Tales from My Crypt

Jake got his hair cut, by his own choice and I *love* it. The old lady in the background was chatting away to herself and waving at us after I took this picture. I have no idea what she was saying lol.

Sammy Sunshine started at a brand new playschool today and I swear, she told me to get out when I dropped her off. Ok, well maybe she didn't go that far...I got a quick kiss on the cheek before she bolted for the new toys. Have I mentioned how hard it is to have a very outgoing, social child when you are anti-people? I don't understand this.

What else...I did some Christmas shopping online the other day, first time for that...it arrived yesterday and looks awesome. I will have to do that again. Online shopping=no people in checkout lines to irritate me. Score.

I think we may put the tree up this weekend, but just because Jake is asking to and since he is confined to the house I may as well let him do it (he is sick with a strep infection). We are trying a new thing this year: I bought silver and black ornaments in January of last year so we will see how that looks. First year without the macaroni or pirate ornaments...but I'm sure they'll be back next year. 

Scott should be home any minute, as it is his last day at his current job and he really just went today to clean out his desk. He has accepted another offer with a different company and will start on Monday. I don't even think his current manager said goodbye/good luck/kiss my arse/nothing. Jerk.

Well, I should go clean something before I have to pick up Sam. Work this afternoon...assisting with a biopsy for the first appointment. All that means is that I have everything ready for the doctor in the treatment room and then stand around in case he needs me to grab him something out of the cupboard. Then I get to look at the hunks of suspicious flesh as they swim around in the vials of preservative, before sending them off to the lab. I'm actually really looking forward to that haha. 

We had a tapeworm in a vial of preservative that sat on our desk by the phone for nearly a year at our old office. I don't know why it was there. Every time I answered the phone I would pick it up and shake it...watch it dance...put it back down. Just wanted to share that with you.

Later :) .

Wednesday.

It's Wednesday...supposed to be a day off, but I worked for 3 hours. I didn't want to, but the boss waved time-and-a-half under my nose and I was convinced. We are short-staffed and it stinks. Turns out you need common sense to work as a medical office assistant. Who knew that would be so hard to find? 

I am currently writing an email to the school principal regarding the tirade I witnessed at school the other day. A teacher exploded...screaming at about a dozen little kids. I'm sure I stood there with my mouth hanging open, it was so shocking.  She didn't even care that there was parents and student teachers around...just screamed and screamed because they were chatting and giggling while waiting for the daycare staff to pick them up. Sure, teachers are overworked and not respected, blah blah blah. But she's also an adult, capable of knowing what is appropriate behaviour while in the presence of children. Honestly, it was scary.

Guess who thinks he needs a haircut?? I can hardly believe it. Jacob has decided he wants to go SHORT short. It takes me weeks to talk him into trimming his bangs and now he wants to chop it all off.

Kylie's ears are haunted. She thinks she can hear me playing Minecraft. Um...no lol.

I'm tired, going to bed. Darnit, need to do laundry first or I will have to go to work in yoga pants tomorrow night. Not cool.

'Night.

Well, hello!

Hi there! How are you? I'm better now, thanks for asking. I've decided to let the angry, mean people steep in their own anger rather than let it affect  me. That is, for today. Maybe it's because I'm cozy in my tiny house with my family on a cold winter's day and I had a great day at work yesterday. No one yelled at me haha.

Our regular doctors are from Libya and have taken some time off to go home to celebrate Eid and to see their families. So to cover for them, we have some visiting doctors (or 'locums' as they are called in the industry). The one doctor we had the other day reminded me of Raj from Big Bang Theory...he just smiled a lot and didn't really talk. When he did ask for something, it was in this teen-tiny voice with a heavy accent. I wanted to hug him goodbye when he left at the end of the night, because he was just so cute but I guess that would be considered inappropriate :) .

It's getting cold here but no snow yet. I'm hoping it does snow soon, because my front yard always looks horrible in the fall. It's even worse this year because we took the trees down, so the entire world can see the craptacular view from the sidewalk. Snow will at least cover that mess.

Sam is playing Dance Dance Revolution with Kylie and her friend in the basement...Jacob is at my mom's and Scott and I are heading outside soon to take down the trampoline for the winter. Earlier, Sam and I went into the attic to look for some winter boots for her. Funny, a few years ago I was scared to climb that ladder and now I am following a four year old up there. It's no big deal now. I figured if she can do it, I should do it too.

Later, taters :)

Soaking in a tepid pool of my own anger...

I'm angry a lot lately.  I'm trying not to be...but as I get older, I get more patience for my kids and less patience for the world around me.

It seems I am constantly dealing with stupid people. Stupid is a really strong word, isn't it? Tomorrow I will be sorry that I said that, so I will take a second to think of a word that would be more appropriate:  hmm...let's go with selfish. Selfish people at work: people who are mean to me and mean to the doctors, the same doctors that stay after closing and don't go home to their families because they need to deal with these petty jerks. The same people I have to be nice to the next time they call to make an appointment. Selfish people who lie to me about my child's education when it's all about money and the educator's place in the system...the selfish people my husband deals with during the day and tells me about when he comes home at night. After he bends over backwards to help someone, the next claim he deals with is some asshole who thinks he won the insurance lottery when hail hit his house and will not take no for an answer. Because he didn't have coverage in the first place, but "that's what insurance is for!". And then when everyone has to pay more for next year's policies because of the multitude of these jerks in the world, my husband will  take the brunt of the anger.

How on earth am I supposed to raise thoughtful, respectful people when the world is filled with selfish people? It's like the zombie plague: if you're not careful, you'll get bit by one of them and turn into a selfish ass just like they are. Every night at the dinner table, the kids regale us with stories of their day, stories of how awful the kids in this world are to each other and I have to remind my kids to see the good points in these rotten brats. The next day, one of those rotten brats does something stupid and the conversations start all over again.

Is it just because I'm getting old? Is my ability to give a shit withering away over time? 

I wish I could stop thinking about it and just be as selfish as everyone else.

I'm going to go clean something...get my mind off this crap.

This is what Homeschooling would look like in our house.

This morning before school, Jacob asked me to help him study for his Social Studies test. Today's test is on Canada's physiological regions, which I remember as being one of those things that you learn in Grade 5 and then never touch on again for the rest of your life.

I tried to find a map to show you as an example, but Google found me over a million maps and no two were the same. Why would you force a child to memorize regions that even adults can't agree on what they should be named? How stupid. Anyway...for your enjoyment, a map that I edited to show what we were dealing with this morning:

Of course, the Arctic was no problem to identify. That's where penguins and inukshuks are, everyone knows that. We deduced that he needed to memorize the remaining regions: Cordillera, Interior Plains, Canadian Shield, Great Lakes, Atlantic...and then we came up with a plan. Take the first letter of each region in order and come up with a rhyme to help you remember.

Remember this?

(read: Jacob asking me to buy ice cream)

Yeah. Jake's rhyme is:

Can I cut Grover's Ass?

...I did what I thought I should do and asked him to think of another word on the way to school, but honestly: whatever works. I asked him just to please not say his chosen rhyme in front of his teachers. Or his friends.

But it works! I quizzed him as he walked out the door today and he got every region correct, in order.

Silly kid :)

Baking with the Boy

Today, Jake and I made brownies...not just any brownies, but Smartie brownies. He is taking them to school tomorrow to share with his class, because it's his birthday. My baby boy is turning 10 years old!! Where did the time go?

If there's one thing I've figured out about this boy in the last 10 years, it's that he hates anything that resembles school work. Reading/writing/math?? Forget it!

One thing he likes to do, though: baking. He just read a recipe, doubled fractions so that we could make a bigger pan-full, and wrote the recipe down in a binder because the printer was out of ink (or was it??).

But it's not school work, so it was fun. Silly boy.

Jake (age 2) and Kylie (age 5)

My 10 year old boy

Big party this weekend for the birthday boy. Wish me luck haha.

Tuesday.

I don't have any imagination lately...and I can't be bothered to come up with a great post title, to tell you the truth.

It's cold here! Well, it's not winter yet so I shouldn't be complaining but it's chilly enough. I think it's 12C today, and darnit, that's cold enough for me in this old house.

Took the 2 youngest kids to the doctor this morning, and even though we had an appointment for 10:30, we didn't get to see the doctor until after an hour past that. I told Jacob that he didn't have to go to school this afternoon because we would be really late and miss the bell, but can you believe that he begged me to take him to school?!? Weird kid. I don't think I'll ever understand him lol.

His birthday is coming up soon and he didn't want me to make invitations this year. But I absolutely will not call a stranger, and personally, I appreciate having a paper invitation to stick up on the calendar as a reminder. I promised him that the invitations would be as plain as they could get...and they are. How boring.

The front:

...and the inside:

I know white cardstock would have been better than the white paper that I used, but I didn't have any.

I haaaaate boy parties. Boys are noisy and messy and their parents never pick them up on time. Last year we had a kid sit here for over an hour before his mother finally phoned to say that she would be late. I told her, that's fine...I have to go to work right away, which is why we asked for a 4:00 pickup time (she called at 5).  "I'll just stick him on the doorstep and you can come for him whenever. I'm taking my kids to my mom's now". Funny, she was there 10 minutes later.

One more pic:

It's a dream catcher that Kylie made in her native art class and I just love it. I was particularly impressed by the weaving in the middle, it looks like a really cool spider web. I know the picture is sideways, Blogger is stupid and forever shall be.

Well, I'm off to make some fried rice. Kylie wants to make bannock when she comes home, and I think we will have that and some soup for supper on this chilly fall day. Scott is working late so I will have to try and save him some.