Michele’s Musings

I can’t believe I haven’t posted here since June 1st!  Between soccer, school field trips, volunteer commitments, work, planning our summer vacation…..  I think this weekend I can finally catch my breath!

Rowan had a great soccer season, had lots of fun, especially in goal.  Only problem is he now has exercise induced asthma.  He has had eczema since infancy so asthma is something we have been watching for in him because they are closely related.  This year he was having a hard time running, having to catch his breath, then coughing after games all evening.  Got him into the dr and he’s now taking Singulair, it seems to help.  His last couple games he had an easier time and there was no coughing.  Master Rowan is now a grade 3er!

Keely now needs to see a physiotherapist for her arm, she was doing really well with mobility, but recently as she makes a fist, her pinkie knuckle becomes indented and she gets a pain in her wrist….. I need to call and make an appointment for that!  She got her hair cut last night, it looks really cute, kind of cut like mine with layers but no bangs.  And she is now a grade 5er!

Arran is happy to be done exams.  He got a Merit award for having over a 75% average with his core subjects…. how he managed that with a 58 in LA I don’t know… I guess the 80’s in religion and gym helped?  lol Anyway he’s onto HS in the fall, grade 10!  Oh my!

I went out Wed night to Jubulations dinner theatre with co-workers and saw Grey’s House of Anatomy, it was really good!  Didn’t get home till 11 though, was very tired the next day!  Today and Monday are going to be stupid busy at work!  Word to the wise, if you don’t HAVE to go to the bank, don’t!  The line ups will be killer!  I have also been taking over the treasurer duties for the community league, wish me luck.

This weekend we have sad plans… we are bringing the cats to the shelter.  They have been fighting for about 9 months and no longer getting along.  It has become too stressful around the house, with hissing and spitting and fur flying…. We kept hoping it would improve, but it hasn’t.  We are surrendering both because I don’t have the wisdom of Solomon.  Give up one and one child is resentful…  They both seem to have accepted the inevitable, but I’m sure there will be some tears come Saturday. 

The rest of the weekend, I’m hoping the good weather will find James out in the yard sawing me some toe kicks and trim for the kitchen!  Otherwise cleaning and laundry.   James has Monday off work, while I get Tues off, so any family plans for Canada Day are shot.  We probably won’t go to the fireworks in Fort Sask as usual because we have to get up early for work on Wed!  We also need to finalize our vacation plans, get the itinerary set and hotels booked!

I have finished reading Voyager, so 1/2 way through the Outlander series, although the last 3 books are longer……  I have taken a break and am reading a Kresley Cole book called No Rest For the Wicked.  When I’m done I’ll probably try to tackle Drums of Autumn.

I hope everyone has a great Canada Day!

Last night was high school registration for our oldest son.  I have been feeling slightly panicky about it for a few weeks now!  This high school stuff is SO confusing for new parents entering the system.  I almost feel like I have to go back to school to figure out how school works!  10 Pure, 10H, 10.1, 10.2 WTH?  and the options these kids have today!  Unbelieveable.  It’s almost like you have to have a career plan in place at the age of 14 so you know what courses to take.  And what is with this credit system?  Back in my day, one course = one credit, now they are worth 3-5 each and they need 100 to graduate.   OMG!

I’m sure I’ll be ok once I get over the shock to my system lol  Luckily for me, many of my coworkers have kids in the same HS and 2 of my co-workers actually go to that HS, so they have been very patient with me, answering my endless questions and reassuring me that I’ll be fine :)  James seems to be taking this in stride….. 

 I just can’t belive how fast this

turned into this

And to top off a week of me feeling OLD, my baby Rowan is turning 8 on Saturday! 

Haven’t posted a book review in awhile so let’s get back to it!  I am currently reading a couple things, one is a book called Can Any Mother Help Me?  by Jenna Bailey, it the story of a goup of women who corresponded though a self published magazine starting in the 1930’s and continued for 50 years!  The story has parallels to todays modern mothers who communicate through mailing lists and message boards about raising their children, lifes daily frustrations and their relationships.  Mothers are mothers, all through time, we all have the same hopes and dreams for our children,we all hope to raise them well and question our ability, and we all need help, advice and a friendly shoulder to cry on.

My other current read is the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward.  I just finished book 3 called Lover Awakened and it was the best so far!  It’s a vampire romance series, but nothing like any other vampire series I’ve ever read.  These ones are a species unto their own, they don’t make new vampires from humans, they eat, they breed, they defend themselves from their enemies the “lessers”.  I am about to start book 4 Lover Revealed and highly recommend them to lovers of this genre!

*yikes* can’t believe it’s been a month since I last posted in the blog! 

Well to start with the weather is better!  lol  We’ve had enough balmy days that a lot of the snow melted and the roads are clear, so it makes for easier driving.  Today is 3C out, but I have a feeling we still have more winter in store for us, this IS Edmonton after all.

February started off with Carnivale, which is an Italian tradition to begin Lent.  My kids go to a school with an Italian culture and language program so this is always a fun event at school.  Lots of games played, a bake sale, proceeds went to the Canadian Diabetes Foundation.  The febrary school calendar ended with 2 days off for the kids for teacher convention.  Days off at the end of the month are always a challenge for us, as I am not usually able to take time off then because the bank is SO busy!  So for teacher convention, James was supposed to work the mornings, then come home after lunch hour and work from home to help supervise the kids…. but that of course did not happen.  People at his work didn’t show up so they were short handed *sigh* On Thurs he came home at lunch and brought Rowan back to work with him for the afternoon, with a promise to do the same for Keely on Friday but again…. that did not happen and she ended up in tears Friday night because she didn’t get to go to work with daddy   Luckily we DO have a teenager in the family and he was home to babysit, but it’s not fair for him to be stuck with them every day off.  That’s something I am always trying to balance.  As it is I need him to watch them every day after school until I get home from work, which I pay him for.  I try to make other arrangements for PD days and spring break so he isn’t having to “work” those days and can possibly hang out with his own friends for a change.  But it doesn’t always work out that way….. 

The younger two are now 10 and almost 8, and are old enough to take the home alone course… but as a mother you know your kids, my oldest has always been responsible when left alone, we started trying him out with it for short periods when he was 8, gradually extending the time as he and his dad and I were comfortable, and we had him take the home alone course at age 10.    My daughter I can see doing ok, we have tried her a few times and she seems to be comfortable with it (well ok she’s a little TOO eager actually) and I’m willing to let her try some more, but my baby?  Not on your life!  He needs supervision even on a good day.  Maybe when he’s 12 I’ll feel ok leaving him home alone lol  I picture his brother around the same age and man they are different boys!

This working mom thing in hard….  I helped make up for Keely’s sad day by bringing her out for a girls coffee and dessert date on Saturday.  I met up with a few ladies from a parenting group at a cafe on Whyte Ave, after that we did some walking around and shopping and a new Webkins to add to her family cheered her up!  That wasn’t even me bribing her, she used her own money lol

Monday we had a provinical election and I’m a bit sad about it.  I voted for our local MLA to stay but he lost  I did not vote for a party, I voted for a person, he was very hard working and I thought he did a good job for us, but now we have a PC MLA in there, and Redmonton is no longer, we lost a lot of Liberal’s!  The map is almost all Tory blue now. 

Oh our other BIG thing this week is that we went to the open house night for the high school our oldest is going to attend in September.  HIGH SCHOOL!  I’m a little freaked out about that I have to admit.  I can’t believe he’s old enough…. It’s a really good school, and so many different program choices compared to the olden days when James and I went to school lol  Right after the open house James had to go to a council meeting which kept him out till 2 am!  Apparently discussions got heated in regards to the election of 2 days previous….  There is a city councillor making waves in a local paper about how community leagues should stay out of “city issues” and confine their efforts to sports registration Community leagues advised to back off on controversial issues  Well the original mandate of community leagues was NOT sports programs…….  I don’t know where the one making that comment gets her facts from.  Tonight I’ll try to dig up the book I have on the history of the Edmonton community leagues movement.  So because of all this poor James is wiped out this week.  He didn’t sleep well last night so actually called in sick to work for the morning, hoping to get some sleep, perhaps he can go to work in the afternoon.

Happy New Year everyone!  We had a very fun New Year’s Eve, we had our friends Stacey and Sheldon and their girls over for the night, stayed up till 4 am playing cards!  Stacey collects wooden board games that she buys at the Butterdome Craft Sale in Edmonton every Christmas so she brought two with her.  We played Rummoli until midnight, I had never played it before but it was fun.  Then we switched to Sequence, the guys were all psyched to beat us (we play girls against guys) but after Stacey and I won 7 games in a row James said “I don’t want to play this anymore”  LOL  So we switched back to Rummoli and played until I was too exhausted to continue.  The kids played games, played online with Webkins and watched movies all night.

In the morning the guys made brunch and we hung out all day, playing more games, then I made a big turkey dinner.  YUMMY!  Then I had leftovers for a turkey pot pie……

turkey sandwiches and a yummy turkey soup that Stacey whipped up for us on Friday.  That’s what I missed from having Christmas dinner at my SIL’s, leftovers!

On the renovation front, James and I went to Ikea the weekend before NY’s to buy another cabinet for the kitchen, as well as the trim we were short on.  We have decided to forego the desk area and put in the extra drawers!  Now that we have decided that, I am looking forward to it.  I need more drawers to put away tea towels and Tupperware!   While we were there…… we bought a new bedroom!  Frame, mattresses, night stands, bedding and curtains.  We also picked up an area rug and some Markor pieces for the livingroom, a new TV stand, bookshelves, side tables and coffee table.  We brought some home with us, but the majoity we had delivered, it arrived yesterday so we spent the day building our bed, hanging curtains etc.  Once we get the room straightened out we’ll deside on a dresser.  It was SO comfy to sleep on last night!  And high off the ground!  Our last bed was only knee high, this one is at my hip!  James says we need a bench for the foot of the bed so he can sit to put on his socks in the morning lol  We will work on building the rest of the livingroom pieces in the evenings this week, so far we have the TV stand, one side table and the coffee table built. It’s a nice big square one that we can play board games on with the kids, which was our main criteria.  We found the coffee table and decided to do the rest of the livingroom to match!

We had a productive weekend, Rowan played his first soccer game of the year Saturday morning, James and I got our portrait’s taken Saturday afternoon by Tammy of Smiley Eyes Photography it was a lot of fun.  James and I haven’t had a portrait of US taken since we got married almost 17 year ago!  I’ll post the link to the proofs webpage when it’s ready.  Keely has decided she doesn’t want to play soccer anymore, so we pulled her out of it.  She is smaller than all the other kids and hasn’t played in a couple years, so she was finding it frustrating to keep up, so it stopped bing fun for her.  I will probably sign her up for swimming lessons for something else to do. 

Kids are back to school today!  Ye haw!  They were suffering from too much togetherness, they are excited about seeing their friends again.  And James and I are back to the usual work week…..  No more holiday’s.  He went back Jan 2nd, but was taking one of the kids to work with him each day last week.  My work will start new extended hours in a few weeks so I will eventually have to work a late Thurs/Fri and Saturday *sigh*  I’m told it will only be every 7th week….. that I can live with I guess.

Busy busy reading….. I finished 3 of the 4 books I got for Christmas already!  Bones to Ashes by Kathy Riechs, really enjoyed it   Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts, first in a new trilogy, it’s about demons  now I have to wait till May for the next installment!  And A Highlander For Christmas by Sandy Blair, I will give it a  because the story was fun to read, but the editing left a bit to be desired, there were parts I wasn’t sure what was going on.  I am now reading High Noon by Nora Roberts, so far so good, but I’m only just started.

I have never been doing my major Christmas shopping this late in the season!  Usually by this time of year I’m just getting stocking stuffers *sigh*  It’s the reno, I’ll just blame it on that lol Although we have had a couple of non reno related busy weekends lately where we meant to go shopping but it just didn’t work out.  Like this past weekend. 

Saturday we decided to forgo soccer games so we “could get stuff done”  umhmm….  we got cleaning done, then we gave blood…. then we had to get ready for company.  We had our friends Stacey and Sheldon over with their girls for the night.  We had Chinese food, then played Sequence, then went to another friends Christmas party for an hour (leaving the kids home with Arran to babysit) then back home to play more Sequence until the wee hours of the morning.   They slept over, James apparently drank a bit more than he should have considering he gave blood so the next day he did a lot of sleeping…. then we had Keely’s belated birthday celebration.  We took her and a friend to see The Golden Compass Sunday (aweome movie, and NO religious theme IMO) then off to dinner at East Side Mario’s, very yummy!  But that took up our whole day!  No shopping done at all!

Monday I didn’t stop till 11 pm.  I went to the kids school with Stacey first thing to sort through the food donations for our school food hampers, then off to work.  Then straight from work I went shopping with her and her mom to top off the donations, we were given about $500 to spend, 3 shopping carts later….. we went back to the school to divvy it up amongst the 5 families we are helping this year, two of them are single parents of 5, can you imagine?  That must be so hard at this time of year!  Then home to discover James hadn’t made a real supper (pancakes, blech) to I went out shopping at Zellers and London Drugs, got home after 10 and then wrapped till after 11 *sigh* no wonder I didn’t want to get up this morning!  I contemplated going back to Zellers this morning to do a return… I really should….. I also need to hit TRU or Wal-mart at some point but I’m cringing at the thought.  I am off to school again this morning at 10 to help Rowan’s class, then off to work at 11:30…..  I still have at least one if not two Santa gifts to get, and more for James.
 

****AAAAAKKKKKK*****

I don’t think I’m going to be done in time!  I don’t want to spend every evening shopping late, but I also don’t want to leave it till the weekend either…..  *ugh*

Next year I am SO planning further ahead!  Have I mentioned we have another birthday to celebrate on the 27th????  Arran will be 14 …

So tonight, while I sit here with sore fingers and a need for a cold beer, I thought I’d share some thoughts on what life is really like for us right now.  Weekdays are chaotic.  The morning starts off with James trying to get the kids up and at em so they can get their breakfast out of the way, so that they are out of the way, so that I can make lunches for them, all this takes place at the kitchen table in the corner of the livingroom, I would say please excuse the Saturday night mess, but this is actually how we are living right now

Inevitably they do not get downstairs in time and are therefore trying to get their breakfast made while I make lunches, when there really is not room for everyone in that small space behind the chairs. 

I remind them to feed their cats and fish….  get their bags packed and their stuff together….. My friend’s daughter gets dropped off around 8 and they all walk  to school after I yell for about 5 mintues to get all their stuff and GO!!!!!!  James leaves around the same time for work.  After they leave I get the only hour or so of peace in my day, which I spend online or reading (although Friday morning I put a coat of primer on the walls).  Then I am off to work….. 

After work I try to figure out what to cook in the microwave for supper (this is getting very old btw, I don’t think I’ll use the new microwave after the kitchen is finished for at least a good month!)  Then I have to actually cook it…. then round up the children who are off playing with friends.  After we eat there is homework and home reading and getting the kids ready for bed, around 9 James and I are sanding or mudding or painting or cleaning up the mess we made.  By 9:30 I am so ready to be done…..  But we usually go till 10 or so.  Then I get to read in bed for a few minutes until my eyes are so tired I can’t remember the last few pages I read.  Unless James bugs me for some “attention” which I’m being very begrudging about lately, I mean, haven’t I worked enough already?????  I’m FREAKING exhausted!

Weekends are spent trying to fit in as much work as humanly possible.  This weekend is a long one so there is one extra day to get stuff done!  Painting and hopefully some cabinets built and installed, they are still sitting in boxes on the other side of the livingroom…  yes that’s my last cross stitched project stacked haphazardly on top.  I haven’t touched it in 5 weeks and it’s probably covered in drywall dust *sigh*

Being the weekend I should also try to find time to do regular chores like bathrooms, laundry, vacuuming…. but they usually end up forgotten or set aside till “later”.  This is weekend three I haven’t cleaned bathrooms, I REALLY need to do that tomorrow, I think there is stuff growing under the rim of the toilet seats by now *shudder*  I told myself I’d do them Saturday, but it’s now 11 pm and there is no way it’s happening today.  Hopefully tomorrow, or a least by Monday right?  Last week Keely had to wear a pair of my socks to school because of the laundry procrastination…..  I am doing absolutely no dusting, what would be the point????  Weekend meals are haphazard at best, frozen Eggos or cereal for the kids for breakfast, last night’s left over pizza for lunch, pizza or bbq’d burgers for supper.

Sunday night James and I collapse exhaused dreading having to get up for work the next morning because we really didn’t get any rest.  But onward and upward right? 

We got the first coat of GREEN on the kitchen walls tonight!  We are working together really well and there doesn’t seem to be any strain on the marriage yet, except for the whole Michele is too tired for sex part  We are really proud of the quality of our work, our drywall job rocks!

…….so I have convinced James to reach over and open the fridge from his seat right next to it and grab me a beer, kind of a bonus of the reno, having a fridge in the livingroom  I am off to drink it now. 

Happy Thanksgiving!!!  I’ll have more pictures Monday!

Where did the summer go????  July was all about daycamp at the YMCA, running kids to and from there.  All of them spent 2 weeks at camp, with Arran as a Jr CIT, then there was a week that I had a friend babysitting the younger two while I worked full time and Arran was at the Y, that was not a fun commuting week!  I am used to working part time and driving 5 minutes to work and was suddenly spending an hour commuting to get everyone where they needed to be and working ful time lol 

August was all about camping, we got two trips, plus Arran did another week as a Jr CIT, we still have not started our renos, keep putting them off to camp!  So now here it is… 2 weeks left till school and I haven’t even started buying supplies or getting organized!  At least James has $60 in Staples dividends so that will help with paying for suplies.  I still have to pay registration fees of $90/kid in elementary and I’m sure close to $200 for the one in Jr High *sigh*  oh and they probably need new clothes and indoor shoes, I need more hours in my last couple weeks!

Wish me luck!

This week I read Nora Roberts Angels Fall, it was ok, not totally good, but not bad, I didn’t get as pulled into this story as I was hoping to I guess.  I just finished Fantasy Lover by Sherrilyn Kenyon, tha’s the first one from that author I have read, it was pretty good.  I liked it enough to try another of her books.  Next on my list is Micah by Laurell K. Hamlton, it’s hte next book in the Anita Blake series my co-worker has lent me, she’s on mat leave now though, so it will be a bit longer in between switching books with her!