My little ballerina

Aloka started a ballet class a couple weeks ago. It wasn't my idea, but my friend Ana has her daughter in it and one day she offered to take Aloka to the class and take her out afterwards for a couple hours. In this video, Aloka starts out on the far left:

And this next one is funny because Aloka is SO good at following directions! She started walking backwards because that's how the teacher was doing it.

And just one more cute one. The little girl Aloka is holding hands with is her good friend Elora (Ana's daughter):

And by the way, I just realized I haven't even posted about these huge milestones yet. I can actually leave Aloka at home with Josh now! This happened about a month ago. I had to leave, because I had a belly dance class that was too late for her to come to, plus no children allowed. She wailed and screamed, I closed the door behind me thinking I'd get a call on my cell in a couple minutes.
Josh reported however, that as soon as the door clicked shut she turned to him, stopped crying, and said "so what should we do?"
So now she's able to be left with friends. How quickly it happens!
I took some really cute videos of this class for all to enjoy~
Oh, and I'm also including some photos of Aloka with her new skis!

Aloka's imaginary people

Aloka is in the full swing of make believe play now. She's always pretending "her daughter" is doing one thing or another, or that we're someone she knows and she's their child. She often makes up names for her pretend family and friends. My (and her) two favorites are "beautiful dress" and "meconia" not to be confused with "meconium". These are both names that she calls her "daughter". Her daughter is someone she talks about as if they're not in the room. Like, "my daughter is out getting a treat right now" etc etc. The other night when she announced that her daughter's name was Meconia, Josh and I just about choked. I was laughing so hard. She didn't realize of course what meconium is. I'm not sure where on earth she heard this word. But in any case, it's hard for me to control my laughter anytime she talks about this daughter of hers. Tonight when she was telling me a story about her, I again started giggling, and she looks at me all serious and says "mama, it's MeconIA, not MeconIUM!" Then Josh said, if you're daughters name is Meconia, maybe your mama's name is Diarheena. My stomach is still sore from the fits of laughter I had! Now Aloka and Josh are walking around calling me by this hilarious yet disgusting name. ha ha very funny!

Final update on this freakin' permit!

Ok, we finally have our work permits in hand! We are at back and all is well and legal, and we have not been kicked out of this country we call home. It went incredibly well! First off, it was a gorgeous day, crystal clear blue skies with sparkley snow on the ground but spring in the air. I also made a few phone calls and found out we could go to a much closer border crossing only 45 minutes from here. There's no immigration officer there which is why we didn't think we could do it, but I found out we could go there and they would fax our info to the pertinent people and it worked out great.
In fact, even when we had to drive through the US border crossing in order to turn around to get to the Canadian crossing, the US border patrol officer was from Canada! She said she got this job offer but had been a permanent resident in Canada for 30 years previously. She welcomed us to Canada before we even got back to the other side. She was happy and excited for us, something we certainly hadn't expected from the US side of things! We knew after that, things would go smooth, which they did. I had phoned in the day before so everyone at the Canadian border was expecting us, and it was just smooth as can be.
I can't believe what a relief it is to be here legally and be able to go back to the US as much as we need to, to visit friends and family, to get our stuff, yippee!
So now some busy work. I have a giant list of things I need to get in order. Here it is (why I am writing this in my blog, I have no idea): Get our Social Insurance Numbers (this is like SSN in the US), Get our Health Insurance Cards, Apply for Child Tax Credits (we can get $150 monthly for Aloka from the Govt.), Get drivers licenses, get car registered and plated, get a medical exam so I can work in the childcare or health professions if I need to, etc etc.
How was that for boring? There's more on my to do list, but I'm refraining. I think I'm making this list just to get it organized in my head, ha! I need to write this down somewhere, I'm feeling some overwhelmed-ness in the air! But yay! I'll take it anyday over being an illegal alien!

Work permit update

We still haven't picked it up yet at the border, for those who have been wondering. We've been waiting for some decent weather to drive down as we have to go over a pass and would love for it to be as clear as possible. It has been dumping snow here!

Here's a few pics of Aloka, who made a couple snowmen the other day. By herself! I was so proud, I was kvelling! (yiddish for "oozing or swelling with delightedness", for you non-jews)
I had also taken on the semi-large-for-me task of shoveling our driveway and stairs, of which I gave up after an hour, and thankfully Josh finished up. Not that it made too much of a difference, because there was a 3 inch layer of ice under all the snow, and now I swear the steps are more treacherous than when there was a foot of snow on top of all of it. I give up! We're using the back stairs up to our car, so we don't have to drive down the icy driveway nor even glance at the piles of snow and ice that is our front yard.
A couple more things: we are taking care of a friends' kitty while she is in Mexico until March. The kitty's name is Tigger, and we love her! She is such a sweetie and a delight to have around. It has been a nice reminder of how much nice energy a cat brings to the home. And it really makes me miss our lost kitty Zooey too.
So, Tuesday we're finally driving down to the border to pick up said work permit. Wish us luck, that they don't deny it to us, and make us move back to the states. (worst case scenario), but that instead they issue it without any issues or problems and we get back to Nelson before nightfall (best case scenario). I'll keep y'all posted!

Woo Hoo!! Long awaited NEWS!

FINALLY! We got our work permit. I got a call from our lawyer Jeffrey last Friday saying that our approval letter just got faxed to him. What this means for us now is that we get the letter from our lawyer via email, take it down to the Port of Entry and the immigration officer there will issue it for us. Josh will be the main applicant, and I will get an "open" work permit, meaning I will be able to work anywhere I want.
It will be a big drive, because we are up to our eyeballs in snow here in the Kootenay's. SO much snow. But there doesn't seem to be much complaining, and more a feeling that Nelson celebrates the fact that it is a skiers paradise. There are so many people out playing in the snow. People are even out cross country skiing right downtown. This photo was from a day where the snowflakes were literally the size of feathers. You can't tell at all how huge these flakes were from this photo, but you can get an idea sort of. It started coming down so heavy at one point, it was crazy! Like a giant pillow leaking from the sky.
Our car isn't the best in this snow, but I've gotten a lot more confident driving in it than I was a couple months ago. I need to take some photos of our front yard and post them in the next couple days. It's hilarious how much snow there is.
So, I'll keep the blog updated as we get the permit, which should hopefully be this coming weekend, and then getting our giant load of possessions out of storage.
It's strange, but I'm not so excited to get our stuff anymore. We've been living without all this stuff for over a year, and it's funny how I can count on one hand the things that I miss: My bed, my pots and pans, my blender and food processor, Aloka's books... It will be so nice not sleeping on an air mattress anymore. Not that it's been that bad, but this is our third one now. They're not exactly meant for long term use. Here's a photo of Baker street from the other day, they keep it pretty well plowed.
And here are four photos of Aloka at Lakeside Park. She insisted we go there one evening. She loved it!

All done with chicken pox

I was actually fully recovered by last Friday, save for the remnants of little red bumps here and there. But I was feeling completely better and ready to cruise out of the house. Staying confined at home just isn't a happy thing for me. I love being at home, but I also really need to get out almost every day, even if it's just for a bit of fresh air and a change of scenery.
So, with that all pox stuff behind us, I'm trying to make some changes in my life. I'd like to find a job of sorts while waiting to start the toy store. I've contacted various places, and we'll see what comes up for me. It's exciting to thing about, actually being able to earn some money and contribute in some way.
We've had a few mbira nights at our house and Aloka played with Phoenix and Cypress, the daughters of my amazing belly dance instructor, Sarah. They all dressed up like little belly dancers and put a groove on! So cute!

An update from Pox-land

Well, it's a fact. I'm definitely not as cute as Aloka was with pox all over her face. No, my pox look more like some disastrous acne situation. Hers were nice and neat little red spots all over her. Mine look like some horror you'd see in a book at a dermatologists office. Or perhaps a "before" photo hanging on the wall.
BUT, due to the demand of all you friends and family, I'm humbly including some pictures anyway. Actually, this one just below here, I really like because A. my pox are somewhat hiding in the shadows, but especially because B. I think I look a whole lot like my Mama in this photo. Sorry about the cleavage to anyone who could possibly be offended.
This is my back, which got it the worst, I have no idea why.
So for the most part, things have been great, or at least as great as it can go having this type of thing. I never did get feverish or flu-like and overall feel pretty fine. I'm just itching to get out of the house though. HA. I'm making myself laugh tonight! It must be cabin fever.
Oh, and one more thing I forgot to post about, but the day before I got these dots all over me, I got my belly button pierced. Sort of unfortunate timing, because I can't take any soothing baths due to this piercing, but a shower is actually just fine anyway.
And I just love it. It celebrates my dance, my womb, my belly, my womanhood.

I spoke too soon.

Ok, I must not have knocked on wood or something. Yesterday I came down with the chicken pox. So far so good though, no fever, not feeling too sick. I just have lots of annoying and itchy red bumps mostly on my back, chest, and head. Fun!
The incubation time (they say) is 2-3 weeks, and this showed up on day 19! I really thought I was was out of the woods! So, I'm going to lay low for a bit and you'll hear from me again in a few. I'm throwing in a picture for fun. Aloka drew this, something with whiskers and the arms are sticking out the sides! And then just a cute picture of Aloka sleeping.

In itchy-ness,
Sabrina

Still no chicken pox!

I sort of can't believe it but I actually haven't gotten it yet. I didn't feel like I was going to, it's just so strange seeing as I got that antibody test showing that I definitely had never contracted it before. Maybe I'm one of those lucky immune folks. Anyway, Aloka did splendid as you could probably tell from the last post. She never did get itchy at all, and the pox are almost completely gone now. I'm so happy to have that behind us!
This week has been quite hectic. And I can't post any photos to this post because Josh's computer crashed and all the pics are on his computer, but stay tuned in the next day or so because I'll do another post soon since I haven't for over a week, and this one is so empty!
Oh, one very exciting thing to report (and I wish I had a photo, ha!), my very awesome friend Melissa went down to Spokane and got my vacuum cleaner out of storage!!!! Oh how happy I am to have it back. My dear White Star Miele, my dirt cleaning companion, my dust bunny sucking friend. We have been using a huge and really loud shop-vac, which I hope I never have to use again.
Another strange and surreal thing is that I accidentally sucked up one of Aloka's finger puppets forcing me to have to cut open the old bag to retrieve it. The bag was nearly full of lots of old Vashon dirt! It was so strange what I found in there. It was like looking through a really really gross scrapbook. One full of cat hair, old food chunks, and bits of things that I strangely recognized.
Unfortunately, I don't have any new Miele vacuum bags, and I'm not sure I can find them in Nelson. So, it might be a bit longer of the dreaded Shop-Vac.
Ah, well, I'm just so happy to know our stuff in storage really does exist, and it's not just a strange and far away dream. A dream of things we could have sworn we had, but now are starting to wonder, was it real?

Rooster Pox and Happy Solstice to all!

Well, what a week. Or two. Aloka came down with chicken pox last Friday, or "rooster pox" as she likes to call it. In fact, a couple days ago she said "mama, do chickens get human pox?". She's very curious about the whole chicken connection to it all.
She's been handling it pretty well, actually. She only had a low fever for a few days, and she's barely scratching anything. She only had one night of somewhat restless sleep due to discomfort. I'm posting this video only because my blog settings are private and not open to the public. But it was just such a funny one! And you can see the good spirits she's been in through the whole thing.

And this one was just when she was starting to break out:


Her pox are now starting to crust over and heal and she's definitely over the worst of it, which wasn't even so bad.
I've never had chicken pox as far as I know, if you can believe it. So I've actually lived my whole life in fear of getting them as an adult. I even had a blood test many years ago which confirmed that I never got it.
I often thought that because I had been exposed to it many times as a child, I perhaps just got a mild case or something, but no such luck. But, now that we're here in the feared and dreaded Chicken Pox land, I have very little concern. I feel strong, healthy, and I'll just deal with it if I get it.
We were both exposed to it on the 19th, and she got her first pox on the 22nd. I'm still going strong so I'm wondering and hoping that maybe I'm one of those folks that has a natural immunity.

Luckily, we celebrate the Solstice so we didn't miss any holiday activities, seeing as on Xmas day we were all in quite a different space than most.

We had a very nice Children's Day as it's called in my Buddhist upbringing.
We set up a beautiful Children's Day shrine with a King and Queen at the top. They symbolize the King and Queen of the kingdom of Shambhala, an enlightened society.


Aloka loves the King and Queen! When we put them up, she said "mama, are they always meditating?" and "mama, are they always Japanese?"
While she was at school on Solstice (Thursday), the King and Queen brought her some gifts, and some treats were place on the shrine. She was so excited when she came home! It was so magical.

Here's a picture of the giant rainbow silk that we gave Aloka for her Children's Day present.


She is such a "delayed gratification" type of personality. She nibbles a little bit of chocolate, and then hides it in her fort. Believe it or not, the chocolate is still in there today! Occasionally, she asks me if she can have a little nibble even though she's sick. She definitely did NOT get that from me!! My chocolate is gone before I even realize I ate it!

On Thursday evening, we had Melissa, Nick and Nile over for french onion soup that Josh made (so YUM!) and a nice salad. We had a great time. Melissa has some nice pics on her latest blog entry too. Here's a great one of Aloka and Nile that Melissa took below! Melissa made an awesome shirt for Aloka as a gift, with the word "Authentic" on it. I really want to see her sell these, they're great!

And lastly, here are a couple pictures that Melissa took of Aloka and I with our Tribal Belly dance turbans on!
























I still have yet to post about the lovely advent spiral we did with Aloka's school plus the Waldorf Xmas faire, so next time!

Our reindeer visit

A few weeks ago, Josh was up really late at night and heard a loud crunching and chewing outside his office window. His window is up high, maybe 8 feet above the ground. There is a large bush just outside the window and he kept hearing it whacking against the glass.
Suddenly a huge pair of lips was staring right at him through the window! He jumped up and came into the bedroom to wake me up. He said "sweetie, i think there's a moose outside my window!" By the time i got to waking up and coming out to look Josh told me it wasn't actually a moose after all, but in fact 10 or so HUGE elk! There were babies too. It was so cool! I had no idea how enormous elk are, wow!!
I wish i could have gotten some better photos, but as it goes, it was late and our flash kind of spooked them.

Mbira night

We have been attending an "mbira night" every Tuesday evening. Mbira nights usually start with a potluck dinner at 5pm, and then we move on the the jamming! There were 10 or so people at this gathering, and there have been two more now as well.
The mbira sits inside a large calabash gourd, also called "deze", which amplifies the mbira.
The shakers are called "hosho" and are the heartbeat of the music. We had so much fun, and Aloka just loves mbira nights! She is constantly amazing me at how musical and rhythmic she is!
The person in this video below that I'm sitting next to is Kris, my awesome mbira teacher. He is a talented percussionist and musician. He is also the one with the yellow deze.
In case anyone is wondering what happened to the belly dance post, i removed it because of privacy issues with the dancers not wanting to be on the internet, which i completely understand!
So here are some videos of mbira night!


and here's one more of the same song, which is called "mbavarira" or (she takes me away) and I'm posting it because it's longer so you can hear more of the song, which has become one of my favorites. I often just sit up at night and get lost in it, playing it for a long time and unaware of how much time is passing. It's such a beautiful one.
A friend is lending me one of the most beautiful mbira on this earth and I've been playing it constantly. It has a very watery quality, and I think it sounds like mermaids singing underwater, or perhaps what the sirens must have sounded like in Odysseus. It's incredibly hypnotic and mesmerizing.


Ok, here's one of the bellydance videos that i can still put up here. This is the video of the beautiful tribal belly dancers and then the contrasting style just after them. Josh and were joking that the latter kind of reminds us of the Laker girls "eastern" style or something!

Cute little girl!

Dancing at a Xmas faire

Aloka sure does love dancing! That elderly man got a kick out of her too. This is the same faire that the picture of Melissa and Nile is from down below this post.

My dear friend Melissa!

I just love this photo of Melissa and her little boy Nile! This was taken in the kitchen of a Christmas Craft Faire. Melissa was selling some of her delicious goodies there.

Mimi and Baba

That's what Aloka calls her Grandparents (Josh's mom and dad). My last post had a few snippits of Jim outside with us, but I have many more photos!
We had a great time, and Aloka was on cloud 9. They brought her a giant heap of beautiful clothes from Europe when they were there last July, which was so incredible. The clothes there are just so well made and beautiful!

Every morning she would wake up and then wake me up saying "mama , mama, mama can I go out to see Mimi and Baba? And of course we'd mumble in our sleep, "No, they're still sleeping". Then she'd tiptoe over to the door and peek out to see if she could hear them. If she did, she'd get so excited and come tell me "they're awake!!" And then go out to see them, at first feeling shy, and then as soon as they greeted her with open arms, she'd crawl into their bed (This is what she did, based on what she'd tell me later. Josh and I were always taking the blissful opportunity to sleep in!)

We didn't really do much for American Thanksgiving, but if you can call Indian food celebrating, we sure did that! We went to a nice little Indian restaurant Josh and I had never been to before (called "Baba's", ha! Aloka especially found that funny) and it was so yummy! Josh and I are definitely going back soon! We also went to a nice but freezing cold Christmas craft faire. It was held in the hockey arena so they had put a temporary floor on the ice, and it was freezing!! I felt so sorry for the vendors. Last year this same faire was in a really nice place where the ambiance and the temperature was much warmer. I looked at the paper that weekend and there were 9 craft faires!! Then 5 more the next weekend, and still more this weekend. Nelson and the surrounding areas are so rich with arts and crafts!
Then on Sunday the 26th we celebrated Josh's 32nd birthday! In the morning while we were still sleeping, Jim, Lynn and Aloka
hung streamers and balloons up all over the place. When we got up, I made a pancake breakfast and Josh opened his presents.
What fun!

On the day they left, Aloka said goodbye to them in the morning, and then went to school. She was so so sad about them leaving.

I took a couple pictures of Aloka (the one on the left) and the other children coming out of Dena's house (where the playgroup is), I just love icicles! We have some huge ones at our house too, it's been so snowy here this past week!
We have a lot of fun Waldorfy types of events coming up in the next week. We'll be doing an "advent spiral" which I'll post about afterwards, and there is also the famous (in the Waldorf ciruit) "Waldorf Winter Faire", where you can find all sorts of beautiful handmade crafts, furniture, toys, you name it. You can imagine what it's like in a town like Nelson; there's an abundance of beautiful wares!

Here is also a photo just after I picked her up from school, and she's talking to Josh on my (new) cell phone.









So, I have so many more photos I'm just going to put them here at the bottom!

Aloka and Mimi doing some caterpillar crafts

Our budding photographer took this

And this...

Josh and Jim wearing matching hats. It was Aloka's idea to go get her matching one too.

In case you're wondering, Aloka insisted on getting a "scary" tattoo. It's some kind of biker tattoo from a vending machine. She was determined.

At a "burger joint" for lunch


Josh and his Dad (the family resemblance amuses me. I realized in a photo I didn't post, that they have identical noses!)


A special moment with Mimi