I Just Couldn't Do It!

Anyone who knows me knows I don't like the cold weather.
Today was day 3 of a cold snap....the basic temperatures aren't TOO bad, based on winter (I think it was about -20C this morning), but the wind bites pretty hard. (It's ranged between -31 and -40C)
I got up this morning to do my papers (121 today), not feeling my best. Got dressed and dragged my butt out there, in a parka, wool socks, boots, gloves, ski mask type hat. Drove to the pick up location. No papers. So I climbed back into the car to wait, still not feeling great. I sat there for about half an hour, maybe a bit more, before the truck came and dumped off the bundles....11 bundles of 10, 1 bundle of 11. I shakily got out of the van and went to load them up into my vehicle...got about 4 bundles loaded and just stopped and stared at them for a minute. I was so cold and miserable I couldn't even think. Even dressed as I was, even having sat in the car, my toes and fingers were in deep pain from being frozen.
I just couldn't do it. I just couldn't. So I unloaded the 4 bundles again, called the office and left a message that I was sick. Came home and sent an e-mail to my boss-of-the-week, letting him know I had called in sick, and asking for a smaller route instead, for future days, as cold, timing, snow, and health have been causing problems for me, mostly in terms of finishing on time.
I sat at the computer for an HOUR....and was still frozen. So I filled the tub with water as hot as I could stand (which is pretty hot, I might add) and hopped in. I soaked for at least half an hour....and when I got out, I was STILL frozen in the middle!
It is now 4 hours since I got home, 2 1/2 hours since the bath. I am still a bit chilly, exhausted beyond description, stiff jointed, my muscles are fatigued and sore....and I didn't even DO anything!
I was talking with Husband about how my job (which I have been doing on and off for at least 5 years, minus maternity leave and several weeks of time off due to injury of a wrist and stitches in an ankle)just doesn't seem to be working for me anymore. I used to enjoy it, now I dread it every day. He gave me an option....with a big contract he got recently, if I forego getting my clunker of a car in the spring, then as soon as he gets paid for this contract, I can quit. I am thinking this will be a good idea....I will get full nights of sleep instead of a short sleep plus a nap, and I will have that extra time to work on keeping the house the way it should be and to spend more time with the kids and Husband....and I think it will definitely reduce my fatigue level, boost my health, likely help my mood and my interactions with others....all in all, I'm thinking it would be worth it to stay a one-car-family for awhile longer, in trade for my sanity and health, and focus on being a stay-at-home mom full-time for awhile.
I hope he gets paid quickly.

I Forgot!!!!

I just realised, thanks to an e-mail from a friend, that I never posted about how the show went! Oops!
The show went really well. We had 304 people in the audience, and it seemed to be well received, based on the comments people got afterwards.
Daughter and her friends did a wonderful job as the "Kidz Chorus" and have begged to be allowed to do something like this again. I wholeheartedly agree....they were a great addition to the show and did such an amazing job.
We older folks had a great time, too, and other than the fact that the lighting guys had no clue how to run the lights properly, despite the technical run through the night before, I think it went forward without a hitch. It certainly flew by, time wise! We reached the intermission, and as we were changing, were panicking, thinking maybe we had forgotten a song or something. It was an absolute blast, and my double quartet did a great job of "Silent Night"....my debut as a tenor (I am a lead in the chorus).
Coming up in a few weeks, we (the chorus) are singing at a seniors' home and at the Rotary Carol Festival....it's too bad that one or more of our double quartet will not be coming, or we would have been singing a song at the home! Oh well....maybe the next performance.
I had a few parts where I was out front, ahead of most of the chorus. It was a lot of fun. My first part was as a drunk person hanging out with others in a pub. Considering that is soooooo far from my reality, it was a real hoot, swaggering and swaying as we sang "Oom-Pah-Pah". The second part, right after, I was an orphan, again part of a small group, singing "Where Is Love".

Now....HOW ABOUT THOSE RIDERS!!!!!!!! Woo-hoo!!!!!! We went to a Grey Cup watching party at church last night, where they had it projected on the basement wall and big screens in the sanctuary. Pot luck supper and football. :)
We were hooting and hollering and cheering and groaning....it was a real blast. We were a little concerned at the beginning, and it was a very close game in the end (and for those who don't know, there is a HUGE ongoing rivalry between the Bombers and Roughriders, so the fact they were playing each other for the Grey Cup was excitement enough to start with!), but we sure are proud of our team! They played their hearts out and it paid off. :)
Husband already has his ticket for Grey Cup next year, so all of you out East, get ready, because we are COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Tonight's The Big Night, Julius! Tonight's the Biiig Night!

I always loved the bird saying that particular line in the original "Nutty Professor", the one with Jerry Lewis.
And tonight IS the big night! Tonight Daughter and I take the stage and perform our hearts out for an audience that could be as large as 1000, I think. I can't remember how many seats the theatre has, and I don't know how many tickets were sold and/or how many people are buying them at the door. I do know there will be 4 people in the audience who I sold tickets to. And with 40-something other members of the chorus, plus parents of the "Kidz Choir" (and grandparents, relatives, etc), there are bound to be at least 150, at the most pitiful. (And I highly doubt it will be that small of an audience.)
Daughter is kind of nervous, especially after last night's technical run-thru where she discovered we are having spotlights and such pointed at us at various points. But they have worked so hard, and they are bound to steal the show from us so-called professionals. After all, who can resist a bunch of kids in pj's, holding stuffed animals, and singing really well? :)
I must admit I am not nervous....not yet, anyway. After 6 rounds of competition and 3 or 4 shows, plus the yearly performances at seniors' homes and the carol festival, plus the paid (and unpaid) performances we get now and then, nerves don't really play a big part anymore. We've practiced, we have beaten the songs and choreo and timing and staging to death by this point. We know it, it's ready, if we mess up, oh well. Besides, we also learn how to fake it when something goes wrong so hardly anybody notices if we do. And if they do notice, people are generally good enough to shrug it off and let it slide. It's going to be a lot of fun tonight. I love singing, and I have a little bit of time in the spotlight, though obviously not by myself. It's a big night for me. If we can pull off our little spotlight moment, a number of us have the chance to go on and perform again, together, in future performances, and potentially eventually go on to perform for events! This is apart from the big group, so as I said, this is major stuff for us (and me)....I love it!

What a perfect choice!

I took Daughter to the movies today. We both wanted to see "Mr Bean's Holiday". Now, we went to that one because we liked his silly antics, and were in the mood for mindless giggles. So we arrived, bought our popcorn, junior mints, and drinks, and waited. Much to our surprise, it was the perfect movie for more than the reason we had expected...
The basic plotline is that Mr Bean wins a vacation to Southern France, things go wrong, as they always do, and his trip is much more complicated than he anticipated, but he is determined to get there.
We all know Mr Bean really doesn't say much more than a few muttered lines, most of his work is of the physical nature. But what about the other characters in the movie? To our delight, we found ourselves watching a movie that was essentially in French, with subtitles! For Daughter, who is in French Immersion, it was a real treat, because she got to watch a movie in French, but was still able to understand because her reading is sufficient enough to catch most of the subtitles. For me, I just love French, period, and didn't need the subtitles unless somebody spoke really fast or mumbled.
We both drove home happy, chatting back and forth in a mixture of English and French, with Daughter begging to be allowed to speak only French with me. I, of course, explained that wasn't going to work, since she didn't quite have the vocabulary to do so....but that we could certainly speak in French once in awhile, and eventually she would understand most, if not everything, I would say to her.
I'm sure Husband would appreciate our not always talking in French as well, as he is not really a languages sort of guy,so doesn't know a lot of French, and would probably start worrying that we were plotting a hostile takeover behind his back, in front of his face. LOL
My review of the movie, by the way...it's really good. If you like Mr Bean in any way, shape, or form, definitely see this film. It's cute, it's funny, and it really does have a storyline to it, beyond the getting to Southern France part.

I Did My Part

Yesterday was the provincial election. I put in my vote, and although my candidate did
not win in my riding, the party won the election. I am very happy about this. I am hoping this new premier will be able to keep his promises, and that things will improve in certain areas. At the very least, it is good to have some fresh ideas and new people to take a stab at running this wonderful place we live in. For it IS a wonderful place to be, it is beautiful....it just needs a bit of housekeeping to make it run even smoother. It was nice to see that so many people actually took the initiative this time to give their say. A lot more people voted this time than last time. It is good to see that people are getting out of the mindset of "why bother, my vote will not change anything" (my apostrophe isn,t working today)...in some ridings the results were very close that just a few people COULD have changed the results if they had simply chosen not to vote.
I have a full blown head cold today...got it from my poor family, 2 of which are down with bronchitis. I looooooove Vicks Vaporub. And Buckleys. Yes, Buckleys. I love that stuff. I seriously don't understand why everyone says it's so bad!
The kids are now home from school for a 5 day weekend. Luckily for me, it snowed last night. :) They are happily frolicking around the backyard with Dog while I get a few things done. When they tire of that, maybe I'll get them (hey! it's working again!) to play on the Wii or something, and then Daughter can watch Belle et la Bete, which she borrowed from the library. She's doing great with her French.
I have created a new plan for my days, to help myself get back on track (in combination with an herbal supplement that boosts your mood). If I can follow it, even loosely, I should hopefully have the house clean and running smoothly in a couple of weeks, and be feeling more rested, too. I get to be a kid and take naps after lunch. Hee hee.
Anyway, I'd better get going on following this plan of mine....running a bit off schedule. Today I hope to get the upstairs, maybe minus the kitchen, done before lunch. Wish me luck! :)

Sick and tired...

of being sick and tired. I have not been feeling well for about a month now. Up and down, between colds, coughs, general feeling green, aches, pains, exhaustion...some days are better than others. Today is not one of them. Sometimes I think it would be easier if I had cancer or something, because then I'd have a definite SOMETHING to blame it all on....but then I retract that thought because nobody REALLY wants cancer.
I think this is my version of a mid-life crisis. I have no energy, no motivation to do the stuff I need to be doing, no "oomph". I don't enjoy doing papers anymore, I don't want to cook, clean, eat, or do anything at all. I want to sleep forever, or at least for about 3 days straight, not have to worry about the kids, Husband, Dog, or cats, not have to do ANYTHING. Every muscle and joint in my body hurts. Emotionally I'm feeling a little tender, but that's also related in part to the feeling sick, sore, and tired.
But I don't get to take a day off. It's not in the job description of Mom/wife/homemaker/substitute paper carrier. If I don't do the job, the world crumbles. Kids don't get fed/dressed/off to school, house doesn't get cleaned, dishes don't get washed, laundry doesn't get done, animals don't get cared for, people don't get their papers on time and I get the complaints when I return to work, even though it was somebody else doing the papers on the day they are complaining about. And of course if I don't work, I don't get paid, and as Husband has made fairly clear, if I want a rust bucket to drive around in the spring, I have to work forever. If I don't get the rustbucket, I still have to work until April. I feel trapped.
On top of home life is everything else. It's like that song on "Oklahoma".....I'm just a girl who can't say no. I am the one who takes Dog to obedience class, I help lead the singing on Sundays every few weeks, which means a practice on Wednesday nights, then being at church 9:30 Sunday for a run through, getting out at 12:30 (at which point we have a quick-ish lunch and then drive Daughter to her chorus practice at 2) and having to be back again at 5:30 for the evening service which goes until about 8. If Husband is working, I have to get Daughter to Sparks one night a week. The kids have gymnastics once a week. I have chorus practice for 3 hours each week. I am on the Board, so that's another evening gone each month. I recently put together the programme for the upcoming show. I have been asked to help with Membership, I am going to be helping with the fitness challenge at chorus. I'm getting to the point where I wish I could just tell everyone, including my household, to just screw it, and then just walk away. But that wouldn't be very nice, now would it? Oh well. Maybe one of these days I'll snap and they'll put me in a mental hospital where I can get some rest. Insanity never sounded so good.

We-Are-Fa-mily

On a day like today, when I am coming down with something like the flu, it's always nice to find something happy to talk about. Today is just a short one. This summer, i was privileged to attend a family reunion. Coming from a small family (Mom, Dad, 4 grandparents, 1 uncle, 1 aunt, 2 cousins, 2 siblings, I had to marry into a big family to attend one. :) It was a lot of fun, and I got to be a part of the family photo. I will attach it for your pleasure. :)

Sorry if it's sideways....if I figure it out, I'll fix it later.