Thursday, November 30, 2006

Why?

Why do they wreck things just for the sake of destruction?

Why do they take everything out the desk drawers simply to throw it all over the floor and stomp around on it?

Why do they take all the little numbers off of my embroidery cotton so I don't know what colour is what anymore?

Why when I am cleaning up the mess they made do they scamper off to find more trouble? (I'd make them clean it up, but they'd wreck what was left to salvage)

Why do they take all the papers I need to deliver to the preschool and throw them all over the bedroom floor when I specifically asked them not to touch them?

Why do they keep dragging all the toys out of the closet and onto the top bunk when they know they are not allowed up there?

And why can they manage to do all of this in less than 10 minutes?

I think I might know the answer.....they are three. It still makes me feel insane.

Why are cages and padlocks illegal?

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Quiet day today

It was just me, Anna and Beth at home for most of today. Katie was at school, and the kids I babysit were home sick. Beth was supposed to be in school too, but she has an awful cough and although she feels okay, her cough is so bad when it gets started that you think her lungs are going to explode. I thought it would be best for her to stay home and inside where it's warm for a couple of days. Hopefully her cough is better by Thursday when she has school again.

It's been snowing almost non stop since Sunday evening. Chris shovelled this morning, and within a couple hours it needed shovelling again. Dance class was cancelled because our teacher comes in from the city and I guess she didn't want to drive on the highways like this, although the highways are usually much better than the city and town streets. Chris is in the city now trying to get some Christmas shopping done but it's taking him so long to get from place to place that he's never going to get done at this rate. I am hoping I can get in to the city this weekend to do my shopping, or some of it anyways. We're hoping to decorate the house on Sunday so that just leaves Saturday for shopping. Of course everyone will be at the malls, so it will be insane. I do not plan to take the kids though or I would never last an hour.

Friday, November 24, 2006

Mom's Night In!

I know, most moms need a mom's night out, but tonight I get to spend the evening at home...ALONE! Chris is going to take all the girls to the city today after school for supper and a movie. They are going to a fancy restaurant some of you may have heard of....Burger King, it's so fancy you have to not only wear shoes, but socks. Well the socks are actually only required for the play area, lol. That's where the girls always want to go for supper and we rarely take them, because I like a restaurant where you don't have to stand in line for you food. Truth be told, it's Burger King they ask for or the Zeller's restaurant, sad eh? They like Zellers because it's, in their words, old fashioned like when mommy and daddy were little. It's decorated like a 50's diner....God they must think I am old. Katie likes it because she thinks it looks like the Peach Pit...way too much 90210 watching going on in our house, which is all my fault, lol.
So while the kids are away, I could be doing all sorts of things. A bubble bath, or a nap, or watching tv completely uninterrupted are all things that come to mind. I won't get a chance to do anything fun like that though, since tomorrow is the Trade Fair/Market in town and I have a table to sell my Epicure. I'm not allowed by the company to sell any stock, so I can only take catalogue orders, but I will have all the products I own along with me so people can smell and taste the spices. I'll also have dip samples made up for people to try. Hopefully I'll get lots of orders and a few parties booked. It would be nice to have a little extra Christmas money. So tonight I have to get everything ready, make the samples, and load up the van as soon as Chris and the girls are home so I am ready to head out tomorrow at 9am. Wish me luck on my first Fair/Market!

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

I think it's coming

Darn winter.

We've been so lucky lately, the weather has been beautiful. The last week has been above zero every day. On Chris's days off we were able to get some Christmas lights hung up, and our inflatable snowman set up as well, and we didn't freeze our butts off doing it. The kids have been able to play outside for more than 5 minutes at a time which they have enjoyed so much. They started a snow fort a few days ago, which unfortunately has been shrinking every day with the above zero weather, but they keep working at it, stealing snow from the neighbors' yards.

This morning it was a completely different story though. I was awake around 6am (not awake enough to get up and work on that morning people thing though) listening to the wind howl. I just knew it was going to be cold. By 8am when the kids were up the wind had died down a bit, but it was definitely colder than we've been used to. My thermometer says it's -12 C, which normally at this time of year would feel warm, but considering it's 15 degrees colder today than yesterday it sure doesn't feel warm. I wonder where I could live that there is lots of snow all winter long, but warm temperatures to go along with the snow? Not necessarily above zero, because the snow would never last, but anywhere between 0 C and -5 C would be perfect. I don't think Saskatchewan is that place, but maybe with some Global Warming it could be arranged? Time to get working on that mini power plant in my backyard and to get myself a Hummer I guess.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Are they cats or dogs?

We have two cats. I think they weigh about the same as 4 cats. They do the normal cat things, chase toys, chase each other, lay around the majority of the day, catch mice, attack and bite your feet under the covers etc. They do have one dog trait however. They both love to drink out of the toilet. Even when they have fresh water in their bowl, they choose the toilet. I was able to catch a picture of Rufio in action one evening. He climbs right onto the toilet seat and dips his head in.


Domino does it differently. He somehow manages to keep both his hind feet on the floor and stretch his body up and around and into the bowl. He was waiting patiently outside the bathroom door while Rufio was having his turn. I couldn't get a picture of him having a drink since he seemed to get stage fright once he saw the camera and just layed on the bathmat waiting for me and the camera to leave. I did snap him waiting his turn though.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

The birds and the bees toddler style

Anna crawls into bed with Chris and I almost every night, so she's always there to cuddle in the morning. The last couple of mornings she's been giving us her insight regarding babies. She is sure I am having another one. This morning Katie and Beth were there to join in the conversation that went something like this:

Anna (laying across my tummy shaking it back and forth): Tum out baby Sally! Tum out baby Sally! It time for brefast.

Katie: Mommy is not having another baby.

Anna: Uh huh. Dust one more baby in mommy's tummy. I tan see it moving.

Katie: It's not a baby Anna.

Beth: Yeah, mommy's tummy is just really fat. (kids always point out the painful truth don't they?)

Anna: NO! It a baby, dust one more baby.

Beth: Mommy isn't having another baby. The doctor sewed her up so no more can get out. (A five year old's explanation of a tubal ligation I guess)

Katie: How will the baby get out Anna?(uh oh...moving into dangerous territory now, leave it to the 9 year old to steer the conversation in this direction).

Anna: Dat baby will poke a hole in mommy's bellybutton and det out.

At this point Katie and Beth collapse into complete giggles. I'm not sure how they think babies get out, but they know enough that Anna's explanation isn't true. Of course I was laughing too, so maybe they just wanted to look smart, and laughed along.

Now Anna takes her finger and sticks it in my bellybutton and GASPS!

Anna: I tan feel Sally's Finger!!!

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Night out

Last night Chris and I went to the local Dinner Theatre. They have done a production in town every year for the last 15 years. Apparently it's quite a fundraiser for the community hall, and even the library makes a few hundred dollars doing a coat check. The food is almost all donated by townspeople, with the exception of the roast beef. The conveners for the food open the phone book and start phoning around and asking people to bring certain items. I have done a dessert every year since we moved here, and honestly this year I didn't want to do anything. Chris was bar tending the first night the play opened so I figured that was good enough. Of course when I received the phone call I couldn't say no, lol. So tomorrow afternoon I have to make a whack of mashed potatoes. Actually they said a dutch oven full, but since I really have no idea if I even have a dutch oven, a whack will have to do. My neighbor, who went with us last night to the play, had to bring a pound of butter. How did she get off so easy? Last year she took pickles. Oh well.

The production was really quite funny. I think there were 8 actors (all local of course) and 4 of them had never before been in a play. The play was written by someone from Saskatchewan so it was very easy to identify with the play. It was about a farming family with 2 sons and a daughter. One son is a radio dj who is happy not being on the farm anymore, the daughter married a local farmer, and the other son plans to work on the farm, but he was away working in Calgary over the winter and brought his city girlfriend home to stay. I laughed a lot.

While we were out the kids had their favorite babysitter. They did each others hair with container of barrettes and took pictures. I was going to upload them this morning to show off, but they forgot to use the flash so none of them turned out. Sorry. They stayed up late, at popcorn and watched movies. They just love having a babysitter.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Guilt Free Potty Training

Do you think it's a myth? I used to, until I discovered the secret to feeling no mommy guilt when potty training. Train someone else's kid! Seriously, it's guilt free. There is no worrying that it's never going to happen and that they will be in diapers forever, there's no worry that they should be trained at their age already, etc. And you don't feel bad or guilty about anything.

I babysit a 2 yr old every other day during the week. She just turned two so she's at the age where she could start showing interest in using the toilet, or she could just care less. Unlike my own kids were at 2 she's interested already.With all three of ours, they really didn't show any interest until they were over two and a half at the earliest. Of course by the time they are two and a half you have already heard from dozens of people about when their kids trained and how it was so much sooner than two and a half. That's when the guilt first hits.

Honest to goodness, just as I was typing that paragraph above, Anna who is completely daytime trained, just looked at me from the middle of the living room and said "I'm peeing on the floor". Sure enough there was a puddle at her feet. Thank goodness for laminate floors, lol. Anyways...

As I was saying... You start to wonder when you have one of those late trainers (or three of those late trainers) if you are doing something wrong (guilt), if there is something wrong with your kid and you have not picked up the cues (guilt) or if you just don't know what the heck you are doing (guilt). Overall my kids weren't incredibly difficult to train, and although they seemed like they were such late trainers, current trends show that age 34 mos is average for girls (almost 38 mos for boys). Beth and Katie were trained before 3, Anna was a little older than 3. That statistic of 34 mos however comes from the Huggies people, so by making parents of 'late trainers' feel better about the age of their non trained child, they are serving their own company's interests, but whatever.

So this potty training half time someone else's kid is a breeze. If she goes, she goes. If she doesn't she doesn't. I don't have to listen to all the well intentioned potty training stories, I don't have to clean up accidents (she's still in diapers full time here), I don't have laundry to do, etc. When she pees in her diaper, I have no guilt whatsoever. Maybe it's because most days she is here I have 4 other kids to worry about as well, so we are not actually focused on the potty training thing. She sometimes tells me she wants to go on the toilet, and we give it a try. Today she's having lots of success, a few days ago, not so much. I don't feel stressed that it should be happening consistently yet, I don't feel guilt that I don't always have the time to sit in the bathroom with her or pick up on all her cues. At the end of the day, as much as I adore her, it's not my 'problem', lol. No guilt, no stress. Hooray for other people's kids!

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Christmas Shopping Already?

Can you believe Christmas is almost here? So many people I have talked to have not only started their Christmas shopping, but are done! I always think we need to start early to get everything picked out and payed for, and I have every intention of doing that, but early for me isn't as early for everyone else. I figure the last week of November would leave lots of time to get all the shopping done, but now I am starting to second guess myself because of all these people who are done before December arrives.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Remembrance Day

This morning Chris was participating in the Remembrance Day program in a neighbouring town. This was the first year since we have lived here that I went along with the kids. When we first moved here Beth was a baby, and then when she was getting old enough to sit through a program requiring some silence, Anna was a baby. So we've never been. I honestly can't remember the last time I was at a Remembrance Day program, before I kids probably.

It was a nice, short program, with about a hundred people in attendance and there was a lunch afterwards. Anna knew there was going to be food, so at every single small pause, and in between songs, she asked me, sometimes quite loudly "Now is it suppertime?". Poor kid must have been starving, or bored, most likely the latter. I think Katie was the only one of the three who had any idea of why Remembrance Day is important.

There was a program in town today as well, but we missed that one. There is a dance this afternoon though with a supper to follow. We'll head down to the dance when there is about an hour left and stay for the supper.Two meals in a row that I didn't have to prepare....that's nice. Chris worked until 4am last night and then was up at 9am for the program, so he's spending the afternoon napping as he is back at work tonight at 7pm.

Friday, November 10, 2006

An 'udderly' fun day.

Well the kids are finally in bed, but unfortunately are not asleep yet. We made it out of town around noon which was a little later than planned, but it was nice to have a relaxing, non-rushed morning. Once we got to the city we made a stop at my aunt's and then were off to Howie's Barber Shop, which is actually owned and run by a guy named Ron, not Howie. Chris needed a haircut pretty badly but Ron, who normally cuts his hair, was gone, so he had to get one of the ladies to do it. As luck would have it, he got the slow one. It's a good haircut, but it took forever. The other lady did 3 guys hair in the time it took Chris's to do one. It looks great though.

By the time we got out of there and over to where the movie theatre is we only had about half an hour to eat before the movie started so we ate at the mall food court. We made it to the movie just in time to find the last group of 5 seats together and for the lights to dim. We watched Barnyard, which the girls loved and even Chris and I thought was pretty good. It was slightly disturbing that the male cattle in this movie had udders, but I guess I should be thankful that they were not anatomically correct right? That would be way too much bull for my taste.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Time for a break

So after some confusion over schedules, it's been determined that I am not babysitting tomorrow. Some of you may know that I went a little bit crazy in the fall and took on some extra babysitting responsibilities. Last year I babysat a little girl every other weekday, which was perfect since I still had 2 or 3 days in the week to run errands, head to the city for appointments, whatever. I am still babysitting her, but I am also babysitting full time for another family this year. That family has three kids. One is a couple years younger than Katie and in school every day, one is Beth's age, and in school every other day and one is Anna's age, so home every day except for 2 hrs of preschool one day a week. Needless to say it can be pretty hectic at our house. Especially this week since I had my every other day kid every day and today there was no school here in town so I even had the school kids home today. That meant 7 kids total running around my house. Surprisingly enough between play dough, computers, coloring, movies and toys the day goes by pretty quickly and the kids are never bored. Chris was a saint today and took all the kids except the sleeping one to the school park where there is a big snow hill to go tobogganing. The older kids had a great time, but Chris came home within half an hour with 2 crying preschoolers who didn't want to sled anymore.

So back to my day off tomorrow...I am really looking forward to spending the day with my girls, just my girls and no extra kids, lol. Chris is on nights so we are all going to sleep in a bit in the morning and then just before lunch we're going to head into the city. I have some stuff to drop off at my aunt's, Chris needs a haircut and we are taking the kids to a matinee. I think we'll do popcorn and everything. I'm sure it will be a lot of fun, and I know the kids are looking forward to having me all to themselves. What's even better, is I never babysit on the weekends, and I get Monday off too! A nice long weekend with just my girlies! I can't wait!

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Winter Wonderland

Well it's official. Winter is definitely here. It's been cold like winter lately, but has not looked like winter. Today it's snowing, and it's snowing a lot! Big fluffy flakes. The kids wore their snowsuits and boots to school today and will actually need them.
When I woke up a couple of hours ago, there was a light layer of frost on the ground and cars. Then about half an hour ago the snow started. It may all melt, but I have a funny feeling it's actually here to stay. I love the look of winter, just hate the cold.


It's hard to see, but it's actually snowing quite a lot in these pictures.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Coffee is the secret

Or so I have been told by a good friend. If I want to be one of those morning people, coffee is the answer!

Step #1 to being Morning People: Set the delay on the coffee pot before I go to bed (at a decent hour, probably should be before 11pm) and the smell should help perk me up in the morning.

Step #2: Actually go to bed at a decent hour.

Step #3: Don't got to bed and read until 1am, just go to bed.

Morning People

It's 7:30am. I've been up since 7:00am. I've had time to shower, dress, put on moisturizer, comb my hair and sit down at my laptop and check email and all the forums I belong to. And I was able to do all of that in complete peace and quiet. The tv's off, no one is asking me to help them with this or that, none of the kids are asking for more Halloween candy, it's just plain quiet. And it's so nice.

I could be one of those morning people except for one small detail. I'm tired. I could easily have spent 2 more hours in bed. I wonder how one goes about turning into one of those morning people? I suppose it would mean going to bed much earlier than 1am like last night. I really should try the morning thing for a couple of weeks and see if the early bedtime sacrifice is worth it. And then if I truly became a morning person, I could maybe even become of of those morning people who EXERCISE in the morning. It could happen...Maybe.

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Thank-You Bell

Just a quick note to thank Bell ExpressVu for their thoughtfulness. They have remembered us lowly prairie folk who do not observe the time change twice a year. Our satellite receivers do everything necessary so that we do not miss or forget any of our favorite TV shows. For instance the time on the guide does not change at all and they even move all our timers ahead an hour so that the correct shows come on, or record. However, they have forgotten one small, insignificant detail. Some of those satellite stations, if you can believe it, originate here, in this insignificant province. Those timers have also been moved ahead an hour, so much for remembering that our province is time change challenged.

So thanks Bell, I missed Lost this week, and although I am sure Criminal Minds is a fantastic program, it's not Lost. At least I have my trusty friend the Internet, to save the day when TV fails, and it doesn't care what time my clock says, it loves me back anyways.


Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Friday, November 03, 2006

I'd like to buy a vowel Pat

I received an email today with a link for Halloween Hangman. It's a few days late, but still fun to pass a bit of time.

Halloween Hangman created by The Dimension's Edge, Inc.

Give it a whirl if you have a few minutes to kill.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

1,2,3 and A,B,C!

Today I was the parent helper in Anna's preschool class. I've learned something about preschool teachers, they need to either have the patience of a saint or be hard of hearing. Wow, can 10 three and four year olds be busy and loud! It was a good loud though, as they were all having a lot of fun. A good loud? Is that like a dry heat? Something you say to make a not so nice situation seem a teeny bit better? Really though, in all seriousness, I had fun with all the kids.

I was served 'tea' and cake in the kitchen area, helped put some potato head people back together, read a few stories, dance around with a bean bag on my head and played dinosaur families until a small dinosaur war broke out! Anna had a blast with me there, although I suspect she's not nearly as clingy with the other parent helpers as she was with me. But now my duty is done and it's not my turn to help out again until December sometime. I am hoping that after Christmas I can spend a couple hours in each of Katie and Beth's classroom as well. Beth will love it, Katie will probably wish she could stay home sick that day. She's getting to the age where she is more embarrassed by her parents than proud. I'd better get used to it though, since I don't think that will change until she's past the teenage years.