I'm trying to make this post more interesting by uploading images, but it takes so bloody long for each picture to upload that I may give up the whole endeavor. Currently I'm posting my pictures on facebook and my videos on youtube (search for "karenanneford1"), and that may have to be good enough. The blog may just have to be filled with my literary work :) so enjoy!

My baby's asleep and I'm putting off housework, so I figured it was as good a time as any. Plus, Julie informed me that she was going to write a blog today and I didn't want to be outdone.

Last weekend was Carnival, an event I missed again this year and so will never see as this is our last semester in Grenada. I am pretty ok with missing the whole event, but I suppose it would have been nifty to see the costumes. Julie informed me that Carnival is supposed to be the hedonistic display before Lent begins, which would make it weird to have a Carnival in August. The explanation is that Trinidad was getting all the attention for their Carnival and Grenada's was being passed over, so they aribitrarily moved the date. Hmmmmm....so where's the party before Lent? I suppose one should head over to Trinidad.

OMG, I might grow old and die before any pictures are being uploaded! Well, here's what I wanted to show pics of:

Paul in his new Dora the Explorer chair
Paul feeding Stan - his new favourite activity
Paul & Isla playing in the "fort" - aka beach tent
Chris & Breck at their Journal Club booth at orientation.

So, use your imaginations.

I'm really proud of Chris & Breck for starting a new club this semester. And how fortuitous that they start it in their last semester and then get to hand it over to the next generation as this is their last term. Way to pad your resumes boys! I made one of the signs for the Journal Club, and I announced that this sign would be my legacy in Grenada as perhaps it will be used for years to come at Journal Club orientations :)

Paul has started back at daycare this week for three afternoons, and it is really nice to have the extra time again. Come September he'll be starting three full days, and I'm sure I'll be missing him a ton. Unfortunately, I also need the time to be able to get my school work done. And honestly, I think the "missing" is all on my part as Paul seems to have the time of his life while he's over there.

Well, this is all I got for now. xoxo K

Grenada Again

Well, much to my surprise, my husband chastised me for not keeping up my blog. Apparently he actually reads it. So, after a three month hiatus, I'm back. Here's to all you voyeurs out there that I don't know about, but that apparently read my blog :)

Canada was a whirlwind as usual. I had a wonderful time, and owe thanks to many people for their generosity and contributions while I was home. I spent the month of June living with my mother, and it was really nice to have the time with her and watch her relationship with Paul develop.

The three of us went to Victoria for 10 days, where I spent most days in a classroom, and mom & Paul were kickin' back on vacay. The University of Victoria campus is a really cool place. We had the third floor dormitory mainly to ourselves. I stayed in one dorm room while Mom & Paul stayed in another (far away from me so I wouldn't be woken up by Paul at night). Our little rooms were really cute, and it made me reticent (am I using this word correctly?) that I never had the dormitory experience while in University myself.

Paul had a lot of fun crawling the halls, and hiding under the lounge cupboards. We had cafeteria food every day, and surprisingly it was very good and cheap. The University was also very close to the ocean, so we would walk down to the beach quite often. One house in our vicinity was listed by Sotheby's for a mere $13 million. Who knew houses went for so much in Victoria?!

Shortly after my return to Calgary Chris came home! That was great, as being apart for 6 weeks is no fun at all. Chris had the opportunity to shadow an orthopedic surgeon this summer for a week and spent his days doing rounds, consulting with patients, and getting blood splattered on his shoes in the OR. These were very early days (had to be at the hospital at 6:30am every day), so he needs to take that into consideration when applying for ortho residencies - haha. We all know that Chris IS NOT a morning person. But he did managed to be up that early daily without complaint, and even managed to have breakfast (which is an improvement over his Grenada lifestyle). This experience made him really look forward to getting out of a classroom and into a hospital. I can't wait for it either as I know it will be really exciting for him.

The month of July was spent as Chris' parents house, which was also a great chance to catch up with family and let Paul be fawned over by the Fords. The only complaint was our smokin' hot bedroom. Thinking back it's the only bedroom I've slept in over the past few months that hasn't had a/c. My how spoiled I've become (although as I speak the a/c in our BR in Grenada has stopped working and we have to blast the a/c in the kitchen in hopes that the cool air circumnavigates itself into the BR).

In July Paul & I also did a 10 day side trip to California to vacation with my sister's family. We spent a few days at Bass Lake near Yosemite National Park - absolutely beautiful and a must return spot - and a few days in Anaheim at Disneyland. We all had such fun! Paul loved spending time with his cousins, and was really sad to leave them again. Adam was really close to his goal of teaching baby Paul how to walk (he's started walking constantly just this week, and is working on being able to get up to standing without aid).

Back in Calgary we had just a few days to plan Paul's first birthday party, which was an awesome success. We had a Disney theme since we had just returned, and Paul wore his Mickey ears as his party had (pics on facebook). Then, three days, later on Paul's actual first birthday we left for Grenada again. I said goodbye to the Sheraton in TO, as I probably will not be staying there again anytime soon. I said goodbye to the airport in Barbados, as I will not be traveling through there on my final trip home. And I said GOODBYE to Liat, which I will never be flying again (or at least not in the near future). Yes the airline has gotten me from point A to point B on many occasions, but this last plane seemed so completely neglected that I was surprised when we didn't plummet into the ocean.

And now we're back! And I will do my best to enjoy these final 5 months on the island. This experience has been so wonderful thus far. I'm so grateful that my husband is fulfilling his dream, and that I get to be a part of it. That Paul has had such an amazing first year of life, and is a seasoned traveler at 1yr and 7 days. I will keep you all updated on the last chapter of Grenadian living as it unfolds. Stay tuned...

Catching Up

OK, so it is now 9:45pm and I am giving myself 15min to write this blog before I force myself to go to bed.

Lets begin on leaving Grenada...

Took a Liat flight from Grenada to Barbados. Uneventful flight. But since I had Paul with me, I was pretty much the last person off the plane because of all the crap I had, and then I had to wait outside the plane for 20min for them to unload my stroller. Of course since I had the luxury of "pre-boarding", my stroller was the first on, therefore the last item of luggage off the plane.

*Just a side note - Inevitably when I fly Liat there is some tourist who stands at my seat looking confused, checking their ticket, and then eventually saying "you're in my seat." To which I get to point out that contrary to their ticket seat assignment, Liat subscribes to a "rush-seating" policy. Which I think is hilarious. And I send the bewildered looking tourist on their way to find a seat elsewhere.*

Also, since I had my babe, I couldn't fill out my customs forms on the flight, so P & I were the last people to finally go through customs. Out we come to the baggage claim, and lo and behold...no bag! What I do see is some other giant black duffle going around and around in lonely circles. This black duffle is clearly not mine, since I am smart enough to use a giant flourescent pink happy face name tag so that it easily stands out. Obviously the giant pink name tag is not a red flag to whomever chose to take my bag instead of their own.

I'm not terribly panicked, because being a mom, I have a tremendous diaper bag on my person that could easily keep Paul and me fed, clothed and entertained for a month. I'm like "whatev, eventually my bag will get back to me, even if we have to leave Barbados without it." And quite frankly it weighs 65 lbs and is a huge pain in the ass, so I don't terribly miss it. Maybe I won't have to pay any weight overage charges if Liat has to pay to get my bag to me.

45 minutes later, still in the baggage claim talking to the Lost Bag dept., some white guy with a porter comes wheeling my bag back to me :) He tried checking it on to the Toronto flight and realized (when it was so heavy and going to have to pay) that it was not his bag. I thought "hey, my bag was going to make it on the flight anyway!"

Check in to my TO flight and ask if I could possibly have an extra seat for the babe & his car seat. Nope, they tell me, the flight is all full :( Paul luckily napped in Barbados for two hours, so by the time we boarded we were rarin' to go! I am sitting next to a beautiful young doctor who loves babies and her husband. And I'm thinking "this isn't so bad, even without the extra seat!"

However, a flight attendent comes by and asks if I would like to switch with the woman ahead of me because there is an empty middle seat in that aisle for P. How wonderful! Although, I am a little miffed because I wish I had known, I would have been able to bring P's car seat with me and then he definately would be able to sleep. Oh well, we'll just make do, and hopefully he'll sleep on some blankets on the empty seat.

One look at the guy by the window, and I'm thinking "SHIT!" This guy is CLEARLY a baby-hater. He's an older gent, maybe fifty, and when P & I sat down he cringed. CRINGED! But I ignore it, and think it will all be ok. So I lay down Paul's nice blankets and make him a little baby nest so it will be all comfy. We get underway, and P and I are hangin out, watching tv, have a snack, and I think "OK, maybe I'll lie him down now." So I put P down with a soother (binky for you weirdo American's who will read this), and his puppy blanket, and he's all red-eyed and sleepy looking. Pretty relaxed. And when P is going to sleep he puts his puppy over his face and plays with it. Well, P's little fists are up caressing his blankie... and his hand accidently bumps the baby-hater...and the baby-hater jerks away like he's been burned! So then P looks at him and tried to reach toward him, and the baby-hater stares straight ahead and shrinks toward the window. I realize now that I have to keep P from touching this guy at all costs, so I'm trying to stop him from reaching for the baby-hater, but P won't stop and the baby-hater looks so angry that I pick P up and he spends the rest of the flight wide awake on my lap.

Oh, did I mention the part where I was trying to fill P's bottle with formula and water and I had to put P down in the empty seat...we hit turbulence and P falls over and hits his head and starts crying, and the baby-hater turns to me and says "Look! I know it's hard, but could you TRY!" Jackass! That was the only time P cried all flight! I said "Fine!" But I thought of a million things I should have said instead.

Next up...we land in TO, exhausted and ready for bed. Luckily my mom booked us into the Sheraton which is attached to the airport. I hire a porter for $20 to bring my bags cause there's no way in hell I can carry it anywhere. Get to the check-in desk, "We don't have your reservation." What? WHAT? After my & P's extremely long & exhausting day, you don't have my Rez?! I didn't print my confirmation because I figured it was just going to be a redundancy, and a waste of paper, and when have I ever needed a printed confirmation?! So the bellhop lets me use his computer, and I'm looking at the confirmation and it all seems right. I'm at the right hotel...but it's not June 20, it's May 20! Crap.

"Well, that's no problem Mrs. Ford we'll just call Expedia and see if they'll honour this rate and change the date, we'll just need your credit card."
"Right, well that's a long story...I don't have a credit card."
Everyone looks appalled. As if this is the worst thing ever! This is why my mom had to book my hotel, because somebody somewhere copied my credit card number, VISA cancelled my credit card, and unfortunately they do not seem capable to send replacement cards to Grenada. They sent them to Grenada, California. And then said that since UPS apparently couldn't get the job done, that they were going to use regular mail. So we'll probably see the cards sometime next year. Needless to say, they did not arrive prior to my departure.

"I have cash," I say, and am thinking, "you know, cash used to be just as good as a credit card!" So they sort it all out for me, and since the room was prepaid, all is well. But no I may not make phone calls, use the internet, or order room service. "But I have CASH!"
OK, they say, they will call ahead to room service and let them know I will be paying cash. Like I'm some shady non-credit card owner, who's going to roll them for a $35 burger and fries (which were cold! and which I had to eat sitting on the toilet in the bathroom for fear of waking up my exhausted baby).

Next day, flight home :) Beautiful weather. Got a row to ourselves. P had his car seat and slept most of the flight and I got to watch Hotel for Dogs :)

And now I am home. I have more stories to tell, but I have gone well over my alotted 15min window and am exhausted.

Night all! -Karen

Here I am!

OK, so yet again it's been forever since I posted. I should make a routine out of posting. Like every Monday at one o'clock I should sit down and write a post. Unfortunately, I would never follow the schedule. Well, here I am again, voila! For those of you who care or even read my post, here we go...

What's new in my life?? I started school this past Monday. Taking two social work courses. They look like they are going to be a lot of work, but hey, what in life worth having isn't? (sorry for the cliche). On Sunday, before school started I had a marathon of watching The Tudors season two. I had to finish it before my time became more constrained. And even though I knew Anne Boleyn was going to die, I still cried like a baby. Poor woman.

Chris & I are still immersed in watching the rest of Twin Peaks (sorry Chris for "outing" you). Only four more episodes left! I want to draw it out for as long as possible, but I'm also voraciously wanting more.

The good thing about not having cable is that Chris & I will sit and watch an episode or a movie and that will be the extent of it. TV watching with a purpose. There is no tv on all day just for the sake of it, which is a habit I always tend to fall into. So I rather enjoy our little bubble. Wonder when we'll re-enter the cable world? For sure not until we re-enter North American society. It's too expensive here and none of the good HGTV shows are on (no Holmes on Homes or Relocation Relocation).

Am heading back to Calgary in a couple weeks here. Very bittersweet. But it will probably be better for Chris to be able to focus more fully during exam time on his studies. Besides I am dying for a milkshake.

The Flats (our apt building) are very fertile these days. With a new baby just arrived on the scene (baby Liam), and a pregnancy just announced. Please please let it not be something in the water :) I am loving the one baby I have very much, but don't think I could face another right now.

Well, that's all I've got for right now. Talk to you all again sooner than the last time :)

Hi again

OK, so it's been a long time. Sometimes I feel really inspired to write often and I have lots to say, and other times it can take me weeks to come up with anything interesting to put down. I'm not sure that I have anything interesting to say right now, but I feel obligated to post something, otherwise what's the point of having a blog if I only post once a month.

Last week my friend & neighbour Faith left for the mainland for three weeks and since then I've been kinda floundering. Paul & I are having a lot more "alone" time together. Not that it's bad. Maybe it's time we reconnected without the distraction of his girlfriend, Isla, around. So yesterday we went to Playgroup. Mom's & kids hangin out at the rickety play structure at the Grand Anse campus. But hey, the kids don't really know what they're missing (at least mine has never been to a giant North American play structure), and the mom's get to chat.

After a little bit in the swing we went over to Paul's daycare for sing-a-longs. Miss Beth comes on Tues & Thurs and plays the guitar and we sing kiddie songs. Good for me to learn too cause I don't know very many and just usually end up making songs up to sing to Paul (or usually I'll have the melody right but make up words).

I tried to picture a role reversal yesterday as if I was the one in med school and Chris was the stay at home parent (and there are men here who are). Up at 6am, Playgroup, sing-a-long, washing diapers, making home-made baby food...I couldn't picture it. I don't think Chris could either, so it's just as well things are the way they are.

The good thing about Chris knowing that he couldn't/wouldn't handle the stay-at-home parent thing well, is that he encourages me to get all the help I need to make my life easier. I can go out at night once P's in bed to movies or trivia & he'll stay at home studying or he's fine with me having a cleaning lady & P in daycare a few afternoons a week.

SHIT! I've done it again! I got distracted while making baby food and burnt it to the bottom of the pot. That's the second batch I've ruined this week, and if you think dates are cheap here, THEY'RE NOT! I had to throw out the last pot, I wonder if this one is salvagable? Booooooooo!

Crazy Day

Today I've been running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. I had to pick up my cleaning lady at 8am (I know, poor me), I dropped Chris off at school, had coffee with my mom, drove her to yoga, got gas, came home for Paul to have a 40 min. nap, dropped my cleaning lady off, came back and picked up Paul, went and picked up my mom from yoga, stopped at Mount Cinnamon so she could check lost and found, dropped her off at her hotel, went grocery shopping at IGA, dropped Paul off at daycare, went back to the mall to pay bills but the line-up was too long so I got a mocha chiller instead :), came home and washed Stan, took Stan to the vet, picked up Paul, and now we are HOME! I am contemplating going for a walk with Faith, but I'm somewhat pooped. We'll see what happens.

Two of the above events are worth special mention:

1. The cleaning lady came to my house and worked for about 1.2 hrs for 70EC. I am somewhat uncomfortable about that. Our cleaning lady back home would work for about 5 hrs. Now I know that my cleaning lady said to me "when I clean, I go fast and work hard." but I'm sorry, I feel a little bit gyped. Maybe "the obvious" isn't so obvious to everyone. I'm too nice. Next time I need a list. Something like "sweep porch, wash out fridge, scrub giant tile shower." Do you think that I should have like a minimum amount of time that she has to be here? The last time I did that with a cleaning lady, I came home and she was watching tv. Maybe cause I live in this house I can see no end of things that need to be cleaned. "Wash gunk of stove top, wipe off green splatters from kitchen cabinets that is left from the last renters, wash all the dead mosquitoes off the walls (that's a really good one!)." I'll have to practice being assertive in the mirror before she comes back.

2. There is a very difficult woman who mans the front dest at the vet clinic. My dog has no end of ailments at any given time, one of which is that he has a very sensitive stomach. In order to be allowed to purchase the high quality vet food (which is better for my dog and less expensive than the crap food at IGA), you have to have a perscription. Every time I go into the clinic to pick up more food for Stan, the woman behind the desk has to make sure that the vet said I could have it (even though it's already in the computer). She's doling out the precious dog food with an iron fist. Even though I saw the vet three weeks ago, last week when I went to pick up more food, the front desk lady wouldn't let me because Stan's check-up wasn't recent enough or some horse-shit. I had to make ANOTHER appt. for today, and while I was sitting in the waiting room my vet came by and said "what's Stan doing here?" and I said "I guess we have to see you to get more dog food." She rolled her eyes and allowed me to bypass the whole appt. and just gave us more food. My friend Faith, almost had to have an argument with the woman to be allowed to have a 20lb bag instead of a 10lb bag which would barely last a week. This is the ridiculousness about being able to buy dog food on this island. I hope Stan & Lena appreciate the effort we go through to ensure them a well-rounded, nutricious diet :)

Complaining

OK, I know I'm not supposed to do this because I am living the good life on a Caribbean island and all that, but I have to get a few things off my chest this week.

For starters, the septic field for our apartment building was dug up three weeks ago and we still have a giant hole in our backyard. Every week more trucks come and dump a load of rubble on the grass, and I'm guessing that this rubble is eventually meant to fill in the hole. When the event of actually putting the rubble in the hole might take place is anyone's guess. In the meantime, Stan is constantly rooting through the rubble for garbage (plastic, drywall, what-have-you) to eat and/or play with.

The hole is also filled with rain water and has become a breeding ground for mosquitoes. We are being tormented both outside and in our apartment by the little buggers. The laundry room is right next to the abyss, so the mosquitoes have taken up residence in our washing machines. Every morning the person who is unfortunate enough to have to use the machines first is pelted by a barrage of mosquitoes flying up into their face. Yesterday, my neighbour Faith, waged war in the laundry room and unloaded a full can of Lysol into the washing machines and in the various other crevices where the mosquitoes were hiding.

My own personal technique is to throw some clothes at the washing machine and run out of the room to allow the mosquitoes to dissipate and then return over and over until all the clothes are in the machine and all the mosquitoes are out of it. However, sometimes I open the washer after a cycle has run and some mosquitoes STILL fly out of it.

I would also like to complain about the water pressure. Sometimes the pressure is so low that I turn on the tap and no water at all comes out. I have to wait several minutes before a tiny trickle begins. I know it's a given to have low pressure in the dry season, but in defence of my impatience it has been raining quite a bit lately.

OK, I'll admit I don't have much else to bitch about. I was feeling a little down about the drudgery of housework yesterday. But today I am prepared to drop Paul off at daycare and come back and face my housewifely duties. Or maybe I'll just go to the beach...