children and adults alike. Of course one of the most important parts is creating the perfect costume each year. My husband and I often rely on the same old standbys but I go all out for the kids.

I’ve made some rather interesting costumes over the years and most years at least one of the girls comes up with a rather challenging idea for me to figure out.  The one that really sticks out in my mind will always be the year my youngest decided she wanted to be a giant gumball.

That was quite the interesting costume to make and included the use of an awful lot of shiny pink fabric and a hoola-hoop but it turned out just great.  It was certainly unique anyways; I don’t think I have ever seen or ever will see another kid walking around as a giant pink gumball.   

Most years I do end up making their costumes not only because they pick ones which aren’t hugely popular but because Winnipeg is notorious for cold and wet Halloween nights so they must fit over a parka.  Store bought costumes rarely do fit on top and putting the jacket over the costume completely destroys the look.

Sewing is not necessarily my strong point and it takes me much longer to create a costume than a seamstress would but it always seems worth the effort for Halloween.  This year I’ve gotten off fairly light and already have one of the girls all set. I just had to buy one piece and was then able to make the rest from pieces of old costumes so I had nothing new to sew.  

The other costume is one I should be able to purchase and just add accessories to.  Dorothy from the wizard of Oz may not be as popular as it once was but I think it’s still one I should be able to find.   If not I know it’s not that difficult of a costume to sew myself but I’m kind of hoping to be able to avoid making anything new this year if I can.    

Fingers crossed.