GOOD MORNING!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today I woke up at 4:42 a.m. because my body LOVES ROUTINE and its had the past 3 weeks to get into the early morning groove.  Everyone else in the family is still sleeping because their bodies seem to be smarter than mine and understand what "DAY ONE OF A TEN DAY HOLIDAY" truly means.  SIGH.  Optimistically speaking, this scenario allows me to drink coffee like a normal person. 

Yesterday was dress-down day.  I wore a Simba shirt.  Phil wore a shirt and tie.  I think he missed the point.

This week felt long (I know I say this EVERY SINGLE WEEK).  We returned home from work on Sunday to find out that Nory had a cold.  On Monday, we learned that Jet had one too.  On Thursday, we realized that the whole family would soon be able to sit around and discuss our first cold of the school year. 

Three cheers for sharing!

Other things that happened this week:

1)  Rumor is my class is like "rainbows and unicorns".  As a science teacher, it is my hope that not a single administrator gets word of this ;) #thesecretisalreadyout

2)  We went to visit a friend at the hospital.  They are now home and gallbladder free! :)

3)  Jet said "MAMA"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And not just once as though it were an accident!

4)  Nory started using the expression "it's GAMEOVER, Mom".  You haven't heard funny until you've heard a two year old use this in context. 

5)  Our grade 8 science experiment made snapchat.  I don't even understand what snapchat is, but I know I've made it BIG TIME.  #famous

For the break, we are staying in Kuwait and enjoying some down time, whilst others gallivant at Oktoberfest.  It is my parent-of-a-toddler belief that our October will have a FEST of its own.  No need to travel to Munich to find one.

I hope to catch up on some blogging this week.  I need to tell you all about our new cat (GASP!!!!!) and Phil's "what's in the backpack?" confession. 

JUST WAIT.

"This is our sixth year in Kuwait. How did that even happen?!"

Ha!  Phil said that to me last night and I'm not really sure HOW it happened.  But when coupled with our time in Egypt, our childhood mindset about a few key things has changed dramatically.

The biggest thing is regarding THE WEEKEND. 

Weekends are Fridays and Saturdays, PEOPLE!  It's weird to see you guys laze around on Sundays (shouldn't you be heading to work?!) and ramble on about the dreaded "Mondays" (hey, that's two days in!  You've got this!)

So today is THE WEEKEND around here and, although I should TRY to keep on sleeping, I can't help but make a hot drink and enjoy some alone time while the house is quiet :)

In this celebratory, "we did it!" picture, Phil has only had 1.5 hours of sleep.  That's because he is the BEST FRIEND EVER and spent the night before at the hospital with a dear friend.

We survived our first FULL WEEK back to school and that includes yesterday's epic 6:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. workday.  We had a school function in the evening and, since it's difficult to get home and then back onto campus in the time frame we're given, we decided to tough it out and stay posted at school for the entire day.  It was pretty heartbreaking not seeing the girls like usual, but the alternative would have been way worse.  WAY WORSE!!!!  Seeing them for only a little while before breaking their hearts and walking out the door once again? 

HEART. BREAK.

It really has felt that way lately.  Jet gets this terrified look on her face when she sees we are leaving and then we'll hear her crying while we are waiting for the elevator outside the flat.  Nory is a little more "ALL IN" and can reach full-blown hysterics in half a second.  So, separation anxiety has been a bit of a thing since we've returned from summer holidays.  It's getting moderately better, I guess.....(or hope)!

The good news is that one of our beautiful children WAS STILL AWAKE when we arrived home last night.  Naturally, we got her so pumped up through our ridiculous levels of excitement that her bedtime routine is 100% messed up for the next few days.  GO TEAM!

Really enthusiastic cuddling is necessary for survival ;)

I haven't seen Nory since Wednesday night (gasp!) so I can't wait to snuggle with her this morning.  It will likely be less genuine looking than last night's snuggle session with Juliet, but she'll appreciate it one day.  Right? ;)

I hope you all have a good weekend once your weekend finally DOES arrive ;)  Rumour is it's football season, so that's something to look forward to.  Or not.  Depending on how obsessive people in your family unit are. 

XOXO

IF YOU WERE HERE FOR TEA.

*  Nornado sightings have been two for two this week.  This is the time when you say a prayer for us.  Or hop on a plane and bring back the sweet little thing you ALWAYS DESCRIBE post-babysitting gigs.  

I totally need to "UP MY GAME"...

*  One of my students told me I have "JOY DISEASE".  Best compliment ever! ;)  #itotallyannoythem

*  My arrival home from work was pretty anti-climatic today.  Jet fell asleep 10 minutes after we walked in the door.  Nory told me to "SHOO, MAMA, SHOO!" because she wanted time with Daddy instead.  So much for the big ole LOVE-FEST I envisioned on the drive home ;)

*  I almost fell into the oven on the weekend.  Instead, I have a nicely placed scar developing on my right arm.  Three cheers for EXTREME BAKING!

*  The days of 4:30 a.m. wake-ups have returned.  This means I'm even more of an old lady in the evenings than usual.  I don't yet understand HOW people in this situation make plans after 7 p.m.

*  Phil had a birthday on Saturday which he chose not to celebrate.  Clearly that game doesn't fly with me...

*  Juliet is NINE MONTHS OLD!  NINE!  The wee thing is still swimming in her 6-9 month clothes, but I feel as though her appetite will bring out the 9-12 month bin in no time ;)

*  The girls are starting to play together.  Here they are playing "kitchen".  It went marvelously until Nory decided she actually wanted every piece of food for herself :)

 *  My swimming days are OVER for the year.  The pool has reached unbearable temps (in my opinion) and I had my last dip the other day.  Not even my Atlantis surfer shirt can rectify the situation.

*  How good is this knock knock joke?  Knock, knock.  Who's there?  Suspense.  Suspense who?  I'll tell you tomorrow!  HAaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!  #middleschoolersrule

*  The humidity in Kuwait has been OUTTA control.  I can't remember a time over the last six years that it has ever been worse.  It's as though we've been swimming in the air.  A big sticker of respect to everyone who lives that way on the daily.  YOU ARE SUPERHEROES!

Last night, Nory orchestrated a series of family pictures using PHOTO BOOTH.

She did a great job, too!  Giving us firm, verbal instructions to "BE SLEEPING!  BE MAD! BE HAPPY!  KISS JETTIE!"

It was a real blast.

And a START-OF-THE-WEEKEND-LIFESAVER. 

Before our grande-o Photo Booth discovery, we were borderline NORNADO MODE due to two failed Facetime attempts with her beloved "Grampy".  (Dear Grampy, please answer all of our unplanned, sporadic Facetime calls moving forward.  Love, ALL OF US.)

Other things we did to kick off the first weekend of the school year:

*  I went to Zumba class with some of the finest Zumba girls around.
*  Nory and Phil had an epic 1.5 hour swim.
*  Jet had a nap and then assumed the role of "peanut butter cookie sous chef".
*  Nory gave Auntie Gem a "check-up" and gave her a Toy Story bandaid to remedy her cold.
*  Nory and I watched the first ten minutes of every dolphin/orca documentary that exists online.
*  We all fell asleep early :)

In other Parkinson news, Phillip is NOT celebrating his birthday this weekend (so that's lame), Juliet eats way more than Nory and is still the skinniest Minnie around (I guess anything REALLY IS possible), and Nory is jealous that Seton gets to go to school every morning without her (poor gal).

ALSO.

I feel it's imperative to mark this conversation down forever and ever so I never forget how hard it made me laugh....

Nory:  Mommy, you go to work these days?

Me:  Yes.  My boss says I have to.

Nory:  I want to talk to him.

Me:  You do?

Nory:  Yes because I want to switch with him.

Me:  What do you mean?

Nory:  I want to be the boss.

HAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Doesn't she know that she ALREADY IS?!

The House of No Rules Visits (And Takes Over the Blog)

Day 1

Greetings from #thehouseofnorules. We apologize for any disruption to your viewing pleasure, but we are visiting for two nights. We have brought with us internet, loudness, messiness, little-girl-squeeling, and of course, no rules. Also – we are taking over the blog.

I have kept telling Lindsay that I was going to force myself in as her first guest blogger for a few months, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Did you know that when we arrived, just a few short hours ago, that the house was neat, clean, and ready for guests? It is now ready for shenanigans.

The neatly folded blankets on the back of the chair? Lindsay has finally (at least for now) given up fixing them. I keep meaning to pick up a plate from lunch and throw it away, but by the time I remember, the plate fairy has gotten it (either Lindsay or my embarrassed wife).

Did you know that they don’t have internet here? Or phone service? Or cable? I was fully prepared to go buy a generator, 500 gallons of potable water, and rent a porta-potty. I was delighted to find out that, even in Canada, the basic necessities do exist.

We made the roughly two and a  half hour drive this morning with both of our offspring (Seton, 3 and Cecelia, 1/3).  We did not tell Seton who we were going to visit. You guys - it was quite a reunion.

Seton was very excited to go visit Nory.

You should know that our family is a little less energetic than the Parkinson family. Did you know that they walk everywhere? EVERY WHERE. We walked to the grocery store, and then BACK! They didn't even walk the shortest path to their destination. I have estimated the route, using Google Maps, to be about 2-3 km. As a math teacher I can tell you that’s about 2,500 miles.

For scale, Prince Andrew Island is roughly the size of Australia.

Apparently, they do this THREE times a day. Do you remember in Forest Gump in the scene where Forest runs across North America? We approached similar levels of endurance.  I have been told that the Godfather of their children, Dain, runs a company called “Fit in a Fat World.” I am the entire reason that his company can exist profitably. I expect royalties.

To conclude the first night of the reunion of #thehouseofnorules with #thehousewithalltherules, Phil and I rented a movie for our wives and then proceeded to experience Canadian culture in its finest by completing the 1st annual Lakefield Poutine Crawl. Beginning at the Parkinson household, we walked downtown, stopping at any establishment that serves Poutine and sampling their cheesy-gravy goodness.

We began at the Old Spaghetti House. The upside is that their poutine left a lot of room for improvement. Moving down the street, we were disappointed to find that the Lakefield Restaurant had closed. At the Thirsty Loon, we had poutine on waffle fries while watching a group of women all paint the same picture. Keep in mind that this is practically the same walk we had taken earlier, except now we were eating on the route. The regularly scheduled breaks in the walk were a welcome addition. I think if they made the same stops on their thrice daily walks that they would be significantly more enjoyable for everybody involved. To round out the evening, we found out that the Canoe and Paddle had closed their kitchen about 20 minutes before we arrived. Thus concluded our Canadian outing, with nary a moose sighting.

Large poutine, anyone?

Day 2

I decided that Phil loves his children and wife so much that he deserves a reward – tickets to a Blue Jays game. The problem is that he loves his children and wife so much that he doesn’t want to leave them for the evening. For two days, he kept trying to delay the decision on whether or not to go. His plans, however, were subverted, after I started stalking family friends that live in Toronto on Facebook trying to get more people to go. I successfully convinced Lindsay’s brother, Graeme, to go to the game with us. At this point, Phil knew that resistance was futile. He would have to abandon his family. He didn’t speak to me for several hours he was so angry at my generosity.

Phil's excited face.

We enjoyed a relatively low key afternoon with the family. I woke with an ear infection and was able to personally experience the superiority of the Canadian Healthcare system. Yay, socialism.

I returned from the doctor to find that the house was empty – our families had abandoned me to go on a walk. I celebrated not having to circle the planet by driving down to the Lakefield Restaurant (that had been closed the previous night) and purchasing two large pizzas and two large orders of poutine so that I could replace all of the calories that everybody else burned off on their walk.

The drive to the game was uneventful. Tim Bits really help pass the time. I felt that all the concentration that I exerted while driving was supplemented perfectly by the variety of sweet doughnut holes provided to us by the quintessential Canadian fine-dining restaurant. We met Graeme at his apartment and took the train to the game. I think Phil was trying to punish me by getting off the train about 3 blocks (30 miles??) from Rogers Centre (Canadian spelling for novelty) and making me walk the rest of the way. He didn’t even offer to carry me. I am convinced that he is strong enough to carry me because he trains by carrying his children on his chest 22 hours a day. Seriously – think about it – have you ever seen him not carrying either Nory or Jet? That’s what I thought.

Was this too much to ask? I weigh no more than 1.8 times Phil's body weight.

I managed to survive the walk by nourishing myself with a pack of mega sized rockets that I found (Smarties if you’re American. But not smarties if you’re not American, these were not chocolate). 

I had the Mega-size. But they said Rockets. Because Canada.

I circled all of Rogers Centre trying to find poutine. I walked the distance between the left field and right field foul poles four times before I made it back to my seat. Baseball players must be real athletes to do this for hours on end - while running, no less. I fell going up the stairs on the way back, but managed to save my poutine without spilling a drop of gravy. I made it back to my seat to see Phil catch a Jose Bautista homerun and give it to a small child. What a guy. A box of Tim Bits later and we were safely home.

You can see Phil in the back row as we enjoy a rousing sportsing match. Rather than just catch the home run and give it to the small child, he was able to let the ball fall a few rows in front of us, never even touching the ball himself. This is why he is a coach.

All in all, we had a wonderful trip. We wish we had come to visit the #houseofverysensiblerules much sooner. My oldest daughter missed Nory all summer and we missed Lindsay and Phil just as much - we were all very excited to get to see them again. Our families (and senses of humor) are quite a bit different, but living abroad is so much easier with this family as our friends (mostly because Phil parents my children for me - standing up and doing work is hard). We go back to Kuwait a few days before the Parkinson family and it will be a tough few days as we count down their arrival. We will have to find a special way to welcome them when we pick them up at the airport.

Canada rocks!

Appendix – Canadian Items Purchased during trip

6 – Orders of Poutine
2 – Bags of poutine flavored chips
5 – Packs of mega-rockets
3 – Blue Jays Tickets
6 – boxes of Tim Bits
40 – liters of gasoline at 7 times the American price

Isn't Living Overseas ROMANTIC?! ;)

We're back in Kuwait and it's been a real blast so far, you guys.

Taken on night one, after Juliet puked all over the living room floor and Nory woke up confused and soaked in sweat.

HAAA!!!!!

Now you know it's not all fun and games.

A list of highlights:

1)  Everyone is super jet-lagged.  This is the first time we've really struggled to get back on track as a family, with both girls taking two big 5-6 hour naps rather than one big 12 hour sleep.  And, to make it more fun, the long naps are separated by 3-4 hours.  Of toys.  And crawling practice.  And playdoh.    

2)  At least we can turn to caffeine in times of exhaustion.  Oh wait.  Our coffee maker is broken.  (Don't worry, that was put on the priority list and is now fixed.)

3) Our A/C was broken until last night and the temperature inside the flat was 30 degrees.  We looked awesome with our sweat-moustaches but made for horrible company because a) we weren't dressed all that appropriately and b) we felt like killing each other.  We are so thankful for the men who worked outside the window yesterday afternoon (in 45 degree heat!) to replace the compressor.  Murder is no longer imminent in the Parkinson house ;)

4)  Phil was going to pick up the car on Friday morning until we learned that cement had been laid and our car was stuck where it was until the following day.  Saturday came around and Phil arrived at the car to find the battery dead.  Three different vehicles were unable to revive it but a mechanic eventually came and the problem was solved.  Until we tried to take our things into school today and the battery issued returned.

Luckily, there is a mechanic right beside our building.

Unluckily, this mechanic is in jail.

We are currently waiting for another guy to come with a new battery.....

Hopefully we get the jetlag and car problems under control sooner rather than later.  Work starts on Tuesday!  (Which means we are probably in for it....)

#awesome

Today is THE DAY.

That I share pictures of the girls and their cousins.  Because there's NO WAY I want to talk about how I didn't sleep and feel sick to my stomach because I am really, really sad we have to get on an airplane tonight.

So, pictures.  From the last few days.  With The Cousins.

I love the way Nory connects with each of them, even though they are all older than she is :)  TRUE COUSIN-SHIP, that is!

We love you Bianca, Liberty and Max!  We can't wait to make more memories with you next summer! XOXO

Brace Yourselves.

Are you guys familiar with The House of No Rules?  I blogged about this family back in January (you can read that post HERE) and we've managed to remain great friends since then...

despite being extreme opposites

AND 

despite Trey sending me really strange pictures over the summer holidays. 

No lie, I had to try uploading the picture on the left multiple times because my computer, like myself, felt that there was something disturbing about it.  In retrospect, I probably should have added a disclaimer to the top of this post...

Moving on.

The House of No Rules came to visit us in Lakefield last week, staying for two glorious nights of toddler-squealing fun.  Nory and Seton were thrilled to be reunited and it won't be long before the youngest girls understand the excitement involved in such visits.  Check out these darling pictures of the kids:

Fun, right?

Anyways, I'm not going to get into the details of our visit because Trey is going to do that for you. 

YEP.  You read that right.  

Trey has been telling me FOR MONTHS that he wants to write a guest post for The Pearl Curriculum, although it reached a point where I thought he had forgotten about it.  Alas, I received an email from him shortly after his time with us this summer.

Turns out he remembered.  Lucky you!

Enjoy the wise words of the man pictured above.  It may be the only time you have the pleasure of doing so ;)

Thank you for driving to see us, Craig Family!  WE LOVE YOU! xo

Our Hosting Gigs are OVER

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to put an exclamation point at the end of that title or not.  I wanted to, but then I thought some of you might take offense to the little bit of excitement we shared as PARKINSON FAMILY OF FOUR this morning.

We're zero for two in this shot.

Don't get me wrong.

We are so fortunate and appreciative for everyone who came to visit us this summer.

We had a wonderful time catching up and making memories with all of our guests in Lakefield.  Seriously, the proof is in this pictorial pudding, you guys...

Overnight Guests Photo Reel! 

Some of you didn't leave any photo evidence.  Next year!

Fun times and beautiful photographs aside, this summer was a whirlwind of y'all and I really, really miss Phillip and the girls.  Call me crazy (yes, I know that I've been with them ALL SUMMER), but I haven't had much time with JUST THEM.  MY PEOPLE.  And I think we can all agree that time with JUST OUR PEOPLE is essential.  You know, time where you can get up whenever you want and eat whenever you want.  Time where you can stay in your pajamas until you well please and then complete an unscheduled repertoire of things you like best.  Time to be quiet and time to be loud and time to change your mind about dinner ten times before finally deciding on a cereal party on the living room floor.  And, FOR THE LOVE OF SUMMER, time to let the Cheerios you spill decorate the living room floor until the urge to sweep strikes (#couldbedayslater).  Sigh.

We are one tired out family, I tell ya!  

So today, after an emotional goodbye with GG, Grandma and Grumps, we embraced quiet time all morning long and stayed in our pajamas until the afternoon.  It was exactly what we needed and exactly what we need more of in the coming days.  Alas, there's a flight to catch on Wednesday night and we've got some packing up to do!

Thank you to everyone who drove to see us this summer.  Some of you made multiple trips and we are SO, SO grateful!  We hope you enjoyed your stay as much as we enjoyed having you.

That being said......

OUR HOSTING GIGS ARE OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Please don't take the exclamation marks personally!