better late than never

Alright - so I said for my 300th post I was going to get some candy out there... so here I am at 312 and here it is... blog candy festival!



Alright so there is just over 50 sheets of 12x12 (includes set of Disney World pages), 2 envelope making sets for christmas, some stickers, 2 ziploc bags of cardboard die cuts (I think they have a more formal name than that but... ) one bag is sayings and one bag is shapes.

So what do I want? Well first of all I'd like a small exchange for all this candy. I know I can't hold the winner to this, but I would really like the winner (once they've received all the candy) to send me a card they've made. I don't make cards, so the thought of getting a card that I can use sounds like a great idea. Now - how do you enter? Well I would like you to do two things - 1) share your favorite website for finding cool new ideas for making pages or cards and 2) I'd like you to share something about your current or best camera and how you take awesome photos.

If there are more than 20 entries for the candy I will split the loot in half and send out two packages. I will draw a number based on the order of entry after May 18. That means this will be open for 10 days and I'll send out a package after May long weekend. Good luck!

terrible

A week or two ago we trimmed our apple trees and while adjusting the ladder I let it slip and it landed on my chest. It didn't crush me, but it hurt. I've been sore on my collarbone and shoulder since. I decided that a massage might be just the thing to heal my wounds. Being the massage virgin that I am (was), I had very high expectations and anticipated a relaxing and fantastic 30 minutes. About 5 minutes in I realized I'd made a mistake. She pushed so hard on my skin that it hurt, she did the whole karate chopping hands multiple times followed by pokes of pain (my name - not the massage industries).

I actually didn't feel too terrible immediately after the beating, but about 4 hours later I put a strap over my shoulder and thought I was going to cry. It felt like I'd been sunburned all across the top of my back. And not just a simple burn, a terrible, terrible burn. That was yesterday and today I am still in pain. Still feeling burned... both literally and burned in the sense that I burned my flamin' money on something that hurt me... what the hell is the point of that - is this the same for everyone? Come on - are people paying to be beat up to Enya?

Ok - vented.

Now because I'm queen of the geeks I also created a map of garage sales happening in Quesnel this weekend. Click on this link if you want to join my lame club. http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=52.977434,-122.474556&spn=0.0953,0.32135&z=12&msid=107827218300676941518.00044cb02a5fe62a8f365

smelly feet

I just felt like putting in that title because I need to change my socks.

What's new... well tonight we went bug hunting. I'm putting in a garden in our backyard and have started dragging the gravel in the area out... this is a long and terrible process because nothing moves the gravel well. I've a rack, a shovel and a pick axe. Tonight we moved two wheel barrels full and then started hunting down centipedes, beetles and ants. I moved one slab in the backyard and was a little shocked by the number of ants that came pouring out... the ground swirled with their reaction to the sudden light. We pulled up weeds. When I was 4 (ish) my grandpa used to pay me to take thistles out of the front lawn. It is one of my favorite memories because I'd pull terrible thistles and then we'd walk to Frank's and get an ice cream sandwich. It was all about joy and fun.

So I'm home from Penticton. It was beautiful, the weather was warm and a lot like summer. I'm happy to be home and happy I got some time with the guys yesterday. I was back in the office today and now looking forward to Paula's visit after May long weekend.

Today is Monday - which means it is 6 days until Mother's Day. I'm planning on going to Mom's to plant some hanging baskets for her - this will be fun for the boys and give us something to do while we visit. Sarah (mom and dad's dog) is due today and we'll have puppies to glance at too - I don't think their eyes will be open by the weekend - that's if they've arrived... I'll post pictures of the puppies once I have some photos to share.

ARRRRGGGG

Final information due on report

Internet not working properly unless I sit in the DAMNED lobby and work

ARG - plus I'm paying 4.99 for the usage - double ARG!

That's it - I'm turning into a pirate this morning!

Avast me buckos - it is time to start a revolution!
IT IS TIME! I'm not paying for "no-speed internet" let us pillage the flower displays and eat all the counter mints!

things that rhyme

So kindergarten is big on rhyming. Most mornings Kyle arrives to his table spot and there is a puzzle piece with a picture on it, along with a bowl of other puzzle pieces. He is asked to find something in the bowl that rhymes with his piece. He is quite into rhyming and has even started doing my name... "mom, April rhymes with Rapril"

This morning he is playing with Michael and I hear "kitty, shitty, kitty shitty" I look in and say 'um, are you rhyming kitty with city - no mom I said shitty. That rhymes right. Yes Kyle is rhymes, but that isn't a good word. Can you make it rhyme with city instead? Ok - kitty, city, kitty, city. Tomorrow he'll be rhyming with truck.

The other thing Kyle asked me about today was S.O.B. He says, what does SOB mean? I ask 'where did you hear that from?' doesn't want to say - i ask if it was at school - yes - so I still him it is short for another group of words - what words? SOB spells sob and sob means being really sad and crying. His response - ok... Flash back to 1988 in the canning room of my basement. My brother says to me - april you are an SOB - then the retort went back and forth too many times - it was all just fun because neither of us knew what we were going on about when my dad walks in and has a mini explosion - and tells us what we are saying and why its bad. I learned my lesson and also learned that I didn't need to go into all the detail for his five year old ears.

lightning and thunder

Well after some rain throughout the day we are now experiencing thunder and lightning. It appears to be sheet lightning and just brightening up the sky. Michael is still sick and his temperature started to climb back up again tonight. Kyle is better but still coughing and Andy is sick, but surviving. Me... well I'm not feeling great, and wrongly decided to venture to wally world tonight - I was ready to barf after a couple of aisles of walking. We made it through and got all the stuff we needed.

Now it's Dora time (unless the power goes out) and then bedtime. Time to be comfortable - I need to be better for Wednesday as I'm off to another conference in Penticton - woo hoo! I'm hoping for a fun time - I just have to remind myself that deep fried foods are from the devil and all will be good... damned yummy egg rolls at the premiers event. (I'm still waiting on copies of the photos - now I'm wondering if they forgot to tell us that the photos actually cost something...)

woo hoo

It was plus (PLUS) 17 in the shade yesterday and tonight - right now - its plus (PLUS) 14... woooohhhhoooooo!!!!!

Michael is getting better - Kyle is pretty much through it. Michael was pretty bad last night - but today was eating and somewhat normal. Andy is sick - seems like something different - blah! me? well today wasn't a great day, but I'm feeling good.

For those following the use of the secret... last night I made it work! Well close... for two days I told myself I was going to win a big prize ($500 cash) at the Nazko Auction. Every year they give it away. So I told myself I was going to win it and then thought about how I'd spend it. Made it real!.... so we are sitting there... 041463.... last night - 6.... I had 7.... but then I knew - I knew that Kyle or my parents had the winning ticket... and they did - Dad had the winner. woo hoo! I've got the DVD now and I'm going to try and focus on some other things because I got lots of things I want to get done :) All that might sound crazy and maybe we would have won it anyway but it was something else... makes me think about all the good each of us could do with a little more focus on the things we want to succeed at. Here's to success - go out there tomorrow and reward yourself with positive thinking!

Night.

another day home

Kyle came down with a cold on Sunday and he had high fevers for two days after. Then he started coughing and this morning he seemed to be back to his normal happy self. I dropped him off to school and then took Michael to daycare. I hadn't even gotten my computer on in the office when the daycare called and said Michael was sick with a fever and needed to be picked up. Now we are home - I've lit a fire to keep the living room nice and toasty and now we are watching a movie. He was very hot until about 30 minutes ago and now he seems to be a little better. It seems this cold doesn't want to leave our house...

I hope everyone else is feeling good and not experiencing the cold or flu. Best wishes for a happy weekend!

ER

Ok - are you watching ER? I understand the show will come to an end next year - with September/October marking the start of ER's last season. At this point I'm wondering why I'm going to continue watching to the end. I'm tres disappointed that Luca is leaving the show - or only doing a few more - he is the only reason I watch. Are there other TV shows? What's the deal with Grey's Anatomy - is that better than ER? I've never even watched an episode.

Am I the only one disappointed in television? Should I just be walking away from the whole damned thing? I need friends to play cards with or more fun stuff to do.

I have a headache tonight and (last night) also started using tanning cream again only to get an orange ring around my wrist - BLAH! Boy, oh boy, whiny April - so sad - I know I'm having a poor me day. I guess I'll go to bed and sleep it off. - I know - beautiful, happy, beautiful, happy - so it will be.

home again

Home - hooray!

Last night I had a great night with Paula. She met me at the swanky hotel and had her car valet parked - us valet virgins had fun learning about how valet service works and how to tip. (Note to all other valet virgins - tipping occurs when you pick up your car - plus I think you can tip whenever anyone else from the hotel is remotely nice to you)

We then went to a press conference with the Premier. Me - the political junky - was very pleased to get to meet him and stand in a line of 50 people to get my picture taken with him. He is only an inch taller than me which was surprising - I anticipated him being 6 foot something. He made a very good speech to inspire our group and then took photos with all of us. Free booze and chocolate strawberries were available to all. We followed this excitement with a tour of Stanley Park and a 30 minute drive to figure out where to eat. We ended up at Shabusan - mmmmm - sushi, edamame, YUMMY - and sat at the sushi bar that included all forms of excitement in the way of a large group of pink haired friends hootin' it up, a couple that was a little overly friendly immediately beside us... and then it started to snow. I think it's the first time I've seen it snow in Vancouver - it was beautiful - but it also sent a message to all the stupid people to come out in full force to drive in the silly weather. We made it back to the hotel room and checked out the gym. We had a great - ok - not great - but a hell of a laugh - from the steam room. I had eucalyptus on my tongue - or it tasted that way - it did do wonders for my skin. It was a great night!

So I'm home in the minus weather now and I just wanted to wish Paula good luck in the sunrun (snow run) tomorrow. Enjoy running with all those 50,000 other people and have a great day!

today

So I'm in the big city - vancouver - here for a quick conference - I'm on the 20th floor downtown and I can see the Lions Gate Bridge from my room. It is surprisingly cold here today - I just went for a quick walk and only wore a t-shirt and vest and holy brrrrr.... I slept like a rock last night - my general anxiety disorder started to gear up last night and as I was falling asleep I kept thinking about the building falling sideways... I finally managed to shut that part up... phew :)

I went to starbucks this morning and joined a line 10 people deep and thought why am I doing this - why am I here - there has to be another coffee shop. I go to the next coffee shop - equally long line - then I see a coffee shop - restaurant and decide to go in - well I'm glad I did - I not only got a nice morning drink, I also got a great in-house muffin - apple muffin - they made at least 20 different kinds of muffins and all of them looked yummy. It was a place called moonpennies - and it was definitely better than starbucks - I was on my way back to here to continue working before I'd likely gotten my overpriced coffee and dry muffin-ish thing.

what's going on

Ok - the blog candy is going to have to wait. It isn't priority this week and it won't be priority for a while so post 301 is this and I'll post some candy soon.

So what's been going on? Well I went to a conference in 100 Mile House and had a great time. I met some new people who were passionate about tourism and got a little re-inspired about the work I do. I stayed at the Hills Health Ranch.



Here I am enjoying my spare time at the Hills. This looks more spectacular than it was - the tub was a regular hotel one nothing fancy - the difference was that the Hills had very nice smelling soaps.

On Sunday our family dog passed away. Fozzy Bear got sick about a week ago - we were out for dinner and everyone kind of all looked at each other at the same time and said where is he. He begged at every meal and yet at this dinner he could've cared less. Mom and I thought he'd gotten into the fish we'd caught (went ice fishing earlier that day) but that proved to be overly optimistic. Fast forward a week and he was still sick. They took him to the vet on the Saturday I came home from the conference. He sat in our yard and laid in the shade. Michael and Kyle sat with him and we talked about how he was doing. They had done a lot of tests and the vet had suggested he had diabetes and needed insulin 2 times a day from now on... but they did additional tests because they didn't think that was all that was going on. He was a big dog for his size - a little pomerian, but a big one really - lots of fur, - but the truth is that he ate from the table a lot. When I went and sat with him I realized how bad things were - he was all fur, you could actually feel his bones and that was very unheard of. Of course I didn't think that this was going to be our last visit with him.

Mom and Dad showed up on Sunday and I knew as soon as they pulled in that the news was bad. Mom was wearing sunglasses and my mom never wears sun glasses and my Dad just looked upset. I simply asked, are you in town for the reason I think you're in town - yes - they'd taken him to Williams Lake and test results had come back worse than expected. I must be getting old because I never thought I'd be so upset about his passing. What really beat me down is that Kyle asked how he was and my parents said he was fine. Six hours later I was trying to tell him that he wasn't and it was one of the hardest things I've had to do - I could hardly get a word out to tell him. Kyle took it in and asked if he'd see him again. I said no. He asked if he was buried in the ground and I was just dumbfounded by his question. I said I didn't know. That upset him. But it turns out that he was more upset with me being upset. I'm still a wreck over it. I think it brings up a lot of other issues for me. Having to explain death to Kyle tore a hole in me and now we have to talk about it every day because every day he has a new question. I'm happy to answer, but it is gut wrenching. He keeps asking if he is going to see Fozzy Bear - I think he thinks if he asks enough he will. So every time I explain it and remind him that he knows. He keeps asking my mom how he is and the first time made my mom burst into tears on the phone. Kyle told her it was ok and that he knew she was sad about it.

So as a tribute to our family dog, Mr. Bear aka Barky-bar-taka-moose as I sometimes fondly called him I've pasted a couple photos.

299.5

Ok before the blog candy festival I needed to make a post - so the blog candy will follow this post.

Today I get that phone call. "You need to come and pick up Kyle." Why? "He's put a rock in his ear."
GREAT! I drive there and he is fine - just sitting there. No problem. I take him right to emergency and he is all laughs and 'oh isn't this fun'. I'm freaking out, but remaining calm. They take us in immediately and find that it isn't that deep. They weren't really kid friendly and the doc didn't really know what to do - I think he really thought that Kyle was just going to sit still. He was in for a dramatic shock and kick in the nards.

First they try suction and this is when he reacted very poorly and made the first round of screaming and flailing... it was on at this point - Kyle went into basket case mode. So the suction idea was a poor one - if anything it just wedged this damned rock even further into his poor little ear. Then, because it wasn't that deep, he decides to to use syringe full of water and fill his ear up so the rock "hopefully" floats out. Kyle freaked out further and flailed with both his arms and legs - I was on arm duty and a nurse was on head duty. The doctor got about 10 kicks from Kyle's shoed feet and Kyle wouldn't give up. So then we tried the water again and this time I've got him pinned. Legs between my legs, arms pinned, nurse holding his head - and then the rock moves. We move Kyle a little and he spazzes out and he tells Kyle to sit up and he's going to pull it out with micro tweezers. He (wrongly) shows Kyle what he's going to do and Kyle goes ballistic. He is cursing everything - not really cursing - but he is screaming louder than I've ever heard anyone scream and crying and - it was terrible. So the doctor finally just reaches in and pulls out this 1.5 cm by .5 cm triangle shaped rock out of his ear. We tell Kyle it's over and Kyle is trying to get out the door. "I don't want to ever come to the hospital again. Let's go, let's go, let's go." The doctor hands me the rock, which I end up losing and he says it should be fine - no damage. And then Kyle sways towards me and screams again - my ear is bleeding, my ear is bleeding - and sure enough his ear is bleeding all over and it's on his hands and the screaming is on again. They give us a swab to clean up and the doctor says it should still be fine and Kyle had no hearing issues. They looked and it was all clear. The doctor leaves and I thought he was coming back, but after 10 minutes makes no appearance and I hear him dealing with others. He didn't think we needed drops or that there would be anything else wrong so we just headed out - I'm sure they were happy to see us leave.

We got into the waiting area and we sat down and talked about why the hospital was good and why it was good that they took the rock out. We went and saw Grandma (she was working today) and he cried a bit again and then we went to the car. He was still crying and shaking and upset. We went to get a drink and I took him to my office. He was still in shock. I said we'd go home and I'd pick up Michael first, but by the time I got to daycare he wanted to stay. We talked a lot about not putting stuff in ears but he didn't really say why it happened. I just couldn't believe that he thought hey, there's a rock - let's see if that will fit in my ear.

Tonight as we were reading our bedtime story I asked again -telling him it was ok to tell me why he thought that was a good idea and he says - 'mom the other kids were being loud and it was nap time - i just wanted to not hear them anymore' ... so I'm buying earmuffs tomorrow.

And there you go - another story about why parenting is much more difficult and gut retching then the books will ever tell you. Another day that I will remember for all my days.

I hope everyone else had a far better day then me.

a little fanfare

As you may have seen a few weeks ago we celebrated Chinese New Year by making a dragon and then took it to Kyle's kindergarten to parade and dance with. The idea came from Canadian Living and I sent them a thank you for the idea and this month (on newsstands now for only $1.99) you can find a picture from the parade.



Here is a terrible photo of the magazine... my camera didn't want to cooperate in getting something better. For a $1.99 I'm sure everyone can go and get a copy... if a picture of Kyle and our dragon isn't enough they do have some great recipes for Mother's Day and some great places to see in Canada this year.

Near my 300th post

I was thinking of giving away a bunch of scrapbook stuff that I'm no longer using or don't plan to use for my 300th post. It made me think of the following:

In high school I received a chain letter. I believe it was my friend Angela but I could be wrong. I had a number of pen pals throughout high school and even early college so I do mix up where I received stuff from. In any case I opened the letter (isn't mail fabulous) and it is a chain letter with a twist. Send a pair of underwear (this was before I knew what sex and sexual stuff was about - I will admit there are more years in my life when I was clueless then when I had a clue...) to the people on the list. I bought some gonch and sent them off expecting to get hundreds of pairs of underwear because who wouldn't get in on this - free underwear - AWESOME! Ah, the mind of a young teen. No, I didn't get any undy - but some girl did.

Ok - well that wasted a minute of your time.

Crappy television - what is up with the bachelor this season - I can't even try to pay attention to it - 1) I don't find him attractive 2) the women are all whiners, 3) it is lame! I can't say I've ever really paid attention to these shows but I just watched (kind of) 5 minutes and.. well maybe I'm just not in that place in my life that I'd think that was a good use of my time - watching that

Lame - wanna hear lame - well I just watched an hour of council... it's official I'm a political junkie and a freak,... night.

when I said snow... I meant snow

See the roof - there was a solid 3 feet on that roof and all the roofs around town - they'll probably have snow until late May...

frozen toes

Today I went to Wells (www.wellsbc.com) twice. First time was for work - long meeting, lots accomplished... I stopped in to see Andy for a minute on my way out and he mentioned that he'd forgotten his shoes to work out over the weekend. I made it home, picked the boys up and packed up to go spend the night out there. We got out there in an hour (saw 4 moose together - the most moose I've ever seen together... it was great) hung out and then ended up coming back because spending the night was going to cost $70 plus everything else and really I just wanted to get Andy his shoes, the boys did get a great tour of the ambulance truck and the shop... so we turn around to come home and about 25 minutes out of Quesnel I have a tire that went flat... it's dark (very), it's -5 or more... and there is a tonne of snow - so I have to change the tire in snow on the side of the road - BLAH! On top of that Kyle is doing this - "mom, aren't the bears going to come, mom aren't you worried about bears, mom I think the bears are hungry..." on and on and on... now I wasn't worried about bears, but having the chatter and the mind starts to wonder - I kept thinking about coyotes or some other furry animal watching... the tire came off ok, but it did not want to go back on - it took me an hour to change the tire - didn't help that my toes were freezing - actually frost bite set into my feet and a couple of my fingers - so then everything was burning as it warmed up... now I'm home and just trying to warm up - very glad that I know how to change tires and glad that we made it home and no one was hurt when the tire went :)

Ok - I'm going to go and get a blanket to further warm up.... I hope everyone else's start to the weekend has gone far better.

Big Willie

Movie review.

First let me say that I love Will Smith. When I saw the previews for "i am legend" i could hardly wait for it to come to DVD for us to watch. All I heard was how fantastic it was, some of his (Big Willies) best film, oscar worthy. Now I don't know if any of you have seen it, but I just spent the last 90 minutes of my life watching and I don't get it. What the hell kind of film was that? MAN! 90 minutes long and they could have trimmed it to inside an hour and maybe I wouldn't be feeling like I just wasted my time. I don't watch a lot of movies any more and I really pick the ones I do watch and now I've wasted 90 minutes that could have been spent doing nothing on facebook. Did I miss something? Was that really a great film and I'm not getting it... tell me - what did I miss - have you even seen it? I guess I'm just not into monsters, long periods of silence in film, gore, blood, violence and an attempt at blending in God...

Ok - now I feel good and vented.

nut allergy alert!

Happy Easter... not really - please check the treats the Easter bunny is leaving for your kids! This isn't a joke - I saw a little blurb about a recall tonight and new that we had some cadbury in the house... I took this off of Canada.com which is part of Global.


The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is warning people with hazelnut allergies not to eat Cadbury Mini Eggs because some packages of the perennial candy-coated chocolate might contain traces of the nut without saying so.
Early Saturday, and after one reported illness, confectioner Cadbury Adams voluntarily withdrew 39-gram packages of the sweets, which were distributed nationally. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is monitoring the recall.
For those with allergies to hazelnut or hazelnut protein, eating the chocolate could cause a serious or life-threatening reaction.

Packages of Cadbury Mini Eggs.

The recall is of Cadbury Mini Eggs, regular milk chocolate, UPC 0 61200 08021 6, lot codes 02457T and 02357T.
For more information, call Cadbury, 1-866-782-3267; or the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, 1-800-442-2342/TTY 1-800-465-7735.

happy first day of spring

Welcome to the first day of spring! I don't know if you were feeling spring or not today. We still have more than a foot of snow where it is largely shady and about 6 inches where the sun gets to more often. The willows are starting to get ready for spring though. Long winter this year. There have been a few recent years where the crabapple trees near my office have started to leaf up this weekend.

We wish everyone a Happy Easter and good luck in hunting for treats on Sunday.