Craziness.
I am working three days this week and man, does that interfere with my life. Whew!
So the dentist’s went well. I was frozen for about four hours and I sounded ridiculously furry during that time, (which made for an interesting preschool pick-up – I think they thought I was drunk at first until I explained about the dentist) but once that wore off I felt nothing from the procedure. Except for the tooth that they had fixed the rubber dam to; that one hurt. Those rubber dams are the worst thing ever. I always forget and try to breathe through my mouth and then I totally panic until I remember that I also possess a nose that does a pretty good job of breathing too.
I totally got called out on Monday at school by one of the other moms. Chantal wearing the exact same clothes as me - sweater-jacket from Costco and jeans from Joe Fresh. It was very funny! We really need to call each other first. She also informed me that she sees me in the mornings doing my makeup in the car on the way to work. Busted! I`m guilty. Now I have to get up five minutes earlier every day so I don`t get caught again.
Super short post today, sorry. We have the comedy club for Marzia`s birthday tonight, Mike`s Gram`s 95th birthday dinner, my mom`s 64th birthday and Ethan`s 6th birthday party all this Saturday... yikes!
I`m off to work - again. More after the parties!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Deep Thoughts
On the way home from work today, I was idly watching the man in front of me on the bus clean his ears. And by “idly”, I mean staring with my mouth open and a twisted snarl of disgust on my face. Moments like this can be earth-shattering, you know? As in “what’s wrong with my life, that I have to be HERE, right now, watching three, then four, fingertips get coated in ear wax, carefully examined, then disappear beneath the seat to get wiped clean somewhere I’d better try to remember the next time I take the #345.” I’d just like to point out that, as previously blogged, I have witnessed booger-picking and wiping onto bus wall, fingernail clipping, and now ear wax removal. From BOTH his ears, no less. I am TRYING to stay committed to transit, but WHY do you people make it so HARD?
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Can anyone FREAKIN’ read this? I can NEVER read these things and I see them more and more. Every site has these to avoid spammers or automated somethings and I just have to say – this moron here cannot DO these things.
PS I got it wrong.
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Mike woke up the other morning to a bare-assed Jack sitting on his bare back. Then Jack said “There you go, have a nice day” which meant he’d just farted. Nice. But I laughed because it wasn’t on me.
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I was feeling glum the other day and I laid down with Ethan for a moment after I’d read their bedtime story. He was falling asleep, with his back to me, and he whispered, “You know you can always talk to me if you’re feeling sad, Mummy.” Which of course made it impossible to talk through the lump in my throat.
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I got really sick of doing the Thursday Thirteen and the Friday Fill-Ins so I am on hiatus. I started doing them as an extra couple of posts per week, and then they became the crutch that WAS the post for the week and I lost focus on everything elsethat was important that I wanted to write about. I’ll probably still do them from time to time, though...
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It’s been SO long since I actually wrote about our family. Both Jack and Ethan are firmly entrenched in their school routines and loving it. I mean, REALLY loving it.
Mike’s birthday has come and gone – not much fanfare this year, really. But the ice cream cake lasted a nice long time.
Mike’s grandfather has also been visiting from Florida, so we have all spent some time together in the past week or so. I have tried really hard to tone the boys down a little in honour of his visit, but the truth is that they are animals and I cannot contain them.
-----------------------------
Last weekend was a glorious Vancouver weekend. Trev and Shanty called us Saturday morning to invite us boating with them and Lori. It was so beautiful and such a great way to spend the afternoon.
I mean, for everyone except seasick me. I stayed on dry land while everyone else rode the waves (Jack was driving for a time – too adorable). They had to rendez-vous with me at the dock a short while after hitting the open water. Turns out Ethan’s not a sailor, either... so us land-lubbers had lunch and strolled around Granville Island. Still a pretty great way to spend the day!
The next morning, Kim and Gene called to say their pool was open if we wanted one last hurrah before the weather turns. Of course we took them up on it and had a relaxing afternoon lounging poolside. Pizza for dinner and Kim’s homemade pie for dessert. Ahhh...
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My finger is aching now which means we have about 36-48 hours of nice weather before the rain hits. (Have I never told you about my weather finger? Remind me next time...) So I plan on enjoying the sun tomorrow. From the dentist’s chair, anyway. Wish me luck with my filling!
-----------------------------
Can anyone FREAKIN’ read this? I can NEVER read these things and I see them more and more. Every site has these to avoid spammers or automated somethings and I just have to say – this moron here cannot DO these things.PS I got it wrong.
-----------------------------
Mike woke up the other morning to a bare-assed Jack sitting on his bare back. Then Jack said “There you go, have a nice day” which meant he’d just farted. Nice. But I laughed because it wasn’t on me.
-----------------------------
I was feeling glum the other day and I laid down with Ethan for a moment after I’d read their bedtime story. He was falling asleep, with his back to me, and he whispered, “You know you can always talk to me if you’re feeling sad, Mummy.” Which of course made it impossible to talk through the lump in my throat.
-----------------------------
I got really sick of doing the Thursday Thirteen and the Friday Fill-Ins so I am on hiatus. I started doing them as an extra couple of posts per week, and then they became the crutch that WAS the post for the week and I lost focus on everything else
-----------------------------
It’s been SO long since I actually wrote about our family. Both Jack and Ethan are firmly entrenched in their school routines and loving it. I mean, REALLY loving it.
Mike’s birthday has come and gone – not much fanfare this year, really. But the ice cream cake lasted a nice long time.
Mike’s grandfather has also been visiting from Florida, so we have all spent some time together in the past week or so. I have tried really hard to tone the boys down a little in honour of his visit, but the truth is that they are animals and I cannot contain them.
-----------------------------
Last weekend was a glorious Vancouver weekend. Trev and Shanty called us Saturday morning to invite us boating with them and Lori. It was so beautiful and such a great way to spend the afternoon.
I mean, for everyone except seasick me. I stayed on dry land while everyone else rode the waves (Jack was driving for a time – too adorable). They had to rendez-vous with me at the dock a short while after hitting the open water. Turns out Ethan’s not a sailor, either... so us land-lubbers had lunch and strolled around Granville Island. Still a pretty great way to spend the day!The next morning, Kim and Gene called to say their pool was open if we wanted one last hurrah before the weather turns. Of course we took them up on it and had a relaxing afternoon lounging poolside. Pizza for dinner and Kim’s homemade pie for dessert. Ahhh...
-----------------------------
My finger is aching now which means we have about 36-48 hours of nice weather before the rain hits. (Have I never told you about my weather finger? Remind me next time...) So I plan on enjoying the sun tomorrow. From the dentist’s chair, anyway. Wish me luck with my filling!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Whassup in Da Hood?
It’s been a while since my last confession blog, but this time I really have something to talk about.
On Monday, I was washing vegetables at the sink just before dinner when I heard this insanely loud tire screeching from outside on the street. I have a little window above the sink and through it I saw a black muscle car (Mike’s dad would call it a “greaseball car”) billowing white smoke out its tires as it burned rubber up our sleepy little kids-playing-everywhere street. It skidded and lost control, flipped around on the curb just opposite our house, flew into our across-the-street neighbour’s yard, destroying their fence like matchsticks and knocking down two trees. (This last is unforgivable to me; one tree was about 25 feet high and beautiful. Poor tree. And the one between the sidewalk and the road was only small, but was annihilated.)
So now this moron was parallel to the road, facing back the other way now, entrenched in our neighbour’s front yard. Incredibly, he was still revving the engine and burying himself into their dirt. (Used to be fence, trees, and grass, but hey – he made short work of THAT) Smoke was pouring up and over the car, and he was roaring the engine. About 40 or 50 people had poured out of their houses and driveways, and everybody was yelling their heads off at him. He sat in the driver’s seat, SMILING, as he revved, revved, REVVED. The street was full of cars, three or four of which had followed him from the main street and they were yelling that he already caused four accidents up the street. People started blocking traffic both sides of this lunatic and diverted cars through our complex so they didn’t have to drive by this guy. I saw tons of people on their phones calling 911.
These pictures were taken by our neighbour Tammy - we should see them in the local paper, eh Tammy?
Then the car caught on fire. We could see flames licking out from underneath his engine. He was STILL hammering on the gas pedal.
I stared open-mouthed from my balcony and yelled helpful comments like “Get away from there”, “What the Hell is going on” and “Aaahhhh the car is on fire”. When my mind finally caught up to my open mouth, I did actually do some useful things. I yelled to the kids to stay inside and called 911. While I was waiting for the fire department to come on the line, I yelled down to Mike (who was out on the street) did he need me to throw down the fire extinguisher? From my end: lots of yelling.
From our neighbours: lots of action. Four men ran to the car, reached through the open window and wrestled the keys out of the ignition. Then they hauled him out of the car and ran him across the road, where they all sat on him. Two other guys blasted the car with fire extinguishers until it was all covered with foam and the fire was out.
Thenmy future husbands the fire department showed up. Although they looked pretty (and they did look pretty :) sorry Mike but they were in uniform and you KNOW what that does to me), in reality they were pretty useless as our neighbourhood had controlled the situation very capably on their own. Let me add too that the fire station is 4 blocks from our house, and the time elapsed from the first 911 call to the arrival of the first emergency vehicle was probably 10 minutes. That is pathetic. The police arrived after that and got the loser into their squad car.
Now the 100 or so residents who were out and about (it was SO loud there was no way you could NOT go outside to see what on earth was going on) were all discussing who saw what, giving statements etc.
It took about two hours for the excitement to die down, the police to evidence the scene and the car to be towed. The police pulled a lot of little packets out of the car; looked like drugs to me but let’s just say “allegedly” so I don’t get sued.
And the kids? Excited, upset, and a teensy bit traumatized. Our 10-year-old neighbour was playing with the boys when this all happened, and I had yelled to his mom (yelling again!) that he was safe inside. Ethan, Jack and Kaz were all watching this out the kids’ windows upstairs. When I came inside after making the 911 call, Ethan was crying and the two other boys had eyes wider than saucers. Kaz had his arm around Ethan to comfort him (I love that kid... best neighbour ever). We got them calmed down and took them outside once the man was in custody. Then they were excited and we played catch and chattered nervously to all our neighbours.
Later, after dinner, I overheard Ethan saying to his Star Wars figure, “Silly Wicket, the man is in jail. It’s all ok now.” And then turning to Jack and saying, “Can you believe Wicket is scared right now?” I don’t know the psychological term for that – transference of anxiety or something – but I do know that Ethan required a lot of extra cuddles at bedtime and somewhere around 2:30am when he awoke from a nightmare. Jack, on the other hand – more like water rolling off a duck’s back. That kid is so laid back.
So there you have it, news from da hood. You think you live in a nice area, but damn – it’s still Surrey, man.
On Monday, I was washing vegetables at the sink just before dinner when I heard this insanely loud tire screeching from outside on the street. I have a little window above the sink and through it I saw a black muscle car (Mike’s dad would call it a “greaseball car”) billowing white smoke out its tires as it burned rubber up our sleepy little kids-playing-everywhere street. It skidded and lost control, flipped around on the curb just opposite our house, flew into our across-the-street neighbour’s yard, destroying their fence like matchsticks and knocking down two trees. (This last is unforgivable to me; one tree was about 25 feet high and beautiful. Poor tree. And the one between the sidewalk and the road was only small, but was annihilated.)
So now this moron was parallel to the road, facing back the other way now, entrenched in our neighbour’s front yard. Incredibly, he was still revving the engine and burying himself into their dirt. (Used to be fence, trees, and grass, but hey – he made short work of THAT) Smoke was pouring up and over the car, and he was roaring the engine. About 40 or 50 people had poured out of their houses and driveways, and everybody was yelling their heads off at him. He sat in the driver’s seat, SMILING, as he revved, revved, REVVED. The street was full of cars, three or four of which had followed him from the main street and they were yelling that he already caused four accidents up the street. People started blocking traffic both sides of this lunatic and diverted cars through our complex so they didn’t have to drive by this guy. I saw tons of people on their phones calling 911.
These pictures were taken by our neighbour Tammy - we should see them in the local paper, eh Tammy?
Then the car caught on fire. We could see flames licking out from underneath his engine. He was STILL hammering on the gas pedal.
I stared open-mouthed from my balcony and yelled helpful comments like “Get away from there”, “What the Hell is going on” and “Aaahhhh the car is on fire”. When my mind finally caught up to my open mouth, I did actually do some useful things. I yelled to the kids to stay inside and called 911. While I was waiting for the fire department to come on the line, I yelled down to Mike (who was out on the street) did he need me to throw down the fire extinguisher? From my end: lots of yelling.
From our neighbours: lots of action. Four men ran to the car, reached through the open window and wrestled the keys out of the ignition. Then they hauled him out of the car and ran him across the road, where they all sat on him. Two other guys blasted the car with fire extinguishers until it was all covered with foam and the fire was out.
Then
Now the 100 or so residents who were out and about (it was SO loud there was no way you could NOT go outside to see what on earth was going on) were all discussing who saw what, giving statements etc.
It took about two hours for the excitement to die down, the police to evidence the scene and the car to be towed. The police pulled a lot of little packets out of the car; looked like drugs to me but let’s just say “allegedly” so I don’t get sued.
And the kids? Excited, upset, and a teensy bit traumatized. Our 10-year-old neighbour was playing with the boys when this all happened, and I had yelled to his mom (yelling again!) that he was safe inside. Ethan, Jack and Kaz were all watching this out the kids’ windows upstairs. When I came inside after making the 911 call, Ethan was crying and the two other boys had eyes wider than saucers. Kaz had his arm around Ethan to comfort him (I love that kid... best neighbour ever). We got them calmed down and took them outside once the man was in custody. Then they were excited and we played catch and chattered nervously to all our neighbours.
Later, after dinner, I overheard Ethan saying to his Star Wars figure, “Silly Wicket, the man is in jail. It’s all ok now.” And then turning to Jack and saying, “Can you believe Wicket is scared right now?” I don’t know the psychological term for that – transference of anxiety or something – but I do know that Ethan required a lot of extra cuddles at bedtime and somewhere around 2:30am when he awoke from a nightmare. Jack, on the other hand – more like water rolling off a duck’s back. That kid is so laid back.
So there you have it, news from da hood. You think you live in a nice area, but damn – it’s still Surrey, man.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Thursday Thirteen #13
Thirteen Emotions I felt yesterday when taking Ethan to Grade One
- Anxiety – He had a nervous stomach the night before, and actually threw up once. He was anxious about whether he would know anybody in his class, whether he would like the teacher, whether he would have too much work in Grade One, etc. I was nervous that he was going to throw up again, because yuck.
- Exhaustion – I’ve been getting Ethan up twice a night to pee. So I have sacrificed a lot of snooze time these past two weeks since it is so freaking hard to get back to sleep. Added to which, I have to drag their butts out of bed to make it in time for school. Oh, I am never going to be a morning person.
- Jealousy – Grade One is going to be COOL! I am going to live vicariously through Ethan! I am going to have playdates and recess and hot lunch Fridays and assemblies... oh wait, that’s not all for me? Poo.
- Disappointment – I’m going to miss the little guy around here. Sigh.
- Panic – What? The other kids brought school supplies with them? But I bought them from the school... where ARE they? Ethan, are they in your new desk? Your cubby? WHERE? How will they know which ones are YOURS? Oh never mind, there they are.
- Fear – I am scared of bullies, scared he won’t make new friends, scared that I will not be there to protect him.
- Pride – He looks so grown up! I MADE that kid! And he’s the cutest one in there! Look at Ethan, everyone, isn’t he the best First Grader ever?
- Boredom – OK Jack, so now what? What are we going to do together every day?
- Anger – He is NOT going to be sitting next to THAT troublemaker. I will have a word or two to say to his teacher about THAT.
- Surprise – Ethan will have two teachers this year. One will teach Mon, Tue, Wed and the other will teach Thu & Fri. The idea didn’t faze Ethan, but I was a little taken aback. That’s not how they did it in my day...
- Excitement – Any way you look at it, there is just plain excitement in the air around the school today. Just a little bubble of giddiness bubbling over into the air.
- Sadness – That some of his good friends from Kindergarten won’t be in his class. Most are just next door, but a couple have changed schools and I will miss the moms almost as much as Ethan will miss his friends. I sense a few Starbucks meetups in the future...
- Joy – And lastly, just plain joy when I looked at Ethan’s face at the end of the day and asked him how it went. “I loved it, Mummy, it was GREAT! Grade One is SO much better than Kindergarten!” Given how much he loved Kindergarten, that is high praise indeed.
Sorry for the crummy quality photo – I snuck my hand around the door and snapped a shot of Ethan with my phone.
PS No comments about me being a stalker-mom, please... :)
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