recap

"wake me up for breakfast!" says Hendrik, lying on a mini-pillow, just like the dino in this Syd Hoff book

We had a doctor's appointment for Alana this morning, so Hendrik and Miss Miss and I headed all the way out to Orleans to see what we could see; she was due for a shot, and the nurse measured and weighed and listened, and here is the news: she is a champ with shots (no fuss) and she is off the charts in height and 95th percentile in weight. She's big, we're big, Hendrik's big... it all makes sense, no?

And to get back to the weekend - it was great; we split our Thursday-Sunday time away from home between Bowmanville and Toronto and were both with kids and without kids, thanks to les grandparents. I coached an 18U Ottawa girls club team in a tourney on Saturday, and that was really fun - fun especially because even though there were the usual ups and downs, we finished on a high note and won to stay in the division. After that wrapped itself up, I drove into the city, checked in at an "urban resort" (see here and decide for yourself) and got into bed and read my book (this one - it's good!). Steve joined me after a night out with his buddies, but stayed tucked in tight in the morning while I walked over to the Ontario Sport Alliance building for a Learning Facilitator workshop. Essentially, I can now coach beginner coaches and get them started in their coaching education... I just have to get my individual presentation going and feel good about it, and then I can start delivering courses. We drove home on Monday morning and it took us SEVEN hours - seven! (It usually takes 4/5... bleh.) The 401 was closed due to an accident (no injuries) and we were rerouted and it took for-ever... but at least the kids were happy and we had food and the boys peed by the side of the road. Happy trails, right?

The kids had an great time with the Brinkmans, and were busy with Christmas stuff and ice cream bars and the regular fun with grandparents stuff. Some pictures (+ vid):

I've been baking, and we finally got a few Christmas decos up around the house - I'll try to get a video up before the blog goes to post. Oh, and what you won't see is the WORD that Hendrik wrote on the other side of our front-door snowman... m-o-m-m-y! Can you find it? The "y" is a bit questionable, but the other letters are legit:

We had a women's league game last night and it was SO much FUN... I'm so happy to be back in the gym and playing a bit, even if it is just once a week. Well, that's misleading because I'm actually in the gym thrice a week, with coaching on Monday and Thursday nights. It's one of those hand off the kids and run things, as practice is way out on the other side of the city, and with Steve home late from practice, there's nothing else I can really do to make it (sort of) on time. Anyways, fun. Volleyball is the best the best the best! (And so is Christmas baking. We made sugar cookies today... YUMS!)

And to wrap it up here, I'll share something really, really strange that happened today: my phone rang some time after lunch and Steve answered it to find a frantic woman on the other end of the line shouting, "My kids! My kids are gone I'm shopping and they're gone oh my god oh my god my kids my kids" and then she hang up. Really? Really! It was weird....