Hello loyal reader!

I will now begin to list the things that are UP in this excellent world that I call “Baron-land.”

The kids are doing lovely, as always. Xavier’s haircut delights me every day.  I miss his curls, but I don’t miss the muttered self-fulfilling prophesies that can come with a wild-looking child. He’s an amazing person. Really amazing.

Warren and Xavier have been perfecting their performance of the Alphabet Song. I’ll try to get a video of it – I quite like their rendition. Warren also identifies letters pretty well. Tonight, he pointed out all of the letters on my guitar case: “Mom! W-E  R-O-A-R.  What does this letter mean?” (pointing to the three exclamation points).  I told him that it means you say it loudly and with an excited voice, and so then he spelled it louder.

Oh, and speaking of guitar, Andre helped me buy my new guitar this Christmas. It is AWESOME. Tara said that its sound is like taking the sound of my old guitar and putting it into HD.

We had a lockdown at work today.  Thankfully, it was only 2 hours, but it felt really long. I kept my guitar kids with me and we stayed pretty quiet, and the room got nice and toasty. It was no fun not knowing at all what was going on, and the visit by 4 armed police officers and a dog was unusual. Probably the silliest part of the day was knowing a colleague tweeted partial information about it to the media. I’m really frustrated about that.

Andre’s Swiss Grandparents BOTH fell at church on Sunday and his 90-year old grandfather has broken his hip. That’s a really big deal.

Our church may have found someone to hire as a lead pastor, a mere year and a half later. We’re voting on it at the end of the month. That’s pretty exciting, eh?

Ok that’s all I’ve got for now.

How are you?

You’re right, Carole! The blogosphere is light on reading these days.  I love it when real life wins!

But for you, my solitary reader, here is my answer to your question: What’s up these days?

I’m back at work, deep in the throes of another school year, and I’ve almost completely forgotten the sloth-filled days of my Summer vacation.  We’re on strike, sort of, which in most ways makes thing at my school smoother and simpler.  Not as many meetings, but we all are so nice to each other and really like working together, so it’s the same great place to work as always.  As far as I can tell.

I’m taking a course in Teaching ESL (a little late, perhaps, since I’ve been doing it for close to 7 years? bah!).  The course is online, so I cut way back on evening commitments and I’m aiming for outstanding marks in the class. Tonight, I’ve been reading and reflecting on the Filipino culture here in Canada and honestly, the whole reality, mixed with how I see it in the lives of my students, is completely overwhelming me tonight.

I’ve you’ve been following my mom’s blog or Facebook feed, you know my parents’ home is a gong show this week.  My Aunt (who lives with them) had her hysterectomy today as step one in her fight with stage 3 aggressive endometrial cancer.  Dad’s knee surgery is tomorrow and mom starts chemotherapy for her (hopefully already eradicated) breast cancer on Friday. Maybe that’s also overwhelming, too? Yep.

Warren and Xavier are amazing, amazing, amazing people.  Xavier has picked up the talking thing way earlier that Warren did — XP is still 6 weeks from turning 2, but he has way over 50 words and spontaneously works at speaking to us in sentences. He’s full of energy, and very very physical. He’s a total riot.  Warren is of course amazing and adorable. He and Xavier are great friends who bicker and push each other around like pros.

Andre was away all weekend at a choir retreat.  AND he had the car with him. The kids and I had a lovely time together and I just made sure not to plan anything.  It was of course a great time with the kids, but life is waaayyyyyy better with Andre here.

What else?  Tara’s busy and fantastic as usual. Her excellent husband spends his days being excellent.  I see Lara less than once a week, when we can steal an hour in one of my prep days.  I miss her kids.

We’re working on our next trip to France. We were thinking Christmas next year, but we have a line on a very good-looking house exchange that tempts us to go for the summer next year instead.  What do you (dear solitary reader) know about house exchanges?

And for the record, since I’m thinking of you, Carole (and ripping off your husband’s “solitary reader” thing) I muss confess that I keep misspelling “solitary” as “sillitary”. Silly!

Back to you, Dear Internet! Keep up the good work!

Last night, as I was watching Mavis Staples and Allen Toussaint in concert I was struck with the realization; I am truly blessed.

There I was, sitting in that amazing concert listening to a whole bunch of awesome musicians. To top it off, that was the culmination of an outstanding week.

The week started out with Thanksgiving and the celebration of my birthday at my parent’s place on the sunshine coast. I was blessed to be surrounded by my kids, my brother and sister-in-law and their kids, my wife and my parents. Monday Tanya and I (and our kids of course) headed to Phil and Laura’s to celebrate Thanksgiving and my birthday, again.

Wednesday we had a couple friends over for games.

Friday I got a new job, starting Monday. I got a shipping notice for an item I had ordered.

Saturday we spent time with Tim and Jillian and their kids having Fondue.

And of course Sunday was the culmination attending the concert with Martin and his girlfriend.

The Lord blesses me, in so many ways. Listening to these singers sing and talk about some of the trials and tribulations they have faced over their career brought this home to me. I really do have to thank the Lord for watching out for me and for blessing me with wonderful circumstances. The Lord has also given me great family and friends (really, one in the same.) I love my in-laws, I love my parents, I love my siblings. My friends I consider like family, and would do anything for them.

Thank you Lord, for all the things you have blessed me with.

That’s not great math — realizing my summer break is three-quarters of the way through.  It has been idyllic, spending the days with my kids, visiting friends, and collecting my savings in the form of paycheques.  It really does feel like getting paid to be on vacation.

I realized today that I’d really like to get out of the Lower Mainland for at least one night before the summer ends though.  It’s late to start planning it, but if I can get out somewhere with the boys midweek, I’m going to do it.  I don’t want to just go somewhere for the sake of going, though.  If I can meet up with someone or get a visit in there somehow, that would be the very best.

This evening, we had a few friends over for a dinner party.  I put a lot more effort than usual into the food so we had something to go with Tim’s bottle of Dom Perignon.  We ended up having a nice, but not overly huge dinner with tomato bocconcini salad, chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, and of course the requisite cheese and a tarte.  My tummy is singing with happiness.

My wheels are slowly starting to turn for school. It’s fun to watch my brain start to kick it up at the very time that it is starting to atrophy from a summer’s worth of under-use.  I’ve had some wickedly awful dreams lately as well as a few silly dreams that just look like my mind starting to think about life beyond a day that includes a 3-hour nap time.

What else can I tell you?

Today’s awesome: Warren has been potty training Xavier. Xavier will say “poo!” and point to his diaper. The Warren says “poo coming?”. Xavier answers: “Mmmm hmmm! (yes)” and then Warren says “Run to the toilet!”
Wash, rinse and repeat. Yesterday, Warren kept Xavier company on the toilet and sang him a potty song (the Train song, which is my rendition of “People Get Ready”).
All I need now is for Warren to help him get his clothes off and clean up afterwards. Now don’t get too jazzed: Xavier has yet to ever PUT a deposit in the potty, but he’s practicing all the time. He says poo, pee, diaper and potty. The kid’s a genius I tell you.

Today’s sucky: Green Maids Canada is giving me the runaround on my carpet cleaning coupon. They haven’t entered my bad books yet, but they are dangerously close. If I end up notifying the Better Business Bureau, I’ll share the story here for you, Dear Internet.

How are you? Carole, do you have a flex day in August where we could visit?