On a very serious note

This video was posted on an online playgroup I belong to. It found it very frightening and disturbing. Please watch and if you have kids, seriously consider looking into purchasing a new type of smoke alarm. If you don't have kids, maybe a new smoke alarm would be something you could buy for your grandchildren or nieces and nephews. Also you can check out this link http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/118/4/1623 for some statistical data of a study done comparing the beeping smoke alarm and the voice smoke alarm. I'm sure there are a lot more studies out there, but I didn't look for any more. This was enough to convince me.

Rick and Polly

Polly Pockets. Delightful miniature dolls with stretchy vinyl clothes. Years ago they used to be teeny tiny, micro-small dolls that you couldn't dress and undress, but things have changed. Just like barbies, most of the clothes are impossible for little kids to put on and off, so mom and dad have to play too. Well, just like Barbie had Ken, Polly has her man. Rick. I'm not sure Rick and Polly stand a chance though. They may succumb to the same fate as Barbie and Ken.

Poor Rick. It was bad enough that the poor guy belonged to a Polly set called Glitz and Glam that came with a sparkly car, sparkly clothes and sparkly cats. I guess he didn't stand a chance. Especially considering daddy was the one playing Polly's with Anna that fateful day. The day when Rick finally gave in to his inner demons...

Basement renos are on hold until we get our building permit and first inspection. There is not much more we can do before that happens or we'll have to rip walls down. Hopefully we'll get the permit this week (we applied a week ago) and then can arrange an inspection soon.

In the meantime I've started some scrap booking. I finished my first page last night. It's of Katie when she was 2 yrs old playing in the leaves.

The picture quality is not the greatest. The paper is a lot more orange in real life. Now I have to pick out a few pictures of Beth and do a page for her. The plan is that each girl will get an album. I'll do them one page at a time, so you can expect the albums to be complete as each girl moves out on their own, I'm that slow. As is common in most families, I have tons of pictures of Katie to choose from, less of Beth and I'll have to use every single picture of Anna ever taken to fill her album!

Or, they'll each get a few pages and then I will get bored of scrap booking like I do with my many other hobbies. Knitting lasted 2 scarves.

Basement Reno's Cont'd

Katie's room still pretty much looks the same except there is more junk in that space than there was before. More specifically a giant tub box, that is now a shelf for junk. It even has the bathroom sink sitting on it.

However, this means we now have a tub and a sink (and a toilet if you're worried) ready to go into the bathroom space as soon as the line fitter guy we made friends with has time to come over and do some plumbing for us.

The office now has a wall making it a real room! This is looking at the wall from what will one day be the family room.

Inside the office there is going to be the access to the storage room that is under the stairs and behind the bathroom. This is the door...all I can fit in the picture. Chris is down there right now drywalling the rest of the office.

The Bathroom!

It has a door now, but the door is not actually secured onto anything, it's just squeezed into its spot. So far we've been lucky and it has not fallen.

This is looking into the bathroom from inside Katie's room. The second picture is looking into the bathroom from where the wall behind the tub will be one day.

She can see clearly now....

I need to start off with a short letter to my sister.

Dear Amber,

I am sorry I promised more basement pictures 3 days ago and have not posted them yet. Actually I have not even taken them yet. But I will. Soon. After Christmas.

Yours Truly,

Corra

Okay, that's done and out of the way. So on to the big news at home here. We had the yearly optometrist appointments last week. Every year for the last couple of years we have been prepared to hear that Katie would need glasses. Chris got his in grade school sometime, I got mine in grade 5 or 6, so we figured it was inevitable. Each year we are slightly surprised when they say her eyes are fine. In fact a couple of years ago it was Beth they wanted to keep a close eye on because she was more farsighted than she should be at her age, which was not what we thought we would hear. Her eyes are good now though, still slightly farsighted, but within normal range for a six year old.

This year however we were 99.9% sure Katie would leave the office with a prescription. We've noticed over the last couple of months that she doesn't see as well as she should. She'll be sitting at the kitchen table and we'll ask her what time the microwave says, and she has to get up and walk to it to read it. Street signs were also bad, she couldn't read them until we were almost driving past them. Sure enough, she needed glasses! She was so excited about it, more excited than I thought she would be. We went out that evening and picked out a couple pairs of frames (2 for 1...yay) and they were ready the next day. I took her to get them fitted and all the way home in the van she read signs, and was so excited about things she could see, like the individual bricks in a brick building. I guess we sort of take our eyesight for granted, even those of us with glasses, and we forget how fuzzy the world can be when you can't see well.

She is so happy to have her new glasses, and very excited that they were ready in time to wear when we go see family over Christmas. She can't wait to show them off!

Katie's favorite are the dark frames, but I like the other one. The picture really doesn't show just how cute they are.

The Basement Renovations have started!

It's very exciting!

When we moved in the basement was unfinished except for the exterior wall framing. It was great because a lot of work had been done yet we had complete say as to how we were going to design the basement. Our plan is to build a bathroom, a bedroom, an office (with a window so it can be considered a bedroom when we sell), a family room, a storage room, and a utility/laundry room. The exact design of each room has changed over the few months we've lived here, and I am sure they will change slightly as we build, but we've actually started! I say we, when mostly I mean Chris has started, but I held some framing still while he put a few screws in and held some drywall up so he could do the same, so I have helped, a little.

I decided I needed some 'before' pictures tonight, but some of the interior framing has been started so they are not completely before pictures.

The Bathroom

First picture: To the left of Katie are the stairs.

Second picture: Looking into the bathroom from where the bedroom will be. To the right where all the boxes are will be the storage room. The bathroom will end right about where the blue drywall ends.

The Laundry/Utility Room

Excuse the huge mess of the basement.

Family Room

The Office

Hail Mary

My kids go to a Roman Catholic school. We are not Roman Catholic. They say prayers three times a day at school. In the morning it's Our Father, which my kids know. At lunch it's grace, and is different depending on the teacher. Before school lets out they say Hail Mary. There is no Hail Mary in our church. Tonight at dinner, after grace, Katie started to say Hail Mary (to see if Beth knew it) and Beth joined in. Between the two of them, this is what we heard:

Hail Mary, full of grace,
The Lord is with Thee.
Blessed art Thou among Swimmin',
and blessed is the fruit of Thy Mung, Jesus
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Beth laughed at the end and told me her teacher says Women not Swimmin', and then told me her whole class says Swimmin' and they think it's funny their teacher says it incorrectly. Katie says Mung (Beth just mumbles through the last few lines) and she has no idea what a Mung might be, but followed along anyways. Chris and I laughed so hard and when Katie discovered what the real words were she laughed pretty hard. So hard she almost spit soup out of her mouth. Beth and Anna laughed too, but I'm sure had no idea that it was funny and just wanted to join in. I'm sure Beth will continue to say Blessed art Thou among Swimmin' along with her classmates.

Makes me wonder how many Catholics die wondering what swimming has to do with Mary and what the heck a Mung is?

Wall Clmbing Pictures...as promised

I didn't take these because as usual I forgot my camera. I am going to have to start chaining it to my neck. There are none of her at the top of the wall, but she made it up there quite a few times.

On Belay!

If you know my kids and I asked you which one was the bravest, I bet you wouldn't pick Katie. Katie's my bookworm, she's quiet and can be quite shy. She's not nearly as adventurous as Beth who we have a hard time keeping indoors when it's nice out. Katie likes to be outside, but often it's to find a quiet, relaxing place to read. So it will probably surprise you just as much as it did me, that Katie is quite the little wall climber!

She went on a field trip last month and they had a chance to wall climb. When I read the permission slip for the trip I was sure that the wall climbing waiver I was signing was useless since she was never going to do it. But I was surprised when she got home to find out that not only had she given it a try, she got up quite high and really enjoyed herself.

Katie was ecstatic when she found out for the last Girl Guide meeting before Christmas that they were going wall climbing. They needed volunteer adults to belay so I stuck around to help and to watch Katie. I was a little nervous about belaying as I had never done it before, but it was actually pretty easy. Most of the girls did well, only a couple were too scared to go up more than a couple feet. Katie, however, amazed me. She climbed walls none of the other girls could do. Not all were perfectly vertical, some had parts that jutted out at angles and that stumped most of the girls since you had to hang slightly upside down to get around them. Every wall she tried, she made it all the way to the top to touch the ceiling. I'm not sure how high the walls they were climbing were, but they were pretty darn high. Even if I had the strength to do it, I couldn't get over height, so I would most likely be a terrible wall climber.

One of the Guide leaders was taking pictures and I'm pretty sure she got Katie in at least one shot, so I've emailed her asking for a copy and as soon as I get it, I'll post it on here.

Katie was still talking about it this morning. She went so far as to say wall climbing was her passion. I took a brochure from the place home last night, and the prices seem pretty reasonable, so I think Chris and I will try to take her every couple of weeks. Anything to get her out doing something physical is good I think.

Can a 4 year old keep a secret?

That's the question every Christmas season. It's not always a four year old I suppose, but kids in general. Every year they cannot stand the anticipation of finding out what it is that present under the tree with their name on it, so they ask over and over, and then when that fails they ask what their sister, or their mom, or their dad is getting. And every year I am faced with the dilemma of letting them in on the secret or keeping it all to myself.

A few years ago I bought Chris a PlayStation 3. I was so proud of myself that year. I got him something he really wanted, but also something he never thought I would actually go out and buy for him. Katie and Beth were with me when I picked it up from the store. And although I can't actually remember how old they were because I am not sure how long ago that Christmas was, I remember that Katie was old enough to keep the secret and Beth was not. She begged and begged all the way home to tell her what daddy was getting and finally I broke down and told her that I had bought him shampoo (because there was shampoo in the cart that day it was a reasonable lie). I made her promise that she would not tell daddy what we had bought him, and she thought she was so convincing that she would keep the promise. I, however, was not fooled. That's why I said shampoo in the first place.

We arrived home and walked through the front door and wouldn't you know it, the first words out of Beth's mouth were "Daddy, we bought you a present and it's shampoo!!" The best part of the whole story is that it has since become a family tradition that when one of the kids asks what the other parent, or their sister got for Christmas, we tell them "Shampoo".

But the kids are getting older. Katie's been in on the secrets for a few years now, and even Beth can be trusted to not tell. Anna I'm not completely sure about. But this year I did tell them all what they were giving their daddy for Christmas, and he's told them what they are getting for me. I not only bought Chris's gift, but I bought my own, and that's the only part of the secret they do not know. I can tell Anna's been dying to tell me what I got (a beautiful stainless steel teapot) but so far she has not said anything. Well anything out loud. She very secretly whispered to the 4 yr old that I care for during the day, that they bought me a coffeepot(teapot, coffeepot, whatever, there is no difference to a four year old I'm sure). I wasn't even a foot away from her when she whispered the secret, and the whisper was more of a quiet talk than a whisper, but she she hasn't come out and said "Mom, we're getting you shampoo" or anything like that.

She has been trying to 'trick' me about what they've got me though. Today she told me it was a show, a good movie, that I would really love. Then she said it was a real horse, no she meant a bear. All I'm waiting for now is the day she tells me it's really not a teapot.

As far as I know she has not accidentally or on purpose told Chris what I bought him from the girls. I'll have to ask him when he gets home from work if she's let it slip. I didn't tell any of the girls what I got him from me though, so that secret should actually be 100% safe.

Stupid Van

It's still dead. Chris looked for the booster cables and couldn't find them. So we decided to break down and buy one of those jumper battery things. You plug them in and charge them and then boost your car off them. It charged all day yesterday, wouldn't start last night. It charged all night, and wouldn't start this morning. Ughh. I am so frustrated.

Of course Chris was gone overnight for work and won't be back until this evening sometime. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but tonight we have parent teacher interviews at the girls' school. The first one starts half an hour after my dayhome kids are picked up. We could walk, and that's probably what we'll end up having to do, but it's cold out there! It was -17C this morning and it's supposed to be -10C this evening. Katie also has Girl Guides tonight and if Chris isn't home before 7pm (not holding my breath) she won't be able to get there.

Why won't that battery booster thing work? It's making me crazy. Maybe we'll have to take it back to the store. Do most people buy these things right when they need them or do people pre-buy them in anticipation of needing them one day? And if you bought it long before you needed it, and then go to use it and it doesn't work, can you take it back? I have to go find the instruction manual and see if there is something I am doing wrong.

Good Intentions Spoiled

Chris has been away the last couple of mornings. That means my normal schedule of getting up at after 6am and heading to the gym shortly after 6:30am is thrown out of whack. I made it there Monday evening, but I just couldn't drag myself there yesterday evening. I find I am so much more tired during the day if I do not make it to the gym in the morning. Since Chris got home last night I had every intention of getting back into my schedule this morning. I drag my butt out of bed, get dressed, take the bread out of the breadmaker, check my email and head out to the garage. Once I flicked the light on in the garage I noticed one of the side doors of the van is open, and the little blinkie lights that alert other drivers that door is open is not doing it's job. Crap. I knew the van was dead. At our old place, Chris's work had a charger we could throw right on the battery and just let it charge for half an hour or so. We don't have that luxury here. Actually I think we might be lucky if we find booster cables. We're also going to have to push the van out of the garage so we can get another vehicle close enough to boost it. This sucks! I was so looking forward to getting back to the gym this morning since Chris leaves again tonight and won't be home tomorrow morning. This is not going to be a good gym week.

And I can't tell you how badly I want to throttle the child who was too lazy to press the button and close the van door behind her. That would be wrong.

November's Flying!

It doesn't seem like it was almost 2 weeks ago since I last posted something on my blog. Time flies when you're having fun or so the saying goes. From that you could assume we're having fun, but I don't think we've actually had much time to have fun! Chris has been very busy with work so we haven't seen him too much lately. He did have yesterday off in lieu of Remembrance Day, and although he is working today, the rest of the week he is taking off. Yay for us! We get to see him and hopefully our Christmas lights will make their way onto the house and garage! Well maybe not, now that I think about it. He's going with Katie on her grade field trip tomorrow and they will be gone from 6:30am-6:30pm and then on Thursday my in-laws will be here, so that only leaves Friday and the weekend. We'll have to try to squeeze the decorating in somehow.

That's what it seems like all we can do lately, try to squeeze one more thing in. And when you look at our calendar, it's not full really. So why do I feel like everything is a crunch lately? It probably has a lot to do with the fact that I babysit every day til 5:30pm and the kids have activities on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Some nights we barely have time to eat before I'm driving one or the other kid to something. Then I try to get other stuff fit in there too, like the dentist, the banking, errands, grocery shopping, etc. Usually I get a break on the weekends, so I am ready to start it all over again most Mondays, but poor Chris, he ends up working most weekends as well lately. He rarely gets a chance to catch his breath. I'd say this is his week to relax, but you just read about what's planned for his days off, lol.

Sorcerers, Witches and Unicorns...Oh My!

Last night was one of the best Halloweens I can remember! The weather was amazing. There was no snow and my kids wore the costumes without a snowsuit underneath. They did pop home for some gloves, but they didn't have to wear their snowboots and trek through 2 feet of snow. We had 86 kids show up on our doorstep last night. We were told to expect about a hundred and with the weather being so nice, I thought we'd get more than a hundred for sure. Needless to say we had candy left over but I sent it to work with Chris so that I would not be eating it all day long.

I've been very good, not one piece of candy stolen from kids' bags so far!

Sleeping Baby = Pictures as promised!

The cool Halloween Wreath the girls made with my best friend a couple weeks ago. It looks so great!


Our Jack O'Lantern carved last night by Chris. He's not happy with the eyes, they were supposed to be spookier. I'm going to try a picture of it all lit up tonight.


The front yard. The hanging spooky ghost lights up. Well it did. We noticed last night he was not glowing and were not sure why. I looked at him this morning and the cord that connects his plug to the pumpkin lights is severed (how appropriate). The pumpkins still work even though there is a loose wire end, so we'll have to put some electrical tape on it or something so we don't start a fire or anything.



A fire would be scary and all, but not quite the effect we're going for. Burning down our house and the neighborhood would not be a good first Halloween impression to make on all our neighbors.

Happy Halloween to me!

I didn't think it was possible.

The morning girl at the gym was even more annoying than usual this morning. She was giddy and silly, more so than usual. It's not really the silliness that annoys me about her, it's the unending trail of questions she asks the clients. And they are inappropriate. Not in a bad way, really. She just has the social skills of a twelve year old. Rather than making pleasant conversation she grills us and it gets ridiculous.

How was your weekend?
What did you do?
Do you like doing that?
Who went with you?
Do you like them?
How many kids do they have?
All boys? Are they cute?
Do they have girlfriends?
What's their last names?
Are they virgins?

Okay, I've never actually heard her ask if someone was a virgin before, but if we let her keep talking, I'm sure she'd get to it. Luckily the trick to get to stop asking you questions is to somehow turn the conversation to get her to talk about herself.

She, like, has so much fun. Her friends are so awesome and, yeah, it was cool.

I, like a few of the other morning people, just avoid making eye contact with her. I concentrate really hard on breathing properly and look as busy as I can while on a machine or jogging on the spot, which is not an easy job. I've had my fair share of questions, but purposefully my answers make my life appear so incredibly drab (who am I kidding, it's not that hard to make it appear that way), that usually she moves on to more exciting women.

Good news for me though, today was her last day! Probably the reason for her being so much more giddy today I'm sure. She talked about her new job where she does nothing. She answered the phone twice yesterday and once it was her mom and once it was daddy (who got her the job). Then she went online and was on facebook for a couple hours, then she read 2 magazines. Seriously. And she was so excited that she gets paid sooo much to do nothing (of course she told us her wage as well, she doesn't keep anything private). It's not wage to brag about that's for sure. Granted it's more than I make babysitting, but still.

I've spent too much time on her now complaining about the poor girl, and my kids' school lunches are going to suffer, so I gotta run.

A little catch up

It's been a few days, so here's what's been going on.

Our backyard is all done. It's seeded and ready for the grass to grow in the spring. All the bikes are put away in anticipation of snow that lasts, and the lawn chairs and things are put away with them.

The Girl Guide cookies have arrived and all the pre-ordered ones have been delivered. I asked for an extra case and there are 8 left in it, so I sent them to work with Chris today so I don't accidentally buy myself a box. Those mint cookies are sooooo good!

Halloween candy has been bought (finally) and the girls have their costumes all sorted out. They are so excited for tomorrow. I have to somehow come up with some willpower by then so that I don't steal all the little chocolate bars.

Chris has discovered his love for Halloween baking. He's always loved Christmas baking. Before you get too excited and think he's some weird guy who loves to bake, remember that the only way he gets baking is if he bakes it himself, so it's pretty much do or die at our house. That and he is a weird guy who bakes, but I love him anyways. I am NOT a baker. I can bake, I just don't really like to do it. I have enough fun cleaning up after Chris ;) This year he made witches fingers, which he's done before, and he attempted popcorn balls with gummy worms in them. Are they ever sticky! I tried to eat one a few minutes ago (it's snack time...cheerios, raisins and popcorn balls) and they are just too chewy for my teeth. So my back up plan if the willpower doesn't come through is to try to eat a popcorn ball while the kids are sorting their Halloween candy and glue my mouth shut semi-permanently.

I still have no pictures of our yard and I have not downloaded the wreath picture yet. It will happen....by Christmas for sure.

Maybe.

It snowed today

I took some pictures but they are still on my camera, along with the picture of the Halloween wreath I promised. Maybe I'll get around to posting them tomorrow. Maybe not, depends how lazy I am. I want to sleep in til noon, but I'll settle for 9:30am. Last Saturday I couldn't sleep in because we all had dentists appointments (which went amazingly well). This is MY Saturday.

Anna and Jesus...good buddies.

Anna and "J", the 4 year old girl I babysit, were just arguing over growing. Anna's decided that J is not going to grow anymore and she's decided only she will grow taller.

They argue over silly stuff like this all the time. As usual I tell Anna not to say things to hurt other people's feelings and for them both not to fight about silly things.

Anna then asks me if I know who knows everything. I ask her who and she tells me it's Jesus. She then proceeds to tell me that Jesus told her that she was going to keep growing taller than J, and he knows everything, so she knows it.

Yesterday we decorated for Halloween. It's Chris's favorite holiday to decorate. On our new street though we have some competition. In our old town hardly anyone put out decorations, but now the decorations we have look pitiful compared to others. Chris went out to buy some more pumpkin lights this morning, and he plans on buying a few more items each year to add to our collection. A staple of decorating used to be various kinds of leaf bags, but there are hardly any trees here since the neighborhood is pretty new. We couldn't fill a Ziploc baggie much less a giant pumpkin leaf bag!

My friend was here over the weekend as well. She is so creative and crafty and together with the girls she made a Halloween wreath for our door. I'll have to take a picture and post it later so you can see how cute it is! The girls had a blast doing crafts. They also made some pumpkin and ghost candles. I don't my friend could believe how painty a 4 year old can get in less than 20 minutes, lol.