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!

Another weekend over, but we got a lot done.  Friday night and Saturday morning we made the kids purge their bedrooms, got rid of a lot of stuff!  But this needs to be done ASAP because our condo has a big bin parked here for a few weeks and we think now would be a good time to rip out all the flooring upstairs and install the laminate!  Hopefully we can start next weekend, the big decision is whether to start in our room or the boys….. I think the boys but whatever….  Scratch that…. Rowan’s in a soccer tournament next weekend…. ok well maybe the next weekend?  I guess we’ll play it by ear.

Saturday night we watched The Waterhorse on PPV, it was quite enjoyable!  Very nice movie to watch with the family.  Then after it was over I went to bed and read Outlander, just continued the historical Scottishness!  I finished Outlander in bed this morning.  I am torn whether to start Dragonfly in Amber or get into the Kresley Cole books I bought…..  I think both!  lol 

Yesterday and today I did some work on the yard, I got the grass cut and trimmed, we went to Costco and a local garden centre and bought some hanging baskets and plants for the containers, cleaned up the raised bed, hacked back the climbing thing that grows there…. no idea WHAT it is.  Installed our solar lights, looking forward to what they look like after dark… if they are charged enough.  Here are some pictures!

Oh and the lilac bush is blooming again this year…… smells lovely…. but holy wasp magnet!

 On another note…. Master Rowan woke up this morning excited that it was now June, because that meant he wasn’t grounded anymore….. hmmmm *I* know it’s actually only been 3 weeks, but *he* thinks it’s been a month, and James says “he’s been really good…. let him go outside”  softy!  So he is no longer grounded but with the stipulation that he is NOT to play with that other boy again, because whenever he does he gets in big trouble, hopefully their house sells soon and they move!  Don’t need him tempted to play with said boy all summer vacation.  Rowan did get to do something interesting today, he had a bicycle safety course put on by the city at our local community hall.  He said he had a lot of fun, I asked what he learned, he said “not to stop your bike with your shoes”…oky doke then.

Two weeks ago James and I took Keely back to the hospital for a check up.  She had her cast cut off and arm x-rayed.  She had pins sticking out of her arm!  Of course they had to be yanked out, I’m not sure who was more traumatized, James, me or Keely!  I’m glad I didn’t take her alone, it took both of us and a couple nurses to hold her down while the nurse practioner pulled them out and she screamed her head off.  Afterwards a new cast was put on, she chose red this time.  That cast was on for 2 weeks, then James took her this past Tuesday morning and had it cut off.  Her arm looks very weird…. it’s just an odd shape.  She’s very happy!  But still suffering from some pain.  Here are some pictures.

Sad little girl after her cast was cut off, knowing there are pins sticking out of her arm and dreading what that means….

Some shots of the x-rays with pins in her arm.

Where the pins cross in her arm is where she broke it.  Straight across both bones.

New red cast, posing on the pedway betweenthe U of A and the parking garage lol. 

Next batch are pictures taken this week after the cast was taken off, but before she had bathed….. *yuck*

These are the holes from the pins.

Here is some of the swelling and the way it makes it look like her arm is twisted.

Dirt, discolourtion and general yuckiness.

Her oddly shaped arm..

So no monkey bars for her for awhile, but with some exercise, like swimming, she should be ok.  She had a nice soaking bath tonight to clean her arm and it looks much better after a good wash and some moisturizer

We had a great Victoria Day weekend!  Lazed around the house for much of it, got a few things done like a building a dresser for our bedroom we bought a few months ago.  We took the kids to see Iron Man, it was pretty good, different than what I expected, but I’m interested in a sequal.  The weather was gorgeous!  It started raining today though, Rowan’s soccer game was cancelled….  We have been watching the original Indiana Jones movies this week, we bought the set of three on Sunday, watched Raider’s of the Lost Ark on Monday night, Temple of Doom tonight, and plan on watching The Last Crusade Thurs or Fri night, have to prepare ourselves for the new movie coming out this weekend!

Reading - I started reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon again, I’m about 1/2 way done, but have set it aside to read a few other books.  My boss leant me Mariah Stewart’s Last Word which I read this past weekend.  I also read a small Linda Lael Miller book on Monday.  Currently I’m reading Johanna Lindsay’s The Devil Who Tamed Her, I should finish it tonight, it’s pretty funny!.  Next on my agenda are two new to me authors, Christine Feehan and Kressley Cole, who write vampire romances I have a couple of Feehan’s books out from the library, and I used a $50 GC for Chapter’s to order a bunch of Cole’s books because my library doesn’t offer them.  I’ll let you know what I think of them!

It’s been awhile since I posted…. been a little busy and stressful around home the last few weeks.  James has been working a lot… and volunteering a lot…. leaving me home alone with the kids every evening with soccer season started…  which I did NOT sign up for.  I had a bit of a breakdown this week about that, plus our wee Rowan went missing for an hour Thurs night which put me over the edge.  He decided it would be a good idea to go to a convenience store with a friend, which he is NOT allowed to do and did NOT ask permission to do.  James just found him by chance while doing a drive around the neighbourhood, I was about 5 minutes away from calling the police. Not a good feeling!  This “friend” of his is not a good influence… he comes around every once in awhile, plays with Rowan for a month or so until he gets Rowan in a huge mess of trouble, then Rowan is banned from playing with him…. another 6 months or so rolls around and this “friend” starts showing up again and the cycle starts all over.  So Rowan is now grounded for a month and the “friend” issue is being taken care of because their house is for sale so he’ll be moving, and Rowan won’t have a chance to play with him again.  Rowan gets in trouble with this kid because he is a follower, he pretty much does whatever his friends want him to do even if he knows it’s wrong *sigh*  My other two are not like this, Arran is a non-conformist, and Keely is a leader, so I’m struggling with parenting this last child of mine…..  what I don’t get is if he’ll do whatever his FRIENDS want him to do, why does he never do anything *I* want him to do??????  We have spent some time talking this weekend, about thinking for himself…. he said he told his friend he wanted to go home while they were at the store, but the friend didn’t want to go so he wouldn’t take him home.  Rowan knows he’s not allowed to go anywhere alone (safety in numbers) so he wouldn’t leave his friend and come home alone. Points for following one rule at least…. although I would have preferred him following the “don’t go anywhere without asking persmission first” rule…. which would have saved everyone a lot of worry and stress and tears.

Friday night James and I were able to go out to dinner alone and talk about everything bothering me, it’s hard to find time to do that at home.  Our only chance is after the kids are in bed, then he’s too tired and doesn’t want to listen, which gets me more upset….  anyway, we seem to have settled things.  He needs to work on balance and the word NO with his volunteering.  He’s also going to do more work from home so he’s not at the office till all hours.  I am going to work on getting the kids doing more around the house so I am not so overwhelmed.  Not that I do everything for them….. but they tend to whine and complain and ignore when I DO tell them to pick up after themselves, which I am now taking a zero tolerance policy with.  They are perfectly capable of putting their dirty dishes in the dishwasher, and getting their dirty laundry in hampers etc….

So with everyone tip toeing around me …. I got a pretty good Mother’s Day ;)  Flowers, chocolates, breakfast and dinner made for me.  Plus we spent time today working on a CSI mystery puzzle and watching TV while I cross stitched.  The only “work” I did today was folding the laundry I washed yesterday!  James even cleaned up the kitchen after supper!  Oh and I called my mom in Ontario to wish her a happy Mother’s Day, I ordered her flowers which should arrive tomorrow.  With all the crud going on lately I didn’t get around to ordering them in time to arrive for Mother’s Day.

So I am hoping for a better week….. relaxing tonight, watching the season finale of Survivor :)  Do a little reading before bed, back into the Outlander series by Gabaldon.

I picked our portrait package out!  I decided on #12 to send out to family and friends, but I also ordered 11 5×7’s of others.  I think I’ll put 3 of the B&W’s together in a frame for the livingroom, and 3 of the coloured pictures together to hang in our bedroom.  We highly recommend Tammy from Smiley Eyes Photography, we had a fun time taking the pictures and she is so very nice to work with!  We’ll definitely be booking another session with the kids for a family portrait.

Well I survived day 2 of the deep freeze by not leaving the house (unlike yesterday when I had to shovel….)  I was up sick 1/2 the night and got no sleep, so I called in sick to work so I could get some sleep…. unfortunately when I tried to nap my eyes wouldn’t stay shut, so I got up, ate a handful of chocolate covered coffee beans, sucked back a few cups of coffee and managed to make it through the day.

Since the windchill this morning was -45C or something ridiculous like that, we decided to keep the kids home from school today.  Silly me forgot to ask Arran if he had any tests today….. yup he missed 2 midterm exams although he claims there will be a make up test on Thurs, he better hope so!  Our streets have still not been shovelled by the complex, so even if James had driven them this morning, they would have had a horrible time trying to walk home through the snow drifts.  Here is what they looked like this afternoon.

That is along the side of our house, the sidewalk in the front is even worse because of drifting snow, but I wasn’t going OUT in it to get a good shot!

Here is our yard, you can see the depth of the snow from this angle.  Our deck is under there somewhere….

And a little perspective, to see how much snow fell in one day, here is our old Little Tykes table stored in the yard…. there was maybe an inch or so of snow on it before the storm.

So glad the forcast doesn’t call for any more snow, only bone chilling cold.   So the kids will go back to school tomorrow bundled up really well!

We had a nice snow day at home though, Arran got some learning in by watching a 2 hour program about the history of the Great Wall of China that he TiVo’d on the weekend.  Rowan baked cookies with Fun Dough from the cookie dough fundraiser, and we played board games in the afternoon.  And amazingly, James made it to and from work with no problems…. just very slow going.  His car started and he didn’t even plug it in!

First of all thanks for the compliments on the photos! We are still deciding which ones we want lol

So the weather forecast is not looking good….. we are forecast to get into the -30 to -40’s C with windchill over the next few days. It is supposed to hit us tomorrow so I stopped at the grocery store for a few things tonight so I won’t have to go out in it! Keely wants to go Webkins shopping tomorrow but I kyboshed the idea, told her maybe NEXT weekend *shiver*

We got this Saturday off soccer because of a tournament using the fields so James slept in till 11 lol Then we went to a flooring place in Sherwood Park to order new lino for our bathrooms. My former supervisor works at a flooring store now and let us know they were have a 50% off sale on some of their lino, which doesn’t happen often! We aren’t planning on doing the bathroom’s before the summer, but we couldn’t pass up the sale. We ordered lino for both bathrooms for $250 total! cha ching! It’s a stone look in neutral colours.

After the flooring store we hit Ikea because my friend Stacey wanted to borrow our van to transport a big mirror she wanted to buy that won’t fit in her car, the three of us wandered Ikea for a couple hours picking up this and that, but no mirror cause they were out of stock lol When we dropped her off at home we picked up her two girls for an impromtu sleepover at our house, the kids are all thrilled

Tomorrow James is going to finally build the last cabinet for the kitchen and install it. It will be nice to put away the plastic dishes in a big drawer, I ordered a bunch more Tupperware at my friends party last weekend….. I need to organize the new kitchen ya know Speaking of the kitchen… We went to Home Outfitters Thurs night to use the GC my mom sent us at Christmas. We wanted new dishes because we have too many that are chipped and cracked, but we are really picky about the shape of the bowls and mugs, they didn’t have a whole lot to choose from, I was expecting more open stock…. We found a few that we liked, but to get as many settings as we wanted it would be about $200-300…. Then just as we gave up we came across a HUGE box with a 12 piece place setting with a few extra pieces for $80! It is white, so will go with anything, and the bowls and mugs are the right shape. We picked up a few more things to clean out the GC, including a dark wood scratch repair thing because I’ve already damaged the new bookshelves in the livingroom! We have discovered 2 of the bowls are cracked so I’m hoping they will exchange them…… if not we still have 10 bowls! And in the spirit of recycling our old dishes already have a new home, Stacey has the same ones so we are giving them to her so she can complete her sets that are missing pieces that got cracked and chipped lol

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.

Where did the time go?  We have been busy!  On top of all the reno stuff we have a sick cat and the other cat killed one of the betta fish, did you know they can live out of water for HOURS????  We didn’t know that, and when James went to clean up the mess of the dumped betta tank, the fish jumped 5 feet and scared the poop out of him LOL  We ended up having to flush him anyway, he just didn’t bounce back from that experience  

Oh and the sick cat….   Arran’s baby named Sugar started peeing all over the house, but because we have two cats it took us a bit to narrow down the offender, then James noticed her walking away from a cushion with pee on it, and there was blood in it *sigh*  So off to the vet…. we think she has an irritated bladder (cystitis) which can be brought on by the stress from things like home renovations   So she is now on a pricey Rx food and hates it!  We end up throwing most of it out.  And it’s oh so muh fun feeding two different cats two different diets….

And while we’re dealing with that…. we’re still finishing off the kitchen!  I don’t have any new pics to upload, but I have a working kitchen again! We have the counter top installed, sink in, dishwasher hooked up and working.  All the cabinets are in, all doors on, all upper knobs installed.  We still have to put the knobs and handles on the lower cabinets and install all the trim.  James also assembelled our kitchen table and chairs so we are eating in the kitchen as a family now!  No more eating in front of the TV!  I’m hoping to get most of it done this week/weekend then I’ll take pictures!  We have another trip to make to Ikea,  probably Saturday morning, one of the drawer front’s is chipped and we need another end panel. 

The kids are enjoying indoor soccer.  Rowan scored a goal on Saturday!!!!!  I have been doing all the running to and from games on Saturday’s while James gets work done in the kitchen.  I keep forgetting to bring the camera though. 

I am trying to make it through the new Greg Iles bk True Evil but it’s a long slow process… I have had to renew it once already.  It’s just dragging on…..  just another 100 pages to go…

Keely and Rowan started indoor soccer on Saturday.  I am now back to being a full fledged minivan driving soccer mom again!  Indoor soccer means driving to the indoor soccer centers around Edmonton.  Luckily Rowan is young enough he is only playing mini soccer and we only have to drive to one place.  But Keely is in an older group so we will end up all over Edmonton and if they make it to city’s she will be playing in Calgary!  Indoor soccer is fun though, muh more fast paced than outdoor!

I had a crazy weekend…. With the renos… I have been a bit disorganized…. Friday night was spent running all over our side of Edmonton trying to find indoor soccer shoes for Rowan, only one store had kids indoor shoes and it only had one size 1, unfortunately is was only the left, they couldn’t find the right!  So James will be hitting a sports shop near his work for them one day this week.  Luckily Keely fits in Arran’s old indoor shoes so she is set!  I will have to remember to bring the camera to some games to get action shots

Friday night while I was running around shopping and Saturday while I was running kids to and from soccer games… James and our friend Sheldon finished installing the laminate in the kitchen, and also some lower cabinets.  It’s looking really good!  I have more photos uploaded to Facebook The Renos part 2 they are on page 3 of that album, there is a merged shot of the L shaped kitchen that is too big for me to post here, but I will add the others below.

That’s our progress so far.  We have some of the cabinet doors on and some shelves installed because I need to move all the food out of the pantry in the back hall so we can do the flooring back there.  We still have lots of stuff to do!  But our counter is waiting for us to pick up at Rona!  I am hoping this is the last week of not having a working kitchen.  I am happy to have the appliances out of my livingroom now though, and the oven can be used, we made fish and chips Sunday night, thrilling!  lol

Last night was the first parent council meeting of the year as well, totally forgot about that till my friend called to ask if I wanted her to pick me up…um yea.. let me just change back out of my pj’s first!  DOH!  I really need to write these things on the calendar!

We have a party on Thursday night with trophys and pictures handed out but soccer season is essentially over and I am SO HAPPY!  I love watching ds having fun playing soccer (U8), he is turning into a really great little goalie (see pic above) and is so proud of himself…. but man I am glad it’s over, I am so not an outdoor sport loving mom….  Soccer season here in Edmonton is only 2 months but the weather sucks!  Some nights we’re huddling in sleeping bags, others we’re getting a sunburn and eaten alive by squeeters, most of the game I’m thinking “is it half time yet?” then “is it almost over yet?”, that’s where my soccer mom guilt comes in…. I’m supposed to love it right?   The bonus is the parents on his team are awesome and they make the time fly with joking and great conversation and sharing their Spitz, I’ve made some lovely friends over the last 7 years of soccer seasons  

Only 2 more months till INDOOR soccer season… at least it’s climate controlled.