There is a little man who chooses to drag race his vehicle around my neighbourhood. This has been recent - however it always happens this time of year. Something about it being spring time and little men with little penises road raging around the hood.
I hate this man. He may be a teenager or he may be a middle aged guy on his lunch break- I am not sure. But if I catch him I guarantee that I will change his religion.
Today he scared Rowan so badly while he was in the backyard I vowed to catch him this summer if it is the only public service that I do.
For those of you who can remember the verbal smack down I gave to '9pm Rev My Motorcycle' guy you should looking forward to how I handle no Muffler Man.
Stay tuned.....
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
The Instant Gratification of Ebay
I love ebay. I just love it. There is a drama placed out with every transaction. Will I win it? Will I be outbid? Can I hit the bid button fast enough??
of course there is a dark side to all this 'shopping'. There is the crushing defeat when someone outbids you by 50 cents on an item that you thought that you had in the bag. Or the scary reality that you might have bought 3 Incrediblocks (no small mistake at $25 shipping per item). Or the relief that you in fact only bought 2 and had already found a home for the extra. There is cheeky smugness if you outbid someone. There is the excitement of the doorbell ringing - especially when you didn't pay extra for direct shipping to Canada.
Some recent finds - $3.74 for a Matt & Nat wallet (that matched my purse), 7 Gymboree summer outfits for Everly for 2 dollars a piece, Bjorn spit cover for half price. I LOVE ebay.
Next goal is to buy kitchen fixtures & bathroom faucets... about 75% cheaper on ebay.
Truly satisfying on a rainy weekday....
of course there is a dark side to all this 'shopping'. There is the crushing defeat when someone outbids you by 50 cents on an item that you thought that you had in the bag. Or the scary reality that you might have bought 3 Incrediblocks (no small mistake at $25 shipping per item). Or the relief that you in fact only bought 2 and had already found a home for the extra. There is cheeky smugness if you outbid someone. There is the excitement of the doorbell ringing - especially when you didn't pay extra for direct shipping to Canada.
Some recent finds - $3.74 for a Matt & Nat wallet (that matched my purse), 7 Gymboree summer outfits for Everly for 2 dollars a piece, Bjorn spit cover for half price. I LOVE ebay.
Next goal is to buy kitchen fixtures & bathroom faucets... about 75% cheaper on ebay.
Truly satisfying on a rainy weekday....
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
You Oughtta Know....
I would estimate that 50% of my parenting energy goes towards 'crime prevention'.
By this I mean that I try to avert disaster before it strikes. LIke putting all sharp knives up high. Removing all things breakable from the play room. Hiding chocolate and other treats up high before the little truffle sniffers can find them and demand TREATS before breakfast. Putting my favourite and my best bath bubbles under the sink so that they do not get used for general bubble making. Poopi - scooping the backyard before allowing the kids to play in the backyard. And up until two weeks ago this list also included putting all paints and paint brushes on top of the bookcase in the den so that the kids could not make eye contact with said contra ban and I was totally in charge of when and if there was going to be 'fun with paint time'.
I should also note that part of my crime prevention program includes vetting out inappropriate gifts such as paints with warning labels which include instructions which explicitly state that you must wash paint immediately off anything you don't want stained forever. Unless said paint gift is from a relative that we see quite frequently. In which case I divert to plan B which is keep the paint but keep it out of sight. Honestly when this gift was given I spent a long time searching the instructions on the bottles for the words WASHABLE or Water Soluble. Nada. Might as well be oil based melamine as far as I was concerned. Who the hell buys permanent paint for a 4 year old???
In a moment of blind stupidity, or perhaps due to extreme sleep deprivation, or an undeniable need to putting everything back in its place during my nesting phase prior to going into labour on May 19th, I grabbed the paint and assorted brushes and put them back with their art supply brethearn.
Sure enough yesterday while I was trying to mesh swimming schedules there was an unearthly quiet in the dinning room. After the quiet registered I got up to see two little people looking really guilty with a streak of gold in their hair. And fists full of wet wipes which also look like they have been used to mop up a large amount of gold PAINT. In the dining room. On the dining room CARPET in three separate pools of paint (with some hot pink for flair).
On my knees and scrubbing for what seems like hours (but honestly must have been for about 5 minutes) and there is only a wisp of a colour change to the pools. They resemble huge skid marks. In that special mopped up post gold way - sort of green and brown after tones. So I DRENCH the carpet in fantastic Oxy clean. And then I spray it again with cleaner. Then I let it sit and start to scrub again after HWSNBN gets home ("Why weren't you supervising them?"). Nothing. Just three huge skid marks.
Now before anyone starts a bottle drive for me to get my carpets cleaned ASAP I should say that we have already bought the hardwood and planned on the weekend that HWSNBN will be putting the hardwood down. In fact the reason why the art easel is even in the dining room is because of the plans to change the flooring. The only glitch is that this particular project is not scheduled to begin until September.
So it shall be a summer of skid marks in the dining room. Please look away when you come over....
For the record I have dispensed with the unwashable paint. And I dare the wrath of the relative to rain on me. Of course I will give them the Van Gogh tour when they come over next......
By this I mean that I try to avert disaster before it strikes. LIke putting all sharp knives up high. Removing all things breakable from the play room. Hiding chocolate and other treats up high before the little truffle sniffers can find them and demand TREATS before breakfast. Putting my favourite and my best bath bubbles under the sink so that they do not get used for general bubble making. Poopi - scooping the backyard before allowing the kids to play in the backyard. And up until two weeks ago this list also included putting all paints and paint brushes on top of the bookcase in the den so that the kids could not make eye contact with said contra ban and I was totally in charge of when and if there was going to be 'fun with paint time'.
I should also note that part of my crime prevention program includes vetting out inappropriate gifts such as paints with warning labels which include instructions which explicitly state that you must wash paint immediately off anything you don't want stained forever. Unless said paint gift is from a relative that we see quite frequently. In which case I divert to plan B which is keep the paint but keep it out of sight. Honestly when this gift was given I spent a long time searching the instructions on the bottles for the words WASHABLE or Water Soluble. Nada. Might as well be oil based melamine as far as I was concerned. Who the hell buys permanent paint for a 4 year old???
In a moment of blind stupidity, or perhaps due to extreme sleep deprivation, or an undeniable need to putting everything back in its place during my nesting phase prior to going into labour on May 19th, I grabbed the paint and assorted brushes and put them back with their art supply brethearn.
Sure enough yesterday while I was trying to mesh swimming schedules there was an unearthly quiet in the dinning room. After the quiet registered I got up to see two little people looking really guilty with a streak of gold in their hair. And fists full of wet wipes which also look like they have been used to mop up a large amount of gold PAINT. In the dining room. On the dining room CARPET in three separate pools of paint (with some hot pink for flair).
On my knees and scrubbing for what seems like hours (but honestly must have been for about 5 minutes) and there is only a wisp of a colour change to the pools. They resemble huge skid marks. In that special mopped up post gold way - sort of green and brown after tones. So I DRENCH the carpet in fantastic Oxy clean. And then I spray it again with cleaner. Then I let it sit and start to scrub again after HWSNBN gets home ("Why weren't you supervising them?"). Nothing. Just three huge skid marks.
Now before anyone starts a bottle drive for me to get my carpets cleaned ASAP I should say that we have already bought the hardwood and planned on the weekend that HWSNBN will be putting the hardwood down. In fact the reason why the art easel is even in the dining room is because of the plans to change the flooring. The only glitch is that this particular project is not scheduled to begin until September.
So it shall be a summer of skid marks in the dining room. Please look away when you come over....
For the record I have dispensed with the unwashable paint. And I dare the wrath of the relative to rain on me. Of course I will give them the Van Gogh tour when they come over next......
Monday, May 19, 2008
Contemplation
So here I sit - my last Sunday morning sort of alone at the computer. It is the last day of a long weekend and the count down to baby has started in earnest (3 more sleeps). I am in clean up mode - which is nice for the living space, not so nice for my husband (Do you REALLY need to keep this Metallica CD? When is the last time you actually listened to it? What about this Diablo gaming manual? What about this joy stick?). The kids could care less. They don't even play with the toys that I have already downsized. The dogs aren't miffed (as demonstrated by the fact that they are back to snoring at 7:28 am after breakfast & a trip outside).
But I am thinking of all the things that we do keep in our homes which really have no monetary meaning - but sentimental meaning galore. My mother was cleaning out her garage this past weekend and produced a shoe box to me filled with pictures that I had packed away from my days at summer camp. They were framed and everything. There was even a Bean figurine with a saying about kids stenciled on its belly (which my sister inexplicably wanted to have for her office). What am I going to do with that kind of stuff? I am a scrapbooker - but this stuff seems beyond the pale. I can barely finish off the boys baby's albums (super sorry - I have given myself an Olympic time clock for those items) let alone start looking at things from the mid 1990s. I think that we have stopped taking so many pictures because it is associated with scrapbookers guilt! ;)
So I guess I need to cull out the truly bad pictures and pack the rest of them up for reflection when my kids leave the house and I have more time. In about 20 years. Good grief. They should have an organisational aisle at London Drugs called - Putting Away Stuff for Decades. BPA free!
But I am thinking of all the things that we do keep in our homes which really have no monetary meaning - but sentimental meaning galore. My mother was cleaning out her garage this past weekend and produced a shoe box to me filled with pictures that I had packed away from my days at summer camp. They were framed and everything. There was even a Bean figurine with a saying about kids stenciled on its belly (which my sister inexplicably wanted to have for her office). What am I going to do with that kind of stuff? I am a scrapbooker - but this stuff seems beyond the pale. I can barely finish off the boys baby's albums (super sorry - I have given myself an Olympic time clock for those items) let alone start looking at things from the mid 1990s. I think that we have stopped taking so many pictures because it is associated with scrapbookers guilt! ;)
So I guess I need to cull out the truly bad pictures and pack the rest of them up for reflection when my kids leave the house and I have more time. In about 20 years. Good grief. They should have an organisational aisle at London Drugs called - Putting Away Stuff for Decades. BPA free!
Thursday, May 15, 2008
To Tie or Not to Tie.....
My GP has asked me whether or not I want to have my tubes tied during my c section next week.
Initially I thought no, HWSNBN should be responsible for something physical in this childbearing scenario. But then my GP made the point that HWSNBN will not get blood work completed for a relatively minor ailment - what are the chances that he will actually follow through with a vasectomy?
So I called HWSNBN and advised him that the GP recommended that we get the tubes tied during the section and that we could advise the OBGYN the morning of the surgery that we wanted it done. Initially there was whooping on the other end of the phone. I have to admit that I did offer to get this done if we could agree to a third baby.
But then HWSNBN started to think about it and decided (base don what kind of science I am not sure) that maybe having a tubal ligation was not as effective as a vasectomy. However I pointed out that in theory that may be correct (what do I know?), but at least with the tubal ligation we would know that it was done as opposed to the mythical "I'll get a vasectomy when I pluck up the courage to get some blood work done". If the blood work that has been waiting for the non life changing / altering condition (coming up on one year) is anything to go on then we will be pregnant again by the end of the year with HWSNBN's plan.
Every fiber in my being is telling me that if I want to be in control of this then I will need to get my tubes tied next week. I am still not sure that is what I really want to do. I know that having a 4th section isn't a safe choice either as the risk of complications rise. And to be honest I have had some bad mommy moments this year.
But still if I leave it up to HWSNBN - will it ever get done?
Initially I thought no, HWSNBN should be responsible for something physical in this childbearing scenario. But then my GP made the point that HWSNBN will not get blood work completed for a relatively minor ailment - what are the chances that he will actually follow through with a vasectomy?
So I called HWSNBN and advised him that the GP recommended that we get the tubes tied during the section and that we could advise the OBGYN the morning of the surgery that we wanted it done. Initially there was whooping on the other end of the phone. I have to admit that I did offer to get this done if we could agree to a third baby.
But then HWSNBN started to think about it and decided (base don what kind of science I am not sure) that maybe having a tubal ligation was not as effective as a vasectomy. However I pointed out that in theory that may be correct (what do I know?), but at least with the tubal ligation we would know that it was done as opposed to the mythical "I'll get a vasectomy when I pluck up the courage to get some blood work done". If the blood work that has been waiting for the non life changing / altering condition (coming up on one year) is anything to go on then we will be pregnant again by the end of the year with HWSNBN's plan.
Every fiber in my being is telling me that if I want to be in control of this then I will need to get my tubes tied next week. I am still not sure that is what I really want to do. I know that having a 4th section isn't a safe choice either as the risk of complications rise. And to be honest I have had some bad mommy moments this year.
But still if I leave it up to HWSNBN - will it ever get done?
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Things I will miss, Things I will not miss
I know that this is my last pregnancy and I have spent some time thinking about what I will miss about being pregnant. It was an admittedly short list. So I had to make a counter list of things that I would not miss. After much contemplation, here it is:
Things I will miss:
feeling baby move (summersault, kick, push & turn)
elastic band pants
glossy hair
Things I will not miss:
pitting edema
heartburn
crocs
acne
carpel tunnel syndrome (numb fingers)
random nausea
not being able to see my feet
bladder the size of a thimble
gaining 4 pounds in 1 week
blood work
epidural fear - last time he missed
not bending & stretching
exhaustion
9 more days and I will be finished with my physical state of pregnancy. As noted I am ready to say good bye to this stage. Too bad you can't record the feeling of the baby moving within - because that is really cool. Sort of like that scene in the original Aliens without the chest bursting.
But alas all good things need to end.
Things I will miss:
feeling baby move (summersault, kick, push & turn)
elastic band pants
glossy hair
Things I will not miss:
pitting edema
heartburn
crocs
acne
carpel tunnel syndrome (numb fingers)
random nausea
not being able to see my feet
bladder the size of a thimble
gaining 4 pounds in 1 week
blood work
epidural fear - last time he missed
not bending & stretching
exhaustion
9 more days and I will be finished with my physical state of pregnancy. As noted I am ready to say good bye to this stage. Too bad you can't record the feeling of the baby moving within - because that is really cool. Sort of like that scene in the original Aliens without the chest bursting.
But alas all good things need to end.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Pink Crocs
Well I finally broke down - 18 months after the fad hit - and bought some pink crocs.
I know that by the time I actually get it together to find scissors, paint nails, hot weather etc they will not only be hideously out of style but may have taken on the popularity of lead painted Thomas trains.
But they are sooo tempting to wear outside. I see myself romping around in the back yard, picking up dog poop and kids toys the like with a little pink waddle to my step. The beach! The back yard! Pool parties! The opportunities seem endless.
I do hope that I use a big more discretion with the crocs than I do with my Lululemon cropped pants. My increasing dependence on them is a bit scary this late in my pregnancy considering they are not 'panel'. Which results in belly hand over. Which results in my looking like a sexy plumber from the belly button down.
But what is the worst that can happen with the crocs? Fungal foot?
I know that by the time I actually get it together to find scissors, paint nails, hot weather etc they will not only be hideously out of style but may have taken on the popularity of lead painted Thomas trains.
But they are sooo tempting to wear outside. I see myself romping around in the back yard, picking up dog poop and kids toys the like with a little pink waddle to my step. The beach! The back yard! Pool parties! The opportunities seem endless.
I do hope that I use a big more discretion with the crocs than I do with my Lululemon cropped pants. My increasing dependence on them is a bit scary this late in my pregnancy considering they are not 'panel'. Which results in belly hand over. Which results in my looking like a sexy plumber from the belly button down.
But what is the worst that can happen with the crocs? Fungal foot?
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