…and then Monday doesn’t happen… the fax which COULD take 24-48 hours is apparently taking the full 48… so just Ken, Trinity and I headed back to the city for a few hours to take care of some things that could not wait. By the end of the day we got a hold of the supervisor working with us who assured Ken that tomorrow we should be ready to go. Which is GREAT news as I don’t think baby is going to wait too much longer. At least going back to the house today and dealing with waiting has for some reason made me feel a little more… calm about the situation. After all this baby WILL come and we are its parents… no matter what is happening in the rest of our lives that is taken care of. Which of course means by tonight I was back to worrying and wishing Monday HAD been the day to deal. I am not a patient person right now with anything that is not causing calm in the house.

The boys had a blast with Grandma though, they walked to Co-op and back with Harley, where they got a little plane each from the lady at the check out… played in the backyard and helped Grandma clean. Emanuel was a cleaning fiend in the house. Swiffering the dust away.

Busy Bee

Trinity has some nasty bug bites on her face and legs, poor thing. But her hair looked great today – thanks to Grandma. She has suddenly gotten VERY clingy with me which has been a bit of a strain (there is only so much carrying of a 2 yr old I can do comfortably right now). But we had fun just the two of us in the house alone puttering around while Ken did his errands.

In the little kid rocking chair watching Kai Lan

Oh and don’t forget the big excitement of the morning – WAFFLES! There is nothing that compares with Grandma or Mike’s waffles… we had brought some frozen fruit with us that was perfect to defrost and let the kids get busy creating their own waffle combinations. Too bad they are totally OFF my list!! But after baby..

Breakfast! (Zander right)

Mom and I ran out to the store and I managed to get a massive deal on the diapers for Trinity – 19.99 for 120 diapers when our 46 are usually 18.00! WOO! So I feel like I helped out a bit… a sale is always a boost on a needed item!

So tomorrow no matter what we face going home and dealing with whatever situation we find there. Hopefully Ken’s optimism is well founded and tomorrow will be our day and by Thursday all this will be a horrible memory that we can let go of. I want to swing the focus back where it belongs – on Baby #5! Oh and on getting our registration finalized for homeschooling…

Gavin and his castle

I did a much better job of actually having a RELAXING Sunday… the kids let us basically all get away with sleeping in, and then I snuck in a nap when Trinity went down for hers. Mom and Emanuel took Harley for a walk and stopped by a co-worker of hers place. They have a little boy who is 3 so made a playdate for the afternoon. It was great fun for the kids to have their little buddy over (Matthew) and kept them occupied for hours.

Trinity and Matthew

Tonight I am planning on collecting our bits and bobs together so that if, when Ken calls at 8:15, we get our appointment time we can be ready to sprint off to the city and get things done. There of course is the usual anxiety I feel whenever we deal with ANYTHING government but Ken keeps reminding me – this is why agencies are here, to help out and that all they are doing is ensuring our information is in order. With only 11 days until my due date and me previous two deliveries being at 38 weeks (aka NOW) I am, I think, justifiably nervous. Things need to be in order NOW. So do wish us luck!!

And just before bed - playing Wii with Grandma (Gavin right)

I have come to the realization that no matter what we do the Reinsch-Johnson family does it with the spirit of adventure and chaos… yesterday we started our morning early with Ken continuing his immigration correction… form, faxing, talking… TIME CONSUMING… in the meantime I finished my weekend packing, tidied, kept the kids from killing each other and did the normal Lisa thing – worried (which I can guarantee I will continue doing for the rest of the weekend until the above issue is resolved and life can return to as close to normal as we EVER see). Waiting for Daddy is never a RELAXING thing to do in our home… so lots of arguing and complaining and of course questions which led to – TIME OUTS… but we managed.

Waiting for Daddy

Of course the drive to Grandma’s was “too long” as usual… how quickly they forget the OVER 24 HOUR drive to Nana and Baba’s. But they definitely know the way to her house, even from our city to hers there are landmarks they look for and Trinity recognizes her house as soon as she sees it. Mom wasn’t home when we got there – out at the cabin putting down tile, so we sorted ourselves out… had a snack and then sent the kids off to nap and quiet time. (Grandma has tvs in ALL the bedrooms so quiet time was spent watching Treehouse) This opened me up to a couple hour, much needed nap.

Add to the excitement of Grandma’s house with Chris and Chris stopping by for a visit with He Chris’s new helicopter! All the boys took a go at “catching” it, as well as assisting in the flying. Emanuel AND Gavin managed to get it to bump into their heads but no one really minded. They enjoyed it at least as much as they have the remote control car Ken bought over a year ago (we really need to dig that back out of storage and let the kids play with it some more when the weather cools as they drive it down in the basement instead of outside).

Catching the helicopter (Gavin red)

Trinity was so excited following her brothers around and up and down the stairs… until she had  a tumble down the last few into the basement. Thank goodness not teeth first and only ended up with bruising at her temple and side of face. I took pictures after the fact… she was a brave little soul, cried a bit and then calmed down and wanted to sit and eat carrots (using both sides of her mouth to munch thank goodness).

Poor little face

We brought bits and pieces out of our fridge and freezer with us (what better chance to do a bit of a clean out? and give mom some frozen fruit for her ice cream machine) so mom and I cobbled together dinner out of what was there – rather eclectic – chicken nuggets, some Chinese dumplings (thanks to Ada), carrots and cucumber sliced, corn on the cob, mushrooms and onions and juice. Definitely a kid pleaser.

Supper at the table (Zander green)

Taking full advantage of Grandma being a captive audience Chris and Chris asked her to watch the 4 miscreants while they took Ken and myself out to the local Irish pub for dinner! Talk about feeling spoiled! It is rare that friends are around and BOTH Ken and myself can head out for a bit. Usually said friends are out sitters so WE can run out to do necessary and difficult errands. I don’t have pictures of our food but I do of the newly engaged couple! Note the muscles (which I am told were yummy) and the plate of lemon dry ribs (hiding by He Chris) which we also tried that were absolutely AMAZING.

The engaged couple!

We got back in time to say goodnight to our freshly bathed children and catch a snuggle with Trinity who agreed with me that she DID fall down the stairs but that she WAS ok… I am loving her ability to talk, chatter in fact. Now if we could just get her to say GRANDMA as clearly as she says MIKE or BUG or DADDY.

All this adventure and chaos has of course NOT diminished my capacity to worry about Monday and the fax that needs to get to the government office to continue the process of fixing the immigration issue and moving our family back to normal. I am VERY blessed to have my mom a mere hour away and so many wonderful friends to support us. I am adamant that September is going to be OUR month. After over a year of frustration and then this summer being so…. unpredictable and up and down, I would absolutely love some time to just enjoy my family without concerns that feel MASSIVE and URGENT.

Saturday morning started early with a triple batch of cinnamon applesauce pancakes… then tidying up and getting the adults bathed and dressed to head out to the much requested CABIN. The drive there is not overly long from mom’s but Miss T fell asleep anyway.

Napping with dolly

We spent time there helping tidy, move furniture and oohing and awing over the new tiles in what is to be the room where the kids will have their toys and place to sleep.

Finished tiling

In the new dog run

And what visit to the cabin would be complete without a trip to the lake? Swim shoes are a must at this one since it is a pebble beach and not the nicest water but the kids kept busy throwing in stones, dragging around rocks and watching the dog… fall in the water! Poor Harley misjudged an edge on one of the jetties and fell right in! Not a dog big on swimming she was adamant she was NOT going to get to dry land that way and tugged herself back up onto the wooden jetty.

A determined Harley

Enjoying the beach (Zander left)

Mommy and Trinity

Driving back with 4 rather tired, hungry and CRANKY kids it was not a surprise that Trinity again fell asleep. This time clutching the shoes she had NOT wanted to wear originally (which we fought with her up until she hit the ground and saw a little playpark).

Asleep on the way home (note the monkey shoe in hands)

The park that made the shoes "okay" (Zander)

Back to Grandma’s for a light lunch and then quiet/nap time. And the day is BARELY half over! Whew, and this is me taking it easy? Baby be patient PLEASE.

After naps and outside play we did a bit of schoolwork – well Emanuel did some of his workbook while the other two coloured colouring pages I had made using the Crayola site and some of our pictures. I had the presence of mind to take the calendar we started this month off the wall before heading over here and bringing our stickers so we worked our way up to today figuring out what the date is. Good number practice though we are still working on the idea of 3rd, 6th, etc.

Colouring and learning (Gavin blue)

Supper, baths and bed and the day is over… now to fill my evening with some sewing (personal project), resting and hopefully positive thinking…

38 weeks!