And now just because ...

There is something wrong about this:

Summer vacation

Schools out for summer. The two older kids go off on the first leg of their summer adventure. Little red "turtle eyes" abound.

I'm kind of looking forward to the downer-time. It just means that I have a 25% greater chance of going to the bathroom ALONE or without having to ref a fight from the throne. (The Huz picks up the slack, thus not a greater percentage.)

I'll also have some time to go hunting for library books that have found themselves wedged into the most interesting places (I think I've previously outed my children as being part squirrel).

And maybe I'll get around to the neglected victory garden, though I think I should try and cut my losses and open a free for all to the skunk who uses the yard as a free way every night.

While they're gone, life will go on. I've got a show at a local coffee shop, and it's getting positive feedback. I'm volunteering for our community fun run through the neighborhood. I'm also taking up some activist causes that have a short shelf-life (to match my current attention span).

And for spice in my life? On going parking war issue (parents of the daycare in the neighborhood park North on the East side of the street - that's parking backwards on the correct side of the road) that just got escalated when the representative from the counselor's office that we were working with outed me and The Huz (not that we really were hiding) by sharing our names and e-mail addresses.

I've been more or less careful about when and were I post my email address since experiencing stalking behaviors from The Ex. It showed lack of judgment on the senders part to include the email addresses and even more so, our names. Stay tuned for stories of by-law being used to retaliate. Weee.

Alas, that's a mere distraction for what's happening over in Josie's world.

When I stop and try to mope about my sheet, I get distracted by her story. What a freaking year since I lucked out and followed her id back to her site. (BTW she writes well, and is very witty, and it worth going back a bit to read earlier posts.)

What a difference a year makes.

Grape vines

It's a weird four days away. I've come back to a warped version of the world.

I'm in a cross-roads of interpretation with one friend. Interpretation of events are considerably different. Makes me wonder who's universe I'm living in. I had to ask my dear Huz about a comment made, that I believe pertains to me: that I hold grudges. Now he's agreeing with my friend about this, so I had to look up the word in Websters, that states: "to be unwilling to give or admit : give or allow reluctantly or resentfully". Huh. I wouldn't have used those words to describe me at all. (Except for three instances we agree on, and another instance I voluntarily admit to, and in each of those instances, the person came after me through my children.) So, to the friend who is flirting with dumping the friendship. Do what you must do. Let me know if you ever want to come back and play in the same pool.

In another weird turn of grapes on the vine, The Huz was talking to him Mom who gets a day pass from the hospital to test the waters at home, and see how she can manage. It's a good thing to because Grandpa is having his later-life crisis now that he's living life like a cat and is counting on extra lives. Apparently he's gone out and got his ear pierced. WTF is all I can say about that one. I guess there's another store we can shop at now for his Christmas present.

While we're in the WTF mode, a fellow blogger, whom I count as one of my friends, is going through a significant, earth shifting period in her life. It's a "holy crap" moment and I'm very very sorry for it. Though I haven't been through the exact same thing she and her BFF are going through, I can relate. I had a very close friend who went through the same scenario. I'm sorry you're going through this. I can still recommend coming to Ottawa. We've got lots of amenities and support, if things go that far.

June 20

Their point of view:


Mine:


Need I say more?

Insane

If you follow Miss Vicky's blog, you'll know where I've been running around to for the last couple of weeks. There's a lot going on in my community and, for the most part, I love it. The downside is that laundry and the cat-hair dust rhinos just don't get attended to.

Last week I was on course for the entire week. Lucky me. In many ways. I have a great employer who sees value in education and is open to trying some new things after some one has consumed the kool-aid of the day. Last weeks was all about facilitation. It took five days of discussing what markers to use, how to rip paper, and how to lead people through a chat about how to do things!

I'm being flippant about the subject. It really was an exceptional course. For people who don't feel comfortable leading a group in discussion, TAKE THIS COURSE. For people who need to try to direct a group of people to come to consensus



(sometimes its like herding cats), TAKE THIS COURSE.

It was good. Actually, great, as courses go. With applicable processes! (I spent the better part of today trying to figure out how to integrate parts of the techniques into how I do my job currently. The first test comes Thursday when I get to take a group of people through a review of work that's already been done on their project and conduct a gap analysis.) Thrilling stuff by the sounds of it eh? Well, for me it is.

Downside? I'm taking Friday off.

Schools out for summer!

Boo versus Yah

Alison over at Party of three is having a cheerfest of the good and the bad. She's asked for an update on her reader's status. Seeing that that pile of laundry hasn't shifted from my kitchen table in about four days (it's a bit like the magic pile that never goes down, but the colors have changed), and I've been burning candles towards the middle, and like every year, I keep forgetting about the end of the school year, I'm posting my response.

There's WestFest AND Le Frano both going on. Yay.

I don't know if I'll attend either. Boo.

***

I got my lawn mowed and the garden tended a bit (yes, bylaw doesn't have to come by and site me!) Yay.

***

My eldest daughter told me about a sleep over she's having a school tomorrow and has asked that I make cookies, from scratch. Yay for her.

***

I didn't know about the sleep over because she transfers to her other home tomorrow - aka the cone of silence. Boo.

***

This last week has been a rough one. My FIL and MIL both have been hospitalized. MIL the great has been out for a couple of weeks in traction with a broken femur. FIL gave us a good scare when his health went down very very quickly. The Huz and I were worried that we were on a death watch. The details were frightening (and involved some pretty serious tests). All boo.

The Huz talked to MIL the great tonight. She's going to still be in the hospital for another six weeks. Double-boo for boredom.

FIL? He's being sent home tomorrow. Hoo-ray for fast recovery, with no foreseeable damage to his internal organs. Yay.

***

I have Monday off. Yay.

I have to spend the day running back and forth between the kid's school collecting bedding and food and eventually our summer boarder - aka Bingo/Bibi the rabbit. (Last year we had birds. I won't do birds again thank you).

I'll also be doing an installation of some of my photography at a local coffee shop. Yah.

So, for the most part - it's a pretty good dose of yays, if I can just stay awake long enough to enjoy it all!

A familiar site

Table for nine please

As I type this, my kitchen is running amok with 9 pre-pubescent girls who are going to be here for another 20 hours. Yes. It's a 24-hour birthday marathon for CU-2. CUs 1, 3 and 4, and The Huz have been banished to the Northern regions until such time as the coast is clear.

Four hours down. So far so good.

7:30 and it's party games, gossip and hot

It's freaking hot. About 27 outside. A bit warmer in the house as it retains it's heat. I have no idea how these girls are going to sleep tonight, or maybe that's the point ... they just don't.

I'm working on having a headache - probably stress related - as I'm worried about the party and the next hours to go well. Parties were never my forté. I only had the one friends party as a kid and the memory of that one still makes me cringe (I invited several boys and only one showed up. The girls teased him so much he went home early. He'd been my best friend and of every one there I wanted his company the most.)

To this day my parties don't often turn out well. Well, at least not like the rocking parties I hear about or occasionally attend.

This one is going well so far and CU-2 is happy. She's received a pride of Webkinz. If I can hold her off from entering them all, she can have a long, happy playing life well into 2015.

It's June! Woo hoo

Well, not really. CU-4 aka Chew-ba-boy has shared the love once again. I've got an itchy throat and body aches at every point where things connect.

To make matters more interesting, between chasing him around to do the perpetual nose wipe, and trying to complete this entry, I'm running behind him as he slowly takes apart the house.

The funny thing is I can appreciate the fine dusting of flour across the floor. The foot prints left behind are the results of a wordless, beautiful story.

Or, maybe that's the drugs talking!

Vacation? What vacation

With only a couple of weeks left of school, I've being going over the details of vacation dates and working the line to coordinate coverage to reduce child care costs (when 1/2 of my salary goes to child care, I look for places where I might be able to save a bit!)

I thought I had it all figured out, then WHAM! I'd forgotten about CU-4's care giver who, of course, gets a summer and winter break! With luck, our weeks overlap a bit. It still means that there's got to be a bit of dancing because The Huz is taking off one of his two weeks jointly with the family, though he'll be working on a construction project while I'm at the Mothership's cottage (keeping the kids away from The Zone).

The next week of vacation he's going to take off to be with the kids while I go back to work. So much for R&R eh?

Then we tag off yet again. I go into camp mode again, and possibly back out to the cottage. All is well and good until I actually figured out that "Ta" as CU-4 calls her, is actually on vacation one week longer then our vacation. Oh ratz!

That means I've got to find care for him or take the week off while CUs 1 and 2 are with their father. It's a lighter load, but not particularly how I'd want to spend a week.

Where's CU-3 in all of this you might ask? Well, Monday next we'll confirm her entrance schedule into school. Yes SCHOOL! (queue the music)




Evil Maman alert here! I've ALREADY bought new school shirts to add into the mix, and have dug out the uniforms for NEXT FALL! Though, really, it was because it was in the way of the impending construction zone. Oh yes. That's it!

Run Forrest run!

It's race weekend where I am and we're billeting a runner who's taking on the half-marathon this weekend.

In talking with him, I was mentioning about how I wished I could do what he's about to do. That got us into a very interesting, those twisted discussion about performance training, laziness and
other sundry excuses (kids being the biggest of them all!)

I am in awe of those to pursue things of which they are passionate about. I struggle with it. In fact, I joke about being a reformed smoker. Well yes, I was one once. It was all tied to working late nights and going out for coffee and a donut at Tim Hortons (when they allowed smoking in the store). I think I lasted all of six weeks of Monday nights then got bored. This side of my personality is kind of sad really (though it also serves as a great joke about Crack addition and how I think I'm immune!).

Doing the rounds

Cripes! A whole week since I last blogged.

I just got back from two days at the mothership's cottage. It was a little bit restful. We had a lot of rain and a lot of cooler weather. That didn't stop me and CU-4 from making a break to the pocket beach to build a few castles. Alas, that's when my camera's battery decided it was tired and needed a recharge. Oh well.

For those of you traveling through the Pontiac area, stop on by to take a peak at Zephr-Rose's studio. She's offered a corner of the space to put up a live pick-up-and-poke site for some of the coop's products. She's also got some one of a kind drawings and prints that she's made for sale.

I called it, didn't I?

And I quote:

"From this day, CU-1 and CU-2 will no longer attend after school care while in our care. XXX and XXX have been advised of this change."

I figure I've got six more years.

Just makes me sad.

Oh, and on top of that CU-1 spent an hour crying about a Social Studies test he's going to have Thursday. He told himself over and over and over again that he was going to fail. How do you beat that logic?

I know other's have it hard. Days like this make me want to push the easy button and say "Dear X, you want him to badly. Here you go."

The Huz's comments to my sentiments? "You think long and hard about that one." It seems like the fight has gone out of him too.

Funk

I finally got a chance to do my rounds after a stupidly nutty week of getting stuff together for an photography exhibition, getting CU-3 and 4's room ready for habitation (a LOT of late nights), and then all the kids are home this weekend.

We've also been checking in on Grandma Tim who took a tumble last week and broke her femur.

The tour was distraction 'cause now I'm having a Church of Latter Day Saints moment (remember those commercials about changing the crappy into something different/better?). Meg started it by sharing her list. Josie's mood has prompted me to go nostalgic with



And now I'm play it continually until I've got three kids rolling their eyes and dancing around with me. So Josie, I invite you to play the funk for what it's worth.

Oh, and happy Mother's Day!

Come on rain

So tonight is supposed to rain. I say bring it on. ANYTHING to drive me in doors to startfinish my chores.

For the last week I've been working outside to move the fence out to the property line, to clean up the yard of winter detritus, to think of planting, and to walk around putting flyers up about the many many initiatives I have going. I'm hoping things clear up so that I can post flyers about a weekend show I'm having at a gallery, just in time for Mother's Day.

Then there is the painting. OMG how I hate painting. But, it's the last of the last of things to do for CU-3 and 4. Then I can clear out the crap from the older CU-s rooms and life can resemble some sort of normalcy. Yahoo.

Dora

Ok - so we made it through the Super Dora party that CU-3 ordered.

I pushed the easy button (or so I thought at the time) and had the party organized through one of those give-me-your-credit-card-number-and-I'll-
give-you-a-supervised-and-coordinated-
party-for-a-zillion-dollars.

Well, CU-3 and nine of her closest daycare buddies met at the community centre that was hosting the event for us. THAT was a good idea, because half of the invitees were boys. And boy where they BOYS! (Picture trying to bath cats. Six of them.) There was swimming, with a supervisor and almost every kid with their parent in the water. (Only the father of the "Group of seven" and I left The Huz to guard over the masses (remember - there was a coordinator there too, and seven other adults in the water, PLUS three life guards!).)

The swimming just wasn't enough to poop out anyone, especially CU-3's love interest since they were both 1 year old. (This is a romance that's been going on for three years now.)

The hand-off to the next activity coordinator happened after the kids were dried off. The poor girl had the right idea, but the wrong kids. We'd all have been better off taking them outside to the playground for an hour. Her games were about as successful as trying to catch wild rabbits.

Thankfully we made it to the cake part of things and the kids accepted my version of Super Dora.

Thank goodness for four year olds. They certainly don't care about aesthetics.

Oh, and seeing that her real birthday isn't for another week, I get to make cupcakes to mark that date too!

Another meme

Many thanks to Speak into the Mike for continuing the tag and to Houdini for opening the invite. (I don't get around much, so this is fun stuff when I stumble across it!)

This is a familiar one that goes like this:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

Six random things about me
1. I owe Speak into the Mike thanks for leading the way on discussing his photography course. It got me going to find something local.
2. I can freehand a kick-ass Scooby Doo cake, but Dora comes out looking a bit odd.
3. I thought my hair was auburn. I found out the color is actually Amber Shimmer (according to Ms Clairol).
4. I've lost .25 of an inch since having four children (I guess my spin has compressed).
5. Despite making my living as a writer for the last 13 odd years, I struggled with grammar and parts of speech all my life. I attribute part of my success to Mrs. Spinney who was my home room and English teacher in Grade 7. Without her, her 3:15 club, and her belief in me, I would probably would have become a plumber after university.
6. I wanted to become a plumber but was such a home body that the idea of leaving home for trade school (a whole TWO HOURS) away scared me. So instead, I applied and made it into graduate school two provinces away. Go figure.

Now I leave the randomness to fate. (I'm lousy with chain letters too.)

Let me know if any of you pick up the stick and run with it!

One word answers

Here's a meme from Wrecking Crew. I thought it was a great challenge.

One word answers please!

1.Where is your mobile phone? purse
2.Your significant other? couch
3.Your hair? frizzy
4.Your mother? cottage
5.Your father? far
6.Your favorite thing? laughter
7.Your dream last night? dream?
8.Your favorite drink? dunno
9.Your dream/goal? success
10.The room you’re in? dark
11.Your ex? close :(
12.Your fear? broken
13.Where do you want to be in 6 years? here
14.Where were you last night? here
15.What you’re not? thin
16.Muffins? two
17.One of your wish list items? physical
18.Where you grew up? Maritimes
19.The last thing you did? lunches
20.What are you wearing? jammies
21.Your TV? large
22.Your pets? many
23.Your computer? mediocre
24.Your life? happy
25.Your mood? crispy
26.Missing someone? yes
27.Your car? car?
28.Something you’re not wearing? parka
29.Favorite Store? neighborhood
30.Your summer? aaaaahhhhh
31.Like someone? yes
32.Your favorite color? blue
33.When is the last time you laughed? morning
34.Last time you cried? recently

The clean and the dirty of it

Ok. It's time for a poop story. I don't think I've posted one here before. If I have, this is the updated version.

A long time ago, oh, about three years now, when CU-3 could start taking shared bathes with CU-2, things went well. It was a good form of water conservation. All went well until CU-3 started making deposits in the bathwater. Eventually, she was banned for co-sharing tub water.

Speed forward three years. CU-4 has graduated to co-sharing the bathtub with CU-3, with CU-2 being an observer and supervisor now. All is well ... until ...

"Daddy! Daddy! CU-4 has pooped in the tub!"

Papa goes to the first aid kit and hauls out the latex gloves which CU-2 volunteers to wear. "I liked picking up the dog poop when we had a dog" she exclaims.

While she pulls and snaps the gloves onto her hands and fingers, she glances over to the offending matter in the tub "That's not really from CU-4 is it? It's really got to be CU-3's right?"

"No CU-2, it's CU-4s", I replied with awe mixed with disgust.

"No way Mom! That's to big too come out of such a little guy."

And there you have it. Your late Sunday night/welcome Monday morning! poo story.