Muddled Ponderings of a Canadian Trapped in the States

144 Comments

2009-07-07T13:47:00.000-07:00

It says I have 144 comments needing to be moderated! Ah well, not gonna bother.

So Cryptic and Jock are at camp with the church youth group this week over in Eastern Washington. I know they are having a blast!

Clown and I just got back from attempting to take him to a weekly gymnastics class. Lots of his friends continued their home school class through the summer and he wanted to as well. Unfortunately, there were about 45 kids there as opposed to the ten that are usually there. It was not just his HSed friends. So we had to get my money back and turn around and come home. There is no way that he could do it. His anxiety is getting MUCH better, thankfully. Even so, there was no way that he would be there with that many kids around. Poor little guy is so hard on himself and was almost crying the way home. "I HATE that I am this way! I HATE IT!"

Princess has a friend staying for the day, night and late into tomorrow. Then the next day Princess will go to the same friend's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese and then to her house for a swimming/slumber party. They are both SO excited!

Princess and I spent 10 days up in Saskatchewan last month with my family. It was very nice.

I will post a link to Princess' past three dances from this spring recital. She was a Zinnia, Frog and Ant. I just love these dances and knew you would all want to see them:)

http://picasaweb.google.com/webalbum.picasa/DanceRecitals?authkey=Gv1sRgCMmN6oPz34XIcw#5354683496805400178

I hope that works. It should take you to dance three of five, which was her first one. The earlier two have already been posted on here.

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Long time, no post

2009-05-09T20:03:00.000-07:00

Well that was silly!

I guess I spend so much time on Facebook and doing all my other stuff, that blogging is not a priority. I don't even read the blogs I used to read. There were about 15 that I used to check every day, now I have about 3 or 4 that I might check every few weeks, IF that. I think about you all, but most people get their updates through Facebook, I guess!

Lots happening as always, but I don't want to blabber on for pages and pages like I usually do.

We are still working on Clown's room. At least he is moved into there now, but the painting is not done and there are no curtains yet. Everything is in there but his desk. Once we get his room done, we will start to work on Cryptic's. FINALLY!

Clown will be 10 on the 19th...we are planning his party at the pool that he and Princess takes their lessons at. He is SO EXCITED! He wants a drum set, so we are looking into it. He is very musically inclined, so we want to encourage anything like that. Who knows what may happen! He can play piano by ear. Refuses to take lessons and we have not pushed him...no need really when he just hears a song he likes and goes to the piano and plays around for a while until he can play it. He says he wants drums...he will get drums:) At least I will do everything in my power to make it happen!

Princess got a bike that actually fits her, we had a garage sale, the younger two are doing gymnastics and swimming and Princess' dance recital is at the end of the month. That is the main news now.

Enjoy these photos and I guess I will just blog here and there, whenever the mood strikes!

WOW

2009-03-18T21:04:00.000-07:00

Well, so much for posting more regularly. I think about it sometimes, but just can't be bothered. Here is a quick update.

Clown got his braces off last week. Here he is, no cross bite ~

I can't find any good shots of before the braces to show how bad it was. There are a few, but they are gross because he is being a little boy and showing me his chewed up food or whatever. The left front one is still a little wonky, but this was just phase one. When they do Phase two in 5 or 6 years or whenever they decide it is time...then they will clean up the rest of the problems.

Jock is adjusting nicely to his braces. He is also adjusting to public school. No, that is not a typo. You read correctly. He was becoming more and more unhappy with being home schooled. It was not working for him anymore, and he asked to go back to public school. He is in grade eight and started JUST in time to start the last trimester with his peers. They are all going on a tour of the local high school next week. He plans to attend all four years of high school. Like all of my home schooling friends, we re-evaluate here and there and see what is working and what is not. Stud DID NOT want Jock to go to PS, but I tried to get him to see that Jock is almost 14 and needs to have a voice in his academic career and his life in general.

I assume he agreed, because Jock has been going to school every day for a week now. Teehee I would prefer he be at home, but just because that is something *I* prefer, doesn't mean it works for him. I am very excited for him and he has been very sweet. He knows it is not my choice and has been telling me he loves me and hugging me very sweetly the few times I have cried about it. It is just weird not having him around and it feels like a piece of me is missing when the other kids and I go places and do things that we would always do together.

In other news, I am leaving on Sunday for Yellowknife, NWT. A friend lives up there and I have NEVER been there in the 19 years she has lived there! She found a great sale and we each paid half for the ticket. Well actually, she paid the whole thing but I will take my half to her in cash so that she has spending money when I get there:)

I can't wait to go on holiday and go on sled dog rides and cross country skiing...I have not gone Cross Country Skiing since I was a teenager. There is a Caribou Carnival and an Ice Castle and all kinds of neat things! We grew up together in Saskatchewan and try to meet up in Alberta, BC, or Saskatchewan any chance we can. It will be nice to finally see where she lives and just relax and visit.

Pretty much right after I get back, Jock and I leave for a hockey tournament in Phoenix. In June, my parents are flying Princess and I up to Saskatchewan to camp a bit and spend some time with the family. So it looks like I will be traveling a lot this year!

I will try to be better about updating...and now will leave you all with some photos of the some chocolates that I made when I went out the other night with some other home schooling mothers. We go on a "Mom's Night Out" a few times a month and this past MNO, we made some yummy chocolates.

Here is Clown eating the bottom of a Noah's Ark that I made...

Here are some filled butterflies that I attempted. The kids gobbled them up, so they must not have been too bad...they sure are fun to make!

And here is the Lion that I made. I got SUCH a kick out of how his wee face turned out:) There were other animals, a really cool giraffe and a green mint hippo, etc. But the kids and Stud ate them before I could get the pictures I wanted...

Oh yes, there is other news. Since last July when three of the kids went to my parents' in Saskatchewan, we have been moving rooms around and making Stud an office in the old kitchen downstairs. It had been the "school room" in years past and was a great place to do our science and math through baking and various messy projects. Here is what it looked like about a year ago...

This is looking into the room ~

This was IN the room, looking out into our Rec Room...

We took all the counter tops and cabinets out and put them in the garage. Then a friend from church came and did something or other with the plumbing and electric and fixed all the walls. Put texture on them, and all kinds of fun smelly stuff. That was in December, right before Christmas.

FINALLY, just the past few weeks, we have it pretty much how it will be in there, except Stud needs to hang stuff on the walls. He chose the wall colour and put in a new floor as well. He will probably put a door on at some point, so he can concentrate on work better since the kids and I spend a lot of the time out in the Rec room doing our school work.

So this is what it looks like when you look into the room now...

And looking out into the Rec Room...

Next post may be about what the office used to look like. It is slowly but surely becoming Jock's bedroom. His old room will become Clown's and finally Clown will have his own room for the first time in his life. Right in time for his 10th birthday! Cryptic will finally have his own room and all will be as it should.

As I have been trying to post this, Clown has been showing me various magic tricks that he has been practicing. He is going to perform them tomorrow at our monthly "Book Report Lunch" that we do at a local pizza place. Clown is doing SO WELL that he actually got up and recited a poem last month! The first time in his life that he got up and presented something. He had written book reports in the past and Cryptic would read them for him. Now Clown is on a roll and is very pleased about his new found confidence!

So there you are. I will close for now. Hope that everyone is doing well!

Limits

2009-02-13T10:39:00.000-08:00

At the moment Princess is taking ballet, jazz, hip hop, gymnastics, violin and swimming lessons. Gymnastics, violin and swimming on Mondays. Jazz and ballet on Tuesdays. Swimming and hip hop on Wednesdays. We have Thursdays and Fridays free. She has always loved being involved in sports and dance...horse back riding, cooking and art lessons...you get the idea. She has always been our busiest and most active child.

I ask her brothers sometimes if they feel left out. They remind me that they know things are available to them and if they have an interest, they will let me know. They don't mind that she does all these things and are proud to go and watch her and support her. In fact her little drama class just ended a few weeks ago and it was nice to see their beaming faces when they watched their little sister perform on stage with her cute little friends. Cryptic went to give her flowers after they took their bows, and he was just beaming. Which is HUGE. Cryptic seldom even smiles, let alone beams:)

Since she is taking the year off hockey so that she can pursue these other interests, she has time to do soccer and basketball. I totally forgot about basketball and didn't sign her up. She has never tried it or baseball, but LOVES hockey and soccer. Yesterday I asked she and Clown if they wanted to sign up for soccer. Clown is so torn. He REALLY wants to, he LOVES the game. He has not played in about four years and since we have diagnosed him with this anxiety and panic disorder...now that understand why he feels the way he does...he is learning to branch out and step out of his comfort zone a little. So we shall see.

I was talking with him about it yesterday and called to Princess, "Princess?? Do you want Mummy to sign you up for soccer??"

She called back, "No thanks, Mummy! I think I am involved in enough activities right now. You can't do it all you know!"

I learned that my eight-year-old daughter knows her limits:) Thus reminding me YET AGAIN how proud I am to be her Mum.

Lame

2009-02-12T22:39:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to think of something clever and wise. Share some insight or observation...I had all kinds of ideas of things to share on here, and no time to share. Now that I committed to sharing regularly...do you think I have anything?? No way! Totally blank.

Something to note...Stud is going to design me a nice blog. Something that shows a bit of my personality. Not sure when he will have time to do that, since he is working two jobs, playing hockey, coaching Jock's hockey team, playing guitar at church, not to mention all the other balls he has in the air. He had worked a bit on it some months ago, but other things got in the way. So be watching for that very soon.

Wow...I am so sad and disappointed in myself! I really wanted to have some fun and witty things to post about. I almost wish my kids were all about 6 years younger, so I would have interesting posts about the things they said and did. I didn't have a blog in those days, but I would have made countless posts a day, let me tell you! Kids that age always make for great material.

Ah well, better hit the hay. Stud took the younger two kids swimming tonight and then I am taking them (as well as Jock) skating tomorrow with our Home School group.

I will at least leave you with a shot of Princess practising her violin and wee Caledonia looking beautiful!

Have a great weekend everyone. And I hope to have something good (or at least not LAME!) very soon.

Braces

2009-02-10T08:52:00.000-08:00

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So we have another one in braces. Jock finally got his put on yesterday. We have been waiting for him to lose more baby teeth and see what all was going on. I really love our Orthodontist because not only is he nice and great with the kids, but he doesn't put the braces on needlessly. Cryptic still doesn't have his and he is 16 1/2. He waits until he just has no other choice. Waits to see what the bones and jaws are doing. He is funny, polite, considerate and he always calls the kids personally the night before to talk to them and tell them it will be a piece of cake. He has all kinda of awesome contests for them and he even has drawings for the parents. He has a movie Theatre in the office and the kids can win pizza parties in there with their friends.

Jock's mouth is a total disaster. He has one baby tooth fused to the bone...4 more that will need to be removed because they refuse to come out and his canines are way up almost in his nasal cavity. Alright...that one is not quite accurate. Just look at these photos...he has only ever lost about 3 teeth on his own, the rest always have to be removed by a dentist. He got these top front ones put on and after a month or so, we will take him to the dentist to deal with those other teeth. A few months after that, they will put the rest of the braces on. I can't remember how bad his overbite is...I recall the words "seventy percent", but that may be from something else. They say that they will most likely publish his photos in the "Before and After" book that they have there. Maybe they are talking about doing it in the Damon literature. They were quite enthralled with his mess and mentioned this a few times. Poor kid.

The first photo is him signing his contract saying he will take good care of his teeth and follow the rules. Then the next one is of him once we got home. He didn't mind me taking some shots of him at the office, getting them on. He did request that I not post those, however.

So we are very excited to see what will happen with this. Clown gets his off on March tenth. Which will mean he only had his on for not quite 6 months. They have totally done what we wanted and his cross bite is corrected. Now we will wait to see when he needs the full deal again. Cryptic goes for a check the same day Clown gets his off. We have been waiting for Cryptics's teeth to all come out and see what is happening there. He has never had the issues that his brothers have, but he does have a large gap in his front two teeth and an overbite that needs to be corrected.

So, you may be asking what did I learn the past few days?? Braces cost a lot of money.

Insight

2009-02-07T11:41:00.000-08:00

So this is the big revelation revealed to me the other day...

It is VERY difficult to box on the Wii with a kitten hanging from the cord that connects your controller with your nunchuck. Of course we cannot capture a photo of Caledonia doing this. Just trust me...it is HARD to box when she jumps around trying to get the connecting cord...it is distracting but mainly because it is so cute and funny, you laugh so hard that you can't focus on boxing!

Hopefully I will have another helpful tidbit of knowledge and/or wisdom for you all very soon.

Have a great weekend!

Brief update

2009-02-05T15:58:00.001-08:00

Hello friends!

Since I have been so lax about updating...I will try to post a quick update.

Princess got a kitten for Christmas. Her name is Caledonia and we all adore her! Clown is waiting for Princess to slip up in caring for her, so that she will become HIS. He fed her this morning and was going to change her litter box, but I reminded him that he needs to give Princess a chance to do it!

We had a lovely Christmas. Clown and Princess now take gymnastics AND swimming lessons. We had an issue yesterday with Clown at his lesson...perhaps more on that to come. Princess is also taking violin lessons for the first time and enjoys it.

Jock got a new cell phone for Christmas. HE LOVES it! He got it taken away six days ago and will not get it back for at least another week, perhaps more, depending on his respect (or lack there of!) level and treatment of all of us. He is struggling with respect and not manipulating people. He gets braces put on Monday morning, so is very excited about that. Has MANY problems in that poor mouth of his! I don't mean just the sass and cheekiness that comes out of it, either!

Cryptic is doing well. Has taken a sudden interest in philosophy and psychology and has many books checked out of the library on those topics. He is taking violin lessons again. He took them from the time he was about 6 until he was 12 or 13 and then just tired of it. He is glad to have started back up again!

I am going to try and post a little something EVERY day. Something I learned that day...something I remembered...something I observed. I will try and have the odd contest thrown in, so please keep on checking back. I promise the blog won't continue to be so boring!

Trust that all is well with everyone!

Random things

2009-02-04T18:21:00.000-08:00

WOW! I didn't expect to take such a long break! I just have not been blogging or reading blogs as much as I had been.

I did this on Facebook and decided to post it here until I can think of anything else to post.

I hope everyone is doing well and I look forward to catching up with all of you soon! Enjoy this information about me. I am sure a lot of my "regular" readers will be pretty familiar with most of this!!

1. I grew up on 80 acres in the prairies of Canada.

2. There were 14 people in my Graduating class. Most of us are still in touch.

3. I have had more brothers and sisters than I can keep track of.

4. I miss my foster brothers and sisters and always think of them and wish I could get in touch with them again:(

5. I got my first gray hair when I was 17 years old.

6. I cannot stand to have anything on my feet...socks...shoes...blankets...you get the idea.

7. My husband and I had our children in the same order as my parents AND paternal grandparents. My father is the oldest son of three boys and then a girl...my parents had my three older brothers and then me...we have three boys and then a girl. The only difference is that my grandparents went on to have another boy after their girl!

8. Don't play any musical instruments and don't plan to. Have never had the slightest interest in it.

9. Always planned to raise my kids on some land...meadows to run in, trees to climb and build forts in...animals to play with and breed and learn from...can't seem to get past the bitterness that it has not happened and I have no control or say in major things like that:(

10. I absolutely LOATHE city living and have had to do so for 19 Looooonnnngg years:( Almost half my life.

11. Am an introvert with extrovert tendencies and find the older I get, the more introverted I become.

12. Cannot STAND to wear dresses or skirts. Pants are THE BEST!

13. Got married just after my 20th birthday.

14. Met my husband on the internet when I was 18.

15. I have met and/or spoken to Alan Thicke, Louie Anderson, Pierce Brosnan and Rick Ducommun. Since Rick Ducommun is my cousin, I have spent a LOT more time with him than the others. He even mailed me an autographed 8X10 of he and Tom Hanks when they were filming "The Burbs". Took me on stage with him after he filmed one of his HBO Specials. Miss him:(

16. I am terrified of heights.

17. The first time I flew on an airplane was to meet my husband's family in SC in April of 1989. He wasn't my husband yet, obviously:) I was 19 years old.

18. I love dragonflies and collect them. Even in ink under my skin.

19. I enjoy getting tattoos. Very much. I want many more!

20. I have been told often that I am a very good and loyal friend.

21. I miss Canada. Did I say that already?? I want to go home:(

22. My oldest son and I plan to make our first trip to Ireland together. Hopefully very soon.

23. I adore animals and if I had my way would have many, many more. My husband won't let me:(

24. I was going to be a vet until I thought about sticking the babies with needles. I was a Vet Tech for a while and had to do it anyway:( I HATED STABBING THEM, even though it was to help them.

25. I was studying to be a child psychologist until I met my husband and married him. Now all my poor children are my guinea pigs:)

Dance

2008-12-20T20:32:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to two of Princess' most recent dances .

The first is her Spring one, when she was a marshmallow. Obviously, it is ballet.

Then click on the arrow that points to the right and you will see the hip hop one from a week ago today. She was an ice skating girl and has shorter hair. She starts out far left on the stage, far right to us.

Enjoy!

A Winter Update

2008-12-19T12:21:00.000-08:00

Please forgive the limited posts lately. We have had a lot going on and things are starting to calm down now. It may be a long post, it may not. Depending on how many interruptions I have! I am sure this truly WILL be muddled and all over the place:)

Vince, I have been meaning to e-mail you and the Wife, but have not really had time. I know you will eventually read this and hope you understand me not getting back to you privately. I want you to know that I appreciate all your help and input so much!

For the rest of you who do not know, Clown has been being assessed for Asperger's and just recently finished. He DOES NOT have it, which is awesome.

However, he DOES have Panic Disorder as well as Generalized Anxiety Disorder and is SO MUCH better now. It was a rough past few months.

He has always been incredibly shy and not liked leaving the house. He has improved in some areas over the years and in others he has gotten much worse. He talked early, read pretty early and had some other symptoms of Asperger's. Since he hated being around people and would hide under furniture at any social function he was forced to go to, hated loud noises, was very particular about the feel of certain clothes and will only wear one type and brand of sock, etc, etc, I just assumed he had some mild autistic tendencies. We were dealing with it all fairly well and it wasn't too much of an issue until he started sobbing all the time, saying he was light headed, going crazy, couldn't breathe, was going to die, etc etc. It was getting very scary and I found someone to help.

She is incredible and after just 5 sessions with her, he is a new little man. She has taught him deep breathing, self calming techniques, visual imagery, etc etc. We confirmed what he and I always knew ; he is a perfectionist and that does not help with his issues. It makes them worse, but he is learning to work on that.

One thing that made me sad for him is that when she tested him in various things (which he LOVED and really looked forward to, he loves any challenge as long as he does it "perfectly"...if not...look out!) he tested at high school level in most things and above high school in others. He is so advanced in his thinking but being only nine years old...poses a problem. That is a lot of what causes his attacks...he is thinking deep profound thoughts and he can't handle them and gets scared, so an attack comes on quickly. At least now we know what it is and are able to help him.

Cryptic is also now being tested for Asperger's. I will be incredibly surprised if he doesn't have it. I didn't know if Clown had it, but I knew something was wrong. When I was filling out all the forms for Clown, I was shocked at how many of the questions applied to Cryptic more so than Clown. When I showed Cryptic, he was surprised at how much it all sounds like him. Now any time he exhibits any of his typical quirks that we have always thought of as "just Cryptic", he grins and says, "It's my Asperger's!". We know he has not been diagnosed, but he is pretty certain that he has it also. I got him curious and now he has read up on it and is amazed at how it is like reading about himself. So we shall see.

My friend C is down from Canada again. I went to the airport in Abbotsford, BC to pick her up on the 3rd. She will stay until January 3rd. It is such fun having her here! If you don't recall about my lovely friend "C", please go read this and you may recall a bit. Some of you did not read my blog back then though.

Anyway, she is here and picking her up in Abbotsford was a total breeze. We are not flying her in to Vancouver again! So she and I had all these plans about shopping and all this. However, that had been put on hold.

It snowed here. Which makes it hard to go out and shop. Not because of the snow, but since it hovers around zero so much, it melts and then freezes again and back and forth. And what do we get?? ICE! Lots of ice! Stud doesn't think I should drive out there. Not so much because of me, but the other drivers. C is having a blast talking with her hubby and parents on the phone, telling them all about how funny it is that 3 inches of snow, shuts everything down. It IS pretty funny, they call it a "storm" and a "blizzard". Ridiculous! It is so pretty. I will post some photos of the kids out playing in it. Stud is taking C and I out shopping later today. We did make it to church last week and also went on "The Santa Train" last Sunday. What fun! Interesting challenge getting C and her wheelchair on board, but the people were so sweet and helpful! We have not gone since Princess was one year old...I need to look for pics of that...

What else is happening...Princess still loves her Drama classes. Their little play will be at the end of January. She is memorizing her lines flawlessly, it is going to be so cute! I can't wait! Her holiday dance recital was last weekend and she had a blast! It is her first year doing hip hop and she just loves it. Even Jock and Cryptic commented on how great she did. Nice to see them proud of their little sister. Clown misses it because he spent four days at his friend Smiley's house. Princess was thrilled last Sunday because Jock carried her to and from the van on our way to and from church since there was snow and she had on her dress and little dainty church shoes. Wish I had a picture but Jock would not let me take one! Looked so sweet, him scooping her up and carrying her around. She threw her arms around his neck and just beamed and giggled!

I will see if Stud can put the video of her dance out here for me again. Cryptic's latin tutor has gone home to Australia for a few months, so he has to have a break from that. He LOVES Latin and is a natural at it. It takes all he has in him not to translate the other kids' stuff for them when they go around the table and translate things. His tutor has had to shush him on occasion and told him to let the other's have a chance:) He just wants to help them, they are not taking to it as quickly as he did. He will keep practising until the tutor returns home.

Jock's hockey is going well. He still loves it. Stud has mentioned possibly sending him to hockey school in Penticton, BC when he is a few years older. A friend of our's did that and he improved dramatically and had a much better chance than he would have if he had stayed here in our Association. The difference is that we would move up there WITH Jock, not just send him to billet with strangers. So I am excited about the idea of living in my home country again, even if it is not the right province:) Cryptic would be done with school by then and either living in Ireland (his dream) or going to University in Canada anyway. Yet another perk to home schooling; we can just do that and not uproot Clown and Princess from a school or something.

Clown took a break from Gymnastics while we were getting his issues sorted, but he is excited to start back in the New Year! When Princess is finished drama at the end of January, she will start gymnastics with her brother and they will both start swimming lessons again. It has been about four years since they have taken and I think it is time for a refresher. I wish that Jock and Cryptic had joined the swim team like the people wanted them to, but they weren't interested.

I need to get off of here and get C and I some lunch. Hope everyone is having a lovely holiday season. Jude, I wish you could have a tree:( Sorry to jump around so much, that is what happens when I leave so much time between posts, eh??

Happy Holidays everyone! Stay warm:)

Annual Santa Photo

2008-12-11T08:58:00.000-08:00

Cryptic

2008-11-23T22:29:00.000-08:00

He will be 16 tomorrow.

This cannot be true.

Sixteen years ago tonight, I was terrified, laying in agony in a hospital bed and had just been induced with Pitocin. Little turd was 11 days overdue already so we had no choice, we had to get him out of there.

So there you have it. What a crazy crazy world.

Thank goodness!

2008-11-09T16:32:00.000-08:00

Horse back lessons are over for another few months! YAY! One less thing to drive to and take up time:) Great attitude, eh??

Princess LOVES her horseback lessons. She had done private last fall/winter. She didn't get a chance to do camp this summer, but we got her into group lessons with other home schooled kids this fall. Now that eight week session is over and we are going to get her into another session in the spring time. So the break from now until March or April will be a welcome one. For ME anyway:)

I just broke the news to her that she will be taking lessons at a different place now. I found a place that I think will be a bit closer to us (not sure of it's precise location, but I think it is pretty close), and it sounds like a nicer, newer facility. For an 8 week session of one hour private lessons it will cost less than HALF of what we paid at the current place for an 8 week session of hour long group lessons! I found out about it RIGHT after I signed everything and we paid for where she just finished at.

Her Fall Rally was yesterday morning. All of us went and she got to show us some of what she has learned. She was very pleased to have her brothers and Dad there to watch her.

As you can see, Jock is quite proud of his little sister. It just blows my mind how genetics and birth order have such a part in the whole dynamic of a family.

As you all may recall, I also have three older brothers. The second one and I were the most alike (same as Jock and Princess) and butted heads the most (same as Jock and Princess) yet of the three, HE would be the most likely to seek me out and spend time with me. He would be the one to tell me he was proud of me, he loved me, what have you. Same as Jock! Cryptic and Clown are nicer overall to Princess.

However, for the most part, if someone is going to go say good night to her as she waits for her father and I to come tuck her in...or ask her how her drama class went...or paint her nails for her...or tell her he thinks she did a great job at her dance recital...or ask her if she wants to play a board game...that is Jock. It just never ceases to amaze me how similar the whole dynamic of our family is to the one I grew up in. It is almost funny! My brother Sean was HORRIBLE to me and I see Jock treating Princess the same way. Scoffing at anything she says, groaning if she has the nerve to just be a happy little girl and sing along to a song, rolling his eyes if she is sharing an idea or some passion with me, etc. So at least he tries to make up for it in ways. One big difference between my childhood and my kids, of course, is that we don't take in foster children like my parents always did. Other than that, it is pretty neat how similar things are. Sean and I turned out to be close, so I know there is hope for Jock and Princess:)

So here is Jock, in his own way, showing Princess he is pleased to be there and support her horsemanship skills!

In other news, Stud left last night for Geneva, Switzerland. This was a sudden trip for his job and we are all very excited for him! I kept telling him to please bring me back some awesome yummy chocolate! I hope he gets the kids and I all some nice little trinkets.:)

Our niece, G, lives in nearby Caux sur Montreux. Stud is hopefully going to either go to her school and visit her, or get her a train ticket to get her to Geneva and then spend some time with him there. Here are some reminders of that sweet girl...here and here . So I hope it works out for them to get together. I have not seen her in over a year and I am not liking it:(

This has taken longer than I wanted, so I must go do something with the kids. Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend!

Changes...

2008-11-03T08:02:00.000-08:00

So Princess decided to try and grow her hair long again.

She also decided she now wants bangs.

She is taking a break from ballet *GASP* and she turned eight...now guess what she is doing!??!?!

She had the nerve to lose another tooth! Next thing I know she will be wearing a bra, screaming at me constantly and leaving used sanitary napkins laying around for the dog to chew up. Sorry to be so gross, but I know it is going to happen. Of the four kids, she is by far the messiest and I just KNOW she will do that. She leaves enough other gross stuff laying around.

In her Friday morning Science class they just dissected an owl pellet. She was so pleased with the whole thing!! She kept the vole skeleton that she extracted from the pellet laying on her nightstand. It was in a sandwich bag. Brommy found it and chewed through it, so there were wee bones all over her carpet and I had the good fortune to step on them and get a lovely teeny weeny vole femur stuck in my foot! I didn't sign up for this when I decided to have kids!

Anyway, she wanted a close-up of the gap ; loves to see the blood! LOL

She was very excited to set it under her pillow last night in hopes that the tooth fairy would come. She and I just chose those new flannel sheets for winter at Target. HOW CUTE ARE THOSE!?!? $20! And I got Stud and I a set that is cream coloured with red snowflakes:) teehee Also, $20!??! For King Size??

Ok, just back from the gym. Stud is taking Clown to his orthodontist appointment and then Princess and I are off to her drama lessons.

Hallowe'en news to come soon...if I get time!

Three down, one to go...

2008-10-27T15:02:00.000-07:00

Well, Clown and I just had "The Talk".

He has heard various terms and knows some things about puberty. Aunt Flo for girls, hormones causing changes, etc. The past few months he has been asking a lot about detail and I tend to go into too much detail. I kept on putting it off in hopes that he would catch me in a mood when I would not give TMI. We have a pretty open policy here in the home about coming to us with anything at all, this topic not being an exception. Have always used correct terms for body parts, etc.

Finally today he came into the bedroom just as I was about to go downstairs to do math and history with he and Princess. He said, basically, "OK, that's it. I want to know how the sperm gets to the egg." I had asked him the other night if he had any ideas. He claimed he didn't but I think he had pretty much figured it out and just didn't want to come out and say it!

So we talked as he hid under the covers on his Dad's side of the bed and I sat there on my side. For much of it, he was turned away from me. He would ask questions before I could even finish one explanation. Every so often he would turn toward me, his mouth agape in horror and whatever I had just divulged would bring up five more questions. Was an interesting conversation. He wasn't as horrified as Cryptic had been. I remember he could not even bring himself to LOOK at his dad for days after! LOL

Anyway, at the end of the whole thing Clown quipped, "Oooooh!! So do you think they call them "Sperm Whales" because they like to "do it" more than any other whales??"

That's my boy!!!

Pumpkin Cake Roll

2008-10-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

Ok Jude, this is for you.

The pictures are not the greatest. The icing sugar had soaked in on the top because it had been made the day before and sitting in the fridge. I didn't sprinkle any more on, cause I was too lazy. Also, obviously we had cut into it and eaten some before I thought to take a photo:)

I got this recipe from Princess' cooking class LAST fall. She made this when she was seven years old! I was impressed. She always brought back samples from class and when I bit into this...I tell you. I loved it! Maybe you won't love it as much as me now that I have built it up. It IS a nice comfort food for the sweet tooth and such a seasonal thing. I am sure anyone who tries this will love it!!

I went out and bought a jelly roll pan JUST to make this and it was so worth it. I will make these much more often. I had never braved a jelly roll or anything of this nature just because I thought it must be complicated and time consuming. When Princess made it I figured if a 7 year old can make it with just limited supervision, I am sure I can! LOL I was shocked at how simple this was. She was going to help me, but she got involved in watching a movie with her brothers, so I was on my own.

Maybe you can whip up a few to have on hand for your sisters?? I know not all of them live right there near you now, but you know what I am saying. Nice to have on hand at a time like this, right??

Ok, here goes...


Cake:                              Icing :

3/4 cup of flour                   6 oz cream cheese, softened
2 tsp. ground cinnamon             1/4 cup butter softened
1 tsp. baking powder               1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp. ground ginger               1 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
3 eggs
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1/4-1/3 cup icing sugar, sifted

1. Allow eggs to stand at room temp for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Grease 15X10X1 inch jelly roll pan. Line the bottom with wax paper and spray with cooking spray. Set aside
3.Combine dry ingredients except for icing sugar. That is to sprinkle on finished cake roll & towel when cake part is done baking.
4.In a large bowl, beat eggs and oil with electric mixer on high until thick. About 5 minutes. (2 or 3 worked fine for me) Gradually beat in the sugar. Stir in pumpkin and lemon juice. Mix with flour mixture.
5. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes or until the top springs back when touched.
6.Remove from oven & immediately loosen edges of cake from pan and turn cake out onto a towel sprinkled with icing sugar. Remove waxed paper. Roll towel and cake into a spiral, starting from the short side of cake. Cool on a wire rack.
7.Make icing by creaming together cream cheese, butter and vanilla on medium speed until smooth. Gradually add icing sugar, beating after each addition until smooth.
8.Unroll cake, remove towel. Spread cake with icing to withing 1 inch of edges. Roll up cake; trim ends. Cover and chill until serving time. Dust with a light sifting of icing sugar before serving. Makes 12 servings.

So let me know when you get a chance to make it and what you think. It is truly delectable!

Fun

2008-10-19T09:29:00.001-07:00

So I got this from Jude. Thought it would be fun.

1. Where is your cell phone? Charging

2. Where is your significant other? Playing guitar at the first church service.

3. Your hair color? Auburn with LOTS of gray that is currently being masked.

4. Your mother? At my brother's in Calgary.

5. Your father? With my mother, other brother at my bro and SIL's in Calgary.

6. Your favorite thing? Looking at pictures of my kids or being with my kids.

7. Your dream last night? Something weird about my parents' young foster boy.

8. Your dream/goal? To live on at least 2 acres of land and have goats, etc again.

9. The room you're in? My bedroom.

10. Your hobby? Love to do a lot of things, never get time:( Painting, hiking, sewing. Never do any of them:(

11. Your fear? My husband or any of my children dying.

12. Where do you want to be in six years? On some land, milking goats and listening to my children run around laughing and playing in the fresh air on said land.

13. Where were you last night? My daughter's 8th birthday party at a local swimming pool.

14. What you’re not? I am not happy with all the zits I seem unable to rid myself of!

15. One of your wish list items? For my husband to move us onto land like we always said we would do. We said we would raise our children on some land with trees and we have ALWAYS lived in the city. My dream is for him to remember what I THOUGHT was our dream together and actually do something to work towards it coming true.

16. Where you grew up? On 80 acres West of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in the BEST country on earth!

17. The last thing you did? Asked one of my daughter's slumber party guests if she was hungry yet and wanted me to make her any breakfast. (she said no, not yet)

18. What are you wearing? A pink tank top and men's boxers with Canadian flags all over them. A big fluffy white robe on top of all that.

19. Your TV? VERY nice! Flat screen LCD with HD. It is honestly very pretty for a TV. Has ruby red kind of subtly worked in to the edge.

20. Your pet? Two cats and a one dog. I want more dogs and some goats, chickies, kitties, horses...you get the idea:( *sniff*

21. Your computer? Yup. It is sitting right here. No clue what kind or anything.

22. Your mood? hungry and my back hurts.

23. Missing someone? My paternal grandmother, three of my uncles, my aunt, my cousin and my baby brother. All of the above died within the past five years except for one of the uncles. I wish people would STOP doing that!

24. Your car? 1995 Honda Accord. If you really want to know details, you can go here. I remember him saying something about the exact kind.

25. Something you’re not wearing? A bra or anything on my feet. I cannot STAND anything on my feet.

26. Favorite store? I have a few, but Target seems to be where I get most of the things that we need. Even some things we don't need! LOL

27. Your summer? Yuck. I don't really enjoy summer.

28. Love someone? Absolutely, many.

29. Your favorite color? Deep blue and/or deep purple.

30.When is the last time you laughed? yesterday at the antics of my second-born at his sister's party.

31. Last time you cried? Wow...it has been a while. Oh no, I guess it was last week while talking on the phone about my baby brother with my Mum. She didn't even cry (which is real progress) it was only me crying for a bit.

Alrighty, better go feed myself and get these kids fed! Anyone who wants to do this, feel free. Please let me know, though, so I can come and read it:)

Character

2008-10-18T21:10:00.000-07:00

I just HAD to share some photos of Jock from his sister's 8th birthday party this afternoon.

First, he is licking the icing off the Hannah Montana lip gloss guitar that was on the cake. I get a kick out of the this because of the looks on the little girls' faces. You can see Princess reassuring them that all is well, this is just Jock being Jock! I have never put a photo on my blog without the kids' parents' permission...I need to check with them I guess, I just CANNOT resist. I just find this SO FUNNY! Especially K, the girl with black hair in the brown clothes. She is in one of Princess' dance classes and is a hoot herself! I am assuming she doesn't have any older brothers, by the look on her face:)

Then Jock decided he would make himself an outfit from the ribbons and wrappings and such...

See why I love this kid?? Never a dull moment! No need to hire entertainment, just bring Jock along! I should put some video out here of he and his friend sucking all the helium from the balloons and having a grand old time!

Then here is this guy. My calm, cool, and collected Cryptic. Here he is, long fingernails and all (they are not currently painted black, as you have most likely ascertained on your own) sweetly capturing memories of his sister and her guests frolicking in the swimming pool that we rented out for the hour. *contented sigh* Isn't he handsome??

So Princess had a wonderful time. Aside from me having Stud cut two different kinds of cheese into teeny leaf shapes to go with the crackers and meat and after all that ~ forgetting them at home!...and forgetting the ice cream scooper and cake slicer here at home...and Clown thinking he forgot his trunks and towel at home and dissolving in tears, only to quickly recover and wipe frantically at his eyes when Stud told him he packed them and all was well...I think it went pretty well! OH! I also totally forgot my DELICIOUS pumpkin loaf with cream cheese. I will take a photo of that and post it soon. If anyone wants the recipe, let me know. It is truly DIVINE.

So the post is title the way it is because of Jock. When I discovered those photos on the camera on the drive home, Stud and I said that at least some of them would end up on our blogs. Teehee He begged us not to and said he was hyper. That is fine, they are still going on the blogs:) Be curious to see which ones Stud uses:)

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Advice

2008-10-17T19:55:00.000-07:00

As the title implies, I am seeking some advice.

I have noticed the past three years or so that people gravitate toward Princess. I mean, they always have been taken with her. She is very sweet, cute, funny and just draws people in by her demeanor. Since infancy, people commented on her eyes and curls (when she had them! LOL) and cuteness. Right now I am talking about her personality and how it seems to draw people.

It is just the past three years or so that it has become more and more clear that she is looked upon as...what I guess people call "popular". Kids of all ages want to be her friend. She has friends who are ten and eleven and friends as young as four or five.

I am not sure if I posted about various instances from a few years ago when she attended public school. It is always interesting to watch other kids around her. Ones in her dance class, horse back lessons, and for sure when she attended public school for her Kindergarten year. Kids just gaze at her so adoringly and always watch to see what she will do and then they follow along. I think I talked about one example and how she instructed all the kids who took the bus home to sit on a certain side of the bus so that as it drove past, they could wave to her as she and I walked home after school. They happily did that ALL YEAR long. I thought they would tire of it or forget about it after a few weeks. No sir! The entire year, they watched and waved and just seemed so excited to be waving to her every day. If sometimes we were late or early and didn't see the bus, kids asked her about it later. "Princess! I didn't see you and your Mommy waving yesterday after school?? What happened??"

So now she takes this Friday morning science class. Other kids want to partner up with her do to any assignments together. They don't "fight" over her, but I can tell she is torn and doesn't know what to do and which ones to work with. They do seem to be getting a bit agitated at the thought of her not "choosing" them. She looked at me helplessly and shrugged her shoulders today when two girls were wanting her to work with them on identifying birds.

She has been better about getting into lines first at dance class. She used to ALWAYS be first to line up for get the hands stamped after dance lessons or music lessons. I spoke with her about it and explained that other kids need to be first as well and how she can take turns. She told me the kids TELL her to get in front and I knew she was right. I had seen it. They would motion for her to go first, even if she had stepped back to allow them in. I would watch and these girls would just kind of look at her in awe as she walked past, like she was Princess Diana or something. They all really seem taken with her. I mean, it is NOT her fault or anything.

Here is my dilemma. I don't want her getting arrogant. I think she is starting to really notice this treatment a lot more and notice other girls maybe not being treated the same way. I am not sure WHY she is viewed in this manner.

So what do I do?? Do I just keep the lines of communication open and be there for her if she starts asking why people treat her this way?? I know she has noticed in the area of her looks. People always comment on her being so "cute" and "beautiful" and all this. She has heard it all her life. It is tapering off a bit as she gets older, THANK GOODNESS, but I know it will start up again when she is late teens or something and totally stunning again. I almost want her to get some acne or get crooked teeth or something and not be so pretty! I know that sounds horrible, which leads me to my next question.

How do I help it not bother her brothers?? They are starting to resent her, mainly Clown. He is closest in age to her, so it impacts him the most. He has come to me crying a few times, asking why people don't comment on his looks all the time as they do her. I never know what to say?? I think he is very handsome. And sometimes people say so. The thing is 98% of the time we go ANYWHERE, people turn and look at Princess or come right up and say something. They don't say anything about him:( It is hurting him and he is resenting his sister. But it is not her fault!

So what can I do?? IS there anything I can do?? It bothers Jock a little bit, but with the looks thing, he seems a but consoled by the fact that they look a lot alike! LOL We always say she is a female version of him. So even though he acts like she is an annoying little sister and therefore seen as hideous to him, it does seem to console him a bit. He even says to me a few times a year, "You know, Princess really IS a very attractive little girl. It bugs me when people always say it, especially when she is there to hear. But I DO understand why. She REALLY is pretty!"

How do I help her with being torn between all kinds of people wanting her attention? And how do I help the boys not resent her and get their feelings hurt??

Thanks!

Can it be true??

2008-10-12T23:07:00.000-07:00

My baby turned eight years old this past Friday. My oldest baby will be 16 years old next month...I was 39 on the 1st of this month.

WHAT IS HAPPENING!! I DON'T LIKE THIS!!!

So here are a few shots from the birthday itself. Her party is this coming Saturday the 18th at a local pool. She is beside herself with excitement of course!

As my few regular readers may recall, we hide gifts for the kids on their birthdays. They play hot and cold, go on a treasure hunt by reading clues, etc. Adds to the fun! So she found this horse thing that she had been wanting, hidden under her pillow there in the fort. She and Clown sleep in there on the weekends. They love to sleep under the piano! Goofy kiddos!

Jock did not want to be in this photo of her opening what her three brothers got her. He had not showered, which means he had not done his hair. So if his hair is not "just so"...you understand, I am sure. You know how 13 year old boys can be:)

I LOVE THIS ONE! She and Clown started doing the jewelry making kit. Clown loved to do it, but there were not many things that could pass as "masculine" and of course Jock started making fun of him for playing with a "girl toy". Princess is looking at him like, "Please Clown! Just make some of this stuff with me!!" And he is looking at me like, "MUM! Get that camera out of here!" LOVE IT!

Alrighty, even though I need to get to bed to get Princess to drama class in the morning, I am going to settle in and watch some "Corner gas" with Stud. We love this show. The only trouble is every time we watch it, I crave my good old Canadian junk food that I see in the background:)

Toodles!

Braces

2008-10-07T23:28:00.001-07:00

Can you believe this!?!?

He just needs them on the top for 8-10 months to correct his crossbite.

He was very brave!

Last week

2008-09-14T16:16:00.000-07:00

So the new schedule last week went nicely. I was a tad sore and tired (stupid Aunt Flo!) on Thursday so we took the day off and just lazed about.

I have been very impressed with the kids sticking to the schedule and doing their chores and school work. Jock fights it and mutters, but does a good job of keeping up with his on-line school. Cryptic spent a lot of time with the younger two and they were just tickled. When he has limited time that he is permitted to spend doing his writing and (we had been allowing him HOURS every day and that has been drastically altered) surfing the net, he actually enters in on their games and they love his input and ideas for the games they make up and play together. The three of them spent a good amount of time out on the trampoline this week.

Clown was nervous about his gymnastics class this past Monday at noon. His coach is Russian and quite hard to understand because of the accent and also because he speaks very quietly. Clown went out onto the mats and started the warm up with everyone else. Soon he was smiling and talking quietly with the other boys. He didn't want me to take any pictures but I told him I wouldn't do it often, I just wanted some from his first class.

When they got to the rings, he was the only one who was able to just jump up from below and grab them. THEN, he was also the only one who held his body the way the coach was showing them. I felt bad for some of the other boys, they gave up and were nears tears. Clown just seemed to be a natural.

His coach told him to pull a big thing over to use to stand on so that he can jump up and reach the rings. Of course he is waving me away and saying, "NO PICTURES!" LOL

Explaining that he needs to jump up there and grab on...but first...

You will want to use some chalk on your hands so you don't slip...

WOW! You got up there the first try! Now try and grab with the other hand...

Excellent!

He just loved it and says he wants to try a few more times. At one point they were by the bars trying to do a "Pull Up" I think they said it is called. You hold on with just your hands and then try and just pull your entire body under and up and over the bar by lifting with your legs and core. The kids were struggling and struggling and the mothers were all saying how hard it is. One mother, whose kids have taken classes there for a LONG TIME said "It usually takes about a year before they can do it. It is REALLY difficult". Right after she said that, we all saw Clown flip himself over! We sat there shocked for a split second and then all the mothers and I started hooting and hollering and clapping and yelling "YAY CLOWN!!!"

Of course he went today again (was convinced he was going to vomit on the way there *sigh* but got himself calmed down once he got on the mats) and Jock and Princess came to watch him. I would rather it just be time with him and me on the drive to and from. However, he asked them to come and watch him and they were excited to see him in class. There is a class for girls going on at the same time that Princess wants to be in. I told her she is in too many things right now, this is just for Clown. She wants to drop something so she can do gymnastics! I told her once some of her eight week sessions are done, she can start this. Jock actually may join Clown in class next month. We can pay month by month and the woman who set it up from our Home Schooling Assoc. got us a screaming deal!

So Princess and Jock were impressed with Clown's abilities also. They enjoyed watching him and he was so proud to have them there:) Was cute, one time as Clown was walking past with the rest of the boys, Jock waved and just said, "Hey Clown!" and Clown beamed and looked a bit shy and waved back but was too shy to say anything back to him:)

Princess is loving her ballet and hip hop. Our Sugar cube pyramid didn't turn out that great last Monday, but that is OK, now we are onto Sumeria and working on other things with clay. Trying to make a "Sumerian Seal". We shall see how that goes!

I open up a local clubhouse for our Friday morning Science Class now. Cryptic and Jock have taken it for years and now Clown and Princess get to try. Their class is first and I have keys and meet the teacher there.

Of course Clown was a nervous wreck before class on Friday. Once he got settled and Brian started talking and teasing Princess, Clown settled right in. He raised his hand and spoke up many times and didn't even flip out or get upset when one time Brian called on him and Clown ventured, "Mandibles??" and Brian said no, that's wasn't quite right. Normally Clown would have shut down then and there and never volunteered an answer again. Not this time! We are making progress! He took it in stride and within a few minutes was answering Brian's questions again and doing his sweet shy look whenever he got something right. Which was most of the time! They are learning about insects and Clown always reads up on them. So he knew a lot of the material but of course learned plenty of new information as well. He came running inside after class and flew straight to Stud's office downstairs and told him all about the class. Again, he says he will continue all year, no need to quit after the first eight week session:)

Clown will start piano lessons soon and Cryptic is resuming his violin lessons from years ago. Princess is starting violin as well. Jock isn't playing an instrument at present.

Jock is having a good time on his new hockey team. He is Bantam this year and has five girls on his team!!! The most he has had before in one season is two, so this is different. They played their first game this past Sunday. We had issues with try-outs for the AAA team, but I won't get into that here. Maybe I mentioned it?? I don't recall.

Cryptic is taking a writing class on Fridays at 2PM, so we hope that goes well. He is not sure about sharing any of the stuff he is currently working on, since he hopes to publish it one day. I said we could just get people to sign a non-disclosure agreement! LOL He said he will just get more ideas and use those, but he really enjoys the class. Just something to help him move along and really get going with his ideas. He has amazing ideas and shares them with me on our daily walks. I can't keep up with all of them! He is really a gifted writer.

He bought a new book the other night and sucked it right down. I am going to go cuddle in bed and finish it. I started it yesterday and it is freaky how similar it is to some of the ideas Cryptic has had for his stories!

Enough rambling for now. Hope everyone had a lovely week!

Fall Schedule

2008-09-08T09:23:00.001-07:00

So today is the first day of our new fall schedule. I only have 12 minutes of computer time left, so we shall see how fast I can spit out all my news!

Cryptic showers now, as the other kids clean up from breakfast. Cryptic and I got up and went for an hour long walk and then came back and made breakfast. He poured juice, cut up strawberries and warmed up muffins while I toasted toast and scrambled eggs. The younger two should be starting their independent school work while Jock does his few chores for Mondays.

Clown has gymnastics this morning, so that should be interesting. He is very nervous and a friend and I have gone through all kinds of drama and stress and nonsense to get our boys in this class with our Home Schooling group. Both our sons need a very small group of kids.

Jock got his lap-top for his on-line school. I am not sure where it is based (can't recall at this moment) but they don't seem to have their act together. I actually have a pretty bad feeling about how this year will go.

This is a different place than the one we used last year for Cryptic. They sent him his lap-top and got him all set up. Then they called and were frantic this past Friday. They had given us the wrong form for the out of district thingy. So they called our home phone, Stud's cell and my cell and told us they needed us to fax them a different form from our school district. Fine. So I went and got that taken care of. The next day we got a big envelope of stuff from them in the mail. It was the SAME FORMS they sent WEEKS ago that we have already filled out and returned!?!?!? They were saying something about hurry and fill these in so we can get your student registered and connected and ready to do school!??! YIKES!?!?

So here is Jock with his lap-top...

Pretending to be mad:)

Much better.

OH NO!!! I am two minutes late! I am now off to Ancient Egypt with Princess and Clown. We have to try and make our pyramid again. We tried to make blocks from sand and glue so it would be more authentic...let's just say that did not work. So we are going to use sugar cubes. We agreed that will be more realistic anyway, since the pyramids all used to be white, but over the centuries, all that was worn off from the desert winds, etc.

This will take some getting used to!

2008-09-03T09:11:00.000-07:00

On Monday I went to my appointment at the sleep disorder clinic. NICE to know I have a "disorder".

It took about 5 minutes. I got home and showed everyone my lovely new mask. Ya wanna know the FIRST THING out of Stud's mouth??

"I am sleeping with Darth Vader". He said he was going to get a photo of me wearing it and post it on his blog. I asked how he could do that when I will wake up if he tries to take a photo, since I sleep so lightly. We both thought at the same time, well if this thing does it's job, I will sleep SOUNDLY. All I can say is that he had BETTER NOT!

So it worked a lot better than the first one except it makes my nose itchy and I need to keep on reaching under the mask to scratch it. When I do that, it is very loud as the suction around my face is broken. So I lasted until about 2 AM Tuesday morning and around the same time this morning. My goal is to last until 4 AM by Saturday.

They all say it takes some people a week or two to get really used to it all. My friend who started using one four years ago said it took her a week to notice a difference in sleeping better, so I am assuming part of that was training herself to actually keep the dang thing on all night! The people at the clinic told me to just do it as long as I can and work my way to eventually keeping it on all night.

Below you will find some photos of the mask itself and then where I keep it. Note the machine on my lovely night stand...it is small and compact but I would still rather it not take up that room. You can keep them on the floor, but you need a longer hose so I will see what I decide to do. I would think it would get pretty dusty and dirty sitting on the carpet by someone's bed...

And yes, I have stuffed animals on my bed...Poor Stud! He handles it quite well though:) I see now that my poor bunny is missing a slipper! OH NO! I need to go look for that.

Hopefully soon I will have something more exciting to post about!

CPAP Machine

2008-08-31T09:46:00.001-07:00

Ok, here is an update.

I went last week to get "fitted" for my CPAP thingy.

It was quite interesting. Took about an hour. The lady asked me straight off if I "mouth breathe". I told her I had no idea. I don't pay attention to what I am doing when I am asleep. Pretty much impossible, in my mind. She said that I would know if I did, because I would wake up with a very dry mouth and be very thirsty. I said then I guess I don't because that doesn't usually happen. It has happened here and there over the years, but it is not the norm. Ok, she said then you need just a nasal mask, not a full facial mask. Fine.

So she went and got four various types of those. We spent a lot of time trying them on and fiddling with the machine. It was very odd to get used to all this air blowing up my nose! I had to keep my mouth closed all the time, if I opened it...I don't know how to describe it! I guess the best way would be to say it was like there was a cyclone or something IN MY FACE. Like, inside my head really. Felt like my cheeks were flapping in the wind caused by it and I couldn't get a breath. She said always keep the mouth closed and it is no problem. She was right! Sitting there awake and keeping my mouth closed, really helped.

You know how you sometimes have one of those thoughts way in the back of your mind but it can't seem to make it to the "surface" and be voiced out loud?? It doesn't get to the part where the vocal part of the brain says "VOCALIZE THIS". It was just a little tickle or something that just didn't come all the way really even to the conscious thought area.

Well, that happened. It wasn't really until I got home and was playing around with the machine, filling it with distilled water, showing it to the kids, that the thought of mine FINALLY surfaced. What if my mouth falls open when I am asleep?? What will happen then?? I told myself that I would wake up and shut my mouth, because I would not like the feeling of what it does wearing this mask with the mouth open.

Not so, apparently.

I woke suddenly at 2 AM. I don't even know how to describe what I felt in my entire mouth, throat, & on my tongue. If you took sand and rubbed it all over those places and then dried it with a blow dryer and left it that way for about ten years...that would be close!

I was in agony and my mouth was SO DRIED OUT that I could hardly move my jaw to close my mouth and gather up a pittance of saliva to attempt to moisten things. It felt like everything in there was made of paper and was going to rip and tear, but that paper was also on fire and burning! It was SO PAINFUL to finally gather up spit and close my mouth and try and swallow. I went and got a drink and then brushed my teeth and drank some more! I shut the machine off, needless to say.

I left that morning to watch my friends' little 16-month-old. I have been doing that once a week or so all summer. That is another story, though. I went to spend the morning with my wee friend and while he was napping, I called the sleep disorder place.

I told them that I think I need a full facial mask, not just the one that goes in the nose. I can't find a picture of my mask on-line, but it is something like this but not really! Mine is just a softer smaller looking thing with two separate things for each nostril. Clear like that, but something goes into each nostril.

I am hoping to get something like this

So I have an appointment tomorrow at one PM to get that taken care of! OH! People are so silly. When I was talking to the guy on the phone and explaining what happened and how I think we need to switch to a full face mask, he put me on hold to talk to someone. He came back and said, "Yeah, it sounds like you are going to have to switch to a full face mask". NO! YA THINK!?!? WOW! I wish *I* had thought of that!

Is that a guy thing?? My husband does that to the kids and I ALL THE TIME. We say something and then he repeats the exact same thing we have said, but in a way like HE thought of it. Anyone else experience this?? It has honestly never happened to me with females before. It is only guys who ever do that, in my experience.

Alright, off to feed the homeless at the Gospel Mission. I need to find a place that lets the kids do it too. The place we went to a few years ago is too far away...

If you take the time to read that, please remember that L=Cryptic, B=Jock, R=Clown and
Bee=Princess. This was before I thought of their "nicknames" and I just used their first initials. Obviously, Jock and Princess have the same ones, so my friends and I started using "Bee" for Princess when she was born. When we e-mail each other about our kids, we just use initials instead of typing out their entire name all the time. Mothers need anything to save time, you know:)

Anyway, the place I am going today will only allow Cryptic and I. Well, I mean Stud could come too but you have to be 16. Cryptic won't be 16 until November, but they are making an exception:) teehee. But yes, I want to find somewhere closer that we can all go to regularly. Another thing that bothers me about the place I am going today is that it is only once every two months!?!? Sorry, but I want to help more often than that, ya know??

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend!

It's that time of year again...

2008-08-27T20:30:00.000-07:00

Princess and I went shopping for her new dance items. She needs new shoes every year obviously. Since she grows and all that weird stuff kids do.

This year she is not only doing ballet, but is now old enough to start hip hop! OH MY! Could there be anything better?? She is SO EXCITED!

Behold my baby in her new (expensive! *cough*) garb...

Her stinkin' hip hop shoes alone were FIFTY BUCKS!?!? Ballet was never this expensive!

Of course we had to get this amazing shirt...she is SO tickled and in love with the fact that it is off the shoulder and has those straps...

She just had to go and check it out in the mirror...

She also chose a new tutu. When she was in Saskatchewan I found this pink Leotard at Toys R Us for $7.

She is now at a size/age where the ballet slippers come like that we need to adjust them. I will sew the straps where they need to be. I want her teacher to have a look first and see where they are supposed to go, I know nothing about this stuff!

So we are set with that. She starts next week and cannot wait! I ordered her a beautiful dance bag from here that has her name on it. Isn't that stuff pretty?? She got it in the mail on Monday and was SO SURPRISED! She LOVES that it has her name embroidered on it:) It is even better quality than you can tell from the photos on the site. I am so impressed and will buy more things from there. The service was amazing as well!

We got the kids a trampoline while they were in the Great White North! What a great surprise to come home to. Guess what paid for it?? THIS!

That's right. The insurance company wanted to shut me up so they paid me a little bit for my "injury". It was the exact amount of the trampoline I have been wanting to get the kids for about four years. So now they have it. We had to pay extra for the enclosure of course. Safety first! Photos will follow.

I need to go fill my face with my favourite chip dip that Stud brought me from Canada when he went to pick the kids up from my brother. He forgot my chips, so I need to use American ones. It's ok though. Don't worry about me. The man tried his best and no one is perfect, you know?? The American ones are better than nothing, at least I have my dip...aaahhhh... the best EVER.

Guess what else I get?? One of my FAVOURITE Chocolate bars:)

I'll worry about losing weight (an on-going battle for the past SIX YEARS! that you all are sick of me whining about, I am sure) next week:) When the Canadian goodies are gone:)

Oh yeah, life is good...

Sleep much??

2008-08-20T21:25:00.000-07:00

Well I found out some interesting information this morning.

I don't recall if I blogged about it or not. I went and had a sleep study done about a month ago. That experience in itself should have a post devoted to it. I don't have time, though! LOL

I have been wondering why I am so tired, need to nap most days, don't feel rested when I rise and have worse "brain fog" than ever! Everything was made clear to me today when I went to meet with the Dr. and have my results explained to me.

Apparently, at least the night I had the study done, I woke about 95 times in five hours! I stopped breathing most of those times and my blood oxygen level went as low as 82%. They said that I actually turned blue once and was not breathing for almost 18 seconds, when I guess I started again. It took me 54 minutes to get to sleep in the first place (I usually have issues with falling asleep and there it was much worse!) and I guess I woke up an average of 16.5 times an hour! NO BLOODY WONDER I don't feel rested.

I was there for 11 hours and actually "slept" for almost five. The rest of the time I was fully awake. I only remember waking up three times, and many nights here at home I wake up as many as ten times. Of course these are times that I am aware of. Clearly I am waking many more times than that! The interesting thing was after the study when she woke me up and was asking questions, I said that I felt like I slept for five hours, but that I did not get five hours of restful sleep. I had no idea how accurate I would be! I thought it would end up being 7 or 8 hours.

So I obviously need a CPAP. This will be hard to get used to, but I am SO EXCITED at the idea of actually sleeping soundly and getting restful sleep. I can't imagine! WOW! Another plus will be remembering things better:) I am hoping to lose some weight also. The main reason I even checked into this in the first place was because of an article I read about people who used to be slender and then gained weight with no explanation. That is me! My thyroid is still unbalanced and I know that, plus my age and metabolism slowing certainly add to it. I am wondering if getting a great sleep will increase my energy and therefore my activity level. I find it odd that I had more energy and was still slim just five or six years ago when I had small kids and toddler and was up in the night nursing babies. You would think that THEN I would be tired and have more brain fog.

So there it is. Pretty weird to think that I stop breathing at all, let alone for that long! I will try and update on my machine when I get it and be better about updating in general.

My kids all came back on Sunday night and I am just thrilled:) More on that soon!

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Real men wear kilts

2008-08-14T15:24:00.000-07:00

So Stud borrowed a friends kilt the other night when they went to a party.

Is it just me, or is this AWESOME!?!?!? This one is too short since the person who owns it is about six inches shorter than Stud. You get the idea, though.

He is looking into getting a few of his own. LOVE IT!

That is all.

Creepy...

2008-08-10T20:01:00.000-07:00

I just saw this on a friend's blog and it creeps me out how accurate something this silly can be!!

You can go here to do it if you want:)

What Your Feet Say About You:
You are not very expressive. You tend to keep your emotions to yourself.

You are a somewhat passionate person. A few things get you very fired up, but you're usually pretty laid back.

You are an assertive person at times. You'll pull out all the stops to get what you want, if it's worth it.

You take a while to fall in love, but once you do, you stay pretty attached to your partner.

You are not afraid of anything. You are brave and courageous, even when most people would be terrified.

You are intellectual and philosophical. You are more concerned with thoughts than action.

You are an amazingly hard worker. You aren't spoiled and you don't mind getting your hands dirty.

You are easily influenced by other people. You're quite impressionable, so you should only be around people who are a good influence.

The only statement that is not really true is the fifth one. All the others are extremely close to fact. Although I have been told that # 1 is true, that is changing as I age. I am becoming much more clear about my feelings and emotions and if you were to ask Stud I am certain he would say that I am more open than I used to be.

Cool, eh??

Phone call from Clown

2008-08-06T10:13:00.001-07:00

Well, I have been a negligent mother:(

Yesterday afternoon the phone rang and it was my parents' # on the caller ID. I picked it up and there were some snuffling sounds. A tiny voice ventured..."Who...*sniffle*...who is this??"

I said, "It's your mother!". For a moment I thought it was Princess. I realised it was my wee little Clown. He still has his darling little boy voice so sometimes even at home here, it is hard to tell who is who if they are not within sight. In fact we have some issues with that sometimes. I hear one of them in a hallway or something and they ask for a snack or what have you. I am trying to train them to either come to where I can see them or say who they are! LOL Clown forgets (I think he is mad that I can't tell him from his SISTER, so he will just show me by not lowering himself to tell me who he is!) most of the time, but Princess is getting it. She usually says, "It's me, Princess!" We think it is fun because her name actually rhymes with "ME" so it is like a little song when she sings it out all cute!

So Clown began truly sobbing outright and I eventually gathered that he was saying he was SO HOMESICK. Poor little man! I had not been calling because I assumed they would be busy and visiting people and doing many things. I did not want to bother them and told them I would wait until THEY called. I had talked it over a bit with Princess before they left and like a goof, I don't even know if Clown and I discussed it. Princess doesn't get very home sick and welcomes a break. Clown is so very different and it was pretty miraculous that he went at all. It is the first time in his life that he has been gone from Stud and I for more than a few days, and that is always local, when he spends a weekend at a friend's house or something. I should have known better:(

I talked with him for about 45 minutes. He filled me in on what all they are doing there. Apparently he has been eaten up by mosquitoes. We don't have any here (I know! COOL HUH??) and he is not used to them. I forgot that every time we go to the prairies, they have a blast with him. Something about him they just LOVE! The thing is, he swells up a lot from them:( I looked for a photo to show, but I don't have any digital ones. If they get him near his eyes, they swell shut. So he was telling me how my nephew has some plant at his house and you just take a leaf and rub it on you and the little buggers don't bother you as much! I told him to remember to do that a lot of else get Granny to put bug spray on him.

Most of the family had gone to the EX, but obviously he opted not to go. WAY too many people! He would have...I dunno what he would have done. He just can't handle things like that. I hate it for him, he would love the rides, food, sights, etc. If only he could go when there is hardly anyone there.

He is SO CUTE! He was saying how he wishes he was seven or eight again. Those are the best ages to be, he informed me. He doesn't want to grow up and get older. He said, "Like...I wish I could be seven or eight again...but still like...you know...increase my vocabulary and learn all the fun stuff with you when you are teaching us stuff, but just not grow...you know?? Like if it could be much more gradual that would be the best!"

He asked if we were working on moving the bedrooms around. The plan, while they are gone, is to move Stud's office into the "schoolroom" (which is an extra kitchen in the basement) and then move Jock into the office (the 5th bedroom has always been used for Stud's computer and guitars). Then Clown will move out of the biggest bedroom that he and Cryptic share, into Jock's old room. We can't just move Clown into the office and leave Jock where he is because of how the window is in there. The house is built into a hill and that window on that end of the house is one where you need to crawl into a recess in the ground and then pop off a plexi-glass cover that is set on the ground above it. Since Jock is 13 and Clown is only 9, we would prefer Jock deal with that in case of a fire or something and allow Clown to have a room with a "normal" window. This way, everyone will FINALLY have their own rooms.

Also, we are re-doing the boys' bathroom down there AND hopefully getting all the new school books and everything organised in some fashion so as to make daily school work flow a lot more smoothly. So he was asking all about that, he is excited to come home to his own room and choose the paint colours and get it arranged how he wants it:)

At one point Jock spoke with him while I prepared a snack for him. He is so funny, he is loving his holiday. He sits in the office on his computer and then calls me with his cell phone asking for snacks! He is loving the attention, normally I am much more focused on the younger two. So when I went to give him his cheese and crackers, he said "I love you, buddy" to Clown. HOW SWEET IS THAT!?? They seldom say things like that, but I could tell from Clown's voice that he was thrilled to pieces that his big brother actually misses him! So he feels a lot better and said that if he can talk to us every day, he will be fine. Stud was out getting a hair cut and called Clown when he got back. They had a nice talk as well, so I think things will be OK now:)

So, I am off to call my little Clown and hopefully speak to Princess a bit?? She hasn't had time for her old Mum yet, but hopefully today she will see fit to grace me with some news. I did speak to Cryptic yesterday for about 5 minutes and he filled me in on some new happenings on the web site that he is the co-administrator of. He has been grounded from the computer, but we lifted that for while he is on holiday. Makes things easier on everyone up there. So he was tickled to be able to catch up on some things on there.

I will update you all on my wee Clown. MAN I LOVE THIS KID!! He is SO PRECIOUS!

Here, you need to see a photo of my little man:) You may not THINK that you do, but yes...you DO. teehee. HOW SWEET IS THIS KID!?

Here he is doing his "kitchen chores". That week it was to clean off the counter tops and wipe them down...

Here he is making a smoothie...see the mouth?? That is typical Clown. That could mean a few things: Either he is self conscious...he is worried he may do something wrong, or he is concentrating. I think it was a combo in this instance!

Here?? He is just being handsome! Now I miss him more:( *sniff* I better go get busy cleaning some more. I just called to talk to the kids and my Mum said they are all out doing various things. Clown is out for lunch with my brother and his wife.

Summer time...

2008-08-05T13:03:00.000-07:00

...is almost over.

THANK GOD. Me no likey.

So anyway, I guess I should post something. I have not even felt like publishing any of my comments that you lovely folks have left. Just don't seem to have the energy. Weird. Maybe I can make some time to do that soon.

So yes, my boys went to the movie and had a great time. I certainly hope they make a habit of this!

Cryptic, Clown and Princess are at my parents in Saskatchewan. It seems odd. Feels VERY weird. SO QUIET around here!! Jock is LOVING being the only child for a short time. I am trying to get a lot of cleaning and organising done around here.

On Friday I drove to Abbotsford and met my brother who drove them to his place about three hours away in BC. Then the next morning he got them up at 5 and they drove to our other brother's in Calgary. On Sunday, they made it to our parents in Saskatoon. I guess they got there in time for Princess to attend a family reunion on my Dad's side. I am anxious to hear about that!

We were not sure if Clown would be able to go. We are starting to wonder if he may have some autism tendencies. I have been doing some research and he has some of the symptoms of some types, but also is not anywhere close to many of the more common symptoms. So I am not sure. I need to remember to ask his Doc when he gets back. She has already had him see a doc who is teaching him relaxation techniques. He went once and then needs to be seen when he gets back from Granny and Grandad's. So I can ask about it then.

He just gets himself SO UPSET about things and cannot handle any type of change or any crowds. It gets hard to plan around his needs in that way. I have to remember to prepare him for certain things, yet sometimes if I prepare too long ahead of time, he panics and it is worse. I can't decide which is worse; telling him we are going somewhere or just springing it on him to avoid him stressing himself about all the whys and what ifs that he seems to worry about. It seems to depend on his mood AND the situation.

So, we got him packed up JUST IN CASE. I suspected once he saw his uncle again that he would want to go. My kids all ADORE this man and he is a real card. They have a blast with him and tell all their friends all about him.

As mother often knows best, when he was sitting in Tim Horton's with his Uncle Sean, he decided he couldn't pass up this awesome opportunity. He was excited to see his cousins and everyone as well, but wasn't sure how his tummy would deal with the driving. Since he got sick in February and has had all these sinus issues, his tummy is incredibly sensitive. I have since spoke to him and he said his tummy was fine. He said he did not even need the gravol that Uncle Sean bought for him.

So we plan to get a lot done around here while the kids are on holiday. Jock would have gone but he has try outs starting soon for the AAA Bantam team and there was not room in Uncle Sean's car.

Oh, before I forget! Check out Jock's blog. He and I were rear ended a few weeks ago:( He tells the story better than I could. Except that the "tap" felt just as hard to me as the original BANG! I thought the guy was doing it on purpose. Was SO WEIRD! To be hit twice, I was thinking, "WHAT!!?? WHAT DO YOU WANT!??! WHAT DID I DO TO YOU!?!?" LOL

I will close with photos of Princess making the "fairy hats" and "fairy punch" a few days before she left for Canada.

Pretty fancy stuff, eh??

Summer time

2008-07-22T16:40:00.000-07:00

The weather has been very sunny for over a month with very little rain. The past few days it got overcast and was cooler, which was very good news to Cryptic and myself. We are not fans of brightness and heat!

As I sit and type this, my two eldest babies are on their own in a movie Theatre! For the FIRST TIME. EVER. I am so so SO excited for them:)

Stud and I have been going to take them to see "The Dark Knight" and have been trying to figure out who to pawn the younger off on so that we can take the older two. The older two are our awesome babysitters and if Stud and I want to go out, we just pay Cryptic and Jock to watch the younger two. A week or so ago they each made $15 watching them for a few hours while Stud and I went out with friends. Mainly the six of us go out as a family, but some movies the little ones just can't see.

So as I was doing some school with the younger two this afternoon, Jock came to me and said "Why don't Cryptic and I just go see the movie ourselves??" DUH! I can't believe I did not think of it:) So I dropped them off and Stud will get them when they call. They had to pay for it themselves. As I was dropping them off, Cryptic checked with Jock to make sure he had enough cash for his ticket. I thought that was thoughtful. The difference between the two is cute. The whole excitement for Jock was that it would just be them. Cryptic wanted me to go with them! He and I are very close and share a lot. We read the same books, watch the same movies, listen to similar music. So he likes to share it all with me and doesn't mind his ole Mum along. Jock is really trying to get some distance, which I can totally respect. Stud told me not to stay and that he will take me to see it later. Clown and Princess were fussing and not wanting me to stay at the Theatre either. They wanted me home. I feel very loved:) Everyone wanted me with them except Jock and I can totally understand where he is coming from, so I still feel loved:)

I hope they make a habit of this. They really need to get out more! I know Cryptic is looking forward to turning 16 in November so he can finally get a job:)

Princess, Clown and I did some fun history today and we played math Bingo and did history and a lot of grammar yesterday. I am getting some really great books from Amazon and we are going to really do some fun activities this next school year! I will post photos here and there. We are going to do cave drawings tomorrow and within a few weeks we are going to make a pyramid out of home-made blocks we will make from sand/glue.

Princess has a cute Faerie Recipe book. I need to get off of here and help her make Faerie Hats and Faerie Punch. That is the main reason she didn't want me to stay out with her brothers:) Hope the photos turn out!

Peace out!

About time

2008-07-13T19:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess it is about time to post something. Just haven't felt like it recently. Don't read as many blogs any more either. I have about 49 faves and cannot keep up!

The main news is that Princess is FINALLY riding a two wheeler. She just has never had any interest. She got a bike about...let me look back and see...WOW! I TOLD STUD it was a long time ago. Yikes! LOL She has had this bike for almost five years! I told him yesterday it was too small. She got it the Christmas she had just turned THREE.

She never really cared much about it and would ride on it a few times a summer and maybe here or there in the spring or fall. I bet she spent a total of two hours on the thing the whole time she has had it.

So the other night Stud, Clown and I were going to go for a biek ride and Princess wanted to roller blade. We said no, she needed to ride her bike. She said she was too big to ride with training wheels. We reminded her that she has not yet learned to ride a "two wheeler" and we will work with her. For now, we need to keep the training wheels on.

I forget what transpired, but I think just Stud and Clown went or something. So a few nights later (or maybe the next night) I hear them all saying that Princess is riding with no training wheels! I go out and sure enough, she is doing it. It is hard for her, since the bike is too small and her legs are so long.

Clown is very glad to have a sibling to ride with now! Jock sold his bike last summer and Cryptic has never learned to ride. I thought perhaps Princess would be following in his foot steps.

I wish I had photos of Jock learning. It was a few months after his fourth birthday. He asked Stud to take off the training wheels, Stud did and Jock took off down the driveway! It was incredible! He never slipped or tipped over or even wobbled. Clown was the EXACT SAME. They were the same age and everything. Jock had turned four in June and that October is when he took off. Clown was four in May of 2003 and that September, off he went!

Nope...can't find one. Will have to see if Stud has any. He does the photos all funny and I can't ever find half of them!

So Princess is kind of wobbly and not as steady as her brothers were when they started, but still. She has a great time and has only scraped up her leg once. Cyrptic was fine and totally took off on his when he was eight or nine, but freaked out when he realized that I had let go and he had gone on his own for about 20 yards. He felt so betrayed that I had not warned him (I knew not to or he would stop and not try!) and was SO upset at me, he has refused to try since:( He honestly doesn't care, so we have left it. If he wanted to do it badly enough, he would have kept at it, right?? Princess is very determined and tries and tries. She has spent hours out there now.

So that is the main news around here. Princess wants me to do something with her. Cryptic is playing video games, Stud is playing his weekly Sunday night hockey game and Jock took Clown up to the local school playground for some "brother time". Since he has turned 13, he loves to take one of his younger sibs each at a time and go for bike rides (he uses my bike) or walks and various things.

Hope things are going well with everyone!

Not much

2008-06-28T00:12:00.000-07:00

Just thought I needed to update this.

What to talk about?? Hmmmm...well Cryptic is reading a book to Clown right now. Jock is watching a movie upstairs while Princess tries to sleep nearby in the Rec Room. I am sure it is hard with me here typing and clicking away on the keyboard. Stud is playing his weekly Friday night hockey game.

We went to a BBQ at friends' tonight. They have been in the Home Schooling support group that we are in and we have been meaning to get together. We finally did! He is from Saskatoon, the same as me and she is from Calgary. Pretty cool to have some fellow Canucks in the group. So that was nice. They have two adorable little girls, ages 6 and 3. Her hubby works at Microsoft so he and Stud had a good time "talking shop" while she and I enjoyed looking through some scrapbooks she has made. She also set up "Dance Dance Revolution" and showed the kids how to do that. Jock had a good time and it appears Stud is a natural!

Tomorrow Princess is having two friends stay overnight. We have implemented a fun little thing lately. Every Monday morning, we choose names of family members. Whoevers name you get (My grammar is horrid, what is the correct way to word that??), you do kind things for them all week. You do some of their chores without them knowing, leave them treats and coupons throughout the house for them to find. On Friday night at supper, we reveal who had who (whom??) and whoever is right, gets rewarded. Whoever is right five weeks in a row, gets a special prize. I am winning! So far, I am the only one to get mine right every time:)

Anyway, someone left Princess this coupon that said she could have two friends over. So she is using it tomorrow night. Clown got one that said he can take a friend to a movie, so I am taking he and his friend A to see this tomorrow. I took Cryptic and Princess this morning, while Jock stayed with Clown. It was his first time babysitting and he did a great job. Got him food, played with him and did not pick on him or argue, so that was awesome!

Princess was just in her room for three days. She LIED TO ME on Monday night. She was grounded from playing her DS Lite for a week. She got it back on Monday. So she was playing for about an hour when I told her that she had five minutes to shut it off and get it back to me (I keep them in our room and only hand them out as a treat sometimes.) and I went to tuck Clown in bed. When I came out, I asked her where it was and she said she didn't know! When pressed, she opened up the piano bench and imagine my "surprise" that there it was! So she was in her room for two days as punishment for lying. She and I and Stud sat and talked it all over and she BEGGED to get a spanking. I am not sure she has ever had a spanking, but Jock has a few times. I told her I don't spank (I don't believe in hitting children, sorry to those of you who do!) and that is Daddy's department. My parents did not spank us, his parents did. So he knows about that area, I don't! LOL Anyway, she begged us to spank her instead, which we got a kick out of. After some discussion about what she should be spanked with, how many times, where on her body and would it change anything or teach her anything, it was agreed that banishment to her room was the proper thing to do.

She had another day added on for coming out of it often and talking to all of us over the course of the first two days! So she was glad to come out this morning and have freedom!

What else is going on?? Hmmmm...Ah yes! Jock turned 13 this past Sunday! Is it just me or is that WRONG!?!? I don't like this at all. I am happy for him, he is one of those people who cannot wait to grow up and thinks it is great. So he is tickled pink, of course. But me?? Not so much.

I will close with some photos of him with his new "toy". I believe he blogged about it. I am shocked he did not post some photos. We only took about 89! LOL The only wrapped gift he got was his cell phone back. We paid off the remainder of the bill and shall see how long he can keep it this time:) He was totally surprised and very happy!

Ok, I am tired. Better kick Jock off the TV and get him to bed too:)

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Amusing

2008-06-20T12:35:00.000-07:00

For some reason I find it amusing that Stud puts photos of our yard and flowers on his blog and I, the woman, do not.

I love flowers. LOVE THEM! I try to plant them and grow them and all that. I love to look at them and smell them (most of them) and get them as gifts and have them all over the house in vases. I love outdoors. I love the view of the ocean and sunsets we get from our house. I love to look at photos of the same things on the blogs I frequent.

Yet for some reason, I don't post any of the photos. I don't even take them. Stud does.

So if you want to see some of our pretty flowers, mosey on over to Stud's place. I suppose I may as well call him by his true name on here, since the dork broadcasts it all over the blogosphere! *sigh*

Princess got a hair cut!

2008-06-17T22:05:00.001-07:00

Last week Princess got nine inches of her gorgeous locks cut off. She has very thick hair like me, but it is tidier and smoother. Like mine USED to be when I was younger. I told her that I will pray that her hair does not go bonkers like mine did:)

I especially adore the back and how it goes up that way:) Her hair is PERFECT for this cut and she and I are both just thrilled!

Behold...

Have not really felt like blogging or reading blogs lately...not sure why. May be more regular again at some point, but I am really trying to get a schedule going with the kids and get more "seat work" done with the school. Weather is improving and I want to get them out to the parks with their friends more, and just do more outdoor family things. Summer is NOT my favourite, but the kids love it so I want to make it special for them.

Hope that everyone is doing great!

Frustration

2008-06-01T21:38:00.001-07:00

Just thought I would toss a quick post out here before I go to bed and read. Cryptic and I are reading these books and I am on the third one.I am half way through and really want to get in bed and find out what happens.

We took the flannel sheets off most of the beds and were thinking of taking off the electric blankets. No...we are NOT wimps, it is just lovely to climb into a nice toasty bed, is it not?? I turn mine on high for about 15 minutes before I get into bed and then shut it off. Ahhhh...bliss. Anyway, I am glad Stud said to wait to take those off because MAN! It is chilly:( I even had to turn the heat back on. I thought it was June now...???

Before I climb into my cozy bed and read my book, I wanted to share some photos and explain why I am frustrated.

I can't find anything for Princess to eat! Poor child is getting bored with the same stuff over and over. I have got to get cooking and perusing the recipe books I have out of the library. Yesterday I made some cookies for she and Clown to share, but they hate them:( Jock and Stud don't mind them, so at least they won't go to waste. They taste great for a few seconds and then suddenly it is like one is standing in a barn. They "taste" like manure. YOu know how sometimes you can taste something that you have never (and WOULD NEVER) eat?? Well, they taste like manure smells. Not really strong, but faint. The bite I took made me home sick for my childhood on the 80 acres I grew up on, but not enough to EAT IT!?!?

Eating out is clearly problematic...no one knows if they have soy in anything?? AND I forgot to have her epipen with me tonight when Stud took she, Clown and I out for Mexican after his hockey game (they lost) so I was really nervous with her ordering the food she ordered, not knowing for sure what was in it. Stud made the point that she has never had any anaphylactic trouble or anything, but still. The allergist prescribed the epipen for a reason, ya know?? Her testing obviously concerned him.

Here is a photo of her chopping carrots and celery to put in some Quinoa pilaf that I made the other night. Jock is typically the least picky person in our family, but he is the ONLY one who didn't like it! I love how she has her roller blades and helmet on:) Oh, that's right...my computer is totally messed up and I can't posy photos or watch any videos that any of you have on your blogs. I need to get Stud to fix it!

I was also going to show a photo of Clown, Cryptic and Princess playing the Wii yesterday and a craft I am attempting to make. I wanted advice on what to change and how to improve a centre piece that I am making with silk flowers...I have not done anything crafty in years and am attempting to see if I have any talent left at all! LOL

Well, those will have to wait. I just have to share how appropriate the name "Clown" on here is for my third son:)

Princess had a friend over this weekend. Last night as the three of them were playing, the friend giggled at something Clown did and said, "*insert Clown's true name here*, you could be a Clown when you grow up!"

Little does she know...

Dr. Appointment

2008-05-29T18:05:00.001-07:00

Well, my alarm didn't work and I woke suddenly half an hour after I was supposed to be at the doc.

I rescheduled for noon and ventured out. All showered, smelling great and squeaky clean!!! Ready for my lovely pap. I was wondering about getting my first mammo. She did not mention it, so I didn't say anything. I mean come on! Why invite something like that into your life??

So turns out she didn't need to do the pap (YAY! WHAT A GREAT DAY!!) and I am not due for another pap until January 2010 or something?? COOL! I am not going to argue, ya know?? Sheesh!

I have been reading a bit about sleep apnea and wondering if I have it. I am ALWAYS tired and have taken to napping during the day, and after 10 hours of "sleep" at night, I feel like I got none. It is really hindering my doing anything with the kids and the house isn't as clean and organised as it used to be.

She said that the opening to my throat is less than half the size of most people and that often people like that have sleep apnea. I need to go get a sleep study done. So I made an appointment for that and won't get in until mid July!

I normally do not let them weigh me, but decided since it is a physical, that I should. OUCH. Wake up call! I have been wanting to lose, I blabber on here about it enough. I just had NO IDEA how much I weigh. Well...not true. I had a bit of an idea. I was close. I just never stick with Jenny Craig because it is SO EXPENSIVE. I know people who lose on their own without doing that, and I try for a short time and do well and then reward myself with food. I am SO SMART:)

What really hit home was when I asked her to look back to 2002. I knew that was about when I started gaining. It is also when a lot of things changed with my sleeping and I got extremely forgetful and slow in the brain area. Well, I have gained 19 lbs in just 6 years! I remember at that time, being upset cause I was about 25 lbs heavier than I wanted to be. And now there is 19 on top of that!! See what I am talking about when I say "wake up call"??

I am so anxious to get this sleep study done and see if that is part of the trouble. Any excuse for this weight gain:) I have read that sleep apnea can cause weight gain and all kinds of health issues. It would make sense. I always chalked it up to aging and my thyroid nonsense, but who knows.

Tomorrow will be spent doing more shopping for ingredients to try new recipes for Clown and Princess' food allergies. The poor things have been living off this weird bread, cheese, yogurt, fruit and some meat. Princess can't have any processed meats. She also can't have the peanut butter we all eat, so I need to find another for her. Her sandwich choices are limited, so I really want to try some fun new recipes to add variety to their diet.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Back and Forth

2008-05-28T23:13:00.001-07:00

Well, this should be interesting.

I just read Jock's blog and as usual, he has things a little twisted.

He was indeed banished to his room for a week. It happened on Clown's birthday. Monday the 19th. However, he got some things wrong. Poor kid has a habit of hearing what he wants to hear and convincing himself of something even when it did not happen that way. For example he tried to negotiate getting out of his room a day early. When I said I would talk to his Dad, he heard, "Ok, sounds good." or something like that proceeded to argue later and INSIST that I had said he could come out?? THANKFULLY Cryptic had been present and was my witness that I had not said what Jock convinced himself that he heard. I know everyone has a different perspective and you can have ten people watch or experience the same thing and they all have a different story. This is not the same, however.

Anyway, his sister was indeed unloading the dishwasher. He is known for calling all of us names and just generally getting people worked up. The younger two have been taught to ignore it or walk away, if they possibly can. I often can't tell the difference between when he is doing that and when it is all innocent playing. Sometimes Clown comes to me in tears, saying Jock has frustrated him to a point where he is going to seriously beat something or scream. Sometimes he does scream. Sometimes he punches things or knocks them over as he walks past. Sometimes I try and step in before it gets out of hand, only to find out that Clown or Princess is fine with it and all is well.

Even though Clown and Princess are so much younger than Jock, they are quite good at ignoring him when he calls names or tries to get them worked up. I think he is bored and just wants something to do. One of my brothers (also the second born) was (and STILL IS!) the same way.

So he called Princess a freak because she was humming or singing to herself or something. Often, she doesn't dare do anything for fear of some comment. She told me later that she really didn't care and felt like she should be able to relax and do that in her own home. When Jock called her a freak, she called him a freak back. What he did not mention on his blog was that he then decided to go and proceed to punch his seven-year-old sister. Apparently he can dish it out, but he can't take it. He calls her a name, she decides to do the same back and what is her reward?? Becoming a punching bag. This type of thing happens often and Stud and I had finally had enough.

I think I need to move my blog somewhere else. Cryptic found it and has shown Jock. So now Jock will read this and rant and rave on his blog and it will be like high school! He said, she said.

Jock, if you read this; I love you buddy. VERY MUCH. You know that, I tell you so often it makes you mad:) But dude...get your facts straight, eh?? Don't forget important "plot points" in your stories:) Such as...oh...HITTING YOUR PRECIOUS SISTER!!! Like I have told you before, just remember when she was a baby and could do no wrong, in your eyes. She really hasn't changed that much, it is how you guys treat her that makes her all defensive. Seriously. She is a sweet little girl just wanting attention from her amazing big brothers. Let the girl make noises! YA KNOW!?!? Who cares, really. Was it worth it?? Hurting her, scaring her and making her sad?? Being in your room that long?? Didn't think so, especially when you got TWO DAYS ADDED ON!

I missed you and am glad you are out with us again:)

I must get to bed as I have my lovely annual physical bright and early tomorrow morning. *sigh* The joys!

Gotta love it!

2008-05-27T17:03:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to share with you all another reason I love home schooling my babies.

Not only do I get to enjoy time with them and REALLY have the time to connect with them well and have a strong bond, but *I* am the one who is there when they have a "light bulb" moment. That happened today with my wee Clown.

Clown goes in spurts where he just LOVES to do Math. Normally, if I stick to a curriculum, it takes about 45 minutes a day for a lesson. Lately, two hours at a time is not enough! I tell him I need to take a break and he begs for more!

He can go through an entire grade in just a few weeks at this rate. Jock did grades 3-5 in about four months a few years ago. That is why I feel ok not doing any set curriculum for months at a time, because they can "catch up" (whatever that means! Who decides when someone should know a certain thing anyway?? LOL) very quickly. We just play games and do fun activities. Then if we decide to approach a certain concept, it is already familiar to them and we breeze right through. Not only that, but how many nine-year-olds do you know who seriously almost start crying when they are told they need to take a break from math and have a snack?? LOL

So we had some fun doing math this afternoon. I finally convinced him it was snack time and he scarfed down his latest discovery ~ Hummus. He has these rice chips that he can have and he doesn't like them plain. He slathers them in hummus and almost inhales them!

OH! Just now he came in and asked me if I saw the math problems he wrote down. He makes ones up for himself and tests himself:) HOW CUTE!??! I am being summoned to the chalkboard...

Lots of news

2008-05-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

I want to post photos from Clown's party and all kinds of other things.
Don't have time right now but did want all of you to at least know that
Clown DOES NOT have Celiac disease! We are SO THANKFUL! He is needing
more iron, though. Apparently he is low on something calledferritin so
we have him on multivitamins with iron. Which should REALLY help with
his constipation from this wheat allergy...*sigh* Yes, that IS indeed
sarcasm. Thankfully, I have spent this past week trying to really get
some foods in the house that he can eat.

I have been busy making
him his own bread, driving from store to store trying to locate foods
that he and Princess can eat. She can't have many breads either because
they put soy oil or soy ANYTHING in them. I am going to be baking a lot
of
home made breads now, which is healthier anyway. We have discovered
many of their favourite crackers, cookies and treats are off limits
either for Clown, Princess or both. So this has been an interesting
week, really cracking down. I allowed Clown to have make the choice if
he wanted cake and pizza at the party and he said yes. His last "hoo rah!" if you will, before we really crack down. He was pleased for the treats, but really suffered, I felt so bad for him:(

I will close now and tell you all a bit about this photo. Clown loves the video game
Golden
Sun and we had our cake making friend make a cake that he
designed himself. He wanted it to look like a sun and then have the
four elements on the surface. Fire, water, wind and earth. She did a
great job and he was pleased with it. Lemon cake with lemon filling!
YUMMY! She crumbled up a cookie and put candy rocks on the earth
section. I will also show a photo of Cryptic holding it, so it can
really be appreciated.

Ok, can hopefully catch everyone up with new later. Cryptic and I are off for our daily walk. I love it! We can get exercise and I can keep updated with all of his news:)

She's a hot one...

2008-05-17T13:51:00.000-07:00

...outside today. I despise heat and sunshine and all that silliness. Especially since I sit here in pants and a t-shirt. Why am I not wearing shorts you ask??

Yeah. Good question. I have a good answer too.

It is because my two guys who wax my legs seem to be on strike. Jock used to do it to earn money but refuses now because he is sure that "none of my friends wax their mother's nasty hairy legs". He could be right. I don't see the relevance though when it earns him $10 each time he does it. Stud appears to be on strike as well. Apparently since he is trying to earn his full time living as well as start two "side businesses", not to mention playing all the hockey and always playing guitar...he doesn't have much time.

*sigh* So here I sit. Sweltering in this insane heat:( Woe is me! I may resort to my last resort.

Nair.

Anywho, I thought I would throw some shots of Princess ready for her ballet photos this past Monday since I promised you all that I would do that. It has been nutso here this past week with Princess being disagnosed with a soy allergy, being prescribed an epipen, Clown being really sick with his recently diagnosed wheat allergy. He had to have four vials of blood taken this past Thursday to check and see if he has Celiac Disease. We will find out the results early next week. If he has that, we alter his diet for life. If not, we alter it for a few years to see if we can desensitize him to the wheat allergy, assuming that is all it is.

Those are just a few tidbits of what has been going on. Today is Clown's 9th birthday party. It is a laid back affair, so I got time to get on here quickly whilst the young lads are running through the sprinkler.

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend and I will update more in the coming week. I am sure I will have a lot of time on Monday since that is Clown's actual birthday and we tend to all get a day off on each other's birthday. I still have to post about my AMAZING Mother's Day. I was TOTALLY SPOILED:) It was PERFECT:)

Toodles!

No Surprise here!

2008-05-13T21:30:00.001-07:00

You Belong in Winter

Quiet, calm, and totally at peace...

You're happy to be at home, wrapped in a blanket, completely snowed in

Whether you're lighting a fire or having a snowball fight, you always feel best in the winter.

What Season Are You?

COOL!

2008-05-13T21:28:00.001-07:00

Your Native American Name Is...

Kakawangwa Yepa

Your name means: Bitter Snow Woman

What's Your Native American Name?

Oh my!

2008-05-13T20:43:00.000-07:00

*sigh* I just read Jock's blog. *AHEM*

Ok...I think more
hand-holding is going to take place. He told me today that he is
regretting telling me about it and doesn't want me to read it. So I
went to read it.

YOWZA! THE LANGUAGE! I need to talk to Stud
about this. I thought it was cute that he listed on his profile movies
and music he is not allowed to see or listen to. I left it alone,
figuring I can let him live in a fantasy world, not much harm done, eh??

But then to see how he speaks on there and stuff. Not to mention the grammar and spelling mistakes! LOL Yeah, so go ahead and comment if you want and maybe talk sense into the young man, eh??

Thanks! Oh also meant to say. He is sad that none of my readers comment on his blog yet:) LOL So g'head if you have time!

I have had a horrid and stressful day so hope to post a real post soon. Need to collapse right now.

Peace out!!

Jock's BLOG!!!

2008-05-12T18:53:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess it was inevitable.

Jock now has his own blog. He has been teaching himself how to do many things on the computer. Stud never believes that he can, and Jock proves him wrong EVERY TIME!

The really weird part is that he chose names for us and he just happened to choose the same names for Clown and Princess that I use, not knowing what I call them on here! LOL I wonder what that means???

Photos of Princess in her ballet garb later, lasagna is READY!!!

Cryptic's surgery

2008-05-09T21:54:00.000-07:00

Cryptic came through his surgery with flying colours yesterday! He is
as surly as ever, although he was very sweet when he walked in the door
and saw the banners Clown and Princess had spent hours working on for
him. I think it is because he was still drugged:) Seriously. Soon
after, the surly king was back! He is going strong now. *sigh*

If I ask if he has taken his pain pill, cleaned his nose with saline, needs help
changing his "nasal sling" or what have you, I get a sigh and a "Yes,
mother." Or "No, mother. Father can help me."

Seriously. He has taken to calling us that all the time! Pretty funny. The REAL funny
part is that his voice is even deeper than Stud's now so I get a kick
out of this for some reason. This deep voice muttering "Yes, MUTH-ER" in a condescending tone. I learned my lesson! I don't ask anymore, I leave him alone. Or at least try to:)

When
the surgeon got in there to break his septum yesterday (well, it is
cartilage of course, so I don't know if "break" is an accurate term.
Although I guess it is, eh??) he discovered that it was not only
crooked, but pushed all the way over to one side!?!? POOR LAD! NO
WONDER he can't smell anything or hardly breath and keeps getting these
dang infections!ARG!

So he should be on the mend. Stud is
enjoying taking great care of Cryptic. He prefers his Dad doing all the
care this time, which is totally different from the norm, but I am glad
and happy for Stud!!!

He got up with Cryptic at 3 AM to give him his pain meds,
took him to all the appointments and the surgery itself, sat with him
in recovery, the whole deal. Just two years ago when he had his other
surgery, he wanted me with him, holding his hand, hugging him, always
touching him and needed lots of affirmation and me telling him I love
him. He even refused to go into surgery without me and they allowed it.
I was there with the mask and gown and the whole bit, holding his hand
and stroking his face as they put him under. Now, he wants me out of
his face. What a difference two years make!

Watch on Monday for
some stunning photos. Princess goes for her annual dance photos and I
will of course post some. She always looks so pretty with her hair up
and a bit of make-up on.

Have a great weekend! Happy Mother's Day all you Mother's! Jinny, enjoy your first one:)

This was fun!

2008-05-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

Take the Quiz here!

Weekend

2008-05-04T12:19:00.000-07:00

First I would like to say that I can't get to any of your blogs! I am going NUTS! Something happened to my internet explorer thing and Stud has not fixed it yet. I can't get to barely anything and an shocked that I am able to post this entry. I hope he can fix it soon so that I can catch up! And Dooney, if you are reading this, please e-mail me your e-mail adress or something. I have a long e-mail started to you and have nowhere to send it. Chas, I want to e-mail you soon also and can you let Dooney know I need her e-mail please?? THANKS!

I will sprinkle some photos from yesterday all through this post:)

So yesterday morning we got up and took the kids to see "Iron Man". It
was quite good. The younger three all say it is the best movie they
have ever seen. They say the same thing after every movie they see and tend to
forget that. Cryptic and Stud and I really enjoyed it, but some parts
were far too predictable for me. Still, it was fun.

Then we ventured down to Seattle to the Pacific Science Center. You may recall
I had taken Clown and Princess a few weeks back. The "Strange Matter"
Exhibit was ending soon and it was very important to Clown that his Dad
and brothers see some of the things we saw. Cryptic and Jock whined and
fussed and begged to be taken back home after the movie. At their age,
they think it is more fun to yap with their friends on their cell
phones or be on the computer than spend "Family Time".

Ah well, too bad for them, right?? We actually did fairly well and as far as I
know Jock only got two or three calls while we were gone and one of Cryptic's friends called him as we were driving home. So all in all, I was impressed with that.

Of
course as I predicted, it was Jock and Cryptic who took their time and
tried most displays and wanted to stay. They acted like they wanted to
go, but every time we said it was time to go, we heard, "Hang on. Can I
just do this one more time, please??" or "WAIT! This is SO COOL! Did
you SEE THIS!?!?" When I asked later if they were glad they went, I
just got grunts in return. Teens are SO STRANGE!

Like for
instance just now. Cryptic just got out of the shower and came to ask
me something. He is to put his ointments and creams on his skin at
least once a day. He has a certain one for his face, one for his neck
and one for hisarms, legs, etc. He seldom, if EVER puts anything on his arms and legs and thus, they look and feel like sand paper. His neck is all wrinkled and dry like a turkey. His face is shiny, indicating that he has indeed medicated it. So I asked him why he didn't put anything on his neck.

"Oh here we go!! How did I know THAT question was about to be asked??"

So
I mentioned maybe he could just answer it then. He grunted and walked
away?? WHAT IS THE DEAL!?!? If he KNOWS I am going to ask, why not just
PUT THE STUFF ON HIS NECK AND BE DONE WITH IT!! He has had this disease (his derm actually calls it that, uses the term "disease") his entire life, is the dork EVER going to learn?? ARG!!

There is one funny photo of Jock in Cryptic's face that just shows Classic Jock and Cryptic. Jock poking into others' affairs and Cryptic just quietly dealing with things.

Cryptic hid from the camera quite well, but I was able to snap a few shots of him.

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend!!!

General Update

2008-04-28T19:53:00.001-07:00

Stud has the younger three kids up at the local school grounds to play catch, football, etc. I got Princess her own pink bat, ball and glove a few weeks ago and she has been begging Stud to take her to play catch so he finally got a chance tonight.

Cryptic is working on catching up on over-due assignments with his on-line school (I won't even GO THERE right now! ARG!) and I just got done doing some lovely yoga and ball exercises from one of my many exercise DVDs that I have not done in MONTHS. Stud and I are not doing good about going to the gym anymore and I am eating horribly AGAIN, so I am still attempting to get myself feeling better. I feel MUCH better after doing this and walking for about 30 minutes with Cryptic at 6:30 this morning. We plan to do that every morning before everyone else is up and before things get too bright. Neither of us like sunshine and bright light, so we go early! LOL

Stud was 40 yesterday! I feel kind of weird that it was almost like any old day. I made him blueberry muffins (eewww, from a mix, but he LOVES THEM!) for breakfast and went to the local espresso stand to get his vanilla latte that he has daily. He laid around watching hockey and played his new guitar for a few hours. Then I got him Taco Bell for lunch and he left to play in a hockey game. Got him a card, Clown and Princess made him darling cards and I got him some of his favourite candy and left it around for him to find. He got his gift a few weeks ago and since it was so insanely expensive and we were BAD and put in on a Credit Card (SHAME SHAME!) we didn't really do much.

So Clown is still struggling with this dang sinus infection. As it gets better, he has more drainage which causes him to feel even more sick:( I feel so bad for him! I didn't make him go to his Monday morning "Adventures Around the Globe" class this morning and he didn't really miss anything. The teacher was not even there and they had a sub, so it was no big deal. He ended up spending the day organising his hundreds of Pokemon cards, watching Bill Nye Videos and reading books I got he and Princess from the library.

Jock is loving his cell phone (did I post how he and Cryptic bought their own and pay the monthly bills?? I can't remember!) and is learning to control the texting that he does. He keeps on taking pictures and videos of Brom and sending them to me and his friends!??! So now he will have NO money for at least a month, since his bill is so big! Good life lesson, I say:)

Cryptic was supposed to have his sinus surgery last Tuesday. Stud drove him down to Seattle and they were getting things set up, only to have them stop, drive home and for Cryptic to go back to bed. The surgery is rescheduled for May 8th. Why, you ask?? Because people are incompetent!

We got his Cat Scans from over the years and all the records sent to the surgeon weeks ago. I wondered why they were not doing the surgery in the same hospital they did his surgery in two years ago, but didn't think much of it. It is a simple thing, just a day surgery, so whatever. Oh cool, I also found this! Look how little they were and how scrawny poor Cryptic ("Brain" back then!) was! Thank goodness that surgery finally helped him!

Back to this recent episode. *sigh* They did not look close enough at the records and had no idea that he has a latex allergy and they are not a latex free clinic!!! So there was no way they could risk doing it and are now sending him to the hospital he should have gone to in the first place. ARG! Ah well, at least he will have it. I bought him a gigantic cookie that said "GET WELL CRYPTIC!" on it and had to give it to him. He is still only done half of it almost a week later and he has been sharing with the sibs. Which is more like his old self, so that is nice:)

Princess is going to a weekly hockey class for about eight weeks. Every Wednesday night. She is thrilled to be back on the ice! She got her costume today in ballet class and is very excited! She will be a marshmallow and has been anxiously awaiting the distribution of the costume. That is always the highlight of the year! Next year will be interesting because she wants to add Hip Hop classes so will be starting that this fall along with hockey and some other activities. This girl is a busy one!

I got a frame recently that has space for three photos. I want to find different ones of the four kids together from over the years. As I was looking for what photos I want Stud to print out for me, I came across this~

I barely remember her this age! I miss that red hair and those blue eyes! Ah well, she is darling with the lighter hair and green eyes, who cares, right??

Here she is with her best friend and Big Brother Clown. Blows me away that he will be nine in a few weeks and she will be eight in October! ACK! Where has the time gone??

Speaking of them, they are back from playing catch and waiting to read a book to me and get tucked into bed.

Have a great week everyone!!!

New T-Shirts

2008-04-22T13:38:00.000-07:00

After the derm appointments today and leaving Princess at her friend's house, Jock, Cryptic and I ventured over to the mall. Cryptic has been awaiting the release of the next book in one of the series he is reading and apparently also "needed" a new video game that was just released as well.

After he made his purchases, we were looking for a few posters for Jock's bedroom wall. Of course he wants ones with bikini clad females and I told him I will not pay for those, but he can purchase them if he wants. Since he is broke from his cell phone bill, he can't even afford a new poster for his room!??! HA HA! I say. That will teach him.

So as we were looking we saw some shirts that the boys LOVED and I decided to buy for them. Following are photos of them in their shirts. Even young Brommy got a new one:) I hope that none of these offend anyone; they are all in fun:) The boys are excited to wear their's to their Science Class on Friday! Cryptic was very angry with me that I made him pose. He has informed us that he hates us all and can't wait to move out. *sigh* What happened to my sweet little easy going darling??:(

Blogger is not co-operating and I must leave to get Princess and run some more errands. I will try again later, please enjoy this one of Brom in his new shirt:)

****UPDATE**** I will try the photos of Jock and Cryptic's shirts. I am glad that you like Brom's Jude:) LOL I do too! Jock is the one who found it at the store. If it hard to read, just click on the photo to enlarge it.

I guess he wanted to clarify in case it was unclear what the shirt implied:)

One unhappy teenager! Neener neener I say. Jerk! LOL

How sweet it is...

2008-04-21T20:22:00.000-07:00

...to be loved and adored by your younger sister.

As any of you who know our family well or pay close attention to what I babble about (teehee) you will remember that Clown and Princess are 16 months apart. He was sitting in a chair next to the bed where she was born, ran and brought me blankets because "baby's toes coooooood" when she was just a few days old...you get the idea. She totally adores him.

So he was picked up today by a friend of mine (you may recall me talking of "Giggles" and "Smiley" before?? Maybe in posts over a year ago or so...well, he is staying with them) to spend a few nights. They will bring him back on Wednesday.

Princess cried and cried when he left:( We had to cuddle for a while and Jock came to ask her what was wrong. I thought he would start and make fun of her, but he was very sweet.

So tonight she asked if she could call Clown. I told her yes and I called and talked to him first. He sighed when I told him what the deal was, but you could tell he was flattered and felt loved as well.

So she got on the phone and yelled, "HI CLOWN! I MISS YOU!!!"

I heard him say, "I know, Mum told me. Princess...you DO realise I have only been gone for FIVE HOURS, don't you???" and then he chuckled. She giggled and admitted yes she knew that, but she missed him a lot. He chuckled again and asked her how her day had gone.

She then asked him the ALL IMPORTANT question...what had they fed him for supper?? Well, my friend made him his own because he did not like what she offered the rest of the family!?!? ACK! I don't blame her, because he apparently told her he would PUKE if he ate it, since the last time he had it here at home, he did indeed puke. With all his health issues going on now, so I can understand her caving and catering to him. She normally doesn't!

Anyway, Princess then said, "Well, I will let you get back to playing with Smiley, ok?? I love you!"

He said he loved her back and I could hear in his voice how pleased he was that she called. He was not annoyed at all.

They are honestly such incredible friends, it is awesome.

Just to refresh your memories, I will show you some of my fave pics of them together...

Ok, if you go to this old post and scroll down just a tad, you can see them together. *sigh* Is it just me or are they SO CUTE!?!?

http://muddledponderings.blogspot.com/2006/09/school-pictures-and-quote.html

Then here are a few from last week when I took them down to this fun place where we had a grand time!

I also took them for some rides, etc. Princess BEGGED Clown to go on this one that he did not want to go on. I felt SO BAD. It is blurry, but you can see that she is having a blast and looking at him and he is trying not to vomit:( He honestly almost tossed his cookies:( And all in the name of love for his baby sister. I can't wait until this sinus infection is totally cleared up and my poor little man is back to his old self! He had just had some ice cream and I told them it was not a good time to go on the ride, but what do mothers know, right?? Princess got some goofy fake teeth instead of the ice cream.

Princess has been invited to her friend's house tomorrow, so she is excited about that. This little girl will be called..."Fluffy" from now on. I don't know what to call her, and she has VERY THICK hair, just not curly like mine. If it were not straight, this girl would be in bad shape, honestly. It is GORGEOUS hair. She is so sweet, we met when Cryptic started babysitting her.

So I will drop Princess off there on the way back from taking Cryptic and Jock to their early morning dermatologist appointment. Cryptic is just not taking care of his skin and I am worried he is heading for some more infections, mainly on his feet. Jock is getting more and more moles all the time and wonders if he needs to have more removed. He had one removed off of his back when he was about Clown's age and has 12 stitches. Really cool scar that he is proud of:)

When I pick Princess up, I am going to stay and look through my friend's cook books. They have wheat allergies and since we just found out that Clown does also, we want to really take it seriously and change the diet. I will attempt to weed out dairy and egg for a while for Cryptic and Jock as well and figure out what we can all eat.

Then on Wednesday it is down to Seattle for Cryptic's sinus surgery. Princess starts some hockey camp...*sigh*. Never mind, I am getting tired just thinking of it, I guess I will sign off for now! Hope everyone has a great week!

Spectacular!

2008-04-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

Today Cryptic and I went to his first concert. It was my first since I saw this amazing talent way back in the late 80's when I still lived in good ole Canada. I think the only concerts I ever saw were her and...some band with one of my brothers. I can't think of the name right now. Or maybe it was Eric Clapton?? Wow. Brain fuzz is REALLY BUGGING ME!

So anyway, Cryptic and I have been waiting for months and it was well worth me having to drive down to Seattle. I don't like leaving the house, let alone driving in a big city and trying to find parking.

I was totally willing to step out of my comfort zone for this, however. Cryptic and I have every CD this group have put out thus far and it is almost all we listen to. If we are driving and any of this is playing and someone DARES utter a word or a sound, Cryptic shoots them daggers with his eyes and starts whichever song totally over.

This is Princess' favourite. It is another name for "Scotland" and Princess and I both adore it. She begs me to have a baby sister and name her "Caledonia"!!! Poor thing:(

This is one of Cryptic and I's favourites. We were really hoping they would perform it today and they did not disappoint.

I am still just in awe. These people are all so amazingly talented. We bought a DVD and I just watched the whole thing. It tells about each woman and a biography on them. We knew that Chloe was young, but we had NO IDEA that she is about Cryptic's age!?!?!?! Cryptic is one day younger than this young lady
and we both feel that Chloe is MUCH more talented. You be the judge. She put out her first album when she was ELEVEN!?!?

The violin player is HYSTERICAL! She flits all about the stage and really gets into her playing and moving all around. She is so neat and amazingly talented. She was the lead violinist for all the River Dance concerts and DVDs. Cryptic was saying after watching her that he may start playing violin again:) I am excited! He played for about four years and was really good, but tired of it.

I hope that these links will work and that you all have time to get just a short nugget of these songs. They may not be to every one's taste. Maybe it is the Irish in me or something, but this stuff is...it leaves me speechless. It is the best EVER. Cryptic and I could have stayed there about 24 hours straight. As it is, they sang for over two hours! I really want to take Clown and Princess next time. Jock could care less and has no interest. Princess was just in awe that we actually saw them and pretty sad that we got to go and she didn't. When I told her how much the tickets cost, her jaw dropped and she said, "I understand why you guys only bought two tickets then. I can wait until next time!!"

Enjoy!

Another Fun Tag

2008-04-18T15:30:00.000-07:00

First, the rules:
1. Each blogger answers the questions about themselves.
2. Then tag five people. Make sure to let them know! :)

What I was doing 10 years ago - 1998

I was 28 years old. Living in South Carolina. Cryptic was five and Jock was about to turn three. We had been living there for almost a year and I was looking into a private Kindergarten for Cryptic and getting them signed up for Kindermusik classes. Stressed because Cryptic's skin was horrible and we could not get it under control and I missed our church here and all my friends.

Five things on my to-do list today

1. Not go crazy listening to Clown and Princess argue as they clean up the mess they made in the Rec Room.
2. Make sure Cryptic and Jock finally do the list of chores I gave them YESTERDAY.
3. Call to find out the results from Clown's Cat Scan that he had on Tuesday.
4. Take Jock and Cryptic to their weekly Science Class. (DONE! It is scratched off the list:))
5. Finish wrapping gifts and get parcel ready to mail to niece who is turning six!

Snacks I enjoy

1. Saltine crackers with cheddar cheese and pickles.
2. Any Canadian Chocolate Bar.
3. Fresh Chocolate Chip Cookies
4. Fresh Baked Bread with melting butter and jam...YUMMY!
5. My Mum's shortbread and home made buns...I HATE LIVING THIS FAR FROM HOME:(

Things I would do if I were a billionaire

1. pay off all our debt and have a full time maid and a nutritionist to plan our meals.
2. Send money to family to buy them cars, houses, etc.
3. Travel the world caring for orphans and all those less fortunate.
4. Take a fun vacation every six months.
5. Build a really cool house and have friends over all the time to feed them catered meals and play in our pool and watch movies in our home Theatre.

Five of my bad habits

1. not exercising enough
2. eating sugary things
3. being grumpy
4. being negative
5. not doing devotions often enough and straying from the close relationship with God that I used to enjoy.

Five places I have lived

1. St. Albert, AB.
2. Regina, SK
3. Asquith, Sk
4. Kitchener, Ont.
5. Simpsonville, SC
6. Saskatoon, SK
7. Everett, WA
8. Mukilteo, WA (I know this is more than five, oh well!)

Five jobs I’ve had

1. Convenience Store Clerk
2. Grocery Store Clerk
3. Waitress
4. Veterinary Technician
5. Receptionist

What I’d like to be doing in 25 years (wow! I will be 63!?!?)

1. Enjoying my Grand kids.
2. Travelling with Stud.
3. Reading A LOT.
4. Spoiling my Grand kids and taking them to Disneyland and places like that.
5. LOTS of Volunteer work.

I am not going to tag anyone. Whoever wants to do it, feel free!:)

Ok, better get off of here for now. Just wanted to get this done while I wait for the farts to bloody well CLEAN THE MESS THEY MADE!?!? ARG!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Tag!

2008-04-16T10:37:00.000-07:00

Ok, Jinny tagged me a while ago and I am finally going to do this!

Here is some trivia about Stud and I...

How long have you been together? Seems like a LONG time...no wonder. It has been almost half my life, actually! We were never "together" in the normal sense since we lived in different countries. We "met" in August or September of 1988, and met in person that December when he flew into Regina. Were married a year later and only spent about 5 weeks total time in person with each other over the course of that year.

How long did you date? Didn't really date. As I said, we were seldom actually in the same country, let alone the same city!

How old is he? He will be 40 on the 27th!

Who said ‘I love you’ first? He did. Most definitely!

Who is taller? hahahaha, if you've seen me, you know that everyone is taller, except children under the age of 10. There, I am stealing what Jinny said! LOL Although I am sure even SHE is taller than I am:) Stud is six feet exactly and I am ALMOST five foot two. My dream was always to reach five four, but it was not to be:(

Who is smarter? In what area does this mean, I wonder. As far as common sense, me. By FAR! LOL As far as academics and grasping various concepts quickly, that would be be him EASILY. He is VERY smart:)

Who does the laundry? Me and the kids. Sometimes I leave his clean things for him to fold, but most often he doesn't even fold his own clothes.

Who does the dishes? Me until about three or four years ago, when the kids were finally completely trained in that area!! LOL Now I only do the kitchen clean up about 10% of the time and I do the really DEEP cleaning and organising. As far as dishes after meals and all day long, that would be our four angels:)

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Right as in correct or right as in right and left?? LOL Here is the thing. We still, after 18 years of marriage, have an issue here. Before we were married, he told me that he would not care what side of the bed I slept on, I could do anything I wanted and I was perfect and amazing, yadda yadda and could have anything my little heart desired. I told him that was cool, because I was sure that I would sleep on the left, but did not know since I had never shared a bed. As soon as we were married, he suddenly decided that HE always slept on the left and would always sleep on the left and too bad for me. *sigh* He is even more stubborn than I am (if that is possible!) and has insisted on his way this whole time. I wonder if that is part of why I don't sleep well and never have since we got married?? I have no choice but to sleep on the right side and honestly think I may sleep better if I had the side I naturally must need or something. Who knows! Weird how we both prefer the same side. Ah well, as he often reminds all of us; he is the "ALPHA MALE" and what he says, goes!

Who pays the bills? Him. Unfortunately. I did until 1997 when I got tired of it and asked him to take over. BIG MISTAKE. But we won't go there! LOL

Who mows the lawn? Jock. Jock has done it since he was about eight or nine and we finally gave in to his begging. He wears safety goggles and is very serious, careful and responsible.

Who cooks dinner? Always me. Jock and Cryptic are getting pretty handy in the kitchen as well. Stud has cooked about six times in 18 years. Once was when I was pregnant with Princess and I BEGGED him to help. Last week he cooked something that the kids LOVED and they asked him to cook more often. He is NOT happy about that! Keeps claiming he "doesn't know how" and I try and remind him that I didn't either, but I had no choice because someone had to, right?? I had to learn as I went. I used to LOVE cooking, but after years of trying with kids clinging to my legs and fussing and everyone complaining about the food, I am over it. Totally. I wish I still loved it:(

Who is more stubborn? We are both VERY stubborn. He used to always "win" and get his way in everything, since I avoided confrontation totally until about eight or nine years ago. That is when I finally learned to put my foot down and speak up for myself. This has caused some friction and problems, but we work through it:) It depends on the situation, as to who is most stubborn. It is honestly very hard to give a clear answer on this one!

Who kissed who first? He kissed me, no question!

Who asked who out? Well, we never went "out". Any time we were with each other, it was because one of us had left their country to visit the other. So we spent the entire time with each other, many long dates right after the next! LOL

Who proposed? Stud did. Many times. I finally agreed and the rest is history!

Who is more sensitive? No contest. I am much more sensitive. In fact I would be willing to bet that everyone else on the planet is more sensitive than my husband and he would be the first to agree! LOL He seems to pride himself on this. The kids often comment on how "cold" Dad is and wonder at how he doesn't seem to care. Nothing really seems to bother him or phase him at all. In fact, he often laughs or makes faces at the rest of us when we are upset or worried about something. He is getting better about that as time goes on, thank goodness!

Alrighty, there we have it. Whoever wants to do this, go for it! I am now off to take Jock for a hair cut:)

Toodles!

Hair again

2008-04-12T14:52:00.000-07:00

This time I will talk about Stud's hair.

Why can't it be mine?? Look how nicely his grows?

This is EXACTLY what mine was like when Cryptic was a baby, but of course mine is darker. This is gorgeous, especially for a female, eh?

Neat tidy curls, no frizz, soft (can't tell that from the picture, but his hair is SO SOFT and shiny! NO FAIR!) and just gorgeous!

Now, I can't get this hairy on my face, thank goodness, but this is what he looked like a few weeks back:) Before Easter of course!

Now looky here!

Doesn't he look SO MUCH younger??

His family all age very well and look like they are about 35 when they are 60. My family are the total opposite! My parents were both completely white haired by the time they were in their early 50's. We are all quite wrinkly and I already have "age spots" on my face and hands.

So yeah, here is my cute young hubby married to an old goat like me! LOL

As I type this, he is playing his new birthday gift that we picked up today. I don't see any need to wait until his actual birthday, why not have fun with it before then??

I am not musical at all and can't relate to he and the kids spending hours in music stores, browsing and trying out the instruments. Bores me to tears, honestly. It makes them happy, so that is awesome!

Ok, I need to kick him off of it so we can do some yard work before our company arrives tonight for some good old shootin' the breeze and eating ice cream sundaes!

Have a great weekend everyone!

My poor Clown

2008-04-10T19:37:00.000-07:00

Alright, I had promised to talk about Clown's tummy issues, so here we go. Wow, I just finished writing this and wanted to warn you all it is longer and more longwinded than I had intended. SORRY!

About six weeks ago, I took Clown to a store after the kids' Monday morning class that they go to. On the way, he was saying he felt a bit sick. It had been a few hours since breakfast and he can seldom eat much first thing in the morning on Mondays anyway. He is very nervous every Monday morning before class. Being as introverted as he is, it is very hard for him to leave the house and attend this class. I can't remember if I have posted about this before or not?? Anyway, I thought he needed something to eat and it was partly nerves as well.

As we got out of the car to go into the store, he was walking slowly and swallowed a few times. I asked him if we should go home. He insisted that he was fine.

Then he puked. All over the parking lot! Well, not ALL OVER, but a large area. I am talking projectile!! I was standing there, watching and thinking, "WHAT THE HECK!?!? Where did this come from??"

Yes, I know it came from his stomach. You all know what I mean.

In fact, there was nothing much but fluid. He insisted he was fine, as he continued to leave a trail of stomach acid on the pavement. We would just think he was finished and then more would spew forth. My poor baby!!!

He assured me all was well as we walked into the store!?!? I was rubbing his back and asking if he wanted something to drink to take the taste away. It was honestly just a fountain of liquid erupting from him. I had no idea such a small little guy's tummy could hold so much liquid!!

I finally convinced him to walk back to the car. We got him settled, I told Jock (who was waiting in the car) what happened and I said I needed to go into the store quickly to at least alert the people what was in the parking lot. I got Clown a drink and some napkins to wipe his face and told the people what happened and showed them so they could clean it up.

By the time I got back to the car, Clown insisted we could carry on with our errands and said he needed some pizza to eat! So we went into the store and got him some pizza from the lunch counter. He ate almost all of it!

Over the next few weeks, he was constantly nauseous and threw up a few more times. Mornings were always worst. One of the docs jokingly asked if he was pregnant!??! LOL He didn't have a fever and it did not affect him in any other way.

I took him to the doctor, who thought it might be GERD and gave him meds that didn't work. I was sure it was not GERD, since Cryptic had it and needed surgery. I told the Doc as much, but of course they know best and we mothers don't know our kids, right?? Right.

He missed one of his Monday classes and missed going to our Science class a few Friday mornings. Jock and Cryptic take Science with our HSing group on Friday mornings. This Amazing Man makes it SO FUN for the kids. Clown and Princess to not attend his classes yet, but they play with friends while their older brothers are in class. Clown was so sad to miss a few weeks and stay here with his Dad because he felt so horrible and was always afraid he may vomit.

I assured the people at Monday morning class that the reason he had a "barf bowl" with him each week was in case he threw up. Explained we did not know what it was but there was no fever, it had lasted for weeks and none of the rest of the family had it. They still would not let their children sit near him, which really hurt his feelings. I was not impressed. Like I was going to bring a sick contagious child to class!?!? They had seen him this way three weeks in a row, I had talked to all of them about it! ARG!!!

The teacher called me and wanted to check things out and told me some parents had been concerned seeing him in there with this bowl. Sometimes he would leave class with me and we would go for some fresh air outside and it would make him feel better. Then we would come back inside and he would be in class more. He could even speak up a few times and answered some questions. Sometimes they pray aloud about orphans and kids in other countries (it is a geography class) and I am proud of him that as shy as he is, he speaks up and prays sometimes!! He did not want to miss any of these classes!! Nervous as he gets, he truly just loves it. I hated for him to miss class at the off chance that he vomit. I was sure he was not going to (he never did) and we pay for the classes and he loves them and doesn't want to miss anymore. He had already missed once because of this mystery illness. He really has to get himself psyched up to go and it takes a lot for him, but he is always glad he goes and just thoroughly enjoys the class!

So the Doc wanted to put him on stronger meds and I refused. I said they are not doing anything, I want him tested for food allergies. All his siblings have many allergies, he has never been tested. I looked into it a bit and found that they can suddenly aggravate a person.

Meantime, they did a tummy ultrasound. He thought that was pretty cool! We were wondering about ulcers, since he is such a nervous little twerp:) Then the allergy testing a week or so ago confirmed a slight wheat allergy...he LOVES his wheat toast with peanut butter almost every morning. So we are going to watch that. While there, the allergist (this is the man who has discovered everything that has ever been wrong with Cryptic. We ADORE THIS MAN!) said he bets it is sinus drainage.

DUH! I felt like SUCH A DORK. This was what had upset Cryptic many times in years past. He has had such impacted sinuses before and they have been talking about surgery off and on for a few years, but then we get him cleaned out with a sauna, meds, steroids, etc. He IS having sinus surgery on the 23rd of this month, but not for being impacted.

So about Clown. I slapped my forehead and yelled something about how I should have thought of that. Doc is so sweet. He looked at me and said, "Why should you have known that sinus drainage is irritating him and making him feel sick??"

I said maybe it was because Cryptic had the same thing before and you have helped me with it many times over the years!?! He just laughed and said not to be so hard on myself, I have a lot going on. At one point he told Clown, "I have known your mother for many years. I trust her judgement. If she says you can play video games to make your tummy settle down and you feel better, then I think she knows what she is doing, right??" Or something along those lines, I can't remember. Clown had been explaining how he is not sure why, but if he lays on the futon to play video games, soon his tummy feels better.

So he gave him steroids and said if after a week he is not better, we know it is not allergy junk bothering him and he will need another CT scan. He loves to get those! It has been a few years, but even when he was three or four he enjoys being in the "donut" and getting spun around and almost upside down.

Yes, you read correctly. My eight year old son has had multiple CT Scans for sinus issues and I am TOO STUPID to have thought about what was going on?? Guess what else? When I picked up the files and all Cryptic's CT Scan CDs for the surgeon to have before Cyrptic's surgery, I flipped through and saw that Cryptic tested positive for being allergic to MILK AND EGGS!?!? I FORGOT THAT MY SON IS ALLERGIC TO MILK AND EGGS!?!?!? He eats both EVERY DAY pretty much!!

Wow, maybe that is why he has such horrid eczema and sinus issues!?!?!? With my kids' allergies, that is how they present themselves. Not with swelling throats or lips or anything like that, they get sinus infections that stay for years at a time and I get so used to it that I block it out completely. I remember Cryptic being tested at three years old and we knew he had those allergies. We took those foods from his diet for a few months and then slowly starting allowing them back in cause he missed them and hated rice or soy milk!?!? Man, what an awesome mother I am!

So I am taking Clown for a CT tomorrow, most likely to discover he is pretty full. he HAS been feeling better, and when they tested him we discovered many tress in the area that he is allergic to. So perhaps they are not bothering him anymore and his drainage is not...draining anymore. :) When the allergist first saw him, he said he has allergy shiners, but is not mouth breathing. Cryptic has been mouth breathing since he was about two. You would think I would know the drill. We have taken Cryptic so many times and had him on so many six month regimens of four different antibiotics, standing in the shower to clear things out, nasal sprays, saunas, etc. All three boys are supposed to use the sauna for their noses twice day but have not for about two years. Why you ask?? Because I got sick of forcing them and fighting with them about it.

See? GREAT MOTHER! YEAH!! GO ME!!!!

We have had a friend who is 2 weeks older than Clown staying today and will take him tomorrow to Science class to meet up with his mother and brother. They have had a lovely time and my poor darling Clown hurt himself today trying to make something pretty for me.

I was in the process of writing an e-mail to my SIL in SC about my niece's upcoming 6th birthday. I heard Clown crying and ran outside to see a very scraped up knee. He was so excited to make me whatever my surprise was, that he tripped while running into our backyard.

He was so enthralled that he bled in such a way so that the blood ran down his leg that he said, while wiping his tears, "Wait until I wipe these stupid tears and then take a picture and I will smile, ok??"

He of course recovered quickly and over the course of a few hours, with a break for supper, much giggling and whispering, this is some of what I overheard~

"Do you think she will like it??"

"Are you kidding!??! She will LOVE IT!"

"Wait, we need more yellow ones!"

"Do you have any blue ones??"

"This is the best day of my life!"

"Do you think she will think it is so pretty that she will cry?? Does your mother cry when she is Happy, D?? Our's does sometimes!"

"Don't let her see it. Princess, you will lead her down the stairs with her eyes closed, while Clown and I wait here and present it to her, ok??"

I know you want to see what it was, right??

Ok, this is what they made for me and put so much work and love and time into. It is SO SWEET and pretty:)

D's wee feet in yellow, then Princess (DUH!) and then Clown.

Aren't kids awesome??

PRAISE GOD!

2008-04-01T12:39:00.001-07:00

YAY!

I am SO EXCITED!

Cryptic just broke the 100 pound mark for the first time in his life! He weighs 100.2 lbs!

I am running around the house screaming and jumping up and down. None of you probably have any idea how exciting this is for me!

This is a person who did not get to 20 lbs until close to his 2nd birthday. He has always struggled with eating and was failure to thrive when he was seven months old.

I can relate. I was 98 lbs for about five years. I did not reach the 100 pound mark until I was about four months pregnant with him. I got to 112 by the time I was about six months pregnant and always remember that and being SO EXCITED because I had always hoped there would be three digits to my weight. Little did I know then that I would be 30 lbs more than that these almost 16 years later!

So here he is, fifteen and a half and he has done it! YAY! He has been eating a lot more lately, we noticed. Now once he gets this sinus surgery done and he can actually smell and taste things again...WOW! I really hope he gets to about 120 by his 16th birthday. Especially considering that he is five foot four, be nice to be more than just 100.

OH WOW! Ok, I need to set up our Science lesson, just wanted to share:) I am SO EXCITED!

Here is my sweet guy (what you can see of him) a few weeks ago helping Clown study for a spelling test I was about to give him...

Hhhmmmm...not liking it...

2008-03-28T17:03:00.000-07:00

As you can see, I played around with the colours on my blog. Stud has been going to design something better for me for the past year or so...but you know. His "honey-do" list is about a mile long, so who knows when he can do it.

So please be patient until I get it looking nicer.

Thanks!

This is the first weekend in months that we don't have hockey, so we may actually get some things accomplished around the house. Stud and I are about to leave for a date.

What are we doing for our date, you ask??

Well, I am truly excited because we get to scratch off some of our list. We are going to Home Depot to price some household things that we need to acquire very shortly.

Stud wanted to go to a movie or something, but I feel like now is our chance to get some of this stuff taken care of, right??

Right. Maybe we can squeeze in a movie as well.

Have a great weekend everyone! I hope ours is productive. This place is getting to be a sty and needs a lot of elbow grease and co-operation to get looking organised and homey again:)

whew

2008-03-24T12:58:00.000-07:00

Well, it is official. Hockey season is finally over here in our household!

Jock and Princess have both had their year-end parties and received their trophies, certificates, badges, medals, etc. The year-end bash was this past weekend and there are no more games or practises! YAHOO!

So now we settle in for signing up for summer camps and classes such as power skating, 3 on 3 and whatever else the kids want to work on. Stud's team will continue to play and I am sure go through the summer months. He tends to play all year long to have fun and stay fit.

Princess had a really fun first year and cried at her last game this past Tuesday! She wants her Dad to coach her team again next year, but Jock also wants him to since this is the first year Stud did not coach Jock's team. Should be an interesting season this coming fall...

Easter is over. Which is so weird to me. It should not even be for at least another ten days as far as I am concerned. Stud had a hard time juggling his coaching/playing with his rehearsals for the Easter Production at church. He misses a lot of hockey, which says a lot since he loves it so much!

He was Jesus again this year and did an awesome job, as usual! Right after the last performance yesterday afternoon, he shaved that nonsense off his face! That was a relief for him AND me:)

Princess was in the production for the first time this year and LOVED IT! First time she was in a production at church, SHE was baby Jesus at two months of age in our Christmas production in 2000. Then she was a Shepard when she was three and Clown chickened out when he was going to be in the Christmas play. She always asks to take acting classes and I can't find a place I like well enough or that is close enough. I need to check into it more. None of the kids had speaking parts or anything. You can see her in this photo, up on the big screen. The children ran to Jesus and did ring-around-the-Rosy around him. SO CUTE!

Here he is on the cross. This camera did not do well with the lighting. Doesn't help that I don't know what I am doing with it! ARG!!!

Here is Stud...I mean JESUS...coming out of the tomb. It always choked me up in years past and gave me goosebumps when it is someone else. Since Stud does it now, it is different. Makes a difference when you are married to Jesus, ya know?? LOL

Princess and Jock by the tomb after the performance was over and Princess was out of her costume and into her Easter Finery. I let Jock wear whatever he wanted for the first year and this is what he chose, which was fine by me!

Clown and Cryptic had to stay at home. Clown has had some odd stomach thing going on for over a month now. Been to the Doc three times and they still don't know what is wrong. I will post about it soon.

When Princess and Stud got up before everyone and left for church early, Princess saw that the Easter Bunny had hidden goodies in her closet! One of the things she got was this skipping rope. She calls it a "jump rope" but when I grew up in Canada, we always called them "skipping ropes". My kids make fun of me:( *sniff*

The handles have candy in them, are shaped like butterflies and it plays music! Dode life get any better!?!?

Here is my sick little man, finding his treats from the EB.

I love how he still adores Stuffed animals. He and Princess need more like they need a kick in the head. But for some reason the EB brought them each THREE NEW ONES!?!? A big bunny, a small bunny and a stuffed chicky that chirps. They sit by the hour together playing games with all their stuffed friends and I want it to last as long as possible. Look at his face...he LOVES this cuddly guy!

Uh oh...it appears there is some screaming going on and people are fighting. *sigh* I knew this lasted too long.

Have a great week everyone and I hope you all had a lovely easter!

Hair Help

2008-03-14T19:09:00.000-07:00

Ok peeps, I need some help. I am attempting to grow my hair long. I want a cute style in the meantime, something easy. I can't seem to have that. My hair is a huge, out of control fluff ball. When I was a kid, it was neat and tidy. *****

Ok, that didn't work! LOL What you see is a picture of my Dad when he was 21. Handsome, eh?? Ok...ummmm...I have no pics of me as a little kid, but I took this from a site one of my brothers made. So if you see the little scrolly thing on the left, just click on the one that says "Four kids" and that is me with my brothers. That is the photo I am referring to! LOL

Then this next one when I was ten, is the one titled "Later that Day". See how calm it was?? I wish my hair was like it is in "Six of Us". WOW! Talk about easy maintenance! LOL

I asked for help here although I guess that was mainly about colour. It seems to me, that my hair was a tad more calm then?? I am telling myself that the more length it has, the heavier it is, which assists with the frizz factor. I never used to have this problem, as the photos of me as a toddler and a tween prove, right??

SO WHAT HAPPENED!??! Was it the hormones from the pregnancies??

As I said, when Cryptic was a baby, it was SO NICE. I just had nice long curls going down my back. Calm and tidy, nothing fluffing out. I have some video of me with him that I can see if I can get Stud to put on here. I can't find photos, but I have some video.

When I started growing my bangs out, it was still not too crazy, right??

I am not sure what to do. I want it longer until I can lose at least 15 lbs. I always think my face seems more fat and it hides my chins if it is long. Yet I CANNOT STAND it and pull it back most often anyway. So I guess it doesn't really matter. I can't do anything cute with it. Can't put cute headbands or clips in it. That is HYSTERICAL! I know, for a laugh sometime, I should post photos of me with various doo-dads and pretty things in there. MAN! Talk about DUMB looking!

Can't wear hats or anything, cause it just mushes it all down and a huge afro pops out the bottom! People actually approach me on a regular basis and say things like, "Have you thought of using conditioner??" or "Have you tried *insert name of product here* on your hair??" I love the conditioner one! I am always tempted to slap my leg and shout, "CONDITIONER! MAN! Why didn't I ever think of that!??! Thank you SO MUCH!"

Conditioner! If I didn't use conditioner, there is now way I would be able to get my fingers through the dang rat's nest to do anything at all with it! Like rinse!

I want the TOTAL truth on which looks better. I had Jock take some photos of me getting things done in the kitchen today. Ignore the mess and the zits on my face. My thyroid is still throwing me for a loop!

I had it like I often wear it, just back out of the way. It is a LARGE fluffball on the back of my head and I think it looks silly, but it is nice to have it away from my face. He took from a few different angles. We never did get it really from the back, which might be a good idea. Ah well, he is gone now and I need to leave soon to meet him and Stud at the End of Season hockey party. He should get his trophy tonight!

Up ~

Then he took some of it down.

You can see how nuts it is! Imagine if I did not use countless hair products!?!? I have balms, lotions, creams, straighteners, etc that I put it in every time I wash it. If I blow dry it, it dries it out and fluffs out even more, so I have not attempted that in YEARS. No way I can brush it. I use a pick and pick it out after it is washed and then don't attempt anything else unlil I wash it again. The more it is handled, the more it fluffs up. My hair dresser works with me ALL THE TIME to try and calm it down and we always try new improved products. When she is done with it, it is a tad calmer. I think it is because I sit under one of those dryer things for a while. I don't have one of those. She confirms what I always knew; NEVER use a blow dryer on it!

Any theories on what on earth happened to the calm hair??

Thanks for any help or advice. I just love it pulled away from my face cause it feels better, but have had people tell me that I don't look nice that way:( Kind of hurts my feelings, but I do want to know. So if I leave it down, people laugh at me and make comments about how funny looking it is! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO!?!?!?

Ok thanks! Have a great weekend!

Any ideas??

2008-03-13T10:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, I wonder if any of my readers may want to hazard a guess as to why the following phenomenon happens.

Any time I am in public with any of my family, Stud included, they stop walking when I stop walking. We can be just walking along and I stop to look at something and EVERYONE stops. They just stand there. I can stop to scratch my toe, adjust bags or things I am carrying to be more comfortable. Anything. They all instantly stop and just stand there like they are helpless! They actually appear to be in a tad bit of a panic over the fact that I stop!?!?!?

The other day when we were out at the Mall, I bought myself a drink from Starbucks. The Starbucks is just outside the Mall entrance that we were about to enter. As we were walking along toward the doors, I was trying to put my change back in my wallet, then put it in my purse, as I was attempting to hold my hot drink and not spill it. We got to the doors, and I stopped and stepped to the side, waiting for Stud or one of the bigger kids to open the door, so that we could all walk through and I could still be getting all these things adjusted. Everyone else just halted. And stood there. Looking at the closed doors and staring at ME, struggling with full hands and totally unable to open said door!?!?!?

As I was talking toward the door, I KNEW it would happen. I experience it SO MANY times and each time I just hope and pray that they can GRAB A CLUE and do something of their own volition. I willed it not to happen this time. Didn't work! Yet if I ever state the obvious, because no one else appears to be aware of it, I get groans and sighs and rolling eyes (oooo cool, that rhymes!) and everyone acts like they KNOW. So when I don't say anything, giving them the chance to PROVE that they "know", they in fact DO NOT know. ANYTHING. LOL

They are all perfectly smart people. Brilliant brains in those noggins. Yet they can't just look and see someone with their hands full and OPEN THE BLOODY DOOR!?!? I ALWAYS open doors for strangers, as well as Stud and the kids. I help people with things if they drop them, etc. So it is not like my kids never see anything like that occur. And what is Stud's excuse!??! Honestly, he is as bad as the kids. Sometimes I almost cry about it. I get SO frustrated. No one listens to me or takes my advice, yet when we are in public all five of them act like they are lost without me and I am in total control and let's just follow along like robots and not think for ourselves?!?!?!

So yeah. I hate that. It truly grinds on my nerves. I mean, can they not just use their powers of observation and note that my hands are full, maybe I can't open the door???? And even if I could, it is possible to just open it anyway?? And the stopping walking inside the stores. Really! It is SO WEIRD!?!? They all cluster around me and can't seem to just look around on their own. Even Stud. SERIOUSLY!

*sigh*

I mean the younger two kids I can understand a little bit. I have always taught the kids to stay close and be where I can see them, and all that jazz. So I can KIND OF get that.

So I wondered if anyone has any idea what my freaky family's problem is!?!?

Iditarod and randomness

2008-03-08T21:01:00.000-08:00

We have had an exciting week. Clown and Princess are following the Iditarod Race in their Monday morning "Adventures Around the Globe" class.

They were each assigned a Musher and we get to check many times a day to see where they are. If you go here you can follow along too. It is pretty fun!

Clown's Musher is Mitch Seavey. He is 47 and has done this race 14 times! He has won at least once, maybe more. Can't remember right now. One night before we went to bed, he was in 24th place. He had been much further ahead than that, so Clown was a little concerned. I told him not to worry, he knows what he is doing. I had a feeling he would have passed quite a few other teams by morning. When we went to bed, I said to Clown that the Internet said that Mitch was going really fast. I said I bet he was going to go strong all night and would be way ahead in the morning.

We got up the next morning to check and Mitch was in 1st place! Clown was SO EXCITED! We both commented how we knew he would surpass some people, but we had no idea it would be THAT good! We talked about how tired he and the dogs must be and how much strategy and training is involved. It has been really fun to keep up with all this, read some books about it and discuss it with the kids. We read articles on the site and look at photos from the trail.

We are anxious to get to class on Monday morning and see how some of the other kids' mushers have done. If anyone's musher scratches, they just choose another one. The week after next, a Musher is coming with a dog and all the equipment to show all of us! Clown and Princess can hardly stand it! In class this coming Monday, the kids are going to sew booties for the dogs:)

Mitch has fallen far back to 24th and 25th again a few times, but as things stand now, he is in 3rd. I guess from what I have read, his dogs are not doing very well, so he is taking it easy and not pushing them.

Princess has a woman assigned to her named Heather Siirtola. This is only her 2nd Iditarod, so when she was really lagging, Clown tried to encourage Princess and reminded her that Mitch has more experience and not to feel bad. Although you can tell he is pleased with Mitch being so far ahead and he will sometimes make some comments to Princess to try and upset her. Overall, he is nice about it. You know how big brothers can be!

Princess asks to see where Heather is every morning and at night before she goes to bed, she wants to know where she is and wonders if the dogs and her are doing a mandatory lay over or if they are out on the trail. She is pretty worried about them being out in the dark and the cold, but I have assured her it is quite warm there this year. Some years there are horrible blizzards and it is really cold, but it is actually quite balmy this year, from what I hear.

So that is mostly what is going on here. We all went to the Mall today to hang around and see if there was anything to get. I had a gift card for Libby Lu and wanted to let Princess spend that. Then I thought the boys could each choose something as well.

We NEVER go to the Mall together. So it was fun. We are traumatized from doing it when the kids were younger, I think. Not that they are bad kids, they are great. It is just kind of chaotic with them all excited and pointing and talking at once. Now that they are older it is a little more pleasant.

Princess ended up in the "Pooch Parlor" at the store and choose a little dog and some little things that go along with him. You know, normal things for a stuffed dog. T-Shirt, bag to carry him in, collar etc. The things they come up with now! He is really cute and she named him "Wrinkles". She was also excited to spend some allowance she had saved up. She bought a used video game for her DS Lite that Santa brought her this past Christmas. Of course it is a dog game:)

Stud is buying Clown and Cryptic a game that they both want really bad. It comes out tomorrow, so they have to wait. While we were in the store, we discovered that they are doing some kind of tournament where people can come tonight and play the game and win prizes. So that is where Stud and Cryptic are now. You have to be 13 to play, so Clown was a little bit sad about that. OH! Stud just called and said that Cryptic made it through the first round. I guess 24 people played, then the ones that lose will be out. Then those 12 play, then they keep on that way. I hope Cryptic makes it pretty far, he would be so excited! I hope he wins something too:) One of the prizes is $5,000 CASH! There is a Plasma TV, a Wii, and some other fun things. Stud is not clear if winners are entered in a drawing or what the deal is.

So before we all came back here so that Stud and Cryptic could go back for this tournament, we wandered into the Apple computer Store and Stud offered to buy me thislittle shuffle. We got the red one. HOW COOL IS THAT!?!?

I LOVE that colour:) I am a purple/blue lover usually and I adore the lilac and turquoise hues. But something about this red just really struck me. So he has it charging now, after putting some of my beloved Celtic music on it for me:) I am SO EXCITED! How sweet is he?? I had no idea *I* was going to get a treat today:) teehee

Jock didn't get anything new, but is going to help pay for a new hockey stick soon. I think he is sad that he didn't get anything today, but he DID pay $50 for a new video game the other day that he is playing right as I type this. He had saved his allowance for quite a while, so it is not like he is deprived:) I know he likely thinks he is:) The stick he wants is $180! So Stud will pay for some of that. He told Jock that if he made a certain # of points in hockey this season that he would buy him a new stick. Poor Jock is ONE SHORT of the agreed upon #, so if he wants the stick, he will have to pay for some. Stud won't buy him one that expensive anyway! LOL Even though Jock will try and convince him to.

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend!

Crazy Eights

2008-03-01T10:37:00.000-08:00

Crazy Eights...Jinny tagged me!
8 Things I'm Passionate About:

God (sometimes. I need to get better about that. Seem to have been in a funk since my baby brother died:( I also want to find a different church)
Stud(although, I need to pay him more attention too. Tending to take him for granted again lately)
Cryptic
Jock
Clown
Princess
Reading
Looking for land to live on

8 Things I Want To Do Before I Die:

Go to Ireland
Find some land to live on and raise my kids in the fresh air with lots of room to run, just like I was allowed when I was a kid. I feel like it is almost too late, they are getting so much older:(
Go to the Bahamas and Mexico.
Go on a Cruise
Have grandchildren and spend as much time bonding with them as possible
Make peace with some family who are upset at me for some reason that I STILL do not understand:(
Visit the Holy Land
Go to as many orphanages as possible and take the children good food, books, warm blankets and lots of love.

8 Things I Say Often:

I love you!
Who left this here??
Why are there dirty socks all over the house and whose are they??
Can you PLEASE just put this away??
STOP IT!
Good job!
Stud, can you please get off the couch, quit watching hockey, and help me??
Yes, you can! Just keep on trying, you can do anything you put your mind to.

8 Books I've Read Recently:

Currently I am on book four of "The Belgariad" by David Eddings
Currently reading "Reviving Ophelia" by Mary Pipher
Almost done "Greywalker" by Kat Richardson. I put it aside to read the others and now Cryptic is annoyed, because he wants me to finish so that we can discuss it.
"365 ways to Raise Confident Kids".
"Hunger Free Forever"
"23 Minutes in Hel.l" by Bill Wiese
"The Living, Breathing Human Body Book" (reading it with the kids in our Science)
A few I can't recall the names of that I just got for free at a Home School class.

8 Songs I Could Listen to Over and Over:

The Rising of the Sun
Siuil a Ruin (I can't make the little marks go where they need to!)
Gaudete
Ceann Dubh Dilis
Fionnghuala
Dulaman
The Flower of Maherally
Lately I rediscovered "The Wild Colonial Boy". I love it because my Dad used to sing it to us kids when we were very young and I thought his voice was the most amazing singing voice that ever existed. I still do:) I wish I could hear HIM sing it again, but the one I found on tape will have to do for now. Dad, if you read this, PLEASE sing it on a tape so I can always have it, ok??

8 Things That Attract Me to my Best Friends:

They "get" me. I am very sarcastic and people can either deal with it or they can't. If they can't, then we tend not to "click".
Empathy. I can't deal well with people who have no empathy.
Compassion. Same thing, I guess.
Morals. If they drink and swear, are dishonest, don't care for their kids properly, we won't get along.
I can't think of the word for it. But I tend to be attracted to people who need a listening ear and need someone to be there for them emotionally. I am good at that:)
Sense of humour. I enjoy funny people who are not boring! LOL
Cleanliness. I tend to avoid people with poor hygiene:)
Similar values. If I don't have much in common with a person, then we don't "click".

8 People I Think Should Do Crazy Eights: Well, since I have about eight readers, I will list them:)

Tim
Vince
Jude
Dooney
Chas
boufmom9
Claire
Tess

And anyone else who wants to do it. Go for it!

Silvertips

2008-02-24T19:31:00.000-08:00

Ok people, here you go. I am going to talk about some of the guys from the Everett Silvertips.

We are HUGE fans here in our household and really want to billet one of these young pups one day. The thing is, they need their own bathroom and bedroom and our house is not set up for that. We don't even have enough room for the six of us who live here now! LOL

We think it would be a huge thrill for Jock especially and a great experience for him. He could learn a lot character wise as well as about the game of hockey. I hope we can do it one day soon (when Stud listens to me and buys us some land, digs us a basement and we toss a triple wide on there and call it good) before Jock moves out! We would have PLENTY of room. I know, I know. It depreciates in value. Whatever! At least we would have an awesome place to live! Not to mention the possibility of billeting a TIP!

I digress. So, since Jock has been playing hockey for so long (FIVE YEARS NOW!!!) and I STILL do not understand the game very well, I wanted to learn. I saw a thing on the Tips website about a ladies night to learn about the game.

Stud got me a ticket and I went and had a blast! There were about 75-100 women there. They had some refreshments and some fun door prizes. Six of the Tips were up at a table in the front, along with the coach. He told a lot about his history and how he came to coach them and was a very funny and interesting man. I enjoyed his talk. Then we got to ask the Tips a lot of questions. Most of these women knew their stuff. They understand the game better than me and had gone to this annual event before. So I didn't learn much about the actual game, like I thought I would. I am so glad that I went and certainly want to make it a yearly event! I will have to learn the game by taking some time to teach myself.

A lot of the women actually seemed to spend a lot of time tittering and giggling and asking about "Boxers vs Briefs", which I found very immature. I believe they were older women actually there to flirt with these poor guys!??! I really felt bad for the guys and did not want to act like a tittering hag, but I am sure I came across that way. They were SO polite and nice and patient with us.

So after all this, the coach said that the guys would choose six women to come up front with them and we would play a charade type game. I thought it was a neat idea and stuck my hand up right away. I was so excited to be chosen! I knew if I went up there and played this game, it would break the ice and I would not be so nervous and doofusish around them later.

So we had a great time playing this game but our team lost:( It was me and two other women with Clayton Bauer, Shane Harper and Zach Hamill I felt so bad! At one point poor Zach was acting out burying someone and we were shouting all kinds of words! I was sure I said cemetary, but no one heard me:( That was what it ended up being and we lost because of that ONE word! Clayton was having trouble getting us to understand this one word, so in the meantime he ran to the back of the room and grabbed a cookie from the table and was running back up front. We yelled "COOKIE", so we got that one. I thought that was smart, to go on to another word and then get back to the harder one. Later on as we were all talking, he was eating the cookie. I had not had one yet and realised I was hungry. We had all gotten really comfortable, so I asked him if I could have some and he was very sweet and shared it with me.

So here I am with Leland Irving. What a sweetheart this guy is. He seemed to be the women's fave, they were flirting up a storm with the poor lad!

And here is my personal fave, Mr. Zach Dailey. I feel a kinship to him I guess because he is small, like Jock and quite funny, also like Jock. His face just lit up when I was talking to him about Jock playing hockey also and being small and fast like he is. The guys were teasing him a lot when he and I were posing for the picture, since he is not much taller than little old me:) Poor guy! You should all watch this clip and see how he DID have his head up! I just LOVE it when people who don't play sports like this can sit and judge and critique how someone plays. It just blows me away!! I didn't know that the woman I asked to take the photo was standing so far back and did not get a close up shot. Ah well!

Clayton Bauer was quite a guy! Pretty funny. I think he thought I was a little...I dunno. Maybe I irritated him or something. He kept giving me funny looks. He is the one who ultimately chose me to go up front, so maybe he was regretting his choice! LOL Poor guy! So here we are...

Dane Crowley is very familiar with Saskatoon and we spoke of it a bit:) Hard to imagine that he was born a few months before I graduated from HIGH SCHOOL! ACK!!

Then of course there is Zach and Shane...

So I hope these DANG photos will line up with the correct explanation. I can NEVER get these things to work. I also want to use italics instead of ALL CAPS, but the bloody thing will never work for me!

So there you are. It was a very fun experience and I hope to see them all again soon. I had hoped to meet Kyle Beach
but maybe that will happen some other time.

Jinny, I STILL have not mailed your goodies, I wanted to get Liam some little thing, and finally did last night. So I will get the parcel in the mail tomorrow, ok?? He gets a treat also, for having such a smart mother!

Alright, better get off of here and take care of my family! Hope everyone has a great week:)

Roller Blades and such

2008-02-23T16:53:00.000-08:00

We were perusing the aisles in T.arget yesterday when Princess spotted some roller blades. It dawned on me that neither Princess nor Clown have ever owned a pair. They used Cryptic and Jock's old ones a few years back, but those were the cheap Fisher Price ones that you strap onto your runners. Cryptic and Jock had them when they were VERY young, so they had obviously outgrown all the kids and gone to Goodwill since then.

Since the ones Princess noted were only $14.99, I got them both a pair. She asked Clown to get some so he could skate with her. He didn't care either way. Until he strapped them on and got out there today:) Here they are a few minutes ago, having a great time out in the sunshine:)

Then, Clown asked, "Wanna race??" and they were off!!!

You may note that Princess, ever the cautious one, opted to wear winter gloves to protect her hands, should she take a spill. She was pretty worried when Clown decided he didn't need any! She is such a little mother!

So Stud is taking me to a movie and out to eat tonight. I am SO EXCITED! Have not been on a "date" in some time. I am going to be bad. I have been SO BAD with eating better this year. I did great until we went to Vegas and then fell off the wagon. Stud and I have started working out at LA Fitness three times a week and I think I am thinking since I am doing that, I can eat what I want again. *sigh* I wish I had willpower!

Ok, I am sure the next post will be all about meeting some of the Silvertips. I know I keep yapping about it, but I really will get to it soon. Not that any of you care, but it is exciting to ME:)

Final Truth

2008-02-18T11:14:00.000-08:00

So here is the last bit about this stuff and then on to other things!

Another lie was ~

6. I am allergic to any kind of nut.

Not even close. I am not allergic to anything but some animals and apparently shrimp. Love it, but every time I eat it, I puke it back up within half an hour. So I deduced that I am allergic or something. I fight through the animal thing since, let's face it, that is CRUEL. No one should have to live without animals. I was fine as a kid and since I was without them for a few years when I was in University, once I was around them again this nonsense started. After a few days, I seem to "acclimate".

7. I met my husband on the internet when I was 20.

This was also a tricky one. I did indeed meet him on the internet. But I was eighteen, not twenty:) We got married when I was twenty! That is why this even tricked some of my family members:) teehee I KNEW it would be tricky.

We met in August of 1988, he flew up to meet me in person in December. He flew me down to spend three weeks in SC in April of 1989 and then he flew to Saskatoon in July and spent a week or so. He proposed on the phone before he came up in July, I laughed and called him a name (I am SO SWEET and romantic!) and then he proposed in person with a ring when he came up. I just thought it was happening SO FAST and wasn't sure how I felt about him. I hardly knew him, even though we spent hours on the phone and the computer. He was the first boyfriend I had ever had. I had been too shy to go out with any guys who asked me that I knew in person. Even though we have had our ups and downs, it has worked out great!

Now for the final truth...

4. I am not at all athletic but for some reason the very first time I went water skiing, I popped right up easily and had a blast!

Yes friends, it is true. This clutzy freak did indeed pop right up the first try ever. Now, that doesn't mean I could ever do it again, but I thought it was funny that I popped up the first time I ever went waterskiing! LOL MY SIL, Stud's baby sister knew this because she was there when it happened:)

So there you have it. The Winner is Jinny and I have a feeling that her Auntie helped her! Although then she said Marian said she got one wrong...so I am not sure! Marian and I met in Grade ten and Jinny was a wee little five year old lass the first time I met her. Now she is married and has a baby boy!??! ACK! I feel SO OLD! Anyway, like I already told you Jinny, I am having fun looking for little goodies for you. Aren't you glad you started reading my blog?? teehee

Thanks for playing everyone. I have some more ideas for another one, so may do this again in a few months. I want to blog about meeting some of the Tips last week also. Ooooo...looks like my buddy Zach Hamill is doing as well as ever! Looky here This guy is truly AWESOME! They were such sweet guys putting up with all of us olde ladies too:)

It will all make sense when I blog about it soon. Need to go play with my precious babies! Clown is getting the Wii set up:)

Peace out!

Please don't get snot on me

2008-02-15T21:41:00.000-08:00

So we have adopted something from the Super Nanny.

She had something called the "Reflection Chair" and kids need to sit in there for every minute of their age. Whilst in the chair, they write down what they did, why and what they could have done differently. When the time is up, they go to the "Conversation Couch" and talk with the parent/adult about what they wrote.

We have started doing this. A week or so ago, Clown was in the chair and wrote this ~

"I think it was wrong to hit her, but like I said she got snot on me but I do think I could have said 'Princess please don't get snot on me.'"

If memory serves, he had said something funny and when she laughed, she snorted a bit and some...stuff flew out and dribbled on him. Like HE never gets snot on HER!?!?

Speaking as the younger sister of three older brothers also, it seems we can NEVER do anything right:( If she had not laughed, she would have been in trouble. When she DID, and something accidently happens that she has no control over...WHAMO! Man, we just can't win!

Here is the scoundrel hugging his new teddy bear yesterday morning...

How could I get annoyed with this little man???

Some game answers revealed

2008-02-15T10:55:00.000-08:00

So I am copying my friend Chas with this whole thing and also with revealing a few at a time.

We do have a winner, and she will be sent something very lovely very soon. I will not reveal who she is as yet, I am sure by the end of revealing all the answers, she will figure it out:) Thanks to everyone who played!

I will reveal two lies today and then more lies and truths in the days to come.

The first two lies are ~

1. Before having children and choosing to be a SAHM, I was studying to be a Veterinarian.

I HAVE always loved animals and still do. I spent my childhood outside with the goats, cows, horses and ponies, cats and dogs and sometimes ducklings and piggies that we had on the acerage that I grew up on. I planned on being a Veterinarian, but once I really thought about it and realised that I would have to give them needles and be "mean" to them and scare them sometimes in order to make them well, I opted against it.

I had a job when we lived in SC as a Vet Tech. I learned as I went and they taught me on the job. I enjoyed it, but dreamt of escaping and just being a SAHM. Once we moved up here, I got a job as a Vet Assistant and also enjoyed it, to a point. I did the "dirty" and very physical work. I got to work first and closed up at night (with just a few hours break in the middle of the day. Not enough time to run any errands or really get anything done). I lifted all the heavy bags, cleaned, did laundry (and there was LOTS OF IT!!!) bathed dogs/cats, cleaned up puke/poop, cleaned runs and cages, helped the Vets hold animals down when they needed help, administered meds, came in on weekends to walk/feed/clean any animals that were there, etc. I got paid a whopping $600/month to do this! I rode my bike or walked while my husband drove a $20,000 car that we could not afford! I got over the idea of being a Vet very quickly. Even though I had realised years prior that I was sure I did not want to be one, I REALLY was certain after those jobs.

I went to University and was studying Psychology. After seeing what all my foster siblings had been through, I wanted to help any little kids who had been abused, neglected or anything. So I was planning on being a child psychologist.

2. I have been to Costa Rica four times.

I have been to Costa Rica two times. My oldest brother's wife divorced him after three kids and not quite five years of marriage. She is a teacher and re-married and travels the world teaching in International schools. In 2002, they were in Costa Rica and I had not seen my nephew and nieces for a few years. Stud had just bought a $10,000 motorcycle without talking to me about it. I told him if HE could have fun and do whatever HE wanted, I was leaving for a break and to see my nieces and nephew. So I flew down there and stayed for a little over a week. Then the next year I flew down with my oldest brother for his son's Graduation:) It was VERY nice! I would love to go back and travel around it a bit. I never made it to any beaches or rainforest or anything, but my ex-SIL did drive us to a cool volcano and I want to go back and see more:)

So there you have it! Tomorrow I will do two more lies and a truth:) Time to take Cryptic to his weekly Oceanography class.

2008-02-13T17:47:00.000-08:00

Another fun thing!

1. What is in the back seat of your car right now?
Four hockey sticks, some pencils, dried up food, wrappers of various kinds, overdue library books, empty drink bottles, etc etc. It ain't pretty!

2. When was the last time you threw up??
About four years ago on a flight back from Costa Rica. MAN! I dunno WHAT happened, but I puked the entire flight from LAX to SeaTac. I was sweating and shaking and then freezing cold and...it was absolutely horrible!

3. What's your favorite curse word?
Probably crap. That is about the strongest "curse" that I say.

4. Name 3 people who made you smile today?
My friend LH when I took her some flowers, balloons and a gift for her birthday (was fun to see HER smile, so *I* smiled) and my doggy Brommy. He is SO SILLY! Oh, he is not a person...My hubby made me smile many times. A few times when we laughed at ourselves and how out of shape we are when we worked out at LA Fitness together and then also when I gave him a funny early V-Day card and he laughed. That makes me smile:)

5. What were you doing at 8 am this morning?
Sleeping!

6. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
Picking Brommy up from the groomers.

7. What will you be doing 3 hours from now?
Hopefully be snuggled up with Stud when I force him to watch "Becoming Jane" with me.

8. Have you ever been to a strip club?
No, but I am curiouse to see what they are like. I am sure I would make an idiot of myself laughing, though:)

9. What is the last thing you said aloud?
"Ok cool" when Stud just told me something.

10. What is the best ice cream flavor?
coffee or pistashio

11. What was the last thing you had to drink?
water

12. What are you wearing right now?
jeans that are getting too big (YAY!) and a black sweater with little sequins sprinkled on it.

13. What was the last thing you ate?
A banana

14. Have you bought any new clothing items this week?
Naw. Seldom buy clothes for myself, but I got Princess a sweater to wear with her Easter dress.

15. When was the last time you ran?
Yesterday when I took Brommy for a walk/run. If you mean ran and actually broke a sweat and worked at it, when I was a sprinter in High School.

16. What's the last sporting event you watched?
Tips game on Friday night. Princess and her team played for five minutes in between two periods and she was interviewed. Pretty exciting, may blog about it!

18. Who is the last person you emailed?
A friend in the HSing group to see if Cryptic and Jock missed anything important in the Science class we skipped last Friday.

19. Ever go camping?
Yes, but not since I was a kid. Stud won't take us:( *sniff*

20. Do you have a tan?
Not a chance! I am as white as they come.

24. Do you drink your soda from a straw?
I don't drink soda, but when I drink pop, I just drink it. If there is a straw, great. If not, then I don't really care.

25. What did your last IM say?
I haven't IM'd in months, so I can't recall.

26. Are you someone's best friend?
Oh yeah!

27. What are you doing tomorrow?
Well, I was GOING to leave with everyone and go to the playoffs for Jock's hockey team a few hours East of here. They MAY become State champs, this weekend brings it closer to determining that. BUT, my friend who watches Brommy won't answer her phone (I am getting a tad worried) and it is a hassle to find someone to care for him as well as the cats, mice and fishies. I spent a LOT of $$$ in my hair yesterday (got highlights and the whole she-bang) and I told Stud I was worried about paying for meals for all six of us for four days on the road. Not to mention I don't feel like packing, driving there, worrying about the snow in the pass, blah blah. So we agreed that I will stay here with the other three kids. Our HSing group is singing at a retirement home after our V-Day party. I set the whole thing up and suggsted it and everything, so I really should go, but I just want a calm day with the kids. I want to hang out and play the Wii and eat junk (my one day that I can do that and not feel too guilty) and now with things changing last minute, I don't have cupcakes/cookies made like I always do...I dunno. I SHOULD go to the party and the retirement home, but...I dunno. I hope what I will do is get spoiled with gifts and just veg:)

28. Where is your mom right now?
Who knows. She may be at one of her grief group meetings or something. She is probably either helping Dad with a foster baby or getting a meal ready.

29. Look to your left, what do you see?
A counter with junk on it.

30. What color is your watch?
don't wear one

31. What do you think of when you think of Australia ?
kangaroos

32. Would you consider plastic surgery?
Yes. I may get a face lift and get the boobs toted up a tad sometime. One day. In ten years or so, if thing are worse and saggier than they are now, I MIGHT consider those two. But nothing more.

33. What is your birthstone?
opal

34. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit thedrive thru?
When we go, I usually just drive through. The whole reason is that we are in a hurry. If we are not in a hurry, we eat decent meals at home or go out for a leisurely supper. My kids are AWESOME in restaurants. We always get complimented:)

35.How many kids do you want?
I would love to have AT LEAST two more:( But I am thrilled with the four I have!

36. Do you have a dog?
Oh yeah! Brommy Broms!

37. Last person you talked to on the phone?
My friend D in Spokane. She was going to meet us over halfway this weekend, but I told her I am not coming now:( So we are both sad:(

38. Have you met anyone famous?
Yes...let's see...Alan Thicke, Louie Anderson, Rick Ducommum (he is my cousin, I have met him many times! LOL), Stephen Schnetzer, Pierce Brosnan (spoke a few words to him) and then last night I spent a few hours with six of the Everett Silvertips I am going to blog about it soon.

39. Any plans today?
Yes, getting of of here to spend some time with Clown before I feed everyone and put them to bed. Stud, Jock and Princess left to do some shopping for me for tomorrow:) So sweet! Jock has a plan or something and is being very secretive. This is most unlike him, he is typically quite self centered. But of my boys, is the most giving and thoughtful, so I guess I am not surprised.

40. How many states have you lived in?
Two and Three Provinces

41. Ever go to college?
yep

42. Where are you right now?
In my "office" which is an extra kitchen that we have in our basement.

43. Biggest annoyance in your life right now?
losing weight and feeling healthier

44. Last song listened to?
Naked Mole Rap

46. Are you allergic to anything?
yes.

47. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time?
nothing. go barefoot as much as possible

48. Are you jealous of anyone?
Not that I know of. Well...some people who get to live on land and have more babies and have animals...I wish it was me, but I am happy for them. NAMELY YOU ANG! LOL

50. Is anyone jealous of you?
I have been told this plenty of times in my past, not sure of the present.

51. What time is it?
6:23 PM

52. Do any of your friends have children?
Almost all of them have kids.

53. Do you eat healthy?
yes. I eat healthy IN ADDITION to eating crap.

54. What do you usually do during the day?
not enough.

55. Do you hate anyone right now?
Wow. Such a strong word. I don't know if I have EVER hated anyone!

56. Do you use the word 'hello' daily?
No, I tend to say hi.

58. How old will you be turning on your next birthday?
39

59. Have you ever been to Six Flags?
yes, once.

60. How did you get one of your scars?
There are some that I don't know how I got them. The main one is a small one on the index (I don't know the names of fingers, Clown is hovering and waiting for me to get off of here and HE is the one who told me the name! LOL) finger on my left hand. I was working in a restaurant and was busy chit chatting with the guys in the kitchen. I was not paying attention to the lemons that I was cutting. I looked down and saw that a seed was stuck to the knife and I sliced anyway. Obviously, the seed caused the knife to slip, slicing into the tip of my finger and the nail. Can you say OW?? With the lemon juice seeping into the bloodied end of the finger...NOT FUN!

Fun Game

2008-02-11T15:15:00.000-08:00

Ok people, prepare to have fun!

Some of the blogs I am reading are doing a little game and I thought I would join in as well.

I am going to say eight things. Two of them are true and the other six are not. You need to guess which two you think are the true statements. Whoever gets the correct answer FIRST, will win a lovely little prize from yours truly. I have in mind something that I think anyone would like a lot.

I am SO EXCITED to see what people come up with. These are not as creative as most, but I am taking a shot at it anyway...

1. Before having children and choosing to be a SAHM, I was studying to be a Veterinarian.

2. I have been to Costa Rica four times.

3. I miscarried a baby before having Cryptic.

4. I am not at all athletic but for some reason the very first time I went water skiing, I popped right up easily and had a blast!

5. After some years of problems, my mother just recently went blind. My father is almost deaf and it is incredible to watch them work together to care for all the foster babies they love so much.

6. I am allergic to any kind of nut.

7. I met my husband on the internet when I was 20.

8. When I was at bible camp as a child, I accidently broke my archery instructor's finger when she was trying to help me.

Ok, have at it! I am excited to see what your choices are and see who wins.

Beloved Nephew

2008-02-07T20:41:00.000-08:00

My nephew has been visiting since Saturday night.

I don't know how often I have spoken of my nephew Scott before. I have mentioned G before?? Here and here?? Well, this is her older brother.

He was born when I was 17 years old. He was the first grandchild on both sides and has been dubbed "the golden boy". He is very easy going like his father (my oldest brother) and just a joy to have around. I would like to share some photos of his recent stay. He is still here, but leaves tomorrow *SNIFF*

Here he is when he first arrived. If you recall Cryptic's hair from a few months back, you can see "big" hair tends to run in the family. Although Scott's is a lot nicer than Cryptic's and mine. Scott's Dad, AND my second brother, the writer I have mentioned, both also have very curly thick hair when they let it grow out. Scott's Dad's has a lot of red in it, like mine. This is where we think Princess got her reddish hair.

Then, Princess, Scott and I cooperated...

And he looked like this for a few days...

And finally, the end result this afternoon...

Hopefully the photos will match up where they are supposed to go!

Hope all is going well for everyone.

Peace out!

Mishmash of nothing

2008-01-29T18:30:00.000-08:00

There is nothing really to talk about. I should be writing e-mails to all of my friends that I am behind on keeping in touch with. I need to be writing letters to various family members that do not have access to e-mail. I keep saying I will get to that. I have been going to write a letter to Stud's grandmother for about two years now! I need to get off here and do it, but for some reason am in the mood to just blab in here for a bit.

Stud has the younger three at the rink. Princess has her weekly hockey game and Jock has a practise. Clown goes along because he likes to play tag with some kids in the rink. I welcome it, because it gets him out of the house, which is an accomplishment. That boy is much more introverted than I thought possible!

So Cryptic and I get some time together. We went for a long walk and talked about family dynamics and his relationship with all the rest of us. We were wondering why he and Clown are as close as they are and why Jock and Princess rub him the wrong way. We both offered up some theories and had some good laughs. Now he is on his laptop doing school work. He has had some attitude lately and is getting harder to manage. So I took his lap top from him last night and just gave it back to him now so he can quickly get any assignments due today finished up and then I will take it back. Then maybe I will ask him to watch TV with me or play a board game or something.

Today while the younger three and I were doing our Science lesson on flight and making "planes" with balloons, straws, string, and tape, Cryptic just laid on the futon grumbling and insulting everyone. So I sent him to clean bathrooms and fold laundry. He seems to think that if he is not on his computer writing all of his stories, talking to friends on his role playing web sites or playing video games, that the world will come to an end! ARG! TEENS!

So I e-mailed people about Vegas but of course used all the true names of everyone, etc and I don't feel like editing it to put it in here. It won't make much sense anyway, since it was written to people who know the people mentioned, etc.

So just suffice it to say it was an experience. Jock was injured pretty badly during the last game, I cried like a dolt and he is fully recovered. We have issues with some parents taking everything too personally and not just letting the coaches coach. We had a meeting about that and hopefully things will improve. They lost every game they played, but we hope it was a learning experience. It is NOT the place to take pubescent boys, that is FOR SURE. Merciful heavens, as my friend Tim likes to say:) I had no idea the filth that was so IN YOUR FACE. I expected some, but that things would be more discreet I guess. NOT SO. Icky. Me no likey Vegas. Although, it was nice when Stud won about $300:) That was cool.

So here are some photos from our day. I got the younger three some more school books yesterday. This morning Princess was laying on her bed looking through one of them.

As I was taking photos of she and Brommy, Clown came running into her room, most animated. He explained to me that he discovered "Rounding" in one of his new books and how fun it was! I had to come and see, quickly!

Off we went, down to the Rec Room, where he showed me how fascinating and fun it is. He is my only child that has never, ever attended public school or preschool or anything like that. We don't often sit and do "school", we just learn as we live and play games and make things, explore, etc. He taught himself to read and teaches himself many things. I guide here and there, but mainly make the things available and he soaks it up like a sponge. Sometimes he gets REALLY excited and asks to learn more, so we get books out of the library, go to museums, make things, read more and more and on and on. Sometimes if I leave him on his own for too long and get lazy, he picks up bad habits (not making a 'g' correctly for example) and confusing certain math concepts. So I had wanted to look through the book with him first, but he was too excited. He told me that the directions were very clear and he was positive that he was doing it right. I checked and sure enough, he was doing it right and having a blast! Of course, as he is all excited, Cryptic walks into the room, moping that he doesn't get his beloved lap top until this evening. Clown gushes to him about how fun rounding is and of course Cryptic mutters something about it won't be that easy for long and of course it is easy, you are only eight years old. Something along those lines. *sigh* WHY DO OLDER SIBS FEEL THE NEED TO DO THAT!?!? They minimize and squish a younger sibs' zest for life and learning!

Anyway, here he is, showing me how cool it is!!

Then I went to find Jock. He was where he should have been, doing his school on the computer. He does some subjects on the computer and some that I do with him.

I am not surprised...*sigh*...I went to see how much longer Cryptic has left on his assignments and he was JUST NOW logging onto his school account. He has been talking with his friends on the computer...ARG! Any advice on how to handle this irresponsibility?? DO I leave him, not nag and let him learn on his own where the priorities are??

I think I will go cuddle in my bed with the electric blanket on and read some of the books Cryptic got from his grandmother for Christmas. I can't remember the names now, but will let you know later Tim, you may enjoy them as well.

Toodles!

Funny yet sad

2008-01-26T12:03:00.000-08:00

I found this on my Home Schooling Website. All of the following were written by people from grade eight through to college. Enjoy laughing, but I think it is a sad state of affairs that people can be this clueless and ignorant.

My family never understood why we chose to home school our kids. I kept on telling them that the education system in this country was very flawed and I knew what I was doing. Then my brother lived in South Dakota for a few years and taught college students. He was shocked at how clueless they were and how many of them could not spell, etc. He then agreed that the American system is not as good as he thought it was, if the public school system was sending these people into college.

He has often said that Cryptic writes much better than his students. I know there are problems everywhere and do not mean to imply that Canadians are better than Americans or anything. There are clueless people everywhere! LOL

Ok, here you go. News on our Vegas trip coming soon, I have to clean house and take care of Princess, who was up puking all night:(

The inhabitants of ancient Egypt were called mummies. They lived in the Sarah Dessert and traveled by Camelot. The climate in the Sarah is such that the inhabitants have to live elsewhere, so certain areas of the dessert are cultivated by irritation. The Egyptians built the pyramids in the shape of a huge triangular cube. The pyramids are a range of mountains between France and Spain.

The Bible is full of interesting caricatures. In the first book of the Bible, Guinesses, Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. One of their children, Cain, once asked, "Am I my brother's son?" God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Montezuma. Jacob, son of Isaac, stole his brother's birth mark. Jacob was a patriarch who brought up his twelve sons to be patriarchs, but they did not take to it. One of Jacob's sons, Joseph, gave refuse to the Israelites.

Pharaoh forced the Hebrew slaves to make bread without straw. Moses led them to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandments. David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. He fought with the philatelists, a race of people who lived in biblical times. Solomon, one of David's sons, had 500 wives and 500 porcupines.

Without the Greeks we wouldn't have history. The Greeks invented three kinds of columns-- Corinthian, Doric, and Ironic. They also had myths. A myth is a female moth. One myth says that the mother of Achilles dipped him in the River Stynx until he became intollerable. Achilles appears in The Iliad, by Homer. Homer also wrote The Oddity, in which Penelope was the last hardship that Ulysses endured on his journey. Actually, Homer was not written by Homer but by another man of that name.

Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock.

In the Olympic games, Greeks ran races, jumped, hurled the biscuits, and threw the java. The reward to the victor was a coral wreath. The government of Athens was democratic because people took the law into their own hands. There were no wars in Greece, as the mountains were so high that they couldn't climb over to see what their neighbors were doing. When they fought with the Persians, the Greeks were outnumbered because the Persians had more men.

Eventually the Ramons conquered the Geeks. History calls people Romans because they never stayed in one place for very long. At Roman banquets, the guests wore garlics in their hair. Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. The Ides of March murdered him because they thought he was going to be made king. Nero was a cruel tyranny who would torture his poor subjects by playing the fiddle to them.

Then came the middle ages.

King Alfred conquered the Dames, King Arthur lived in the Age of Shivery, King Harold mustarded his troops before the Battle of Hastings, Joan of Arc was cannonized by Bernard Shaw, and victims of the Black Death grew boobs on their necks. Finally, the Magna Carta provided that no free man should be hanged twice for the same offense.

In midevil times most of the people were alliterate. The greatest writer of the time was Chaucer, who wrote many poems and verses and also wrote literature. Another tale tells of William Tell, who shot an arrow through an apple while standing on his son's head.

The Renaissance was an age in which more individuals felt the value of their human being. Martin Luther was nailed to the church door at Wittenberg for selling papal indulgences. He died a horrible death, being excommunicated by a bull. It was the painter Donatello's interest in the female nude that made him the father of the Renaissance. It was an age of great inventions and discoveries. Gutenberg invented the Bible. Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical figure because he invented cigarettes. Another important invention was the circulation of blood. Sir Francis Drake circumcised the world with a 100-foot clipper.

The government of England was a limited mockery. Henry VIII found walking difficult because he had an abbess on his knee. Queen Elizabeth was the "Virgin Queen". As a queen she was a success. When Elizabeth exposed herself before her troops, they all shouted, "hurrah". Then her navy went out and defeated the Spanish Armadillo.

The greatest writer of the Renaissance was William Shakespear. Shakespear never made much money and is famous only because of his plays. He lived at Windsor with his merry wives, writing tragedies, comedies, and errors. In one of Shakespear's famous plays, Hamlet rations out his situation by relieving himself in a long soliloquy. In another, Lady Macbeth tries to convince Macbeth to kill the King by attacking his manhood. Romeo and Juliet are an example of a heroic couplet. Writing at the same time as Shakespear was Miguel Cervantes. He wrote Donkey Hote. The next great author was John Milton. Milton wrote Paradise Lost. Then his wife died and he wrote Paradise Regained.

During the Renaissance America began. Christopher Columbus was a great navigator who discovered America while cursing about the Atlantic. His ships were called the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Fe. Later, the Pilgrims crossed the ocean, and this was known as Pilgrims Progress. When they landed at Plymouth Rock, they were greeted by the Indians, who came down the hill rolling their war hoops before them. The Indian squabs carried porpoises on their back. Many of the Indian heroes were killed, along with their cabooses, which proved very fatal to them. The winter of 1620 was a hard one for the settlers. Many people died and many babies were born. Captain John Smith was responsible for all this.

One of the causes of the Revolutionary War was the English put tacks in the tea. Also, the colonists would send their parcels through the post without stamps. During the War, the Red Coats and Paul Revere was throwing balls over stone walls. The dogs were barking and the peacocks crowing. Finally, the colonists won the War and no longer had to pay for taxis.

Delegates from the original thirteen states formed the Contented Congress. Thomas Jefferson, a Virgin, and Benjamin Franklin were two singers of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin had gone to Boston carrying all his clothes in his pocket and a loaf of bread under each arm. He invented electricity by rubbing cats backwards and declared, "A horse divided against itself cannot stand". Franklin died in 1790 and is still dead.

George Washington married Martha Curtis and in due time became the Father of our Country. Then the Constitution of the United States was adopted to secure domestic hostility. Under the Constitution the people enjoyed the right to keep bare arms.

Abraham Lincoln became America's greatest precedent. Lincoln's mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. When Lincoln was President, he wore only a tall silk hat. He said, "In onion there is strength". Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address while traveling from Washington to Gettysburg on the back of an envelope. He also freed the slaves by signing the Emasculation Proclamation, and the Fourteenth Amendment gave the ex-Negroes citizenship. But the Clue Clux Clan would torcher and lynch the ex-Negroes and other innocent victims. It claimed it represented law and odor. On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln went to the theater and got shot in his seat by one of the actors in a moving picture show. The believed assinator was John Wilkes Booth, a supposingly insane actor. This ruined Booth's career.

Meanwhile in Europe, the enlightenment was a reasonable time. Voltare invented electricity and also wrote a book called Candy. Gravity was invented by Isaac Walton. It is chiefly noticeable in the autumn, when the apples are falling off the trees.

Bach was the most famous composer in the world, and so was Handel. Handel was half German, half Italian, and half English. He was very large. Bach died from 1750 to the present. Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote loud music. He took long walks in the forest, even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this.

France was in a very serious state. The French Revolution was accomplished before it happened. The Marseillaise was the theme song of the French Revolution, and it catapulted into Napoleon. During the Napoleonic wars, the crowned heads of Europe were trembling in their shoes. Then the Spanish gorillas came down from the hills and nipped at Napoleon's flanks. Napoleon became ill with bladder problems and was very tense and unrestrained. He wanted an heir to inherit his power, but since Josephine was a baroness, she couldn't bear children.

The sun never set on the British Empire because the British Empire is in the East and the sun sets in the West. Queen Victoria was the longest queen. She sat on a thorn for 63 years. Her reclining years and finally the end of her life were exemplatory of a great personality. Her death was the final event which ended her reign.

The nineteenth century was a time of many great inventions and thoughts. The invention of the steamboat caused a network of rivers to spring up. Cyrus McCormick invented the McCormick raper, which did the work of a hundred men. Samuel Morse invented a code of telepathy. Louis Pasteur discovered a cure for rabbis. Charles Darwin was a naturalist who wrote the Organ of the Species. Madman Curie discovered radium. And Karl Marx became one of the Marx brothers.

The First World War, caused by the assignation of the Arch-Duck by a surf, ushered in a new error in the anals of human history.

More Hockey

2008-01-15T23:31:00.000-08:00

In case anyone cares a bit more about hockey, you can go here and read a bit about this past weekend on Stud's blog.

If you don't care, please disregard:)

We are off to Vegas on Thursday for another hockey tournament! Never been there before, so that should be interesting.

Peace out!

Hockey Fever

2008-01-09T13:44:00.000-08:00

As any of my regular readers know, Jock and Stud are nuts about hockey. Any Christmas/birthday gifts, usually have to do with hockey. Any spending money they get, hockey items are purchased. Any video games Jock gets...you get the idea.

As you also may know, Princess decided to try hockey this season. She is usually a soccer player/ballerina/horseback rider. Her Dad really wanted her to try and part of her wanted to as well. She agonized for quite a while and would pull me aside every few days and tell me she was not sure she wanted to, would Daddy be upset if she didn't??

I told her that no, he wouldn't. She said she loved soccer and wanted to stay with that. She knew she could not do both. I reminded her that she had tried soccer but never tried hockey and she is young and has lots of time to try various different things, but we can't do it all at once. I reminded her that she enjoys skating when Daddy takes her and that she may find she really enjoys it. She finally opted to try hockey.

After her first practise, she was hooked. I may have mentioned how before one practise very early in the season, Jock was getting her ready in her equipment and she made some dramatic comment about not being able to live without hockey, what would her life possibly be like without it, and on and on.

Well, last night was her first GAME of the season. Up until now she has only had weekly practises. As things stand now, there is no going back and if you were to ask her about soccer she would probably not remember what that is! She LOVED playing in the game and has already asked a few times when her next game will be.

It was SO CUTE watching all these little ones skating all around and falling all over the place. The local news always comes out and films this levels first game and has a segment on the news, during the sports time. We remember Jock and his buddies being on TV then, it was SO CUTE. And already here his little sister gets her turn! Time flies. I cannot believe Jock has been playing for five years already and he started later than most.

Following are some photos from last night,for your viewing enjoyment:) She is in White (DUH!) #12 with hot pink laces and stick tape:)

As you can see, Jock did not appreciate his father taking pictures of him in the locker room getting ready for his practise. He is quite a picky little fart. Pre-teen, you know how it is:) Sorry it is sideways...ARG! Blogger did that for some reason and we cannot figure out how to fix it. It is right side up in our album here. Weird. I contemplated taking it out, but by then I had done the following pics of the other two boys...whatever.

Well, since we showed them I feel the need to show how Clown and Cryptic are doing. Here is Clown doing research on my computer here for a penguin that he was assigned in his Monday morning "Adventures Around the Globe" geography class. Also Cryptic doing his school work in his room and playing a video game in his new gaming chair her got for Christmas. As you can see by his jaw line, he is not caring for his eczema like he should be...*sigh*.

Ok, I need to get off here. Clown and Princess have finished all of their school work and are playing in a fort they made from blankets and an end table. They are waiting for me to get off of here and do some Math and maybe Science with them today.

Hope all is well with everyone out there!!

2007 Condensed

2008-01-04T20:10:00.000-08:00

So I have seen on other blogs I read that people are telling how their 2007 was. I thought it was a good idea, so thought I would give it a go here!

January ~

Went to a fun hockey Tournament in Rossland, B.C. Kids all wanted to move there. It is truly BEAUTIFUL! Jock's team did not do well against the Canadian kids, which we expected:) teehee Still, we had a blast!

Dealt with new puppy having Giardia on top of house training him!

February ~

Finally got Princess' room re-painted and organised and cutsi-fied/girli-fied since it had been Clown's nursery when we moved into the house summer 2000.

Stud and I each got a new tat:) Was the first one of mine that actually hurt me and I was wondering what on earth I was thinking!??! LOL

March ~

Clown started an Art Class. This was a very brave move for him. It was the first time in his life that he did ANYTHING without a sibling also being enrolled. He only lasted about 6 weeks, but I was proud of him.

Princess played soccer for the first time without her brother being on her team. She LOVED it and wants to continue.

Cryptic tested for a belt in TaeKwonDo got it! I was so proud of him when he broke that board!

At the end of the month we drove to Edmonton, Alberta for Jock's hockey tournament. We stayed with awesome friends and had a blast!

Cryptic and Jock stopped going to public school. We had hoped they would last a year, but it was not to be.

April ~

We were in Edmonton for the first few days of the month. We went to West Edmonton Mall and spent an entire day at the Water Park. Clown told me I had an irrational fear of heights! LOL

Stud turned 39!!

We spent an entire Day down in Seattle at the Pacific Science Centre.

May ~

We learned about metamorphosis by getting caterpillars, taking care of them and releasing the butterflies.

We got a ten gallon tank and some fish.

Clown turned eight!

Jock went camping with friends for three days.

June ~

Princess did a tap AND ballet routine in her annual Spring Dance Recital.

Princess was in a talent show at school. She also finished Kindergarten in June.

My niece Gillian moved back to Canada from Damascus, Syria. We had her down for a week long visit and Princess took her for show-and-tell in her class room. She taught the kids some simple Arabic and showed them some fun things from Syria. Princess could not have been more proud!

Jock turned 12 and it was very uneventful. Poor guy was born in a very busy month! Also, he has only wanted money and no party or gifts since he was about nine, so things are different from his siblings shin-digs!

We hired landscapers to do our yard and put in totally new sod on the front. Looks FABULOUS! We have the best lawn in the neighbourhood now:) Our neighbours were not happy with us.

It was bad in the way that my 37 year old cousin died of brain cancer after fighting valiantly for almost a year. She left behind a husband and three kids, the youngest of which is three. Not to mention her parents, siblings, in-laws and the rest of us who are still in shock.

July ~

We spent four days on the Oregon Coast with good friends of ours. Was very relaxing and fun!

Got a brand new washer and dryer (front loading) that I still pinch myself every time I look at them:) Not to mention use them:) Teehee

Had friends visit from Spokane.

Got a new pool set up.

Drove to my parents' in Saskatchewan, dropping Jock off at hockey camp in Banff on the way.

Had my 20th High School Reunion in Saskatoon. Ten of the fourteen in my graduating class made it! Was very fun to catch up with people I spent every week day of my life for years with.

August ~

Was the second anniv. of my baby brother's death on August 2nd. Not fun.

We left Saskatchewan and motored back home. We had picked Jock up in Banff and brought him back to my parents' for a few days in the meantime.

Spent the rest of the month swimming in the pool (the younger three kids anyway. We did not have a very warm summer and it was much too cold for Stud, Cryptic and myself) and hanging with friends.

Repainted the master bedroom and got night stands. FINALLY! After Eighteen years I have night stands:) I still can't get over it!!

Had a "fake" birthday party for Jock. Made him a cake, bought him some little gifts and doted on him. He had not chores and was allowed to have free time the whole day while we waited on him. He ate it up! We hadn't had a chance for his real birthday in June.

Princess went to horseback riding camp for the first time and was HOOKED!

At the end of the month, Princess started back to dance class and Cryptic received his lap top, printer and text books to start his on-line high school!

At some point this month, I discovered "Facebook". Various people had invited me and I kept on ignoring it. Finally accepted an invitation in August sometime, I believe.

My Uncle died suddenly of a heart attack this month as well. Sadly, this year we the best we have had in some time in the area of losing loved ones.

September ~

Stud picked blackberries and then made jam!

Took the kids to the circus.

Jock worked very hard and made it through all the cuts to be asked to join the PeeWee AA hockey team.

Jock and Princess did pottery for the first time.

Princess started weekly cooking classes.

Jock, Princess and Clown started a weekly class at a local church. Jock takes Math, the other two take "Adventures Around the Globe". They all three LOVE it.

Stud's Dad and brother came for a nice visit from South Carolina.

October ~

I turned 38 on the first of the month.

Brommy turned one on the fourth. Of course, we have pictures of HIS birthday but none of mine. Why you ask?? Because nothing happened on mine, really. Am I bitter?? NOOOoooo...not AT ALL! The dog had more of a party than I did. NO biggy!

Princess started playing hockey!

She also turned seven!

My oldest brother came for a short visit on his way back from driving his son to San Fransisco.

Friends from Spokane came for a short visit again. They got to meet my brother, which was exciting for me. I love to show him off:) He was also able to watch Jock play hockey for the first time, since he was unable to make the drive to Edmonton in March.

November ~

I shaved Cryptic's head at the first of the month. He was NOT HAPPY. Did I blog about that?? Maybe not, can't remember. He won't want me to anyway. It is a tough subject:)

Princess and I went to "Princesses on Ice".

Princess was permitted to take a friend to her cooking class. None of them could go so she took her brother Jock. Who loved it as much as she does!

Cryptic turned...GULP...FIFTEEN!! We have yet to have a party. The friends he wants to invite have been busy, we left things too long, etc etc. So he plans to have it ASAP. Three of his best friends plan to come, once we get the plans nailed down!

Stud and I left for a week in Hawai'i after getting my parents down here to stay with the kids! What fun all of us had. I only got a few days with my parents, since they had to rush home to take care of their little foster son, but we made the most of it:)

December~

Stud and I arrived back from Hawai'i. While there we snorkeled for the first time, each got a new tat, and saw Pierce Brosnan.

We got our Christmas Tree and got part of it decorated while Granny and Grandad were still here. That was very exciting for Princess.

The saddest thing was that Princess was sick on and off with something and was not able to go to the Nutcracker with me. It was her first year to see it and I knew she would LOVE IT. I was frustrated, because I was only going for her and then Cryptic and I had to sit through it. It was VERY good, just not my thing. I was thinking of her and then she could not even go. She was so distraught, I felt SO BAD for her:(

The highlights of December were taking the three youngest kids to make glass Christmas tree ornaments with our Home Schooling group, decorating a gingerbread house with Dad, playing games, baking the best gingerbread in the world (not to mention eating it!!!) and...of course...CHRISTMAS!!!

WHEW! What a year!

Siblings

2007-12-29T22:03:00.001-08:00

How cute is this?? Princess trying to play her Dad's "Guitar Hero III" that he just received for Christmas. You can tell she is struggling a little bit.

Enter Cryptic. He saw her struggling, so stepped in to help. How precious is this??

*NOTE* The odd mark on her neck is a tattoo of a rose that she got in her stocking.

Merry Christmas!!

2007-12-24T22:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we finally got the gingerbread house made and last minute shopping done.

Today was spent doing some last minute cleaning, finally getting my fudge made and going to our lovely Christmas Eve service at church. After our traditional supper at Olive Garden we came back here and exchanged gifts with some friends of our's. Then we set out Santa's snack, read the true Christmas story and then "T'was the Night before Christmas". The kids are still all hyped up and can't seem to settle down. *sigh* You gotta love it!!

I know you all want to see photos of these goings on...

Clown and Princess work together to organise a drawer in one of the bathrooms.

Jock sweeps...

Ready for church...

As you can see by a few shots, Princess is quite grouchy and seems to be behind on her sleep. As I finish this post, Clown has laid a sleeping bag on the floor of Jock's bedroom and seems to be camping out in there. Princess had hoped to sleep in her new horsey sleeping bag that she opened today from her Poppa in SC. She wanted to sleep in Cryptic and Clown's bedroom but then Clown decided to be with Jock. So Cryptic, sweetheart that he is, told Princess to get her sleeping bag ready in the Rec Room and he would put in a Christmas movie out there and they can fall asleep watching that.

Have a wonderful holiday with plenty of good food and good times with loved ones!

Much Excitement

2007-12-22T19:56:00.000-08:00

Well...here I sit with a belly full of my Favourite Thai food. I just mentioned to Stud that I would like some and away he went! Ordered it, picked it up and brought it home! I am SO SPOILED! I am taking advantage of all the fattening yummy foods that I can. Starting January first, I am going to take this eating healthy thing and getting some exercise very seriously. This is ridiculous! I am far too young to be in the pathetic physical shape that I am.

That is why when I get off here, I will eat some cookies. Christmas cookies. Am I hungry?? Of course not! I have a gut full of Thai. But they are there. They smell good, they look amazing and they call to me. You know. Logical, right??

I will share with you all some recent photos of the goings on here at our house.

Princess wanted an ornament up high and was very pleased when Jock offered to lift her up and help her reach! Was pretty funny. He used to carry her all around when she was a cute little baby and toddler but it has been a few years I am sure since such an act of affection and charity hit him in regards to his sister. He gasped and huffed out to her,as the veins popped out of his neck and face, "Hurry Princess! Hook it on somewhere! You are heavier than you look!"

In other news, Princess' holiday dance recital was last Saturday and she had fun as always. The only issue we had was that her teacher was stuck in traffic, so was not available in the wings to give pointers. Princess and her fellow ballerinas has to go completely by memory. Imagine, remembering something you have been practising weekly for over three months! LOL I am kidding, they really did awesome for being seven years old. It was quite cute. One of them would kind of start to do some things and the others would watch and then follow along and then they would soon kind of stand there looking worried. Then another would do something else, and the others would pick up on it. It is not clear who was ever doing any of it correctly, but it was fun to see them try! I will see if Stud can put a small part of it in video form to post on here soon. It is really cute!

We are glad she got that done when she did, because by Tuesday she was ill. Quite ill and still is. She was determined to attend hockey this morning and did just fine. We think she is on the mend! The bad part is that Stud had gotten she and I some very good tickets to the Pacific Northwest Ballet's verson of "The Nutcracker" for yesterday afternoon in Seattle. We were going to all go downtown and make a day of it. See the sights and lights and holiday decorations. They would drop she and I at the ballet and then pick us up again.

Stud woke me yesterday morning at 5:45 on his way out the door with Jock to play "Stick and Puck" to tell me that Princess had just barfed AGAIN. My heart sank. There was NO WAY that she could come. She had been planning for weeks just which dress she would wear, asking me about it and just gushing about how amazing it would be. She was just heartbroken yesterday when Cryptic and I left to go. He was the only brother I could convince to go. I think Clown would have enjoyed it more, but getting that child out of the house proves quite a task. He is even more introverted than I am! I am sure he would have at least stayed awake for the performance though. Cryptic slept through much of it. *sigh* TEENAGERS! I only wanted to go because I knew it would be very special for Princess. It is not my cup of tea at all, but I muddled through:)

So have a peek at Stud's blog to take a gander at something exciting that happened at the rink today. We took Princess for her hockey practise and lo and behold. Some nice young man was there signing jerseys, sticks, etc. What a great kid! He is the same age as my nephew and was born the year before I graduated from High School. Man, I feel OLD!

What else has been going on...? As you can see by one of the photos, Princess is back with Mr. Charlie. She gets to go to private lessons every few weeks and she is DELIGHTED!

It appears that some of the family members have requested that I play some card games with them and then watch a movie.

I hope to post a bit before Chrismas Day. If not, I hope that all of you have an incredible holiday and best to you all in the New Year!

Nuffin' much

2007-12-12T13:44:00.000-08:00

Wow, as I went to get on here, it says I have 64 comments that need to be "moderated". I KNEW I was behind! LOL

So yeah, Stud and I had a great time on Kaua'i. I will tell a bit more about it soon, I promised Princess that I would have a tea party with her and watch Frosty the Snowman. I need to bake and clean Stud and I's room too. I want to rearrange Princess' room so her bed is not against the wall. That will be a few hours' undertaking, so who knows if I will get to it today. I was going to do these things earlier, but then remembered that the HSing group was going to meet at a Bouncy place that the kids LOVE and we have not been in a long time. So I took them to that and then out for lunch at the Golden Arches. There is a lot more to do also, so I better get to it!!

Before I do all that I wanted to just post a few shots from the holiday.

Behold, my new tat.

If you want to see Stud's, you can go to his lame blog

Here is one of Stud snorkeling ~

The view from our patio (or should I say, "Lanai") was GORGEOUS!

Ok, that is all for now!!!

Santa!

2007-11-27T22:23:00.000-08:00

Well, even though Cryptic just turned 15, I don't think it has occured to him to refuse to be in the annual Santa picture. I daresay he enjoys it!??! LOL He even dragged himself out of bed hours before usual, in order to sit in the car and wait while his sibs were in their Monday morning classes and we could stop by the Mall on the way home!:)

I let them all wear whatever they wanted this year. He chose to wear the same sweater he wore last year, which is too small! He actually asked me to buy a new green one, but I never found one we liked or had much time to search. I suggested he wear something that fit, but that was my only small does of input. LOL Jock and Clown chose just an every day shirt and of course Princess...well, we all know Princess had a blast putting this outfit together! She is especially fond of the bow on the collar of her dress and her snowflake necklace and earrings:)

Do any of you regular readers even recognise my sweet Cryptic?? I shaved his head a few weeks ago:) NO more "Mop Head"! That is what his Oceanography teacher calls him:)

Ok, off to Vancouver tomorrow to pick up my parents who are flying in to stay with the kids while Stud and I head here...

Satisfaction!

2007-11-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

Wow, that felt good!

I just sprayed Cryptic and Jock with cold water! I have been telling them to get up for the past 45 minutes. I think they have slept long enough and it is time to leave soon for our weekly Science class. They know if they don't get up when they are told, they get sprayed. I have not been able to bring myself to do it for a long time. And honestly, there is often no reason. We seldom have to get up at any certain time.

That was very fun! I hope I get to do that again soon! *insert evil laugh*

I guess I will post a photo from Wednesday night. Man, I am glad that junk is over. Me no likey.

Here are the Ghoul (same as last year, but he just handed out candy. He has no interest in getting any anymore!) some kind of "hobo" that Jock put together himself last minute, Beast from some movie Clown has never even seen and the "Hollywood Starlet". She wanted to be a witch but when Stud took her shopping, there were no witch costumes in her size:(

Can you spot the little furry pumpkin?? LOL

Off to Science! But first stop, my white mocha from the little stand near the house. MUCH better than Starbucks! I still get Starbucks for some things, but their white mochas are far too sweet. This place makes them PERFECT!

Yet another perk...

2007-10-20T15:40:00.000-07:00

...to homeschooling. Here is Jock doing lessons in one of his favourite spots! I snapped this a few weeks back:)

I don't do blogs much anymore. I have discovered Facebook and really enjoy all the variety that it offers. Not to mention how exciting it is to keep in contact with family members and get in touch with long lost friends from elementary school!

I will attempt to be more active on here again as time permits. I am trying to spend more quality time with the kids, get more scheduled (it goes against my nature but appears to be the only way anything really gets done!) and organised with my time, etc.

Hope everyone is doing well! I do miss you all, but try to limit my time on the computer. My babies will be gone from the nest before I know it and I want to soak up every moment with them:)

Brom is ONE!

2007-10-06T09:19:00.000-07:00

Seems like such a long time ago that he was just this wee scrap of fluff.

Baby boy turned one year old on Thursday:) We stuck a candle in a little container of moist dog food and lit it. None of those photos turned out. Mainly because NO ONE TOOK ANY! *ahem*

Ok, it's ok. I just had no idea that Jock or whoever had the camera didn't know how to take pictures.

We got him a few gifts and gave him that treat. Took him on a few extra long walks. At one point Princess' Kindergarten teacher drove by when we were out on the front lawn with him. She asked me if I was done with Princess and would send her back to school and "let me have her again." I laughed and said "Sorry. She is mine. We need her here." She looked all sad and Princess was grinning. Then her teacher said a few more things about how she misses her so badly and please let her come back. I said not a chance. Then she said, "Fine. I guess that means you will have to have another baby and when she is old enough, give THAT ONE to me!" We chuckled and she drove away. Princess has been BEGGING me to have a baby and this only intensified the pleas!

Enjoy some photos of the birthday boy on his special day. We are off to Princess' first hockey practise. Photos will follow, I am sure:)

Just a little update

2007-09-24T14:53:00.000-07:00

Well, Jock made the PeeWee AA hockey team!! That means much more ice time than previous years. Which is good. He is determined that he will make the NHL one day, so the more ice time for him, the better. We had four games this weekend and will have four more next weekend. Was pretty hectic this weekend, especially since Clown and Princess are coming down with something.

Yesterday I took him to his last game so that Stud could stay home and spend time with the younger two and give Cryptic some free time so that he didn't have to always babysit. We were running a little late and Jock was none too pleased that I had Stud take a photo of us. Jock looked SO GREAT in his suit, I needed a shot of him.

He is # 12 in the white. His position is center, if anyone knows anything about hockey. He is upset at me, because I still don't understand the game. He chided me because this is the start of his fifth season and I still don't get it. I missed so much the season of '05-'06 because I was in a funk from my brother dying and all. I still have not caught up. Many of the people in the association had never even seen me and I am sure they must have wondered if Stud was a single father or something.

After the game we were starved and he wanted to go to the Olive Garden. He LOVES it there. He had to check out his hair in the mirror on the wall. He is so funny:)I love it when he needs to wear a suit to church or the hockey games. He looks so handsome. At least to me. And all the girls who stare and titter and giggle with each other. His brothers love to point out to him how the girls all seem to really like him.

Stud put shiney pink highlights in Princess' hair yesterday and painted her nails. She LOVED IT! Sure looks like they have been drinking or into some kinda drugs, eh??

It is Tuesday night now, not sure when it will say this posted. Princess and Jock went to a pottery place yesterday and got to use the wheel and everything. Jock LOVED IT! Clown is waiting for me to play Mastermind with him, so I need to skidaddle.

At some point soon I will sort through people's comments and post them...I hope!

Freaky Teeth

2007-09-14T18:56:00.000-07:00

So I took the younger two kids to the dentist this morning while the older two were in their weekly Science Class.

Princes has THREE CAVITIES!?!? ACK! I am mortified! Cryptic and Jock have each had maybe two...actually I don't think Cryptic has had any. Anyway, Clown had two when he was Princess' age and I was shocked then. Now to find out that Princess has THREE!? *sigh* I guess we are getting more lazy with each kid and I know we don't supervise like we should. We need to floss more too.

So anyway, they called me back to show me something concerning them with Clown. He was laying there with the head phones on, watching a movie on the screen in the ceiling above his head. He looked so cute, holding the suction thing in his mouth. I forget names of teeth, but it is one of the two front top ones that they showed me. I was not surprised and wondered before I took him if they can do anything about it. It came in all strange and it bothers him that it is quite far behind the other one. So the dentist showed it to me and it is actually bad enough that we need to take him to the orthodontist that Cryptic and Jock see. Neither of them have braces yet, he is watching and keeping an eye on things. Clown will need something put on for a few months, to get this tooth to move forward more and be where it is supposed to. So I went back out to the waiting room and called my friend who was watching the older two boys and making sure they were behaving in the class. She said they were fine.

They call me in AGAIN after they do the panoramic x-ray of Clown's mouth for me to take to the Ortho when I get an appointment. The dentist shows me something that concerns him. Clown was born without one of his permanent front teeth! I forget the one, I think it is an incisor. On one side, we can see where the permanent one will come down and on the other side...NOTHING! So when he is old enough, he will need an implant put in there. *sigh* It never ends with these kids!

In other news, the kids LOVE their Monday morning classes. Clown especially. I was most concerned about him, since he is SO introverted and was so upset at me forcing him into this class. He actually raised his hand and answered a question TWO TIMES and LOVES the teacher. He was not able to sit beside his sister, but I did catch him talking to a few new kids he doesn't know. So all is well there.

Cryptic is adjusting to High School. He thought it was too easy at first and was convinced that he only had two classes. When he logs onto his lap top every day, the assignments are listed. He was saying he only had assignments in two classes. I thougth that odd and pointed out that perhaps he should contact his mentor or any of the teachers. He assured me all was well. He came to me the other day and sheepishly said that indeed I was right. He got some e-mails from concerned teachers of the other three classes who were wondering why he was not doing his assignments! Apparently, he had to go to another site or place or something to access those classes! He spent the past few days catching up and after doing a lab tomorrow in his Physical Science class, he will be all caught up! *whew*

Jock made the PeeWee AA hockey team!!! Stud and I told him we knew he would make it and even if he did not, we didn't care. We placed no pressure on him and left the decision up to him as to whether he wanted to even try out or not. He opted to try. He had gone for four or five try outs and last night they made the final cut. It is hard to tell outwardly when he is nervous, the only way I know is if he comes right out and tells me. OR if he snaps at anyone even more than usual. That is the clue that he has himself worked up. He told me he was nervous, but I couldn't tell at all. When I saw them all coming back up from down in the room the head coach called them into, I went to talk to Jock. I walked past a friend of his who I knew tried out for one of the goalies. There were three goalies left and I knew they were cutting only one last night. So I walked past "P" and said, "UH??" He knew what that meant and grinned and gave me the thumbs up sign. I was about to ask him if Jock made it or not, but then decided I wanted Jock to tell me himself.

I was watching a friend's little girl who is Princess' age. They also have three boys older and also home school. Her Dad was there, but she wanted to hang around with me so I let her. When she and I went to ask Jock, I wasn't even thinking! Her brother was trying out for goalie. So when Jock said yes, he made it and he did his grin at me, I was so excited and happy for him! Then G (Little girl) piped up, "Did J (her brother) make it??" Jock and some other boys he was with laughed and said, "No!" Then I think Jock realised how mean and rude that was. This was J's little sister. She took off running to tell her Dad. By the time I caught up with her, her Dad already knew. J himself did not even get to tell him! I felt SO BAD, but Stud says I shouldn't, it wasn't my fault. I also feel bad that Jock was so rude about J being the last goalie cut. He has never liked J for some reason. They used to take swimming lessons together. Seems not many of the boys like the poor child. I guess he always brags or something and is actually not nearly as good as he thinks he is. I told Jock that since J made it that far and was the last goalie cut, that is saying something. He just shrugged.

Anyway, Princess is in the tub and Jock has a friend over to spend the night. We brought him back with us from Science class this morning. I had better sign off for now!

In love

2007-08-23T16:22:00.001-07:00

Princess is in love. I know she seems a little young, but we all approve of this guy. He smells a little funny, and has HORRID bathroom habits, but he makes her VERY happy and she LOVES to spend time with him. His name is Charlie. Here is Princess, helping him get groomed and feeling cleaner...

She has been spending two hours with him every morning this week.

She LOVES the classes and we hope to get her set up in private lessons this fall. I was thinking of putting her in the Homeschool classes that they have. Yet when I watch her every morning, I just really feel like one on one instruction would be a lot more cost effective. It is INSANELY expensive and she spends so much time waiting and just sitting there since there are other students in the class.

She is one of the few who feels secure enough to be permitted to ride on her own and not be lead around as much like most of the other students. She is very comfortable and confident and listens well. She takes it very seriously just like ballet and she has learned SO MUCH in this short amount of time. I think she would get a lot more out of it with no distractions and waiting around. So we shall see. Tomorrow is her last day with Charlie for at least three weeks and she is most distraught. She goes to sleep every night honestly MOANING over and over..."Oooooohh...Chhaaarrlliiiieeeee...I miiiisssss yoooouuu...OH! I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU!!! I loooooovvveee yoooouuu!!!!"

As I type this, she is telling her brothers about how excited she is to go on the trail ride tomorrow:)

High School

2007-08-22T17:31:00.000-07:00

Cryptic starts High School this fall. I can't believe it!

Just wanted to show a photo that I just took of him with his lap top. He was VERY annoyed with me for taking it. Too bad, I say.

So I snapped it and he asked, "Do I look bewildered??"

I confirmed that he did. He then turned back to the laptop and mumbled "Good."

Muddled Ponderings of a Canadian Trapped in the States

144 Comments

Long time, no post

WOW

Limits

Lame

Braces

Insight

Brief update

Random things

Dance

A Winter Update

Annual Santa Photo

Cryptic

Thank goodness!

Changes...

Three down, one to go...

Pumpkin Cake Roll

Fun

Character

Advice

Can it be true??

Braces

Last week

Fall Schedule

This will take some getting used to!

CPAP Machine

It's that time of year again...

Sleep much??

Real men wear kilts

Creepy...

Phone call from Clown

Summer time...

Summer time

About time

Not much

Amusing

Princess got a hair cut!

Frustration

Dr. Appointment

Back and Forth

Gotta love it!

Lots of news

She's a hot one...

No Surprise here!

COOL!

Oh my!

Jock's BLOG!!!

Cryptic's surgery

This was fun!

Weekend

General Update

New T-Shirts

How sweet it is...

Spectacular!

Another Fun Tag

Tag!

Hair again

My poor Clown

PRAISE GOD!

Hhhmmmm...not liking it...

*whew*

Hair Help

Any ideas??

Iditarod and randomness

Crazy Eights

Silvertips

Roller Blades and such

Final Truth

More answers revealed

Please don't get snot on me

Some game answers revealed

Fun Game

Beloved Nephew

Mishmash of nothing

Funny yet sad

More Hockey

Hockey Fever

2007 Condensed

Siblings

whew