the weekend

Tonight was good. I feel like I almost got ahead. I'm behind on some work stuff but my house is in order and it is totally thanks to my parents spending some time here today. I decided that today was the day to get my brick stairs installed. So me and the kids went and picked things up and got to it. It was going fine - and then my parents showed up and completely took over. I was a little miffed but if they hadn't helped out I may have been out there all day. In one hour we completed the following:







All of this happened because I cashed in some of my royal bank visa points and got a $100 at Rona... I still have $30 to spend at Rona as I didn't need as much brick as I'd thought.

So what else? Well I finally got out and hiked.



I went alone - this was taken by a sturdy rock and my automatic settings. I went up 500 ft on this hike to the top of an open quarry. It was awesome! It was a little intimidating and to be honest it sounded like a grouse was chasing me up the mountain... but it was my heart thumping in my ear... LORD! In shape... well I think most people would have had a hard time on this hike. I completed the 500 ft up in under 40 minutes and returned in about 20. It was so steep in one spot that I had to side step up. It was worth every minute. I did another 1 km hike on another trail about 30 minutes later and now I want to get out again. Won't be for a while - unless I can get out with Andy when we see him in FOUR DAYS - HOO-FRICKin-RAY!!!!!!

This is it for him this week of classroom study - so everyone think happy thoughts and send them to Kelowna for us!

rash... hives...

So the problem is not getting better. I've caved and bought some allegra tonight - but I'm super nervous about it because my grandma is allergic to benadryl... allegra is a different drug type - so I'm hoping I don't get worse from taking this.

My arms are terrible - I look like a freak - most people don't notice though because it isn't on the top of my arms it is on the white underside... now I just have to figure it out.

Voodoo mom tested me this morning for allergies... so I said the only thing I could think of that I've had every day is soy milk. So she put soy in my hand (in a cup) and tries to push my hand down - because there was resistance it meant that I wasn't allergic - I guess science isn't much better... here are some drugs that might work - good luck.... call me crazy but I'm sticking with science for now... although I'm getting desperate for a solution because it is itchy and very ugly looking.

We found the ghostbusters movies shopping tonight so we bought that (cartoons) - Kyle's watching and episode now and Michael has already gone to bed... that's crazy! I can't believe it - I'm sure it is too good to be true. So now I'm - I knew it - too good to be true... oh well.

blah-d-blah-blah

Not feeling good.

I know - it's become the bitch and complain blog - sorry. The rash has jumped arms and is now climbing my right. I went to the doctor today and he said that it was an allergic reaction to something - could be anything - I have no allergies - well other than pencillin and a couple other drugs... he didn't really get into stress - it was a walkin and he didn't have time... I'm trying to see my regular GP... my throat is sore, but - well it isn't that bad. Just tough to swallow - he said that comes with allergies - 'at least it isn't puss-e'... GREAT!

What else? I called my mom to whine and then... stupid me - I got the - well I should come and balance you - you are just out of whack - now you didn't hear this from me... but a certain brother of mine is actually starting to think all this "voodoo" might be helping him. He said whatever she did to him the other night made his pain and ache go away. You didn't hear that from me... :)

How did I get to PG so fast - well there is one new straight away - but I was definitely speeding - 120 min - straight aways were 130+ - terrible - I know and I had that voice saying - um - what are you doing - but my lead foot won the conversation...

Happy note - I'm looking forward to heading back to Kelowna next week. Hooray - then we are off to Calgary to check out Mel's digs :) Hooray for vacation time!

50 minutes

I had meetings in PG all day today and managed to get a good visit in with Carmen - hooray! We had drinks at starbucks (I didn't get a misto before I left - but I've done my homework and will try and get one at Granville's tomorrow - I think a misto and a london fog are nearly the same thing...) and Carmen got to witness a tard backing into her car. Luckily her car stood up to the challenge - while the newbies car broke a few bits off... lord... thanks for meeting with my carmen - it was great to meet up and I am definintely coming back up to check out your scrapbook room - oh and I had jam in my car for you - that I remembered about 15 minutes after we went our seperate ways... it was at the same time that I realized I didn't have enough fuel to get home...

I had one those conversations that never ends with staff before I left to PG and ended up thinking I was going to be late. I left Q at 10:41 and was in PG - parking at 11:30 - definitely record time for me. And yes I'm stupid. I know I shouldn't drive fast - it didn't help that I was listening to my favorite itunes and drove faster as a result of JT and others... I did have an excuse... alright I didn't - I'm terrible - it isn't the first or last time you will hear that from me.

I came home to Michael crying and Kyle being sad. Not a great evening - now I'm struggling to prep for tomorrow and debating whether or not I should just climb into a hole and put a cover on it for a while - my holidays can't come soon enough right now. How sad is that - and of course with email and cell phones I won't have any real time away anyway because let's face - some people can't stop communicating and need to be able to be annoying all the time.

the king

So Michael had the tantrums of all tantrums tonight. It is all around bed time... he can't go to sleep without me. I don't mind ten minutes, but 30 minutes or an hour and I'm done. Tonight I laid with him for a while and then said that it was time for sleep and let him try to sleep... I closed the door and then bring on the tantrum. He hasn't figured out that he can hit the door or do any other rough things... so what you hear is him crying and stomping his feet as loud as it is humanly possible to stomp ones feet. I'm not kidding - it sounded like a drum - it actually sounded like he was hitting the door but it was his feet.

Every other minute I would go in and put him back in bed and hope that he would give in a little.. not a chance - 45 minutes of stomping and moaning and crying... I caved. He is getting over a cold and he was so mad that his little body was shaking. He was madder than I've ever seen anyone. I know I have a temper but I don't think it is like that. It actually worries me a little - something I want to nip in the bud early on.

I wanted to have a glass of wine tonight - I opened a nice chile wine and man - it was terrible. This mad me a little mad (not stomp my feet mad) because I'd been saving it for a special occasion (no special occasion on the horizon - surviving tonight became a special occasion). Plus after the tantrum I kind of felt like I needed a drink... I am not condoning drinking and I had no intention of pissin' it up... ok - it crossed my mind.. but I know how unrealistic drinking and getting pissed really is... it just isn't part of my life any more...

So there is my bitchin' and moanin' for tonight. I'm behind in my work and I'm going to fall farther behind because I'm in PG all day tomorrow for a meeting... which I found out tonight isn't really what I wanted to attend in the first place - ARG... oh well - I will still try to hook up with Liz and Carmen for some coffee...

What's the upside - I don't weigh 760 lbs like this guy on tv.... I also have two beautiful, chatty babies and a sexy husband.

gone

but definitely not forgotten...

So they got up nice and early - I didn't bother getting up - Michael really needs his sleep right now. We finally rolled out of bed at 7am. Michael pretty much wakes up grumpy right now... and Kyle slept with them last night so he didn't come upstairs until 8:15. And then it was like a mad dash to get out the door. They wanted to leave now... and now wasn't fast enough.

So what happened this morning... was there time to even get mad? Well they did manage to melt a bag of bread... it was way too close to the toaster - it was actually resting on it, I'm surprised they didn't get plastic on their toast.. maybe they did and didn't notice.

Now Michael is too sick to go to daycare - so I'm going to load Kyle up - take him in and then come home and try to work... I have deliveries I have to do so hopefully he will sit through that. Tomorrow I'm supposed to be in PG... I guess we will see what happens - Kyle is starting to get sick - so I might be off a lot more than I thought. I should mention that they kindly offered to stay when they heard that I was going to miss being in the office today... I replied with a 'don't worry about it'.... maybe I'll actually get some stuff done today.

if hate were people, i'd be china

Ok -that is probably my favorite movie quote. I love city slickers. That isn't a statement directed at my inlaws - but all the stuff I've been through today definitely made me think of it.

Things did not get better today. In fact, I sit here now trying to figure out where to even begin or whether I should write anything at all because I'm so far behind in my work. So - yes I'm here with my in-laws alone. Andy is way to busy prepping for an exam tomorrow - and because he is entering the last week of actual class time his parents have decided to just go straight home now.

Due to the amount of time it will take me to write everything out about how shitty today really was - I'm just going to give you some points of reference.

- Michael is sick - runny nose, whining about everything - tonight he wouldn't sleep - I finally give up on laying with him in his room (10pm) and bring him to the living room. The tv is blaring and he actually turns it up louder... then must have finally notice that I'm in the room or that I've got Michael - and asks if he should turn it down... I just blurt out no. So the tv is blaring and then she starts with dishes - or just tidying in the kitchen - and maybe it wasn't that loud -but it was when you have a baby that is sick and wants to sleep but is willing to stay up just to look around because maybe sleep is overrated.

- I cooked all the meals during their visit. I hardly cook for the boys anymore. She is an excellent cook - I think I might even go better than that... but she cooked nothing. I cooked banana bread tonight and it was like dealing with three kids when it came out. I had to defend the bread and explain that it was hot and would taste better in an hour or two... I'm not kidding I thought I was going to need a stick to fight them off. When I came back from outside - someone had actually stuck there finger in it to take a chocolate chip out - WTF x 10!

- I watched him butt his cigarette out on my tree and then flick it into the center of the tree - I felt like banging on the window and shouting something obscene. I refrained and continued doing the dishes...

- I tried to mow the lawn without kids and within minutes they were out the door and I had to start and stop. This is an oh well kind of thing... I wouldn't have even mowed my lawn if they weren't here. I tried to start the - oh hell - the thing that cuts the weeds in funny places - oh yeah - weed wacker - and the damned thing would NOT start - I don't know what I'm doing wrong - I gave up and used the hand helds and now my biceps hurt.

Alright - so there is a little. I'm getting sick - my throat hurts - but not in the usual way... I don't know what I'm coming down with. And now I must do some work.

You know it is all shit when returning to work is a good thing... BLAH!

just call me dick

I laid down the iron fist this morning. Kyle was being terrible - not listening in the least and then it was time for a walk - let's go Kyle - so I said no. He didn't deserve to get a treat after this morning. They've left for the walk now - and I heard them spazzing out that I'd been China and said no to a two to one decision.

ARG! I'm done! I have been the best daughter in law on the planet for the past two days - now they are outside blabbing about how evil I am and how can't I let Kyle go with them.. and now they have Michael only - so what are they supposed to do.

I could really go on and on, but I will control myself with that much information provided. Lots of times I think they are mad and they couldn't care one way or the other - but I care! I care a lot if Kyle is being a holy terror and they say oh kyle don't do that here's some ice cream.

Back to laundry - so much for getting any work done today!

what to do

I have a contractor who I've become pretty fond of - not like that you bunch of asses - ok - so pretty fond is wrong... he is good person and I watch out for him... does that sound better... lord - anyway he came to my office today for work but before we got to what was available and what he was interested in he gave me an update on his life. He gets through some work stuff and then gets to his health. He tells me he's been diagnosed with Parkinson's. It hit me like a brick in the face. I didn't even know what to say. It has put a lump in my stomach all day. So I'm looking for advise. What do you say in a situation like? We carried on and talked about work and how much he might be able to take on with his health changing and I just wanted to cry. I don't really know him that well but the thought of everything that he must be going through plus I'm thinking about my family and what I would do I just wanted to have a mental breakdown all day. When I told my boss I thought I was going to start crying my eyes out - I held it together, but the super glue is wearing thin.

So what do you say/do? Maybe there isn't a right answer to all of this.

I'm tired and need sleep - in laws are here for the weekend - arrived tonight and I need my sleep so I'm not an ass to them. They don't deserve my bitchy side... she crept out today for a moment but I stuffed her back in the closet and said I would feed her some chocolate if she only behaved... :)

bumps and bruises

We get a little daily report card on Michael - usually its... he ate lunch, he ate snacks - this is what he ate - we need diapers... whatever - not much else - today I get a big long thing and right away I'm worried... the girl who spends most of her day with Michael nearly ran out of space on the card...

Today Michael ran into another child - they bumped heads - this was the first bump
He then fell on top of the teacher and she had her mouth open - so he impaled his little head (other side) on her tooth - no permanent damage - bruised but not broken skin... He also has a bump on his head and we don't know where that came from.

He runs to me every day with a big loud 'mom' and right away he's pointing to ow-wees... it was pretty funny. He was fine and it was just another day on the playground/classroom.

The flood waters are receding.. we are nearly back to 8 metres this morning. The creek is lowering and with the cool weather we have right now I think we've seen the worst of it.

language skills

So Michael is advancing in his language skills so fast that I can barely keep up. He really likes Shrek - he thinks the little toy we got at McDonald's is quite fantastic... it says three things... a bulch or fart.. not sure which and 'I'm on it' and 'I'm an ogre' he is saying both. Yes it is a little blended together - but he is definitely saying it - I got him to say 'love you' and then he has an assortment of words - hat, cat, dog, meow, hello, bye, (doesn't like hi), kyle, mom, dad, daddy, bear, - ok I could go on and on... It is pretty funny seeing him say I'm on it... he doesn't know what it means and just likes to say it.

He was 17 months on Sunday.

because I like all the pictures.. wouldn't take them otherwise

how high will it go

So here it is the morning. It was just under 9 metres on the Moffat Bridge - running from downtown Quesnel to West quesnel. Water has been filling up the loop in West Quesnel for a couple of days - this morning at 8:30 the road was still clear but by 9am it was crossing the road. You can still drive under the bridge from Bouchie Lake but I think they will close it tomorrow. It is quite the sight. I haven't seen it go up this high in a long time.

They said this morning that we have 5 ft before there will be serious problems. We probably have 4 feet left now. It is definitely still going up and it has finally started to back up the creek. You could walk through the creek this weekend, which was super weird, and now it is full again... but not as high as it was in the spring. It is odd now because it is calm.

On the retard note - someone actually tried to swim across the river in this. There are giant trees and who knows what else coming down that river and this moron tried to cross. They didn't make it, however, they didn't die. Search and rescue fast water crew showed up and got him out.

the river at 8 metres....

Here's the river yesterday at 8 metres. We are higher now...

did someone order rain

sleeping with people

What the hell is wrong with the people on facebook? I'm am sincerely happy to be back in touch with some people. I have wanted quite a few people to be more involved in my life and I more involved in theirs, and facebook is making that happen. However, I just went to my homepage and see Dave has posted some retarded thing about... 'hey if you want to sleep with me or if you want to date me reply to this... like everyone's doing it - it's the new rage - oh and if you opened this you have to do it because I say...' are we that narcissistic? (I know that is a big word for me...) I'm picking on Dave here, but I have seen other equally "i love myself" shit that I just don't get it. The survey stuff doesn't bother me - if you want to share, I'll read it... but this is too much.

I guess online we feel we can say and do anything we like... but I just find this offense. Maybe it should be called pimpbook.

And that is my public service announcement for today.

climbing

This morning when I dropped the kids off for daycare the water level was just cresting 8 metres. Since Friday we've seen a 1 metre gain in the Fraser. I went out for a meeting and came back to the water level at 11 (2 hours later) and the 8 wasn't visible. I've been told we might see it peak on Wednesday now. Given that it went up about a foot in two hours it could go up by a metre by the time I go home from work.

I'll load some photos tonight. It is quite amazing - if your into disasters :)

off button

Alright - someone please turn off the heat. More than 30 degrees... GO AWAY! Of course the boys don't want to sleep, of course I don't want to cook, this heat is terrible... I say that but I have enjoyed my weekend... can I say that? I actually feel like I had a weekend off. I didn't get that much done, but I did feel like I was away from work... despite the phone calls and emails.

It is too hot to sleep.

I guess I will finish some work and then wait for the house to cool off enough to sleep. Heading to Kelowna this weekend - hooray! four days! I can't wait to go. Alright off to workin'.

burnt skin

I guess it is a theme week around here. I got a great burn on my back yesterday and then met my grandma and uncle phil at farmer's market this morning - the sun just killed the burn... I was wanting to go and hide after five minutes.

The highland games are today and it is supposed to get to 31 degrees... I feel sorry for them - I guess most will drink away the sun burns and heat stroke.


Sadly I have to go and clean up today... so I'm off to do that. I'm hoping to get some scrapbooking done this afternoon in my cool basement - it truly is the only escape right now - I just don't like to sit in it too long because then I can't bare to come upstairs.

Enjoy the weather though - I understand it is supposed to turn back into spring on Monday.

Flood update - the Fraser River is now at the 7 1/2 metre mark on our bridge. It is definitely on the rise and if goes up to 8 metres we will definitely see some flooding in Quesnel. We appear to be quite safe - Baker Creek isn't backing up yet and the creek level is quite low.

some pics

So here a Nazko wild orchid - I think it is actually a type of lady slipper, but it looks like it could be from the orchid family. Very beautiful... little... very little. You'd definitely miss them if you weren't searching the ground for them.


I different angle of the beautiful "orchid".


A forget-me-not at Blessings Grave on the way to Barkerville.

I went to Barkerville for some of my day with our photographer and web designer. It was great to see him action. He has some excellent gear! We stopped at a bunch of sites I've never been to... unfortunately I go a nasty burn on my back, boobs and shoulders... ARG! I knew it was hot, I knew the sun was out - but I really tried to stay in the shade. It is not the worst burn I've ever had... just red and a little sore... When I was 6 or 7 years old I went to a friends and we all went to 10 Mile Lake for the day. The mom of the other girl let us play in the sun - on the lake - ALL DAY! I came home with the nastiest burn and I got yelled at forever (ok not forever...) for it. My mom was furious - I looked like a tomato... and of course I got sun stroke - so I was sick on top of all of it... oh the good old days.