March Madness

Eye candy anyone? Allow me to provide you with a drool bucket!!!

March has been a crazy month. I've had two colds this month, I supervised a youth sleepover...with the help of a trusty friend, went to see a retired NHL players hockey game, and went to Rama to see a Brad Paisley concert.

The youth sleepover was a lot of fun...but very exhausting! I felt like a zombie all day Saturday. It seemed to use all of my energy just to move. I thought about taking a nap, but I was too tired to go to bed!! We got the kids into bed about 11pm Friday, but I was still awake at 1am. The church makes some strange noises at night. It had sounded as if someone was walking around upstairs, and then I heard fire crackers going of outside. So Tammy and I went to investigate. We couldn't see anyone outside and there was definitely no one upstairs. So, satisfied that nothing was out of the ordinary, we went back downstairs to bed. I have to admit that I did not sleep very well. I was also surprised that I was the first one up at 8am! I figured the kids would be up way before that. I woke up because I was freezing. I shivered all the way upstairs to crank up the heat. Of course once I was out of bed I had to use the bathroom. The kids were starting to stir as I came out of the bathroom.

The retired NHL players game was more like a play than anything. They were playing against the Muskoka law enforcement team. The NHL players were showing off, throwing water at the other team, smearing whipped cream in the face of one of the other teams player's face, etc.. Half way through the first period the teams switched goalies. That didn't last long since the NHL goalie scored purposely on his own net. The second period turned out to be a skills competition. One of the law enforcement players broke his stick trying to hit targets, so he pulled out this skeet gun thing and shot the targets with that. I guess it kept the kids entertained, but I would have rather just watched a hockey game

Brad Paisley, for those of you who don't know or couldn't figure it out by the photo, is a country singer. He has some very entertaining songs. And he aint bad to look at either!! Some of my favourite songs by him are, "He Didn't Have To Be", "Me Neither", "A Little Mud On The Tires", and "Find Yourself". He did sing this one song at the concert that I thought was funny. It is about a country boy who really likes this girl and he tries some very creative ways to become more intimate with her. The song, I think, is called "I Wanna Check You For Ticks". He also started to sing the Canadian national anthem, got as far as "O Canada", and then didn't know how the rest of the anthem went, so we sang it to him instead....darn Americans! One thing that happened at the concert that I'm not 100% sure that I liked was all the vidoes he had playing in the background on the big screen. I certainly see why he did it...it gives the audience something else to focus on, but I felt it took too much attention away from him. Although he was more often than not in the videos, or he had created them himself using animation. The people that got to stand right in front of the stage were really lucky. Some of them got autographs from him, many of them got one of his guitar picks, plus they got to see him up close and personal! I was wishing I could have been up there too! Oh well, it was fun all the same.
I've decided that Brad must have a funny sense of humour because he has just had a little baby boy and named him William Huckleberry Paisley. When I hear the name Huckleberry I think of an animated blue dog. Huckleberry Hound ring any bells?

Happy 2007!

Well, Christmas is over and another new year has begun. I'm personally hoping that 2007 is luckier than 2006! I can't believe that we had no snow this year for Christmas! This is the first Christmas since we've lived in Canada that we've had a green Christmas...it's really quite depressing! Looking out of the window, anyone could easily think it was April. There is next to no snow on the ground and the grass is that greenish brown colour.
I managed to keep busy over the hoilday. I had a couple of girls spending Christmas with us...their poor mom had to work nights! It was fun being able to spend some time with the girls over Christmas. It brought back some of that magic you often lose as an adult.
I got lots of cool stuff for Christmas. I got a couple of DVD's, some books, some stickers, cookware, chocolate, a candle, some booze, a mug, and a gift certificate. But, my most favourite things had to be my printer, and school pictures. I got a school picture of each of the girls that I look after frequently as well as a school picture of Jeremy (taken less than a week before he passed away). My mom put it in the middle frame of a three framed frame. On the left side is his hand print that I made with him in 2005 and on the right side is the words to "God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You" by Alabama. This song always makes me think of Jeremy.
I spent a quiet New Years Eve at home with my parents and my friend, Tammy. We played board games most of the night and celebrated the new year at midnight. Just after midnight I went out on to our porch and yelled "Happy New Year!" to anyone and everyone who may have been listening. It turned out to be quite a nice evening.

Happy Halloween and Merry Bloody Christmas!

Over the last couple of months quite a bit has happened. We'vehad Halloween, celebrated the birthdays of two of my friends, and celebrated my own birthday.
Halloween was cool. My friend and I took a group of kids out trick or treating. We actually made it to quite a few houses and the kids had lots of candy. We even ventured as far as the Fire Hall. They were giving out tatoos, stickers, badges, and candy. The picture to the left is a picture of the four kids in their Haloween costumes. This was last years picture because I forgot my camera this year. Batman this year was a power ranger, the lizard was some hooded creature with glowing red eyes, the princess was a different princess, and the girl in purple was a witch (kind of looked like Nanny McPhee).
My birthday was fun. My friends came over and we had cake (a hedgehog cake that my brother baked), some finger foods, and drinks. We chatted about this and that, watched parts of the hockey game (the Leafs actually won), and then played Friends Scene It? which I had just opened as a birthday gift.
More recently, I have found out that my car was apparently hit by another car while it was parked in a parking lot. I had arranged for an oil change to be done and that is when the guy doing my oil change noticed the dent (quite a large one I might add) on the front passenger side. The side was crushed enough that the passenger door would not opem. So I took it to a collision place to get checked out, called my insurance company and made a police report. None of which were particularly fun. There is over $1600 damage done to my car. Of course I have to pay the $500 deductible (which I think is a load of crap since I did nothing wrong). I'm just waiting now for the parts to come in so my car can be fixed. Before long I'm going to end up with a brand new car!
We decorated our house for Christmas this past weekend. I was in charge of lights. Man, those little bulbs are fiddly! It's quite irritating when one bulb doesn't work and you have to figure out which one and then replace it. Oh well, the house is a least starting to look like Christmas is coming. I get to go see a Christmas concert tomorrow at one of the schools. The princess in pink from the Halloween picture is singing in it, so I'll be going to watch her. It should be cute!

Jeremy...He's an Angel and a Miracle

Since my last blog a lot has happened. Some friends of mine just bought their first house together, we've had Thanksgiving, and we've had people visiting from Scotland. All of these events are something to celebrate and gives us something to be thankful for.
I'm happy that my friends have moved closer to me (I only have to travel 40 minutes instead of 2 hours to see them now). They've got a lovely home with relatively new appliances. When I saw it last they were still fixing it up a bit and there were boxes everywhere, but they've apparently got that all done and sorted out now and the place looks great!
We had a great Thanksgiving. It was wonderful to have some family time playing games and watching movies, things that get overshadowed in everyday life. We didn't have the traditional turkey, but we did have a lovely joint of ham.
It was lovely to see friends from Scotland. They were able to relax and take it easy for a couple of weeks while getting to see the lovely colours of the leaves turning on the trees. They even got the chance to rake some of them! They also were able to experience the wildlife. We've been having deer come into our front yard. There are about 5 different ones. It's very cool!
Despite all the wonderful things that have occurred over the last little while, I've had to deal with the passing away of a little 8 year old boy. I've been working with Jeremy since he was about 3 or 4 years old. He had many medical needs, but seemed to be getting stronger and stronger as the years went on. He was starting to use his voice with the help of a speaking valve and his latest surgery allowed him to sit independently (which he absolutely loved). He was definitely a fighter. He survived many things (getting a trach, getting a G-tube, getting a GJ-tube, a collapsed lung, hip surgery). There were many times he had us sitting on the edge of our seats, but always pulled through. Thursday, October 12th, he apparently went extremely pale and stopped breathing. He was rushed to Sick Kids in Toronto where the doctor's found that his bowel was blocked and ruptured. There were 5 different surgeons. They did what they could, but in the end all that was left to do was wait for him to go. At 6 o'clock Thursday evening doctors guessed he had about 2 hours left. He passed away around 1 o'clock Friday morning. It's been an extremely hard couple of days, and it's not over yet. He's having a sort of memorial service at his school this evening and his funeral is tomorrow. I've been asked to be one of the paal bearers, which will be emotionally hard to be, but at least it gives me another chance to hold him. The good thing about all of this is that he went quickly and didn't have to suffer (or if he did suffer, he didn't suffer for long). For a little boy who was not even supposed to come home from the hospital at birth, he lived a very good life. I'm just glad that he is up in heaven now, where I know he will be well taken care of.

There She Blows!

We've had to deal with some pretty nasty weather recently. The wind zoomed up to 90 km/h two weekends ago and managed to not only knock some trees onto hydro wires, but also totally uproot some of the huge pine trees we have around here! I couldn't believe my eyes when I went out to my car Sunday morning to go to work. I spent about 5 minutes throwing branches off the driveway only to discover that there were branches and trees all over the road!! There was even an enormous pine tree just across the road from me that had totally come out of the ground and was resting dangerously on another tree. I actually swore out loud!!! What should have taken me five minutes to get to work ended up taking my about half an hour. Every road I seemed to take had a tree fallen right across it. The hydro was out all over the place, people's houses had been crushed, and hydro wires dangled dangerously by the roads. It was kind of neat to watch the hydro repairmen cut the tree down in front of our house. They seemed to cut and cut until it was practically standing upright in the middle of the road, but still hooked on another tree. The guy with the chain saw would cut and then run for it! It took them about an hour and a half to get the tree safely to the ground.
It was the annual Turkey Dinner this weekend, which I didn't go to (I feel it's a bit of a rip off and you feel like you're being rushed), but I did go to the fireworks afterwards. The fireworks were held at the beach and were launched from the boat dock. It was cool to hear them echo across the lake. The little boy I was with was pretending to get shot (boys will be boys). They used to launch them from one of the Islands (Rocky Island) and it was always much nicer. They used to do this waterfall effect at the end as the grand finale...very cool!
It was funny, and maybe it was one of those "you had to be there" moments, but I was talking to this 9 year old boy who was saying that when he becomes a teenager his older sister would have to be his mom. Curiosity set in, and when asked why his mom now wouldn't be his mom when he was a teenager he said, "because she'll be retired!" I found it quite amusing, and trying to keep a straight face it was explained to him that his mom would always be his mom.

Why Do Bagpipes Drone, And Why Do Kids Say The Funniest Things?

Well, another great weekend has come and gone. The sun was shining and the birds were chirping, but boy was it chilly in the shade! Oh well, at least I got the chance to get outside and enjoy the weather.
Saturday I walked down to the local outside basketball court with my friend. We were shooting some hoops when we were distracted by the sound of bagpipes (not something you usually hear in this area). We headed across the road to the public beach and found the source of the drone. There was an elderly man standing at the end of the boat dock playing the bagpipes while three sailboats were pushed from the shoreline into the lake. We watched them sail for a while as they zig-zagged across the water. The bagpipes then stopped as the man climbed into a motor boat and followed behind the sail boats.
On Sunday my friend and I got up enough energy to go for a bike ride. Biking isn't the easiest thing to do in this area since it doesn't matter which direction you go in, you know you'll be faced with at least one big hill to attempt to make it to the top of. We chose the way with the least amount of hills. We were out for a quite a while on our bikes. The good thing about this area is that there is a lot of really nice scenery. I have to admit it makes the cycling more enjoyable.
Over the weekend my friend and I got talking about some of the funny things kids have said to us. I recalled a time when I was berry picking with a group of children and one little boy, who had just turned three, needed to go to the bathroom. Since my house was not far away, I took the little boy and the rest of the children to my house. I took the three year old and showed him where the bathroom was and then stood outside the door and waited for him to finish. As he was sitting on the toilet I hear him call my name. I opened the door and poked my head in. "Yes?" I asked. He pointed to a picture on the wall of a little African American boy surrounded by mountains of toilet paper, and innocently asked, "Is that you when you were a little boy?" I didn't have the heart to tell him that I've never been a boy or African American, so as I tried to conceal my laughter I simply said, "No, I don't know who that is."

Back To Reality

Since I've come back from the UK, things have been absolutely crazy. I can't believe how much has been crammed into just under one week. I feel like I've been trapped in a whirlwind and can't get out!
My flight back from the UK was, let's just say, "unsatisfactory'. I got stuck sitting next to this guy that smelled so awful I could taste it! There were actually a couple times I gagged. Considering I've changed many diapers before now and never gagged, you can imagine how awful the small was. The seat wasn't very good either...I had to strain to watch the movies that were playing. Oh well, at least I got through security with no problems, which was a concern considering the fairly recent threat of bombs on planes.
From the airport I went to see my brother. We went out for dinner which was very nice until he decided to shake the ketchup bottle. The lid apparently was not on tight. Guess who ended up wearing ketchup? You guessed it...me! My brother thought this was rather funny, unfortunately I was having a problem seeing the humour in it. I think what made it worse was watching him trying to conceal his laughter.
Before I had managed to get home I was informed that one of the huge pine trees at the side of my driveway had been hit by lightning and had fallen. Any guesses to where it landed? If you said my car, you'd be correct! The tree actually fell right beside my car, but the branches managed to cause $3000 damage to it. I was extremely glad my insurance covered it. The rear window had been smashed in, the trunk had numerour dents in it, the driver's side mirror had been broken off, and some of the interior panelling in the back seat had come off. Then, because it was raining the water soaked through the backseats and into the trunk. Luckily I have wonderful parents that made sure it was all fixed up before I got home. Although I have had to take it back to the collision place because it had quite a nasty musty smell. They found more water in the front wheel wells and took out my seats to let everything dry. It still smells a little, but nowhere near as bad as it was.
Just when I figured nothing else negative could happen, it did. I checked my e-mail just the other day to find an extremely confusing message from my ex. We broke up three years ago! Get a life! Most of his e-mail was ramblings about astrology and trying to find answers. What was the question?
They say bad luck comes in threes, but I sometimes wonder, 'if it wasn't for bad luck, would there be any luck at all?'. I'm not usually this negative, but sometimes it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I know it's there and I'm running toward it; I just wish I didn't keep falling over my own feet!
On a more positive note, I've started working again. I know, who likes work, right? Well I do. I love working with kids. They can really add humour into your life. I had brought back some Union Jack pencils from the UK for these two little girls (ages 8 and 9). "It's the London flag!" the oldest exclaimed. I explained that it was called the Union Jack and that the Union Jack is made up from the flags of the four countries in Great Britain. I said, "There's England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales." At which the youngest responded, "You saw whales? I saw a big seal!". How can you not laugh at that? Kids really do say the funniest things!

UK Vacation

Well, I had an awesome time over in the UK. I got to meet some really people and experience things I'd never experienced before. I spent most of my time visiting with friends and family in England, but did get the opportunity to travel to Edinburgh, Scotland.
Since I'd never been to Scotland before, this was a really cool experience. You could hear bagpipes every time you went "up the toon", or as we would say, "downtown". I got to see and explore the Edinburgh Castle as well as Hollyrood House (a palace), Mary King's Close (an underground village), and the Royal Yacht, Britannia. It was awesome! I also got the opportunity to try haggis. I'm sure it would have tasted better had I not had a good idea of what it was made from. I tried to figure out exactly what it was made from, but all anyone would tell me is "it's just oatmeal and spices". It wasn't until after I tried it I was told it was made from the insides of sheep (there's nothing like eating a sheep's heart, lungs, liver etc.). What surprised me was that they actually had vegetarian haggis (go figure)!

Another cool thing that happened while I was in England was being there for when my cousin's son was born. I don't think I've seen such a tiny human before!!! He was so adorable! He had a mountain of hair on his head. One of the mid-wives actually said he looked like he was wearing a wig! Everyone said you could definitely tell he was one of the family. We went to see him when he was only a day old. My aunt held his hand and he let out an almighty noise from his diaper. "You're definitely like your grandad," she said. Unfortunately, all I really witnessed him doing was sleeping and crying.