Author: charlestess

it's good to be blogging again. and there is so much to blog about i don't know quite where to begin. let's see.

tomorrow is bootcamp. yet again i fear the highlight of my week is going to be my thursday evening shower. how pathetic does that make me sound? quite, i am sure.

i have had a great week so far. monday, i took carys to a drs appointment. when i didn't like the diagnosis, i made another appointment for another doctor for that afternoon. this doctor made a lot more sense and frankly, since we are talking adenoids and this doctor looked up carys' nose while the first one didn't, i do have confidence that we can possibly avoid surgery. so i felt like a fairly alright mum. and monday night i went walking with andrea, so i got in some girly time, always essential.

tuesday i was in the classroom, and got reconnected to what sebastian needs to be learning. that was good. then i zipped over to Bible study and got caught up with old friends. we started a new study and it looks like it is going to be great, beth moore's ascent into psalms. in the afternoon it was pretty quiet and then the evening was book club (white tiger).

today, i went to small world in the morning and took care of some matters there. the wee three were so thrilled to catch glimpses of me wandering around their hallways. we drove home and then in the afternoon i caught up with my friend janne when sebastian and janne's boy victor came by for a playdate. janne brought her daughter amalia for a playdate as well, which enchanted the girls and jasper. the afternoon ended with everyone staying for dinner and me showing janne how to make rice krispie squares which we ate for dessert.

if life is a routine, then i am so glad i have one i enjoy so much.

it was fantastic

we had a brilliant time in kk.

the kids spent equal time jumping into the pool/in the pool/in the kids club doing fun activities, while i am proud to report i only finished one book because i was also in the pool with my little kidlets! charles and i didn't watch one dvd or movie, although we did watch half an anne heche/eric roberts movie of the week where she gets him to kill her innocent husband. is it just me or is he an underrated actor?

it was a vacation that came out of the blue, paid for by money that was better spent elsewhere, but it was so fantastic.

we went parasailing! sebastian and sela too!! jasper and carys were loving being in the speedboat so much they chose not to go up but they have decided that next time they will. we fed fish, flew kites, went to the playground every day, and had a private easter service with friends of ours who were also at the resort.

it was great.

the flight is only three hours and we left 8am and were on the beach by noon. how great was that! we had two adjoining rooms, one for us and one for the kids. the hotel gave us two extra mattresses and we stuffed all four kids into the one room, although the hotel would have preferred that one child stayed in our room…we were having none of that, thank you very much! charles upgraded us to sea view rooms, and it was lovely and important to him. he needs the sea, my man!

the kids loved the chocolate fondue fountain and all the other glories of the buffet. i am happy to say we did not break one dish. i loved the bathtub!!! everything was really fantastic. we had such a great time. somehow, five days of doing nothing but eating, swimming, watching one child or another fall asleep after lunch on the sunlounger, fun activities inthe kids club, swimming, and playing with mum and dad passed…i am not sure how, and yesterday we left. we were given late checkout until 5pm, and then we headed to the airport. we plugged in the portable dvd player and started watching lady and the tramp. once on the plane, the kids began colouring, and then sela and jasper fell asleep. carys and jasper stayed up but they were getting mighty tired toward the end, and then finally, they slept as well.

we got home, thanking God that hong kong international airport is so efficient, and were in bed by midnight. asleep. hooray.

and this morning, i had unpacked by 10am.

hooray.

it is like it almost never happened, except for it did. i have the seventy five per cent empty sun cream spray bottle to prove it.

thank you charles for a great great trip.

the green light from God

today i had just finished lunch at dragon-i with paula and mel when i decided that it was time to get my hideous passport picture taken. do you know that you can no longer smile in your picture?

as i was walking to the cheapest place for passport pictures (and i now know why, the lighting, ack!) i passed by watsons chemist. on a whim, i walked in there. and decided to buy, spray on suncream. two packs – one for adults and one for children.

i paid the sum and cruised out of there. got the terrible picture taken and was told to wait for 20 minutes. as i left the shop, i picked up my phone to call charles, and flipped up the phone. someone was already there! charles!

hi honey.

hi tess, came his, yes, it has to be said, rushed response.

‘sup? i inquired. he had his serious voice on.

tess, i need you to make a quick decision.

crap.

sometimes i love making quick decisions, as long as they are easy to make and don’t particularly impact me. i am very good helping strangers choose outfits for their children or grandchildren, or deciding where to vacation, etc. but this? what was it?

tess,  i need to you decide where we should go on vacation for easter – kota kinabalu or bali.

what was the girl to do?

i was a bit in shock, but i stuttered out, “charles, do you know what i just did 10 minutes ago? i went into watsons and i bought suntan spf 50 and 70 cream.”

sometimes God clears the grey matter for you. where i might normally have been tempted to say, “i can’t do this!” the buying of the spf spray to me, was a sign that we were supposed to go.

but where?

we decided that bali, since it was a longer flight and the beaches aren’t as good…will wait for another time.

tomorrow we go. in 8 hrs we go. but….jasper is coming down with a fever. we are praying God’s green light will continue and the little man will respond to the medication and prayers we sent him to bed with.

the kids are ecstatic and a bit worried that they won’t have their annual easter egg hunt.

next post should be from malaysia!

and if you are interested to see where we are….chchchchcheck us out!

http://www.shangri-la.com/en/property/kotakinabalu/tanjungaruresort

jasper jumps over

it has been a common sight for..ever. jasper wearing heels and a dress surrounded by ella, amelia, his sisters and other playground girls. jasper, racing around with the aforementioned girls, playing "families". when danielle's mother said to her daughter the other morning, "oh, today sela and carys are coming over!" danielle was quick to add, "and jasper!" jasper for all his years has been the metro man in the girly playgroups. 

today, ashleigh and ella came up to visit my youngest three.  they were happy and playing around the place.  and then the news came that the girls wanted to go down to ella's. seb and adam were waiting around at our place sharing snacks. ella was waiting for jasper to put on his shoes, when his nibs announced, "i want to stay here with the boys".

jasper? boys? i suppose it makes sense because he is a boy. but since when is he interested in boy things? i guess since now.

so he is now playing video games and having great times, being tutored by adam and sebastian, who are arguing over who gets the computer next.

jasper…growing up? will he stop squealing next? i can't imagine.

women and for women

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_4qwVLqt9Q

i have previously written on how i remember my mum slipping out the door to go running or playing tennis back when we lived in edmonton. how she and her "keep fit" gang would run out, very early, fulfilling their need for exercise and fellowship before returning home to families, responsibilities, questions "did you remember…." and answers, "do i don't know where you put your signed form."

i remember when forming my own friendships what i wanted to have in my life.

i look at my friends now, and i am amazed. that i could learn so much from so many. that i let so many chances for friendship go by. but i have forgiven myself for so much, and that loss is among the forgiveness.
mainly because i have been blessed to have so many friends.

a friend sent me the above link a few minutes ago. she said the author reminded her of me. that was one way to get me to watch…even though i am gasping with tiredness. but a comparison? oh come on, i needed to see this?

not as much as i needed to hear it.

what a great affirming video. take five minutes of your life and watch this. send it on. appreciate what you and your girlfriends have endured together – whether it be at a distance or on the floor, backs against the sofa, as you watch your children play, grow and head off to school.

i felt great after receiving this email. i don't normally forward emails, but i DID send this one off. you send it too.

my mum leaves tomorrow.

i wondered when it would happen. when the kids would fall in love with their grandparents.

i remember when we lived in edmonton my gran came for visit. she was an eccentric lady and came out with all sorts of comments that you would NOT expect. she came out once a year or so. and one year i was sick the day she left. and i remember crying, because her taxi had come, my grandma had gone, and i hadn't said goodbye. mum soothed me…"don't cry, you will only make your headache worse.." but i remember feeling so sad that someone so fun had gone. someone who was mine.

i am watching my kids fall in love with their grandparents. it started this summer with granddad doug and then with my parents, but six months later, they are so much older.

sebastian, with his social anxiety, of course takes a long time to warm up to anyone. but the other night, with a pulsing fever, he pulled special blanket along the ground and approached my mum. knowing he was going to say "no", mum offered, "do you want to come lie by me?" and before you could say "cat's whiskers", sebastian was up on my mum, lying across her. little button. he was asleep in minutes, but it was one of those restless twitchy fevers.

jasper takes great joy in his grandad blake's jokes, accents and sword fighting. they all love how mo reads them books. sela loves how there are two more people to adore her and agree that she is the bees knees and very clever and very smart. carys loves having two more people in her world.

as my parents pack their suitcases, each of the kids have traipsed into their room and asked them why they are packing. each has said they don't want their grandparents to leave. this is huge. you would think that some kids would want to get their playroom, their wii, their toys back. but amazingly and wonderfully, the kids are sad their grandparents are going.

i see the relationships that my nieces and nephew have with grandad doug and i am sorry that my kids don't share that. but, it is good that the kids are growing up to the point where they are appreciating and cherishing the time they do spend with their grandparents.

today as mo was packing, carys and sela and i were watching her. mo pulled out a sarong when sela screamed (i was next to her, yes she did) "I remember that mo! that is you at summer!" earlier in the day she said, "you smell like mo at fintry today" after mum had put on lotion. carys for her part, said to my mum, :i can't wait to see you this summer."

i am not making this a succinct post at all, but i am making it a happy one.

because i really am very happy about this. the kids will be seeing doug at well this summer and can get into the fun with him too.

and i can only hope that if they are too young to have actual memories of these times, they have happy feelings of their grandparents.

it's been a very good visit.

updates – child four through sevens

one week ago i was in shanghai.

a great deal has happened. i haven't even downloaded my shanghai piccies, but odila has. if you go down to the right hand side of my blog to my blog list you will see odila's blog. click on that and you will see better pictures than i would ever take of our trip!!!

and on sunday was the triplets ballet recital. i cannot adequately tell you how gorgeous they were. i will have to let the pictures speak for themselves. however, they were gorgeous.

and here i am blogging. and you, being the astute readers you are, are saying to yourselves, "but tess, it is the rugby sevens weekend? why are you not at the sevens?"

and to this logical question i would reply in one word, "carys".

my littlest love woke up last night shrieking that her head hurt. she had been complaining of headache and had a low grade fever throughout the night. she was ripping hot this morning at around 4am, and was sobbing. we moved into the living room, she on the sofa, me on the other sofa…identical to where sela had restlessly lain 10 days previous. she cried a lot, and went through many tissues. (kids have not learned to fold over tissues after first good honk, and i decided the wee sma' hours were not the time to enforce this lesson.) we talked for two hours and sang a bit and i did some reading as well. fighting back tiredness. why wasn't she tired???

her cheeks were hecticly red, and her tears were brisk and huge. she was just miserable. at 5.45 i gave her cough syrup (nightime…no subliminal hints , nothing suble about me…..i just wanted her to SLEEP!) 

at 6.20, as i dozed off to sleep, carys got herself up and vomitted. she reported this back to me. i cuddled her and got concerned. my fugue was caused by tiredness…hers was by fever. not good. i pressed more juice on her and went back to sleep. i woke up around 7am to see my parents around me (more accurately, around CARYS) and worried about her. poor little poppet.

she began crying because no, she didn't want to lie down on her bed, no she didn't want to lie down on mummy and daddy's bed, she just wanted to lie on the couch. to sleep. and she shut her lids and slept (thank you nighttime cough syrup!)

at 9am i gave her more ibuprofin..and this time it worked. her fever went down from 102.5 (underarm) to 99.4 (underarm) at 10am as the drs office opened, i called and made an appointment.

the dr said no rugby sevens. carys cried a bit but the dr said if she is improved, she MIGHT be able to go on the parade, where all the kids get to walk into the stadium wearing their kit, and the pro players are on there with them.

carys said she wanted her mummy to stay with her.

am i disappointed? yes. a bit. do i mind? no. when kids are sick, they are so much more vulnerable. so i am here. i should be cleaning, but instead i just watched carys falling asleep while watching MY LITTLE PONY. she tried to play a game on the computer while i tried to clean, but that was too tough.

with four kids, one on one times can be far and few between. so this is very good in a way. she is sick, but i am here. she doesn't know what i sacrificed, but she does know that it is mummy who is getting her juice, putting in video's and picking up tissues from the floor.

it's all good.

surreal

here has been the highlight of my evening.

after fantastic massages we headed over to a brazilian bbq restaurant called cantina for dinner. odila was particularly excited because there was a live band playing brazilian music. steph had called earlier and learned the buffet (meat a thon) was offered until 11.30. 

we walked in to the restaurant and learned that not only the buffet was closed but that the band had stopped playing several minutes ago. there was a fellow who was so apologetic, he was sorry, but the band was finished for the night, why didn't we come back tomorrow? no, we said, we had plans for tomorrow, but we would still stay for dinner.

we sat down and started drooling and debating over the menu. odila and terri ordered frucka, a brazilian soda. and then the chinese waiter came over and asked us in perfect portuguese if we were ready to order. well! odila was in ecstasies and a brisk conversation ensued. the table next to us looked over and smiled to hear the portuguese pouring from odila's mouth. the waiter turned to the table that was occupied and chatted briefly with one of the fellows there…it was the same fellow who had apologised to us about the band being done for the night.

of course, it turned out that he was the band. odila requested very politely that he play JUST ONE SONG. he said to us…YOU NEED tO ASK ME NICELY…and she said, please goodlooking, play us a song! and we started clapping and screaming as good canadian and american girls do.

so this is how it happened that we sat listening to brazilian music and eating brazilian food in shanghai. the lead singer was newton, he is a paulista and she is a carioca (from rio). it all had a slightly surreal feeling to it.

i need to go, bed beckons, but it was a magical evening. i have not described this experience well. but i will remember it always.

me or her?

on tuesday i realised that sela had been sick for a few days. really quite sick – fever only controlled by medicine, cough really quite bad, nose really shooting out interesting colours.

as ursula and i skived off and had a quick smoke (me, passive) between volunteering stints at kennedy school, she spoke of how her son harrison had been to the doctor with his high fever and cough and the dr had said, "it isn't pneumonia yet". i got home from volunteering and grocery shopping and felt my little girls head. she had been napping for three hours and was hot. she had also had a morning nap.

i knew it was time to see a dr. and i called until i found a pediatrician who would see her.

a hasty taxi ride into central.

the nurse flipped when she read sela's ear temp. she then gave sela an oral thermometre. it registered 40.4. i began to feel a bit guiltier. sela was whimpering, wanting to go home. we saw the dr, who listened to chest, looked at ears and throat. felt glands.

and suggested an x-ray.

sela was such a good girl but was crying with tears, not loudly.

the xray showed pneumonia. we were given five medications (not including the fever medication we had at home) and sent on our way.

i asked the doctor…"i am supposed to go to shanghai on thursday. it is not an essential trip. should i go?" and he said, "have you bought the ticket already?" i said yes, and he responded, and i appreciated him for this, "no."

i told my friends i probably wasn't going. they told me they understood, but not to discount the power of prayer. i agreed. we all started praying for the antibiotics to kick in.

and they did. sela has not gone back to school, but she is sleeping through the night, has regular coloured mucous, and her fever no longer is controlled by medication.

today is thursday. the plane leaves in three hours.

i will be on the plane.

i do not feel guilty about my decision.

i feel excited about my adventure and proud that my daughters told me to go and take pictures (and buy them something). i will, not out of guilt, but because i want to share part of my trip with them.

and you too. so wait for the pix, they're coming soon.

i'll post tonight.

another flower for her hat

last week when our friends the debocks were able to physically remove themselves from the four children trying to show them their favourite dolls and plush toys, or attempting to brush their hair, choose their accessories and wear their glasses, they made an observation about my city.
naturally, i was waiting to hear it.

and to my immense pleasure, it was a comment i had never heard before.

"hong kong" they proclaimed, "might be the most international city in the world."

it's like telling halle berry's mum that her child is beautiful. you can't deny it, but you can try to point out the beauty in others. and so i did. quite valiantly.

"what about vancouver?"

"no, vancouver is half ESL, but it doesn't have the australian populatation that hong kong does."

"toronto or new york?"

"No, again, not the same number of australians, although granted, new york would be better what with the banks."

"what about london?" i came up with.

london, we had to agree would be close, if not, possibly, the most international city. but does it have the high number of americans? canadians? kiwis? an excellent question. both locations got points for south africans and africans, and for europeans.

it might be london.

then again, it might be hong kong.

**************
on a side note – sela is sick. fever of 103. poor little dot. she is very quiet and every four hours i need to give her drugs or else her fever spikes. her joints aren't sore, but she is miserable. last night she woke up crying because she had misplaced her packet of tissue and her nose was streaming. and it was too dark. amazingly and impressively, "the others" slept through it.