Flakes

I would love to be clever today. I have no quirky stories, no anecdotes. I'm not going to be witty or funny or retrospective in any way. I have not been sleeping well, and were it not for the fact that I work in a, scratch that, THE medical centre I would still not be sleeping well. But I know when my doctor has an opening, and I can pretty much walk into his office and request to be medicated. Which I did. And I am.

I'm also not able to upload pictures for some reason. Grrr.

The big news of this week, besides Xander learning the word "serious" (I'm serious) is that we had our first real snowfall. Tuesday around 11:00 we were in a meeting learning all sorts of new fun stuff. When the bigwig who was visiting asked us if we had any questions or comments, the pharmacist piped up with "it's snowing! Dave won the pool!!". Now, I don't think that's what our visiting bigwig had in mind, and I certainly don't think she expected that topic to consume five minutes of our meeting. The pool was a snow pool, in which each person put in five or ten bucks and said what day they thought it was going to snow. Now, it flurried a few weeks ago, but apparently the parameters were that it had to really snow and stick. And stick it did. It's still here, plus a few more centimetres that came yesterday. It is quite something to sit at your desk and watch the snow drift down all day. It sort of makes working a bit more bearable, and even these wizened snow professionals that have survived years and years of dark, bitterly cold winters wax quite eloquently when the heavens first open and blanket our town in white.

Needless to say, my first thought was of my children. More specifically, of their snow gear. Was it warm enough, did their boots have enough traction, were their fingers going to fall off because I'd cheaped out and bought their mittens at Wal-Mart. Those kinds of thoughts. Xander wasn't quite sure what to think of the stuff, and after about five minutes he'd had quite enough and was ready to come inside and watch The Incredibles for the fourth time that day. Felicity, on the other hand, just can't believe her good fortune. Snow! All the time! The first day it snowed she was so excited we had to beg her to stop licking it off of the rocks in our driveway. When we head down the stairs of our porch to the car in the morning, she licks it off the hand rail. It's made out of wood, so although she might get splinters in her tongue, at least we won't have to spend 20 minutes trying to get it unstuck. This is my daughter, red-cheeked, a mouth full of snow, and so excited she can't wait to get out there and do it all over again.

The other big news this week is that it was my sister's birthday. There is so much I could say about my sister Sarah, but if I start I'll be cleaning tears and snot off my keyboard for weeks, so I'll just say this: I would not be who I am were it not for Sarah. Not the wife I am, and especially not the mother I am. I would not have nearly the confidence and determination I have had she not led by her incredible example. In my mind we all live down the street from each other still, and go to each other's houses for coffee on Saturday mornings while our kids play in the backyard. I don't know if we'll ever have that moment, but I'm hoping when we get to heaven God puts our mansions all side by side. I miss you Sarah, and I love you.