Friday, July 31, 2009

Seriously?!? Here's a stock tip for ya!

Buy Stock In Benadryl!!!!

My family is single handedly raising the price of that stock I'm sure.


We are at 3 people and counting now who have had some mysterious rash and or hives in just over a month. 3 out of 6! Those odds aren't good....unless you are holding stock in Benadryl and then well, good for you and you can send me a bit of your profits.

June 25..... I wake up with a few hives, itch my way through the day as my hives spread to include a red 'heat rash' on the bottoms of my feet and by the morning of the 26th I'm swollen like a balloon with even more hives and swelling eyes, lips, ears and quite possibly my throat. An ER visit later I'm taking Benadryl, Prednisone and I'm a drooling lump on the couch till the next day.

July 25 (notice that....exactly one month later) Tyler's out with his aunt watching a parade, having a bbq in her yard and he starts itching. 3 hours later he's covered head to toe in a red rash. visit to the walk in clinic (just happened to see the same Dr I saw in the ER) later and he's taking Benadryl, Prednisone and he's a lump on the couch for a few hours and itchy for a few days but at least he wasn't glowing red.

July 28 Owen comes in from playing outside for supper and he's got the beginnings of hives on his face, neck and back. Liquid Benadryl into him and he's asleep for the evening an hour later (man that stuff rocks!) and he seems better the next day - a few stray hive spots but nothing he's itching and scratching over BUT...... July 30 Owen's covered in spots again.

WHAT THE HECK!!!!!


I'm finding it hard to think it's just coincidences that I have a sudden mystery allergy and a month later Ty gets a wicked rash and a few days later Owen's got a weird rash/hive thing going on. I just don't know what to think now....except to wonder who will be next.....and hope this isn't something viral and/or contagious.

For now it's just plain bizzare!

~K

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Bet you can't guess what today was.


If you guessed....

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

my day off....then we have a winner!


Sorry. No prizes. Just the knowledge that you know me and have come to know that blog posts are rare unless I have a day off.



As 'days off' go this was no prize really. I'm just glad it's over because today's been hanging like dead weight for a week now, knowing that a) i wouldn't get to sleep in on my day off (still bitter about that) and b) Al and I were going into the city to see a bankrupcy trustee and get some edumacated (free) advice.


We ended up sleeping in actually or at least sleeping later than intended but got into the city and found the building - right downtown surrounded by one-way streets and precious little parking. I called the office about 5 after 10 to let them know that no, we weren't bailing on our appointment but we'd been driving round and round looking for a stupid parking spotfor 10 minutes and as soon as we found one we'd be there - only to be informed that while I'd written down 10am , our appointment wasn't until 10:30 so we were actually doing good on time. Bonus! Finally find a spot and decide to heck with street signs that said you could park there if you were visiting a specific place which shall remain nameless....because really, how would they know we weren't visiting 'there' and at that point Al was pretty pale from all the traffic and being so disoriented so I said to heck with it and we parked there.


Our appointment was uneventful. Learned a few key points about what's involved with bankrupcy and what our options are. Since the business has virtually nothing asset wise there's really no point in going the bankrupcy route since it's basically dead in the water already. Personally we could claim bankrupcy for the mountain of debt we've racked up while trying to keep the business going (stupid stupid stupid) and came to the conclusion that while we personally could 'benefit' from it from the standpoint of our families quality of life etc, it would screw over my mom who'd then be on the hook for a huge chunk of money since we both personally guaranteed the business overdraft. That is not even an option so........we have to suck it up and figure things out.


Basically at this point, we've borrowed money to keep the bank from sueing us for the overdraft money and we are just going to have to work, work, work and work somemore to come up with the monthly payment to the bank....ontop of all our personal bills too. We've basically given up on the truck. It's heading to collection at this point and we're looking at a few options to at least sell it cheap to one or two people just as a last ditch effort....and if not, then they can repossess it and I won't loose sleep over it. At least then I won't have to pay the insurance on the truck each month and that money can go to the bank. In hindsight, that's what we should have done in the first place and then we would have had money to make bank payments for 4-5months (stupid stupid stupid!!!)


Other than having to swallow my pride and borrow a huge chunk of money to keep the bank happy for a few more weeks and the little PARKING TICKET we got (stupid stupid stupid) the day wasn't too bad.


I decided if at all possible I was not being the chauffeur tonight so when Ty's done work at 9 he's hanging out at his aunts till Al's off work at midnight and I don't have to go pick either one of them up. Now THAT is a true day off in my books! I'm chilling at home, making supper and playing on the computer. I have some paperwork to sort and file and laundry to do but all that stuff isn't so bad when I don't have to go back and forth to town a couple times a night. If the kids would stop fighting it would be even better.....but I guess we can't have everything we want.


Oh and on a possitive note ----- Al got offered a job yesterday. He stopped to help a guy on the highway who was having vehicle trouble (right outfront of our house actually) and they got to talking and this guy offered Al a job. Nothing in stone at this point and it wouldn't start till September but he's excited at the prospect of making a whole lot more than minimum wage and it's Monday to Friday. It's giving us hope at getting out of this huge mess so right now we are clinging to this hope. He's going to give the guy a call next week and see just how serious the offer was and what the details are. Please let this be a serious offer and worth the commute.


And.....one last thing. Been taking lots of cute pics of cute kids. Here's one from our visit to flooded Moonlight Bay after the storm couple weeks ago.


Is the photo small for you? It looks tiny to me. Oh well. One kick at the cat with photos these days - I don't have the patience to reload it.


TTFN


~Kirsten



oh....and Carrie....since I seem to be able to find things in your house by proxy.....it's your turn. Do you know where the $50 Mark's WorkWarehouse gift card Al got as a thank you for being a YBC coach back in early May is? I can't find that darn thing anywhere and the guys desperately need work pants for work. Argh!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Before and After

She washed her hair last night and I detangled it one last time and braided it and this was what it looked like this morning.....big THICK braid down her back.



It took almost 2 hours to cut and I'm sure she's about 2.5 lbs lighter now.




And it's a super cute cut and suits her.

She's very happy and keeps twirling around and that grin hasn't left her face.
Totally worth the $20 (well....$15 but I said that wasn't enough for 2hours of detailed cutting and left the whole $20)
Well, more things to see and do today and poor Tyler got called into work so we have to go squeeze in some family time before then.
~K

So much for sleeping in

This morning's blog post brought to you by an early morning text message that cancelled my plan to sleep in and by sleep in I mean 8ish. I'd set my alarm for 8 with the option for an additional hour of hitting the snooze if I so desired in an effort to top up my sleep quota after the whopping 4 hours I got Sunday night. I guess 6 and a half is better than 4.

So I'm up. Don't have to be anywhere till 10 and the house is almost quiet.....Aarica has repeatedly asked the same questions (just cuz you rephrase it doesn't make it a different question) and I'm enjoying a pot of coffee and taking the photos from last week off my camera and going through my mental list of things I want to do over the next two days of freedom from beige pants, a white shirt and work. Oh the places we could go. Oh the things we could do. Oh the stuff that won't get done.

I'm torn. My house desperately needs my undivided attention BUT honestly.....3 days from now....the house will still be here and who am I kidding, even if I cleaned and organized like a mad woman for 2 days - in a week it's going to look just like it does now anyway. What won't be here 3 days from now is one very special lady who's in town from Hamilton for a visit so really....I'm not torn. Visiting with her as much as possible while I have the chance is definately going to take priority over cleaning the house.

Mmmmm Coffee!

Almost as good as the real, honest to goodness Timmies coffee I had yesterday. Yol drove into town yesterday morning and bless her, she brought a cuppa Timmies to me at work (we won't discuss that I cried or anything). How can I not want to spend as much time as possible with someone who knows exactly what I love.

I do have some items on my todo list today that must be taken care of such as an appointment at 10:30 and dealing with some financial stuff that's hit the fan, but for the most part I think spending time with Yol will be top priority. Everyone in our house today has the day off - a rare thing, so we are going to enjoy every minute of it.

I guess one way to start that would be to wake them all up but I'm enjoying the peace and quiet. I have to wake Emily up soon though. She's the subject of the 10:30 appointment this morning and is beyond excited. She's been wanting her hair cut for a couple months now and even though I'd promised that as soon as dancing was over (ya ya....I know that was way back at the beginning of May) that she could get it cut but aside from having the extra money to actually pay for a hair cut, I've also had some trouble scheduling an appointment on a day that I have off so here we are, nearing the end of July and she's finally getting it chopped off. I figure she's going to be a good 5lbs lighter this afternoon and while I'm going to miss all that beautiful hair


it's just too much for her to take care of herself because of the length and because of it has a unique quality that requires constant attention or all that curl becomes a mass of matted strands down her back no matter what we try to do to tame it.

I'm not going to miss the 40minutes it takes to detangle the mess that's for sure and I can't wait to see her with shorter hair. It's been almost 2 years since she's had it cut and it's going to be quite a change.



I guess it's time to wake her up. I've made my way through an entire pot of coffee and I'm ready to brave the chaos of the day.



I have more pictures to share from last week - like the kids playing in the park and our quick visit to water soaked Moonlight Bay but it took 20minutes to upload those two pictures so don't hold your breath waiting for more pictures - at least today. I don't have enough patience or time on my days off for that nonsense. Carrie you should be thankful for this. I was looking for pictures of Emily's last haircut and found one of the two of you together and you'd probably send me nasty text messages if I posted it.



I'll definately post a before and after of Em's haircut though.



Have a Beautiful Day!



~K

Thursday, July 16, 2009

To make plans or not to make plans

for my precious day off tomorrow.

The kids and I had sort of informally made plans which basically means I may have mentioned an idea in passing thereby making it law-binding and written in stone and of course they remember the aforementioned 'idea' like their life depended on it. This humors me since their ability to remember to do their chores.....a thing that their life really does depend on (quality of life that is - how horrible it would be to live without tv) is less than stellar.

Anyway - last weekend I sort of mentioned that on my day off on Friday it would be fun to take a picnic lunch and go hang out at the beach for a couple hours. As the week progressed, I began easing in the possibility that the weather might not be that great and we might not be able to do this little beach play day afterall but we'd see how things went. It's been one heck of miserable week with high winds, low temperatures and lots of rain, the occasional thunder storm and did i mention high winds.

At this point I don't think our beach day will happen. Even though people keep telling me it's supposed to warm up and be half decent by tomorrow and throughout the weekend I don't believe it (I turned the furnace on tonight people! It's the middle of JULY and I turned the furnace on.) and even it if does warm up significantly, the water's still going to be cold plus.....and it's a big plus.....I don't think Moonlight Bay is going to exist tomorrow. Moonlight Bay is a small little secluded beach just outside of town that is THE beach spot around here. The winds have been so high and coming from just the right direction that the lake water levels are insane and I would bet that the beach is under a whole lot of water right now and for the next couple days for sure.

So instead of a beach picnic with my kids tomorrow, my only plan so far is a lunch date with Carrie (hey Carrie....what time and where?) unless things get crazy (er) at work and she can't get away.

Other than that I'm just going to wing it but I'm leaning towards a bit of cleaning -which I did alot of at work....not just cleaning up but deep in the corners cleaning (slow week) so since I'm on a roll I'm going to go with it. There's also that little thing called scrapbooking that I used to do and I want to clean up and organize my stuff so maybe, now that I'm not so darn exhausted at the end of the day, I might be able to play a little in the evenings once in awhile. *It could happen*


I might also play online a bit.....because.....whoohoo! I'm back online at home. Tech support and I had a little *discussion* and even though they insisted it was my computer with the issue, I'm magically back online 2 hours later so I think they must have pushed the right key or wiggled the right wire on their end cuz here I am.

But for now I'm outta here. Bed time. Zzzzzzzz


~K

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

I need tech support!!!!

*sigh*

I just can't like this situation at all.

I'm still offline and I have no clue what's wrong with my dial-up. Mice in the junction box again? I dunno. Going to try reinstalling my modem and if that doesn't work I guess I'll be calling the phone company. How long do you think I'll have to wait for that service call?

Anyway - miss you all.

~K

Friday, July 10, 2009

I'm disconnected from the world

Darn computer! Darn dial-up! Darn! Darn!Darn!

Don't know why but I've been unable to get online since yesterday morning. The connection dropped out mid morning during a torrential downpour and has been non-existent since.

GRRRRRRRRRRR!

I've just popped into my mom's to pay some bills online this evening and with high speed, the whole process of checking facebook, my blog feeds, posting this on my blog and checking on the cash flow situation took less time combined than any single one of those things would have taken at home with dial-up. Grrrrrr!


~K

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

I have the day off tomorrow and

I just can't get excited about it.

Isn't that just plain crazy.

I don't know if it has to do with not wanting to get my hopes up that I will get anything accomplished tomorrow

or that I'm so tired that all I really want to accomplish is sleeping in till 8am -- which won't happen since Aarica has to be at work at 8 and she wants me to wake her early so she can shower and I can braid her hair before work

or that as much as I physically need this day off my brain keeps thinking about the huge order that needs to be done at work tomorrow....which isn't my problem since it's my day off.....but my brain says there's work to be done and it's still coming to terms with the whole 'not self-employed so there are other people to do things when you aren't there' idea. Plus one of the staff in our department called in sick today(and is being tested for that horrible flu....pray it's negative) and we are so very short staffed to begin with so my brain keeps thinking that's it's problem too....which it isn't. Eventually I'll stop thinking like the 'boss lady' right?

Mostly though I keep thinking that I can't afford a day off. I picked up my pay-stub today and realized that even though I feel like I'm working tons of hours in reality they aren't as many as I thought and my cheque is a little smaller than I'd hoped it would be this week. Darn hives cost me a day of work and since I've only been there a little over a month I don't qualify for 'sick days' ..... which I wasn't even expecting to get until someone brought it up at work today. The whole 'sick day' thing is a totally new experience for me....being self-employed for so long I'd forgotten about such luxuries in life as a 'sick day'.

So instead of planning what I will do tomorrow.....things like cleaning the house, having coffee with my mom, playing with scrapbook paper (hahahah....a girl can dream), doing some very much needed paperwork or a million and a half other things I could do, I'm not going to plan anything and just wing it and roll with whatever comes my way --- that way I won't be disapointed when I don't get to do all the things I want to or need to.

Actually I'm just too tired to make any plans tonight. Maybe tomorrow I'll be more excited about my day off but for right now - as long as my day includes a nap at some point then I'll be happy.


~K

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Honey I'm home!

"Hi Dear! Supper's almost ready and there's fresh coffee in the pot."

Those were the sweetest words I heard today...............and they were spoken by the best "wife" I've ever had!

My sweet sister in law Sue has been watching the kids for a couple hours for us during the time when Al and Ty start work and before I finish work. I walked into their place this afternoon to pick up the kids and she invited us to stay for supper - again. I tell ya - she is the bestest. I could get spoiled quickly. Tomorrow I'm taking the crock pot of food meant for supper tonight over there ..... but I think Sue and I need to communicate at little better since we both made huge pork roasts this week. We are all going to be sick of the stuff by the time it's all gone.

The kids love being there. Owen loves that they have a wii and Luke loves having his beloved "Em-a-wee" to play with him and basicly be at his beck and call. Since they live right in town and it's close enough, Aarica is able to walk there after she's done work and she gets to stalk...er help Grant with building the fence and shed and she's also is an extra pair of hands to help with the baby. We've also been hanging out there after supper to wait for Tyler to finish work at 9 and during that time Emily's been great at entertaining Luke and reading him all the books he wants and I get to cuddle (or console) our little drama-girl Sarah and this gives her mommy a chance to do a few things around the house like hang blinds or put together the crib.

It's kind of a win-win-win for everyone and Sue has even offered to watch the kids if Al ends up scheduled for day shifts next week. And on the odd occasion that I'm not working on the weekends when Sue is, I will gladly reverse rolls - because that little drama queen with the high pitched scream doesn't scare Aunty Kirsten.

And guess what time it is......that time again where I have to say g'night because it's time to go pick up Al at work and then it's sleepy time. My goal is more than 6 hours tonight!

~K

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Do you feel neglected?

Well don't take it personally dear blog readers - - - you aren't the only ones.

I'm working on correcting that.

I've actually started a few blog posts in the last couple weeks with such titles as

'They only ate cereal for supper once this week' (see I'm working on correcting the neglect of my children too)

and

' The ants came marching two by two' and maybe if the ants would stop walking across my keyboard and giving me the heebie jeebies I might be more inclined to sit at the computer more often. (I'm working on the neglect of the house too....spent all day today doing just that - for all the progress that excercise in futility got me) not that the ant issue is entirely due to the trail of food crumbs and granola bar wrappers and half eatten hotdogs my children leave behind them but also the house itself. It screams 'hey ants....i'm an old wooden house with nooks and cracks and issues just perfect for your inhabitation' Darn House! Darn Kids! Darn Ants!

and

'Someone Erased My Whiteboard!' which resulted in my almost neglecting to deligate what little inflow of cash into this house there is towards the right bill at the right time.

So see, I'm not singling you out in the neglect department. I'm an equal opportunity neglector.

I'm slowly adjusting to life as a working mom. Now that school's out for the summer it's gotten a bit easier....or harder? I haven't decided which. I think easier because there isn't that frenzied rush to get everyone up and out the door for the bus just minutes before I have to leave for work. I'm also getting the hang of my job so I don't feel so out of my element and that is helping with my mental exhaustion. Physically, with having to pick Al up at midnight during the week, I'm still not getting enough sleep but my body is totally adjusting and I find that even on my days off or on days I get more than 6 hours of sleep I'm waking up automatically anyway. Darn internal clock has been reset and now I'm a morning person. Oh the horror!

I have had a few extra days to catch up on much needed sleep lately too. With the Canada Day holiday this week I somehow managed to have two days off mid-week plus two days off this weekend so I'm feeling a little less tired than I have been. There was also an unscheduled day off a week ago when I was sent home from work 'sick' and the medication I eneded up on knocked me right out so I got plenty of sleep - not that I felt better for it. The whole episode was quite nerve wracking and involved a 'severe allergic reaction' to something. Over the course of two days I developed a wicked case of hives that eventually spread to my ears/face/eyes/lips and were making their way to my throat (scarey!!!!) I ended up spending 3hours in the ER where they injected me with hydrocortisone and sent me home with a prescription and instructions to take benadryl (knocked me on my ass that stuff did!). By the next day I was hive-free, steroid full and back at work and still have no clue what the cause was. I can't say I'm a fan of the unknown in this case and would feel alot better about the whole thing if I knew why it happened in the first place. I have my suspicions (3-4 possible suspects) but without it happening again (not a huge fan of that idea either) the doc says we won't know. Geesh. And ya wanna know what my first thoughts were after the initial scare was over.......that it cost me a day of work and the price of the prescription. Darn Hives!

Money's still tight but we are managing and once we get a few more paycheques (hopefully without anymore unscheduled, hive-induced lost days) into the bank and caught up on some bills things will be even better. We managed to sell off one small piece of equipment at exactly the right time as it bought us a little time with the leasing company (and I was able to make the first monthly payment towards Tyler's trip with 24hours to spare --- whew!)

Tyler's picked up a second job with quite a few more hours so I'm confident he will be able to come up with almost if not all of this months payment. We even got some big news tonight that Aarica is starting a summer job tomorrow morning working at a daycamp with a woman that used to be an EA at her school so I'm confident she will be in good hands and have a wonderful summer. Of course, while it's great both kids have summer jobs, it makes scheduling a bit more tricky for everyone but with the help of family to cover the overlap between when Al and Tyler start work at 4 and I finish work at 5, things seem to be falling into place.

Well. I'm sure there's been more stuff happening around here lately. Visits from family. Family fun. Pictures of everyone. Weird/funny/bizzare stories etc but my phone alarm just went off reminding me it's time to go pick up Al (you fall asleep and forget to pick him up once...okay twice and he gets all snarky) so I guess my blog time is up.

Miss ya'll

Update your blogs too so I know what you are up to.

~K

Thursday, June 11, 2009

And the award goes to.....

Last night Al and I, and his parents too, attended the high school awards night *banquet*.

The End.





No.

Not really the end. I guess I should tell you more - otherwise what would be the point of bring it up in the first place.




Mid last week I received a call from the high school informing me that our eldest daughter was receiving an award and that our presence was requested at this banquet where she would receive said award.

Now being the person that I am, I was slightly annoyed that I was being made to leave the house which I feel I spend precious little time in lately to begin with to attend an academic and sports awards banquet which, lets face it - are not areas which Aarica excels at AND they wouldn't tell me what sort of award she was getting and you all know how much I just LOVE surprises.

I will admit, I was just a wee bit concerned that this award wasn't truely an award but more of a token or gesture. I'm sorry if that sounds completely pessimistic and mean but seriously - the awards handed out tonight were mostly given to the committee heads, student council members, honour roll students and the musically, theatrically, artistically and athletically gifted and I did not want my daughter paraded up there to receive a 'token' award for some sort of unknown accomplishment. Had they just told me what this award was for it would have relieved some of my concern and also some of the annoyance at being made to go out at all this evening.

Of course, I would still have been annoyed with the whole matter anyway because the cost of this lovely banquet was $12 per person and while I assumed the students receiving awards would not be required to pay for their tickets.....I was wrong and oh boy was I ticked when I stopped in the office on Tuesday to purchase tickets for Al and I and found that out. Not that it mattered since there were no more tickets left anyway and only then was I told that we could just show up an hour after the banquet started, once the meal was over and attend the awards portion of the evening without having to pay a dime. If they'd have just mentioned that in the first place....along with the nature of the award she was receiving....I wouldn't have been annoyed at all - or at least as much. Still wasn't pleased I was being made to leave my house.

So I guess after all my annoyance passed (except the slight twinge of not knowing why we were there in the first place) and we got to the banquet and eventually found a place at the back to sit and sat through the many many many awards that were handed out (to the same 10 people I'm sure) they called Aarica's name. And colour me surprised. It wasn't a fluff "good citizen" type award at all. It was indeed an actual academic award from her Travel and Tourism course which is a new course that just started this year.

She is officially the first student at our school to complete the requirements for the 1st level of this course and she received a certificate (and a t-shirt) from the Canadian Association of Travel and Tourism for completing it. The school even went so far as to put the certificate in a frame for her....and while I'm not going to try and kid myself into thinking that she, on her own, was able to complete all the work or have a solid knowledge of most of the information covered in the course but with the help of her educational assistant she did and she also fulfilled her required 25 hours of work experience (she's been going to the local senior's home twice a week and helping out in laundry, housekeeping, the kitchen/dining room as well as visiting with the 'grandmas and grandpas' that live there) and she's received a passing grade and the certificate to prove it.

And that's pretty cool and we are proud of her!

~K

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

*I Wonder Why?* Wednesday

it's been awhile since I wondered aloud although I tried to write one a couple days ago for publishing today but it turns out I shouldn't blog while half asleep so I deleted that and figured there would be no Wonder Why again this week

But

Never Fear

My brain was wondering something this morning and it may not be fabulously brilliant but it's what I'm wondering and thought I'd share.



I wonder why........
.
.
.
.
.
.

I bother buying cookbooks?

I am not a fan of cooking and no cookbook I own makes me feel like cooking and in all honesty unless it's something familiar and as simple as possible with as few ingredients and steps involved as possible I'm not going to make it.....and chance are even if I did, my kids wouldn't eat it anyway.

The problem with this is I'm sick of every single meal that's become our staple lately so I'm even more bored with the whole cooking process because I just don't want what I'm throwing together ---- even more so the last few weeks where I'm dragging my butt into the house after 6pm and am way too tired to try and think of something to make.

Like I've said before...it's a good thing the kids are happy with cereal or hotdogs and even when I go all out and make grilled cheese and instant chicken noodle soup the chances are one of them's going to say....."I'll just have cereal" anyway.

To say the least I'm lacking the motivation to actually cook a real meal lately and also lacking the items in half the cookbooks needed to make anything of any great cullinary interest.

Do you have a favorite cookbook or even a favorite recipe? One you use often to make family (and budget) friendly, hearty, easy to prepare (ie: I have a short attention span, get sidetracked easily and forget I'm cooking so it can't be something I need to 'watch' closely) meals. If so....share. Please. My children will thank you (if vegetables are well disguised they will thank you even more) and I might actually serve something other than Corn Flakes for supper occasionally.


~K

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

So this is what a day off should be like

I've had a few of them scattered here and there since I started working a couple weeks ago but as days off go, the ones before this one were anything but relaxing and restful.

Today. Rocked.

Apparently it doesn't take much to make my day off rock because it wasn't like I went all out and did wild and crazy things. It was just a nice relaxing day doing what I'm used to doing. It was comfortable and familiar and that's just the way I like it.

I blogged a bit this morning, had a 15minute nap then took Al to work and went out for lunch with my friend Carrie (hi Carrie!) then lay on my mom's couch watching tv while she had a nap before I took her for bloodwork, popped in to visit a cousin while I was at the hospital with mom, chit-chatted with a couple friends here and there, took mom to buy some more flowers, went to the bank to deposit a couple cheques* and picked up the kids from school before grabbing a few groceries and coming home.

Nice. Boring. Uneventful. Non-dramatic. Plain. Old. Normal. Everyday. Stuff. Awesome!

About those cheques I deposited though. There's a funny story behind one of them. One of those cheques arrived by mail a day or so ago and the envelope was addressed to "original me" with my maiden name - you know, a name I haven't used in almost 18 years. My maiden name was crossed out and my married name written in with a little ooops beside it. It really made me giggle.

When I opened the envelope there was a beautiful handmade card inside from my Sis and included with the card was a cheque for the $99 deposit for Tyler's Normandy Trip. The cheque might have made me cry a little if it hadn't made me laugh out loud first because the cheque was also made out to "original me". When I went to the bank this afternoon to deposit it, instead of putting it into the instant teller like I normall would, I actually went inside to make sure there wouldn't be an issue with cashing it and I was told to just sign the back of it both ways - with my maiden and married names and there wouldn't be a problem. Well, at least there wouldn't be a problem on their end.......on mine it was a little tricky. I honestly had to stop and think about how to sign my maiden name. I'm not kidding. Try it sometime. If you haven't signed anything with your maiden name in a whole lotta years-try to sign something with it. It's not as easy as you might think. Maybe it's just me but my brain resisted the whole time. Too funny!

Thanks again sweet sis for the money. Tyler is very very happy and also very surprised that someone would just send him a little money to help him reach his goal of going on this trip. Now if his mom would just sign the form and stop being such as suck about her baby boy traveling half way across the world for 10 days, he'd be even happier.

Anyone know how to get a passport? That's our next step.

~K

Time, Ticks and Tilt-a-whirls

I've sort of forgotten how to do this blogging thing.

I've started 3-4 posts now and they just seem to get nowhere fast. Probably because my time is so limited and I'm used to being able to ramble for longer periods of time so getting my thoughts together quickly is taking some effort. If I start a post and then have to leave it and come back to it later the 'feel' is gone and I can't pick up where I left off and I end up starting over. That's exactly what happened with the post I started last night that I'd intended for an *I wonder why?* Wednesday post but when I tried to finish it up this morning it just wasn't working for me. In a nutshell - it sucked.

I'm having a reaction to a wood tick bite (it seems I'm allergic to the little buggers) on the back of my leg so it's swollen and itching and basically driving me crazy. I put a thick layer of this medicated 'goop' that I was told by my doctor to use the last time this happened and while I was waiting for it to dry so I could go pass out, I thought I'd blog a bit. Not a good idea. The combination of being distracted by my leg and being so tired made for a really horrible post attempt. Glad I didn't hit publish because I don't even understand where I was going with the post.

I think the post mostly had to do with the passage of time. Normally I'm all "where did the day/week/month go?" but lately that's absolutely not the case. I swear the past 6 weeks or so have been some of the longest in history. Considering all the big, huge, memorable things that have happened lately I would have expected to be sitting here thinking that it all passed by so quickly in such a blur. 6 weeks ago we were in Dauphin and then it was the weekend at the hall scrapbooking with everyone, then the kids all had their birthdays and there was the long-weekend and then I started my job and I feel like all that stuff happened so very long ago instead of just in the last few weeks.

Time is moving slowly lately for some reason and it just seems so bizzare to me. I would expect that being so crazy-busy would make the time just fly by.

Of course just because the weeks have been creeping slowly by lately doesn't mean the hours in the day don't still get away from me. As usual blogging has sidetracked me. I have plans with my mom this morning and then a lunch date at noon and suddenly I realize that while I'm talking about time moving slowly....it really isn't and I'm going to run out of time to do all the things I want to do on my day off today if I don't get moving.

Later!

~K

Monday, June 08, 2009

when tech support gets a real job

and is too darn tired and lacking brain function by the end of the day to care........

then we are without internet for 3 days until i was coherent enough to figure out what was going on and fix it.

Not that I fixed it - fixed it. I just figured out where the problem was and by-passed it. Fixing it -fixing it will probably require someone from the phone company coming out to see what's wrong with the phone jack in the kitchen which appears to not be functioning.

Actually my first thought was 'dammit....did i forget to pay the phone bill?' but that's not the problem. We are still connected and the jack at the other end of the house works just fine so it's definately an internal issue with the one jack.

Now I just have to figure out if I'm paying into the phone company's program where any internal 'fixing' needing to be done is covered or if I call a repair man I'm going to get stuck paying for the service call and repair because it's an internal problem. BUT....in the meantime, I'm internet connected....as long as nobody trips over the million foot long phone cord winding it's way through the middle of my house to the one functioning telephone jack.

Oh and speaking of repair men.....or technicians......I noticed on my last satelite bill that there was this notice that 'my recent visit by a technician was not billed on this statement but would be added to my next bill'.

HUH?

When was there a satelite technician at my house, for what purpose and who authorized that?????? Oh and how much are they planning to sucker out of me for this non-existent house call?????

So, I'm back again in the land of the internet connected and I have two whole days off so I'm sure I'll be back to ramble tomorrow. There's so much to catch up on. Highschool awards night, the Normandy Trip, what the kids are up to and all the crazy-buzy stuff that's going on. I won't even mention that today was Monday.....and it rained (and is still raining) all day.....and I didn't have to work in it. heeheeheehee

~K

Friday, June 05, 2009

More Surprises

My life is just full of them.

Usually I don't like them.....but sometimes they can be unexpectedly sweet.

I've had my fair share of un-sweet ones today and more than one made me cry slightly but the last one made me tear up with tears of joy it was so sweet.

I've covered in my previous post most of the unexpected not-so-nice surprises but there's one more that really frosted my cookies today.

Other than taking mom for a very short and sweet flower shopping trip the only other errand that we managed to squeeze into my day off was going to the pharmacy to pick up her box of prescriptions.

Your read that right. Box. Cardboard. Size - Large. I really wonder some days if I don't need some sort of license to carry that much pharmasuticals but hopefully I don't......I'd forget to renew it for sure.

Now prior to heading to her place I did stop by the post office and pick up her mail which she opened before we headed out on our errands. One of the letters in the mail informed her of how much her annual PharmaCare deductible was ($500 give or take) so she had a pretty good idea how much money she'd have to pay out when we went to the pharmacy to pick up her meds.....and for the record, she's hit her deductible limit already in one day so the rest of the year is covered by provincial health......right? Wrong!

Seems that she's also as of today reached her maximum allowable number for one of her inhailers --- as in the medication that makes it so she can breath. Apparently, according to the pharmasist the provincial medical plan covers 14 of these inhailers annually. There are 25 doses per inhailer so she's covered for one puff per day. Wonderful - except that last fall when she was having so much trouble breathing her dose was increased to 2 puffs, up to twice a day. Now my numbers aren't always the best but that means she's taking up to 4 puffs of this inhailer per day so an inhailer last her between 5 and10 days depending on how she's feeling. That's roughly 3-5 inhailers per month.....and 5 months into the year she's used up her annual amount. I guess breathing is optional the other 7 months of the year! If she 'wants to continue using this medication' she'll need to dish out $115.66 per inhailer. Multiply that by 3-5 per month and that equals way too much math and some serious cash.

So who do I talk to about this because this sucks. My goal here is to keep this lady as healthy as possible to give her some decent quality of life and now she's been denied coverage for one of her meds that allows her to breath. Last I checked that whole breathing thing.....kind of important.

Of course this is also the same health care system that has a friend of mine paying out $800 every two weeks for supplies for her son's insulin pump....a pump she had to pay for with the help of many family, friends, fundraisers and local charities, out of her own pocket since the government refuses to pay for pumps for insulin dependant diabetic children even though a number of other provinces do. ooooop...climbed up on that soap box there for a minute didn't I. Well.....that's because it sucks!

That pretty much coveres the unpleasant surprises for the day although I will say that while I was not happily surprised with not having a nice quiet evening at home, I did enjoy the band concert -which I knew I would - I just didn't feel like going especially because I knew we wouldn't get home till late and that makes getting the kids to bed extra hard.

Once I did get them to bed though, I ignored the dinner dishes and sat down to catch up on some blogs and while doing that I read a comment on my post from earlier in the week. That's when I came across one surprise of the day that made me cry because it was so sweet and kind.

I'd been so worried about making the deposit for a trip my son really wants to take to Normandy next spring and my sis leaves a comment that the cheque is in the mail. Just like that. No questions asked. Talk about a sweet, unexpected surprise......and an unnecessary one since Ty does get a paycheque this week that should be enough to cover his deposit. Now I just have to read the really really fine print of this trip and have the courage to fill it in. Paris, Normandy, Amsterdam....very very far away and in the grand scheme of things the total price tag of this trip is going to be more in the neighbourhood of $4000 by the time we add in passport costs, insurance and spending money and at least one additonal tour that is not included....because there is no way they can go all the way there and not go to Vimy.

Now I have 4 days to decided if it's financially possible to committ to being able to pull together that amount of money.....which is extremely scarey considering I was concerned with just coming up with the dang deposit....but we do have 9months yet so is it do-able?

4 days to sign on the dotted line and committ to letting my son go half way around the world for 10days.

4 days to come to terms with the fact that my son is old enough to take a trip like this.

I guess that's easier to come to terms with than the question I had to answer for my van's insurance regarding if there was anyone other than myself and Al as it's primary users at which point I realized that at this time next year the answer to that question will quite probably be yes....that my son is also a regular user of the vehicle.

I guess that's one more surprise for the day. My kids are growing up.....way too fast. I think that's considered a sweet surprise.....although after listening to my sister-in-laws talk today about potty training Luke and cuddling baby Sarah for a few minutes it's a little bitter-sweet. I miss those days.

Besides - Pre-school field trip permission forms were so much easier to deal with.


~K


PS.... Sis, you didn't need to but thank you. Love you!

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Nice Relaxing Day Off....to blog and flower shop and oh wait...

The day started out beautifully. Even the accidently sleeping in part and the kids missing the bus....because I didn't have to be at work early this morning so it was all good...and that extra hour of sleep rocked!

I had plans to do a little errand running late this morning with my mom, visit with her, be home when the kids got home from school for a change. Al could take the van to work and I could just spend a nice quiet evening at home. No rushing. No fussing. Nothing fancy. Just a pretty basic day.

BLAM!!!!

Did you catch that.

That's the sound of my brain getting sideswiped.

Darn information, thoughts, knowledge. It's all in there. Inside my noggin just begging to be used.....but sadly it gets lost more times than it's useful. Heck even the stuff on the calendar (which still needs to be replaced by something MUCH larger) isn't free from neglect.

It's no wonder I can't remember all those darn product code numbers at work. I can't remember the stuff I already have inside my head nevermind new stuff. *seriously.....that darn special has been on all week and I've probably package at least 75 of them but do you think I can remember it's code for the scale is 40741 (well okay I remember it NOW but not while I'm AT work...I'm serously stupid there. I completely draw a blank)

anyway.....

this morning.....before I'd even finished my 2nd cup of wonderfully hot & delicious coffee or had even taken a bite of the Apple Fritter that Al brought me home from town when he took the kids to school - it hit me.

I was merrily going about my business putting together my budget for the month - you know....cuz now that we have 2 paycheques coming in I can actually do silly things like pay some bills and oh I don't know.....by groceries.

So, I was dividing up the incoming money that appears as if by magic in our bank account each Friday morning for things like Hydro (who so graciously informed me earlier this week that if we continue on with our payment schedule as is....our outstanding balance should be paid off in OCTOBER and could we possibly swing out a little more cash for them each month) and the van payment and the Visa bill and the phone and internet and Autopac (that's the insurance on my van for those not in the know) and that's when it hit me.

AUTOPAC! Dammit! Sideswiped.......by my own van!

I quickly check my online banking and sure enough, there's no money in there which isn't a good thing when there was an automatic payment for my insurance due 2 days ago. So there I am scrambling with this tidbit of info when that darn information truck comes back around to hit me again.

BLAM!

That payment never was scheduled to come out of my account anyway because I needed to go in and renew my insurance 2 days ago. D'oh!

BLAM!

Did you hear that one. That was the truck backing up and running me over again.

It's JUNE! 4 months after my birthday. Which around here means my drivers license expired right along side my insurance...... 2 days ago.

That's right. Not only has my van been uninsured since Midnight on Tuesday but I'm not legal to drive. Dang I hate it when that happens (and yes...it's happened before - at least this time it didn't cost me the price of that speeding ticket AND the ticket for not having a license AND for driving an uninsured vehicle). You'd think I would have learned this lesson. Sadly NO.

So instead of errands and flower shopping with mom this morning I scrambled to borrow $160 since payday isn't until tomorrow so I could register the van and pay for my license (which btw I think it's just disgusting that they make you pay $40 to take such a horrible photo of you) and it kinda threw the rest of my day off.

But once that was all done I was able to salvage some time to take mom to go pick up a couple hanging baskets for her yard - which I have to remember to go take into the garage tonight since there's supposed to be frost tonight. Geesh! And since I will be back in town tonight anyway this isn't a problem.

That's right. No nice relaxing evening at home. No Al taking the van to work.

I had mentioned to Al that I was going to enjoy spending the evening at home tonight and not have to pick him up at midnight because he could take the van since I don't need to be anywhere tonight .

I think he was a little scared to say anything. Actually, I think he was more than a little scared that I'd cry - again with yet another surprise because he very cautiously mentioned that I did in fact need the van tonight.

???? Really ????

BLAM

High School Band Concert tonight. It's even written on the calendar and yet....still a surprise.

Today has just been FULL of surprises.

There were more of them....but they will have to wait till later. I'm going to go make my son prove to me that he can actually play that clarinette I spent the last 3 years paying for. OH and somebody remind me the annual payment for that darn thing will be charged to my credit card in early July. I believe I owe something like $3.00 on it plus the years insurance..... but then again I've been surprised by bigger things lately so I could be wrong.


~K

*** more stuff to blog about.....back later.

Monday, June 01, 2009

Because there's room on my calendar for a meeting

Well....no....there isn't really, but I'll make time.

It's important.

Very important to my oldest son.

He brought a letter home from school this afternoon announcing a parent meeting to discuss details of a trip he really really wants to take next year.

Permission for this trip to take place has been granted by the powers that be at the school board and now there is officially an information night this Wednesday to go over the finer details of the itinerary, costs and what's all involved......oh and a $99 deposit is required that night to ensure there is serious interest in this whole project. Ouch. Considering we spent the boys last $175 on bills this morning, coming up with that money's going to be tricky but I'll jump through hoops to borrow it. Actually there will be alot of hoop jumping through inorder to scrape together the $3000 (give or take a few bucks here and there) so he can go on this trip. If it kills me I will make sure he doesn't miss out on this chance-of-a-lifetime opportunity.

What is this trip you ask? Are you asking? I can't remember if I've mentioned it or not.

In a nutshell one of the teachers has put together a 10-day trip through Europe visiting a number of battle fields and historic sites commemorating the 65th anniversary of the Victory in Europe campaign and the 66th anniversary of the D-Day landings. In the past few years Tyler has become very interested in anything to do with this subject (even so far as to read the occasional book on it....and books are not his friends at the best of times) and loves watching the History channel so this trip really sparked his interest from the very first mention of it. So it looks like I'm heading to a school meeting re: The Normandy Trip on Wednesday and hopefully there aren't too many surprise costs other than that quoted on the original information sheet and somehow, someway we will get the money together so he can go. Ultimately his father would love to go along too since this is also an area of interest for him...... but for now our goal is to get the boy there.


~K

Sunday, May 31, 2009

profile blurb

ack! wrote this one last night and thought I posted it.....guess I dozed off.

I'm finally ready to update my profile to a more current reflections of life as I know it.


I'm a woman on the verge of falling asleep while attempting to juggle 4 kids, the shattered pieces of 14 years of self-employement, new jobs for hubby and I and an insane schedule. We're adjusting to our new normal but there's no time for scrapbooking.....or napping and the temper tantrums are in greater supply than coffee lately. If I manage to get one whole cup in the morning it's considered a good day.

replaces.........

I'm a woman on the edge of sanity - juggling four kids, three trucks, two businesses and a room full of neglected scrapbook supplies while drinking cup after cup of coffee and not spilling a drop.


*********


This has to get easier - right. Please tell me it will (even if you have to lie).

I'm dead serious about the coffee thing. I am no where near my daily quota - even on a day off like today. What is up with that? The people in charge of Timmies coffee supplies are going to notice at this rate. Stock prices might fall. Sure, at work access to coffee is limited but even at home I find I'm not drinking it as much as I used to. I just don't have the energy to make a darn pot of the stuff. Maybe that's why I'm so darn tired - not enough coffee intake.

I'm way cranky too. I think it has to do with the fact that I haven't had a moment to myself - completely alone (other than in the car) in ages. The kids are increasingly difficult to get to bed at night so there isn't even quiet time in the evenings.

I've been stupidly staying up way too late myself. Once I pick up Al at work, the smart thing to do would be to crawl into bed but most nights I've been sitting up with him while he eats a very late supper (or has cereal....because I confess, I fed the kids hotdogs at least twice last week and they may or may not have had cereal once but I don't remember). While he's unwinding from his 'day' we talk and try to catch up on what's been going on. I give him the rundown on what's going on with the kids (activities/schedules etc for the next day) and any other things I might need for him to take care of while I'm at work the next day. Tonight is his 5th straight day so we haven't seen much of eachother at all and this late night catching up is helping us not just be two people that pass eachother on our way to and from work....but it makes for a very tired me in the morning. Today he even stopped by work and brought me a coffee and we sat outside for my precious 15min break. It was great....although I could have done without him mentioning that he was heading home for a nap. Brat!

The bestest part of my day. The rain. Bwaahhhhaaaaa. Rain on a Monday. Love it. Love being at work and not getting soaking wet and being freezing cold because that's what the weather was like today. Brrrrrrrrr! So ya, my knees are sore and my feet hate me and I'm tired from this crazy schedule but I was working inside, warm and dry and cozy all day.

I completely feel like this post is rambling way more usual so I think it's time for me to post it and get the heck outta here. It's almost time to pick Al up and then I'm going to get some much needed zzzzzzzzzz's.

~K

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Recreating Normal

It's a work in progress and the adjustment period is proving hard on us all but we are surviving.

Last week was a little tricky and we made it through our first schedule conflict with only minor issues.

I worked Thursday, Friday & Saturday all day. Al worked Thursday and Friday evenings and was supposed to have Saturday off. This would have been great --- had it worked out that way especially since Emily had handed out birthday party invitations early in the week for her Saturday afternoon/evening party. Unfortunately, one of the kids that Al works with decided he wasn't working his shift that Saturday so Al was going to have to work it and wouldn't be around for Emily's party. Luckily they were able to switch some things around and Al didn't have to work that day BUT he did have to attend a training course all morning so we had to scramble for a sitter, borrow a car and make a few last minute changes to Emily's party. In the end it all worked out fine - but it was a very long day for both of us.

We have quickly realized that asap we will need a 2nd vehicle because we've both become extremely exhausted purely due to the lack of another car. I'm having to stay up late to pick him up from work and he's having to get up early to drive me to work. Sleep is a rare commodity around here lately.

Since the earliest I'm off work is 5pm and by the time I pick up a few groceries if we need them, walk to get the van, go check on my mom and get home, the kids are on their own for about 2 hours after school. Except for Tuesday when Emily got hurt and Tyler ended up calling his friends mom to come help him stop the bleeding, things have been going fairly well. Unfortunately, by the time I get home and get supper made I'm beyond exhausted. Too exhausted to read any of my fav blogs nevermind write one (or two). Both my blogs, like my house have been extremely neglected lately. Sunday I had the day off, but there was so much else to do and I was so tired that computer time was just not happening either - especially with the kids home and having to share (darn Webkins...Emily got 3 for her birthday and spent her birthday money from Gramma on a 4th)

Monday and Tuesday I barely survived work. I haven't been feeling well and by the time I got home Tuesday and dealt with the aftermath of Emily's injury and got everyone fed (they almost got cereal for supper that night) I ended up falling asleep on the couch before the kids even went to bed. It's a good thing Al thought to send me a text message around 11:30 or I wouldn't have been awake to pick him up at midnight. By Wednesday I was so sick it was a good thing I had the day off because I spent most of the day on the couch watching a Dog the Bounty Hunter marathon. What a waste of a day off - especially one that Al had off too. I'm feeling almost human today, which is good because now Al's asleep on the couch. He's tired and hurting. Last night was the first ball game of the season and those old knees of his are not happy. I'm sure he's not the only one in a little pain today (how's the arm Carrie?)

Today is my 2nd day off in a row, which I'm sure will be rare - having more than one day off at a time. That is another thing that's taking some getting used to. Being self-employed for 14 years we've been spoiled by being able to most of the time schedule work around life. That party's over. I was going to request the Sunday that Tami, James and little Rowan will be out to visit from Hamilton off but when I looked at the request sheet earlier this week, that particular day is full of names. I didn't even bother adding mine. There's just no way I'll win that one. I'm hoping they will be out here for quite awhile that day so I can see them after work. Al's work schedule is even more restrictive than mine in many ways. With him working evenings, he'll be missing out on many things he wants to do - like Kareoke this Saturday or having to leave his cousins birthday bbq early. I just hope he gets to play ball most weeks --- although I'm sure his knees are hoping otherwise.

My Saturday Scrapping Girls are also having to come to terms with the fact that my Saturdays belong to someone else now (no hope of getting any Saturdays off until maybe later in the fall). So, the girls have already booked the hall without me for the end of June. Maybe if I'm still alive at 5 that day I might stop by but can't see being able to stay and play. This working thing also puts an end to the idea of my heading out to Dryden this weekend to scrapbook with Kat. So sad because before I got this job Al had said 'to heck with not being able to afford it - just GO!' *sigh* Another time I guess.

Right now my goal is to get things running a little smoother and hopefully after a few more weeks of this new routine things will get easier. My body will adjust to mornings (ugh...I'm so not a morning person) and being on my feet 8.5 hours a day and the kids will realize that chores are not suggestions but requirements because their housekeeping staff (that's me) is way too freakin exhausted to do it all.....and having that paycheque will make paying bills a whole lot easier too. My very first one should be in my bank account at midnight tonight. Whoohoo! It will be small - only 3 days, but oh so very much needed. Hopefully in a couple weeks we won't need to use Tyler's paycheques to help cover the basics. Nothing feels worse than having to use your 15 yr old sons' money to pay bills and buy groceries. It's worse than having to get hampers from the food bank....which reminds me....need to go get dressed and get to town. I have an appointment to pick one up in an hour. I was going to have a nap first but lost this entire post and had to start over. Sometimes blogging takes priority over sleep - at least it did today. Tomorrow it might not though so if I don't 'see' you for a day or two it's because I fell asleep.


Gotta run. Knock at the door - yet another person asking about those trucks. Somebody might just buy one of them one of these days. Keep your fingers crossed....because that would make like even easier on all of us!

~K

    Wednesday, May 20, 2009

    I can see clearly now

    Look how sharp and visible you all are to me now that there aren't dozens of wavey lines running across the screen......or a huge grey shadow through the middle. Who'd have thunk it.

    Of course I guess I could have walked my little old self into the living room days ago and got the brand new monitor that's been attached to a very rarely used, really, really old, noisey computer that is of little use to me since it has no internet capabilities. Seriously. What good is a computer that doesn't do the net? Dust collector is what it is.

    Bet you thought you'd all been replaced by GameCube again.

    Nope. Just been lazy and trying to keep from losing my mind.

    We had a pretty quiet long weekend. About the only exciting thing that happened was the 2-3 people that stopped by to look at the trucks....which still aren't sold and even with the interest I don't see it happening any time soon. The one guy that is very interested is digging in his heels because of the age of the equipment. *Sigh* He wants to lease it and I'm leary of even trying to make something like that an option. I can understand his position but honestly I'd take 30yr old equipment over something new anyday.....it's built to last not like disposable stuff they make these days. Oh well. We'll see what the rest of the week brings.

    In the mean time, I'm way crazy-busy. We've kind of adjusted to this whole 'Al working evenings' thing and thankfully dancing and bowling are both done for the year which is a good thing because we now have a new 'activity' to work into the schedule. ME WORKING.

    That's right. Finally. That job is in the bag and I start tomorrow.

    So far I think my hours will work pretty well for us.....if you consider my not ever seeing my husband again a bonus. For the next 3 days I work 8:30 to 5 and he works 4-midnight most days. Basically we will have the 10minute ride in the morning when he drives me to work and the 10minute ride home when I pick him up at midnight to 'visit'. Doesn't that sound like a marriage made in heaven. We worked alternating shifts like this for about 6 months many many years ago. I'm a little worried. After those 6 months I was switched to day-shift just like he worked........and we ended up with our oldest child. We won't be making that mistake again. 3 more kids later we figured out what caused them and put a stop to it.

    I'm super excited in a 'maybe we won't starve' kind of way. Hopefully in a month or so I'll even be thinking 'maybe we can pay some bills' frame of mind too. That would rock.

    I'm kinda nervous but I know a lot of the people I'll be working around and with so that helps.....kinda.....there's this one guy that works there.....I've worked with him before....or rather he worked for me. It was torture. I sure hope I don't run into him very often. Although I've heard he's rather well behaved at his 'real' job and just came to work with me for entertainment. I really think he thought it was sport to try and scare me or freak me out. LOL I will never look at squirels the same ever again. I don't know how his wife puts up with him and his sense of humor.


    That's it for now. If I'm alive at the end of my shift tomorrow I might have the energy to post.

    Saturday, May 16, 2009

    Teen Drama Queen Strikes Again - footage at 11

    Okay so there's no actual footage but believe me it would have been hysterical watching her get all hysterical. Is it wrong that I find the trauma in my daughters life so darn giggle-worthy some days. Believe me, a sense of humor is the only way I keep from loosing my mind.

    Why was she hysterically pitching a fit you might ask. Well, generally she needs not have a particular reason because she will freak out at the drop of a hat anytime she feels there has been some sort of injustice, real or not, that has been inflicted upon her.

    The little darling has been grounded since Monday. All electronic possessions confiscated, all computer, tv and gaming rights revoked (I did leave her with use of her clock/radio...I'm not totally without mercy) plus the first two nights she was confined to her bedroom unless otherwise instructed for matters involving chores or family committments - it's not like I could leave her home alone with free access to fun while I attended a school concert with the other children so she was given a 2-hour pass to socialize and be free while we were there.

    To make matters even more unbareable for her I, in my evil, I've-got-all-the-power ways allowed her brother the use of her beloved Ipod. Bwwwaaahhhhhhaaaaahhhhhaaaaa.

    Slowly she's been receiving priviledges back. One thing at a time. She was scheduled to receive her Ipod back today (Saturday) only she felt the need to argue that point due to some project she's working on for school and the particular song she needs to practice for this presentation is on her Ipod. She presented her case and wasn't thrilled with my decision that the day was almost over anyway and since she was the one who did stupid things and got herself grounded that she'd just have to wait till the next day and since it's a long weekend she'd have 3 days to practice so I wasn't budging and she wasn't happy.

    Of course then I pointed out that it really didn't matter because her brother went to a friends house after school and since he was in possession of the repossessed prized possession she couldn't have it back anyway. This pushed the injustice just a little too far and she was miffed to say the least.

    Oh it was fun.

    Almost as much fun as why she was grounded in the first place.

    Caught the little darling on the front step Monday afternoon smoking a cigarette - apparently not her first either. My mind exploded at that point and I lost the ability to speak for awhile.

    It's been a glorious week.

    One I hope to not have to repeat anytime soon.

    Being grounded was hard on her......harder on the rest of us.

    By Monday, if she doesn't push her luck she may just have all rights restored.

    ~K

    Friday, May 15, 2009

    Okay - so I threw out his winter boots but

    THIS IS NOT MY FAULT!





    Just because, as I was tossing them in the trash yesterday, I said aloud...."watch, we'll get 3ft of snow now" does not make me responsible for what happened overnight.

    Honestly, if I thought I had that much control over what goes on around me I'd be buying a lottery ticket and saying something like....."watch, we'll win 3million dollars now".

    I'll let you know if that happens and if it does then yes, I will take the blame for the snow but until then, this one ain't on me.



    I personally blame the school.

    And field trips.

    The field trip scheduled for Wednesday was cancelled due to weather - in the form of massive, ark worthy amounts of rain.

    It was rescheduled for today and I doubt the grade 1 classes will be heading out to the snake dens to see the red-sided garter snakes today either. I'm pretty sure snakes don't dig the snow anymore than I dig them.

    This is my 4th child to make the annual 1st grade trek out to the snake dens and each year they ask "mom, will you be a parent volunteer on the field trip" and each year I pass on the opportunity. Actually it's more like an 'over my dead body' sort of reply. Sorry. Not my thing kids. Go watch Anaconda with your father and leave me alone.

    I get the heebie-geebies just thinking about wigglie little snakes. When Emily went on her trip to the dens one of the father's took amazing photos and I was fortunate (?) enough to receive a bunch which I scrapbooked. That was hard enough seeing my little girl holding a snake in a photo. Don't think I could have handled it in person.


    Enough about snakes. Ewwww. Ick.

    Back to the weather. Ewwww. Ick.

    So there's this creek in my backyard. Flooded like crazy this spring. It's been a couple weeks since I'd taken a walk down there so I went wandering Tuesday night and took some updated water level pictures. I'm so glad I did because the sky opened up in the wee hours of that night and it poured buckets for a good portion of the day on Wednesday.

    The "before" on the left, taken on Tuesday afternoon and the "after" on the right taken on Wednesday afternoon following about 12hours of heavy rainfall.






    Aside from the weather sucking so did pretty much everything else.

    I spent a lot of time - just me, myself and my gamecube on the couch this week avoiding everything, everyone and the endless phone calls from 1-800, credit card companies, the dentist, the truck leasing company etc. Adding to my crappy week was Al repeatedly saying things like "Are you going to get dressed today? Are you going to go to town today? Ae you going to call about that job today? Are you going to call back about that job today? ARGH!!!!

    I did call. I did talk to someone and things looked good but when she didn't call back the next day or the day after he started again "Are you going to call again about that job today? Maybe you should call so and so about a different job"

    Add to that the phone calls from people telling me about all the new people being trained at the store where I've been hoping to get hired or worse yet going into the store and seeing for myself all the trainees. It was depressing and I didn't want to leave my couch......so I didn't unless absolutely necessary. That's right. I admit it. I spent alot of time on the couch looking for spaceship parts and trying not to get all my little alien friends killed in the process. Nintendo Pikmin is WAY addictive. 4:30 in the morning addictive. Opppps. Kinda slept in and the kids missed the bus once ---- okay twice (the 2nd time it wasn't because of the gamecube though) this week.
    Anyway. The week was kind of a bust. Laundry. Pikmin. Ignoring phonecalls. Moping around and feeling like crap. Even last night I was in no way thrilled at being forced off my couch to attend a bowling banquet but since Al was working I had no option.
    BUT
    While picking up a few things at the store for the banquet the week suddenly got a whole lot better. The girl from the store who I'd talked to early in the week and was supposed to hear back from and didn't spotted me and came over to talk. And just like I thought - she'd been really busy and just hadn't had a chance to get back to me (and all Al's fussing and stressing and making me feel 2 inches tall and like I wasn't going to get this job at all was for nothing) and right then and there we made arrangements for me to start probably wednesday of next week.
    Whoooo Hoooo!
    I'm so excited.
    I still don't know what exactly I'll be doing or what sort of hours I'll have but I'm ((((this close)))) to having a job and the relief is just unbelievably wonderful.
    And today...... I still spent some time on the couch playing gamecube and I've realized it's not because I've been in a funk and didn't want to get off the couch.....it's because the game is just so damn fun. I can't wait till the kids go to bed so I can have my turn again....and Al works till 2 so I won't even have to share the tv with him. Heeeheeeheee.
    Gonna go see if the kids want to go outside and make a snowman now. Anyone know where I packed the mittens?
    Have a wonderful long-weekend.


    ~K

    Saturday, May 09, 2009

    Spring Concert tonight ........... 70+ dancers entertained over 200 people who came out to see them.
    On stage is definately where my kiddos love to be!

    Her face says it all


    and he had a blast.

    I'm proud of them and the whole club. They ALL deserved standing ovations!

    Friday, May 08, 2009

    A Little More Nature

    Owen and Emily are peering out the kitchen window this morning.

    Owen: "Look Emily. Winter is back already!"
    Emily: Ewwwwwww!
    Mom: Don't worry. I'm sure it will be gone by this afternoon.
    Owen: Awwwwwww!

    What is wrong with that kid?

    Should I have had his head examined when he ran into the car door Sunday morning?

    In the grand scheme of head injuries that boy has experienced....a slight shiner is mild but maybe it rattled the insides more than we thought because really? He's disapointed the snow should be gone in a day or so - if that isn't cause for concern I don't know what it. Maybe the dent* on the other side of his head can talk some sense into him because the thought that this snow (which is still stubbornly falling in flakes instead of drops of rain) might hang around for any extended period of time is just not cool with me.


    *between the ages of 20months and 24months he fell (or was dropped - long story) 3 times on his head. The first resulted in his eyes rolling into the back of his head and us making a mad dash to the ER (SCAREY!) 4 weeks later he fell off a bed and smacked the side of his face on a table resulting in a still visible dent (which he has named "Dent" and he says it talks to him occasionally...weird kid) and I probably should have taken him in to the ER but geeesh....we'd just been there. They were going to start talking if we kept showing up there with a damaged kid. The third time was Christmas Eve, about 10 minutes before 20 people were set to arrive for dinner. He fell backwards off a toy and smacked his head and cut it open. Thankfully the amount of blood outweighed the severity of the gash and I was able to clean him up and determine no ER trip was necessary. I almost went out and bought him a helmet. I still consider it some days because three 3 head injuries in 4 months when he was 2 was a pretty good indication of what the next 4 years would be like. He's forever got a shiner or a bruise on his face or forehead. The kids head must have some sort of magnetic force that attracts it to hard surfaces.

    ~K

    A little nature

    Reading the blog written by my Sis and hearing about all the birds and flowers she's been taking pictures of all week, I thought I would share a few pictures from a couple weeks ago.

    Sadly - no flowers here just yet. We've barely managed to get rid of the snow but hopefully soon......not that I plant any. Gardening isn't my thing, although I learned this weekend why we've had miserable luck in the past with growing pumpkins - who knew you had to get in there and pollinate them - so we may give that another try.

    Anyway, Other Sis (Liz) brought mom a bird feeder that attaches to the window and she hung it in mom's kitchen window last time she was out. It sat untouched for a few days but as the weather warmed up so did the action at the feeder. These are pictures of the first wave of visitors - who don't seem to be around much anymore so they must have moved on.












    I love the one peeking in through the window.





    ~K

    Thursday, May 07, 2009

    The Good, The Bad & The Damp

    today is the first day all week that I haven't felt the need to take a nap by 10am. I think that has to do with the fact that I went to bed before 10pm last night and although I woke up at 1am (call of nature) and 6am (call of technology - darn kid's cell phone alarm is set for 6am! wth?!?!) and finally got up at 7:15. I think I've finally recovered from the weekend. Now if I could just get my house to recover from the weekend all would be golden. My scrapbook stuff is still scattered about.

    We've had a good week/bad week around here and it seems, with the rain that began falling overnight....the rest of the week shall be a damp one, not to mention loud and muddy. Proof of this was when I opened the back door this morning. Since I'd gone to bed early, nobody thought to let the fat cat or the fatter dog in for the night. One was quite cranky about this fact and told me so. The other just left a trail of paw prints behind him as he brought his overweight self into my kitchen and shook. Point taken oh non-vocal mutt. This is the kind of weather where you just want to stay indoors.....and I haven't decided yet if I'm more inclined to make the kids stay inside and brave the sounds of cooped up kids or kick em outside and deal with the inevitable mud and laundry. Since Owen left his jacket outside last night, I'm already ahead of the game as far as wet clothes go.

    I think this rain also puts a brief stop to the walks we've been taking lately. Okay. I admit. Mostly it's been Al and the kids walking but I did take them one night while he was at work. This may sound silly but this is a new activity for us. Not the walking part, but the walking around here part. Living on a busy highway, it's not exactly high on my list of things to encourage the children to do and up until now we've limited our walks to being an 'in town' activity. Now that the kids are older, we're more comfortable (ish....i found it way stressful personally) with taking the 1/4 mile walk along the side of the highway to the gravel road and then letting the kids run wild as we walk a half mile or so before turning around and heading back. Somehow I'm not keen on taking that trek in the rain or even shortly after any rain as the cars go flying past us is sure to make for loads of laundry.

    I must say, I'm a little nervous about the start of this rain. A couple of the blogs I read on a daily basis have mentioned lately an abundance of rainfall of biblical proportions and there has been mention of Ark living....or indoor living a time or two as well. We are only on day one of the rain here and I sure hope it doesn't last too long. I don't like boats. Of course, I don't like snow shovels either and I heard rumor of dropping temperatures and the possibilities of this rain going all flakey on me.

    Hearing the rain on the roof when I first woke up this morning did bring a slight smile to my face though.....because I am not outside working in it. Hahaha It's funny how perspective changes things. Closing our business was hard (and still is hard at times) but we realize more each day how much of a blessing it has been. Regular readers may remember Al's doctors visit when he was getting that physical for his class 1 license and the concern his doctor had with his blood pressure and weight. Well, he went for a follow-up earlier this week and his blood pressure is almost perfect. That new low-stress, minumum wage job of his seems to be working wonders. The lack of money....and lack of ice cream seems to be helping too. He's dropped 5lbs.

    Of course my blood pressure is probably making up for his as I struggle to make ends meet and deal with the mountain of paperwork still left to do for the business. Selling those trucks parked infront of my house - constant reminders of money owed to people that we won't have until they sell - would help too. Seems the guy we thought would for sure buy them is just yanking us around and now he says he doesn't need them.....right now. Ugh! General consensus is he figures since the trucks are so specialized there won't be a huge demand for them so he's got time and by waiting as long as possible till we will be so desperate we have no choice but to let them go for cheap. He doesn't realize that the longer he waits the more money we will need and we've had other people ask about them....although nothing has come of their interest either so far.

    On top of this money stuff....... I'm sure I've found those 5lbs Al lost. Maybe I need to go for that walk tonight - rain or not. Naw....think I'll just go make a batch of brownies and stay inside where it's warm and dry and listen to the cat complain. He's asked to go out twice already but then just sits in the doorway looking at me like it's my fault it's still raining.

    ~K

    Tuesday, May 05, 2009

    Suggestion Duely Noted and Taken Into Consideration

    It's another one of those "I'm speechless" moments in my life.

    I hate when the school calls and puts me on the spot and I can't think of how to respond without sounding all snarky (although I probably did anyway) and I'm sick of being called about the stupidest things and being made to feel like I've just been scolded like a child and told what to do.

    As I've stated before, I'm not the worlds best advocate for my kid. Mostly I think because I just don't have the answers and I'm at a loss for what to do most of the time to begin with so when challenged on things I freeze up.

    I've been getting increasingly frusterated by the situation at school with my oldest (who turned 17 yesterday and I'm still dealing with the reality of that....and the grey hair I found even though I just coloured my hair last week. UGH!) and it's come to the point where a couple weeks ago I had a dream that I pulled her out of school completely and decided that I would homeschool her. In my dream it totally worked and we had the most amazing success with the plan. In reality I can't see it working well at all for numerous reasons such as....we don't get along --- at all and we'd probably kill each other. Not to mention the fact I'm totally disorganized and wouldn't know what to do or where to start.

    Today is another one of those days were I have the disillusioned idea that I could and should do it.

    Today's call from the resource coordinator was about our daughter not bringing a lunch and I guess she was trying to be constructive about the situation but her tone and words were so condescending that it just got me all defensive and I'm completely put off by her attitude. We've actually discussed this issue a few times over the year and really, I don't know what to do about it. I can't force my daughter to take a lunch and I'm not at the school to monitor her and make her eat her lunch if she does take one. She's left on her own during lunch (which I've expressed concern with) so what do they expect me to do. Well I guess they are getting complaints regarding Aarica asking for money or food from students (again....we went through this in the fall too....and then she was even asking teachers/staff for money). So the coordinator offered suggestions such as us sending in money for her to have in her account at the caffeteria - wasn't an option in the fall and it's definately not an option for us now. She seemed a bit annoyed that I couldn't accomodate this and then she suggested we bring in food such as a loaf of bread and lunch meat or cup of soup etc that can be stored there and our daughter can make herself a sandwich or whatever to have for lunch.

    Now forgive me if I'm way wrong in my thinking here but my child has special needs but that doesn't make her so special that the rules don't apply to her (even though she likes to think that way) and there is absolutely no reason she cannot take a lunch made at home each morning just like her brothers and sister do. NO reason at all....except that she's a stubborn thing and refuses to take a lunch. Period. If she can't have money for the cafeteria she doesn't want anything at all.

    So I told the coordinator I would see what I could do and ended the call as quickly after that as possible. I couldn't figure out a way of telling her I didn't see that suggestion working for me either and I was really tired of having to justify my reasons to her. I'm struggling hard enough to squeeze the basics out of our food budget without having to purchase a seperate loaf and package of meat that will be kept at school on the off chance our daughter might get around to eatting it....which I'm almost positive she wouldn't.

    When Aarica got home I pulled her aside and told her I'd gotten a call from the school and asked her what was going on.....who she'd been mooching money and food off of etc....and she lied and said she wasn't and then said her friends 'offered' and I'm not buying it one bit. I told her she doesn't have a choice and would be taking a lunch from now on and her responses were "I'll just forget it here" and I told her I'd duct tape it to her damn forehead if I had to but she was taking a lunch. She says she won't eat it and well...I guess that's the chance I will take - and the food I will waste - but I sure as heck am not treating her any different than the rest of my kids who survive quite fine on the packed lunch made at home that they take to school with them every day.....and sometimes they even eat it.


    ~K

    The best part of my day

    yesterday (besides the long nap I took mid-morning) was hearing about Owen's best part of his day. He came home from school so excited to tell me about his day. From the moment he got off the bus he was in a cheerful mood and I think that was partly due to his declaration that........ "I didn't fall asleep on the bus today mom". I can tell when he's been woken up just seconds before having to get off the bus. He's half asleep and cranky, especially when the older kids bolt down the driveway and leave him behind. Today he was bright-eyed (getting him to sleep at half decent times the last couple nights might be helping too) and ready to tell me the best part of his day.



    The conversation twisted and turned and started in the middle so I had to get him to back-track a bit so I could get all the details but the gist of it was that his class got to participate in "Artist in the Classroom" yesterday and this months artist is a young actor that has been sharing the technique of Improv with the classes.



    Owen: Hey Mom - Me and Jayden and Aiden and Dane got to be a dryer today.

    Mom: A dryer? Like a clothes dryer?

    Owen: Ya! It was cool!

    Mom: That is cool. You learned to do laundry....so now I don't have to.

    Owen: NO!!!! We got to BE the dryer....and I was the door and then we said vroooooooommmmmm (making a sound that in his mind was a dryer running....but would be cause for concern if my real dryer sounded like that ---- it was more on the scale of an airplane preparing for takeoff. Although, that much power would probably dry clothes really fast).



    So, while my hopes that laundry duties could be taken over by my 6yr old (a skill they could gladly teach in school thankyouverymuch) have been dashed, it was great that he enjoyed this Improv class so much. His group (which he repeatedly told me included "me, Jayden, Aiden and Dane" which was too cute) also did something with sharks and a third thing which at the moment I can't remember. Apparently though, being a household appliance was the big hit of the day.



    Emily threw in her two cents about this particular Artist in the Classroom experience as well and I learned that her group was a lava lamp (she was the lava which btw is entirely more interesting to be than the cord that plugs the lamp into the wall LOL ) and an airplane.



    My memories of elementary school (now called Early Years K-4) involved spelling workbooks, creative writing assignments and math homework. There were no Improv classes. No complaints though. This Artist in the School program (which is paid for by fundraising done by parents) is an awesome thing. Over the years they have experienced such a wide variety of activities from writing stories or poems with writers, writing songs with a musician, playing musical instruments from Africa, leaning dances from various countries, done pottery and painted murals and acting and puppetry. So many things I'm thankful they've had the opportunity to experience.



    And speaking of the things they learn at school today (as compared to back in my day)



    Last week I was helping my High School kids choose their courses for next year I was quite baffled by a number of the course options and I admit a wee bit jealous! One grade 10 option is a full credit little number made up of two half courses in digital filmmaking and digital pictures. Sigh! And the grade 11 component to this course involves website design/interactive websites and broadcast media/interactive media. Geesh. When I was in school that was A/V or photography club and it was an afterschool or lunch time 'extra-curricular'. I tried to convince the boy to take that course just so I could help him with his homework. The one that threw me though is a grade 9 elective called Recreation Studies which according to the handbook, is a course revolving around wilderness survival skills, outdoorsmanship, nature studies and mountainbiking and includes an overnight bike trip which is planned and executed by the students in the class. HUH? Again.....this would have been an 'extra curicular' club. Oh and Drama.....also an extra curicular in my day.....now a full credit course available in grade 10 and grade 11.


    and the kids just got home from school and according to Owen the best thing about today is......"Nothing" Seems his teacher was a little "yellie" today....and I've seen the pack of 6yr old boys she has in her class. Some days she looks a wee bit frazzled at the end of the day. Poor girl.

    I have to agree with Owen though. So far, there's nothing good about school today. Just before the kids got home I got a call from the high school resource coordinator. I'm somehow 'in trouble' again with this woman but I'll have to fill ya'll in on the details a little later after I've collected my thoughts and no longer feel the need to talk in CAPITAL LETTERS. I'm feeling a little YELLIE myself at the moment. Grrrrrr

    ~K