Well, Chanukah's over. Now we have to find spots for the toys the children have acquired. They are having a blast playing with all their new stuff. It's great watching them figure out what everything does. Joseph and Phillip are fighting over their Mickey Mouse figurines, while Hailey is loving her new baby.

I have a bit of the post holiday blahs. I don't want to take the decorations down, or acknowledge that it's over just yet. Soon, our friends will be in from out of town for Christmas, so I suppose it's still going on in some way. We will have our holiday party with everyone and their children, and we will get to see everybody again. That's always the great thing about this time of year. It's not the presents and the food. It's about being with everybody.

The triplets are growing so fast now. It's amazing the changes I see everyday. Not only that, their vocabulary is getting a lot bigger. Joseph's new favourite word is "cow". I read him Good Night Moon every night, and he has to find the cow on every page and tell me what it is. Phillip now tells me when he has to go. Every time he feels he must leave a room, a house, the car, he points and tells me "go go go". Hailey has developed this fascination with the parts of the body. She can spend hours pointing at the parts of the face, and tell you what they are all called. She also knows her tummy, fingers, toes, and bum. That last one always makes her laugh.

On the writing front, I have decided to do more work on the zombie novel before I move on to the third Hadariah book. I know how the trilogy will end, but I don't want to leave this new project so close to completion. I will pick up on the Hadariah books soon. The Dybbuk's Mirror is now in good hands awaiting opinions and suggestions. Then we shall see what the world thinks of it!

Now a picture of storytime:

I know it's been a while since I've posted.  I have been busy writing, trying to sell books, and planning something I can not post about just yet... In the meantime, let me tell you a little bit about my spate of bad luck this summer. Between the months of July and August, I was robbed twice. Yup, that's right. Twice.

The first time I was robbed, I was standing in the self checkout line at the local Super Centre. Some guy opened my purse and walked off with my wallet, so that when I went to pay, I had no money and no credit cards at all. Let me tell you: it is the WORST hassle to replace every bit of identification, and way to pay. Especially when you have to reapply for health cards for all three of your children.

The second time I was robbed, someone went into my jewelry box in my bedroom and walked off with some valuable and sentimental pieces of jewelry. This crime has hit me far worse than the other one did. At least I have had my wallet returned to me. I have yet to find a single trace of my jewelry. The thief walked off with two rings and a necklace. The necklace was a gift from my husband. He bought it for me on our honeymoon as a wedding present. The rings are completely irreplacable. The first one belonged to my bubbie Helen. My mother bought it for her when she went off on a trip with a friend. My bubbie loved that ring, and had part of it made into a necklace, so she had a matching set. She gave it to me and I wore it to nearly every special function I had. The other ring came from my bubbie Minnie, and it was the only thing I had from her that was actually hers. This incident has left me feeling so violated. To think that someone you trusted in your home (for this was no break in) actually entered your room, rifled through your possessions, and took things from you is a horrible blow. What's worse is that they couldn't have taken things that held more meaning to me if they had actually tried. The police have been called, and I am still waiting to hear what has happened with that. However, with multiple robberies everyday, murders, people going missing, I'm not holding my breath. They told me to check Craigslist, and the like. I have scoured those sites so many times, I think I've learned all the jewelry lingo. I have learned that my bubbie Helen's ring is a vintage cluster ring with a domed shape. My bubbie Minnie's ring is filigree with fire opals. My necklace was a trigold omega. Also, I've called pawn shops and learned that Russell Oliver is a real jerk who NEVER sells stolen merchandise. Right. And pigs fly.

Anyway, I still have some hope. This just really bothers me. I had truly hoped that Hailey may have one day worn those pieces, and now they're gone. But I still have the necklace that came from the ring. I suppose there's that, right? Somedays, it seems that people can really suck.

On August 30, I had the honour of being a guest on The Tony Zee Show on Reality Radio 101. He was an excellent host, and very accomopdating to my needs as a guest. As a mother of toddlers, it was very difficult to just up and leave them to get down to the studio, especially since they were already upset with me for abandoning them for the duration of Fan Expo. Therefore, I did my interview from the comfort of my bedroom, over the phone.

The interview was set to begin around 7:30, and at 7:00, Gary the producer called me up to do a sound check, and to make sure my phone connection was clear, and we could all hear each other. This went swimmingly, and afterwards, I got to hang up and put my kids to bed. Sidenote: currently, Phillip is insistant on hearing Where the Wild Things Are each night at bedtime, while Joseph refuses to sleep without hearing Goodnight Moon. Hailey doesn't care so long as she's read to.

Around 7:40, the station called me back, and after a few initial sound glitches, the interview started. We ended up talking for over a half hour. Both Tony and Gary were involved, and I was asked about everytthing from my inspiration, to what I liked to read, to my education. It felt more like a conversation than a formal interview. I had a lot of fun doing it. We also did a give away of a couple of copies of The Strings of the Violin over the course of the show.

Next up, tomorrow evening I go into my first rehearsal for Fiddler on the Roof! My return to the stage after two years! I hope I remember how to dance...

So the Pirate Festival is officially over. I found it to be an amazing experience. It was exhausting, and a lot of hard work, but ultimately, it ended up being a ton of fun. Day three went a lot more smoothly than the first two days. For once, Mother Nature decided to cooperate. There was no rain storm, no extreme heat, just a nice clear blue sky and warm breeze. This meant that there were many more visitors to the festival for us vendors to chat up and meet. Several people took interest in The Strings of the Violin.

An and I started our last day by having breakfast at Wimpy's in full costume. I give our server credit for not looking at us oddly as a couple of pirates sat politely at our table watching the olympics on the television. I wish I could say the same about the other patrons. They certainly gave us some weird looks as we ate our eggs and toast!

Brian came that day with Joseph, Phillip and Hailey and their bubbie Barb. His Uncle Harry, Aunt Susie, cousin Amy came as well along with our cousins Behr, Lucie, and their son Liam all the way from France. The kids loved the pirates, and Joseph loved trying to lock his siblings up in the brig. He also cheated in the children's maze by climbing under all of the walls. The people running the maze laughed at this, telling me he thought like a real pirate.

When the day ended, the actors playing pirates kept the entertainment going, playing sea shanty's and dancing around in the tavern, as we vendors dismantled our tents and packed up. I was sad to see it all end. Definitely considering doing it again next year. This time with two books! Until then, only two and a half weeks until FanExpo!

I am trying desperately to work on my next book, and I'm finding that with the kids able to climb things, and figure out drawers and doorknobs, dishwashers and dvd players, there just aren't enough hours in the day. I almost wish for the days when they were little blobs that didn't do much! But then, I see their smiley faces and hear them try to speak, and sing, and dance, and I realize that I like them as they are. I just need a way to add a few hours to my day where I'm not too exhausted to write stuff. I have my outline complete for what may be the finale to a trilogy about Hadariah, and I know how I'm starting it, and ending it. Now I just need to fill in all the middle bits. Easy. Right? No. Not at all. I have this going on, and all the festivals and stuff. I also did a really fun interview which can be read here. So things are happening all around, which is very exciting. I just need to learn to function on no sleep, so I will have more time to actually write. Let's just say that caffeine will become my very best friend. (No offense to my humsn friends.)

In other news not related to anything of importance, I have a simple question: Why do children's toys have an adult proof way of assembling them? I recently bought our kids a castle for the backyard. Three adults, and three days later, the darn thing was still in pieces all over the deck! I was ready to tear my hair out in frustration. The instruction manual had pictograms illustrating how the pieces should fit together, but really, a man doing chinups on a plastic wall is not a very helpful representation of assembling something. Luckily, my sister had purchased the exact same thing for my nieces. She was very helpful in coming over to work on ours. To my eternal embarassment, it took less than ten minutes with her help to get ours in working order. Thank you Jodi. You are appreciated very much.

The Holmes in the title is not Sherlock, even though he's awesome. (Seriously, if you haven't watched the BBC series Sherlock, DO IT!)

I've been slow to update here. Sorry about that. Anyways, Brian has abandoned me to go to Winnipeg in order to start auditions for Angelwalk's upcoming show. I will tell you what it is when I'm allowed. He's doing a coproduction with a company there. Very exciting stuff.

I have an outline done for the next book of the series, and The Dybbuk's Mirror is almost ready for publication. I am both nervous and excited for people to read it! So far, the rest of my time has been taken up by my kids (who have started their very first gym class.), planning for the festivals and appearances I have lined up for this summer, and learning my Tzeitel lines for the production of Fiddler on the Roof that I'm in. I am also working on an article for The Toronto Parents of Multiple Births' monthly news letter about my kids. When that's done, I'll post it here as well.

On a totally unrelated matter, I have learned that just when life is calm, something always happens to make it stressful again. Just as Brian and I have finally finished turning the basement area into an awesome play room for the kids, Brian mentioned that whenever it rains, he can smell it in his office. This has been mentioned before, and we have looked at getting the doors to our walkout replaced. Now that the kids will be spending a significant amount of time down there, I went about it in earnest. We found someone to do it, and he came by to look it over one more time. Listening to him speak about our door made me feel so nervous. Apparently, they are not insulated. The fibreglass frame is right up against the brick. The lintel is not draining and is rusting. The wood under the door is rotten. Where is Mike Holmes when I need him! Although, if he did show up, I shudder to think what he would find. Needless to say, we're getting new doors asap. Ugh. Oh, I almost forgot, as he was leaving, he pointed out that our front doors are fibreglass and painted with the wrong paint, so are peeling horribly.

Now to make myself feel better, I shall show you how to take triplets to the park without loading up an obscene amount of bags and strollers...

I am finally back. I survived my first family vacation with the babies! We spent a lovely week and a bit in Arizona visiting family, seeing the zoo, and swimming. We had an amazing time, and this proved that yes, you can fly with infant triplets and live to tell the tale. There is just one catch, a catch that still now has me occaisionally seething with rage. This is the catch: Watch out when you choose your airline. I will now relate the nightmarish ordeal that was our first flight with our babies:
 
My husband Brian and I were recently going on a family vacation to Phoenix with our fifteen month-old triplets. This was to be our first trip with them, and we were travelling with my father, my sister, her two year-old, her six month-old, their nanny, and our live-in caregiver Vivian. Our direct flight to Phoenix left at 8:05 a.m. on May 19th, and understandably, given the large number of people and infants in our party, we wanted to be on time. My husband and I woke our children at 5:00 a.m. and got a ride to the airport from his parents. We got to the check-in line around 5:30 that morning.  We were separated from my father and sister by one of the Air Canada employees and directed to a different check-in line under the pretense that the new line would be “faster”. We then proceeded to wait for an hour and a half before someone started calling for people whose flights were leaving  8:30 or earlier. I called out that we were leaving at 8:00 and we were pulled through to get to the next available check-in clerk. Another Air Canada employee came to me and stated that I had too many bags and strollers to wait where I was standing and had to wait for a particular clerk at the farthest end of the row. I complied and went where I was directed. The woman we ended up dealing with was having severe computer troubles and ended up having to restart her computer with each bag we checked in. None of our bags were over the weight limit, all were properly packed. Furthermore, two of our children were not in the system, even though we had confirmation of their being booked on the flight. Getting this sorted out took nearly a half hour.

After check-in, we were rushed through to customs, where an employee was kind enough to let us through the line for people with NEXUS and special needs. She took pity on us and our two strollers and copious amounts of baggage. We got to the customs official two people behind my father and sister. I watched as they went through to security and baggage. We then went to the customs official who let our live-in through and stopped me as I had three bottles of milk for my infant triplets. I was taken to a separate room where, for a total of two minutes, I was asked what was in the bottles. As we were leaving the room, and entered the security area, an Air Canada employee came up to us and told us we were no longer permitted to drop off our bags and board the flight. I was understandably upset. I asked if there was anything to do, and she informed me there was not. Furthermore, because of my short detour into the customs area, it was no longer Air Canada’s fault that we were late. I was shocked. Since when was two and a half hours early for a flight “late”? We asked to call up to the gate to my father and even that was a hassle for her. My husband spoke to my father, and the employees on the flight were waiting for us. They had not been informed that we were no longer allowed to fly. Without apology, or any modicum of politeness on her part, the Air Canada employee unceremoniously ripped the luggage tags off our bags and escorted us back out into the terminal. Brian’s parents had our van. We had no way of getting home, and we were supposed to meet my relatives in Phoenix that afternoon. I was livid. Brian went off to find someone to speak to, and was told by yet another Air Canada employee that we were late due to “secondary circumstances”, not the airline’s fault. He stated that this was not the case. We were late due to impossibly long check-in lines and computer trouble.  The employee offered to take him to the ticketing desk where we would be placed on a different flight. One catch: Our 8:05 flight was the only direct flight to Phoenix that day. No one wanted to wake up three babies at 5:00 a.m. a second time. Now we would have to fly twice in one day.

Brian went to the ticketing desk, where the woman he dealt with was rude and did not want to deal with him. She did not know why he was there, and sent him to the check-in desk. The check-in desk could not help him, as they did not have the means to book three adults and three infants on any flight. As Vivian and I proceeded to feed our now hungry babies in the middle of the terminal, Brian was shuffled from desk to desk by a bunch of upset employees who were not communicating with each other. Finally, he returned and I was told that we would be on the 12:40 flight to LAX, followed by a two and a half hour stop-over and a flight to Phoenix from there. We would be spending eighteen hours in airports that day, with triplets who had never flown before. We checked in again, and for our trouble, were given $10.00 a person in food vouchers, only good on the first plane, and in the Air Canada lounge. One thing you need to know: Neither of these locations are conducive to providing nutritious meals for infants. Furthermore, a mother will bring food for her kids, however, she will only bring food for what is needed, NOT anticipating a marathon day of plane hopping and sitting around airports for eighteen hours.

Needless to say, that day was awful, exhausting, frustrating, and filled with crying on my kids’ part. The second flight did not have any changing facilities, and flight attendants do not take kindly to your changing a smelly, full diaper on the seat in full view of other passengers. Also, a child does not take kindly to being forced to have his diaper changed while standing on top of a toilet because his mother is not allowed to change it normally in her seat. I wanted very much for our first trip aboard a plane to be easy, stress-free, and fun for our children. Instead, they were forced to spend a full day in a strange environment, watching their parents cry, and get yelled at. They had barely any food for both lunch and dinner. We as parents, felt useless at providing for them, as there was nothing to provide. What good are food vouchers, when they can only buy alcoholic beverages, Pringles, and sandwiches covered in strange sauces infants will not eat?

We finally landed at LAX and then had to walk outdoors past a bustewd sewage pipe to get to our terminal to catch our second flight to Phoenix. As we were going through security for the second time that day, they took the mini wines I had bought with my rediculous vouchers and informed me they needed to pat me down. I complied, insisting on standing out in the open, rather then go into their little pat down room. When they put their swabs from my clothes through their machine, it dinged that I was covered in hazardous material. Great. After five hours of being drooled on, having cereal bars mashed into my clothes, drinks and baby tylenol spilled on me. I can not say that this was a surprise. Due to this, I was then taken into the separate room, and given a more thorough pat down, where a stranger put her hands up my shirt and down my pants. By the time we got through, we barely made our second boarding, and as our second flight was Air Canada's sister air line, United, we had no voucher power for airline food. However, the pilot was kind enough to find us milk so our babies we were able to give them their bottles at least. Dinner for them was made up of potato chips and carrot sticks. Not the best choices there, but it was better then airport sushi that I found in the terminal.

This trip found Air Canada’s customer service severely lacking. As a long-time customer, I was most severely disappointed. I have never been treated so rudely. At one point, while I stood crying in frustration, one of the airline's employees told me to stop. What right did she have to do that? I find myself loathe to use your airline again. Is this how they are trained to treat people? THEY made us miss our flight. They, at first, tried to put the blame on others so they would not have to do anything about it. And then they treat us miserably.

Now, I will be sending this story to the airline in an angry letter, with additions from Brian. He will be adding the details about what happened at the desks while Vivian and I were dealing with feeding the babies. Also, to add to the ludicrous nature of all this, he was told the second time that we checked in that on the holiday weekend, (which was when we were flying) the airline chose to move all the flights to first thing in the morning so that travelers would have the entire day at their destination. Also, a lot of the staff were given the day off. In short, less workers + more congestion= airline stupidity. I want compensation. And by that, I mean a little bit more then $10.00 worth of crappy airline food. This was supposed to be a great experience for us and our children. It was our first vacation together as a family. And rather than have a nice relaxing airport experience, we spent over eighteen hours in and out of airports, on and off of planes, hungry, tired, stinky, and angry. I still am over this. I can't get my day back, but I could at least get  a refund and an apology. I could at least have that vindication. Right?

First thing’s first: I got the DVD copy of my Rogers interview. Once I learn how to post it here, I will definitely do so. Hopefully it will be as easy as everyone says it is to do. However, bear in mind that I am a newbie at all this website stuff. Things that are simple to some, remain impossible to me. I hope this is not one of those things. Maybe I’ll get Brian to help me out here.

In other news, Sunday was quite eventful. Not only was it Mothers’ Day (Which I will get to later), I also had my first musical theatre audition since the babies were born. I find the audition to be, without a doubt, the most nerve-wracking part of being a performer. Everything rests on how you do in your audition. Not only that, you are not handed the lines or the songs to sing. This is done at the callback (if you even get a callback). At the audition, you choose your song, you choose your monologue, you choose how you will perform it. It’s all on you. And to make matters worse, you are performing a mere few feet away from the production team. They are seated behind this table, staring at you, maybe scribbling notes, maybe ignoring you completely, reading your resume, looking bored, or trying to look pleasantly neutral. Ugh.

The show I was auditioning for is Fiddler on the Roof. I don’t really want to say which parts I put down, mainly because I don’t want to jinx anything. I spent the better part of this week, carefully selecting a song, carefully choosing a monologue, and practicing them for my captive audience of fifteen month-old babies. If their reactions are anything to go by, my dancing is laughable. I ended up doing a rendition of “Show Off” from The Drowsy Chaperone, and Buttercup’s monologue from the novel The Princess Bride where she realizes she does love Westley. You can check out the song below. P.S. Sutton Foster does a MUCH better job than I did.

I entered the room and chose to do the monologue first. I think I did alright. The director then asked me to redo it, and pretend that I was the WORST community theatre actress around when I did. So I repeated it as a valley girl who couldn’t remember her lines. I think that was what he wanted? Then I did my song, and I forgot a line. Ouch. That was fairly embarrassing. I absolutely hate when that happens.  The whole thing took less than ten minutes. Then we went for dinner.

Something to take note of: Babies in a fancy Italian restaurant is a recipe for a huge mess. Joseph now things alfredo and parmesan cheese make the best and smelliest of finger-paints. He was practically swimming in the stuff. Then when the babies were released from their high chairs, he ran for the restaurant’s foyer and locked himself in. Phillip decided he wanted to climb up to the restaurant’s second level where there was a private party, and Hailey just wanted to be held. It was glorious chaos. I don’t know how much they really ate that night. Hailey eschewed the penne for plain pasta and peas. Phillip seemed to enjoy my crème brulee and the focaccia bread that was on the table. I found it all noisy, messy, and crazy, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love every second of it. Brian got me a lovely necklace, and my babies got me some earrings. Brian said they chose them themselves. I believe him. Phillip has distinct ideas about fashion. He picks out his outfit every day. Now all I have to do is finish packing for our first family vacation and wait for the callback announcements.   I’m not nervous at all. J

I'm off trying to get this new book finished. I know that after every draft I say I like it and I'm happy, but then I'll read it again and start to nitpick at it. I don't think anything can ever really be complete. But I have to finish it. Right? Anyway, I'm also off starting Book Three as well. I have a tentative outline done, and the opening couple of pages of it. When I get ideas, I just write them down. I think this all goes into Book Two in some way as well. If I know exactly where I want things to go, I can use Book Two to more directly lead into it. But I have to be careful that it can still be viewed as a self contained story. What happens in Book Two must have some sort of resolution. I don't want it to feel like a complete cliffhanger, yet I want people to need to know what will happen next. I hope I've achieved the balance I desire in this matter. If not, I still have time for rewrites! Right?

As for Book Two, I am having difficulties with the title. I am down to two options, both I like for different reasons. Both I dislike for different reasons. All I know is I've got to stop calling it "Book Two". When it came to The Strings of the Violin, I had the title before I even had the story. I knew I wanted to write a book with that title. I knew I wanted it to revolve around Eastern European folklore. I went from that jumping off point and I was very happy with the results. Here, I have a story. I have characters. I have a plot. I just don't know what to call it. I want a title that's catchy. I want a title that will make readers go "Oh, that sounds interesting. What's it about?" I have two options that I think work for that, however, one of them, I feel, gives away too much about parts of the plot that I would like to remain a surprise until the readers get further into the story. The other, I think is a little too on the nose with regard to what the book is about. Yet, I've got nothing better right now. Oh well, I can revisit it later. I'm sure I have more dialogue to tweak. Now, pretty pictures!