Max: Doc, everywhere I look I see frogs, rabbits, and kangaroos! WhatÂ’s wrong with me?

Therapist: DonÂ’t worry, itÂ’s just a hoptical illusion.

As you may (or may not) be aware, I collect coins. Yes, I’m a numismatologist

Anyway, I have a page on one of my web sites that I update occasionally with what my current coin needs are. Lisa came back from Whitby yesterday with a few coins from her mother (I got my first 2006 coin!), so I’ve updated the page. It is at http://gawing.com/coins/ If you are able to help me find anything, that’d be great.

That’s the rumour…

Yesterday was Lisa’s father’s birthday. She was just going to mail him a package, but Monday when we were going over our plans for the week I suggested that she take the kids and go and visit them. Andrew was very excited on Wednesday and had “packed” his backpack and apparently was carrying it around all day. Lisa kept telling him all day, “No, we’re not leaving until tomorrow.” I saw them yesterday morning, and then they left sometime after breakfast.

It was only one night, but it was weird being alone in the house last night. No Lisa, no kids, and no Julia (she was out till all hours of the morning with the YSA again). Every night before I go to bed I go into see Andrew and Matthew and give them a kiss and tell them I love them. They’re asleep, and so obviously don’t hear me, but if I don’t do it, I feel that I’ve missed something.

I’m looking forward to getting home from work today and having them there. Oh, and Lisa too 🙂

Well, the first annual Wing Bowl was a tremendous success.  We started out with a slow-cooked roast beef dinner with french fries (no pizza and wings). After dinner we drew names for the competition.

Round 1 (Quarterfinals)

Mom played me (Graham) in Skip-Bo. I won.
Andrea played Dad in Uno Attack. Andrea won.
Julia played Nanny in Skip-Bo. Nanny won.
Lisa played Dad (he got to play twice since there was only 7 people) in Uno Attack. Lisa won (Dad isn’t very good at Uno Attack 🙂 )

Round 2 (Semifinals)

Graham played Andrea in Thirty-One for 15 minutes. At the end of the 15 minutes, they were tied and so the winner of that game won. Andrea pulled through to the finals!
Nanny played Lisa in Uno Attack. Apparently Lisa took advantage of the situation (Nanny having never played it before) and won.

Finals

Andrea played Lisa in Skip-Bo. There were 15 cards in their piles to start with, and near the end they both had one card on top with one card remaining in the pile. The first part of the game was very boring. It’s definitely not a spectator sport. But the last couple of rounds were amazing. We couldn’t turn away. During Lisa’s second last turn she managed to pick up 3 or 4 different hands. She was on a roll. Anyway, it came down to Lisa’s last turn, and she went out, just ahead of Andrea. Lisa was the winner!

Lisa won a DVD of the movie Lucas.

We look forward to Wing Bowl II…

Andrea’s FHE lesson tonight was Love One Another. At the end of it she had us play an activity called “Guess who loves me”. We were supposed to say something that someone in the family did for us (without saying who it was) and we were supposed to guess who it was. At first we found it difficult to think of things. With family, we often take for granted the loving, simple things we all do for each other. But when a person who isn’t in the family does it, we notice it more. Anyway, once we got going, we could think of all sorts of things that people had done for us (computer help, dinners, birthday parties, babysitting, helping move, feeding us/clothing us, etc).

I remember when Ryan was born, Nanny said that if she lived to be a hundred, she’d see him go on a mission. Well, that was 8 years ago, and she’s still going strong! Only 11 more to go. And then another 5 years for Andrew 🙂

 Happy Birthday Nanny!

Everyone (Alisa, Jason, Nanny, Dad, Mom, Andrea, and Brianna) came over (Lisa, Julia, Andrew, Matthew and I were already here) at about 3 pm. Alisa and Jason brought most of the food (chicken and ceasar salad) and while the meat was cooking, we relaxed in the living room and chatted. We decided to do the presents before dinner. Andrea got a good haul, but her favourite seemed to be a Maurauder’s Map based around Hildaworts. Jason is so good at that paper stuff! Nanny got lots of candy. For dessert, Julia made a cake and Lisa made Andrea’s favourite “sugar dessert”.

We’re just hanging around now after dinner.

Here are the two birthday girls (click on the picture to see a larger version):

Happy 21st Birthday Andrea!

Happy 89th Birthday Nanny!

I bug Julia all the time for how late she goes to bed. Andrea was up late the other night and said that Julia logged in to MSN after 2 am. I’m sure Julia is sick of us all bugging her, but she says she doesn’t stay up that late. Well, last night I was woken up at 2:41 am by her coming home from the YSA activity in Toronto.

It’s not the fact that she’s staying up late, it’s the denials. The first step is admitting the problem, and that’s why she needs an intervention. Here we go:

It’s ok Julia. You have a problem. You stay out late. You stay up late (watching Gilmore Girls, ewww!) But it’s ok. You can overcome. There is nothing wrong with admitting that you have a problem. Other people have similar problems. Andrew used to have the same problem. He used to fight going to bed. He refused and kicked and screamed because he didn’t want to go to bed. But now he’s ok. He winds down with his routine chart, and goes to bed easily. You can do it, too. Just make yourself a routine chart, clean up your toys and brush your teeth, and just go to bed. You can do it! We’re here for you.

There, I feel better at least.

(of course as I type this she’s downstairs asleep 🙂 )