Strange concepts really can work

Posted on March 1, 2009 by Sherry

That photo has nothing to do with my entry but I love it anyway because that is the look of sheer anticipation and joy. Pearl is a typical Beagle in that she is cute but also an awful, horrible, no-good ~~day~~ dog. However, if there is ever anything I can do to get her to calm down and behave herself for a few minutes, it’s while I am busy filling up her Kong toy with peanut butter.

When I mentioned that Breanna was waking up every night because her cough kept her from sleeping, a few people suggested that I put Vicks Vapor Rub on her feet at bed time. I had actually heard that before, but had always thought it was an old wive’s tale, right up there with not raising your arms overheard while pregnant because you’ll strangle your unborn baby with the umbilical cord (yes, I was told this once). I didn’t think it would actually do anything and was reluctant to try it because I knew you weren’t supposed to use the rub on a young child’s chest because the camphor is too strong for their lungs and could cause seizures, blablabladeathandmayhem.

And you know, while I know safety standards evolve, that’s one of those things that makes me stop and ask, “really?” Because I don’t know about you, but I spent a great deal of my childhood with Vicks on my chest so I could breathe at night during cold and flu attacks and I never had a seizure, died, or grew a second head. Sometimes I wonder how the human race has survived at all!

Anyway! After a bit of research I determined that putting the rub on Breanna’s feet wouldn’t endanger her health and, depending on who you asked, it would either help her or do diddly squat to keep her cough at bay. The thing is, although I had heard of the theory before, people leaving comments on my blog and emailing me were actual people who had tried it, not just some anecdotal story about someone’s best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend who heard from this guy who knows this kid who’s going with the girl (Ferris Bueller ahoy!) who tried it out and had it work. I figured I had little to lose and a whole evening of peace to gain, so why not?

I put a thin layer on, stuck her socks on, and got her into bed. She fell asleep easily and quickly, and then proceeded to sleep. For hours! She did not wake up coughing. I had an entire evening where I only had to listen to the breeze blowing through my brain. It was so relaxing and I was able to unwind. The best part was that Breanna also needed that sleep; she woke up so much more refreshed this morning, having finally gotten a good night of sleep again. I am a total believer.

She’s currently sleeping with about half a jar of vapor rub on each foot. This stuff is awesome. It’s the only reason I was able to watch a special night of Criminal Minds, drink two cups of tea, and read more of the very excellent Slumdog Millionaire which is, not surprisingly, even more excellent than the movie was.

Hope your Sunday evening was relaxing and cough-free too!

Second verse, same as the first!

Posted on February 26, 2009 by Sherry

Apropos of nothing, really, I’ve started styling Breanna’s hair in a little bun high up on top of her head. Surprisingly, she really loves it. There are only three ways she likes her hair – loose (which unfortunately causes knots), in two braids, or this bun. This is my favorite of all, I think it makes her look even cuter than usual; George said it makes her look like Raven Simone did when she was a little kid on The Cosby Show, and he’s absolutely right.

Apropos of everything these days, now it’s Breanna’s turn to be sick. Hayley still isn’t 100% but she’s well enough that she finally went back to school on Wednesday, a full week of sickness behind her. Luckily she didn’t seem to be too far behind and we’ll catch up on the homework over March break. She nearly didn’t survive today, which was Carnival Day at the school. They played outside a lot (the weather today was perfect, not cold at all and the snow was perfect for building snowmen) by playing games, going on a horse-drawn bus ride, and enjoyed a big bouncy house in the gym. After lunch they let them all wind down by watching a movie, and by the time she came home she was a big pile of exhausted. I’m surprised she didn’t spontaneously combust from the tired-related, end-of-plague crankiness. It took her less than three minutes to fall asleep.

Overall though, Hayley is okay other than the sporadic coughing and the sniffing. Have I mentioned my hatred of sniffing? It makes me insane. But it’s getting better.

Breanna, on the other hand, is a whole big mess. The faucet in her nose sprang a leak and she still can’t really blow her nose very well so it’s driving her crazy. She hasn’t really been feverish, but she has the worst cough ever. She sounds like a little old man who’s been smoking two packs a day for the past 60 years. She can’t sleep long without waking herself up with a coughing fit. We’re taking her to the doctor tomorrow because she had bronchitis this time last year and I want to see if that’s what this is again. On the other hand, the sound of her cough fits better with the description of “the barking seals of Croup” so it could be that too.

If ever I wanted another baby, this tag-team sickness is curing any such desire – mostly because I am remembering what sleep deprivation is. The past few nights I’ve only had a handful of hours of sleep and most of them are broken into 20-30 minute stretches. I don’t think I can willingly go back to that.

Of course, it’s not just me. After all, the reason I’m not sleeping much is because Breanna isn’t either, so the poor kid is overtired and cranky almost 24/7 right now. There are large parts of the day where asking her a question results in high-pitched shrieking, as though we were torturing her instead of just asking if she’d like some more water.

I am doing everything I can think of, beyond the basic “wash your hands eight hundred times a day” concept, something I do anyway, in order to prevent getting sick myself. Next Friday morning we have to get on a train and head to Toronto for my sister-in-law’s wedding. I can’t imagine a five hour train ride when you feel like Death.

Please go douse your hands in bleach after you’re done reading this, I’d hate to pass all of our germs on to you!

'Round these here parts

Posted on February 22, 2009 by Sherry

Things have been somewhat chaotic here lately, living up to the name of my blog quite nicely. On Tuesday, as I mentioned, Hayley came home early from school because she was sick. I feel bad admitting that I thought she was faking or at least exaggerating it. Hayley goes to bed at 8 pm on school nights but often stays awake reading until at least 9:30, sometimes 10 pm and then she has to get up at 6:30 the next morning. I really thought that she was just overtired, because I know that sometimes I feel like utter crap when I haven’t had enough sleep. Then her body got completely run down with a raging fever that night and I realized that she actually was sick.

She’s been sick ever since. She never went back to school for the remainder of the week. She’s had low fevers and high fevers, and fevers in between. Once in awhile it will break but it keeps coming back to fight off whatever she has. It’s really difficult for me to become alarmed over a fever (though I did raise my eyebrows at the thermometer a few times) because they serve a purpose, to kill off the germs that are making you sick. They really don’t phase me.

What HAS surprised me is her sleeping. My amazing, non-sleeping, poster child for the anti-sleep movement has been falling asleep quickly at night, sleeping in a bit in the mornings, and more importantly, falling asleep during the day. Today she woke up at about 8:30, putzed around, and fell asleep in the recliner at 11:30 for half an hour. Then she woke up, had a piece of toast with peanut butter and jelly, and ended up falling asleep again at 1:30 for another half hour.

We’re not sending her to school tomorrow either, we’re going to take her to the doctor to see if she just has the flu or if she has something that needs antibiotics. As much as she can drive me crazy when she’s running around and being loud, it’s very sad to see her lying around on the couch, all tiny and worn out.

*******

Today it’s been ten whole years that George and I have been together. It’s a bit shocking, really, to think that it’s been that long. In some ways, working at the studio (where we met) feels like it was a whole other lifetime ago, but at the same time I don’t know how the time has flown by so quickly.

We had planned on going out to dinner tonight, either to Au Vieux Duluth or to Pacini’s (mmm, bread bar), but with Hayley still being sick we don’t want to leave her. Her grandfather was still willing to come watch the kids for a couple of hours but she’s fluctuating between being really quiet and being really upset, plus we don’t want him to get sick too. We’ll just order something in instead, and when the kids go to bed we’ll either watch a movie or kick each other’s ass in Wii Sports again, something we’ve been doing the past few nights.

I figure we have to practice because Breanna, at all of three years and change, won her boxing match the other day with no trouble whatsoever.

She takes it so seriously!

And really, you know, it would be much quieter if we went out for dinner or if, like last year, we could send the kids over to his parents’ place while we ordered in. It would be nice to finish a whole meal without getting up and have an uninterrupted conversation, but we can always try to go out some other night when everyone is healthy again. For now, we’re celebrating with one sniffly, feverish, coughing six-year-old and one loud, energetic three-year-old.

Ah, the things that change over ten years!

Things going on right now

Posted on February 17, 2009 by Sherry

Sometimes life works best in numerical points.

1. Valentine’s Day came and went without too much fanfare. I enjoy the day mostly for the kids. I’m really kind of turned off by all the diamond commercials (don’t get me started on diamonds) and whatnot, so I like to keep it really low-key. On top of that, George wasn’t feeling all that well. As a result, I got up with the kids and sent him back to bed, then made a batch of pancakes for their breakfast. Later we gave the girls some chocolate and a little teddy bear each for gifts, and basically relaxed. George made a delicious pork roast for supper, then we watched a bit of TV together before bed. A quiet celebration, but quiet works for me.

2. If Valentine’s Day is about sharing the love, for me Sunday was all about having very little love in my angry, cold heart. That’s because I spent the entire afternoon – I mean entire, from brunch until supper – cleaning out the girls’ room. It had turned into a nightmare and it never stayed clean. I knew it was partly because they had too much stuff that they never really even played with, and they had nowhere to store anything. I stuffed three giant garbage bags and one decent sized box full of crap. Most of it was old toys that they had technically outgrown but wouldn’t let go of willingly, and some of it was stuff that just wasn’t very good or useful.

I made Hayley’s bed first, then realized I should take a picture for posterity. So this is before:

I know, right?

This is after:

MUCH better. They basically have some dress-up/princess/beauty stuff, Barbies, Little People, Littlest Pet Shop, and car/truck/etc toys, but everything is able to be grouped together and it’s so much better. WAY better. But holy hell, I was exhausted that night.

3. This morning Hayley woke up feeling a little under the weather but I dressed her anyway and got her off to school. She’s been in the breakfast club for a few weeks now, and it’s been great because I don’t have to fight to get her to eat first thing in the morning. Instead she eats something (they rotate between things like cereal, oatmeal, egg burritos, pancakes, waffles, etc) when she gets to school half an hour earlier than usual, and by then she’s actually hungry. However, because of that, I have no idea how much she ate this morning.

I *do* know that the school called just after lunch saying that Hayley had a fever and needed to come home. I checked her lunch bag after she got in, and she had eaten half a scone that I had sent her, but had left her cheese and crackers, and only ate two bites of her tuna sandwich. All of that is highly unusual. She then laid on the couch for the rest of the day, dozing on and off, refused supper, sat like a lump in a lukewarm bath, and was in bed sleeping by 7:15. This is my kid who stays up until 9:30 or 10 every night, reading in bed. I tucked her in an hour ago and she’s still feverish despite medicine.

Guess who’s staying home tomorrow?

4. I am officially Getting Old. Breanna wanted to play Littlest Pet Shop earlier today and since it’s so easy to play in their room now, I went in and pulled it out. I laid on the floor, propped up on one side, playing for about 20 minutes. And by doing that, on a hardwood floor, I hurt my lower back, all around my tailbone. Usually when I put my back out, I at least feel it go; it usually happens when I lift something too heavy. I wasn’t DOING anything, I was just lying there. What the hell is that about?

I’ve been sitting here with my chair massage pad thing on, heat blasting through it, hoping it will dull down the pain. I thought about taking back pain medication but I’m afraid it might cause a bad reaction with my Geritol. Sheesh.

5. American Idol is already paling in comparison to last season. So far, on night one of the top 36, I am royally unimpressed, except for Anoop. This is not looking good. This isn’t unusual, because often when I really love one season the next one is a bit “eh” for me. It would be hard to compete with my utter David Cook mania last season but they could at least put in some sort of effort!

And with that I’m going to make my old, aching self a cup of hot tea and eat some cookies while trying not to berate people inside the TV.

Things that are ticking me off right now

Posted on February 10, 2009 by Sherry

In no particular order, here are some things that are ranking quite high on my annoyance meter right about now.

1. Dog poop. Not my dog’s poop, though I wouldn’t go so far as to call hers delightful or fun or anything. However, what’s great about it is that it quickly ends up tied up in a plastic bag. Apparently there are a few people in my neighborhood who aren’t so vigilant with the bag situation, and it’s making me borderline homicidal. What is especially pushing me over the edge is that someone keeps letting their (potentially large, I would say) dog crap all over the snowbank directly out front, all along what would be the lawn of our building. It isn’t just that it’s unattractive to look at or that it creates a delicate obstacle course for me – it means that I have to constantly worry that people in the building think that *I* am the one neglecting to pick up after my dog.

There have been two times that I’ve run downstairs with Pearl, expecting her to just pee, only to discover – aww, crap (pun totally intended) – I should have brought that bag after all. In both of those situations, I ran right back upstairs, flew back down, and picked it up. I do not leave dog poop all over the damn place. In fact there was one time where I had already thrown the bag away on a walk only to have her go again a few blocks later. Luckily I was close to home/the dumpster, and I had a wad of tissue paper in my pocket. And that’s all I have to say about THAT experience.

But the point is, I own a dog and part of the responsibility of being a dog owner is that I need to clean up after her when I walk her. If people don’t want to bother with that, then they should bloody well make sure they have a private yard – they can let their dog crap to their heart’s content out there, as long as the general public, and all the decent dog owners don’t have to deal with it.

2. Hand-over child care. On Sunday I filled up an ice cube tray with water and a bit of red food coloring to make some ice jewels. This makes for some fun times out in the snow. On Monday we had a ped day, so we went outside with them and Hayley and Breanna pretended to be pirates digging for treasure:

And then they used them to build a little winter fairy house:

They were having a good time. Then all of a sudden, this car pulls up (we were near the side street), and a kid who was maybe five ran out, in a snowsuit, and started playing with them. No problem! The kids were ecstatic to have someone not related to them to play with for a bit.

Except no one else got out of the car. I waited, confused, and glanced over a few times, and through the tinted windows I could make out the outline of someone sitting in the front seat, talking on the phone.

The three kids played for – no kidding – 15 minutes while this girl’s mother sat in her car. She didn’t know me, couldn’t see the kids when they ran around to the courtyard, and clearly expected me to watch her daughter. And obviously I did, because what else was I going to do?

Eventually a school bus pulled up from one of the other schools in the area and a bunch of elementary school kids came out. It was only then that the mother got out of her car, pulled some grocery bags from the back and then called to one of the boys to come help her carry them in. Obviously she was just killing time between arriving home from errands and meeting her son at the bus stop – a lot of schools don’t allow kids below a certain age to get off the bus without someone there to greet them.

But the big kicker was that she never once acknowledged me – no thank you, and not even a friendly smile. She looked right at me, all of three feet away, and turned around and headed to the building behind ours. Well you’re welcome, beyotch!

I just don’t get people sometimes.

3. Scholastic. Andrea from The Fishbowl posted a link on Twitter about a group that is trying to petition Scholastic to return to selling books and nothing more. I couldn’t agree more. When I was a kid* our Scholastic catalogs each month contained books. We picked the ones we wanted, we got them, we read them, we were thrilled. Now at least half the books that Scholastic sells seem to come with some sort of tie-in toy, like they’re the Happy Meal of the literary world.

That’s not too bad. I don’t love it, but I can live with it. Last year Hayley got a Backyardigans book and it came with three little figurines. Last month she got a chapter book about unicorns and it came with a small stuffed unicorn. That’s borderline acceptable – at least she’s still reading.

But the problem is that they also sell JUST toys. Instead of ordering any book at all, you can get random things like handheld games, cars, rubber stamp kits, and so on. Scholastic is supposed to be for books, to promote reading. How does a package of toy cars promote reading? It doesn’t. I had to argue with Hayley because she wanted to get a little stationary set that came with all of six sheets of paper, a pencil, some stickers, and three stamps for something like $12. I told her if she wanted that sort of thing so badly we could get more of it for less at the dollar store but if she wanted to order something from Scholastic it had to be something to read, end of discussion.

I am ALL for returning to the books-only version of Scholastic, thank you very much.

*Every time I start saying “when I was a kid” I feel like I’m getting old. Any second I’m going to start screaming for people to get off my damn lawn. And stop letting your dog crap there, while you’re at it!

There are probably more things annoying me, but being hungry happens to be one of them so I guess I’ll go dig up some lunch now!

Interview time

Posted on February 1, 2009 by Sherry

Awhile back I read an entry on my sister’s blog where she had been asked some interview questions courtesy of Laura. At the end, she offered to ask five interview questions to anyone who felt like participating. I couldn’t resist, I wanted to see what kind of questions I would get from the person who probably knows me better than anyone else in the world, so here’s my interview.

1) You’ve just won a ridiculous amount of money on the lottery. You and your family (including your sister!) will never have to worry about money ever again. You can live anywhere you want in the world. Where would you live and why?

This is practically a giveaway question, because even with all the money I could ever possibly need, I would still choose to move to Halifax. The only difference is that I would be able to buy a really awesome house. However, if I was truly ridiculously rich, I would probably also get a condo or small house that I could either own or rent in various other locations – I’d love a home in Prague and somewhere in Mexico.

2) Tell us the story about the time you caught George smelling your coat. Did he know at the time that he had been caught, and if so, how did he try to cover it up? Most importantly, what went through your mind when you saw this?

Hang on while I stop laughing! First the brief backstory for everyone else – shortly before George and I got together, I was sitting at my desk finishing up some work before lunch arrived. The studio guys were lurking around my desk and George was sitting directly across from me on the chair where we all threw our coats. He probably thought I couldn’t see him because of my monitor but when I glanced up I saw him smelling my coat.

So to answer the questions, he did indeed know he was caught because I leaned around my monitor, incredulous, and asked, “are you smelling my COAT?!” Our boss immediately picked up on that and started laughing. George didn’t try to cover it up, but I think he might have been a little flustered. He owned up though and said that it smelled good. At that time I was wearing vanilla essential oil a lot so I frequently smelled like a walking cake.

It’s so long ago that I can’t remember exactly what it was that went through my mind, but I remember being happy that he liked my perfume. It was only a couple of weeks before we finally started dating so it was well timed.

3) You really wanted to be an actor. Given the crazy lives actors lead and that you have children now, would you still pursue such a career if the opportunity presented itself?

If I had already been acting and then had kids, I would have figured out a way to balance it, but now that I have kids I can’t imagine deciding to pursue a career that frequently has long hours, late night hours, and requires a lot of traveling around. I am in awe of how Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie juggle their careers so that they are rarely, if ever, working at the same time and I admire them for almost always traveling as a family rather than having one parent leave for three or four months at a time.

But you know, now that I work as a celebrity blogger, I’m kind of glad that I’m not in the public eye like that. The things that I read about people, comments that people make, scrutiny they go through, I’m not entirely sure that it’s worth it. Especially the physical commentary. If Angelina is her normal weight, she’s torn apart for being “too skinny” and then if she starts to put a couple of pounds on, every tabloid says she’s pregnant. And don’t get me started on Jennifer Love Hewitt who, in my opinion, has one of the best bodies in show business (and the best rack EVER) and yet she was ripped to shreds over how “fat” she is. She is NOT FAT. So, you know, I’m just not sure that my self-confidence could stand up to the bloodbath of nasty commentary like that. I’m happier to just be me, writing about what celebrities are up to!

4) An all-powerful being has approached you and offered to grant you any super power of your choosing. What do you choose and why?

On the one hand, my knee-jerk reaction is to say being invisible but I think that could be more trouble than it’s worth. And flying could be a cool power, but I think that really, the best super power would be to be able to teleport AND to have the ability to teleport with other people as well (much like the way that Dumbledore was able to make Harry Potter Apparate by holding on to him). Then I could go anywhere at any moment.

5) What is your most guilty pleasure?

It really changes from time to time. Sometimes it’s a food – for awhile my guilty pleasure was getting those Lindt dark chocolate bars. Other times it might be reading something. I had a streak of reading books that centered around the Muslim world. Most recently I guess that my guilty pleasure was the Twilight series and movie.

That was fun!

It's going to be a strange week

Posted on January 28, 2009 by Sherry

I am so utterly confused by this week. I’ve been off since it started. Monday was a ped day so Hayley was home, making for a long weekend. That meant that Tuesday felt like the beginning of the week to me. Last night she couldn’t sleep because she didn’t feel well and she was feverish this morning so she stayed home today with some random ailment (much like the one Breanna had on Friday and Saturday) – this messed me up further.

I actually thought that today was Tuesday and nearly forgot to do a chunk of work that I normally do on Wednesdays. Oops.

Tomorrow may wreak further havoc on my grasp of the weekly calendar since it started snowing sometime between walking the dog at 6:30 am and getting back up at 8:30. It’s been coming down like crazy and they’re figuring on anywhere between 20 to 30 cm by the time it stops tomorrow. If it keeps coming down as heavy as it has been, there may be a snow day. The local news said it will be the biggest snow storm we’ve had in Montreal so far this winter, and we’ve already had a snow day once so it’s quite likely. I took the dog out at 9 pm and there were absolutely no sidewalks thanks to the plows and the street was slippery.

I intend to listen to the radio on my iPod in bed tomorrow morning when the alarm goes off at 6:15 to hear if there are any cancellations. I don’t want to wake everyone up only to find out the school’s closed after I’ve already served breakfast. I wish school boards could look at the 10 pm conditions and the overnight forecast and make a decision by the 11 o’clock news so I could just turn my alarm off altogether. Alas.

Whether the school is shut down or not, I’m hoping the roads will be relatively passable by 11 am because I have an eye appointment. I figure it’s about time it’s only been, uh, nine years since my last one. Cripes. Also, it’s not just a regular eye appointment, I’m being fitted for contacts again and I can’t tell you how badly I want those again. I have missed them and seriously despise wearing glasses. I needed to do something anyway since I find myself getting randomly light-headed and nauseous (and no, I am not pregnant). I think my vision may have changed and also that my glasses have gotten old and bent out of shape too many times and it’s affecting me in that way. I have more headaches than usual as well, so this was a really good idea.

I’m trying not to be too hopeful about it, but I’m still crossing my fingers that they’ll be able to give me my trial pair of contacts right away when we’re done tomorrow. It’s not all that likely because in all the years that I wore contacts, no one has ever had my stupidly awful prescription strength in stock; they’ve always had to order them in. It shouldn’t take long, less than a week, but I would really like to have them immediately. I’d like to stick my glasses into a case and walk out with little plastic discs pressed firmly against my eyeballs please and thank you.

I told George that I guess I’m just not ready to give up on vanity yet. I thought that maybe I could deal with wearing glasses but I can’t. I realize that this is an issue that dates back many years, back to early high school, probably even elementary school – and it’s just towards myself. I think that glasses look fabulous on the vast majority of people who wear them but on me? I can’t stand them.

Plus there are other perks to contacts. I can put makeup on more easily since I can see what I’m doing. When your prescription is as bad as mine is, taking your glasses off to put on eye makeup is a challenge. I will have peripheral vision again. Of course I can see shapes and whatnot out of the corner of my eyes now but it’s all very blurry and abstract. With contacts I see perfectly in all directions at all times. And considering winter will probably continue for another six months or something, it will be nice to walk back inside after being out in the cold and not have my lenses fog up on me. (I wondered about that when I was 17 and got my first contacts – would they fog up? But no, they do not. And thank God because wouldn’t that look really weird and zombie-like?)

So here’s hoping that I will be glasses-free tomorrow. And if not, well it shouldn’t be more than this time next week. Please let the roads be clear enough to drive!

*******

Speaking of winter and snow and cold – is anyone else finding that January is The Month That Will Not Die? Usually March does that to me. March is the month where I am officially fed up of winter to the point that I have to restrain myself from climbing into a bell tower with a high powered assault rifle. It teases just enough that spring is on the way and then it dumps a metric ton of snow on your head. It goes on forever.

But this year I’m finding that it’s been January for a bloody eternity. October, November, and December combined passed more quickly than this month. Thank god it’s almost over now because it’s starting to feel like some sort of weird occult phenomenon and January just isn’t going to end. Ever.

And with the storm blasting outside right now, that would be a very bad thing.

Apropos of nothing, really

Posted on January 31, 2008 by Sherry

I am so tired lately. A stupid combination of going to bed far too late and getting up too early. I almost always have work left to finish up in the evening because it can’t all get done during the day, and by the time I finish I should go to bed to get a good night’s sleep, but I need that time to unwind – time to watch TV, drink some tea, check out Flickr, catch up on blogs, just time for me. Then I lose track of time and next thing I know I have six hours – if I’m lucky – to sleep before my alarm wakes me up at 6:30 the next morning.

Even now, I should be in bed but I just really wanted to update so I’m sitting here feeling like I might pass out into a dead sleep for two straight days. Eventually I will be unable to stay up and there will come a night where I’ll be exhausted and fall asleep at 10 pm and I’ll feel better, and ready to start the cycle again. Being a night owl is great sometimes but it gets complicated when you have kids and early mornings.

*******
I’ve been reading Wicked and really enjoying it but I’ve now gone three days without even picking it up. I need to carve out some time to read. I still have two more books sitting and waiting for my attention, and then I have several Amazon.com gift certificates waiting for me to order some more books.

I wish I still read like I used to as a teenager.

*******
The weather was nuts here today. Ice and slush and water all over the roads and sidewalks, followed by a weather warning for high winds (we sure got those) and a warning for flash freezing, which would be a joy with all the liquid on the ground ready to turn to solid ice. When I took Hayley to school this morning, I refused to let her walk through the school yard to go in her usual door because it was a sheet of ice covered in a river of water. Instead, I took her in the front door (where we both nearly fell in the slippery driveway) and took her to the office. The receptionist was more than willing to let us sit on the bench in the hall until the bell rang, and then Hayley wandered off to class.

The wind is still blasting. Between the rattling windows and the shaking exhaust fan over the stove, it’s really noisy in here.

*******
Two young children were found frozen to death out West. The Prairies have been dealing with bitter cold – lately it’s been about -30C (-22F) with the wind chill making it feel like -50C (-58F) out that way. The girls, ages 3 and 1, were found in just t-shirts and diapers out in the snow, somewhere between their own house and a neighbor’s house. Their father was picked up for severe hypothermia in the wee hours and was unable to talk for about eight hours, at which point he asked where his daughters were. By then, at those temperatures, it was far too late. There was alcohol involved on the father’s part and charges may be laid against him pending investigations.

The story is here. When it was on the 11 pm news before, I sat and bawled through the segment, then resisted the urge to wake my girls up just so I could hold them.

*******
Flickr is calling me. Photography web sites are calling me. But I think my bed is calling loudest. I’d better get some sleep so I have a little energy to deal with dragging Hayley out of bed to get ready for school tomorrow – it never ceases to amaze me that the same girl who can get up at 7 am on a weekend and be full of life can be so damn stubborn about getting up a half hour earlier during the week, even though she loves school. Maybe I should start putting her to bed a half hour earlier, even if it’s a bit rushed in the evening that way.

And maybe then *I* could get my ass to bed a half hour earlier too!

Afternoon appointments suck

Posted on August 25, 2005 by Sherry

Every single prenatal appointment from the beginning of this pregnancy to the extras they book past your due date (just in case) have been scheduled for the morning. It’s just more convenient because kids are usually in a better mood earlier in the day, and since MissH has to come with me, that’s a good arrangement. When you already have a child they also ask if you want morning appointments because of the assumption that they’ll be napping later in the day (ha, don’t I wish!).

Unfortunately, when the nurse cancelled our appointment for Monday because she was sick, everything got jumbled all over the place and I got saddled with a 2 pm appointment today. Honestly, I would probably just skip it altogether since next month starts the every-two-weeks appointments anyway and I can’t even think of a single damn question that I need to ask so I wouldn’t mind not bothering, but I have to go because I need to be scheduled for my glucose screen next week (oh fucking YAY) and also my Rhogam injection on the same day. Poo.

It’s just a big lethargic situation. When I have a 9:30 appointment, I do have to get myself and MissH up earlier than normal, but you get up, get dressed, eat, and go without stopping for much of anything. I’ve been up since 8 am though and I just don’t FEEL like going out to the damn hospital now. But of course I will. Besides, what with Murphy’s Law and all, if I did cancel my appointment today I’d end up having some bizarre complication tomorrow. It will be nice to hear the heart beat anyway, and to see if my weight gain is what I think it is (our scale is a bit off so I’m not 100% sure but I think I’ve gained 13-15 pounds so far).

I just need to get motivated now because George’s dad is picking us up in about 40 minutes and I still need to pack MissH’s portable toilet seat, a bottle of water for myself, a book in case I have to wait awhile, and possibly my knitting since I really want to finish MissH’s scarf so I can move on to my own. Oh, and maybe I should go stick my contact lenses in my eyes and brush my teeth.

Must.stop.procrastinating!

My condolences