December 7, 2009

You know, so far not much snow around here. There's a dusting on the ground, but no where near the amount there should be. I'm not complaining. I haven't had to shovel yet. I'm still wearing a pull-over sweater. I did buy boots. Now the regular Winter boot - but a styling kind of boots.. sort of like an Ug. They warm my feet though :) I have yet to wear a hat or even gloves (although gloves will be donned soon - should be already).

And yes, technically it is still Autumn. We've been spared one storm already. And another is approaching but will be too far south to impact us much. I checked the weather map and seems as if a storm is heading our way for Sunday with a mere 5-10 cm of snow forecasted.

My dream of a snowless Winter won't happen this year. Unless I win the lottery and fly to Hawaii. But it sure has been a nice break so far :)

kick start

It's time to kick start this blog into something other than pee paper for puppies.

stay tuned....

It's August!

Wow, time flies. You can guess I've been taking time off the computer (blogging) to enjoy summer - or what there is of summer here.

I spent 20 days on the road traveling with my family. My children travel well. They have their moments, but hey - considering we had 12-14 hours in a van, they did extremely well. And, considering we supplied them with movies and video games.. that helped all the more. We had a few "pull over to the side of the road" episodes where we explained (through gritted teeth) the importance of quiet and not fighting, so not to "distract the driver."

My kids saw and played in the ocean for the first time. They took to it like they have been in it every day of their lives. Quite amazing! Even my husband, who born and raised in the centre of the world really didn't have much ocean experience. I hemmed and hawed at the importance of watching the children. Making sure they understood the currents and what they can do. My husband learned that when the tide comes in, that it's important to pack the towels and such - up along the dunes... He and the girls came back to a drenched site one day. I spent time trying to find "sand glass." I never found any. Instead I spent the time awwwing over the smooth flat rocks the ocean spit out.

I also got to IKEA 2x's. It's amazing to actually go to IKEA twice in the same week. Simply amazing. And I did it in two separate cities, many miles apart. And I didn't spend more than $100. My husband doesn't quite understand IKEA. He went with me on the 2nd trip. He was confused. He tried to find an exit - and for those of you that know - there is no exit! You must go through each section.. follow the arrow.

We came home to a jungle in my backyard. It was beyond insane. Like up to my knees insane. And to make matters worse - I think it rained 95% of the time we were gone! So, it was a jungle of wet grass. My lawnmower spit. It did not like the grass. It refused to put the grass in it's baggy attachment, instead - spitting it out in clumps. It was a horrible looking grass. Just horrible. It's looking a bit better now. A bit.

Since we've been back, it's rained 95% of the time. Sigh. The temperatures have been way below normal. In fact - we are saving so much electricity. I can't remember the last time we used our a/c. Normally - that a/c would be running nonstop. And.. kicking my kids outside brings cries of "it's tooo cold!" instead of "it's too hot!"

So, I've been spending time redecorating my house - or adding some kind of decorating. I just got two new area rugs. Looks great. I think. I lose all self esteem when it comes to decorating. I worry what "people will think." I must remember - IT'S MY HOME AND MY COMFORT. Sigh. I have a ways to go.

I've also focused on getting my daughter ready for back-to-school. She's about done, clothes wise. I haven't so much on the boys. They are done with Please Mum, and Gymboree.. and Sears and Walmart... they want speciality clothing. Speciality clothing really costs a lot! And rarely on sale. Rarely. Sigh. But I must accept the fact that they are growing up and into new things. And instill in them that I won't spend $100 on a pair of pants - I at least should see a shirt in for that price!!! Maybe two! And for God's sake... a sale would be nice!

And normally, I am not a back-to-school clothing kind of person. I usually buy clothes as they need them. And buying warm clothes in the middle of summer is useless - no one wants to try it on and they can't wear them until October (otherwise they will boil in them in the air-conditionless schools). But since it's so below average temperature wise - it's been rather easy to put my mind into clothes shopping. Still unlike me. I do prefer the wait until they need idea... ah well. Blame it on the sales and the weather.

Tomorrow is my 13th anniversary. Yes, my husband I made it 13 years. Doing o.k. Some bumpy roads, lots of learning to communicate and accepting each others faults - but the love is still there. Still lots to learn (mainly on my part). I realized this yesterday that I really didn't know what my husband was into. I walked the mall trying to find something for him. Deciding on a game. He's into warhammer, catan such games, etc. It's all every confusing to me, and all very uninteresting. I've tried to understand.. I've tried. I even went so far as to ask him "what would you like for your anniversary?" And I didn't get any reply. Just a shrug. So, I had to call his friend. A good friend. Who probably hung up the phone and shook his head. Wondering where Darryl went wrong, marrying someone with zero interest in his interests. His wife probably knows what he wants for birthdays and anniversaries. Although he may verbally let her know too. Really none of my business. But my husband can never say I don't put in any effort to getting him a gift. I walk hours on end, hemming and hawing - drag kids with me and we all hem and haw - and then I call friends. "Help!"

So, 13 years. And you know - I can almost guarantee he is out somewhere right now hemming and hawing over me. Because I refuse clothing. And what I wanted, I no longer want anymore (as earlier in Walmart we were looking at Ipods - to replace the one that was stolen) and I told him that I really didn't want the Itouch anymore that it was useless for me and he really uses this stuff more than I do - so go get what would work for him thingy) I think I heard him scream silently to himself.

oops.

Here's to many more anniversary shopping experiences to come!!!

5K

5K is what I walked today. Not bad after a very long Winter.

The snow has long gone. Yah, Mother Nature has fooled us a few times .. more like teased us with flurries... I've officially banned the word "snow" from this house as a naughty four letter word. My children love to taunt me with it. They don't understand. One day, I'll be retired down south.. in a nice warm state or country. And I'll call my lovely oh so darling children and ask how they are doing... and I'll make sure to check the weather for the area they live in... and I'll call them... and tell them how nice and hot it is where I am!!!! Yeah.. that will teach them to use that four letter word around me. Revenge is Sweet.

I raked today too. Sort of mulched or something the grass.. I have no clue what I am doing.. all I know, is I raked up dead grass. It's in a pile. Because I raked up garbage too. And at the ripe old age of 42, I figured my back wasn't going to let me bend to pick them up. And I had a light bulb moment - I have 4 children!!! WOOHOO!

They don't know it yet - but that is what we will do tomorrow :D

I will not be "Mother of the Year" tomorrow.

Tracy

SNOWSTORMS AREN'T ROMANTIC IN MARCH

I woke up today to white stuff. It was everywhere. Dang blasted stuff. This is my front steps.. looking down. At 7:09pm, they are still not shoveled.











Here is my walkway.. still not shoveled at 7:11pm and I don't give a woohoo. See where that red car is? That is the location of the big puddle. Now iced over. But you can't see the ice, but it's snowed over now.










And this lovely couple. They had the foresight to bring an umbrella. They make standing in the middle of a snowstorm so romantic. pfff.















Today, since all the kids were in school - My hubby and I decided to take the opportunity to go on a lunch date. Eating together, sans kids. So, I rushed out to get my youngest to preschool. And I find my van battery dead. It takes both my husband and I a good 20 minutes to extricate dd's car seat from the van and put it into his car. Dear hubby, tells me to just take her to school and come back to get him. Off we go. I cursed the city of Winnipeg for their not so excellent plowing... I go slow, steady. And up I go into the back lane of the preschool, to the "new" spot. And I get stuck. NOOOOOOooooooooo I scream in my head. This can NOT happen again! At least, there was hope this time... this was just snow. I spent a good 10 minutes, going back and forth, reverse, drive, reverse, drive... I get out and kick snow around... get back in. Finally I get the car moving and I run my daughter into her class. 30 minutes later, I return home.

My husband has a puzzled look on his face, and asked... "what took you so long?" I laughed, tell him the whole story... and off we go. :) We had a marvelous lunch. This is the 2nd date we've had this week.. spoiling ourselves I think!! :) We better be careful, or we may get addicted to this romance stuff!!! We may actually start to think we are childless adults! Nawww.... unfortunately the school bells start to ring, startling us into reality.

The snow continues to pile up. No one here seems to mind. While waiting for a tow truck to come and boost the van's battery, and while I let the van run for 30 minutes, I dug snow. I moved snow... I huffed and puffed and quietly cried inside. "why me? why me?" I started to hate friends that were leaving for warm climates. It's their fault you know. But the cars can now get out without getting stuck. I moved hundreds of pounds of snow. But the front though. It's a mess. And I know the mailman will hate me now. I think he used to love me. I know he loved me. I was nice to him. I am wondering what he thinks happened? If he did something wrong? Sigh.

I don't want to shovel anymore. I don't. I quit. I'm not doing it anymore. This OCD thing is not for me. It bugs me... but I'm too exhausted - aka lazy - to even care. And I have 4 children who can shovel.. o.k. 2 really.. and 11 and 9 - yeah, they are more than capable... but they aren't budging... I think, they think if they are real quiet and don't make a sound, mom won't notice them... but this one will no doubt beg for a ride in the morning - because 1, there's too much snow, and 2, he's brilliant student, but not so brilliant in survival skills.. wear boots? whaaaa?????

NEVER LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT

Today I spent 2 hours stuck in a hole. A hole that ate 1/2 my tire.

The snow is melting rapidly here. It's warm and raining. So, when I parked my van outside the preschool, I parked by a rain gutter. That rain gutter was spewing water.. which softened the ice I was on.

As I parked, I noticed my van going forward. Odd. It was in park.. what was going on?

What was happening was that my car was being sucked into weak ice. Dragged below into the mud that lay beneath. I tried to get out, but was was just spitting sludge up against the building.

I sat there and panicked for a bit. Not sure what to do. I used to have a sticker on my window for road side assistance, but it mysteriously disappeared. My husband canceled the "onstar" a few months back (dang him).

So, I called my dealership. Because I never throw anything away, I still had the book in the van with my agent's name in it. I called the main number and the receptionist forwarded me to the repair section (I'm sure there is a proper name for it, but it escapes me!!) I tell them what was going on and he says he'll call me back. I'm sure he was laughing his arse off!

He calls back and gives me the number to road side assistance. I call and that lady sends out help, but tells me it would be a 75 minute wait. Did I have a warm place to go? Was there a "Tim Horton's" near by?

I told her, I guess I could sit inside, not sure though and no, I was no where near any restaurant. I wasn't sure about turning on the van, because I was so deep down into the hole, I didn't know if it was safe at that point.

Bless her heart, took pity and put a rush on the order. I sat in the van and waited. I felt my left foot start to freeze up and I just sat there.. like an idiot.

The tow truck driver came just over an hour later. He was a nice fellow, who had a smirk of laughter on his face.. he wasn't smug, just I really did get the van in a pickle!!!

He assured me that this has been happening a lot.. (I didn't believe him!)

He looks at the van, and then turns to me and says.. "you know you back wheel is flat, eh?" Ugh.. yeah. Monday is not my day apparently. Actually, my friend, not 45 minutes earlier, pulled up beside me, while I was stuck in the hole. She burst out laughing when she saw my almost flat back tire.

It takes the man a good 20 minutes or so to get the van out. He tried to pull it out, but it wasn't budging. That tire wasn't going to move, if a building fell on it. So, he takes out his jack and raises the car way up high... I'm thinking... great, he's gonna tip the van over.

He took out a bunch of wood.. starts piling it under the van like... takes it out, tries another position. A neighbor comes up and finds some wood in his garage... so they fill the hole with all this wood... slowly move the van on top of it.. and drive backwards.

My van is free.

woohooo.

And because my van is still low mileage, it's still covered under road side assistance. woohppeee! I didn't have to pay a dime. Which was good, because I didn't have any money on me at all!!!

My friend and I decided that our parking spot behind the preschool just wasn't a good option for us anymore. We are parking elsewhere now. Away from rain gutters. Off of ice and flowing water.

We are now parking behind a church. The good lord will look down upon us and watch over our vans. I hope he watches over my back tire as well. I went to fill it up, and I had no clue!! I got air into it, but not sure how much... there is this thing called a tired gauge that if you use it will tell you -- but unless someone shows you, it's absolutely useless. My friend has one in her car that her husband insisted she have. Problem is, she doesn't know how to use it either!!!

Now, I bet if I still had "onstar" they would have told me how to use it!! LOLOL I also wonder if I had to wait just as long as well? Or would "onstar" automatically come on and say "hello, this is onstar, we've noticed you've got yourself into a pickle "

:)

And .. the topic of my post.. "never leave home without it"

And that would be my camera. Because that would have been a GREAT photo to share. Because this is what life is like in the Spring time: big puddles, melting snow, melting ice.

And if I was really clued into it - I would have remembered my cellphone had a camera... yeah...

WINTER MELT

This lovely puddle is on my street - yup in front of my house. Whenever the snow melts, this is what happens. In fact, whenever it rains, this is what happens.

Up near the top, if you look closely you can see the street drain... hmmm.. not sure if there is another name for it? In any case, oddly enough it is on a bit of a "hill".. making it impossible for water to drain into it.

Yeah.. it's annoying. Last summer the street crews were out for a whole week fixing the street. Took apart the curbs... redid a few things.... never touched this problem -- and it was quite obviously a problem... we were really excited when we saw them too.. thinking "FINALLY! we can get rid of that stupid puddle.

Winnipeg is a magnet for mosquitoes. We are built on flood lands (of some sort).. It's mosquito heaven!! I'm sure half the population of mosquitoes are bred in that puddle. Yup. It's a fertility haven.

It also really hampers parking on the street, as there is no where to park... You don't want to step in the puddle.. or the kids - and trust me they don't step, they jump, jump and jump some more - especially the children who are 4 and under. Even 6 year olds are prone to jump in it. And a 9 year old will do it out of spite sometimes, especially if you are wearing light coloured clothing, and or clean clothing at that... It's a good thing my 9 year old is cute.

Speaking of puddle jumping, I still haven't found any splash pants. Nada. But then again, I haven't looked very hard since my last post -- and I was even in Walmart and I totally forgot to check. But I did have 4 children with me on a Saturday morning.

My backyard is melting too. Hopefully we can get the garage door open soon. Yes, it's frozen solid.. not good drainage over there at all.. water sort of drains down towards the garage, and well, from December on, we can not enter our garage via the door. Yeah, if we ever replace the garage door opener, we would actually be able to enter that way if need be.

We are in for a lot of rain the next couple of days. So our puddles and frozen doors won't go away soon - especially if the temperatures drop below zero at night.. not a chance in heck.

Speaking of rain, I have to seriously think about redoing our gutters... it's high time they were replaced.. they aren't working as well as they should be at all. Every corner of our house has a puddle.. drip, drip, drip.... Yeah... gutter-failure at it's best.

Welcome Spring

I woke up this morning, not hearing the snow melt, or the birds chirping, but to the sounds of my 3 year old walking around the house saying, "goodbye snow" "Hello Spring"

And I layed in bed and wondered... It is Spring. Wow!

Not to put a damper on my post, but Spring really means nothing weather-wise to Manitobans. All it means is that we can officially eliminate "Winter" from our vocabulary for a few months. Yes, we may have a few days left of frigid temps, and yeah, we may get blasted with snow before June... It won't be bad though - I think the temps will say above 0c during the days for the most part... give it a couple of weeks... maybe....

I've read that it will get as high as 9c on Tuesday. To us Manitobans, that means, no more winter coats, and boots. Heck, I can guarantee that I'll see at least a dozen high school age/college age kids wearing shorts.

My 6 year old has been begging to wear her rain boots. (Which I bought early this year to avoid the mad rush). And I told her she could wear them once the temps rose to over 0c. Of course, today it's going to be a hot 4c and we completely forgot. I'm sure I'll hear about this the whole weekend.

Yesterday I went on a search for splash pants. (of course, I never thought of that while buying the boots).. nor did I think of it when I bought the girl's their spring jackets... Nope... not a pair to be found. What gives??

I'm sure I'll have to hit Walmart and check.. just this year I was hoping the splash pants would actually "match" the spring jackets!

Welcome Spring. You have improved many a mood. Kids are smiling, and even my 3 year old is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Today - she has her mind set on "puddle splashing" She plans on getting me soaking wet.. jeesh thanks there! LOL I will need to hunt down splash pants for her... I know I have some.. somewhere...

And maybe Spring will bring me some organizational skills.. I need to purge this house... things have got to go.

Ahh Spring. The season of hope.

Long time no post

Wow! Did I ever get in a Winter rut. It was dark, cold and well, even I had given up on my OCD-ness of shoveling. And I'm paying for it now! It's just eventually I gave up the fight. Going out in -40c temperature to shovel wasn't appealing. I wasn't willing to lose any body parts to frostbite. But yes, now that the sun is out longer, the temperatures have risen and the snow is beginning to melt. This means, my snow covered walks are pure ice now. I shouldn't have given up... but then again, if I didn't give up, I probably would have lost a body part.

Since the 17th of January many things have gone on. My son made it back from camp. He had a wonderful time. We decided to take the whole family up to pick him up. The Mamma Mia movie take the whole time up.. it kept the kids occupied! :) The camp was very very beautiful. Sadly, my son's disposable camera did not work at all. Which is too bad, since he caught his first fish up there! He came back exhausted and full of fresh air!!!

February brought me the flu. I spent a good 4 days thinking I was going to die. O.k. maybe two of those days. My cat spent the entire time by my side, which really led me to believe I was going to die - some cats have that sense and since this cat isn't one for cuddling, I was a bit nervous. I obviously survived and cursed the person who gave me that germ. No one else in the family got it, so we were lucky.

February also made my cat sick as well. Poor Socks, has crystals. He's on the mend now and on a special diet. He's back to his grumpy self. Although he still is wanting to be near us more often now.

And into March. ahhhh March. The clock change. I can't tell you how much nicer it is to see sunlight still at 7pm. Everyone's mood seems to have lifted. We are wanting to do more, get moving, hibernation is offically over.

On the 10th, my 3 year old broke her collarbone. She's doing fine and is able to resume all her activities. Personally, if it were me, I'd be still whinning. But not my 3 year old. As long as we don't touch her shoulder, all is good. Kids. They heal fast!

I also celebrated my 40th birthday. Ok. It's not my 40th, but I refuse to count any higher. I was o.k. at 41 anything after just isn't going to exist. It's not in my numerical vocabulary!!!! My birthday landed smack dab in the middle of colds, flu, broken bones, pukes and every other imaginable thing that could go wrong. I'll never forget this birthday. In fact it's permanently etched in my brain, something I will probably bring up when I'm very old. It will be endless story my kids and grandkids will hear over and over again. One day, I will post about the birthday present. We still aren't at the laughing stage of it yet... As soon as I can type it and laugh, I will post the story.

I forgot to wear green for St. Patty's Day. I also learned that some family have leprechauns come to their house on this day. I never knew that existed! I have heard of leprechauns, but never knew he was just like the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy. My daughter's friend asked me in shock about why he didn't come to our home. And I stood there in shock, as I didn't know what to say - I told her I guess it meant that we were just more Ukranian than Irish. Pretty good come back there for being caught off guard! She seemed to like that answer.

So, that has been our doings lately. Of course, I hope to post more... to get on the bandwagon more.. to take more photos... contribute a bit to this boring blog.. to get more into why I started the blog...

It's Spring

Spring has arrived here. I know, Spring doesn't arrive until March. But today, we are in single digits temperature wise - Yeah, it's in the negative, but still, it's single digits.

I was outside shoveling earlier. We only got a dusting over night, but my OCD can't handle snow on my sidewalk -- although, I will admit, there has been a dusting of snow on my sidewalk for about a week now. But OCD or not, nothing was going to make me go out in -45c temperatures to shovel it. Even I have my limits.

We are hoping to get outside to the hill. It's almost a sin to be inside on days like today.

I have to go shopping later. I hope drivers are in a good mood. Trust me, when it's -45c outside, it's a fend for yourself attitude on the road. No one is smiling.

My son is up at camp. No calls, means good news. I'm sure he is having a blast and enjoying everything. It was weird last night. I was sitting watching TV and definitely something was missing. I wasn't hearing him talk, complain or anything about bedtime. Bullets from his nerf gun didn't fly through the house and hit me. I slept through the night. And when I woke this morning, I forgot he wasn't here. And then I woke completely up, and realized.. "OMG, I have go through another day of this???" My son definitely brings a quirkiness to my life. Without him around, there is a huge void. And whereas I should be enjoying the calmness around us, I miss it. I know he is having a blast. It's warmer for him! (He is not one for cold).

Spring... it's like have a little skip to my walk. I can feel spring, even though it's not for 2 more months... even though we'll shoot down to sub zero temperatures in a week... or a few days.

Procrastination gets you no where

Yeah, once again procrastination reared it's ugly head today. Today I was to meet with my guarantor for my passport. Today we'd put pen to paper and sign our lives away.

This morning, I decided I'd better get to filling out those papers. I finally cleared away the clutter of my space.. found the printer and plugged it in. I bid farewell to my husband and daughter who were off to go grocery shopping.

Then I tried to print. And lo and behold no ink.

And alas, the passports weren't going to be completed by 11:30a.m. No way, no how.

So, our lunch meeting is canceled. Next week it will happen.

I do vow, that today, I will get it done. Today those papers will be waiting for signatures -

I'll even put them some place safe. And I'll try to remember where I put them!!!

Much the same

today was it was yesterday. it's bitterly cold. I have not gone out in it yet. I will though, otherwise a couple of kids won't get home from school.

Apparently, this weekend the weather forecasters are 'predicting' a high of 0 on Sunday. Yeah, right. They normally can't predict the current weather, never mind 3 days from now.

I do hope it warms up, since my baby will be heading north camping. I still don't want him to go. I'm not entirely convinced he is ready. O.k. O.k. he is ready. I'm the one who isn't ready.

-49 with windchill today

and school still wasn't canceled.

Tire pressure and Oil changes

I had the van's oil changed today. It was due. Past due by a hundred miles, actually. And today is Tuesday - it's $5 off at Jiffy Lube.. hmmm... I think it was Jiffy Lube. In any case, the van's oil is nice and clean.. and I'm good for another couple of months. I think? Part of the service is having fluids checked, topped off and checking the tire pressure. The woman who was checking the pressure, asked if I had a pressure gauge. I said noooooooo.... She said it would be a very good idea to get one. Apparently, my rear driver side tire, had no reading at all.. it was very very low.

And that pretty much explains everything. It was just odd, that after coming to a stop sign, it would take a minute to exit the stop sign.. my tires would spin and spin and spin. And I just figured it was the good old city of Winnipeg's lack of sanding.

The drive home from the oil place, was a piece of cake.. it almost felt as if I was riding higher..

Another interesting tidbit of information. Uplander's all have an oil indicator. It will let you know how low your oil is, and suggest that when you hit zero - it's time to bring the van in! Another interesting tidbit, the sticker that oil place gives you -- the one with the mileage on it, to let you know when to bring the van back to get the oil changed, it's totally different from the indicator in the van. like way different... the van's indicator goes off way before, I'm even near the mileage!!! And another interesting tidbit, you can change that oil indicator, any old time you want. If you see the numbers low, reset it. It will bring the indicator up to 99%. Seriously! Now, I don't condone this at all. And I would have never noticed this if it wasn't for a couple of weeks ago. I was driving and noticed my indicator on. It was reading, I had 3% left in the van. It was on a Thursday that day... and I planned to go on the next Tuesday (to get the $5 off!). Over the weekend, my husband CHANGED the indicator.. and up it popped up to 99%! Over the weekend, or maybe that Monday, I noticed that the indicator was showing we had a lot of oil. When my husband got home that night, I asked him if he "added" oil to the van to top it off? He said "noooooooooooo" And I could tell, he was definitely hiding something. I told him what I knew and he confessed to making the oil indicator up 99%. Because... he doesn't believe in timely oil changes. Because... his BROTHER (who was in his early 20's then) HAD a car and he went YEARS without an oil change. And my husband, thinks "it's all a farce and scam..." "because if my brother could go that long....."

My eyes popped.

My head didn't' spin.

But I wasn't nice. I'm not sure of the exact wording either, but I said something like.. "your brother is a complete idiot - young and stupid." And your brother doesn't or didn't have a family to drive around, a mortgage, 2 car payments, and one working parent" "Your brother would be o.k. with the engine blowing up - he didn't have to worry about feeding his family!"

I could tell mentally my husband was rolling his eyes. And that is something I will have to live with. I mean, at least he didn't do it physically! ROFLMAO

I'm not entirely sure, how long my husband has been playing with the oil indicator. I don't think I want to know. I almost feel violated he did this... and I'm counting my lucky stars that our engine hasn't blown up!

But the bigger question is - Do we listen to the van's oil indicator or the mileage indicator?

I love being a Stay at home mom

Some days it can be very isolating. Especially when you reach a point in your life, when most of your friends have gone off to work in the outside world. Their days of diapers, and preschool are over. They were the smart ones.. ones that started early. I started relatively late compared to them. I started when I was 30. I guess I could have gone back to work bang on. But I didn't. 12 years later, I'm still doing the same thing. Only it's lonelier. Sure, I volunteer at the schools. But I'm old compared to them. There is nothing like watching the energy level of a 20 something year old. I miss that. I miss that I never had that. LOL

And soon, like a in few years.. I will be donning resumes and begging for a job. Any job that doesn't have me wearing a McDonald's uniform. "Would you like fries with that?" O.k. I'm not downing anyone who works there. I worked there once, when I was 16. I hated it. Fast food is not for me... oh sure, my body LOVES it... I think McDonalds is the perfect first job.. in fact every teenager should have to work fast food at one point or another... it builds character!
Yeah.. sure.. it really does!!!! It built mine... the "I'll never work at this place ever again" character!

But yeah... it's times like today when my house is quiet. All the kids are in school - the baby is in preschool for 2 hours. It's empty. And I'm never really ever sure what to do with myself during those times. It's odd. It's hard to motivate myself. Why? Cause I'm not a 20 something year old full of young energy. I'm 40 something (low something) year old who has energy, but exhausted energy. Now, trust me, I have nothing to be exhausted about... I guess thinking about the last 12 years is exhausting enough... maybe it's more of a misguided exhaustion? a hopeless exhaustion?

Maybe. Maybe just maybe is lazy exhaustion? Because I've never had downtime. I've never had 2 whole hours without caring for someone. And I look at my house and see it's relative disaster and think.. I could spend this time wisely. Yeah.. wisely... that means cleaning it! O.k.. if I say cleaning it.. it sounds like it's dirty.. o.k. lets try.. that means tidying it! Yeah, that sounds much better.. I'll tidy my house.

And then that leads me to the next thought -- why do I want to tidy everyone else's stuff on my time off?

Yeah.. well, because I'm a stay at home mom and I signed myself up for this. This was the job I agreed to do. No, not a job.. a lifestyle.

I'll be honest. This job was a whole lot better when my friends didn't work. This time would have been filled with coffee hours, visiting each others homes... coffee and chit chat. Yeah.. I'm sure it would have been exactly like that!!!

Pictures...

naw.. too lazy to scan and/or copy pictures over here today... I promise one day too.. but currently my "counter" is just too cluttered to even attempt to pull on the scanner and I've only got a few minutes to spare, so I don't have time to look on Iphoto for pictures to share...

But today, my youngest and I had our passport pictures taken. Look straight ahead and don't smile. Almost impossible for a three year old.. and 4 pictures later, we got a perfect one. I had a great one on the 1st try (bravo!). :)

So, now I print off the forms.. which I can't do, because well, my scanner is also my printer! Yup. hmmmf. I also know I need ink for it as well. Tonight, I will declutter my brain, and then declutter my "counter" and get to work on that. I'm hoping it's some other colour besides black that needs replacing.. I just need the black ink this time around.

It's funny how mug-shottish passport pictures look. You have to have your ears showing too. And nothing in your hair. You must remain as ugly as possible. I'm surprised they don't want us showing teeth.

My completion time for the passport is by the end of next week -- no, not having the passport in my hand, but having the paperwork all sent in! Passport will be months in the making.

Packing for Camp

It's interesting. Here, we have Winter camp. I guess, if you can't beat the snow, you might as well go camping in it! My son is going way to camp soon. And the item list that we need is just crazy. I know they want us to pack on the errrrr of caution. After all, these are 9 year old boys.

Being a good mom, I ordered him from Sears a pair of long johns. Bravo... (are you standing and applauding?) I didn't have to rush around and get him what he needed... got it early, no stress.

Well, guess what? He needs 2 pairs of long johns and 2 thermal shirts!! ARRRCCCKKKKKK!

Like anywhere in North American in January, guess what most stores have done? Went directly to summer! ARRRRCCCCKKKKKKKK!

So, today.... out I run. I just pray and hope and plead with the "camping gods" that there will be some winter stuff left!!!

Now, I can't substitute this stuff... he HAS to have it. Otherwise he won't be able to go camping and I'll be the worse mom in the world.

Camp. Not only do I have the stress of sending him off an hour from home with complete strangers, I now can stress over long underwear. Honestly. There better be a badge for the mom's coming. Let's see, I figure I should get these badges...

1. The sewing badge. Cause really -- have you sewed badges onto a sleeve of a shirt??? Really... I had to sew like 6! I cried the whole time. Not to mention the sewing of little badges onto the sash.

2. The colour matching badge Because all the badges come in different colours. I had to take these badges to a sewing store and very carefully, match thread to badge. O.k.. I will share this badge with my 11 year old, who I took with me and helped tremendously with this.

3. The shopping badge - because there is always "something" that I need to buy.

4. The nutritional badge - because my son eats junk at his weekly meetings. And I feel like an ogre trying to make up for it the day before and after.

5. The bravery badge - because soon, I will have to say goodbye to my son who is going away with very qualified strangers for a few days. And it will be the LONGEST weekend of my life.

and last but not least...

6. The idiot badge - because I wouldn't be stressing now, if I had not lost the supply list a month ago.... heck, if I READ the supply list a month ago, I would have seen what was required.

And I guess my son deserves this badge:

1. The neurotic mother badge - cause he has had to deal with my neurotic-ness . Poor kid.

Packing for camp is soooooooo much easier in the Summer. And more enjoyable too, as I'm going camping too!

Passports

A per a new law, on June 1, 2009 all Canadians will need a passport to enter the U.S. Currently, we just show our driver licenses and birth certificates.. or if you are like me, I just show my citizenship card and driver license.

I've got 6 months to get 6 people a passport. I'm not complaining, I have known about this new law for awhile now.

I miss the old days, pre- 911 when we could just enter the U.S. with a flash of our driver's license. Now it's at least a 10 minute stop and nothing short of a rectal probe to enter into the U.S.

I remember once, last year while driving down into North Dakota for a weekend a U.S. duty patrol lady was quite upset that my daughter (then 4) could not open the van sliding door. The woman wanted the door open so that she could see in. (I guess she was figuring we were smuggling kids in??) My dh told the lady that my daughter couldn't open the door, that she was only 4 and that he would have to get out and open it for her. The woman huffed... sorry lady... Next time, we'll be sure to buy a van that has automatic door openers...

And then this fall, we went down for a day trip. After giving every piece of information possible the patrol guy wanted to look in the back of the van. Dh and I cringed. Not only was the van filthy dirty, we had things in the back... that when opened everything would fall out! LOL We survived that and the patrol guy really regretted opening up the back.

I don't think it will be any easier getting into the states with the passports though - it still will be a long wait, intense scrutiny with nothing short of a rectal probe...

May the passport Gods be in my favour and that I get them all before July 1st (we have no plans to enter the U.S. before that time!).

Reality

My alarm went off at 6:30a. I was ready for it. I did my usual - lie in bed, listen to the news and then hit snooze. I dozed off for 10/15 minutes and the alarm popped back on.. and again, I listened to the news/weather and dh came in to tell me how cold it was outside.

The kids got out of bed hostile, all except my 3 year old - bless her heart. That smile on her face when she wakes up, makes those around her smile. I feel for her though. Being forced to wake up because her older sibs have to go to school. Luckily for her - she just needs to eat her breakfast and then she spends the next 20 or so minutes, occupying the heat vent -- feeling it's warmth. It's her favorite spot in the house. Between her and my 9 year old, it's the most sought after spot in the house -- the kitchen vent.

I managed to put together a lunch for the kids. Ground one child once, threatened to send another kid to bed by 6p.m. if her attitude didn't improve. All in all, it was a pretty normal morning for us. Although changes will need to be made for 6 year old's routine. From now on, she's picking out her clothing the night before!!! I used to do this with the boys when they were younger, and eventually they just moved to their own pace and were able to choose their clothing -- o.k. o.k... it helped that they were in uniforms for the last 4 years... they had no choice. But my 6 yo is not in private school and no longer in uniforms. She has choices and those choice are made by how her mood is. God forbid she wears grey pants on a Monday. Yeah.. it's back to picking out your clothing the night before.

The walk to the van was somber. It was cold, bitterly cold. And dd (6) was crying because of her pants - but we didn't really have any time to rectify that.

As I stepped onto the drive, my heart stopped. There it all was. Just sitting there. That blasted snow we got on Saturday. The snow I forced myself NOT to shovel yesterday. I loaded the kids, unstuck a frozen door and off we drove to school. The city of Winnipeg will plow their streets. But, you never see pavement. They will also only sand a few feet before a stop sign. Yes, you read that right... it's crazy. At least cars will be able to stop at signs -- barely. I mean, it's a squirt of sand... not a good sprinkle whatsoever.

I got back home, saw my 9 year old off to school and then the shovel sat there.. staring at me. Calling me. Taunting me.

So, yes.. I did go and shovel. I didn't do a good job... but I did it. As soon as I move my van, I can get that side of the drive.. but for the most part, it's done back there. Then I shoveled out the street access to my insanely wide path. The plows were gentle and didn't pile up too high. Thank you plow guys/gal!!!!

Now, to focus my neurotic OCD onto my home. It won't snow for a few days, so hopefully I can switch gears!!!!

WINDCHILL WARNING

WIND CHILL WARNING: City of WinnipegIssued at 3:22 PM CST SUNDAY 4 JANUARY 2009

EXTREME WIND CHILL VALUES OF MINUS 40 TONIGHT.

BRISK WESTERLY WINDS OF 20 KM/H OVER SOUTHERN MANITOBA COMBINING WITH TEMPERATURES MINUS 30 TO MINUS 35 WILL PRODUCE WIND CHILLS IN THE MINUS 40 TO MINUS 45 RANGE TONIGHT. THESE CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO CONTINUE MONDAY MORNING BEFORE MODERATING NEAR NOON AS WINDS DECREASE. FROSTBITE IS POSSIBLE WITHIN 10 MINUTES IN THESE CONDITIONS.

I did not...

shovel today. Instead, I decided to sleep in and laze about the house. I don't want to face the cold. At 4:33pm it's a -26c with a windchill factor of -38c. I'll concentrate on laundry instead.

Everyone goes back to school tomorrow. Everyone, that is except my 3 yo. She's in the middle of potty training -- still trying to figure out the whole underwear thing. Hopefully by the end of the week, I can send her off to school as well. I'll be doing a lot of laundry this week.

My 2 weeks of relaxation are over. My house will be quieter and life a bit more organized though.

I'm really not looking forward to that alarm going off at 6:30a.m. And I know my children, won't appreciate being woken up so early either.

I really do enjoy having everyone home and not having a schedule. But the weather has been so cold, that it really hampered any outside play. When skin will freeze in under a couple of minutes, you stay inside. I think everyone is ready to go back to school though.

I did not shovel today. And I'm glad I didn't. And I only obsessed over it for a couple of hours last night before falling asleep!

Shovels

I'll admit it. I'm probably ready for a 12 step program when it comes to snow clearing. My walks have to be just so. I don't utilize my children's youth as I should. It grates my nerves to see them do a lousy job. I won't tell them that, but I know I'll just go out afterwards and redo what they did. Even my husband doesn't do a good job -- as fact remains, no shoveling would be completed the entire Winter, if I did not exist anymore.

We got around 10 Cm overnight and throughout the day. And this afternoon, when it stopped snowing, I headed out with shovel in hand. There was so much snow. And you know, it probably would have been better if I just ignored the walk to the street -- I purposely made it wider... wide enough so that when we park the van on the street, there would be space for people to get in and out in comfort. No nasty snow pile to climb over, etc. And I made the walk wide.. all the way up to the side walk. Why? I have no clue. Not sure what the reasoning is for that. Our walk up to the house is narrow.. and I left it like that. And days like today, I'm glad I did.

But I exhausted myself. I really did. I didn't even attempt the back walk and drive. I couldn't physically make myself do it. But it's eating me up inside.

The thought of accumulated snow sitting there is driving me around the bend. Not the fact that it's only myself who shovels - the fact that I can't do it. My arm hurts.. my elbow that it.. it does need a rest -- and not entirely sure if it was because I took the Christmas tree down and tried to tackle the lights by myself... In any case - I know I'll lie in bed tonight, obsessing over it. But if I go out and shovel it, I'll lie in bed in pain.

Didn't help though, as dh left tonight for friends .... He told me the front walk was great! And I told him that there was no way I would be able to do the back tonight. He said that was fine, that he would just plow the car through it when he got home.

grrrrrrrrr... I know he meant nothing by it... again, he really doesn't care if it's shoveled or not - van has wheels to drive over stuff... he thinks I'm silly for even shoveling to begin with. But that phrase..."I will just plow the car through it when I get home" is going over and over in my head...

arrrggghhhh! Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I honestly wish I had some of this disorder for my home. I can live in disorder, just don't want to see it outside my home.

Oddity that I am. And I won't shovel tonight.

My name is Tracy and I'm a shovel-aholic.

Blog - itis

It's interesting how the holiday sort of put me in a rut with blogging. I did have a lot to write about, just didn't focus myself long enough to get it out. And I'm never really sure what to write about. You know - I just don't find my life exciting enough.

Then, during a New Years Eve get together at a friend's house. She asked me if I was into blogging. I was stunned. To be honest, I haven't come out of the closet, blog wise. I guess I was a little embarassed about it -- never really too sure what people would think of "me." I never want to come across as nerdy or odd... but fact remains, I probably am a bit "nerdy" or "odd" to begin with - LOL

So, instead of actually answering her question, I asked "why?" LOL Because that is what insecure people do when trapped into a corner of such a direct question. I'm sure she was smart enough to know, that yes, in fact I did have a blog... just too shy to come clean LOL

She said, my life always sounds exciting. My eyebrows raise a bit then... "really?"

She said my Facebook status line are so interesting... she said a few other things as well... all very promising, all good. And yet, I never said squat. LOL I was stunned.

I just never thought my life was exciting. Being a stay-at-home mom, is boring. I thought it was. I mean, I cherish every moment I have with my kids. They drive me bonkey and utterly in love all at once. But, cleaning my house, doing laundry and re-cleaning the house just isn't exciting to me.

But it's my life and my life is me. (ugh.. that sounds too kate gosselin like, doesn't it??)