Friday

I'm sick. Blech.

Yesterday was Pizza Lunch day at school. It took 2 moms nearly an entire day to count money and sort the order forms, took me nearly 2 hours to roll all that coin, and then a student teacher had the *nerve* (more like lack-of-experience, I should say) to add the helpful hint, "You should get more parents to volunteer" AS SHE TOOK A SLICE OF PIZZA OUT OF THE KITCHEN, BELONGING TO A STUDENT, AND *ATE IT* .

What the...???

Actually, I wasn't there, as I was home sick with Jake. I got this info after the fact. I felt so rotten that one mom out of however many there are at that school had to sort through 170 pizza orders, 170 chocolate/white milks, 25 pizzas, and then make sure it was all in the classrooms before the lunch bell rang. Top it off with, this one mom had strep throat and a fever but didn't want the kids to miss lunch. And then this not-smart teacher comes up with that delicious piece of wit.

At the beginning of the year, we sent home forms asking for help throughout the year with various events: book fair, selling raffle tickets, pizza lunch. We received about 50 forms back, with phone numbers and email addresses, or people claiming that they wanted to help (evenings, weekends, whenever they could squeeze an hour in). So we emailed those 50 people asking for help on hot lunch day--sorting orders at home, taking their lunch hour to come to the school to help. You know how many answered this email? BIG FAT ZERO!!! How very rude. At least answer the freakin' email. Or don't send back the stupid form with your offer to help.

I know people work, that's a complete non-issue. I rolled $500 in change after the kids went to bed. My husband works 60+ hours per week and he puts together the student yearbook every single year in his free time (although he is now thinking that it's time that someone else steps up or the project just doesn't get done). Do you know some socialist countries requre that parents put in a set amount of volunteer hours at their kids' school? It's a requirement of the student's registration, and employers are expected to give their employees a morning or afternoon off once a month.

It has nothing to do with government money, and anyone that says that is copping out. It's sheer laziness, we're living in a society that thinks that raising their kids is everyone's responsibility but their own. That one person's comfort level is more important than their kids' well-being. Most people get 2 weeks holiday per year, but no way would they take even an hour of that time to make their kids' school a better place to be. It's all the fault of the governement, that they're not throwing enough money at the school system. What a load of crap. You can't tell me that not one out of 320 parents couldn't use their lunch hour to help out, or couldn't work a bit later that day so that they could take some personal time during the day. Never mind that our school doesn't do field trips anymore because no one will volunteer to chaperone.

And then: to hear parents sit in the playground after school complaining, "You know, at our old school, there was hot lunch every month and it was way better than Pizza Hut. And our old school had field trips all the time!"

I'm so pissed off right now...

My new favourite song :)

I can't find a video...

Flyleaf - Do You Hear What I Hear

I love that song no matter who sings it, but I really like this version.

Karma!

The other day, there was this little boy running all over my house yelling, "I'm the only one who's not sick! Ha ha, suckers!" and laughing his bum off at us...guess who was up all night puking??? Poor kid. So Jacob is at home with me today, but he's eating and drinking and everything is staying down. He cried during the night, because today is Pizza Day at school, and he didn't want to miss it :( . I told him that I would make sure to let the hot lunch moms know to wrap up the pizza for the kids who were sick today (I'm sure there are a few) and to stick them in the freezer for next week.

Our school had 7 teachers at home sick yesterday...lots of subs running around and lots of kids looking like walking zombies. This is one tough bug :( . I hope everyone is better by Saturday, that is the night of Scott's Christmas party.

Pics

Sam's Christmas shoes, made with this pattern: Mini Moc pattern
It's super, super easy and you can make it with just scraps you have laying around. Someone gave us a nice Christmas dress for Sam, and I wanted some shoes to go with it, but I wasn't interested in paying for them (cheapskate, remember?). I also wasn't interested in buying new fabric, and I was out of leather scraps...so I looked around and found an old pair of Jacob's sweatpants with a hole in the knee (it had been sitting in my mending pile for so long that he had outgrown them LOL). I also found some lace scraps in my stash. Put them together, and this is what you get. I went through my ribbon box and Kylie's bead box to embellish them a bit. They're sort of like Robeez, where there is elastic at the ankles and they are un-kickable. Great pattern.


The bottom of the shoes: now that Sam is walking around furniture, we needed a non-slip grip on the bottom. Again, I searched through my junk until I found some black fabric paint...works very well.


...and just a cute picture of my baby with blue candy all over her face :D .

Monday

This past Friday night, Kylie was feeling better so we left Sam at Scott's parent's house and trekked off to the theatre down the street. My God, there were so many people there! I had no idea that Twilight was opening the same day, and the theatre was wall-to-wall teen-aged girls! Unreal!

We were about 3/4 of the way through the movie when the call came in -- Sam had barfed all over Gramma, all over the floor, and all over the furniture :( . I stayed with the kids to finish the movie, while Scott went back to get our girl. She was a little wound-up, and clingy, but ok. Actually she hasn't barfed since, but I haven't given her any cow's milk, either. Just nursing and a bit of watered down apple juice (which she doesn't like anyway). Later that night, Kylie and I were betting each other, what time would Jacob throw up??? I took the 'between 10 and midnight' time frame while Kylie chose 'between midnight and 6 am' time frame. He never did get sick.

Saturday night, Kylie got sick again, and now it's Monday: Jacob is at school, Scott is in bed (couldn't get up this morning), Sam is hugging my leg and I'm a bit sore...but ok. This flu hit us like a ton of bricks. I have so much to do today: figure out the winner of the Grey Cup pool ticket raffle, count the hot lunch money and organize a deposit, roll the coin, and do up the monthly financial report for the Parent Council meeting on Thursday.

But I think I'll just lay around and convalesce instead...I've used up all of my energy in typing this.

Hope everyone else is having a good day.

Pics

Jacob's Halloween witch he made at school...he hates crafting now, so this is precious to me :) .


My goofball Jacob, making a Crabby Patty on the Lite Brite.


We woke up to a bit of snow this morning, but I don't think it will last. The weekend is forecast to be around 2C, and that is supposed to carry into most of next week.


Kylie wanted me to leave the pumpkins up...she likes it when they start to rot and their lips curl in, making them look like old people who forgot to put their teeth in lol.


Part of my squirt lid collection. I don't know why I felt the need to take a picture, but I did it anyway. Admit it, you were wondering why I haven't mentioned my collection in a while. Point of interest: my mom noticed that something in her cupboard had leaked onto her basket containing her own collection of squirt lids...while most *sane* people would just throw the lids away (she has 2 baskets full, so would she really miss a few?) she took them all out and carefully washed them and their basket, then lovingly put them all away.

I laughed so hard I nearly peed myself.

Now my mom is cursing me because she is reading this and doesn't know how to leave a nasty comment to get me back...rofl...

Friday

Today, Kyie is home from school, sick. It started around lunch time on Wednesday, when the principal called to tell me that poor Kiki was in the bathroom throwing up :( . I knew she didn't look good the night before, and she didn't want breakfast on Wednesday morning...she's back to eating now, but gets tired really easy so I've kept her home with me for just another day. I like having her here...even if she is just a big lump sleeping on the couch :) .

Jacob came home from school the other day, and burst into tears: his teacher wouldn't let his friend help him to tie his shoelaces, and the teacher wouldn't help either, so Jacob walked around all day with an untied shoelace and tripped quite a few times. I understand that the teacher has 20 other students that he needs to tend to, and that Jacob should learn to do it on his own (we've been practicing at home), but really...let Jacob and his friend have a few minutes to work on it, even if just for safety's sake. Sometimes I wonder about that teacher...

Today is just a day filled with washing diapers, sewing up some shoes for Sammy to wear with her Christmas dress, and then hopefully, if Kylie feels a bit better tonight, we are all going to see Madagascar 2. I ordered some passes with our Airmiles so it's free :D . That's just the way I like it :D .

Once again, time for:

Dear Crazy Crack-Head Lady;

Are you kidding me?

Yours truly;

Kylie's Mom.

Monday

I don't feel like blogging much lately...don't feel like doing much of anything (whoops, I said that in my last post, didn't I?). But, as with most things lately, I have to make myself do it, so here goes:

We didn't have a very eventful weekend, pretty boring actually. Friday night, we met Scott for supper at the BP's downtown. He was working late, and the kids think it's fun to meet Dad where he works. The service was so horrible and so slow that, for the first time in about 5 years, we didn't leave a tip. Not even a penny extra on our bill. I sort of feel bad about it, but this server was horrible. He stood around yakking with the female servers all evening. I had to go to the front desk to ask for crayons because he never returned after I asked him, I had to get Jake a glass of water myself from the nearby drink station, and Scott spilled some salsa that never got cleaned up. Ew. I found some extra napkins on another table and cleaned up the floor myself so that the kids didn't have to walk through it when we left. I know there's a labour shortage in Alberta, but at least do the job that you've taken, you know? It's one thing if you're running your bum off, doing the best you can when you're overworked because there aren't enough servers...quite another if someone is just lazy. I always leave a restaurant lately, thinking: why on earth did I pay so much for that little food? Ridiculous.

Saturday, I again sold Grey Cup pool tickets at a local Sobey's. It was fun, but a long day. My friend Kathy sat with me and we laughed about silly things in between sales. I'm not sure that this fundraiser was a success...I don't think we made more than the prizes that we will be paying out. Oh well, it was a learning experience and I'm glad I participated for that reason. We made a few bucks to do some fun things for the kids at school and that's what's important.

Sunday was a lazy day, not doing much of anything. Scott and Jacob played Wii for a while, and then Jacob's friend came to visit. Sam was asleep, so Scott and I had a little nap on the couch (maybe 10 minutes, but I slept so hard that it felt more like an hour. I think I'm coming down with something). That evening, we went to my mom's, where we made stromboli for supper...OMG, it was the best *ever*. My brother and his kids were there, so it was a full house. That night, Scott's good friend called and asked him to be a groomsman at his wedding this summer. He is the last of our friends to get married (at 41 years of age) and this, just after we learned that the last of our friends to get married in the mid 90's are getting divorced. This leaves Scott and I, the last couple standing of 6 couples. That's sad, but I guess it's just the way that it happens. The last 2 couples that we heard about were quite shocking...they were the kind of couples that you think were meant to be, you know? Sad. Anyway, I hope Neil and his fiance register somewhere...the frugal gift-giver in me wants to get my hands on the registry ASAP and keep my eye out for sales on whatever items they chose. Otherwise I'll buy a gift card for a restaurant with airmiles...they're living together and are building a house soon, so they have everything.

Sam is sleeping right now, and I'm going to go cut out a blouse for Scott's Christmas party in a couple of weeks. We've already taken Gramma to WalMart for a few things so now we are home for the day. Gosh, it's cold outside...no snow, but it sure feels like winter out there.

Holy smokes, that was a long post for someone who doesn't feel like blogging lately, hey lol?

Have a good day, everyone :D .

Meh.

I don't feel like blogging lately. All I feel like doing is sleeping, actually...not a good sign. I could so go for a nap right now.

Well, that's it. That's all you get. See you next week.

Possibly :D .

Our Trip to West Edmonton Mall

OK, I know these pictures are crap...something is screwy with my camera. I'm not a happy camper.


First off, we went for breakfast at McDonald's, the one in the west end with the giant playland (is it 3 stories tall or just 2??) Well, it's freakin' huge anyway.


Jacob, modelling in the Pocky aisle at T&T Supermarket. He picked chocolate Pocky while Kylie chose Brazillian Pudding Pocky (tasted like coconut).


World Water Park. Scott and I looked at all the girls in their super-teeny bikinis, sitting at the bar waiting for drinks, and wondered...who would wanna sit on that bar stool after those girls leave...and where on earth are they keeping their money??? I'm sure those teeny bikinis don't have any pockets.


Jacob, modelling in the theatre under the super-huge Batman and Yoda.


Again, Jake under the giant King Kong.


Every 22 minutes, this dragon lights up and breathes fire onto the people below...Kylie and I wondered if the emo girls with the giant beehive hairdos and with all the hairspray would instantly catch fire LOL. That wasn't very nice, was it...


Sammy enjoying the ball pit in the Galaxyland Playland.

The Weekend :) .

Well, lookit that...you get 2 posts for the price of one today :D .

Saturday, I spent the day with another mom from school selling Grey Cup Raffle Pool Tickets to raise money for the school. It was actually kind of fun, so I didn't miss having a day away from my family. We had originally set up at the Sobey's in Beverly, but business was so cruddy that we moved to the ACT Centre where they were having a really big craft sale. I wish we would have thought of that first...could have made a few more bucks in the morning. What was really surprising...there were so many senior ladies at the craft show, and a good portion of them knew a lot about football. They knew current stats on the Eskimos, who was playing in the game that day, etc. I was quite impressed. When I got home, Scott finally put away all of the Halloween yard decore. He has been working a lot lately, and just hasn't had time. I guess I could have done it, but Sam just won't sit in her stroller anymore...oh well, it still got done.

Sunday, Scott went to work for a while and then we went to West Edmonton Mall to play for a bit. It was the first time that they told us that Kylie was too big to play in the playland :( . She was a little bummed, but Scott took her to the arcade while Jake, Sam and I played in the play structure. Jake would have liked someone to play with, but he still had a good time. I took some pictures, but something is screwy with my camera and everything looks overexposed and stupid. I have to try and figure that out today while Sam is sleeping.

Today is Monday, and Jacob has 3 friends coming over to play today. It's all or nothing with that guy, I tell ya. Sunday night he was very upset that he had no one to play video games with and today we will have more kids than Gamecube controllers LOL. I'm going to send them all out to play on the trampoline anyway, it's still really unseasonably warm so they will enjoy it.

I have to work tonight, as well as pick up a few groceries.

A Sammy Sunshine Update

I thought I would do a post on what my baby is doing lately.

-Typing anything takes Mama twice as long lately, because one of Sam's favourite activities is pulling herself up to the keyboard tray and pounding on the keys. She does it so quickly!!!! Argh...little bugger LOL.

-She has four first-year molars coming in all at the same time. She doesn't really wake up at night due to teething, so I'm lucky in that way; instead she wakes up at around 6am screaming (an hour early). Poor kid, those molars feel like little rocks in her gums and by the time breakfast rolls around they've gone back down. I wish they would erupt already!!!

-Sam is 14 months today and is walking around furniture (slowly and cautiously). Jake didn't walk until 16 months, so I'm not really worried about the delay...it will happen in time, I'm sure. When she crawls, it's on one knee and one foot for some reason LOL. It's pretty funny to watch.

-She dances, sings, and can sign "more". She says "no", "da da" (Daddy), Kah-key (Kylie) and Ga-Ga (Gramma). If I won't give her something, like the phone that I'm talking on while she sits on my lap, she pulls my hair LOL. She eats whatever we eat, but seems to particularly like cheese, apples, bananas and lettuce with a touch of dressing on it (no, not all in the same bowl).

-We are still nursing, and first thing in the morning is absolutely a must for her. If Scott gets up with her, she whines and cries until she sees me...sometimes crawling to my bedroom door and sitting outside whining until I get out of bed.

My baby...why do they have to grow up so fast???

Ugh.

Some rules stink. They stink so much, that I wonder who on earth made them...and what exactly where they thinking??? They're stupid rules, not meant to protect anyone or anything...just put there to serve as road blocks, I think. Rules just put there because they can put them there.

I'm going to eat soup now.

Wednesday.

Last night we went to get our flu shots...waited nearly an hour!!! Holy smokes.

(by the way, I know the flu shot is controversial and I just want to take this opportunity to say...I don't care. Don't care what anybody thinks of it, don't care what your reasons are, and don't care if you like/dislike my reasons for getting it. Just don't care. In the words of the mother of my high-school BFF, "If you don't like what you see, you can kiss my Royal Canadian Behind". Ok, let's move on...)

This morning, we had a big family discussion as to why the media is so all over the election of a black president in the United States. Kylie said, "I thought that skin colour doesn't matter...why are they making such a big deal out of it?" So we had a talk about slavery and oppression and the right to vote , etc., and then we all agreed...Kylie was right, skin colour doesn't matter, so let's focus on President Elect Obama's good qualities as a person, just like we would anybody else. I hope our American friends are very happy with their decision...we wish them the very best :D .

Our treadmill is finally in! Yay! I just met Scott at the mall, where some lovely long-haired, greasy looking boys loaded it into my van. They wore their jeans around their bums, with their underwear showing. Nice. But at least it looked clean. I picked up a few poppy stickers for the kids to wear on their shirts for the Remembrance Day ceremony at school on Friday. I was surprised at the lack of poppies on people's coats this year...I hope people aren't balking at that tradition. Every year we pick up poppies for ourselves and for the kid's coats as well. I take off that dumb stick pin and stick a safety pin through the back. In fact, there were more people wearing cowboy hats at the mall today then there were people wearing poppies. Canadian Finals Rodeo is in town (yee-haw), so there were plenty of cowpokes around.

We bought Sammy some fries and laughed as she dunked them in the teeny dot of ketchup on her plate. Then she licked off the ketchup and put her soggy fry right back in the ketchup...and licked it off again. She worked on that same fry for a good 5 minutes before finally eating it LOL.

Scott is working late tonight, so dinner will most likely be KD for the kids and some turkey soup for me. Yum. I tell you, my soup turned out so good (if I do say so myself) that I wish I could eat it at every meal...but I must contain myself and throw some in the freezer for future suppers. I put garlic in it, which made it extra yummy...and just hearing about it made my mother gag LOL. She's not a garlic fan.

Sammy is sleeping right now, and when she wakes up it will be time to get the big kids from school. It's so grey and dismal out right now, and it really feels like snow is in the air. I wonder if today will be our first snow fall of the year???

Monday.

I can't believe the weather today, it's something like 9C right now and raining...usually there is snow on the ground by now. I have winter boots ready to go for both kids, replaced a zipper in a used snowsuit for Sam, and have all of our toques and mitts ready for snow. So I'm prepared LOL!

This past weekend was fun, I took Kylie shopping while Scott stayed at home with the 2 smaller kiddos. Kylie still holds my hand in the mall...I love it. She was on the hunt for 'skinnies', otherwise known as skinny jeans, which is funny...because at the beginning of the school year, she described skinnies as "gross and nasty". So it's 2 months later and skinnies are the bee's knees, apparently. We found a few pairs, but not within what I was willing to spend, so she chose a pair of greyish, tight-denim looking leggings with pockets painted on the bum. She also chose a long, fitted zebra-print t-shirt and a black hat. A girl definitely has to have a hat for those bad hair days that arise every once in a while...and Kylie was definitely having a bad hair day on Saturday LOL. She had so much hairspray in her hair from Halloween night, and a bad case of bedhead. I tried to get her into the shower before we left, but I really wanted to get back before Sam woke up from her nap so we had to go.

Sunday, I cooked a turkey! Well, half a turkey. When turkeys were so cheap around Thanksgiving, I bought one and had the butcher slice it in half. He was nice enough to wrap each half individually, so I just threw them in the freezer. I brined it, as well, so it was very tender and yummy. Lookit me go. My friend told me that she boils the carcass for 24 hours to make soup, so that's what I'm doing right now. Yum, the soup and sandwiches is the best part of any turkey dinner!

Today is Monday, and it's laundry day. I'm finding the laundry a bit overwhelming lately, and I've never really had a specific day set aside for laundry...so I'm going to give Monday Laundry Day a try. The plan is to wash 5 loads today (all the while, still checking the kids' clothes to see if they even need washing) plus diapers and have it all folded by the time I have to go to work tonight. Wish me luck.

Later, dudes :) .

Halloween

The weather was awesome!!! Something like +5, which we hardly ever get. Most kids didn't even wear a jacket, and there's some years we're up to our knees in snow!

Scott decided that he wanted to stay home with Sam to hand out candy, so I took Kylie, Jacob and K's friend M trick-or-treating. Not many houses participating this year...seemed like only every fourth or so house had a porch light on. And not many trick or treaters! Scott had one at 7...then we got two groups of teenagers near 9pm, then I shut off the light. But because there were so few kids out, my kids got handfuls and handfuls of candy at every door.

Kylie's friend M stayed over night, and Jake fell asleep on the couch watching TV. Scott and I were in bed by 9 LOL.




Both big kids were vampires this year. Kylie wanted a store-bought costume (I'm so sad she won't let me sew for her anymore) and Jacob wore a bunch of stuff we had lying around the house...like his Darth Vader black cape and Scott's old vest that I took in just a little bit. Kylie also had to throw a bit of Asian flare into her costume, so we stuck chopsticks in her hair and added a blood-red fan fron China town.


My sock monkey sat on the floor and played, eating Smarties with Scott all evening. Do you know what a baby's diaper looks like after a night of eating colourful chocolate??? Not pretty LOL.