Home Alone on a Friday Night

Peter, Pip and Tabs tonight on their way to the school movie/Halloween party. Their cousins could not attend because of a possible flu bug.
 Mist and her friend Ashley volunteered at the school tonight, but had already left for their duties before this picture was taken. All arrived back home recently, except Mist has gone out again to a friends party (as Mary Poppins--she looks so stunning as Mary Poppins!) I will post pics tomorrow of the gang.
I asked Peter if he would accompany the girls tonight as I just didn't feel up to it. I had a confusing, stressful and boring day all rolled into one. I couldn't concentrate on any work. Pip was unable to stay at her cousins house today with the nanny as Nem had a fever. And later we found out the Nanny was near death with the flu! She came over to babysit the girls sicker than a dog. When Miranda found out, she sent her home and rushed her girls to the doctor. This story actually started yesterday...a most stressful, convoluted story indeed...
I awoke at 5:30 AM and trotted up the dark, wet, cold street with a water bottle in one hand and Fernando's lead in the other (at this point I wondered if I was insane--who gets up at that hour to run in the dark in cold, rain?) I called at Miranda's window at 5:40 and we hit the trials.
By 7:00 AM all our kids were dressed and in the van and the 6 of us were off to Vernon to crash the swine flu clinic (BC gave certain communities the vaccine first and we were not going to sit waiting for it to come to Kelowna!--too many of us have asthma). We arrived at about 7:45 to a manageable line up. By 10:30AM we were all set to be vaccinated against the swine flu and seasonal flu at once. Tabs had a melt down, Pip and Artemis screamed and cried, Mist was  a perfect angel and Nem lost it. There was no way anyone could vaccinate her--she needed it the most as she has the most severe asthma. Finally we'd given up--ready to leave without her vaccs. At the last moment I suggested Miranda take all the kids to the car and leave Nem with me--I'd try one last time.
Luck would have it, me bribing her (with the thought of how proud her mom would be) worked--she agreed to one vaccs. Pip, Tabs and Nem only got the swine flu vaccs, the rest of us got both.
So, many hours later, after a stop at Starbucks for something to fortify Miranda and I (caffeine, although we really needed something MUCH, MUCH stronger) and sugar for the girls. We arrived back in Kelowna thoroughly exhausted and went our separate ways. My girls and I felt ill and our arms ached.
I arrived home to a blessing--the workers had finished my backyard fence and it looked fabulous!
After settling the bill, I went inside (BTW, fences cost as much as a good second hand car these days!)
This morning I could not attend Bikram's  yoga as I needed to help get the girls get their costumes ready for school. Also, my arm is quite swollen from the shot and I felt off--so it was a good thing I missed class--I get nauseated on a good day!
At 9AM Pip and I arrived at M's to find Nem and Nanny ill--took Pip back home with me. Was too stressed to concentrate on work. Then Tabs called to say she'd forgotten her Halloween costume at home (the shoes) I drove down to her school to drop them off. The afternoon was quiet, I read books with Pip, took Tabs over to a friends after school and then picked up Mist and Ashley from after-dance-clean-up at their school (2 dances at two schools today for Mist--all this and a party tonight while recovering from 2 flu shots--a trooper!)
And so, tonight Peter took the girls to the dance while I stayed home alone--thinking, so this is what it would feel like to be a single gal home alone on a Friday night (although I decided I'd have organized an outing with a friend if it were true). Anyway, I ate a bean burrito in bed and watched Bewitched. The episode that Endora doesn't think Darren is good looking enough and rearranges his face with Samantha's help--so good!
 Hopefully I will get my zip back tomorrow and be bursting with enthusiasm once again...one must never give up hope!
And on a lucky note, Peter won some movie paraphernalia from"Public Enemies." Tabs went down to the theatre with him to claim the mugs, t-shirt, faux leather bag and magnets. The irony is that none of us even saw the movie! Oh well, Johnny Depp does look rather manly and dangerous on the magnets.
Man, can I ramble on about a quiet, rather dull night at home.

Bewitched Buddhism

Mommy and Pip.
The weekend has been good.
An early bike this morning along the Kettle Valley Railway with Peter, Miranda and John. It is simply an out-of-body experience. The smell of the air, biking between narrow rows of pines, is the most delicious smell in the universe. If there is a heaven, it smells just like that. And when we bike through the old train tunnels, blasted out of mountain rock, it is so dark in parts that you can't see a thing. It is like biking in a dream. You keep biking and fast through darkness, trying to reach the light at the end, trusting that if you keep peddling, all will be fine.
My mom and dad are in town . My dad dropped off my momma as she will be looking after my darlings while we are in Vancouver.
 Yes, the time has arrived...I am about to depart on a great adventure to actually see His Holiness, the Dalai Lama in person. And not to mention that his talk is being moderated by Mattieu Ricard--one of my heros! Life is amazing.
And Mistaya will be traveling to Vancouver at the same time on a Greyhound with 300 other Kelowna students to attend a special peace summit for youth. And the Dalai Lama will address the students as well. And so many other amazing people will be there: Jane Goodall, Mia Farrow etc. etc. Such a wonderful experience for Mistaya.
We leave tomorrow for Van and will be back on Wednesday.
Tabs was at a sleepover party in the neighborhood last night. I could hear the party from across the neighborhood as all the little girls sang at the top of their lungs last night under the evening sky.
Mist just returned from meeting a friend at a coffee shop.
We will all be heading over to M & J's for supper soon.
Excited as my home repairs look like they will be going ahead soon: a fence for the entire back yard, ripping out the remaining carpets in the bedrooms and stairs and replacing everything with hardwood--I can still smell the cat pee in Pip's carpet, no matter how many times it is cleaned!
I suffered a short bout of insecurity/boredom Saturday afternoon--the kind where all my relationships are flawed and I am not as enlightened as I'd had hoped--but a good meditation brought me back.
And I bought the first season of Bewitched. It was a childhood favorite! And my, oh my, how times have changed! It is the most stifling, sexist world for women that they portray. No wonder so many women ended up with Lobotomies during that time--ee gads--to be part of that society as a woman would have been so oppressive, one would need to be lobotomized to survive it!
But the show left its mark on me and my sisters. We had a cat named Tabitha, two cats named Darren and a dog named Samantha. And yes, one of my precious daughters is named Tabitha too. It is crazy, I have had several people at different times, tell me that my two oldest daughters look like the actress that played "Tabitha" in the series!