Returning to my life

January 20, 2006

As most of you know my maternal grandmother passed away last week. So I have been out of commission for awhile and am finally returning to the website. I see I have a lot of catching up to do! I won't go into the whole story of my grandmother's death. Except to say I made a VERY emergency, unplanned and short visit to Alberta the weekend after New Years. 48 hours after I returned home my grandmother passed away and I could not, due to finances and time restrictions, fly back for her funeral. Missing her funeral (600 in attendance) and time spent with all my family (all my cousins, aunts & uncles were there) has been the most lonesome, heart breaking experience I have ever dealt with. I reached a point of despair and heart ache that I have never encountered before. I said my goodbye's and I love you's to grandma when I visited so I didn't feel bad about that. And I didn't feel so despairing about her actual death. Although I was very sad I know I'll see her again in heaven and I can't wait. And quite frankly being so far away it's still very unreal. But the hardest part was not being with my family during this loss. I missed out on all the conversations, laughing, crying, praying, hugging, singing, eating together, sharing memories of grandma etc...

Thanks to the prayers of family and church family I am feeling a lot better. The difference between last week and this week is night and day. It still seems unreal that my grandmother is gone though.

So, life has resumed for me this week. Tonight I went to see Le Vent du Nord . An amazing Quebec folk group. If you check out their site you can listen to some of their toe tapping music on this page . I went with a friend (girl's night out) to their concert at the Franco American Heritage here in Lewiston. I just can't get enough of live folk music - the rhythms are in my soul - I don't know how else to explain it.

Speaking of the arts, tomorrow night we are going to see a play called Proof with friends. We don't usually go to the theater (lack of funds - tickets and sitters) so this should be fun. Lewiston- Auburn has a great arts & culture community and I'm so happy we live here and can access it.

This afternoon we took the kids to the winter carnival at Bates. Not quite culture but definitely fun! This is a yearly tradition and includes a whole week of activities & concerts to alleviate winter blues. Most activities are geared to college students but today's event was for families of Bates staff & faculty and of course the students. In a large gym they had set up a several inflatables - you know those moonbounce things. These ones were huge though and unlike the local fair they were free. They also gave out cotton candy, popcorn, endless rice krispies, cookies and brownies. All of which we avoided and instead induldged in the chocolate fountain with fresh fruit. Yep, a flowing fountain made of melted chocolate. But the main attraction was the large inflatables. Our kids loved it. I wish we could do this every week in winter. I have to say working at Bates is a huge blessing. They treat their staff and families so well.

Earlier this week we had a playdate and did the usual life stuff. Tomorrow morning Celine is working out with Daddy for the first time. Damien got a book on weight training for children and Celine is going to give it a try. Damien loves weight training and I hope he can infuse our children with that same dedication. I wish he could infuse me with that same dedication! Quite honestly, it doesn't matter what physical activity our children do as long as they are active. I find it hard in winter to make sure the kids are active enough.

I should go to bed. It's late but I wanted to send a quick update. I hope to post comments soon on everyone else's blogs.