Stalling.....

Elaina is mastering the art of bedtime stalling. Tonight she came up with nearly every tactic there is...

First, she wanted someone to sing her a song.

Then she remembered we forgot to say prayers - ok, she got us on that one, so she won that time.

Then she said we forgot to brush her teeth (she was wrong, but it was still a good excuse to get out of bed....).

Then she needed a drink of water.

Then she needed me to cover her with a blanket.

Then she remembered that she didn't finish the apple crisp she had for dessert....3 hours ago...and she needed to finish it. Um, it's long gone.

Then she wanted the door open so that the monsters can't get her, but when I couldn't open the door at the right angle, she had to get out of bed to show me how far open the door needs to be.

Then she needed me to help cover her with the blanket (again).

Then she actually got out of bed (opening the door, and taking off the blanket which had both been so perfectly positioned...) to ask what we are going to do tomorrow.

And then finally, she got out of bed one last time (and this is my favorite!) to tell me that there is something sticky (a piece of scotch tape!) on the outside of her bedroom door that she couldn't clean off the door, and could I get it off for her. Apparently she can't sleep very well when a piece of tape is on the outside of her bedroom door?!?

This is incredible.

Something Kind of Cool About Me & My Family...

Here's something interesting about my family that you probably don't know..... Up in northwestern Ontario (Canada) we have a small town named after our family. The town is called Amesdale and it was named after my great-Grandfather, Samuel George Ames (for those of you who don't know, my maiden name is Ames). He and his wife settled there with their 10 children in the 1920s when it was a small community along the railway. When they wanted to start up a post office, they needed a name for the town, so that's when they came up with the name Amesdale - because my ancestors were a large group of the community. My Grandpa (who I never knew) owned the town's general store and he and my Grandma ran the store and lived upstairs.



My Dad was born during the time that they lived there. A few years later (late 50s I believe?) the store caught fire and my Dad's family sought work elsewhere, moving away from Amesdale. After this time other people gradually started leaving Amesdale - I assume because the need for railway towns during the 50s & 60s wasn't as important as it was earlier and the fire in the store probably hurt the town as well. I might be wrong about that, maybe my Dad can clarify?

There's even a cemetery there, where lots of my family are buried. My Dad's brother & sister (who both died days after their birth) are buried here as well as my Grandparents, Great-Grandparents and many other relatives. My parents plan to be buried there someday as well.

I've been to Amesdale twice - once when I was about 10 for a family camping trip, and the second time when I was in Ontario for my Grandma's funeral - both were incredible experiences to visit and see where my family came from because Amesdale was important part of so many people's lives. This is a picture of my family when we were there after Grandma's funeral in 2001:

My Dad started a blog dedicated to Amesdale where he is gathering information and stories about the history of the town from friends & relatives that lived there. The link is: http://amesdale.blogspot.com/. I'm proud of him for working so hard on this to keep that history preserved.

Anyways, that's just a little bit about my personal family history, whether you wanted it or not :)