Neglect

I'm so sorry my dear blog, I've been neglectful. Call it a combination of not enough sleep, too much homework and PMS. But I'm here and got lots to say.

Let's start with my great Uncle Roy.
Uncle Roy passed away over the weekend. He was 90 (I believe) so he was blessed with a long life but it doesn't make it any easier for those who loved him most.
Connor is named for his side of the family, Campbell. Uncle Roy was my mothers uncle, her mother's brother. Now try and keep up with this. I was named Dorothy Carolyn Jean, after my maternal grandmother and great grandmother (Uncle Roy's mother and sister) got that? Emily carries on the name Carolyn which is the common thread (she is the 9th generation of Carolyn in the family. Uncle Roy was the male Campbell in the family and I wanted to be able to carry on that part of the family (my mom has so few ties with her mothers family left, really only her cousin) so Connor was middle named Campbell. We knew that would be the middle name of our first son from when we were pregnant with Emily.
Uncle Roy lived across the country so while I do have some memories of him, they are mostly from childhood.
I remember when I was 5 my mom took my by train to go visit Nana (my mother's grandmother - Uncle Roy's mother) I can remember Uncle Roy taking me to a beach (a rocky one) and telling me that pirates often hid treasure there. Sure enough we spent the day looking under rocks marked with X's and found all kinds of coins. Of course it wasn't until years later that I learned that it wasn't pirates at all, Uncle Roy had hidden all those coins and marked the rocks himself. I remember in that same trip he took me to an ice cream parlour and told me if I told the cashier that ice cream was "scrumdillyishus" I would get free ice cream. Again, I'm sure this was something on the sly.
When I was 12 I went alone to visit my mom's cousin (Uncle Roy's daughter) and her family for a month. Never having recalled meeting them before then I was nervous but with her at the airport to greet me was Uncle Roy and that made the start of my first trip away from home better, more relaxed and less nerve wracking.
And I remember, not long after Emily was born when I sent pictures of her to Uncle Roy and Aunt Baden getting a proper tongue lashing in a letter back telling me that I was an adult now and there was no need to call them Aunt and Uncle anymore.
And yet, I still do. :)

Most of all I'm sad for my Aunt, my cousins and their families. And I'm sad for my mom as it's just one more connection to her own mother that is gone.
RIP Uncle Roy.


Mary Jo is starting the process for first Communion. She'll be receiving it in April. Now here's the thing. I was supposed to go to church to register her for it. But instead we opted to do see toy Story 1 and 2. (yes I know, shame on us!) and then last weekend was Thanksgiving. And my mom was away and frankly anyone who's spent even a moment of time in the same room as Mary Jo and Connor knows that the two of them feed off each other and let's face it, the glass in the cry room at the church is not thick enough to contain that noise.
So I caved in this morning and called Father and asked if it was too late to register her. Apparently this Sunday is the enrollment (huh?) so we are going to mass on Sunday and I have to hang around after to fill out the forms. Yippee. Now I hear you asking me, why do I go through all this if I don't really like going to church anyway? Simple answer, because it's right. I might not be the best church going catholic out there....frankly I'm not even that good of a Catholic, I used birth control, I'm pro choice, I support same sex marriage, I've only been to confession once and think we should be allowed to divorce. BUT - I got that way because of who I am and what I've experienced in my life. And no matter what I still have my strong faith in God and Jesus.
So, I hate going to church but all of my children will receive their sacraments because I strongly believe that we all need some sort of religious foundation on which to build ourselves...and since Sean and I were raised Catholic, it's the logical choice.

I've made a very sad discovery recently. It would appear as though I will not get my certificate for the course I am taking. You see, the final field placement is 210 hours. That would be 5 weeks of 40 hour work. I can see how this is doable for someone who's doing a field placement within their own work environment but for me it would mean closing the daycare for 210 hours. Somehow I'm thinking that is not an option.
So, my new strategy is that I will again speak with my old supervisor and ask her if she'll mentor me. Just a few hours here and there to give me a feel of what the office stuff is like. I'm not really too concerned about the interpersonal aspects and staff management but the nitty gritty paperwork stuff that I'm not familiar with.
Hopefully she'll be agreeable to this. We shall see!

Alrighty, that's it for now. I'm hungry and need to fill my belly before the babies wake.

TTFN!