I can officially agree with the saying "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired".
It's something that I suppose has been creeping up for awhile, likely about the past 6 months, but just kind of came to a head about a week and a half ago.
Last Tuesday, I found myself exhausted to the point that simple things like walking up 13 stairs or putting a few plates away left me panting and weak as anything. I also had a headache that had lasted about 2 days, with no relief in sight, despite efforts to stop it. So I grudgingly headed off to the doctor on Wednesday morning.
Anyone who knows me knows that going to the doctor ranks right up there with an enema. I hate going and would do pretty much anything to avoid going. Especially since it seems like every time I go, they find NOTHING wrong with me.
Not this time.
I sat on the little table and told my little tale of woe. He hooked me up to the blood pressure monitor and lo and behold, I had a pressure of 152/100. Not good. At all. I knew in the back of my mind that I should have been watching it better. The last time I went for a basic check up, the doctor said it was high. But I figured I'd do it by myself, just get it down, no problem. Guess not.
So he put me on a prescription and had me go for blood and urine tests. Took the tests Wednesday night. I got a call Saturday afternoon. I needed to come back in to see him about the results. He would be there Sunday afternoon. Great. I had been told the ONLY reason I'd get that call was if they found something. So I had roughly 24 hours to stew over what on earth was wrong with me, what had they found.
Meanwhile I was still not feeling any better, despite my blood pressure decreasing nicely each day. Energy levels were at 5% at best, dizzy as all anything...not nice.
Sunday night, there I sat, back on the little table. My cholesterol is high. This is not only a problem in itself, but of course, that will help cause high blood pressure and do I want to die of a heart attack. Of course not. I'm 34. Anyway.
Also, my iron is practically non-existent. Have I been having any issues with you-know-what? Well...yes...for about 6 months, I guess.
This little meeting lands me three more prescriptions and a referral to a specialist. Meaning I am now having to take a total of 4 prescriptions...5 pills a day, at various different times. Believe me, that was the night I created a checklist chart, to help remember what to take when and to keep track of whether or not I had in fact taken them yet.
Bounce forward to Wednesday morning. I get a call from the specialist's office. Can I come in on Friday morning? You betcha. So I pencil in the appointment.
Today I check out the address on Google maps to make sure I know where I am going, and also check into this specialist's name. Now I am unhappy.
I am finally starting to get some energy back (I'd say I'm at about 25%), so that's good. My issue is with what tomorrow will bring. You see, the doctor is an ob/gyn. And the doctor is a man.
I have a slight inkling of how invasive this appointment will be. We are talking pap, we are talking taking inner flesh samples, possibly ultrasounds and/or little cameras and/or who knows what else. As it is, I am ultra-uncomfortable with the whole concept and will run screaming at every opportunity from most of the above....but the fact that it will be a man performing such personal actions makes it that much worse.
My hubby says I am being silly, that if he were in my situation, he would be just fine because the specialist is qualified and such....but I don't think he has any right to say such a thing unless he is in a similar situation. I know the specialist is qualified. I know there is nothing "wrong" in it....but I really wish it could be a woman, you know, someone who could identify personally with the whole process and all the body parts involved.
I am definitely looking forward to the end of all this...the point when all issues have been identified, everything has been treated to satisfaction, and I have recovered all my energy and well-feeling-ness. But tomorrow will be a toughie.I don't know what is wrong with that part of me.
And I am scared.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Home Renos
We have been under siege the last month or so...thanks to a very kind grandmother, we have had a pile of renovations done to our house.
It has been, to put it mildly, a nuthouse.
But we are very, very pleased with the results. We started out with the driveway looking like this:
Then we had rubber paving done, which took about a week, maybe a day or two more. So our house and driveway looked like this:
Very nice, but the siding was wood, the paint was peeling, and we needed new gutters and soffits, as well as windows. That was another week and a half. They worked very, very hard and did an amazing job, as you can see in these progressive pictures:
I really like the colour I chose for the house. :)
Isn't it beautiful?
Once that was all done, we had our living room, hallway, and one bedroom floors redone. The carpet was a medium grey, short pile. Original one, I suspect, so it would have been my age...and was FULL of stains that would not come out. The bedroom was a nice green, but a cat was accidentally shut in there and not only soiled it all over but he dug a hole right through it, trying to get out while we were away. I don't have photos yet, but it is now a beautiful dark brown wood laminate.
The poor animals don't know what to think. It's like watching curling some days, they come roaring up the stairs, hit the floor, and sliiiiiiiiiiiide all the way across the room. :-D
When we can afford it, I think our next big project will be the back fence. It needs a makeover. Badly.
It has been, to put it mildly, a nuthouse.
But we are very, very pleased with the results. We started out with the driveway looking like this:
Then we had rubber paving done, which took about a week, maybe a day or two more. So our house and driveway looked like this:
Very nice, but the siding was wood, the paint was peeling, and we needed new gutters and soffits, as well as windows. That was another week and a half. They worked very, very hard and did an amazing job, as you can see in these progressive pictures:
I really like the colour I chose for the house. :)
Isn't it beautiful?
Once that was all done, we had our living room, hallway, and one bedroom floors redone. The carpet was a medium grey, short pile. Original one, I suspect, so it would have been my age...and was FULL of stains that would not come out. The bedroom was a nice green, but a cat was accidentally shut in there and not only soiled it all over but he dug a hole right through it, trying to get out while we were away. I don't have photos yet, but it is now a beautiful dark brown wood laminate.
The poor animals don't know what to think. It's like watching curling some days, they come roaring up the stairs, hit the floor, and sliiiiiiiiiiiide all the way across the room. :-D
When we can afford it, I think our next big project will be the back fence. It needs a makeover. Badly.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Hoarders
Has anyone else seen the show on TLC, called Hoarders?
I started watching this a few months ago, and had to come to a few tough realizations about myself.
Hello, my name is Deborah, and I am a hoarder.
Thankfully I have not reached the level that the people on this show reach by the time they are on camera, but I must admit, looking around, and watching the show, not only could I see that I had become one of THEM, but, boy, could I empathize with them. I knew exactly how they felt as they dug through their piles of belongings, trying desperately to figure out what to keep, and what to let go of.
A few months ago, my husband convinced me to essentially take a dare...if I could fill up a dumpster that he would arrange to have dropped off in our driveway for a week...a 14 foot one..he would get plane tickets for myself and the kids to go on a flight to visit a dear friend of mine.
It was a painful week, in some ways, but also a good week. We did manage to fill up the dumpster, and, to my shock and horror, even after getting rid of (no joke) a literal tonne of stuff, we still have a LOT of stuff in the house that I am constantly having to clean up, sort, or hide away. I am trying hard to keep at it, to learn to let go of things....but it's really hard when everything either has a use, a memory, or an emotional attachment.
I have several rooms that I have managed to keep somewhat under control lately, but there are a lot of rooms that, well, still need a lot of work.
That week was painful in shock waves, too...there was the initial getting-rid-of-useful-stuff painfulness, then the pain of Son realizing he had mistakenly put a favourite book in there, moments after they had hauled it away...and then several weeks later, the realization that in getting rid of a bunch of old VHS tapes that had stuff we had recorded on them, I had accidentally gotten rid of the one that had Daughter's baby videos on it. That one still hurts, but I know in the big picture, the main thing is that I have Daughter...and the memories are there in my head. I just wish I could have shown HER the videos.
In any case...that is my current challenge...to finish what I started and not get discouraged. Bit by bit, I'm hoping to sort through the entire house, including those scary spots that have ended up being danger zones...you know...the walk-in closet where everything gets shoved just before company arrives, the little cupboard where all the stuff goes "until I find a proper place for it"...places like that.
Wish me luck. Eventually, I will get a handle on this, and then maybe I won't have to clean for 4 hours a day, just to turn around and find it's all messed up again.
I started watching this a few months ago, and had to come to a few tough realizations about myself.
Hello, my name is Deborah, and I am a hoarder.
Thankfully I have not reached the level that the people on this show reach by the time they are on camera, but I must admit, looking around, and watching the show, not only could I see that I had become one of THEM, but, boy, could I empathize with them. I knew exactly how they felt as they dug through their piles of belongings, trying desperately to figure out what to keep, and what to let go of.
A few months ago, my husband convinced me to essentially take a dare...if I could fill up a dumpster that he would arrange to have dropped off in our driveway for a week...a 14 foot one..he would get plane tickets for myself and the kids to go on a flight to visit a dear friend of mine.
It was a painful week, in some ways, but also a good week. We did manage to fill up the dumpster, and, to my shock and horror, even after getting rid of (no joke) a literal tonne of stuff, we still have a LOT of stuff in the house that I am constantly having to clean up, sort, or hide away. I am trying hard to keep at it, to learn to let go of things....but it's really hard when everything either has a use, a memory, or an emotional attachment.
I have several rooms that I have managed to keep somewhat under control lately, but there are a lot of rooms that, well, still need a lot of work.
That week was painful in shock waves, too...there was the initial getting-rid-of-useful-stuff painfulness, then the pain of Son realizing he had mistakenly put a favourite book in there, moments after they had hauled it away...and then several weeks later, the realization that in getting rid of a bunch of old VHS tapes that had stuff we had recorded on them, I had accidentally gotten rid of the one that had Daughter's baby videos on it. That one still hurts, but I know in the big picture, the main thing is that I have Daughter...and the memories are there in my head. I just wish I could have shown HER the videos.
In any case...that is my current challenge...to finish what I started and not get discouraged. Bit by bit, I'm hoping to sort through the entire house, including those scary spots that have ended up being danger zones...you know...the walk-in closet where everything gets shoved just before company arrives, the little cupboard where all the stuff goes "until I find a proper place for it"...places like that.
Wish me luck. Eventually, I will get a handle on this, and then maybe I won't have to clean for 4 hours a day, just to turn around and find it's all messed up again.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Springtime Fun
I realize I have an on-again-off-again relationship with my blog. Part of it, I suppose, is that there are so many things that go on in life, that time just passes by in a blur sometimes, and you find yourself, months later, going "ohhhh yeaaahhhh....I have a BLOG!"
In any case....here I am once again.
Last month, Daughter and I once again ran the 5km I Love Regina Run. Or I suppose I should say, she ran it, I kind of chugged along behind. I figure she finished at least 5 minutes ahead of me, and I clocked in at about the same as last year....about 45 minutes, though I can't prove it because their timer was broken....I was just going by what my clock said, not knowing for sure exactly what moment the run began (9:00...9:05...8:55...). She did really well, considering we really didn't train at all this spring, with it being cold and snowy and rainy pretty much the whole time preceding the run. I, on the other hand, am proud of myself for finishing, and for never stopping my slow jog at all, except to retie a shoe. On the downside, I know full well that I jog r-e-a-l-l-y slowly...I was passed by a few walkers (as in, people who were walking....I am at least faster than people using the equipment by that name). Ah well. Next year we will attempt it once more, and hopefully I will be a good deal lighter and much more in shape, so will have less luggage to haul along with me, and be able to step things up a bit.
Now that spring is FINALLY in the air, and things are growing (such as my strawberry plants, raspberry bush, crabapples, and more dandelions than the mind can imagine), we have been able to get out and have some fun. For example, this weekend, we loaded up the van with a multitude of camping gear and the dog, and took the kids down to Carnduff for a geocaching event. It was raining on the drive down, so we were somewhat nervous about the weather we would be out in, but it turned out to probably be the best possible weather....cloudy, but not rainy, and not hot and sunny.
We set up our three tents, looking for all the world like a new version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears (we had a small tent, a medium tent, and a large tent) in the smallest campground I have ever seen. It actually worked out really well because there was a larger one down the road, which was therefore more appealing to others and which meant we more or less had the place to ourselves. There were 12 plots, and we took up about 1 1/4. There were two campers and one other tent the entire time we were there....and as far as I could figure, one camper and one tent belonged to the guys who were renovating the bathrooms (kudos to them for timing their work during the day so there was at least one toilet available and getting done before bedtime), and the other camper belonged to someone who worked at the convenience store on the other side of the trees. In that sense, it was a nice, quiet time on the campground. I must admit nighttime was not all THAT quiet, being close to the main road and having one night where some drunken revellers parked their truck just on the other side of the trees by the convenience store...but at dusk and dawn you could hear the birds singing and with so few campers it was a peaceful, non-crowded time. No frills, but didn't really need them.
Anyway...geocaching...it was a great weekend. We picked the kids up from school and headed straight out, with food that required no prep or refrigeration (except that night's supper, which had been removed from the fridge and was consumed very quickly during the drive....one of those Superstore chicken meals, split up into individual containers so I could just hand them out). I think it was about a 3 1/2 hour trip down there. We set up our tents around 8PM or so and just relaxed for the night.
Saturday morning, we were up early. About 6AM, though Son and I were up around 5. Breakfast was cinnamon buns and juice (and kibble for the dog). At 7:45AM, we met at someone's house for a Flash Mob, and to get the coordinates for all the caches that had been released that morning (I think there were 12). 8AM and we were off. We had also loaded the coordinates of all the old caches, since we had never been to Carnduff before. We raced all around the area, to farms, through fields, into parks, up the highways, and had a blast. Our first cache of the day, two other teams had beaten us there, but our second attempt netted us an FTF (First To Find), and we were thrilled. Our next two attempts at caches, we arrived at about the same time as another team (same team, both times). We searched and searched for the first of the two, with no success, until one of the other team almost accidentally shifted something....and found it. We were so close, but they got the FTF. The second one was hilarious...we took different dirt roads, and we got there moments before they did. They went roaring down their road about 100 metres too far, reversed and roared to the spot, while we parked, jumped out, and absolutely RACED through a grassy field (like, knee high grass), laughing so hard we could hardly breathe, squealing, trying to get there first. Both teams searched like mad, but in the end, they got that FTF as well...I must have touched it with my hand but not realized it because they found it in a spot I had checked. Oh well.
We found one cache where we ended up off-roading in a minivan, bumping through a field, next to a herd of cows (they were fenced separately), and through a section of grass later on in the off-roading that was up to the hood of the van. We had a blast!!!
Yes, we did end up with a few passengers during the day...I think I had the worst of it, with 4 or 5 ticks at last count..but we found them and evicted them before they really latched on.
We started caching, as I said, about 8AM. We took about an hour break for lunch (amazing what you can find to pack for meals that doesn't need refrigeration)...individual tuna and cracker packs, juice, strawberries...and had a bit of a rest, then headed out again, caching until about 4:30PM. We managed to log 20 caches for the day...a best for us, in terms of being out as a family unit. Hubby logged something like 25 once, when he was out all by himself in a fairly cache-dense area of Ontario.
At 5PM, all the cachers who came for the event returned to the location of the Flash Mob for a potluck BBQ. Prizes were handed out for FTFs (we got a new cache container), and lots of door prizes were given out. Caching stories were exchanged and suggestions for people to attend other caching events were given (there are some pretty cool places and events apparently in Manitoba and in the south (like Arizona) that would be interesting to attend one year).
We returned to our tents around 6:30PM and relaxed for the rest of the evening. Slept like the dead and then got up at 6 this morning, tore down our camp, ate muffins and juice, and left the campsite around 7:15AM. We arrived home at around 11AM. It was sunny when we woke up, so it was really nice for taking the tents down.
In other news, I did manage to get myself onto a School Board sub list....not the one where I live, but an outlying one, so although I have to drive 30-60 minutes each way to sub, at least in time it should give me enough experience to make my local board happy and get them to hire me...maybe by early 2011. I've only subbed a grand total of 1.5 days so far, (I need 2 months' worth, full time, to be considered by the local Board) but in the Fall, I will be able to sub full days, which will help not only increase the time I will be in the schools with each call, but increase the calls as well.
And my parents got a new dog. Her name is Polar. Isn't she cute? :)
In any case....here I am once again.
Last month, Daughter and I once again ran the 5km I Love Regina Run. Or I suppose I should say, she ran it, I kind of chugged along behind. I figure she finished at least 5 minutes ahead of me, and I clocked in at about the same as last year....about 45 minutes, though I can't prove it because their timer was broken....I was just going by what my clock said, not knowing for sure exactly what moment the run began (9:00...9:05...8:55...). She did really well, considering we really didn't train at all this spring, with it being cold and snowy and rainy pretty much the whole time preceding the run. I, on the other hand, am proud of myself for finishing, and for never stopping my slow jog at all, except to retie a shoe. On the downside, I know full well that I jog r-e-a-l-l-y slowly...I was passed by a few walkers (as in, people who were walking....I am at least faster than people using the equipment by that name). Ah well. Next year we will attempt it once more, and hopefully I will be a good deal lighter and much more in shape, so will have less luggage to haul along with me, and be able to step things up a bit.
Now that spring is FINALLY in the air, and things are growing (such as my strawberry plants, raspberry bush, crabapples, and more dandelions than the mind can imagine), we have been able to get out and have some fun. For example, this weekend, we loaded up the van with a multitude of camping gear and the dog, and took the kids down to Carnduff for a geocaching event. It was raining on the drive down, so we were somewhat nervous about the weather we would be out in, but it turned out to probably be the best possible weather....cloudy, but not rainy, and not hot and sunny.
We set up our three tents, looking for all the world like a new version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears (we had a small tent, a medium tent, and a large tent) in the smallest campground I have ever seen. It actually worked out really well because there was a larger one down the road, which was therefore more appealing to others and which meant we more or less had the place to ourselves. There were 12 plots, and we took up about 1 1/4. There were two campers and one other tent the entire time we were there....and as far as I could figure, one camper and one tent belonged to the guys who were renovating the bathrooms (kudos to them for timing their work during the day so there was at least one toilet available and getting done before bedtime), and the other camper belonged to someone who worked at the convenience store on the other side of the trees. In that sense, it was a nice, quiet time on the campground. I must admit nighttime was not all THAT quiet, being close to the main road and having one night where some drunken revellers parked their truck just on the other side of the trees by the convenience store...but at dusk and dawn you could hear the birds singing and with so few campers it was a peaceful, non-crowded time. No frills, but didn't really need them.
Anyway...geocaching...it was a great weekend. We picked the kids up from school and headed straight out, with food that required no prep or refrigeration (except that night's supper, which had been removed from the fridge and was consumed very quickly during the drive....one of those Superstore chicken meals, split up into individual containers so I could just hand them out). I think it was about a 3 1/2 hour trip down there. We set up our tents around 8PM or so and just relaxed for the night.
Saturday morning, we were up early. About 6AM, though Son and I were up around 5. Breakfast was cinnamon buns and juice (and kibble for the dog). At 7:45AM, we met at someone's house for a Flash Mob, and to get the coordinates for all the caches that had been released that morning (I think there were 12). 8AM and we were off. We had also loaded the coordinates of all the old caches, since we had never been to Carnduff before. We raced all around the area, to farms, through fields, into parks, up the highways, and had a blast. Our first cache of the day, two other teams had beaten us there, but our second attempt netted us an FTF (First To Find), and we were thrilled. Our next two attempts at caches, we arrived at about the same time as another team (same team, both times). We searched and searched for the first of the two, with no success, until one of the other team almost accidentally shifted something....and found it. We were so close, but they got the FTF. The second one was hilarious...we took different dirt roads, and we got there moments before they did. They went roaring down their road about 100 metres too far, reversed and roared to the spot, while we parked, jumped out, and absolutely RACED through a grassy field (like, knee high grass), laughing so hard we could hardly breathe, squealing, trying to get there first. Both teams searched like mad, but in the end, they got that FTF as well...I must have touched it with my hand but not realized it because they found it in a spot I had checked. Oh well.
We found one cache where we ended up off-roading in a minivan, bumping through a field, next to a herd of cows (they were fenced separately), and through a section of grass later on in the off-roading that was up to the hood of the van. We had a blast!!!
Yes, we did end up with a few passengers during the day...I think I had the worst of it, with 4 or 5 ticks at last count..but we found them and evicted them before they really latched on.
We started caching, as I said, about 8AM. We took about an hour break for lunch (amazing what you can find to pack for meals that doesn't need refrigeration)...individual tuna and cracker packs, juice, strawberries...and had a bit of a rest, then headed out again, caching until about 4:30PM. We managed to log 20 caches for the day...a best for us, in terms of being out as a family unit. Hubby logged something like 25 once, when he was out all by himself in a fairly cache-dense area of Ontario.
At 5PM, all the cachers who came for the event returned to the location of the Flash Mob for a potluck BBQ. Prizes were handed out for FTFs (we got a new cache container), and lots of door prizes were given out. Caching stories were exchanged and suggestions for people to attend other caching events were given (there are some pretty cool places and events apparently in Manitoba and in the south (like Arizona) that would be interesting to attend one year).
We returned to our tents around 6:30PM and relaxed for the rest of the evening. Slept like the dead and then got up at 6 this morning, tore down our camp, ate muffins and juice, and left the campsite around 7:15AM. We arrived home at around 11AM. It was sunny when we woke up, so it was really nice for taking the tents down.
In other news, I did manage to get myself onto a School Board sub list....not the one where I live, but an outlying one, so although I have to drive 30-60 minutes each way to sub, at least in time it should give me enough experience to make my local board happy and get them to hire me...maybe by early 2011. I've only subbed a grand total of 1.5 days so far, (I need 2 months' worth, full time, to be considered by the local Board) but in the Fall, I will be able to sub full days, which will help not only increase the time I will be in the schools with each call, but increase the calls as well.
And my parents got a new dog. Her name is Polar. Isn't she cute? :)
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Busy-ness and Business
It has once again been quite awhile since I posted. I have this terrible habit of thinking to myself "I really should share that on my blog", and then completely forgetting.
In expectation of returning to work in the fall, I contacted my children's school, to see if I could volunteer, you know, kind of get my name known, my foot in the door, since it has been awhile since I was last a teacher. The principal was thrilled but suggested I try applying right away to become a substitute, as they are DESPERATE for French Immersion subs. So I figured, hey, why not, and contacted the head honcho of subbing (not her actual title, but you know what I mean). I was told that I would not be considered for the sub list unless I got more experience, since I have been a stay-at-home mom for 9 years. Talk about your catch-22 situation...I can't get the job because I need more recent experience, but I can't get that experience if I can't get the JOB!!! So I have begun volunteering at the school. I have a feeling it will not do me any good, as the teachers don't really have me doing much rigorous teaching. Mostly just reading with the kids, evaluating their reading, and in some cases helping them learn their alphabet and letter sounds. But I will do it to the end of the school year, just in case. And I have also applied to a school board for the schools in the outlying communities. They sounded like they would consider me, but I find myself in a holding pattern at the moment, as I have not heard back from them in about a week.
In my frustration with the fact that it seemed that all doors were being slammed in my face (there was a period of about a month where everything went wrong as far as my attempts to get paperwork together and such went for teaching applications...references moved or deceased, school divisions who have no record of me "because our records don't go back that far", the whole "get more experience, but we won't hire you" issue...things like that), I had decided that maybe teaching was not where I am supposed to be. I still reserve the right to that opinion, though now that things seem to be moving a little bit (with the school board that MIGHT hire me as a sub), I am willing to give it another chance, if they will give that chance to me.
But if they don't, I decided to try another path. I wanted to do something where my job would be something I LIKED to do, pay or not. So I have started my own business.
I call it Fruits and Flours. I make Montreal style bagels, buns, bread, jams, and jellies. I'm having a blast, and have some neat bread pans, so I can make smaller loaves, or even baby loaves. It isn't making money yet, but then, it's only been open about 3 weeks. I've had 9 orders so far, and only one negative response, and even then, it was more of a preference thing. So I continue to get everyone hooked, one bagel at a time. LOL (Shameless plug: www.fruitsandflours.webs.com)
So now, I am trying desperately to squeak in some time to exercise, especially since the annual Fun Run is coming up at the end of May, and I promised Daughter we would do the 5K again. It's not working so well yet...I get up, read my e-mail, weigh in, have breakfast, dress, clean, bake, eat lunch, volunteer, bake, cook, eat supper, clean, crash. Occasionally have an evening event or have to shuttle kids to an evening thing. So with my business and my attempts to get back into teaching, I'm finding BUSY-ness is taking over my life.
Given a choice, I'd be happy to drop the volunteering and cleaning and just eat, sleep, bake, and sing. :) Ah well. That's what retirement is for, I guess!
In expectation of returning to work in the fall, I contacted my children's school, to see if I could volunteer, you know, kind of get my name known, my foot in the door, since it has been awhile since I was last a teacher. The principal was thrilled but suggested I try applying right away to become a substitute, as they are DESPERATE for French Immersion subs. So I figured, hey, why not, and contacted the head honcho of subbing (not her actual title, but you know what I mean). I was told that I would not be considered for the sub list unless I got more experience, since I have been a stay-at-home mom for 9 years. Talk about your catch-22 situation...I can't get the job because I need more recent experience, but I can't get that experience if I can't get the JOB!!! So I have begun volunteering at the school. I have a feeling it will not do me any good, as the teachers don't really have me doing much rigorous teaching. Mostly just reading with the kids, evaluating their reading, and in some cases helping them learn their alphabet and letter sounds. But I will do it to the end of the school year, just in case. And I have also applied to a school board for the schools in the outlying communities. They sounded like they would consider me, but I find myself in a holding pattern at the moment, as I have not heard back from them in about a week.
In my frustration with the fact that it seemed that all doors were being slammed in my face (there was a period of about a month where everything went wrong as far as my attempts to get paperwork together and such went for teaching applications...references moved or deceased, school divisions who have no record of me "because our records don't go back that far", the whole "get more experience, but we won't hire you" issue...things like that), I had decided that maybe teaching was not where I am supposed to be. I still reserve the right to that opinion, though now that things seem to be moving a little bit (with the school board that MIGHT hire me as a sub), I am willing to give it another chance, if they will give that chance to me.
But if they don't, I decided to try another path. I wanted to do something where my job would be something I LIKED to do, pay or not. So I have started my own business.
I call it Fruits and Flours. I make Montreal style bagels, buns, bread, jams, and jellies. I'm having a blast, and have some neat bread pans, so I can make smaller loaves, or even baby loaves. It isn't making money yet, but then, it's only been open about 3 weeks. I've had 9 orders so far, and only one negative response, and even then, it was more of a preference thing. So I continue to get everyone hooked, one bagel at a time. LOL (Shameless plug: www.fruitsandflours.webs.com)
So now, I am trying desperately to squeak in some time to exercise, especially since the annual Fun Run is coming up at the end of May, and I promised Daughter we would do the 5K again. It's not working so well yet...I get up, read my e-mail, weigh in, have breakfast, dress, clean, bake, eat lunch, volunteer, bake, cook, eat supper, clean, crash. Occasionally have an evening event or have to shuttle kids to an evening thing. So with my business and my attempts to get back into teaching, I'm finding BUSY-ness is taking over my life.
Given a choice, I'd be happy to drop the volunteering and cleaning and just eat, sleep, bake, and sing. :) Ah well. That's what retirement is for, I guess!
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
A Full House for Christmas
It has been quite awhile since I last posted. Since Christmas has come and gone, I figure I have something to write about. It certainly was an adventure.
I think the excitement started on December 20th. If you discount all the parties and concerts and all the usual "stuff" that goes with every Christmas in a family with kids and jobs and teams and such.
On December 20th, my sister and brother-in-law arrived. Not bad. Put in the table extender, we now number 6 people.
On December 22nd, my brother arrived. Getting full. Added another table, one more chair, we now number 7. My living room is full any time we want to watch TV or a movie or play Wii, with kitchen chairs or people sitting on the floor.
On December 24th, my in-laws arrive. THEY are thankfully staying in a hotel, but I am still in charge of feeding them. Add 2 chairs to the second table. We now number 9. It's getting a little stressful.
On December 25th, my parents arrive for the day. Add 2 more chairs. 5 at one table, 6 at the other. I am feeding 11 people for supper and there is no space to move in the living room. The two tables plus people basically fill my kitchen. We serve buffet style, with tv tables set up in two spots so half can get theirs in one spot, the rest can get their food at the other.
All in all, it went well. The food turned out, the 17 pound turkey was pretty close to being the perfect size, leaving only the equivalent of probably 7 hot turkey sandwiches' worth of meat, everyone had enough and enjoyed it.
I won't be doing it again, though. It was great to see everyone, it was great to have everything turn out, but it was SO MUCH WORK, and a lot of worry and too little space. Next year will be a very small Christmas...just me, Hubby, Son, and Daughter. (And Dog and Cat 1 and Cat 2)
My parents went home Christmas Day at night. Down to 9 for Boxing Day. Went shopping, out for lunch, relaxed, fed everybody. Daughter got sick. Had a headache, threw up X3, super dizzy, temperature of 102.8F under the armpit. Children's Tylenol, lots of water, darkness, and rest, and a 30 minute chat with the health nurse on the phone, and she was better the next morning.
In-laws said goodbye that night, left early the next morning. And then there were 7.
All but Hubby and Daughter went to church on the 27th in the morning. Said goodbye to sister and brother-in-law in the parking lot afterwards, they hopped in their car and drove off to spend a week at my parents'. And then there were 5.
Relaxed and watched many TV shows and such, then took brother to the bus station for his 13:15 bus on the 28th. Went to Superstore, bought snacks, kids and I watch movies all afternoon. All are exhausted and glad to have to house back.
Now we return to normal life, cleaning up and rearranging everything back to family-of-four status.
All in all, it went quite well. There were some glitches, some personality issues, as there will be with that many people in one space who are not normally together in said space....but we made it.
Next big-group adventure....Disneyland. :)
I think the excitement started on December 20th. If you discount all the parties and concerts and all the usual "stuff" that goes with every Christmas in a family with kids and jobs and teams and such.
On December 20th, my sister and brother-in-law arrived. Not bad. Put in the table extender, we now number 6 people.
On December 22nd, my brother arrived. Getting full. Added another table, one more chair, we now number 7. My living room is full any time we want to watch TV or a movie or play Wii, with kitchen chairs or people sitting on the floor.
On December 24th, my in-laws arrive. THEY are thankfully staying in a hotel, but I am still in charge of feeding them. Add 2 chairs to the second table. We now number 9. It's getting a little stressful.
On December 25th, my parents arrive for the day. Add 2 more chairs. 5 at one table, 6 at the other. I am feeding 11 people for supper and there is no space to move in the living room. The two tables plus people basically fill my kitchen. We serve buffet style, with tv tables set up in two spots so half can get theirs in one spot, the rest can get their food at the other.
All in all, it went well. The food turned out, the 17 pound turkey was pretty close to being the perfect size, leaving only the equivalent of probably 7 hot turkey sandwiches' worth of meat, everyone had enough and enjoyed it.
I won't be doing it again, though. It was great to see everyone, it was great to have everything turn out, but it was SO MUCH WORK, and a lot of worry and too little space. Next year will be a very small Christmas...just me, Hubby, Son, and Daughter. (And Dog and Cat 1 and Cat 2)
My parents went home Christmas Day at night. Down to 9 for Boxing Day. Went shopping, out for lunch, relaxed, fed everybody. Daughter got sick. Had a headache, threw up X3, super dizzy, temperature of 102.8F under the armpit. Children's Tylenol, lots of water, darkness, and rest, and a 30 minute chat with the health nurse on the phone, and she was better the next morning.
In-laws said goodbye that night, left early the next morning. And then there were 7.
All but Hubby and Daughter went to church on the 27th in the morning. Said goodbye to sister and brother-in-law in the parking lot afterwards, they hopped in their car and drove off to spend a week at my parents'. And then there were 5.
Relaxed and watched many TV shows and such, then took brother to the bus station for his 13:15 bus on the 28th. Went to Superstore, bought snacks, kids and I watch movies all afternoon. All are exhausted and glad to have to house back.
Now we return to normal life, cleaning up and rearranging everything back to family-of-four status.
All in all, it went quite well. There were some glitches, some personality issues, as there will be with that many people in one space who are not normally together in said space....but we made it.
Next big-group adventure....Disneyland. :)
Friday, October 2, 2009
Sanctuary from WHOM?
I wrote in my last blog that I would revisit a certain topic, specifically that of the birds in the local bird sanctuary. My friend and I went to see the birds, and to feed them big bags of bread crumbs. The sanctuary is a fairy large, fenced enclosure, with walkways, lots of trees, a nice big pond with fake waterfall, a very nice, supposedly peaceful place to go, see the birds who happen to have landed at that particular moment in the season.
The problem with this particular trip is that there were a lot of birds with very gruesome injuries that day. There were lots of Canada geese with broken wings, at least one with a broken ankle. The same was seen in some huge, gorgeous, white swans. The ducks seemed okay, as did the grumpy looking, sleepy pelican. But these poor geese and swans. The first one I saw, I thought maybe he was the runt or something, and the others had attacked him. But then there were more, and more, and MORE...and we noticed that the angles of these broken wings and ankle were all the same, all very...odd. Not the kind of breaks you would expect from birds attacking birds. And definitely not in that large a number.
My guess is that some stupid people, be they drunk, stoned, or just plain rotten, went into this supposedly safe place for the birds, and thought it would be funny to catch them and purposefully break their wings. It wasn't funny, whoever you are. It was horrible, it was mean, it was criminal, it was torture, and will continue to be torture for all those poor birds. Now they will never heal because of the angles of those breaks, now they will never be able to fly again, and therefore they will die when winter comes. What hard-hearted, selfish monsters do that to animals?
And what about the parents with young children who went in there to have a fun day with the kids, to show them the nice birds, and then have to try to explain the scene worthy of a horror movie to these little kids, who, as all kids do, start asking questions about why that bird is holding its arm out and up and pointing that way, and what about that one and that one and that one and so on?
I took my friend there to show her what a neat place it was, but we ended up leaving sad, angry, and horrified.
I really hope the city has some sort of resource to help these poor birds that have suffered this horrible fate....but unfortunately, I kind of doubt it.
The problem with this particular trip is that there were a lot of birds with very gruesome injuries that day. There were lots of Canada geese with broken wings, at least one with a broken ankle. The same was seen in some huge, gorgeous, white swans. The ducks seemed okay, as did the grumpy looking, sleepy pelican. But these poor geese and swans. The first one I saw, I thought maybe he was the runt or something, and the others had attacked him. But then there were more, and more, and MORE...and we noticed that the angles of these broken wings and ankle were all the same, all very...odd. Not the kind of breaks you would expect from birds attacking birds. And definitely not in that large a number.
My guess is that some stupid people, be they drunk, stoned, or just plain rotten, went into this supposedly safe place for the birds, and thought it would be funny to catch them and purposefully break their wings. It wasn't funny, whoever you are. It was horrible, it was mean, it was criminal, it was torture, and will continue to be torture for all those poor birds. Now they will never heal because of the angles of those breaks, now they will never be able to fly again, and therefore they will die when winter comes. What hard-hearted, selfish monsters do that to animals?
And what about the parents with young children who went in there to have a fun day with the kids, to show them the nice birds, and then have to try to explain the scene worthy of a horror movie to these little kids, who, as all kids do, start asking questions about why that bird is holding its arm out and up and pointing that way, and what about that one and that one and that one and so on?
I took my friend there to show her what a neat place it was, but we ended up leaving sad, angry, and horrified.
I really hope the city has some sort of resource to help these poor birds that have suffered this horrible fate....but unfortunately, I kind of doubt it.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
She Finally Made It
I forgot a very important event when I was trying to catch up. A friend of mine, one of those soul-mate friends you see across a room and know it is them, a lovely woman who I met in my last year of university, finally had the time and the means to come and visit. She bravely hopped on a Greyhound and spent approximately 24-25 hours therein to finally arrive at my place with stories of interesting busmates. Then had to spend that long on the bus home again when she left. That's usually how these things work.
She was able to stay nearly a full 4 days, if you count by a 24-hour clock (she was short by about 3 1/2 hours). It was an amazing time, full of talking and laughter (ESPECIALLY laughter), memories rehashed, and a bunch of exploring. We hunted buffalo (to look at), fed an elk, fed geese and ducks and seagulls and tried to feed a pelican. We saw atrocities in relation to the birds (more on that in a future post) I taught her about geocaching, she helped me deliver flyers. We went to Costco for a hot dog and pop, and, of course, poutine. We went to the cheap theatre to watch "Up". We stayed up as late as we could (and proved ourselves to be old fogies by not staying up nearly as late as planned), and ate chips and such, while watching "Miss Congeniality" and, of course, "UHF" (because that is the kind of humour we like, among other movies, know what I mean, wink, wink, nudge, nudge).
I am so happy she was able to come. She lives a very busy (and seemingly fulfilling) life, so having the opportunity to claim that much of her time was wonderful. I miss having her here already, and hope she makes it back sometime, or that I manage to scrimp and save enough to go visit HER someday.
It was so nice to connect with a piece of those days again, to connect the dots in between than and now, and just realign the friendship to fit the changes we both have gone through over the past 11 years since McGill. And it was nice to have the mix of the Mommy-me, and the Debbie-me going on at the same time while she was here.
Here's to you, sweet Moosh.
The kids already want to know when you are coming again. :-D
She was able to stay nearly a full 4 days, if you count by a 24-hour clock (she was short by about 3 1/2 hours). It was an amazing time, full of talking and laughter (ESPECIALLY laughter), memories rehashed, and a bunch of exploring. We hunted buffalo (to look at), fed an elk, fed geese and ducks and seagulls and tried to feed a pelican. We saw atrocities in relation to the birds (more on that in a future post) I taught her about geocaching, she helped me deliver flyers. We went to Costco for a hot dog and pop, and, of course, poutine. We went to the cheap theatre to watch "Up". We stayed up as late as we could (and proved ourselves to be old fogies by not staying up nearly as late as planned), and ate chips and such, while watching "Miss Congeniality" and, of course, "UHF" (because that is the kind of humour we like, among other movies, know what I mean, wink, wink, nudge, nudge).
I am so happy she was able to come. She lives a very busy (and seemingly fulfilling) life, so having the opportunity to claim that much of her time was wonderful. I miss having her here already, and hope she makes it back sometime, or that I manage to scrimp and save enough to go visit HER someday.
It was so nice to connect with a piece of those days again, to connect the dots in between than and now, and just realign the friendship to fit the changes we both have gone through over the past
Here's to you, sweet Moosh.
The kids already want to know when you are coming again. :-D
Monday, September 14, 2009
Catching Up
I see, with shock, that is has been nearly 3 MONTHS since I last posted. It isn't that there has been nothing to blog about, but rather that we have been having so much fun and so much stuff TO DO that I just haven't gotten around to it. This will likely be at least a 2 parter, as I am only writing as I wait for Hubby to be ready to go somewhere.
Off to Value Village for their 50% off sale.
Let me see....Daughter finished her softball season with a rained out tournament. All the same, she ended up with a cool t-shirt and a really nice medal. Next year, Son will start t-ball or whatever.
I had yet another birthday. No big, blowout celebration or anything, just dinner and cake. About a week later, I took myself for an evening out. That was nice. I ate at Red Lobster (crab legs, yum!), puttered around Toys R Us (Total Mom, I know), then Canadian Tire, nabbing a few plants for my garden at 25 cents each as they were trying to clear them out, then off to the movie theatre to see "Up". Since then, I have watched the movie a total of three times...the first time was in 3D, the other times, not. The second was with a friend, the third with my family. Can you tell I love this movie?
Daughter finished her school year, and we entered into the madness of summer....Son and Daughter both took swimming lessons for 2 weeks each, one passed, one did not. We did tons of daytrips and such...plus Daughter had 4 days of Art Camp, where she created masterpieces and aside from all parental pride and bias, displayed an aptitude in the artistic field.
There were hot dog sales to run, flyers to deliver, people to see, birthday parties to attend, Chorus rehearsals to go to, a trip to the Science Center, the museum, we went to the Edmonton Ex and while there visited family, we went camping in Assiniboia, and visited family while THERE, Son had a birthday, complete with party....we tried our had at fishing, but only managed to catch our dog (poor baby.....thankfully we were able to get the hook out with no real damage)...we picked saskatoon berries by the ice cream pail-full, we geocached until we dropped, Daughter had a sleepover with two other giggly girls, we celebrated our 10th anniversary with no pomp and circumstance at all....and took our little family out to dinner with the money we received, to Applebees. We will whoop it up at a later date, when time and money are easier to come by.
And then the kids went back to school. Daughter goes all day, Son goes afternoons. Life has settled down a little, and I have hopes of someday soon reaching a peaceful level of clean in my house, as opposed to the harried slap-and-dash attempts to do 3 days of cleaning in 3 hours.
Well, looks like I caught up after all! Hopefully I will keep up a bit better now, so I don't have to try to remember 3 months all at once. :-D
Off to Value Village for their 50% off sale.
Let me see....Daughter finished her softball season with a rained out tournament. All the same, she ended up with a cool t-shirt and a really nice medal. Next year, Son will start t-ball or whatever.
I had yet another birthday. No big, blowout celebration or anything, just dinner and cake. About a week later, I took myself for an evening out. That was nice. I ate at Red Lobster (crab legs, yum!), puttered around Toys R Us (Total Mom, I know), then Canadian Tire, nabbing a few plants for my garden at 25 cents each as they were trying to clear them out, then off to the movie theatre to see "Up". Since then, I have watched the movie a total of three times...the first time was in 3D, the other times, not. The second was with a friend, the third with my family. Can you tell I love this movie?
Daughter finished her school year, and we entered into the madness of summer....Son and Daughter both took swimming lessons for 2 weeks each, one passed, one did not. We did tons of daytrips and such...plus Daughter had 4 days of Art Camp, where she created masterpieces and aside from all parental pride and bias, displayed an aptitude in the artistic field.
There were hot dog sales to run, flyers to deliver, people to see, birthday parties to attend, Chorus rehearsals to go to, a trip to the Science Center, the museum, we went to the Edmonton Ex and while there visited family, we went camping in Assiniboia, and visited family while THERE, Son had a birthday, complete with party....we tried our had at fishing, but only managed to catch our dog (poor baby.....thankfully we were able to get the hook out with no real damage)...we picked saskatoon berries by the ice cream pail-full, we geocached until we dropped, Daughter had a sleepover with two other giggly girls, we celebrated our 10th anniversary with no pomp and circumstance at all....and took our little family out to dinner with the money we received, to Applebees. We will whoop it up at a later date, when time and money are easier to come by.
And then the kids went back to school. Daughter goes all day, Son goes afternoons. Life has settled down a little, and I have hopes of someday soon reaching a peaceful level of clean in my house, as opposed to the harried slap-and-dash attempts to do 3 days of cleaning in 3 hours.
Well, looks like I caught up after all! Hopefully I will keep up a bit better now, so I don't have to try to remember 3 months all at once. :-D
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Quirky critters
It has been a week full of stories I could tell about animals. Two in particular.
First of all, there is Geo-Dog...not er real name, but that is the title she has earned because she comes along as we geocache, sometimes. She is a smart critter. We went geocaching this past week, along a walking trail in the middle of nowhere, pretty much. Searching for one particular cache, we went tromping through long grass and short shrubs, scratching up our legs pretty well. Son was not a happy camper when we got ground zero, and we never did find this cache. We were dreading the traipse back, and as we started out, I noticed that Geo-Dog seemed to know where she was going. I figured things couldn't get much worse, so I let her have her head and followed along at the end of her leash. Wouldn't you know my silly, soppy, half-crazed Black lab/shepherd/greyhound cross picked up the scent of other cachers? She led us along a nearly invisible trail....MUCH easier on the legs than our entry trail...and got us back to the path, goiung in a different direction from where we had come from? Pretty impressive. Now if only she could have left the ticks behind. We are STILL finding them!
The second story is about a little frog named Hopper. We had a lot of puddles in the ditches near our house, and could hear the frogs SCREAMING out their ribbits....so I thought it might be kind of cool to go frog hunting with Son and Daughter. So we went, annd we looked, and listened, and looked....and couldn't find anything because we were looking for frogs to match the loudness of the ribbits. I will never know how a sound that loud could come from a frog that small, but we finally found one, about an inch long. The kids were thrilled and set him up in a huge jar with a rock and water and such....and declared we would keep it forever. How to feed a frog? So I was out in the backyard daily, after some internet research, catching ants and beetles and anything I could find that moved. No luck. Hopper would not eat. One day, just out of desperation, I caught a housefly and got it into the jar. The fly was about 3/4 the size of the frog. Well....Hopper ate the fly....and died. My suspicion, based on the size of the fly was that Hopper either choked to death, or his tummy exploded.
I now have a tiny grave in my flower bed, with a rock saying "Hopper" on it, loving;y dug and created by my children. Silly frog.
First of all, there is Geo-Dog...not er real name, but that is the title she has earned because she comes along as we geocache, sometimes. She is a smart critter. We went geocaching this past week, along a walking trail in the middle of nowhere, pretty much. Searching for one particular cache, we went tromping through long grass and short shrubs, scratching up our legs pretty well. Son was not a happy camper when we got ground zero, and we never did find this cache. We were dreading the traipse back, and as we started out, I noticed that Geo-Dog seemed to know where she was going. I figured things couldn't get much worse, so I let her have her head and followed along at the end of her leash. Wouldn't you know my silly, soppy, half-crazed Black lab/shepherd/greyhound cross picked up the scent of other cachers? She led us along a nearly invisible trail....MUCH easier on the legs than our entry trail...and got us back to the path, goiung in a different direction from where we had come from? Pretty impressive. Now if only she could have left the ticks behind. We are STILL finding them!
The second story is about a little frog named Hopper. We had a lot of puddles in the ditches near our house, and could hear the frogs SCREAMING out their ribbits....so I thought it might be kind of cool to go frog hunting with Son and Daughter. So we went, annd we looked, and listened, and looked....and couldn't find anything because we were looking for frogs to match the loudness of the ribbits. I will never know how a sound that loud could come from a frog that small, but we finally found one, about an inch long. The kids were thrilled and set him up in a huge jar with a rock and water and such....and declared we would keep it forever. How to feed a frog? So I was out in the backyard daily, after some internet research, catching ants and beetles and anything I could find that moved. No luck. Hopper would not eat. One day, just out of desperation, I caught a housefly and got it into the jar. The fly was about 3/4 the size of the frog. Well....Hopper ate the fly....and died. My suspicion, based on the size of the fly was that Hopper either choked to death, or his tummy exploded.
I now have a tiny grave in my flower bed, with a rock saying "Hopper" on it, loving;y dug and created by my children. Silly frog.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Oh, yes, THAT makes it all better!
Ever had somebody say something to you that had the absolute opposite of the desired effect? That would be today. That would be me.
I went to one of our local hospitals, to visit a friend. She was signed in on Monday to have a baby. She had asked me to come visit sometime this week, if I could, in an e-mail she sent a few days before she was admitted. So I finally had a spare moment or three today. I dropped Son off at preschool (kids other than relatives are not allowed on the baby ward), and high tailed it to the hospital. Arrived shortly after one, to find that Baby/Mom quiet time was from 1-2PM daily. So I sat in the hospital hallway and read for an hour. I went in, and asked for my friend. The nurse checked her chart, then checked again. "Are you sure she isn't under another last name?" Nope. They asked when she had been signed in, I said Monday. She thought maybe my friend had been discharged, checked, STILL no sign of my friend. Another nurse walks in, so she asks HER. The nurse's response is "Oh,yes, we have her here...family is room 9, remember?" Oh, yes, says the other nurse. Are you family? No...just a friend. I get a strange look from the nurse who had known where my friend was, and she says "I'm sorry, you'll have to talk to her family...I DON'T WANT TO ALARM YOU, but I can't give out information....I'm sorry, but you'll have to call her husband to get information..."
And that was it. I was supposed to leave.
Um...I don't want to alarm you? Excuse me? That, right there, has me alarmed. Very. Because, you see, I still have no idea what that was all about. I don't know if my friend is in danger. I don't know if her baby is in danger. And because they live on a farm about 2 1/2 hours from me, and so her husband is fairly likely to stay in town until she is discharged, I have no clue how I would contact him short of stalking the hospital corridors until I catch a glimpse of him!!!!! And even if it WAS a simple task to contact him, just the looks, the demeanour, and the words "I don't want to alarm you" are enough to have me really, really afraid for my friend and nearly frantic in wanting to know what is going on.
Maybe if Hubby can watch Son, I can go back tomorrow and leave a message for him at the desk or something. Either way, it's going to be a long, worrisome night.
I went to one of our local hospitals, to visit a friend. She was signed in on Monday to have a baby. She had asked me to come visit sometime this week, if I could, in an e-mail she sent a few days before she was admitted. So I finally had a spare moment or three today. I dropped Son off at preschool (kids other than relatives are not allowed on the baby ward), and high tailed it to the hospital. Arrived shortly after one, to find that Baby/Mom quiet time was from 1-2PM daily. So I sat in the hospital hallway and read for an hour. I went in, and asked for my friend. The nurse checked her chart, then checked again. "Are you sure she isn't under another last name?" Nope. They asked when she had been signed in, I said Monday. She thought maybe my friend had been discharged, checked, STILL no sign of my friend. Another nurse walks in, so she asks HER. The nurse's response is "Oh,yes, we have her here...family is room 9, remember?" Oh, yes, says the other nurse. Are you family? No...just a friend. I get a strange look from the nurse who had known where my friend was, and she says "I'm sorry, you'll have to talk to her family...I DON'T WANT TO ALARM YOU, but I can't give out information....I'm sorry, but you'll have to call her husband to get information..."
And that was it. I was supposed to leave.
Um...I don't want to alarm you? Excuse me? That, right there, has me alarmed. Very. Because, you see, I still have no idea what that was all about. I don't know if my friend is in danger. I don't know if her baby is in danger. And because they live on a farm about 2 1/2 hours from me, and so her husband is fairly likely to stay in town until she is discharged, I have no clue how I would contact him short of stalking the hospital corridors until I catch a glimpse of him!!!!! And even if it WAS a simple task to contact him, just the looks, the demeanour, and the words "I don't want to alarm you" are enough to have me really, really afraid for my friend and nearly frantic in wanting to know what is going on.
Maybe if Hubby can watch Son, I can go back tomorrow and leave a message for him at the desk or something. Either way, it's going to be a long, worrisome night.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
The Stove, The Run, and The Rest
I seem to have this annoying habit of only writing once a month while consistently reminding myself at least a few times a week that I really want to write about this, that, or the other thing, so those of you who have decided to bear with me....thanks. :) I always seem to have a lot to write about when I actually sit down and DO it, and i invariably forget at least a dozen really good anecdotes along the way.
So...the last I wrote would have been what? May 11. There you go. Nearly a month ago.
Since then, as you see in the title, there has been a development on the stove. Namely, the thing decided to explode again. Same element. So we unplugged it and hucked it into the front yard, where some nice guys hauled it off to the dump for $35. And for $250 plus the $60 (?) delivery fee, I now have myself a nice, shiny, white, 9 year old ceramic top stove. YESSSSSSSSS! I love it! The thing MUST have been absolute top of the line when the people bought it new, they took amazingly good care of it, so it looks nearly new, and it is SO much easier to keep clean! No more having to take the burners out and scrub the metal plate thingies underneath because you spilled something, no more residue causing clouds of smoke if you forgot there was something under the burner.
On May 24, Daughter and I ran a 5km fun run. She did amazingly, running most of the way, and we finished in 46 minutes on the nose. Son was near the finish line and so grabbed my hand and ran through with us. I even have pictures! Next year we hope to improve on that time, but for her first run, that was AMAZING!
It was a lot of fun....and probably one of the only times when I have been fed a hamburger at 9:50AM (that's what all the runners got....a burger or hot dog, and a glass of juice, when they were done)
Other than that, not a whole lot has happened...had a farewell party for a beloved preschool teacher who just happens to be leaving the job after our youngest "graduates" from preschool in a few weeks. I have created sock monkeys for her and the other teacher there, to remind them of my little monkey (son). :)
I just came back this evening from a 24 hour retreat at an amazing place about an hour from here...it's called a "House of Prayer", and is run by a priest and some nuns....basically a place to go for peace and quiet, reflection, stuff like that. They feed you, give you a place to sleep, and basically stay out of your way. It was beautiful. Last year,there were deer just outside the window. This year was birds....bright yellow finches, blue jays, stuff like that. We went to plan our next steps for Chorus, but it was a nice restful place, too....if you discount having to share a double bed with one of my team when I am used to a king sized with Hubby.
Oh yes! And I gave Son a mohawk hairdo. No pics yet, but I'm sure I will get some eventually for you all to see. It actually looks really good on him, which even Hubby had to admit when we surprised him with it on his return from a 2-day trip to Kingston.
So...the last I wrote would have been what? May 11. There you go. Nearly a month ago.
Since then, as you see in the title, there has been a development on the stove. Namely, the thing decided to explode again. Same element. So we unplugged it and hucked it into the front yard, where some nice guys hauled it off to the dump for $35. And for $250 plus the $60 (?) delivery fee, I now have myself a nice, shiny, white, 9 year old ceramic top stove. YESSSSSSSSS! I love it! The thing MUST have been absolute top of the line when the people bought it new, they took amazingly good care of it, so it looks nearly new, and it is SO much easier to keep clean! No more having to take the burners out and scrub the metal plate thingies underneath because you spilled something, no more residue causing clouds of smoke if you forgot there was something under the burner.
On May 24, Daughter and I ran a 5km fun run. She did amazingly, running most of the way, and we finished in 46 minutes on the nose. Son was near the finish line and so grabbed my hand and ran through with us. I even have pictures! Next year we hope to improve on that time, but for her first run, that was AMAZING!
It was a lot of fun....and probably one of the only times when I have been fed a hamburger at 9:50AM (that's what all the runners got....a burger or hot dog, and a glass of juice, when they were done)
Other than that, not a whole lot has happened...had a farewell party for a beloved preschool teacher who just happens to be leaving the job after our youngest "graduates" from preschool in a few weeks. I have created sock monkeys for her and the other teacher there, to remind them of my little monkey (son). :)
I just came back this evening from a 24 hour retreat at an amazing place about an hour from here...it's called a "House of Prayer", and is run by a priest and some nuns....basically a place to go for peace and quiet, reflection, stuff like that. They feed you, give you a place to sleep, and basically stay out of your way. It was beautiful. Last year,there were deer just outside the window. This year was birds....bright yellow finches, blue jays, stuff like that. We went to plan our next steps for Chorus, but it was a nice restful place, too....if you discount having to share a double bed with one of my team when I am used to a king sized with Hubby.
Oh yes! And I gave Son a mohawk hairdo. No pics yet, but I'm sure I will get some eventually for you all to see. It actually looks really good on him, which even Hubby had to admit when we surprised him with it on his return from a 2-day trip to Kingston.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Modern Conveniences?
If you have been following my life the last little while, you will know that we have had some mechanical issues...car trouble, furnace trouble, etc. And the beat goes on.
I have to tell you a little bit more and some discoveries we have made over the past few months.
Our fridge was having issues at about the same time as our furnace. We got the furnace fixed, and our gas usage dropped like a rock, our power usage dropping a bit as well. So...with the fridge having issues, it reached a point where it probably would have been more effective to bury our food in the snow, as milk and fruit and veggies were turning into creatures of another kind. So we got out tax refund and went out to purchase a new fridge...new to us, not necessarily new altogether, but a much newer model anyway, reduced a fair bit because it was a scratch and dent. At the same time, spring started to arrive, so we went out and bought the gear for a clothesline and have started hanging our clothes out to dry instead of just hucking them in the dryer. I looked at our power bill for the past few months and discovered that JUST BY REPLACING THE FRIDGE AND NOT USING THE DRYER, we reduced our monthly bill by 25%!!!!!!!! What a shock!
Our stove has started going on the fritz, too...at least the element part....I was cooking something a few weeks back, and spilled something on the burner...water boiled over while I was cooking crabs, I think it was...and there was an EXPLOSION, complete with a green and orange flash of fire. It blew a fuse, which we replaced, but now it is super finicky...when you turn on the element, you need to have something to kind of push the element a bit further into the socket, and if you happen to be making hash browns, it will constantly turn itself off so that they take forever to cook...so for the most part, unless it's having a good day, we are down to three elements. It's one of the big elements, too. Bah. Give it another year, and that will be replaced, too. That will likely drop the power bill farther, too, as the fridge and stove were a set, so it's as old as the old fridge was, and so not very energy efficient.
We also had been having issues with our dishwasher over the last few months...it hadn't always been doing a good job. But it was "convenient", so we kept using it....until it started leaking. Last night we finally decided that this was it. We would just have to revert to hand washing the dishes. So I washed the supper dishes, and Hubby dried. I opened the drawer to get spoons for breakfast this morning, and was absolutely DAZZLED by the shininess of the cutlery! We got so used to the way the dishwasher did it that we didn't even notice how dull the dishes had become from build-up, we had just noticed the ones that had food cooked on. So we probably are using less water now, I can water my plants with the water from the dishes this summer, thereby reducing water consumption, the dishes will always be done right away, as we will need them for the next meal, so that should make the kitchen a bit tidier, with there being no dishes stacked up, waiting for the dishwasher, it will reduce our power usage even further....all in all, the dishwasher has become more of an INconvenience....by washing them ourselves, they are actually getting CLEAN! What a concept!
Makes you wish for the old days with a true ICE box, wood stove, wash the clothes in a bucket and hang them up to dry, and hand wash the dishes. Well....almost.
I have to tell you a little bit more and some discoveries we have made over the past few months.
Our fridge was having issues at about the same time as our furnace. We got the furnace fixed, and our gas usage dropped like a rock, our power usage dropping a bit as well. So...with the fridge having issues, it reached a point where it probably would have been more effective to bury our food in the snow, as milk and fruit and veggies were turning into creatures of another kind. So we got out tax refund and went out to purchase a new fridge...new to us, not necessarily new altogether, but a much newer model anyway, reduced a fair bit because it was a scratch and dent. At the same time, spring started to arrive, so we went out and bought the gear for a clothesline and have started hanging our clothes out to dry instead of just hucking them in the dryer. I looked at our power bill for the past few months and discovered that JUST BY REPLACING THE FRIDGE AND NOT USING THE DRYER, we reduced our monthly bill by 25%!!!!!!!! What a shock!
Our stove has started going on the fritz, too...at least the element part....I was cooking something a few weeks back, and spilled something on the burner...water boiled over while I was cooking crabs, I think it was...and there was an EXPLOSION, complete with a green and orange flash of fire. It blew a fuse, which we replaced, but now it is super finicky...when you turn on the element, you need to have something to kind of push the element a bit further into the socket, and if you happen to be making hash browns, it will constantly turn itself off so that they take forever to cook...so for the most part, unless it's having a good day, we are down to three elements. It's one of the big elements, too. Bah. Give it another year, and that will be replaced, too. That will likely drop the power bill farther, too, as the fridge and stove were a set, so it's as old as the old fridge was, and so not very energy efficient.
We also had been having issues with our dishwasher over the last few months...it hadn't always been doing a good job. But it was "convenient", so we kept using it....until it started leaking. Last night we finally decided that this was it. We would just have to revert to hand washing the dishes. So I washed the supper dishes, and Hubby dried. I opened the drawer to get spoons for breakfast this morning, and was absolutely DAZZLED by the shininess of the cutlery! We got so used to the way the dishwasher did it that we didn't even notice how dull the dishes had become from build-up, we had just noticed the ones that had food cooked on. So we probably are using less water now, I can water my plants with the water from the dishes this summer, thereby reducing water consumption, the dishes will always be done right away, as we will need them for the next meal, so that should make the kitchen a bit tidier, with there being no dishes stacked up, waiting for the dishwasher, it will reduce our power usage even further....all in all, the dishwasher has become more of an INconvenience....by washing them ourselves, they are actually getting CLEAN! What a concept!
Makes you wish for the old days with a true ICE box, wood stove, wash the clothes in a bucket and hang them up to dry, and hand wash the dishes. Well....almost.
Competitions, fires, and Clinics
It has been nearly a month since I last posted. I can't believe how much time has gone by. I have often thought about how I could post about this thing or that, and then have become busy and forgotten. So I will attempt a mish-mash effort, and hopefully will capture the majority.
My son got to visit French Immersion Kindergarten last month. It was a lot of fun for him in the one hour glimpse he got of the class. The other day he came up to me, and we have this conversation...
SON: Mommy, how do you say "can I"
ME: "Est-ce que je peux"
SON: Essejepa...how do you say "some"
ME: "de"
SON: duh..how do you say "milk"
ME: "lait"
SON: "lay"...can I have some milk?
ME: Est-ce que je peux avoir du lait?
SON: That's what I SAID!
LOL. He's a cutie.
The same week as his visit to kindergarten, I took off to Calgary for Regionals with my chorus. I drove down with three of my riser mates, and it was quite an experience. We had a lot of fun, but it took a lot longer to arrive than I had hoped, with two of them taking medications that, well, required us to stop...a lot. After the first half of the trip, I simply stopped asking if we needed to stop, and kept driving until someone begged to stop. Coming home, we added a car mate, which greatly increased the luggage, as she had just flown directly to competition from a two week visit to Scotland, so with much laughter and creativity, we managed to cram 5 people's luggage plus 5 people into my minivan without having to tie anything to the roof.
The hotel was very nice, and very big, involving escalators and elevators, the elevators being quite annoying, because if you got on the wrong one, it would not let you go any lower than the 3rd floor. There was one that went from the parking garage only to the lobby. And then there were the ones that went from the lobby to whatever floor you needed, but you had to make sure you swiped your room card to make it go...I was up on another floor, helping a riser mate put on her eyelashes, while my roomies returned to our room...I didn't have my key, so had to phone them so one could come up and get me! How embarrassing!
It was the first hotel I've stayed in since joining the Chorus that did not have a mini fridge. I brought all my food with me, knowing how much it would cost to eat out the whole weekend. Thankfully, I had brought a little cooler with me, so I visited the ice machine frequently...but by doing so, I spent about $60 on groceries to eat for 4 days...and I had leftovers!!!! Not bad, when you consider that eating out in the area we were in was costing my roomies about $20-$50 a MEAL.
I had quite an experience with my earrings...when lining up for our competition performance, we sang a song for the other chorus waiting in the lineup (it's a tradition), and right after we sang the last note, my earring fell off, into my hand. The backing was GONE...and there was no time to go looking for it. Thankfully, the costume chair had a clip on, so I traded her my one with no back for a clip on, and wore that. Right after our competition, I found the backing...let's just say close to my heart, but on the other side, all snug in my all-in-one. So I traded back for my earring, and had it on for the Show of Champions. Came down the elevator to line up for the Show of Champions...and discovered I had the backing on the back of my ear, but NO EARRING!!! I nearly had a heart attack! Happily, one of the other Choruses had found it on the elevator and given it to one of my riser mates. So I got it back just before we went off to perform. I was so paranoid, though, afraid it would fall off again....and when performing, you CANNOT be reaching up to check.
Prairie Gold (my chorus) placed 2nd Place Small Chorus, by one point (story of our lives...2003 International Harmony Classic, we came in 2nd by 1 point), and 8th Place Overall out of 16 choruses. Our lowest score ever, I think, but based on the kind of year we'd had, I think we did very well.
The drive home was a fair bit faster, as I drove until they begged, and it was a lot of fun. I arrived home around 9PM, and then standing in my kitchen, talking to Hubby, we heard something like thunder....twice...and THIS happened
http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Fire+damages+northwest+Regina+home/1537066/story.html
This is not OUR house, but rather a few houses down...close enough that there were sparks and embers landing in our back yard. I had two very frightened children, plus the little girl who lived next door to this. She was so scared, poor thing..."What's going to happen to my room? What about my flip flops?"...having that sort of thing happening to the house next to you when you are 5 is a big deal. Not that it isn't a big deal even if you are grown up, but I think it turns little kids' worlds upside down a lot more violently.
Last weekend, we went to a Flash Mob/ Geocaching event. It was a lot of fun. The flash mob part involved a peanut scramble. Son found a white peanut, and as a prize received a travel bug. We are very excited. We have an idea for what to do with it, so now we just need to carry it out and figure out where to hide it.
While we were there, we walked around the lake a little bit, and I had to laugh at how frustrated some poor beaver must have been. You see, there were these saplings near the water, along the walkway. They were supported with wires and sticks and such. A beaver had found one of these saplings, and decided it would make a good addition to its dam, so it had chewed the trunk and managed to fell the tree. One problem. The tree is attached to the ground by the wires! So you see this tree stump that has obviously been chewed by the beaver. Just above that, lying sideways and suspended in the air, is the top part of the tree, the bottom of which obviously matches with the trunk with beaver teeth marks, going NOWHERE. Poor beaver....all that work for nothing.
This past Friday, Son went to the cleft palate clinic, just to have everything given the once over, 4 months after his surgery. He is officially discharged from the clinic, as everything looks wonderful. They said we could get him back in the program anytime we needed, for example, they said when he hits the teen years, as his mouth grows, it may not grow properly and may reopen the muscles or make his adult teeth grow in wrong and his speech may deteriorate again....or it may not....but if anything happens, we can bring him back. Based on the fact his father had no such problem in his teen years, we are optimistic that this will not be necessary.
A the clinic, we met Peanut. This was a very cute, very friendly cocker spaniel, with one very special feature...Peanut has a cleft palate and hare lip. Let me tell you, this makes for an interesting face on a dog. He looked like he was constantly smiling out of the front, left side of his mouth. I wish I had a picture. What a great thing to bring to show to the kids with cleft palates...a doggy just like them!
Oh yes, I am a redhead again, though a darker redhead than usual...closer to my natural brown, but when in the sun, it shows the red very well. Not something that matters to most people, but I know some of you wanted to know if I had done it or not.
My son got to visit French Immersion Kindergarten last month. It was a lot of fun for him in the one hour glimpse he got of the class. The other day he came up to me, and we have this conversation...
SON: Mommy, how do you say "can I"
ME: "Est-ce que je peux"
SON: Essejepa...how do you say "some"
ME: "de"
SON: duh..how do you say "milk"
ME: "lait"
SON: "lay"...can I have some milk?
ME: Est-ce que je peux avoir du lait?
SON: That's what I SAID!
LOL. He's a cutie.
The same week as his visit to kindergarten, I took off to Calgary for Regionals with my chorus. I drove down with three of my riser mates, and it was quite an experience. We had a lot of fun, but it took a lot longer to arrive than I had hoped, with two of them taking medications that, well, required us to stop...a lot. After the first half of the trip, I simply stopped asking if we needed to stop, and kept driving until someone begged to stop. Coming home, we added a car mate, which greatly increased the luggage, as she had just flown directly to competition from a two week visit to Scotland, so with much laughter and creativity, we managed to cram 5 people's luggage plus 5 people into my minivan without having to tie anything to the roof.
The hotel was very nice, and very big, involving escalators and elevators, the elevators being quite annoying, because if you got on the wrong one, it would not let you go any lower than the 3rd floor. There was one that went from the parking garage only to the lobby. And then there were the ones that went from the lobby to whatever floor you needed, but you had to make sure you swiped your room card to make it go...I was up on another floor, helping a riser mate put on her eyelashes, while my roomies returned to our room...I didn't have my key, so had to phone them so one could come up and get me! How embarrassing!
It was the first hotel I've stayed in since joining the Chorus that did not have a mini fridge. I brought all my food with me, knowing how much it would cost to eat out the whole weekend. Thankfully, I had brought a little cooler with me, so I visited the ice machine frequently...but by doing so, I spent about $60 on groceries to eat for 4 days...and I had leftovers!!!! Not bad, when you consider that eating out in the area we were in was costing my roomies about $20-$50 a MEAL.
I had quite an experience with my earrings...when lining up for our competition performance, we sang a song for the other chorus waiting in the lineup (it's a tradition), and right after we sang the last note, my earring fell off, into my hand. The backing was GONE...and there was no time to go looking for it. Thankfully, the costume chair had a clip on, so I traded her my one with no back for a clip on, and wore that. Right after our competition, I found the backing...let's just say close to my heart, but on the other side, all snug in my all-in-one. So I traded back for my earring, and had it on for the Show of Champions. Came down the elevator to line up for the Show of Champions...and discovered I had the backing on the back of my ear, but NO EARRING!!! I nearly had a heart attack! Happily, one of the other Choruses had found it on the elevator and given it to one of my riser mates. So I got it back just before we went off to perform. I was so paranoid, though, afraid it would fall off again....and when performing, you CANNOT be reaching up to check.
Prairie Gold (my chorus) placed 2nd Place Small Chorus, by one point (story of our lives...2003 International Harmony Classic, we came in 2nd by 1 point), and 8th Place Overall out of 16 choruses. Our lowest score ever, I think, but based on the kind of year we'd had, I think we did very well.
The drive home was a fair bit faster, as I drove until they begged, and it was a lot of fun. I arrived home around 9PM, and then standing in my kitchen, talking to Hubby, we heard something like thunder....twice...and THIS happened
http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Fire+damages+northwest+Regina+home/1537066/story.html
This is not OUR house, but rather a few houses down...close enough that there were sparks and embers landing in our back yard. I had two very frightened children, plus the little girl who lived next door to this. She was so scared, poor thing..."What's going to happen to my room? What about my flip flops?"...having that sort of thing happening to the house next to you when you are 5 is a big deal. Not that it isn't a big deal even if you are grown up, but I think it turns little kids' worlds upside down a lot more violently.
Last weekend, we went to a Flash Mob/ Geocaching event. It was a lot of fun. The flash mob part involved a peanut scramble. Son found a white peanut, and as a prize received a travel bug. We are very excited. We have an idea for what to do with it, so now we just need to carry it out and figure out where to hide it.
While we were there, we walked around the lake a little bit, and I had to laugh at how frustrated some poor beaver must have been. You see, there were these saplings near the water, along the walkway. They were supported with wires and sticks and such. A beaver had found one of these saplings, and decided it would make a good addition to its dam, so it had chewed the trunk and managed to fell the tree. One problem. The tree is attached to the ground by the wires! So you see this tree stump that has obviously been chewed by the beaver. Just above that, lying sideways and suspended in the air, is the top part of the tree, the bottom of which obviously matches with the trunk with beaver teeth marks, going NOWHERE. Poor beaver....all that work for nothing.
This past Friday, Son went to the cleft palate clinic, just to have everything given the once over, 4 months after his surgery. He is officially discharged from the clinic, as everything looks wonderful. They said we could get him back in the program anytime we needed, for example, they said when he hits the teen years, as his mouth grows, it may not grow properly and may reopen the muscles or make his adult teeth grow in wrong and his speech may deteriorate again....or it may not....but if anything happens, we can bring him back. Based on the fact his father had no such problem in his teen years, we are optimistic that this will not be necessary.
A the clinic, we met Peanut. This was a very cute, very friendly cocker spaniel, with one very special feature...Peanut has a cleft palate and hare lip. Let me tell you, this makes for an interesting face on a dog. He looked like he was constantly smiling out of the front, left side of his mouth. I wish I had a picture. What a great thing to bring to show to the kids with cleft palates...a doggy just like them!
Oh yes, I am a redhead again, though a darker redhead than usual...closer to my natural brown, but when in the sun, it shows the red very well. Not something that matters to most people, but I know some of you wanted to know if I had done it or not.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
The Birds!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, first of all, we have a wood stove in our basement. It's all hooked up and to code and everything, but we have never used it. Because it costs a fortune for home insurance if we ever do. Which is fine. It looks nice anyway.
Over the winter, two birds got in, unbeknownst to us. And subsequently died in said wood stove. Not using it, there really was no huge need to be peering in through the little window to count the carnage.
We heard a noise yesterday, and found our dear kitties watching what I will call "Bird TV"...noses pressed up against the glass, they were happily watching a live bird flutter around in the stove. We came up with several ideas for how to get this bird out of the wood stove without major chaos. Having found a suitable solution (big bag over door of wood stove, bird flies into bag, we quickly close bag, run upstairs, free said birdie), we prepare to execute the plan. Open the wood stove. No bird in the bag. No noise. We bang the stove and pipe, hoping to flush it out. Nothing. Close the door, peer through the window. No bird. So I don rubber gloves and hold my trusty garbage bag, and fish out the two dead birds. Still no sign of the live birdie. Go upstairs, grab the vacuum to suck up the soot the birds had knocked out of the pipe. Sucking away. Suddenly there is an explosion of feathers and said birdie emerges from the ashes and flies, you guessed it, past me and into the house. Thankfully the dog was already sequestered in a bedroom from the moment of the wood stove attempt, but let me tell you, there were two kitties who very much enjoyed THIS turn of events.
It took a long time and a lot of effort on the part of hubby to chase down this totally freaked out ball of feathers. In the end, it involved a roll of toilet paper, the top of a clothes hamper, a girl guide cookie box, and a pillowcase. We finally captured the bird and set it free. It flew off as fast as its little wings could go. I returned immediately downstairs to finish the job of cleaning up. I was just reaching for the door of the wood stove to open it and finish cleaning when PLOP...there was a bird fluttering around in the wood stove.
It seems to have found its way back out through the pipe, as it disappeared before we even considered trying another evacuation, but then, who knows...maybe there's a nest up there somewhere. Time will tell, and hopefully we will figure out how to block the thing before we repeat that fiasco.
Over the winter, two birds got in, unbeknownst to us. And subsequently died in said wood stove. Not using it, there really was no huge need to be peering in through the little window to count the carnage.
We heard a noise yesterday, and found our dear kitties watching what I will call "Bird TV"...noses pressed up against the glass, they were happily watching a live bird flutter around in the stove. We came up with several ideas for how to get this bird out of the wood stove without major chaos. Having found a suitable solution (big bag over door of wood stove, bird flies into bag, we quickly close bag, run upstairs, free said birdie), we prepare to execute the plan. Open the wood stove. No bird in the bag. No noise. We bang the stove and pipe, hoping to flush it out. Nothing. Close the door, peer through the window. No bird. So I don rubber gloves and hold my trusty garbage bag, and fish out the two dead birds. Still no sign of the live birdie. Go upstairs, grab the vacuum to suck up the soot the birds had knocked out of the pipe. Sucking away. Suddenly there is an explosion of feathers and said birdie emerges from the ashes and flies, you guessed it, past me and into the house. Thankfully the dog was already sequestered in a bedroom from the moment of the wood stove attempt, but let me tell you, there were two kitties who very much enjoyed THIS turn of events.
It took a long time and a lot of effort on the part of hubby to chase down this totally freaked out ball of feathers. In the end, it involved a roll of toilet paper, the top of a clothes hamper, a girl guide cookie box, and a pillowcase. We finally captured the bird and set it free. It flew off as fast as its little wings could go. I returned immediately downstairs to finish the job of cleaning up. I was just reaching for the door of the wood stove to open it and finish cleaning when PLOP...there was a bird fluttering around in the wood stove.
It seems to have found its way back out through the pipe, as it disappeared before we even considered trying another evacuation, but then, who knows...maybe there's a nest up there somewhere. Time will tell, and hopefully we will figure out how to block the thing before we repeat that fiasco.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Well, okay then.
It's amazing how things seem to sort themselves out. I really need to learn to relax a bit more. This whole faith and testing thing is a real challenge for me.
The short version is that the worries I had in my last post seem to have sorted themselves out, somewhat.
Hubby received a FREE iPod Touch from one of his suppliers, because a customer had returned it, complaining because it had a scratch on it. A scratch people. We looked, and looked....and saw a minute little one on the back that we had to SEARCH for. Anyway.
Hubby goes off to work a couple of days ago. One of his clients says, totally out of the blue, not knowing that hubby even owns one, that his son is looking for an iPod Touch, but hasn't managed to save up enough to buy new, and if Hubby knew of anyone wanting to sell theirs, his son would like to buy it.
Hubby sold his iPod Touch today. He hadn't really been impressed with it in the week or so that he owned it anyway. And so we got $200.
Oh yes, and the work van's troubles magically disappeared. So now we have $200 in a fund, put away for a later date when we have a bit more to add to it, so if the trouble resurfaces, we can get it fixed.
And I rummaged around the living room and dug up a few small things to sell and posted them for sale on a group on my computer. Not even 5 minutes after I posted one thing, someone already responded that they want to buy it. So it looks like there will at least be a few things I can sell around the house that will bring in bits and pieces to add to our Emergency fund and all.My problem is that I form an emotional attachment to pretty much everything. But give me time, and I'll have sold so much stuff that the kids will be afraid they are next. (That's a joke)
Oh, and hubby will be heading out of town for another big job, so that will add to the fund, too. A little bit, anyway.
So there you have it. The plan is working, God is honouring our efforts, and things just keep trucking along. :)
The short version is that the worries I had in my last post seem to have sorted themselves out, somewhat.
Hubby received a FREE iPod Touch from one of his suppliers, because a customer had returned it, complaining because it had a scratch on it. A scratch people. We looked, and looked....and saw a minute little one on the back that we had to SEARCH for. Anyway.
Hubby goes off to work a couple of days ago. One of his clients says, totally out of the blue, not knowing that hubby even owns one, that his son is looking for an iPod Touch, but hasn't managed to save up enough to buy new, and if Hubby knew of anyone wanting to sell theirs, his son would like to buy it.
Hubby sold his iPod Touch today. He hadn't really been impressed with it in the week or so that he owned it anyway. And so we got $200.
Oh yes, and the work van's troubles magically disappeared. So now we have $200 in a fund, put away for a later date when we have a bit more to add to it, so if the trouble resurfaces, we can get it fixed.
And I rummaged around the living room and dug up a few small things to sell and posted them for sale on a group on my computer. Not even 5 minutes after I posted one thing, someone already responded that they want to buy it. So it looks like there will at least be a few things I can sell around the house that will bring in bits and pieces to add to our Emergency fund and all.My problem is that I form an emotional attachment to pretty much everything. But give me time, and I'll have sold so much stuff that the kids will be afraid they are next. (That's a joke)
Oh, and hubby will be heading out of town for another big job, so that will add to the fund, too. A little bit, anyway.
So there you have it. The plan is working, God is honouring our efforts, and things just keep trucking along. :)
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Testing...
Lately, I wrote a post in regards to tithing and trust. At the time, things seemed to have a definite answer, a "yes, this is the right thing" feeling, as things seemed to suddenly click into place financially, things suddenly were looking up...
And then the true testing came. And still is here, with teeth. I wish I could see into the future, and into the "why's" of it all. It hit so hard this morning that I hit my knees at the edge of my bed, ground my face into the covers, and cried, and prayed. I don't do so well with testing. I fail miserably when it comes to hard times. Anybody who has known me for any length of time knows that.
I wrote the blog about my van and its flat-tire-turned-nightmare-of-broken-brake-parts and such. And I wrote that it was all working out fine and dandy, it was a big ouch, but hey, everything is A-OKAY.
Nope.
Hubby called this morning to say that his work van is making funny noises and the steering wheel shakes as he drives. Now I know next to nothing about cars, but I DO know that is bad. Very, very bad. And we don't have the money to fix it. At all. And with the two kids and the nature of his job and the schedule he and I and the kids hold, one car just isn't going to do it. But we can't afford to fix whatever horrible thing is wrong with his van. Which means we will HAVE to be down to one van until we can afford to fix the work van. Which means we will be at each other's throats because we are going to both need the van at the same times and it's just going to be miserable because life never works on our schedule we're going to need the other to have the van home at certain times and it's just not going to happen. Oh yes, and now he will be out of town for a day and a half in a few days, leaving me with NO car and two kids...
It's a little stressful.
I know it's a test. I know God is testing to see how seriously we mean to stick to the whole tithing and trusting thing. And I DON'T LIKE IT!!!!!! It would be so easy to just use the tithe, fix the van, and move on. But we won't. We can't. We shouldn't.
I just wish it didn't feel so much like we were being kicked down, and the second we started to get up, repeatedly getting kicked in the head. It really does feel like that. We just start seeing the sunshine and get booted in the gut. Again.
I know hubby won't admit to it, but we are in trouble. We really are. Last month, we pared things down to the minimum. this next month, we've had to pare the minimum down even more...we don't have anything going aside for the kids' summer activities, no summer vacation, no clothes. Nothing. Our menu for the month is going to leave our cupboards looking pretty bare by the end of the month, and they'd better like toast and pancakes this month. And now the van.
Would you believe that as I knelt there this morning, the thought actually went through my mind about how much we could get if we SOLD the bed? I think it is coming to that...hopefully there are people out there who will be willing to buy everything I can get my hands on in the house that we could sell. I suppose it's ONE way to keep the house clean...sell all the contents. Ha ha.
Here's hoping we make it through this testing and reach the other side of this dark tunnel soon. I'll keep you posted. Wish me luck and send lots of prayers.
And then the true testing came. And still is here, with teeth. I wish I could see into the future, and into the "why's" of it all. It hit so hard this morning that I hit my knees at the edge of my bed, ground my face into the covers, and cried, and prayed. I don't do so well with testing. I fail miserably when it comes to hard times. Anybody who has known me for any length of time knows that.
I wrote the blog about my van and its flat-tire-turned-nightmare-of-broken-brake-parts and such. And I wrote that it was all working out fine and dandy, it was a big ouch, but hey, everything is A-OKAY.
Nope.
Hubby called this morning to say that his work van is making funny noises and the steering wheel shakes as he drives. Now I know next to nothing about cars, but I DO know that is bad. Very, very bad. And we don't have the money to fix it. At all. And with the two kids and the nature of his job and the schedule he and I and the kids hold, one car just isn't going to do it. But we can't afford to fix whatever horrible thing is wrong with his van. Which means we will HAVE to be down to one van until we can afford to fix the work van. Which means we will be at each other's throats because we are going to both need the van at the same times and it's just going to be miserable because life never works on our schedule we're going to need the other to have the van home at certain times and it's just not going to happen. Oh yes, and now he will be out of town for a day and a half in a few days, leaving me with NO car and two kids...
It's a little stressful.
I know it's a test. I know God is testing to see how seriously we mean to stick to the whole tithing and trusting thing. And I DON'T LIKE IT!!!!!! It would be so easy to just use the tithe, fix the van, and move on. But we won't. We can't. We shouldn't.
I just wish it didn't feel so much like we were being kicked down, and the second we started to get up, repeatedly getting kicked in the head. It really does feel like that. We just start seeing the sunshine and get booted in the gut. Again.
I know hubby won't admit to it, but we are in trouble. We really are. Last month, we pared things down to the minimum. this next month, we've had to pare the minimum down even more...we don't have anything going aside for the kids' summer activities, no summer vacation, no clothes. Nothing. Our menu for the month is going to leave our cupboards looking pretty bare by the end of the month, and they'd better like toast and pancakes this month. And now the van.
Would you believe that as I knelt there this morning, the thought actually went through my mind about how much we could get if we SOLD the bed? I think it is coming to that...hopefully there are people out there who will be willing to buy everything I can get my hands on in the house that we could sell. I suppose it's ONE way to keep the house clean...sell all the contents. Ha ha.
Here's hoping we make it through this testing and reach the other side of this dark tunnel soon. I'll keep you posted. Wish me luck and send lots of prayers.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
You say po-tay-to, I say po-tah-to
Okay. Another round of potato recipes.
My favourite thing to do is to make stuffed potatoes. Cheap, easy, and filling.
Take the size of potato you figure you will be wanting to eat as a meal. You aren't going to want a small one this time, because you need to be able to cut the top off and get the insides out.
So...pick your potato, poke it a couple times with a fork. Put it in the oven at 400F (yes, you heard me right) for between 1 and 2 hours, depending on how crispy of a skin you like. Take it out and (wearing your oven mitts), slice off a thin slice from the top. Scoop the insides into a bowl, and then do one of two things:
If you are picky about the beauty of your meal, mix the scooped out potato with a bit of margarine, spoon it back in, and add toppings.
If you are not picky, mix the potato with margarine and all the fixings you plan to use, then spoon it back in.
I will give you my favourite stuffed potato recipe, but you can create your own. I have a cookbook called Stuffed Spuds in my cupboard...I recommend looking it up if you want more exotic versions than what I make. I will type up a few of the more fun ones another day, ones kids would like.
But as I was saying, my favourite stuffed potato...taco stuffed potatoes.
You need: salsa, sour cream, taco beef, cheese (lettuce and tomato if you want).
As I said before, once you have the scooped up potato mixed with margarine, you can either pile all the above on top,and enjoy, or if you are like me, mix the potato with the salsa,sour cream, taco beef, and cheese, and then put it back in the shell, and top with diced fresh tomato (or I suppose you could even mix that in), and if desired, lettuce.
One I tried recently was a stuffed potato that was essentially scalloped potato with cheese. Cook the potato, scoop it out, mix it with sauteed onions, garlic, and margarine, put it back in, sprinkle (or bury) with cheese, put it back in the oven until the cheese looks as brown as you like it. Enjoy. Or I suppose even mix the cheese in with the potato and then put back in the oven for 15- 20 minutes.
Just a side note: My potatoes are almost gone already! I will have to order more this week. A good sign is that when I mentioned this to my family, they did NOT groan and beg me to stop with the potatoes. They seem to be enjoying this as much as I am.
My favourite thing to do is to make stuffed potatoes. Cheap, easy, and filling.
Take the size of potato you figure you will be wanting to eat as a meal. You aren't going to want a small one this time, because you need to be able to cut the top off and get the insides out.
So...pick your potato, poke it a couple times with a fork. Put it in the oven at 400F (yes, you heard me right) for between 1 and 2 hours, depending on how crispy of a skin you like. Take it out and (wearing your oven mitts), slice off a thin slice from the top. Scoop the insides into a bowl, and then do one of two things:
If you are picky about the beauty of your meal, mix the scooped out potato with a bit of margarine, spoon it back in, and add toppings.
If you are not picky, mix the potato with margarine and all the fixings you plan to use, then spoon it back in.
I will give you my favourite stuffed potato recipe, but you can create your own. I have a cookbook called Stuffed Spuds in my cupboard...I recommend looking it up if you want more exotic versions than what I make. I will type up a few of the more fun ones another day, ones kids would like.
But as I was saying, my favourite stuffed potato...taco stuffed potatoes.
You need: salsa, sour cream, taco beef, cheese (lettuce and tomato if you want).
As I said before, once you have the scooped up potato mixed with margarine, you can either pile all the above on top,and enjoy, or if you are like me, mix the potato with the salsa,sour cream, taco beef, and cheese, and then put it back in the shell, and top with diced fresh tomato (or I suppose you could even mix that in), and if desired, lettuce.
One I tried recently was a stuffed potato that was essentially scalloped potato with cheese. Cook the potato, scoop it out, mix it with sauteed onions, garlic, and margarine, put it back in, sprinkle (or bury) with cheese, put it back in the oven until the cheese looks as brown as you like it. Enjoy. Or I suppose even mix the cheese in with the potato and then put back in the oven for 15- 20 minutes.
Just a side note: My potatoes are almost gone already! I will have to order more this week. A good sign is that when I mentioned this to my family, they did NOT groan and beg me to stop with the potatoes. They seem to be enjoying this as much as I am.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Budget stretcher
I guess my blog is going to be a bit about recipes for awhile. That's okay. :) I love to cook. :)
I just had to take a break from the potato thought, and have something different for you today...
Yesterday I made soup. I made a whole STOCK POT of soup. It was a lot of fun. Actually, it took me two days. Wednesday, I rummaged through my freezer for the big Ziplocs full of bones. This soup very definitely was a kitchen sink variety. Into the stock pot went a ham bone, some T-bones, and a turkey carcass. I covered it all with water, nearly to the top of the pot (not too high or it will boil over), and boiled the living daylights out of them, for a couple of hours. Then I turned off the heat, let it sit for a little bit until it wasn't going to burn a hole in everything it touched, put a piece of foam (thick padding) in the deep freeze, and put the pot on top (so it wouldn't thaw things underneath), and left it in there overnight. Yesterday morning, I took it out, scooped out the frozen fat, brought the remainder to a boil (yes there was some fat left in it), and added spices, 3 onions, some leftover green onions, garlic, 6 carrots, a big sweet potato, a medium turnip (rutabaga?), and 8 breakfast sausages, cooked and chopped up. We had some for supper last night, and it was AMAZING...and if you think about it, really, really cheap...
The bones were free because they would have been garbage otherwise, the spices were maybe $0.10 worth, if that, onions...say $0.50, based on what a small net of them costs, green onions...$0.25, garlic...$0.10, carrots...$1.00, Sweet potato...$2.50, turnip..$2.25, sausages...$1.50.
I may be off a little on these, but not by much, so....for $8.20, I made about 9 meals worth..as in 36 servings. Not bad! About $0.91 a meal. About $0.23/person per meal.
Okay, here's my potato plug....if you need a soup to be even more filling and hearty, add potato and MASH it, or add mashed potatoes! It will thicken your soup and fill you up and make you all nice and warm inside, and happily thinking of all the money you've saved...make your own bread and serve that, and for the whopping total of MAYBE $0.30/person, you've made a filling meal! Need dessert? Apple crisp! That should cost about $2.50 to make. A drink, you say? Make your own hot cocoa...$2.00 for 4 servings. Okay, so now you have soup, bread, hot cocoa, and apple crisp. You have fed a family of 4 for $5.70. You can't even get a meal for ONE for that price at a restaurant!
Now do you know why I don't eat at restaurants much anymore? Seriously. Over the past two months, we have taken our favourite dishes from restaurants, and figured out how to make them at home. I'll give you some examples:
Red Lobster shrimp linguini...made it for about $10, or $2.50/person
The Keg T-bone steak,mushrooms,loaded baked potatoes-made it for about $25, or $6.25/ea
Chilis Nachos Grande...made it for about $12, or $4 each
Lee's :Pork and broccoli,fried rice, and chow mein for about $10 or $2.50/person
Tony Roma's Ribs: made that for about $20, or $5 each
Amazing, isn't it???? You just don't realize how much you spend in a restaurant, over and above what it would cost to make it at home!
Traveling?
I will be away next month for 4 days, and was told that restaurant food was very expensive where I am going? So? I am staying in a hotel with no promise of a fridge. So?
I am taking a cooler. I have planned out what I will eat (while away, I will have 3 breakfasts, 4 morning snacks, 4 lunches, 3 afternoon snacks, and 3 suppers), and you know what? Based on taking a cooler, which I can refill with ice from the hotel ice machines anytime I need to, I can eat VERY well....and it's going to cost me about $60 to do it. That's total...as in $15 a DAY....and I'll likely have leftovers.
So there you go. If you are driving, this works really well, because if you get hungry, you just stop and pull something out of the cooler or bag of dry stuff. If you are flying, see if you can get one of those styrofoam ones at your destination, maybe, and go to a grocery store THERE. It's amazing how easy it is to cut corners, when you need to and want to.
I also like to can things...so far, just jams, jellies, juices, pickles, and fruit....but that's another day's story. :)
I just had to take a break from the potato thought, and have something different for you today...
Yesterday I made soup. I made a whole STOCK POT of soup. It was a lot of fun. Actually, it took me two days. Wednesday, I rummaged through my freezer for the big Ziplocs full of bones. This soup very definitely was a kitchen sink variety. Into the stock pot went a ham bone, some T-bones, and a turkey carcass. I covered it all with water, nearly to the top of the pot (not too high or it will boil over), and boiled the living daylights out of them, for a couple of hours. Then I turned off the heat, let it sit for a little bit until it wasn't going to burn a hole in everything it touched, put a piece of foam (thick padding) in the deep freeze, and put the pot on top (so it wouldn't thaw things underneath), and left it in there overnight. Yesterday morning, I took it out, scooped out the frozen fat, brought the remainder to a boil (yes there was some fat left in it), and added spices, 3 onions, some leftover green onions, garlic, 6 carrots, a big sweet potato, a medium turnip (rutabaga?), and 8 breakfast sausages, cooked and chopped up. We had some for supper last night, and it was AMAZING...and if you think about it, really, really cheap...
The bones were free because they would have been garbage otherwise, the spices were maybe $0.10 worth, if that, onions...say $0.50, based on what a small net of them costs, green onions...$0.25, garlic...$0.10, carrots...$1.00, Sweet potato...$2.50, turnip..$2.25, sausages...$1.50.
I may be off a little on these, but not by much, so....for $8.20, I made about 9 meals worth..as in 36 servings. Not bad! About $0.91 a meal. About $0.23/person per meal.
Okay, here's my potato plug....if you need a soup to be even more filling and hearty, add potato and MASH it, or add mashed potatoes! It will thicken your soup and fill you up and make you all nice and warm inside, and happily thinking of all the money you've saved...make your own bread and serve that, and for the whopping total of MAYBE $0.30/person, you've made a filling meal! Need dessert? Apple crisp! That should cost about $2.50 to make. A drink, you say? Make your own hot cocoa...$2.00 for 4 servings. Okay, so now you have soup, bread, hot cocoa, and apple crisp. You have fed a family of 4 for $5.70. You can't even get a meal for ONE for that price at a restaurant!
Now do you know why I don't eat at restaurants much anymore? Seriously. Over the past two months, we have taken our favourite dishes from restaurants, and figured out how to make them at home. I'll give you some examples:
Red Lobster shrimp linguini...made it for about $10, or $2.50/person
The Keg T-bone steak,mushrooms,loaded baked potatoes-made it for about $25, or $6.25/ea
Chilis Nachos Grande...made it for about $12, or $4 each
Lee's :Pork and broccoli,fried rice, and chow mein for about $10 or $2.50/person
Tony Roma's Ribs: made that for about $20, or $5 each
Amazing, isn't it???? You just don't realize how much you spend in a restaurant, over and above what it would cost to make it at home!
Traveling?
I will be away next month for 4 days, and was told that restaurant food was very expensive where I am going? So? I am staying in a hotel with no promise of a fridge. So?
I am taking a cooler. I have planned out what I will eat (while away, I will have 3 breakfasts, 4 morning snacks, 4 lunches, 3 afternoon snacks, and 3 suppers), and you know what? Based on taking a cooler, which I can refill with ice from the hotel ice machines anytime I need to, I can eat VERY well....and it's going to cost me about $60 to do it. That's total...as in $15 a DAY....and I'll likely have leftovers.
So there you go. If you are driving, this works really well, because if you get hungry, you just stop and pull something out of the cooler or bag of dry stuff. If you are flying, see if you can get one of those styrofoam ones at your destination, maybe, and go to a grocery store THERE. It's amazing how easy it is to cut corners, when you need to and want to.
I also like to can things...so far, just jams, jellies, juices, pickles, and fruit....but that's another day's story. :)
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Potato Recipe Time
Somebody requested that I post a few potato recipes...
I'll start with one or two, as I don't have my handy dandy recipe book in front of me.
The neatest thing I've found lately (in terms of recipes) is a lady called Clara. You can find her on YouTube. She has a few clips (she is 94 or something like that, by the way) in which she demonstrates how her mother used to cook when she (Clara) was a child, back in the Depression. Let me just say everything has to do with potato and onion, for the most part. :)
The first recipe we tried of hers was called Poor Man's Dinner. Take as much potato as you think your family will eat (it's surprising how little it takes, actually). Peel and cut into small cubes. Heat a pan with a bit of oil in it. Toss in the potato, do the same with an onion. Fry them up. Cut up some hot dogs, stir it in until things are nice and golden and hot. Add salt to taste. Enjoy. I put ketchup on mine. Like hash browns with meat, I guess.
My 75 pound bag of potatoes is RED potatoes, very juicy, too, so I'm not entirely sure how recipes work/taste with other types of potato. Keep that in mind.
Fries. If you have a deep fryer, fries are always good. Take your potato and cut it into strips. Keep the peel on, or not. I don't peel mine. Take a bowl of water and stir in a bit of sugar. Put cut potatoes in the bowl and swish them around, or leave them in there while the deep fryer is heating. Put them in the basket, but don't pile them too high. Lower the basket and cook 10 minutes. At the end, you will have the most delicious fries EVER.
Potato slices. Made this one up a log time ago. Nothing fancy in this one. Works best if you have a baking stone, but if you are willing to hover, a baking sheet works, too. Slice your potato into thin slices (not TOO thin, but not thick). Arrange on the stone, sprinkle with whatever seasonings you like best. Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes. If on a baking sheet, turn about halfway through so you don't burn one side black. :) Good for dipping.
I will bring more recipes later, heartier, more complicated ones. I promise. :)
Enjoy these if you wish.
I'll start with one or two, as I don't have my handy dandy recipe book in front of me.
The neatest thing I've found lately (in terms of recipes) is a lady called Clara. You can find her on YouTube. She has a few clips (she is 94 or something like that, by the way) in which she demonstrates how her mother used to cook when she (Clara) was a child, back in the Depression. Let me just say everything has to do with potato and onion, for the most part. :)
The first recipe we tried of hers was called Poor Man's Dinner. Take as much potato as you think your family will eat (it's surprising how little it takes, actually). Peel and cut into small cubes. Heat a pan with a bit of oil in it. Toss in the potato, do the same with an onion. Fry them up. Cut up some hot dogs, stir it in until things are nice and golden and hot. Add salt to taste. Enjoy. I put ketchup on mine. Like hash browns with meat, I guess.
My 75 pound bag of potatoes is RED potatoes, very juicy, too, so I'm not entirely sure how recipes work/taste with other types of potato. Keep that in mind.
Fries. If you have a deep fryer, fries are always good. Take your potato and cut it into strips. Keep the peel on, or not. I don't peel mine. Take a bowl of water and stir in a bit of sugar. Put cut potatoes in the bowl and swish them around, or leave them in there while the deep fryer is heating. Put them in the basket, but don't pile them too high. Lower the basket and cook 10 minutes. At the end, you will have the most delicious fries EVER.
Potato slices. Made this one up a log time ago. Nothing fancy in this one. Works best if you have a baking stone, but if you are willing to hover, a baking sheet works, too. Slice your potato into thin slices (not TOO thin, but not thick). Arrange on the stone, sprinkle with whatever seasonings you like best. Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes. If on a baking sheet, turn about halfway through so you don't burn one side black. :) Good for dipping.
I will bring more recipes later, heartier, more complicated ones. I promise. :)
Enjoy these if you wish.
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