WinFamily Recovers After Whirlwind Strikes Home

Amidst the flash of camera's and the scratching of pencils, Cannwin spoke to reporters this morning about the whirlwind that struck her home over the weekend.

"I'm just glad we all made it through in one piece. To be quite frank, I was certain we were going to have some bumps and bruises."

It all started last week when Cannwin realized she'd taken on to much. "I looked at my calendar and thought to myself, 'I'm only one woman.'"


Cannwin, a professed member of the LDS faith did not blame her religion for her overscheduling. "Many people think that Mormon women are 'forced' to be perfect. That's a common misconception. I never feel pressure from the men in my life to be better. It's all self-inflicted."

She went on to describe the events of those harrowing 48 hours. "Friday night I told my husband that I'd rather not go to bed, because then I'd have to wake up. It was a hard moment for me, knowing what was coming."

Yet Cannwin managed to drag herself into bed. She never made it to REM. "The kids tagged teamed us, it was like they'd planned it out in advance." One by one her children woke her, leaving Cannwin red eyed and groggy when she forced herself out of bed on Saturday morning.

"That's when I first saw the clouds hanging over our house. When I woke up, I knew it was coming."

Tears stream down Cannwin's face as she recounts those harrowing moments. " I was overseeing  a crafting day at our church. Twenty women were expected to come for a wild four hours of mod podge, stitching, and food and I hadn't slept. I had to be there at 8:30 AM and I didn't leave till around 3 PM. When I got home I was worn out, hungry and grumpy."

The trauma was to much and Cannwin excused herself from the interview. When she returned she continued; "I had to teach at church the next day and I hadn't even started on my lesson. Plus the children were going to be singing for our congregation and I needed to make sure they looked tip-top. I was in the midst of the whirlwind and I wasn't sure what was going to happen to us all. I didn't know if we were going to make it through the night."

Make it through the night they did. Sunday came and Cannwin braced herself for a morning without her husband. A day without her husband. "He helps conduct the service and sits on the stand throughout our meeting. It makes for some interesting pew action. Like when the baby started crying and the two year old took that chance to run for his dad's lap. He bolted down the aisle, me trying to grab him and hold our 3 month old at the same time. It wasn't pretty, and if it hadn't been for another mom I'm sure we would have made quite the scene."

Sam Samson from Daily, Weekly, Monthly wanted more- "So you're saying that your husband just leaves you alone to deal with four children by yourself... every Sunday?"

Cannwin rolled her eyes, "And what does your wife do when you are here? My husband has responsibilities and we work together to see that they are fulfilled. I have responsibilities as well. When I teach my lesson's at church he takes the baby."

"What about this last Sunday though? You yourself admit that you were being bombarded from every side... where was your husband then?"

"You can hardly fault my husband for the behavior of his son's. I'm used to the boys running off on me. It happens nearly every day. What's one more time."

Cannwin is of course referring to the two seperate incidents on Sunday when one or the other of her sons was nowhere to be found. Her charming Albowin was the first to disappear, creating quite the stir amongst the adults in the building. One woman, who asked to remain anonymous, explained, "She told him to go wait in the truck while she rounded up her other children, but when she got out to the truck he wasn't there. That's when the searching started."

"I wasn't afraid." Cannwin admits, "the thought did cross my mind that he might be dead in some gutter, but I try not to dwell on those things... besides he wasn't, he was just in our roommates car, hiding."

Later on that same day the younger of her two boys went missing as well. "I heard Albowin hollaring and I went to see what was up. That's when I learned that Iyawin was running away. So I ran after him in my socks. I didn't even stop for a coat."

Iyawin was found down by the street corner throwing his brother's shoes into the frigid 40*F air. He was in his underwear.

"You think that these things only happen to other people. You look at your schedule and you say 'oh I can do that' but what you don't realize is that those other people thought the same thing. I don't know if I'm going to be able to avoid another whirlwind. It's like anything, I suppose, once it's hit you it's more likely to do so again. My only recourse is to learn from it so that next time I have an emergency plan ready."

Cannwin ended the interview rather abruptly when she realized Iyawin was peeing on the neighbor's leaves.


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* Travelin' Oma assignment: Write a newspaper article about yourself.

Comments

Evelyn said…
Loved it! Your house sounds like a never-ending adventure!
Cannwin said…
A regular journal would never capture all of the excitement in my family. This has pretty much replaced any other form of journalling and I have to admit, I'm better at this.

Someday when my husband is done with school I plan to get a few hardbound copies of my blog so that I can save them for my kids when they are older.
Cari Hislop said…
Woman, you need to learn how to say "No can do!" After I married I nearly went mad trying to help before my husand sat me down and said if I didn't learn to say no I'd have a breakdown. Say it with me, "No...I can't teach that Enrichment evening...No I can't sew your wedding dress...or your bridesmaid dresses (add any request that sucks away time and energy away from your main priorities...ie your family and your sanity!!!!) Now when someone comes up to me and says, "You sew, don't you?" I reply, "Why?" If you say..."Yes." there are some people who take that as a "Yes I'll make whatever you want...I'll even pay for the thread!" There was this one couple who ask me if I could make them some curtains because they'd moved into a new flat and their curtains were too short to cover the windows. I told them I'd happily make them some emergency curtains ie a hemmed piece of fabric with a loop at one end they could string up. They showed up at my house and decided they wanted a matching pelmet for proper/professional curtains. I politely declined the honour of wasting hours of my life making designer curtains. Strangely, they never came back with the fabric for the emergency curtains...guess they found an alternative! I'll never do bridesmaid dresses again either...ever! If I have a daughter she can rent them or make them herself. Forget about it! The first three bridesmaid dresses I offered to make...they were my wedding present. The second three were hell! That was before I learned to say no. A freind of mine was asked to make a wedding dress...she couldn't say no so she agreed...the bride then showed up with the fabric for the bridesmaid dresses as well...Oh yes! And the woman couldn't say no...so she made them all. It made me so mad.
Now I'm ranting... Nancy Reagan was right... "Just Say No!"
Cannwin said…
Cari, the problem with this scenario is that it is my job to coordinate the enrichment groups. I'm the one doing the asking. But I do try to spread out my asking amongst many women. "Would you be interested in helping with the cooking group say once a month? You can say no if you don't want to, I'm okay with that."

I feel it is proper to give people an out, because then if they say, 'no it's fine.' I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

BUT they have been announcing the Christmas Party at church every Sunday and the R.S. presidency approached me and said, 'It looks like maybe we're going to need you to organize the Christmas Party since we don't have anyone heading the activities committee.'

I said, "woah, woah, woah. That is sooo not my job. If you want that to be my job then you're going to have to make it official otherwise that's a big whopping no on my end. I am not in charge of ALL activities... just yours. Let's just be real clear on that right now."

Also, my other job is to teach the third Sunday lesson... next time I will be sure not to organize any groups on the third Saturday.

;)
Cari Hislop said…
Good for you! "Just Say No!" :)

I sympathise with you as the events organiser/coordinator; I wouldn't want that calling! We have enrichment evening about every three months so the second counselor handles it. Our Branch covers quite a large area and petrol costs about 106 pence per litre (British pence!) so its expensive to get to church for some people. We love giving the government almost our entire paycheck via endless taxes so they can blow it on paying unelected quangocrats who will vote to keep their jobs...can you hear the sarcasm? Anyway, I'm glad to hear you're saying no. I send you a big star!!!! I've been for my walk today...its sunny and lovely. I stopped and watched the sheep and the light dance on the shallow stream. Lovely! Life is good, even if I can't afford to go to Paris.
My life could be so much harder!!!!
Cannwin said…
Women who marry men and move to England definitely could have harder lives. ;)
Lisa said…
I am getting a leash for Hannah. She likes to bolt. I don't care how ugly it is or how judged by other moms I am.

You deserve some no-bakes. We still use your recipe to this day. And we use it alot.
Cannwin said…
I've said it once and I'll say it again. Children drive mothers to binge eating.

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