It had to happen sometime

*SIGH*
Do you remember that feeling, that ugh kind of feeling, that you really really just didn't want to go to class?
I am one of those students who absolutely rued the times I had to miss school due to illness (or bad weather once I reached post secondary)

But once in awhile, when there was so much else to do, so much else going on in my life, I would just want to skip. And very rarely I did.

I now have some more perspective on things, seeing as its been over 7 years since I graduated the last time. Class is not quite as important as simply learning about my future profession.

I am feeling this especially so since one Thursday night when we were expecting some bad weather. My professor had emailed me, saying I could email in my written assignment, and postpone my presentation that night in order to not get stuck in freezing rain. I, needing desperately to complete those two assignments, negotiated that I would indeed attend, but then leave early so as to avoid the worst of the coming storm.

Now, with the last class on Thursday, all of the main learning completed, and a goodly chunk of class time devoted to our end of the semester supper, I am wavering. I really really really am having a hard time convincing myself that I need to be in class. There is so much to do for Christmas at the daycare and at home that the time really would be better spent at home. I could, as told before, just email in my assignment.

But, me being me, I will go to class. That is unless Mother Nature keeps up her Thursday theme and pelts us with some unpleasant weather that would give me an appropriate excuse to not drive two hours up, sit in class for four hours, and drive two hours home.

One can only, sickly and twistedly, hope.

Whew that was a busy week ending in a busy weekend

The girls turned 6 on Friday. I had a group presentation Thursday. I am sure you can see where this is going.

We had the girls birthday party Friday night, about 14-15 people were here as far as I can count. I made homemade lasagnas earlier in the week, and got a friend who does cakes as a side job to make the girls a castle cake. By the time the guests showed up, everything was done, everything was good, and I was absolutely exhausted. I had been to class in Ottawa the night before and didn't get home until after midnight. I'd had about 4 hours sleep.

Pictures of the party and the great birthday cake to follow

Monkey see, monkey do

Hmmmm, I wonder who they've seen behaving like this lately.
Laura even looks like me when I'm doing a reference page for one of my essays.

Bad Motrin, Bad Bad Motrin

I love my motrin. The stuff you buy over the counter is perfect for me when I have a headache or my back is really killing me.

Recently I had tooth problems that ultimately led to the extraction of said tooth. For pain and inflammation, I was prescribed what the dentist called SUPER MOTRIN. I was all for it.

I was taking it sporatically, as needed, for the first week. Then after the tooth was pulled, I took them round the clock with food as prescribed. By the third day after the tooth, I was experiencing some problems. Lightheadedness, a lethargic feeling. Just not good. I thought it was the tail end of the tooth problem.

I was wrong. On day 4, I missed work. Stayed in bed the entire day watching movies and sleeping off and on wrapped in a down comforter AND a furry blanket shivering uncontrollably. I was okay ish on Saturday, but looking back I didn't take any Motrin until later in the day. Sunday, day 6, I was feeling really really bad. I did an internet search, and I stopped taking the drug.
Needless to say I stayed home again on day 7, and called the doctor.
She saw me on day 8. this is the 5th day since the symptoms started, and less than two days of not taking the drug. She checked things out, and confirmed that my internet search was correct.

She said to never take the high dose again, and to use an alternative to the over the counter stuff whenever possible to help my system recover.
She also said that had I continued to take it, my system would have been damaged, and it wouldn't have taken much longer.

Then she said it could be two to three more days until the symptoms really started to go away as the medication cleared my system. Fluids and tea to help flush was all I could do.

Remind me never to take any kind of painkiller for a prolonged time again, cause this really sucks.

Oh, and I forgot

When I wrote yesterday's blog post, I forgot about wrapping presents.

Yeah, I need to find some time to do that too.

Let's start with the birthday ones, and go from there.

When exactly am I going to do that?

Perhaps I should invest in some extra bold extremely caffeinated coffees since apparently I am getting close to cutting into my sleep time.

I can't wait for December 27th!

Wow. I just laid out the calendars for November and December.
Keep in mind I still only have 24 free hours per week, and my part time job is retail, so I will be working more hours.

Here's a rough outline of how things will play out.

I have 4 out of 5 assignments for Education and Development due between November 4 and 25.

I have a card making workshop on the 13th (YAY! I didn't think I'd get to do one)

I have new menu rollout this month at work

The twins turn 6 mid November

That same weekend is my store Christmas get together. I usually make a couple of treats for this.
Mom and Dad will be away early December for a week

Extended hours are on at the mall, meaning I work an extra 4 hours per weekend, hopefully more if the boss says I can pick up some hours on my Saturdays off.

There's also moonlight madness in there that I can work, which is 6-11 pm. Crazy. Yes, I am CRAZY!

I need to bake cookies and other treats for the daycare party, which means staying late or doing some at home for the first few weeks of December.

There's a staff meeting, final class with essay due, and the Christmas Party at the daycare I work at all in one week

I also need to fit in some Christmas baking for ourselves, and some Christmas crafting with the girls to compliment what we are giving for Christmas.

Thankfully, Dec 18th things will slow down considerably. And then on December 27th, I won't know what to do with myself.

Breathe in, breathe out. This is do-able. Really, it is.
I think the only thing saving me is that I have all my Christmas shopping done (and Birthday) for the kids. And I will be doing minimal shopping for everyone else.

What I do in the tiny amount of spare time I have

I try once a month or so to spend a few hours doing something fun. I really enjoy crafting, and was recently introduced to card making by an old friend whom I have reconnected with.

She hosts workshops regularly in her dining room, and does classes as well. (Workshops are free, classes, etc usually have a fee). Below is the first card I ever did embossing on. I am in love with embossing. I have always loved the cards with the metallic accents or writing. Now I know how to do it myself.

Next up, the other half of my paper crafting obsession..... scrapbooking.

Oh, and if you want to see what else my friend can do, click here to view her blog of wonderful cards and other great ideas.

I will admit, I did screw up his head, but that's how I learn, by screwing things up.

Halloween 2010

Hello all,

Just thought I would share a couple of pictures of the girls from Halloween. Laura was a vampire, but by the time she got home after trick or treating with her dad, she didn't feel very good and couldn't put her teeth in for me.
Mackenzie was a ballerina. Her outfit was modified, due to unforeseen inability to get it off to use the toilet. Daddy found out the hard way.

Update

Sorry folks, but as you can see from this post , I haven't really had a lot of time to devote to doing things that aren't "required" (homework, class, eating, sleeping, bathing, etc.) so I thought I would take the time while the kitchen floor is drying to post an update.

I started my first SUNY MST Ottawa course (you can check it out here) on September 2nd. The driving was really annoying at first, the 416 is an awful highway. There is about an hour or so where you don't pass any easily accessible services, so if you gotta go, well, your out of luck in finding facilities close to the highway. I have since found a geat route that cuts cross country and seems to have shaved some time off my drive. I use a completely different route at night, to keep things changing.

I also have a great cell phone plan that means I can use my bluetooth to call friends and family when class is done early and catch up while I drive home. (Its handsfree people, get the dirty looks off your faces)

It would appear I have the driving part figured out. As for the course, the first one was Foundations of Education, we had a lot of articles to read, did some interviewing, and generally got acquainted with the nuances of the profession and the current pedagogy. It was a great start, the professor is excellent, and I got a fantastic mark, 92.1%. The next course in the series is Development and Education, which I started this past Thursday. I already am loving this course because my major interest while doing my undergraduate degree was development. I also repeated development while completing my ECE requirements.

Should be a good review and expansion of my previous knowledge. I am looking forward to looking at development from the education angle.

Other than that, the girls are well settled into our new routine, they enjoy their Thursdays with Grammy, are doing very well in their new school, and have gymnastics again this year. They also participate in karate class during one lunch hour a week at school.

Well, the floor is dry, I need to get back at it. I have seriously neglected many aspects of cleaning whilst studying lately.

With any luck I will get back on here sooner next time.

Well............

I'm not sure how to start this post. There is so much going on right now, so much I am trying to do, and so much I must get ready for.

For the last two years, I have lived this life of complete and utter FLY BY THE SEAT OF MY PANTS existence. And while that is how things needed to be for me to work through the stuff that has happened in recent years, and figure who I am as a single person, and a single parent, its time I get back on the "I'm so organized I make people sick" bandwagon.

I have been attempting the math to figure out just how much time I am going to have to devote to things when I add graduate school to my schedule on Sept 2.

Here's how it breaks down.

In a week, there are 7 days, 24 hours per day. That's 168

I tend to be an eight hour kinda gal, so lets take out 8 hours per day for sleeping

168 - 56 = 112

I work about 32 hours a week at the daycare, so that leaves 80 hours. 6 hours a week at the store, leaves 74. Lets say I use 4 hours a week going to and from work, and shuttling children.

Down to 70.

3 hours a week on the real estate stuff, leaves 67

5 hours of class, plus two hours there, two hours back, that's 58.

When I was in university I was told to plan for at least 2-3 hours of work outside of class for every hour you spend in class.

Lets say 15 hours per week devoted to studies - now we're down to 45

I get up at 6 every morning, do my banking,etc, then get the kids ready. We leave at 7:30. That's an hour and a half every day to get up, get ready and have breakfast. 5*1.5=7.5

Okay, so now I have 37.5 hours

Two hours per week for going to gymnastics, gymnastics time, coming home,

35.5

An hour and a half per week for going to swimming, swim, coming home

34

Um, so that's 34 hours including weekends to cook dinner, hang with my girls and clean my house.

It sounds like a lot, until you realize that I have every other weekend off. That's a full 48 hours. But with everything I have to plan in my schedule, I have less than that leftover.

Oh, and an hour and a half taking the girls to their father pretty much every week.

Down to 32 1/2.

Thank goodness I only have to keep this up for 10 months out of the year. I'm going to need that two months to regroup, refresh, and prepare for the next ten months.

Now to just stop the panic attack from thinking about all of this.......

On burns and wonder remedies

Well, I was in the kitchen (where I spend half my life these days!) and I had put a large cookie sheet in the sink to cool. I didn't wait long enough. Burnt the crease of my palm, and a bunch of finger pads.
The fingers didn't bother me so much, but the crease was pretty painful. I still had all the lunch dishes to do and a bunch of prep work for the afternoon. Not pleasant.
On my lunch break I stopped in at the drugstore, thinking I'd get something to put on my burn.
On the shelf were these bandaid pads made for burns. They have a gel pad that cools. I spent the few bucks on them and hope they worked at least a little.
I put the pad on the burn in the crease, and the burn felt like it disappeared.
I love these things.

Ahhh now I get it

In my last post I said I had expected that my girls would come home toothless. I thought this was strange. I didn't press it, but wondered why they hadn't asked to have their teeth pulled at Dads. They were literally hanging out when they got home.

So in the car yesterday, they were talking about their teeth. Laura said Daddy was going to pull her tooth with tools. Aha, that's why the teeth were still in. Both started to go on about how no way was Daddy putting squeezy tools on their teeth to pull out. Laura's statement was actually "mommy has way better ideas about teeth pulling, no tools, never."

I find this funny. I didn't realize they would have this reaction. I understand why my ex would use pliers gently - his fingers don't fit in the girls mouths very well. And he would have a hard time getting ahold of such tiny teeth.

I guess that means I get to pull all their teeth, at least until they start trying it out on their own.

FINALLY I get to pull another tooth!

Over a month ago I announced that Mackenzie had her first loose tooth.

Finally the tooth was ready tonight, and with a little encouragement from my anxious girl (anxious to be a BIG KID that is), I yanked it out.

I was pretty sure that when I took them to their father's this weekend, they would both come home less one tooth each. Guess I was wrong. My girls waited for Mommy to pull their teeth.

Laura went first, hers second tooth was being pushed by an adult one, so it was very ready.

Then Mackenzie's turn. I must admit, Mack is more squeamish, and she frets over blood, but she bore up, let me pull, and sponged up the blood with a Kleenex while BOUNCING on her sister's bed. She was just overjoyed at finally losing her first tooth.

This is just one of those nights...

One of the reasons I started this blog was because writing about some of my experiences is cathartic. It calms me down when my world caves in.

So, I have no idea what to write, because, well, sometimes the world seems like it is exactly the opposite of what it should be. This is one of those nights.

Its the kind of night that when I was married, or even before, I would soak my ex's shirt, just to get it all out. Now I soak my own shirt, with the labrador watching close by. I do miss those t shirts on night like this.

But, we all have to let it out sometime. And my girls aren't here to see me upset and get upset themselves, so its a good time. It was a rough week last week, and on a few occasions, I was so frustrated or overwhelmed that the tears threatened, but, well, I just didn't have the time or the energy. Now I do. A hot bath, a sappy movie, a cold cloth, and my soft bed will all make me a new person by morning.

I just have to remember to breathe in and breathe out. Everything else will follow.

I finally saw Parliament Hill

Its funny, I've lived an hour and a half from Ottawa for 20 years.
I went to school an hour and a half from Ottawa for 20 years.
Everyone I know has seen, been inside, or taken a tour of Parliament Hill.

Then why the heck haven't I been? Its kinda like I lived in Toronto for almost 9 years, I visited every summer for so many years after that and never went up the CN tower.

So yesterday, my Mom and I took a little road trip. The basis of the trip was to find the building where the classes I am starting in the fall are housed. Get timing on the trip, and a general sense of whats nearby.

Then we had the rest of the day to do whatever.

We were in the Byward market, when Mom pointed out the building where my cousin works. On a whim, I plucked my phone from my purse, texted him, and discovered he was not that far away, and not busy. He would finish what he was doing, and meet us in the market in a little while.

We hung out, grabbed something to eat at the Patisserie where Barack Obama bought cookies on his visit to Ottawa, and looked through the stalls. Some were very tempting. Especially the one with Disney princess dress replicas.

Then we split up, and Cousin S took me on a walk around Parliament Hill. Doesn't sound that exciting, but its been something lacking in my civics education since I was in elementary school. And my cousin, he knows a lot about Ottawa, the history, and some really neat little facts.He's in the media, so he is often on the ground when interesting things are happening, and he has a knack for sharing his knowledge and his experiences that makes it all really enjoyable.

Like I said, we ate where Obama stopped for cookies, he showed me where the PM pulls up with is motorcade, gave me some of the history of Parliament Hill, and the refurbishment of the exterior, showed me where he was during the riots when Bush was in Ottawa, took me to the "cat house" where the stray cats from parliament hill live, and some other neat little things that you never know about until you live there.

It was an enjoyable day. I don't often get to spend time with this particular cousin, the last time we spent time together without distraction was when we were writing a very difficult eulogy, which we would deliver together the next day.

We ended this day in a Scottish pub, watching the England - US match of the FIFA tournament, waiting for my mom to find us. Cousin S's theory, Scottish pub would be supporting England, and Mom could find us by smelling for the single malt.

I am so glad I pulled my phone out of my purse and texted him.

Loose tooth update

Well, back in about the middle of May, Kenzie got her first loose tooth. Its still there. She barely even wiggles it. Its going to take forever to come out. Laura will have lost more teeth before Kenz loses this first one.

Um, Mr Fireman, Sir... I'm sorry,

Today was one of those days when you want the world to open up swallow you whole.

The children at the daycare love these little miniature hamburgers I make. I usually cook them on the griddle, but I was advised that it was a safety concern as I don't have a proper commercial extinguishing hood. I was instructed to start making them in the oven in a shallow pan on high heat.

So, the little burgers were almost done, but the grease all around them was smoking slightly. I kept an eye on them and had the exhaust fan on the highest setting. I was winning the battle. Then, as I pulled the pan from the oven, a plume of blue smoke rose up, I watched it go straight up the fume hood, and assumed I was okay. I grabbed 6 little burgers and went to feed the youngest room of children - I was a couple of minutes behind owing to the new cooking method. As I returned to the kitchen, I realized it was FULL of smoke. I tried to hop up on the counter to reach my window and open it, but too late.


BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP Strobe lights flashing, tons of noise, and me surrounded by the clearing smoke, dreading the moment the truck pulled up (and also the razzing I know is coming from my coworkers).

We cleared the building, I informed the person in charge there was no fire, that it was my fault, the burgers had smoked too much. I waited for the fire truck out front while the children enjoyed to sunny grass park next to our centre.

The first truck pulled up, the Captain (the man in the RED hat) looked at me sternly as I explained. I damn near cried. His only words were "Okay, show us."

So with me leading the way, the captain fireman and two hottie fireman (and I mean calendar material) examined my kitchen, and the baking sheet with the burgers. Needless to say my face was as RED as the captains hat.

They cleared us to re enter, we thanked them profusely, and parted ways.

I'm never making mini burgers EVER EVER EVER AGAIN!

Note: when I made them my way, we never had to evacuate, so please be kind. It is rather humiliating as it is. I'm thinking Sloppy Joes is a great substitute.

Well,,,,,,

Well........ I have been pretty busy with things around here. Thus far, in between the three jobs and the twins - including the twins being sick - I have managed to paint 3 walls of my house. One wall is a milk chocolate colour, and the rest will be taupe. I am loving the way it looks in here, the chocolate and taupe go great together (they were on the same swatch sheet). Well, back to the painting and all the extra cleaning that goes along with it.

Sigh...where have my babies gone?

Well, as anyone who has been reading along knows, Laura lost her first tooth on Mother's Day. She got $5 for it and has been talking about it non stop ever since.

Tonight, as I was yet again taking a sip of coffee, I hear the all too familiar words "Mommy my tooth is wiggly!"

It was Mackenzie this time. Same tooth, same degree of wiggliness. However, with this child, I doubt the tooth will be worked on until it is ready to be pulled. I think, in this case, it will take the two or three days, possibly even a week, like it should.

Stay tuned, I see a tooth fairy visit in the near future.

Loose tooth part deux.

As I thought, last night Laura's tooth did pull rather easily around 6pm. She couldn't stand the feeling of a wiggly tooth and worked it like crazy until it was ready. I was really hesitant to pull it for her when it came down to it. I didn't want to hurt her, I didn't want this experience to be a bad one for both her sake and Mackenzie's. I seriously considered driving to Mom and Dad's place to have Dad pull it for her. This picture was taken about two minutes after the pull.

I gave a lot of thought to what the tooth fairy should bring. I did a little facebook poll, and my Aunt gave me a great idea. $5 for the first tooth, then $1 for each tooth thereafter. I thought it was a good idea to recognize the first tooth as being extra special - and thankfully I had a five in my wallet since it was 6 pm on a Sunday.

Here she is around 5:30 this morning showing off the "paper money" the toothfairy left her. Her tooth magically gone from its special box.

Tonight, she said her mouth felt funny again. I checked and the tooth directly to our right is now loose. I think this is the beginning of me keeping a roll of loonies hidden somewhere, and a fiver for my other big girl for her first tooth.

Laura, ever generous, asked me after supper today if we could go spend her paper money on something special that she and Mackenzie could share to play with.