Thursday, October 29, 2009

I am an independant woman...or try to be!

AAAAHHHHH!!!! This is my reaction after a co-worker/friend (someone I look up to and consider in a lot of ways, independant and strong), noticed my large bruise on my arm, knowing how I got it, she commented about sharing my story with her husband and told me his comments on how dangerous it was what I did and in his opinion it was a "bĂȘtise de femme", translation a woman's stupidity!!!!! Back up a week ago...it was snowing pretty hard and I decided to change my tires by myself. Why?...Because I like doing things like this and it was slippery as hell and I was working the next day and no the garage up the street didn't have time to do it and waiting for the husband to get home from work at 7:30 pm would mean doing it in the dark! Which to me was stupider than doing it myself! I have had to change a couple of flats myself...why?...yes I am a member of CAA, but waiting for them to show up just didn't make any sense to me! So I decided to try doing it myself! Was it hard?....yes it was exhaustingly hard but I did it....yes the car did roll off the jack and my arm happened to be in the wrong place and hence the BIG bruise on my arm. Yes it could have been a lot worse! But it wasn't. ...Did I enjoy the experience of changing tires? YES!! What have I learned?...to next time do it with the husband so he can show me how to do this properly! It took my husband 3 days to "panic" about what happened....He had to change 2 of my tires that I had put on backwards...note to self: ARROWS drawn on the tire tell you which way to put them on! ..So after the frustrating job of taking off one winter tire and putting a summer tire back on temporarily to put down the car and put in back up and so on and so on...you he was a little annoyed and realized how much energy I put into this and noticing how heavy a car is trying to jack it up and how dangerous that weight was to fall partially on my arm...I think that is when he SNAPPED! "You are going to promise me never to do this again!" he screamed....I argued back, but honey, I like doing this and will learn, ...bla bla bla.... Husband: "you are so bull headed, nothing I say will make you change your mind, so end of discussion!" Me: at first pissed for his reaction and thinking as if he likes a woman he just looks cute and has no head and does whatever the man tells her to do....then thinking, he got scared, very scared!! Me: going to husband and calmly saying..."I'm really sorry honey for scaring you, I got scared too and will try to think of the dangers before doing things!" yeah we hugged! But to be told this morning that it was woman's stupidity, just insults me completely and especially coming from her, a woman I look up to and whom has changed a flat tire by herself before....just blows me away! You never know what can happen...even being as safe as possible you can hurt yourself...I could fall down the stairs carrying a basket full of folded clothes....there wouldn't be any comment about a stupid woman's mistake there....or how about cutting your finger with a knife making supper....that is woman's work....but cause I a Woman decided to change her tires....mans work...right I get it....and who is the stupid one?...This comment comes from a man that does all the cooking (almost all) in his house....yes it still annoys me!

Friday, October 16, 2009

Moving time

So my mom is moving. She has lived in the same place for over 22 years now and decided at the age of 77 to sell her condo and move into a retirement home. Well there was one available for November and she said yes. She put her condo up for sale and sold it 10 days later!! My only sister whom lives far away chose to come out with her 10 month old and 3 year old to help with the move and also mourne in her own way moms move. Everyday this week, after leaving the kids at school I have gone to moms and we have gone through stuff and taken boxes of things to the salvation army and thrown things out that mom has not been able to. BUT...what amazed me was coming across a letter written by my father (died in 1985) in 1965 to his parents explaining his wedding to mom because his parents did not go cause they got married overseas. Every detail explained including how my mom took his breath away and a drawing of how the tables were set up...dresses mom made my sister and I as kids,....carpets handmade by my mothers mother, whom I never met....so many, many incredible things and memories. We are having a great time helping mom empty things out and the good part about all this as my sister has mentionned is that we are doing it while mom is alive and healthy. Precious moments!

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

HAPPINESS

Aaaaahhh! Happiness.....to feel ZEN....

Being a mother and letting ourselves be happy, to think only of ourselves....hmmm, say what?

I have so much difficulty letting myself do anything for myself, by myself! And it is now getting to be such a major problem that I am hating the husband for letting himself think of himself and take time for himself. Wait a minute, I believe the word is RESPECT! He respects himself.

I think I am good at respecting others, just very bad at respecting myself.

What made my bowl overflow sort-to-speak (turning point) yesterday was hearing my husband's message on the answering machine saying he wouldn't be home for another day. He has been away for 4 days, meaning total of 5 days. Away hunting, sleeping alone, preparing meals for only himself. AAAHHH!! wow!

I did this once in 2004, I went to see my sister (have to take a plane to see her) for a week alone. No kids for her at that time and I left my 3 with the husband. It was an incredible week!

So now at the age of 40 and after feeling sad and hated by my husband for stranding me here for yet another day with the kids and their routine, and hating he for putting me in this situation. (I don't want to feel like this, I want to be happy for him...how do I do that?)..

I have decided to find something that will make me happy. I am thinking learning wise. Possibly school, but I think it might be more towards volunteering. Letting myself stay away for work would also be a good start. There are often opportunities for me to be out of town for a couple of days and I don't let myself say yes. Letting my husband start and finish jobs around the house instead of budding in and finishing them. Taking time to go for walks/jogs at night and coming home after the kids have been put to bed.

Being a better person to myself, to be better to my children and husband. Loving myself enough to let me do these things.

A work in progress!

Monday, September 28, 2009

Singing

I love to sing! It boosts my energy, charges my battery, makes me feel happy and live emotions more completely...I can go on and on...

It's in my family, my dad had a great voice and mom loved to sing and was in several different choirs throughout the years. One of my uncles travels the world on cruise ships being the entertainment with his voice and my great aunt that I took lessons from at the age of 5 did musical comedy for a while before becoming a full-time voice and piano teacher.

I took lessons for about 5 years and quit because I was fed up of the practising and mom was sick of fighting me to do it, so let me quit. (Now, being a parent I understand).

I have been in a couple of choirs throughout the years but non of them really did it for me. So after a couple of years I would quit. I took private lessons again for a while but very pricey!

I sing every day for myself or those that will put up with me (kids often tell me to shut up). And I do sing when I am asked to. I look to these occasions as a personal challenge (because I am shy and lack confidence to bolt it out there for all to hear). So I sing at funerals and weddings and stuff like that. The hardest of course are funerals and by far was my father-in-laws funeral a couple of years back. I was up above and when I saw my nieces and nephews carrying in the casket, I almost lost it! But I was so proud of myself for doing it and all of my in-laws were so thankful that I did it as well.

I would love to do something more on a regular basis with the singing but with the kids still needing me so much, and the husbands irregular work schedule, I just think it would be complicated and I don't really know if a choir would do it for me. So i wait for the invites, next up my aunt's 80th birthday in october.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Talking

I find it interesting that just now, at this moment, trying to decide how to start this off, I firgured out why a couple of my children annoy me when they talk too much........because, of course, I CAN'T TALK, when they are!!!

I just took a moment to enjoy that....

My mom is a big talker too, but unlike her, I try not to cut people off that are talking about something they are going through to talk about myself and what I have been through. That annoys me so I try not to do that.

The husband of course would say, I often cut him off, but waiting a couple of minutes for him to come out with the next sentence gets very aggravating! He is an introvert and yes I am an extravert!

I love getting to know people and talk about common interests...and in some people I do see that kind-of-scary-please-stop-talking-to-me-look, but IT'S ALL GOOD!!

The thing that is hard to control is whom you pick to talk to about what...and remembering, whom is whom. Clear or not clear? ex: I try not to talk to my mother about problems with the kids cause she will worry and drive me crazy, phoning me everyday to find out if I have looked after the problem. another ex: I try to remember to not ask the hypochondriac neighbor in the street how she is doing?...do I need to explain this one.

As a parent, I find it important to get to know the parents of the friends my children play with. For instance, the fact that my son started to curse and scream at us and was not listening to us anymore, we knew it had to do with the fact that he was spending too much time with one friend that gets away being like that with his parents.

I had a friend/co-worker tell me recently that I take up a lot of space because I offer help and am willing to do all sorts of different jobs that have nothing to do with nursing but hate having nothing to do and sit back and watch other people over piled with work. She told me that this can be disturbing to certain people. So I try to shutup but it is just not natural to me. I have also been told by another person that loves me that it is sad that I have lost my spontaneity. She said i use to be more free with my speaking, just let it out as it comes to me, But being told to watch what you say makes you stop doing that. I don't want to hurt people but sometimes people need to hear things.

IT'S ALL GOOD!!

I do have a shy side which I hope balances me out and I enjoy silence, especially the kind that happens with the 3 kids around and they are having a rare moment of playing nicely together and getting along.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Confidence

Yesterday, I was at my son's soccer game. The last one of the season! He scored the first goal and they won 7 -1 and then the medals were handed out...a proud moment! But that is not what I want to write about...
So a very hot and humid day it was...of course I don't want to complain...we are just starting our 3 weeks vacation and finally it is nice here! Just a little too humid for my liking!

Oh what to wear, is the famous question....oh it's only soccer so who cares? right?!

I'm looking at all these mothers (a lot of them, with defects or nasty parts like me) and still wearing very nice summer dresses or plunging V-necks or short shorts or tight on the belly and the belly jiggles through it shirts...anyway, you get the picture I am sure and here I am in my very hot but 3/4 length work-out pants (to hide the very jello jiggle legs, that dont really hide anyway, cause you can still see the jiggle and cellulite through the pants)....

And made the decision to go get me some cute clothes to wear! So today I am going shopping! We shall see, how well I do! I am going alone without children or husband! Will I be confident enough to buy the plunging V shirt ?! that is the question....by buying it I do mean wearing it as well, not just keeping it in the closet!

Monday, July 27, 2009

Hey! I did it!

Last week, I knew the husband's dreaded graveyard shift weekend was coming up! I hate his weekend graveyard shift! I don't let the kids go to bed too late because he gets home at around 7am ish and they have to get up because he sleeps downstairs in one of the girls beds. I drive myself crazy with every noise made whether it be big or small, thinking this will wake the husband and make him grouchy....yeah right, cause waking up happy from graveyard shift has happened so so so often! So I make it my obligation to be out of the house (preferably with fun activities to do) as much as possible so that he will not be disturbed. The husband, however, tells me not to worry about it and has explained to me that sometimes he sleeps like a log and doesn't hear a thing and other times when I am not even at the house he hasn't slept a wink! Sleeping during the day just isn't a natural thing for some people or I should say MOST people! Speaking from personal experience, I was only ever able to sleep 4 hours and would have a nap around 10pm before going back to work! ...I so do not miss working in hospitals! So knowing his lovely graveyard-shift-weekend was coming up I came up with the idea of going to our cabin alone with the kids for the 1st time. I asked the husband what he thought of this and he said he loved the idea...I wanted him to be clear, was "loving the idea" because he would be alone and at peace for the weekend and he said "no, I love the fact that you would want to go out there alone". Oh great, that is a good reason! So friday morning off I went, 4 hours drive to our cabin, knowing all the neighbors would be there or I never would have gone! It was great! The kids had fun, went to bed late and slept until almost 8:30 9ish. Got to see a fireworks show cause the neighbor had brought a box. I am very proud of myself! I remembered all the important things, turning on the propane and how to make a fire and and understanding certain new noises over my head mean that there are squirrels in the attick and telling the husband to bring poison up on his next visit up there.

Friday, July 17, 2009

The summer festival

The husband and I enjoy going to the summer festival out here. You pay 35$ for a pin that you have to wear to get you into the shows for 10 days.

We have seen Van Halen, Scorpions, ZZ top, Simple Plan, Styx, Twisted Sister, Live, Stone Temple Pilots and last night KISS!

Wow, what a show!! The best visual show I have ever seen. Seriously!!

Sure the costume are humerous to see. There were fireworks all throughout the show. Even the guitar player Tommy something or other made them come out the end of his guitar during his solo. The were enormous jets of fire coming out the scene too. Platforms of the stage going up and down. The group started up in the air on a platform that brought them down. Gene Simmons got hoisted up by cables to a platform for one song after his spitting out fake blood show. And then Paul Stanley grab a poll hooked up to a cable and swung over top of our heads to another platform to do a song and swung back and more fireworks and more fireworks.

They played for almost 2 1/2 hours!!! Very generous! I think the groups have a contract to do minimum 1 hr show and ZZ Top did their 1 hr show, barely said hello to us and no encore and took off. KISS was incredible and my husband was such a happy man!

There was a mom and dad with their 13 year old son beside us and poor guy could only look at the screen and couldn't see the stage and the husband offered with the father to have him on top of his shoulders and so they did for the last 1/2 hour. The husband then looks at the boy and says I was your age when I bought my first KISS album! From my big guy to a 13 year old boy! They both had the same amazed expression on their face from participating in this great show from 4 over 50 year old men with make-up and costumes and high heel boots on!!! Got to love it!!

Monday, July 13, 2009

Animals in our house

So, the only animals we have now are fish! A stupid agressif Gourami that scares every other fish I will try to put with it into having a heart attack after eating off the end of their tale...and a gold fish (2 different aquariums).

We have had hermit crabs too. They are interesting. We had cats too! We got rid of them while I was very pregnant with #3 and I caught my 2 daughters (they were 3 and 2 years of age) emptying a very dirty cat litter with their hands and sticking it all inside my dryer! After I screamed, I grad them both (1 under each arm) ran up the stairs and washed them in the tub from head to toe (yes, I agree, quite an overreaction) and then phoned the health line to make sure they shouldn't get some kind of vaccin shot and they nurse tells me there is no danger for them only for me because I am pregnant. Being a nurse, I already knew that part but I was always very safe with the cat litter. The cats left the house on that day!

The husband being allergic couldn't believe how much better he could breathe after a week without cats in the house. So we have agreed to no longer have animals with fur!

But of course, we miss having cats or dogs of our own!

So the option we (well, I) came up with is to babysit animals. Here today and gone in a week! It is a fun compromise!

So far we looked after a 6 month cat (Mousseline) for a week and Margot the pug.

We had Margot in April for 5 days and now we just got her again last night for a week. Back in April, everything went pretty well except for the sleeping part. She is use to sleeping under the covers with her owner, so this was not an easy pattern to break. She would whine all night if we left her in her cage. We tried letting her loose in the house and she ended up on my sons bed which was a scary thing for him. We tried letting her sleep ON our bed but she would non-stop try to get under the covers and finally on her last night I put her bed in our room and she finally had a good night...

So I was looking forward to her coming back last night thinking this will be easy. She is a great dog and great with the kids and now the sleeping thing would be all worked out, so no worries! right?

Well, The second daughter and I took her for a walk to go and meet up with the eldest daughter and son at a friends house (they were doing a little skateboarding show thing) and the Margot found this very fascinated and wanted to get closer and closer and was really tugging at her leash and sure enough....GOT THROUGH THE COLLAR!!!!

Over an hour later and having about 15 people trying to circle around her and grab her and a very controlling man just drive me crazy (I actually told him twice to just go back in the house and I would look after it, we were on his lawn though, so he never left, and he is in the army, so he pointed out how we just were not following proper protocol very often!!) I finally decided to follow my 1st instinct being: Just walk home and Margot will follow...and sure enough. The husand and son were on bikes and she took off after them and went straight home and my son opened the house door and she ran right in!!

Oh man, can I tell you that this morning dogsitting has a totally different meaning to me! I don't know now that I want this extra responsability!

Did I mention that she slept not too badly after waking up the son a couple of times. His door does not have a handle right now...but that is a whole other story!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Respect...consultations...

It is so essentiel to make time for yourself. Either time alone with only yourself present or time with your soul mate, best friend, lover and husband. And in my case they are all the same person.

The husband and I were given the chance to get away just the 2 of us by a very sweet sister-in-law. She stayed with the kids for 2 days so we could go to the cabin. Just to have the time to talk alone and appreciate eachother without being interrupted. Which is something that happens, oh lets just say all the time! I try to ignore the child that wants to talk to me while they repeat non-stop the "mom" word and keep talking to the husband or I put up a hand in the stop motion but usually this doesn't work either. The youngest sometimes has tried pushing me to look at him and I try to concentrate only on the husband to finish our conversation. Yes, we have tried locking ourselves in our room to try and discuss something important but you will get the knocking at the door and kicking and yelling through the door....aaaahhhhh!

The husband has a lot of difficulty trying to stay focused and will forget the goal and give in to the child! It is frustrating!

They (the kids) try to make us feel guilty for going away to the cabin without them! Oh please give me a break!

I am trying to put something new in our house into practise...consulting the husband alone before trying to talk something out in front of the kids. To discuss and make a decision alone with him and then present it to the kids so that they don't influence the decision. It works but I have to constantly remind myself to do it. Practise makes perfect, I hope!

So respect yourself as a couple and make that a priority! Time with eachother!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

VAMPIRES

I just don't know what my problem is....I really have a thing for vampires! Not that I want to be with one or want to BE one, I just find them, I guess fascinating!

I was a late bloomer, sort of. I only found out about Buffy when I was in my 30's. I have someone in the family that lent me all the DVD's of all 7 seasons of Buffy and of course you have to watch the Angel series as well and she had all 5 seasons of Angel as well. So I watched them all....twice! I really got into the caracters and enjoyed certain story lines, others I did find stupid. Buffy is light and more adolescent and Angel is more dark. I am a real whimp when it comes to horror and certain things from Angel did scare me enough to have trouble sleeping. Maybe I should be ashamed to admit that...

I have also read books on vampires. I found Christopher Moore a funny read. Charlaine Harris' books are now a series on TV "True blood". The books are good! They changed the series a lot in my opinion but it is very good! I just finished her 4th book, I little on the long side. And I have just started to watch the second season of True Blood.

Of course you can not talk about vampires without mentionning the Stephenie Meyer books (the Twilight series). I am now half way through the 4th book and loving it. I loved the movie too and thought it was very much like the book! The special effects aren't that great but it is still good and hey Robert Pattinson is really not that hard to look at during 90 or so minutes!!

I don't know really where the fascination comes from but it is interesting. I have never been a comic book reader but feel very ashamed to admit to buying the 8th season of Buffy which is now only available in comic books...sad but true!

It's good for us to have a little way to get OUT and AWAY! Healthy! Right?!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The other cabin

My husband comes from a family of 8. He has 3 brothers and 4 sisters. My husband is the baby of the family and there is 20 years difference between him and the eldest. They grew up having a summer cabin in the beautiful village that their parents were from and only a 45 minutes drive from home. The cabin is right along the side of the river. A totally different lifestyle than the 1st cabin I talked about but still a very nice getaway.

With the years their father did not keep up on repairs and kind of let it go. The floor was crooked, the ceiling leaked a little, the bathroom was...well yucky! All of this discouraged my husband so much that he just did not want to go there anymore.

My father-in-law passed away in October 2007 and left the cabin to the his 8 children.....oof! So after a couple of months of figuring out whether or not to sell it or fix it up and keep it and a many more months of fixing it up...it is as good as new!

Leveling the floors with cement blocks underneath, redoing the floor and painting it and repainting the walls, changing a window, taking out cabinets to give it a less crowded look, changing the shower and toilet and sink and cabinets....wow!!

Today, June 24, it quebec's birthday and his family was having a party(they use to have a lot of them there but this was the first one since their fathers death). I wanted to go and so did the kids but the husband did not want to go but decided to come.

All 4 of his sisters and 1 of his brothers were there. We were 23 of us all together. We all brought food to stick on the BBQ. The kids went hunting for various little creatures salamenders and other stuff. I loved seeing and talking with my sister-in-laws while helping out in the kitchen washing all the dishes and putting them away.

They are a great family and I love being a part of it!!
The best part: My husband giving me a kiss and saying I'm happy we came! Thank you honey!

Monday, June 22, 2009

Report card day!

Yes it's THE DAY that you as a parent should look forward to?.....I don't know, I kind of get scared around that day as well.

The eldest daughter, can do well when she wants to. Last year, grade 3, she got a teacher that from the start of the year, decided that she had an attention deficit problem (to me the teacher just didn't like her) and so throughout the very loooonnng and hard year of pushing and motivating my child to get through it, she had an evaluation done by the school psychologist. The results being that no she does not have an attention disorder but can do anything when she is motivated and interested. The teacher actually said to me, "I just know that she could benefit from Ritalin, I've seen the benefits with other children". I looked at her and said even if the results told me she had an attention disorder, I would not have medicated my child.

So 1 year of this teacher would have been enough to me but....the school got smaller so they had a 3/4 class(my daughter being in the gr4 part, only 6 gr 4's) and yes the same teacher!!!!

Oh bloody Hell, was what I yelled out. This year I hired a social worker (an AWESOME social worker, worth every penny!) and we had an intervention plan done for my daughter at school with the principal, the teacher, the french tutor she sees at school. my social worker and the parents.

Well get this, the social worker decided that our daughter needs to have a bond with the teacher and instructed her to take 15 minutes in every week to talk with our daughter alone. I kid you not, that did it! Day and night! She was interested in school, we didn't do anymore studying for tests than before and her marks went way up....because she was listening during class, because she had an interest in the person teaching because that person took the time to listen to her.

This teacher is retiring now....I don't know what kind of teacher she will get next year but atleast there is a plan of action of how to deal with my daughter for things to work for her. The next teacher will be made aware of this at the beginning of the next school year.

So when it comes to report card day, the anxiety is there. And with reason, my daughter got fed up of the school year back in the beginning of May which sadly enough made all her efforts in french and math not show of this last report card. The teacher also was fed up back in the beginning of May and was no longer taking time to have their 15 minute sessions and got back into her old habit of being impatient with my daughter.

She did go up in art, english,gym and religion and ethics and yes she is going into grade 5!

By the way, I tell my daughter to come and look at her report card with me and her comment "only if you buy me a new DS game"...ha, yeah right!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The CABIN

My husband has always known life with a chalet. He grew up having a summer one and a winter one. So of course, he wanted one for his family. He had been looking for years on a website that sells things and in November 2007 he found one that looked good and had a great price. "What do you think I should do?", he asked me. And I said go see it with your friend tomorrow. And he did and he bought it!

I never knew to what extent having a cabin would change our lives.....

Our cabin is 4 hours away (one pee stop included). Yes, yes, we wanted it closer (I wanted it within 2 hours), but we didn't want to pay too much for it. It is completely in the woods and right by a lake! Heaven!

But we have neighbors...

There are 2 other cabins on the lot. One of the other cabins belong to a couple that have been there for 40 years. The lady use to be in our cabin because it belonged to her father and when he got sick, he gave it to his eldest son. She built her own cabin with her husband 26 years ago. The 2 couples (her and her husband and her brother and his wife) got along great for years and then a stupid fight got the best of all of them. Our cabin was abandonned for 4 years, the brother moved away and refused to sell it to his sister so she could keep it in the family, bla bla bla...

The other cabin belongs to a young guy and his girlfriend(even younger than him). The guy is almost like another son to the couple that have been there for 40 years. So it is all like a family.

So then we show up and are greated by them this way..."so how much did you pay for it?" And we found out he had offered twice the amout we paid for it to his brother-in-law....oh man!

Anyway, that was then and it has all changed now. They are great people, very generous and love children. My children finally have a "papy" which is so great! They have helped us out so much to learn about cabin life.

We have had so many great experiences so far and are only starting our second summer. During the winter you can get out there but with a snowmobile. NOT MY THING! My husband did it in February with our son and the neighbors were all there. They had a great time!

We just got back from our first trip out there as a family a couple of days ago. It was great! We did fishing, caught some frogs, roasted some hot dogs and marshmellows and lots more. It was relaxing! No phone calls, no tv (mind you the neighbors have them, they have a generator, we don't want one!) My husband has solar powered the cabin for lights only and we have a wood stove, a propane fridge and stove/oven as well.

We have a quad, which is fun as well. In August we are surrounded by blueberries!!

We have seen bears, moose, porcupines, partridges, beavers, cranes, hummingbirds, hares and lots more!

I have discovered that I love chopping wood and love fishing and more. The next step is hunting. The husband and I have taken our initiation to hunting and rifles course together which was a lot of fun.

This year we want to bring family and friends out to see it and live the experience.

Monday, June 15, 2009

My Dream

Wow, what a weird dream, but true in so many ways.

I was upset about my career choice and wanted to do something about it. I found myself in a school and looking at what people were doing there. Watching them and studying them. Then i talked to a couple of them about what they were studying and how they were enjoying it. I started to tell them about what i would like to do and they started to support me and say "Go for it!"

I then ran into one of my neighbors (she just finished taking some more courses, for real) and she was behind me 100%. She offered to come with me to register and pick out my courses.

I saw myself in line to get my books and stuff for my bachelors in singing! I felt myself being happy for finally having the courage to do this. then I woke up!

It just felt so real! I love singing and yes I do feel something big is lacking in my life, but going back to school.....ouf....even part-time to me would be a big OUF!

I will look into maybe joining a choir for the fall!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

My 10 year old tom-boy

She just turned 10, my eldest! Wow, I can see the difference. This was such a neat, calm and not-worrying-what they are doing birthday! She only invited 13 compared to 20 last year and only 9 (4 girls and 5 boys) could come, so yes, this helped to make it such a great party! Everyone was told to bring their bathing suit (the pool was almost at 70), towels and water guns and skateboards. She just got hers! They ran around with their water guns and swam and then got dressed and did skateboarding and rollerblading in the driveway and loud music was a must! 5 hours later everyone went home. I didn't look at the time once! I don't know the exact definition of a tom-boy. I will just go ahead and describe her and what she likes. She wont wear skirts (I got her to put one on one year at xmas cause mommy wore one too, see not my cup of tea either) and hates princesses. She is very interested in boys but because she prefers what they like to do. She is an awesome bionicle builder and is great with any lego. She was great this year on the basketball team. She hated it when the swimming instructor made her start to tie her hair up with an elastic. And she always wears a baseball hat! She always has her nose in a book accept when it is for school! Walking with her to school this morning she mentionned that there were a couple of new couples amongst her friends and she named them. So I asked her and what about you, and she replied no way. And I said what even if a boy asked you and she said no way. Which is fine by me...I'm just not ready for that, yet!....my 2nd girl though is the total opposite and put herself all pretty in pink (eyeshadow included) for the 10 year olds birthday party and I know it was because a couple of the guys attending are interesting to her not in the same way as the 10 year old tom-boy! I see so much of myself through my girls! To each his/her own!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

A typical morning in my house!

I will never say "who will get to sit in the front of the car this morning" again!
My 6 year old was a happy boy. I could hear him singing in bed this morning while I was taking 15 minutes to read my book, before getting out of bed. My time! After getting dressed and looking in on him he was still very happy!
After the husband got home from the night shift, he was still happy. So my routine starts, make the husband 2 peanut butter, banana and sugar toasts with a glass of milk. Go wake up the girls downstairs, urge son to come sit at the table. Put snacks for kids in their school bags. Call girls to come upstairs please, try again to get son to come to the table. Try to chat with husband about a couple of important things that you will forget to talk about at the end of the day while husband looks at paper and you are not sure is listening to you. Make your breakfast but wait for husband to finish paper so you can glance at it. Scream for girls to come upstairs NOW! Tell son to get his butt to the table NOW! Husband has now finished at the table and has gone to bed. The children finally come to the table and you try to get their breakfast orders done with the several changes and additions that are made while preparation is in progress. Get the second daughter to stop showing chewed up food in her mouth to the eldest daughter because she is easily disgusted and starts to scream and not eat anymore. Stop the son from moving the flower vase on the table everywhere so it won't fall down.
Now it is finally my time to sit at the table and try to eat and glance at paper and then I said it...So who will sit in the front of the car this morning? My son runs to his room to get dressed and be ready first and my second daughter who is very fast runs to get ready and the son starts to cry....the crying stopped 45 minutes later!
What have I learned from this morning?
I do way too much for my kids.
Kids that are ready for school can leave and walk to school.
Trying to show a snot filled screaming boy how to blow his nose is just not a good thing!
Trying to calm down the boy that is trying to blow his nose properly is not an easy thing!
It is stupid to think that the husband will get out of bed and come and help!
I am awesome for still coming to work this morning and being able to laugh and know I did my best!
Thank you for listening!