Teenagers

If you have a teenager in your home then you have an idea of the challenges we are now facing as parents. My husband and I have three kids and one of them is in high school. She’s a great kid, very smart (90s student) hard worker and goes to youth group. As great as she is, she’s a teenager and teenagers come with a whole knew mindset. My husband and I are new at this because the boys are still only 12 and 9. Our daughter is the one breaking us in.

We often ask ourselves, “Is this normal behaviour for a teen?” Are we parenting like we should or are we being too strict? So many questions and yes a little doubt in our ability to do a good job. I borrowed a book from the library called, “Get Out of My Life, but first could you drive me and Cheryl to the mall?” and wow, what a relief. Yes the behaviour is normal and yes we are parenting like we should and yes the doubt is normal. Whew! It’s a great book that validates our questions and gives insight into the average teenager’s behaviour. My husband and I have both laughed as we picked out spots in the book that nail the teenager living in our house. “So she’s not the only one!” If you have teenagers in your house and you think you might be losing your mind or your ability to parent, pick up this book. You’ll get a good laugh and it will release you from a load of unneeded pressure.

Smilebox Creation

“http://smilebox.com/play/4d6a4d774f5459344d444d3d0d0a&blogview=true&campaign=blog_playback_link“

Fahrenheit 451

Here’s another interesting book. I work as an EA at the local high school and the grade 12 English class is reading Fahrenheit 451. I love to read, so I took the book home and promptly read it within a few days. The first 10 pages or so were tough slugging! The imagery is crazy. This book was written in the 50′s so the style of writing is a bit different.

The storyline is good. It’s about firefighters who burn things down instead of putting out fires. They burn books which are censored, so anybody who is caught with them will lose their houses along with the books. I can’ t even begin to imagine what if would be like to live in a society where reading is prohibited.  In the story, the town is oppressed and the suicide rate is high. There is also a war going on.

The main character is a firefighter who meets a woman that has him questioning his beliefs about his job and what he’s really doing to others. He then goes off on a very dangerous track to make sense of his life. The book, on a whole, is good but the end left me wondering some things. Not enough closure I suppose.

Misconception

I just recently read a book called “Misconception” by Angela Hunt. It was a story about two couples caught up in a very big mistake made by the administration at a fertility clinic.

Imagine that you’re a week away from a doctor’s appointment to set up a time to have your frozen embryos implanted so that you can complete your family. The doctor calls you in early and says that he needs to speak with you. He tells you that there has been a huge mistake and that your last frozen embryos have been implanted into another woman by accident. WHAT???

This is a true story that happened in the States. I’m not sure which would be worse, being the woman with the lost embryos or the woman who has someone else’s baby growing inside of her.

The book was written from the perspective of the woman who lost the embryos. Her and her husband eventually came into contact with the other couple and the woman agreed to carry the baby to term and give it back to the biological parents. As I read the story, I tried to put myself into the shoes of both women. Both of them lost something and both of them had an incredible opportunity to minister to the other.

It’s an incredible story of loss, heartache, courage and strength. A thumbs up from me!

Experiencing the Change

Okay, I’m only 40 years old and I’m already experiencing “The Change.” Well, I’m having moments of it anyway. Before I started using Yam Cream, I had trouble sleeping (waking up at 3 am and having a hard time getting back to sleep), and would wake up soaked and cold (night sweats).

I am having more frequent brain farts, too. This is embarrassing especially being an EA at the local high school. How am I supposed to help the students if I can’t remember common words? Yesterday I was out for lunch with my friend, Teresa and we went to Subway. I was making my order and I couldn’t remember the words, “English muffin.” DOH. It’s frustrating when you know what you wanna say but your brain just isn’t cooperating!

Stomach cramps, headaches and breast tenderness seem to be getting worse also! Grrrrrr…..I feel like I’ve been transported back to my twenties. My only fear is wondering how much worse it’s gonna get before it gets better. I get tired of popping the tylenol and ibuprofen to keep the pain tolerable.

What was Eve thinking when she ate that darn apple, anyway???
I guess I can be grateful for one thing. I read an article about women who are needing bra sizes in L because of the Estrogen in everything around us. I can’t imagine!

Our New Family Member

Just before Christmas, Tim says “What would you think about having a dog?” I take a minute or so to recover from shock and say, “What?”  The fact that Tim is suggesting a dog is huge. When he was young with a paper route he got attacked by an old crotchety German Shepherd. This wasn’t just a minor bite, he had to get a skin graft.

Tim said he was thinking about maybe adopting one in the spring because the winter is a brutal time to be walking a dog. Well once we told the kids about the idea of a dog, the thought of waiting til spring seemed impossible. Tim wasn’t sure what kind of dog he wanted but I had a pretty good idea. A lab or retriever was on my short list.

Our first adventure to get an idea of what kinds of dogs were available in the shelters was a trip to Winnipeg. We hit three shelters that day and liked two of the dogs. We said before we left that we weren’t, under any circumstances, going to come home with a dog and we didn’t…! We wanted to check out PAWS, the local shelter first and see what was available in town. We visited two dogs, Tippy and Colin. Tippy was  a nice dog but too energetic for us. For a first time dog we didn’t want to get in over our heads. When we saw Colin, who we now call Cole, we all fell in love with him. He had a nice personality, was well behaved and was soooo cute. I knew he was the dog for our family. I asked the family in the van as soon as we left that visit, “What do you think guys?” There was support for Cole all around. The next day I called PAWS and asked what the next step in the process was if we wanted to adopt and within a week, we had him home with us.

The first few days as like a honeymoon phase of excitement and fun, then reality set in and we wondered, “What have we done?” That only lasted a couple of days and then we settled into a comfortable routine. Cole keeps us healthy and makes sure we get fresh air from all the walks. It’s nice to come home and have someone so happy to see you. He’s a great companion and a good friend and well behaved. (Most of the time)

Two Days!

The summer is coming to a screeching halt. Labour day is upon us and I go back to work on Wednesday. I am looking forward to it. I have been sitting around getting quite lazy and need my regular routine. I’m looking forward to getting out and seeing people again. The kids need to be with their friends.

Rachelle is turning 13 next week so we’re having the big party this weekend. A pool/slumber party. We’ll have seven girls, possibly eight sleeping here on Saturday. Are we NUTS? You betcha. 13 only comes around once.  I might be re-thinking that logic when Saturday actually gets here. They can take the downstairs.

It’s been a good summer. We traveled, did swimming lessons, camping, hung out. But it’s time for a change.

Then Sings My Soul

I have put my book on my blog now. If you are interested in reading it, it is available for free as a pdf file. Just go to the top tab under “My Book” and it will be available there. Enjoy! Hope you can take something away from it to help you in your struggles or circumstances.

God bless,

Alison

Thinking About School

We had to go into Wpg today to get some worms for a presentation Tim is doing with a library group. He will be showing the kids how to compost with worms. We figured since we had to go to Wpg anyway, we may as well hit our favourite clothing store, (I’ll leave that up to your imagination) and get pants for the kids for fall. We came home with 10 pairs of pants, two jackets and swim trunks for Cameron. Cameron hates shopping. Aaron fit into just about anything he tries on. He’s got the right body shape.

Next was shoes. Man oh man, I’m not a fan of shoe shopping unless it’s for myself! Usually Rachelle has trouble finding something that fits properly and it takes quite awhile to get the right shoes. I pointed some out at Payless and the first pair fit. Yay!!! It was Cameron this time. By the time we left Wpg, we had shoes all around. Bentley also has a good sale on backpacks right now. We did that, too.

Hooray for a successful day. Now all we need are school supplies. Another small fortune! Sigh. Until next time.

Tobermory

We had a great time in Tobermory visiting Tim’s aunt and uncle, Pat and Steve. They have a cottage in Tobermory very close to the lake. It was pretty windy when we go there but the sun was out. We got there around supper time and had pizza. Grandpa Manske was there, too.

Tim took the boys out in the canoe. Cameron did well paddling and they kept dry and afloat. The next day, we went to Singing Sands…a beach area, and walked around. One thing we all did that we’ve never done before was kayak. Steve and Pat had three kayaks and one was a two seater! I took Rachelle out with me. It was fun, once we got used to balancing.

Steve and Pat fed us well and were very gracious hosts. The kids enjoyed being there and joining in the various activities. They loved the kayaking and open water. We felt loved and well looked after in their company.