The impossible

Tansley has just come to me and said

Tansley: "Mom, I really want to go to Aunt Chrystal's house."
Me: "Oh honey, that would be fun wouldn't it? but Daddy has the van so we can't go to Chrystal's house today."
Tansley: "We could walk mom."
Me: "It is too far for us to walk sweetheart, it would take a long time."
Tansley: "But I want to play on the swings."
Me: "That would be fun, but we can't go today."
Tansley: "you use yellow stroller, it's fast."
I chuckled: "yes honey, the yellow stroller is fast, but it is still too far to run."
Tansley: "But I want to go to Chrystal's house!"
Me: "I know, we'll work something out one day and we'll go to Chrystal's house."
Tansley "BUT I WANT TO GO TO CHRYSTAL HOUSE NOW!"
Me: "I'm sorry sweetheart, we can't go today."

Just repeat the last two lines over and over and over for the next 20 minutes or so with Tansley increasing her tone in intensity and that is what is currently going on in my house. If only we could just jog over to Chrystal's house all would be well. Milk River to Barnwell that should just take...what? a day or two, if I jog the whole way? See you in a day or two Sis, we're coming over.....

Grandma's Unusual Gift

What a fabulous day it was. Grandma Paxman celebrated her 79th Birthday, and I had the pleasure of being part of spoiling her all day long. But of course it was only part of the spoiling. My cousin Jenni had previously stormed up the idea to have all of the grandkids pitch in to purchase Grandma a much needed new fridge and to replace the flooring in Grandma's kitchen.
The Plan: I would drive out to the farm and pick up grandma(and drop off my husband who would hide in the trees) for a day on the town, including Chinese for lunch with my mom, and watching Lizzy (Jace's little girl) sing in the Kawanis Festival. Mean while a crew of Paxman grandkids would remove the very old and very decrepit fridge, install the new flooring in Grandma's kitchen and move in the new fridge (Daniel being part of this crew, hence the hiding in the trees).

So we drove out to the farm, Kathryn had opted to stay at Grandma Forsyth's with Uncle Tyson, when we got to the tree line we dropped off Daniel, Tansley wanted to know where Daddy was going, we said he was going to check out the cows(we had passed cows not to far down the road) and then I continued into the farm yard. Grandma was excited about the day. As we headed out of the farm yard Tansley asked "Why's Daddy not here?" I answered "Daddy had work to do, he couldn't come with us." It was true, and it satisfied her. When we passed the cows Grandma pointed out to Tansley the baby cows, but Tansley was looking for her Daddy. She says to me "Mom, Daddy missed the cow's" to which I responded, "Oh, I know honey, Daddy will see the cows next time". To this response I am sure Tansley was wondering what I was talking about, but she didn't say anything else about daddy the rest of the trip in. It was then that I was glad that Kathryn had opted to stay with Tyson. She would have had a lot more to say, not meaning to give away the secret, but giving away the secret just the same. She is really no good at keeping secrets.  We had such a nice chat while we drove into Lethbridge. We talked about Grandpa a bit, and she got a bit teary eyed. She talked about Elbert's house finally having work done to it, and then she talked about how she would love to have the floor done in her kitchen, but she just can't bare to ask Elbert to do it because he has so much on his plate to do. I smiled inside and knew that she was going to have a heart attack when she got home. When we got to Lethbridge we met Chrystal at Green Haven to do some looking at fun garden stuff and to buy some bedding out plants for grandma (Jenni had provided some money from what was left over after purchasing the floor and fridge), so we spared no expense. We had with us all of our kids minus Kathryn, who was still with Tyson at Grandma Forsyth's. But amazingly enough, they were all well behaved and I believe that Grandma really enjoyed having them with us. But as fun and well behaved as they were, there is a line to be drawn, and lunch at the Regent was that line. So we left the kids at Grandma Forsyth's in the capable hands of Tyson and Brody(Chrystal's oldest). Chrystal, Grandma and I (with our babies) met my Mom at the Regent for a Chinese buffet. It was delightful. Mom opened a fortune cookie that said she would receive an unusual gift, we all thought that it was meant for Grandma. My fortune cookie told me that boats and water were in my future, and wouldn't you know it, when I got home I had an envelope in the mail that told we that I  had won a Orlando Florida cruise and $1300 dollars!! what luck! To bad I tore it up before remembering what my fortune cookie had said.
After  lunch we  picked up the kids and went to watch Lizzy preform her song for the festival. She was so cute and Grandma really enjoyed it. After we quickly went to Walmart to buy Grandma a few more garden things. And then we headed to Pavan Park to meet up with Angie (my cousin) and have Birthday Cake. After cake, we told Grandma that Angie would be taking her back to the farm, because she had to go pick up her son Kyler, from her mom's anyways. So that was the day, a long day for Grandma, but she kept saying all day how she was so glad that I came and got her, and what a great day it was, and how nice it is to spend the time with Chrystal and I and how she felt so spoiled and that it was just such a nice day and on and on. So I think that she really enjoyed the day with us. I called grandma shortly after I knew that she had arrived home, to see how she was feeling. And she was just so pleased with everything. And so surprised that we hadn't let on all day about what was going on back on the farm. She said that it was just too much and that she hoped she didn't have a heart attack that night. She said that it looked so nice that now she wanted to paint her kitchen to finish it off. She sounded tickled and amazed that all of her grandchildren got together and pulled this off for her.

She certainly deserved it. She has done so much for all of us, and set such a wonderful example for all of us. It was what we all could do to show her how much we love her and that we think she is the greatest.

Happy Birthday Grandma! We love you!