Today is the funeral for Rabbi Joel Wittstein. We're not in London. How could we be? And yet how could we not be there for this? On Tu B'shvat, a festival of celebrating trees, plants and life, our rabbi is being laid to rest. I suspect that he would have liked that.
On Friday afternoon, the girls and I attended a friend's daughter's birthday party. After an hour of jumping and playing and having a great time, we came home to make dinner and head to bed. Ben was two hours south in Pittsburg, KS, teaching cello at the university down there as a sub for the day.
I put on a show to distract the girls while I started to make dinner and then I stopped to check my email after I had put food in the oven. There it was. An email from a friend of ours back home who had heard the news and realized that we wouldn't have known what was happening. We knew that Rabbi Wittstein had been ill a few years prior and that he was on extended leave from Temple Israel but we didn't know the end was near. Would we have tried to see him a few weeks ago? To be honest, I don't know the answer to that.
When we moved back to London in 2007, we sent him an email letting him know that we wouldn't be returning to Temple Israel. Rather than give him all of our reasons, we shortened it to one thing: We had been attending a conservative shul in Kansas and it seemed to be a better fit for our family at this time. He was deeply hurt by this and there was a rift that perhaps should never have been there. We (separately) ran into either the rabbi or his wife a few times over the next year. Each time that I saw his wife, she commented on how surprised and shocked they were to hear that we had switched to the conservative shul. To say it was awkward would be an understatement. That said, I just re-read my email correspondence with him in which he expressed his sadness at our switch but also affirmed that we'd still cross paths from time to time. Maybe we should have been more open about our reasons - and yet how would that have been productive? We didn't want any hurt feelings, but how could he not have taken it personally on some level given that he married us and performed our first born's naming ceremony?
Let's go back in time to the fall of 1998. Newly engaged, Ben and I approached the rabbi at the conservative synagogue in London. He refused to marry us unless I "converted". Despite my having a Jewish mother, since I didn't grow up practising Judaism he felt that a conversion was necessary. Whether or not I agree with how "Jewishness" is determined, it's been that way for hundreds of years and this rabbi really shouldn't have said what he did. We found out a few years later that this rabbi was notorious for pushing people away. It's ironic that he considered one of his strengths to be the area of outreach. He's no longer in London, which is what made it possible for us to make the switch for the year that we were home in 2007/08.
In any case, he wouldn't marry us so we went to Temple Israel and approached the rabbi there. We had attended High Holy Day services there and while we disagreed with much of what the rabbi said, we admired the strength of his convictions and how warm and welcoming he and the congregation were. Rabbi Wittstein asked that both Ben and I attend his "Intro to Judaism" course since neither one of us was really practising anything at the time. We were happy to do so and thus began our journey with Rabbi Wittstein and Temple Israel.
We met with the rabbi a few times prior to our wedding in August 1999. One time was particularly memorable. We were in his office at the old temple site on Windermere Rd. and Ben was noticeably not paying attention. Being young and unsure of ourselves in the company of the rabbi, I wasn't about to call him out on it at the time but as soon as we left the building I demanded to know what he thought was so much more important than discussing our upcoming marriage. "There was a beaver outside the window!" he exclaimed excitedly. Oy.
I remember our rabbi talking about how he had to ask us questions of intent during the ceremony and I remember that the wording he came up with was exactly what we would have chosen for ourselves. I'm sure I still have it somewhere, along with a beautiful letter he sent us shortly after our marriage. I'd be a liar if I claimed to remember anything about our wedding ceremony though. The things that stick out in my mind were the fire trucks roaring by and the cantor accidentally telling us to kiss instead of drink the wine. That, and us running back down the aisle and earning a minute or two of privacy before everyone caught up with us!
We joined Temple Israel and remained members there until we moved to Kansas in the summer of 2005. Over that time, we became increasingly disgruntled with reform Judaism for various reasons. Although we enjoyed listening to Rabbi Wittstein's sermons, we found ourselves frequently disagreeing with him yet respecting him through it all for his eloquence and sincerity and just plain openness.
He was a big supporter of music and the arts. Our trio performed several concerts at Temple Israel and he was happy to have us there. I remember feeling sad in the spring of 2005 as we prepared to perform our last concert there. He didn't know yet that we were planning to move and he approached us with an idea he had for us to do a concert series there. He was very disappointed to learn of our plans to move, yet supportive at the same time.
Rachel was often the only child at services and she was most welcome there. One Saturday morning the rabbi asked a question during his sermon. It wasn't really a question that was meant to be answered and at that very moment, Rachel chose to yell out "Yeah!" as loudly as she could. She would have been about a year old at the time.
It would be so easy to turn this post into a list of our reasons for not having returned to Temple Israel or to reform Judaism, but I won't do that. To do that today would be to dishonour Rabbi Wittstein and I won't do that. No matter what our differences were, he meant a lot to us and he will be sorely missed.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Funny girls
Anna was dawdling on the walk from the parking lot to Beth Shalom the other day before preschool. She quite enjoys watching cars and people, so this was not unusual. "Mommy! Look! There are lots of cars and there are some more people!"
Since the wind was blowing and it was cold, I suggested that we move along since her teacher would be waiting for her in the classroom. That was all it took to get Anna running up the sidewalk: "I coming Miss Sharon!!!!!!!!!!"
*****************************
Every night when Rachel goes to bed we tell her the story of her day. We have done this for most of her life and she loves it. The story always begins with "Once upon a time there was a little girl named Rachel". A few nights ago, I started out with "Once upon a time there was a big squirrel named Rudolf" and continued on with the story of the day. About 5 seconds later, Rachel yelled "WHAT!??!?!?" as she finally clued in that we hadn't started out the story properly. Now every night she asks if we will do a mixed-up story.
Since the wind was blowing and it was cold, I suggested that we move along since her teacher would be waiting for her in the classroom. That was all it took to get Anna running up the sidewalk: "I coming Miss Sharon!!!!!!!!!!"
*****************************
Every night when Rachel goes to bed we tell her the story of her day. We have done this for most of her life and she loves it. The story always begins with "Once upon a time there was a little girl named Rachel". A few nights ago, I started out with "Once upon a time there was a big squirrel named Rudolf" and continued on with the story of the day. About 5 seconds later, Rachel yelled "WHAT!??!?!?" as she finally clued in that we hadn't started out the story properly. Now every night she asks if we will do a mixed-up story.
Our new bed!
We have been talking for a couple of years now about wanting to get a new mattress for our bed. We bought our first mattress from Gary the 300 pound mattress salesman at Sleep Country Canada (Why buy a mattress anywhere else!?) in the summer of 1999 and he told us we could expect to get 10-15 years out of it.
We were pretty good about flipping and rotating it for the first few years, but I suspect that moving it around so many times has taken its toll. We had planned to replace the mattress for our 10th anniversary (instead of that platinum wedding band I'd been wanting, haha!) but since we got married at the end of summer and we're musicians, that wasn't going to happen. *Note to all the non-musicians out there: Income in the summer is, well, not very good.*
We knew that we wanted to get a Tempur-pedic bed. My mother has one and we've slept on it a few times. Given that I still have occasional hip and/or pelvic pain, it seemed like it would be a good investment.
Ben's parents wanted to get him something for a graduation present. He had initially thought about a laptop but ours seems to have revived itself once again (is it a cat!??!) and so he instead suggested contributing to our mattress fund.
We ordered the mattress on Monday night and it showed up at 4:15 on Thursday. We're still getting used to it, but overall we are quite pleased! The old queen mattress is made up on the floor of our room. The theory is that maybe we'll put Anna in there on the nights when she needs our help to get back to sleep. That said, we don't notice her movement so much in the new bed so maybe it won't be an issue anymore!
If we get brave, we might take down her crib and remove everything from her room except for a mattress on the floor. I'm reluctant to give up her naps though. We might just wait to transition her when we move this summer instead.
We were pretty good about flipping and rotating it for the first few years, but I suspect that moving it around so many times has taken its toll. We had planned to replace the mattress for our 10th anniversary (instead of that platinum wedding band I'd been wanting, haha!) but since we got married at the end of summer and we're musicians, that wasn't going to happen. *Note to all the non-musicians out there: Income in the summer is, well, not very good.*
We knew that we wanted to get a Tempur-pedic bed. My mother has one and we've slept on it a few times. Given that I still have occasional hip and/or pelvic pain, it seemed like it would be a good investment.
Ben's parents wanted to get him something for a graduation present. He had initially thought about a laptop but ours seems to have revived itself once again (is it a cat!??!) and so he instead suggested contributing to our mattress fund.
We ordered the mattress on Monday night and it showed up at 4:15 on Thursday. We're still getting used to it, but overall we are quite pleased! The old queen mattress is made up on the floor of our room. The theory is that maybe we'll put Anna in there on the nights when she needs our help to get back to sleep. That said, we don't notice her movement so much in the new bed so maybe it won't be an issue anymore!
If we get brave, we might take down her crib and remove everything from her room except for a mattress on the floor. I'm reluctant to give up her naps though. We might just wait to transition her when we move this summer instead.
I'd better get blogging.
If my math is correct, I blogged an average of 14.5 times per month in 2009. Speaking of math, Rachel loves it. The other day we were working on place value (10s and 1s) and she understood pretty quickly how it worked. She was beside herself with glee that one of the questions turned out to be Ben's age. "Dad! Three 10s and three 1s is your age! 33!"
Her current math book has some pages where there are subtraction or addition problems and a colour by number animal at the top of the page. One such page features an elephant, as does the cover. Rachel was very excited to do the elephant page but informed me that she didn't see what the colouring had to do with math. Such a literal kid...
I picked up "Hooked on French" a couple of weeks ago - 3 levels for $20. I haven't looked beyond the first level yet, but Rachel can already say hello and goodbye, count to 10 and tell us how old she is. It comes with a lesson book (just pictures and the corresponding French/English words), 3 story books, and a CD-ROM with games on it. Since we're not sure where we'll end up in the fall or what the schooling situation might be, we thought it would be good to get her started with some French.
Rachel started Kindermusik this past week and was very excited to get her new recorder. I don't plan to share the technique of playing it through the nose for quite some time though. Anna also started her class again and was absolutely thrilled. Her class will have lots of songs about trains, cars and things that GO! That's perfect for a little girl who will be getting a big train set for her upcoming 2nd birthday.
Her current math book has some pages where there are subtraction or addition problems and a colour by number animal at the top of the page. One such page features an elephant, as does the cover. Rachel was very excited to do the elephant page but informed me that she didn't see what the colouring had to do with math. Such a literal kid...
I picked up "Hooked on French" a couple of weeks ago - 3 levels for $20. I haven't looked beyond the first level yet, but Rachel can already say hello and goodbye, count to 10 and tell us how old she is. It comes with a lesson book (just pictures and the corresponding French/English words), 3 story books, and a CD-ROM with games on it. Since we're not sure where we'll end up in the fall or what the schooling situation might be, we thought it would be good to get her started with some French.
Rachel started Kindermusik this past week and was very excited to get her new recorder. I don't plan to share the technique of playing it through the nose for quite some time though. Anna also started her class again and was absolutely thrilled. Her class will have lots of songs about trains, cars and things that GO! That's perfect for a little girl who will be getting a big train set for her upcoming 2nd birthday.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Dress-up clothes
It's funny. When Rachel was younger, she occasionally played with the few dress-up things that we have, but she never really got into it. Now both girls love playing dress-up, but most of what we have no longer fits Rachel. I'm on the hunt for bigger girls' dress-up clothes but haven't had much luck so far. Rachel has outgrown most of the dresses that say they fit from 4-6X so I suspect that I need to get creative.
Anna will happily march around with her wings and ballet slippers on. She is putting on Rachel's outgrown sandals right now and having a great time!
At least Rachel settles for dressing up her elephants most days. She has figured out that the Build-a-Bear clothes fit several of her elephants and, even better, she is dressing them all by herself!
Anna will happily march around with her wings and ballet slippers on. She is putting on Rachel's outgrown sandals right now and having a great time!
At least Rachel settles for dressing up her elephants most days. She has figured out that the Build-a-Bear clothes fit several of her elephants and, even better, she is dressing them all by herself!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Wow.
Apparently in the United States, there is no law against cashing a post-dated cheque. No wonder my clients here balk at that form of payment. That's just nuts.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Reading time
This morning Anna consented to reading a book with me. Lately, even at bedtime she insists on doing it herself. "No Mommy I NOT read with you. I do myself!" It doesn't matter to me. Sometimes she shows Olly and Ducky the pages, and sometimes they read to her in their very distinctive voices that everyone in the family has learned to produce.
Her book of choice was a lift-the-flap book. Several pages in, the question "Who's in the stable?" was asked. Anna lifted the door flap to find a horse and announced, "That's a horse in the bathwoom!" No matter how many times I tried to explain to her that it was in a stable, she insisted that it was in the bathroom.
A few pages later on, we found a bull hiding behind a red blanket. Like most bulls, this one sported a lovely nose ring. Once we ascertained that it was indeed a bull and not a cow, Anna gleefully yelled "It's a bull with a sucky!" I admit that the nose ring does bear a strong resemblance to her beloved Sucky.
She's a funny age right now. She's fully aware of just how funny she is and what's more, she's got a good sense of humour. Tonight on the way home from an outing with Ben and Rachel, she started fake snoring and told Ben, "I sleeping, Daddy!" She's obviously picked this up from Rachel who pulls this trick all the time.
Unfortunately, Anna is also in the bossy phase of life. At lunchtime, she said sternly, "Daddy, you get back in your chair right now!" when Ben got up to get something. Ha! I bet that Rachel was pleased to not be the one chastised for that particular offense for once. ;)
Her book of choice was a lift-the-flap book. Several pages in, the question "Who's in the stable?" was asked. Anna lifted the door flap to find a horse and announced, "That's a horse in the bathwoom!" No matter how many times I tried to explain to her that it was in a stable, she insisted that it was in the bathroom.
A few pages later on, we found a bull hiding behind a red blanket. Like most bulls, this one sported a lovely nose ring. Once we ascertained that it was indeed a bull and not a cow, Anna gleefully yelled "It's a bull with a sucky!" I admit that the nose ring does bear a strong resemblance to her beloved Sucky.
She's a funny age right now. She's fully aware of just how funny she is and what's more, she's got a good sense of humour. Tonight on the way home from an outing with Ben and Rachel, she started fake snoring and told Ben, "I sleeping, Daddy!" She's obviously picked this up from Rachel who pulls this trick all the time.
Unfortunately, Anna is also in the bossy phase of life. At lunchtime, she said sternly, "Daddy, you get back in your chair right now!" when Ben got up to get something. Ha! I bet that Rachel was pleased to not be the one chastised for that particular offense for once. ;)
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Anna's first day of preschool and other things
This would be accompanied by pictures if I was upstairs and had uploaded the pics onto our computer, but I haven't yet done so. Feel free to use your imagination.
Anna is going to preschool at Beth Shalom on Tuesday and Thursday mornings this semester. She started on Tuesday and was ridiculously excited to go. *Someone* made the mistake of telling her she was going to school when he left for work at the awfully early hour of 6:30 a.m. She immediately said, "I get my coat! I go school!" and then I had to explain to her that no, preschool would not start until 9 a.m. Oops.
As soon as we got there, Anna was quivering with excitement. She had to put on her backpack and while I was helping her get her boots off and shoes on, she said happily, "I want to pway!" (play) Off she went with a cheerful, "Bye, Mom! Bye, Rachel!" and the rest is history. They painted with cars, zooming the wheels through plates of paint. There was a bird show that apparently had Anna mesmerized, and even better, she pooped at preschool. Haha.
Today she was just as enthusiastic although slightly more tired since she got up at 4:30. The teachers seem surprised that she has had no trouble adjusting to the classroom and is having a great time. Olly, Ducky and Sucky stayed in the backpack all morning today, and she didn't even ask for them until after we had gotten home and she was clearly ready to nap.
I think back to Rachel's first day and I still wish I had a dollar for every time we thought about pulling Rachel out of preschool over the past three years. Just imagine how rich we could have been... That said, Rachel is loving her religious school class this year. I suspect it's partially that the teachers are fantastic, and partially that it's only once per week that she has to make an effort at being social.
Ben and I aren't altogether surprised by Rachel's personality, but it does make life tricky for her a lot of the time. It's frustrating when people don't give her the space and time that she needs, or when she is not offered the opportunity to make her own decisions, but we're working on getting her to be more assertive about her needs. While I suspect that she'll do just fine in Gr.1 this coming fall, I won't regret keeping her home for SK. If mid-year entry were practical, I'd probably send her now but I don't see that being a positive experience for Rachel given her trepidation at facing new situations and the difficulty of integrating into a class that's already been together for several months.
Today Rachel and I worked on some of her Hebrew letter sheets for religious school and then she whipped through a few pages of her new math book. We had a good piano practice this morning while Anna was at school. Basically, that meant that Rachel did not have to vacate the bench multiple times so that Anna could get up and "play" Jingle Bells. She insists that the book be opened to the correct page and then she seriously plays the first 6 notes while singing the entire song. Don't be too impressed though, the first 6 notes are all the same!
I had more to say but it will have to wait for another time.
Anna is going to preschool at Beth Shalom on Tuesday and Thursday mornings this semester. She started on Tuesday and was ridiculously excited to go. *Someone* made the mistake of telling her she was going to school when he left for work at the awfully early hour of 6:30 a.m. She immediately said, "I get my coat! I go school!" and then I had to explain to her that no, preschool would not start until 9 a.m. Oops.
As soon as we got there, Anna was quivering with excitement. She had to put on her backpack and while I was helping her get her boots off and shoes on, she said happily, "I want to pway!" (play) Off she went with a cheerful, "Bye, Mom! Bye, Rachel!" and the rest is history. They painted with cars, zooming the wheels through plates of paint. There was a bird show that apparently had Anna mesmerized, and even better, she pooped at preschool. Haha.
Today she was just as enthusiastic although slightly more tired since she got up at 4:30. The teachers seem surprised that she has had no trouble adjusting to the classroom and is having a great time. Olly, Ducky and Sucky stayed in the backpack all morning today, and she didn't even ask for them until after we had gotten home and she was clearly ready to nap.
I think back to Rachel's first day and I still wish I had a dollar for every time we thought about pulling Rachel out of preschool over the past three years. Just imagine how rich we could have been... That said, Rachel is loving her religious school class this year. I suspect it's partially that the teachers are fantastic, and partially that it's only once per week that she has to make an effort at being social.
Ben and I aren't altogether surprised by Rachel's personality, but it does make life tricky for her a lot of the time. It's frustrating when people don't give her the space and time that she needs, or when she is not offered the opportunity to make her own decisions, but we're working on getting her to be more assertive about her needs. While I suspect that she'll do just fine in Gr.1 this coming fall, I won't regret keeping her home for SK. If mid-year entry were practical, I'd probably send her now but I don't see that being a positive experience for Rachel given her trepidation at facing new situations and the difficulty of integrating into a class that's already been together for several months.
Today Rachel and I worked on some of her Hebrew letter sheets for religious school and then she whipped through a few pages of her new math book. We had a good piano practice this morning while Anna was at school. Basically, that meant that Rachel did not have to vacate the bench multiple times so that Anna could get up and "play" Jingle Bells. She insists that the book be opened to the correct page and then she seriously plays the first 6 notes while singing the entire song. Don't be too impressed though, the first 6 notes are all the same!
I had more to say but it will have to wait for another time.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Good thing she's cute
Anna is once again resisting naps. Part of this is that we're not always home at naptime. This morning Ben took her to Beth Shalom with him and Rachel so that I could hit Target, Costco and the grocery store all by myself. Since Anna loves the babysitting room there, this was a good deal for everyone! However, she passed the window for getting her down easily since they weren't home until almost 12:30.
After lunch, Ben attempted to put Anna down for a nap but she wanted nothing to do with it. Since our trip, she also prefers to be in our bed with one of us. Yesterday she and Ben napped together from noon until 2:30 when I came in and suggested that perhaps it was my turn to nap with Anna! She woke up about 10 minutes later and grinned at me. Then she whispered, "What happened to Daddy?" She must have been awfully confused...
Back to today. Rachel and Ben left for skating lessons and Anna threw a fit because she didn't get to go too. I told her that she could watch Little Bear and settled her on the couch with Olly and Ducky. Partway through the first episode, she popped up on the couch and said "Good night, Mom! I sleep now!" Too bad she hasn't actually fallen asleep. She knows she's tired though, and she even asked me to tuck her in on the couch with a blanket.
Since it's now just after 2 p.m., I have no intention of letting her nap. Instead, we'll plan for an early dinner and put her to bed by 5:30 or 6 p.m. It's not like she'll sleep past 4 a.m. anyway, at least not if her 2010 trend continues.
After lunch, Ben attempted to put Anna down for a nap but she wanted nothing to do with it. Since our trip, she also prefers to be in our bed with one of us. Yesterday she and Ben napped together from noon until 2:30 when I came in and suggested that perhaps it was my turn to nap with Anna! She woke up about 10 minutes later and grinned at me. Then she whispered, "What happened to Daddy?" She must have been awfully confused...
Back to today. Rachel and Ben left for skating lessons and Anna threw a fit because she didn't get to go too. I told her that she could watch Little Bear and settled her on the couch with Olly and Ducky. Partway through the first episode, she popped up on the couch and said "Good night, Mom! I sleep now!" Too bad she hasn't actually fallen asleep. She knows she's tired though, and she even asked me to tuck her in on the couch with a blanket.
Since it's now just after 2 p.m., I have no intention of letting her nap. Instead, we'll plan for an early dinner and put her to bed by 5:30 or 6 p.m. It's not like she'll sleep past 4 a.m. anyway, at least not if her 2010 trend continues.
Our last winter road trip to Kansas!
I think that the only thing that made this past week tolerable was the knowledge that this should be our last road trip to Kansas in the winter. This was actually the first time that we had to deal with snow and travel delays other than the infamous flight home in December 2005.
Of course, had we listened to my "sixth sense" we wouldn't have had any trouble at all. From the beginning, I was questioning whether or not to stay an extra night in London. We could have left on Tuesday afternoon and gotten home (or very close to it) by Wednesday night. Every time I thought about trip scheduling, I had a niggling feeling that we should leave on Tuesday but I really wanted to hang out with a good friend in London (hi, H!) so we chose to leave on Wednesday instead.
We drove through freezing rain as we left London. Since the 402 had been closed a few days prior and Strathroy (half an hour west of London near the 402) had gotten over 2 feet of snow since January 1st, we decided to forego visiting with our friends in Michigan and instead crossed the border in Windsor. (Yes, Detroit is still in Michigan but it's past where our friends live.)
There was no snow in Detroit and we had maybe a 2-3 minute wait at the border. The guy was friendly and we got all of our questions answered about how/where to turn in our visa papers when we leave the US in the spring. We stopped in Oakwood (Detroit suburb?) for lunch since Rachel needed a potty stop and Anna had woken up anyway. I only know that it was Oakwood because I actually asked the cashier where we were. I'm sure she thought that I was nuts!
We had heard that there was still lots of snow in Kansas and that they were expecting a storm on Wednesday that would be moving northeast. Since we needed to drive southwest, this was clearly a problem. We did pretty well on Wednesday and made it to our hotel reservation in Morris, Illinois by about 8pm Central time. We debated driving on for a few more hours since we knew that the weather was supposed to be bad the next day - we were driving in clear weather all the way to Illinois thus far - but the girls were cranky and tired so we stopped.
That was clearly Mistake #1. The next morning we woke up to a good 6-8 inches of snow that was still falling albeit lightly. We got on the road at 9 a.m. I almost asked Ben to wait for Rachel and I before taking Anna downstairs to the car, but something stopped me and we came down a couple of minutes later. We drove a whopping 14 miles before coming to a screeching halt on the I-80. We were about the 5th or 6th car back from a nasty accident in which two trucks were jacknifed across the highway and a third vehicle was also involved.
For the next 2.5 hours we sat there watching the tow trucks attempt to move the vehicles. The girls were amazingly good and thankfully no-one but me needed the bathroom! In fact, good ol' Captain Oblivious took 50 minutes to notice that the car had stopped: "Why aren't we moving, Mom?" I suspect that Anna's good behaviour was due more to the chocolate-topped shortbread cookies we kept giving them. And we are all grateful that Rachel and I dawdled that morning. Better stuck behind it than involved in it.
We thought about sending the girls out to play in the snow (haha, not really) but instead settled for Ben getting out every once in awhile to open Anna's door and pick up her dropped toys and books.
By 12:30 p.m. we had progressed a whopping 37 miles to Peru, Illinois where Rachel and I hopped out at Subway to use the bathrooms and get lunch. Anna was asleep in the car so she missed out! We were supposed to meet friends in Iowa for lunch but that clearly wasn't going to happen. We made a stop in Davenport, Iowa since Anna had woken up and needed to be changed and run around. For the record, disposable pull-ups need to be changed more frequently than every 7 hours. Oops.
We made it to Coralville, Iowa by 5 p.m. Yes, Coralville. Quick, scroll back to 2005 and you will soon remember that this was the site of the infamous "Jane and Danielle can't find Ben and Terry on the I-80" fiasco. We had called ahead to the very same hotel and reserved a room for the night. We didn't see the point in going further since the snow was blowing around, people were driving like idiots, and Iowa has a "no towing" law in effect during storms. Yep, you read that right. That, my friends, is why you see all the abandoned cars on the side of the road. Oy.
Our friends had decided to drive up to Coralville anyway, so when we called to say we were almost there, they decided to stay for dinner. We ate at the infamous Olive Garden and the girls made friends with the kids at the next table over. The restaurant was pretty empty since the weather was getting worse. Our friends left early to start their drive home (~1.5 hours) and we stayed for a bit to chat with the people at the next table while our kids played. It turns out that the lady was a violist with the Cedar Rapids Symphony! We had fun "talking shop" until her husband was getting visibly impatient with the kids' antics.
When we checked in at the hotel, we were given a lovely welcome bag that did not include a Snickers bar like it did 4.5 years ago. (The relevant fact to note here is that I can't eat Snickers. When they booked me a room across the street at the Comfort Suites in 2005, I was given a welcome bag that I couldn't even use!) I told the lady that I hoped we'd have a better stay than the last time we were in Coralville for the night. She was a bit worried that we'd had a bad experience at her hotel, but I quickly explained and she was as amused as we were.
While we didn't stay in the jacuzzi suite that Ben and Terry had occupied, we did have a nice room with a king bed and a pull-out couch. Rachel is in love with sleeping on pull-out couches and we hardly notice Anna in the king bed, so this arrangement works quite well for us right now.
The next day was bright and sunny, so we headed out early for Des Moines. I had Mapquested a mall not far off of the I-35 that was also near a Costco. Don't laugh - American malls have play areas and we needed dried fruit packs from Costco! We got there by 10:30 and hung out until about 1:15. Everyone was well fed and rested, and the girls were quite tired out from the play area.
We were making good time down the I-35 towards the Missouri border. Ben and I were happily counting the cars that had been abandoned on the side of the road (I say "happily" only because it was a good way to pass the time while staying awake and focused on the road) when I said to him, "Hey Ben, what's that light on the dashboard?"
No joke. Our "check engine" light had come on. Now it could have been nothing, but we have a history of car trouble on road trips and since we were in the #1 "hit list" state of Iowa, we weren't about to take any chances. I asked Ben to pull off at the next exit so that we could look for a garage. I should also note that the I-35 from Des Moines down to Kansas City isn't exactly a very populated route, so since we were only 20 minutes out of Des Moines it was logical to stop and get it checked out.
$40 later we were on our way again. The computer code was apparently a random misfiring. Nope, I have no clue what that means other than that the mechanic was nice and didn't try to sell us crap that we didn't need.
The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. We got back to Overland Park at about 6 p.m. and decided to go to CiCi's for an affordable all-you-can-eat buffet to load up the kids before an early bedtime. We came home to a warm house since our friends had been in and turned the heat back up for us. They had also shovelled on Wednesday so it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been getting up the driveway!
We also learned something new about Kansas houses. They are clearly not built for cold weather. I guess we sort of knew that, but we certainly weren't expecting to come home to frozen pipes in the girls' bathroom and laundry area! Our friend came over to help figure out what the problem was, but we ended up going to bed with still frozen pipes. For the record, we had turned the heat down to 61-62 and then back up to 68-69. Even though the house is poorly built and the upstairs is cooler than the downstairs (Yes, I know that shouldn't happen. Apparently this house defies the laws of physics or whatever that is.) that should not have been cold enough to have the pipes freeze.
Yesterday morning, Ben turned the faucets on, turned the heat up a bit, opened the cabinet doors and waited. They eventually unfroze and I was able to do 5 loads of laundry. He was going to turn on the faucet just a trickle last night but forgot. Yup, the cold water pipe froze again. Colour us UNimpressed.
To add to it, our roof is apparently leaking a bit as there is a lovely 2 foot long water stain in the master bedroom. It doesn't appear to be spreading though, and our landlord is supposedly going to take care of it. We shall see.
I didn't get out grocery shopping yesterday so Ben and I made spaghetti for the girls and then ordered in french dip sandwiches and fries for ourselves after they had gone to bed. Mmmm...
And thus ended our (hopefully!) last winter road trip to Kansas.
Of course, had we listened to my "sixth sense" we wouldn't have had any trouble at all. From the beginning, I was questioning whether or not to stay an extra night in London. We could have left on Tuesday afternoon and gotten home (or very close to it) by Wednesday night. Every time I thought about trip scheduling, I had a niggling feeling that we should leave on Tuesday but I really wanted to hang out with a good friend in London (hi, H!) so we chose to leave on Wednesday instead.
We drove through freezing rain as we left London. Since the 402 had been closed a few days prior and Strathroy (half an hour west of London near the 402) had gotten over 2 feet of snow since January 1st, we decided to forego visiting with our friends in Michigan and instead crossed the border in Windsor. (Yes, Detroit is still in Michigan but it's past where our friends live.)
There was no snow in Detroit and we had maybe a 2-3 minute wait at the border. The guy was friendly and we got all of our questions answered about how/where to turn in our visa papers when we leave the US in the spring. We stopped in Oakwood (Detroit suburb?) for lunch since Rachel needed a potty stop and Anna had woken up anyway. I only know that it was Oakwood because I actually asked the cashier where we were. I'm sure she thought that I was nuts!
We had heard that there was still lots of snow in Kansas and that they were expecting a storm on Wednesday that would be moving northeast. Since we needed to drive southwest, this was clearly a problem. We did pretty well on Wednesday and made it to our hotel reservation in Morris, Illinois by about 8pm Central time. We debated driving on for a few more hours since we knew that the weather was supposed to be bad the next day - we were driving in clear weather all the way to Illinois thus far - but the girls were cranky and tired so we stopped.
That was clearly Mistake #1. The next morning we woke up to a good 6-8 inches of snow that was still falling albeit lightly. We got on the road at 9 a.m. I almost asked Ben to wait for Rachel and I before taking Anna downstairs to the car, but something stopped me and we came down a couple of minutes later. We drove a whopping 14 miles before coming to a screeching halt on the I-80. We were about the 5th or 6th car back from a nasty accident in which two trucks were jacknifed across the highway and a third vehicle was also involved.
For the next 2.5 hours we sat there watching the tow trucks attempt to move the vehicles. The girls were amazingly good and thankfully no-one but me needed the bathroom! In fact, good ol' Captain Oblivious took 50 minutes to notice that the car had stopped: "Why aren't we moving, Mom?" I suspect that Anna's good behaviour was due more to the chocolate-topped shortbread cookies we kept giving them. And we are all grateful that Rachel and I dawdled that morning. Better stuck behind it than involved in it.
We thought about sending the girls out to play in the snow (haha, not really) but instead settled for Ben getting out every once in awhile to open Anna's door and pick up her dropped toys and books.
By 12:30 p.m. we had progressed a whopping 37 miles to Peru, Illinois where Rachel and I hopped out at Subway to use the bathrooms and get lunch. Anna was asleep in the car so she missed out! We were supposed to meet friends in Iowa for lunch but that clearly wasn't going to happen. We made a stop in Davenport, Iowa since Anna had woken up and needed to be changed and run around. For the record, disposable pull-ups need to be changed more frequently than every 7 hours. Oops.
We made it to Coralville, Iowa by 5 p.m. Yes, Coralville. Quick, scroll back to 2005 and you will soon remember that this was the site of the infamous "Jane and Danielle can't find Ben and Terry on the I-80" fiasco. We had called ahead to the very same hotel and reserved a room for the night. We didn't see the point in going further since the snow was blowing around, people were driving like idiots, and Iowa has a "no towing" law in effect during storms. Yep, you read that right. That, my friends, is why you see all the abandoned cars on the side of the road. Oy.
Our friends had decided to drive up to Coralville anyway, so when we called to say we were almost there, they decided to stay for dinner. We ate at the infamous Olive Garden and the girls made friends with the kids at the next table over. The restaurant was pretty empty since the weather was getting worse. Our friends left early to start their drive home (~1.5 hours) and we stayed for a bit to chat with the people at the next table while our kids played. It turns out that the lady was a violist with the Cedar Rapids Symphony! We had fun "talking shop" until her husband was getting visibly impatient with the kids' antics.
When we checked in at the hotel, we were given a lovely welcome bag that did not include a Snickers bar like it did 4.5 years ago. (The relevant fact to note here is that I can't eat Snickers. When they booked me a room across the street at the Comfort Suites in 2005, I was given a welcome bag that I couldn't even use!) I told the lady that I hoped we'd have a better stay than the last time we were in Coralville for the night. She was a bit worried that we'd had a bad experience at her hotel, but I quickly explained and she was as amused as we were.
While we didn't stay in the jacuzzi suite that Ben and Terry had occupied, we did have a nice room with a king bed and a pull-out couch. Rachel is in love with sleeping on pull-out couches and we hardly notice Anna in the king bed, so this arrangement works quite well for us right now.
The next day was bright and sunny, so we headed out early for Des Moines. I had Mapquested a mall not far off of the I-35 that was also near a Costco. Don't laugh - American malls have play areas and we needed dried fruit packs from Costco! We got there by 10:30 and hung out until about 1:15. Everyone was well fed and rested, and the girls were quite tired out from the play area.
We were making good time down the I-35 towards the Missouri border. Ben and I were happily counting the cars that had been abandoned on the side of the road (I say "happily" only because it was a good way to pass the time while staying awake and focused on the road) when I said to him, "Hey Ben, what's that light on the dashboard?"
No joke. Our "check engine" light had come on. Now it could have been nothing, but we have a history of car trouble on road trips and since we were in the #1 "hit list" state of Iowa, we weren't about to take any chances. I asked Ben to pull off at the next exit so that we could look for a garage. I should also note that the I-35 from Des Moines down to Kansas City isn't exactly a very populated route, so since we were only 20 minutes out of Des Moines it was logical to stop and get it checked out.
$40 later we were on our way again. The computer code was apparently a random misfiring. Nope, I have no clue what that means other than that the mechanic was nice and didn't try to sell us crap that we didn't need.
The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. We got back to Overland Park at about 6 p.m. and decided to go to CiCi's for an affordable all-you-can-eat buffet to load up the kids before an early bedtime. We came home to a warm house since our friends had been in and turned the heat back up for us. They had also shovelled on Wednesday so it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been getting up the driveway!
We also learned something new about Kansas houses. They are clearly not built for cold weather. I guess we sort of knew that, but we certainly weren't expecting to come home to frozen pipes in the girls' bathroom and laundry area! Our friend came over to help figure out what the problem was, but we ended up going to bed with still frozen pipes. For the record, we had turned the heat down to 61-62 and then back up to 68-69. Even though the house is poorly built and the upstairs is cooler than the downstairs (Yes, I know that shouldn't happen. Apparently this house defies the laws of physics or whatever that is.) that should not have been cold enough to have the pipes freeze.
Yesterday morning, Ben turned the faucets on, turned the heat up a bit, opened the cabinet doors and waited. They eventually unfroze and I was able to do 5 loads of laundry. He was going to turn on the faucet just a trickle last night but forgot. Yup, the cold water pipe froze again. Colour us UNimpressed.
To add to it, our roof is apparently leaking a bit as there is a lovely 2 foot long water stain in the master bedroom. It doesn't appear to be spreading though, and our landlord is supposedly going to take care of it. We shall see.
I didn't get out grocery shopping yesterday so Ben and I made spaghetti for the girls and then ordered in french dip sandwiches and fries for ourselves after they had gone to bed. Mmmm...
And thus ended our (hopefully!) last winter road trip to Kansas.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
I suppose this isn't really funny...
...but Ben brought the following quote from a yahoo news article to my attention:
"Freezing iguanas were seen falling out of trees in Florida; experts say the cold-blooded reptiles become immobilized when the temperature falls into the 40s and they lose their grip on the tree."
It's possible that our sense of humour is slightly twisted at the moment since we're in Morris, Illinois looking out of the hotel window at a pile of snow on the ground and still more coming down.
Perhaps it's time to log off and go take advantage of the fresh, hot cinnamon rolls at breakfast. With any luck, they will be cleaner than the last hot cinnamon rolls I consumed in the state of Illinois a few years ago. Don't ask. If you don't know the story, you're better off not knowing.
"Freezing iguanas were seen falling out of trees in Florida; experts say the cold-blooded reptiles become immobilized when the temperature falls into the 40s and they lose their grip on the tree."
It's possible that our sense of humour is slightly twisted at the moment since we're in Morris, Illinois looking out of the hotel window at a pile of snow on the ground and still more coming down.
Perhaps it's time to log off and go take advantage of the fresh, hot cinnamon rolls at breakfast. With any luck, they will be cleaner than the last hot cinnamon rolls I consumed in the state of Illinois a few years ago. Don't ask. If you don't know the story, you're better off not knowing.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Home, sweet home
And I don't mean Kansas! We've spent the past two days in London. Snowy, slushy, cold, grey London. I spent 10 minutes scraping ice off of my windshield tonight after a 1.5 hour coffee date with a friend. Fun times indeed.
We leave tomorrow morning and we'll get back to Kansas whenever we get back. If the weather looks bad we'll just take our time. Don't expect to hear from us because our laptop is on its last legs. I'm surprised it let me connect tonight!
We leave tomorrow morning and we'll get back to Kansas whenever we get back. If the weather looks bad we'll just take our time. Don't expect to hear from us because our laptop is on its last legs. I'm surprised it let me connect tonight!
Really? I thought we were past this...
"Tonight: Cloudy skies this evening. A few snow showers developing late. Low 7F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 30%.
Tomorrow: Periods of snow. Cold. High 24F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 80%. 1 to 3 inches of snow expected.
Tomorrow night: Snow showers early becoming more scattered later. Low 6F. Winds NW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 90%. Snow accumulating 1 to 3 inches."
The above is the current forecast for Overland Park. Schools are closed "due to the extreme weather conditions". Just imagine if London, Ontario adopted the same type of school closure policy! The kids would never go to school...
Apparently we might be driving into a blizzard in Iowa on our way back. We'll see what happens.
Tomorrow: Periods of snow. Cold. High 24F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 80%. 1 to 3 inches of snow expected.
Tomorrow night: Snow showers early becoming more scattered later. Low 6F. Winds NW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 90%. Snow accumulating 1 to 3 inches."
The above is the current forecast for Overland Park. Schools are closed "due to the extreme weather conditions". Just imagine if London, Ontario adopted the same type of school closure policy! The kids would never go to school...
Apparently we might be driving into a blizzard in Iowa on our way back. We'll see what happens.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)