Bread Crumbs In The Butter

Not the news I wanted, but what I expected.

Well, the perforation in Kristyn's eardrum has not closed or healed. So, on November 14 she will be having a mringoplasty done.  It's also called a "fat plug"*, in which they take a piece of fatty tissue from the back of her earlobe and place it in the perforation, surround it by glue and hope for the best.  I don't even want to go where we head if that doesn't work, but there is an 80% chance this will work just fine, so I don't have to.  It's day surgery at CHEO, so she will be home that night and miss one or two days of school. Just like the other two surgeries.  She's so used to this stuff with her ear that it doesn't phase her at all.  I'm totally freaked of course.

*And, oh yes, I did offer for them to feel free to take fat from my ass, but he didn't get it.

We warmed this house

And so this house, it's now warmed. What we had figured would be a great party house has proved itself worthy of the title.  The festivities started around 2pm with the arrival of John's cousin and his girlfriend and ended at about 11pm with the last guests leaving on their 4 wheelers. Did I mention our neighbours rock? They came on four wheelers!

We drank alo-h-ot of beer, but it was slowly through the day, you know, so we weren't like fall down drunk or anything.  Just enough for us to be singing later in the evening. 

I'm waiting for the pictures to download.  The folder that John has titled "Your Smelly Pictures" is taking forfuckingever to do so. I freaking hate dial-up! (Editing to add: Okay, no photos. Sorry. Most of them are of friends and neighbours and posting pics of them is not really fair. There is one photo of them to me, but I'm dancing on a table thinking I look sexier than any woman has ever looked!)

So when they're up, they'll be be <--- that way in the sidebar.

Interupting this post to ask for some good thoughts for my kid.  Not only did Kristyn's team lose by a smidge in the semi-final this weekend, but tomorrow we are seeing her ENT to book a surgery date to fix a whole in her ear, left by a rogue tube two years ago. Poor kid. She's been through so much!

I wanna be a cowboy. And you can be my cowgirl.

We've been enjoying country living for just over a month now, so I thought I would update as to how we are all adjusting. I say "enjoying" and I meant that. I think we are all having a great time so far.

It is very quiet here. How quiet it is gives a new meaning to the word, really. After living in the burbs, where we had to contend with a bazillion kids, our neighbours mid-life crisis mobile (aka Harley at 7am every day, including Sunday!) and teens with nothing to do at 1am, I can tell you this is very much welcome.

Since we are 7km from town and only about 15 km from a "bigger" town, I don't feel isolated yet. That might change when there's snow (but that's what we bought the 4x4 Suburban for, right?).  It takes me all of 10-15 minutes to get to the grocery store. Not much more than it did where we were before because the main street was just crazy busy all the time.

We're actually saving quite a bit of money not being within arm's reach of everything. I don't run to the grocery store for just one thing and come out spending $50, which I used to do 3 times a week and do actual groceries. Now I go once a week, buy enough of everything and don't have to worry about it.  I have a massive pantry, so my Costco runs are very fruitful now that I have a bunch of room to store stuff. It's hard to see it there in the pic, but it's just beyond that door. Witness:

The other plus side, and I am not sure if I mentioned this, we came from a 2200 square foot house. 6 people and 1 growing business (it's more like fungus really at the rate it spread), made it just too small. Weird layout too.  This house is (and bear with me) just over 6000 square feet. Now hold on! Let me explain! It's two houses in one, essentially.  We basically built a 3000 square foot addition onto a century house. It's hard to explain unless you've seen it - but when you add the old house, new house and basement, you come up with a massive rambler that has more than enough room. Every bedroom has it's own walk-in closet and bathroom.  That might sound like a big PITA, but it's not that bad. The girls clean their bathroom and I take care of ours, Alex & Meg's and the one we use for guests. The others are not in use, so I don't have any more toilets to clean than I did before.

Putting the girls in soccer in this town early was a brilliant idea as the girls both know quite a few kids going to their school. This makes them both excited as they've been told that the new girl is instantly a hit.  If I was them I would be terrified of living up to that expectation, but they're 7 and 8, so totally oblivious to the pressure.  School starts in 10 days and they're stoked.  Meghan's entry is staggered, but she is thrilled to be starting JK and going on the big bus with the girls (did I mention that K is full day here in the country?!).

There are a couple of down sides, that I would prefer not to discuss in too much detail. Most of them involving family and boundaries.  This house was the hub for the family for a long time and I am just not into having everyone around all the time as they please.  That says enough about that for now.

And so, I will close my update saying that I am very happy in our new digs and looking forward to a gorgeous Fall.  It's even more beautiful here then!

Everyone in the cereal aisle knew she was dressed like a slut...

Ever get those sudden moments of enlightenment where you think "I have to blog about this now!"

I had one today.

It's about a pet peeve of mine. A pretty intense one too.  I absolutely cannot stand, and forgive me if you do this (actually don't cause it's stupid!), when people who shop, travel, walk, with babies talk to their babies, but what they are really doing is talking to the whole room.  Do you know what I mean?

For example. Woman with small child in basket of cart says  "Do we need peaches at home, baby? What do you think? Should we make Daddy some peach cobbler so he feels guilty for leaving us at home all day?"

Or "After this, let's go visit Daddy at his law office, baby. He can take us for a ride in the new Mercedes!"

Sound familiar?

The one I heard today was classic (because the first two were only to illustrate my point and not real).   Mom says to about 14 month old baby:

"Well, now that woman sure is dressed like a tramp, huh, baby?"

I swear I did a double take and guffawed so loud I shut her up faster than you can say "nasty bitch".

What kind of passive-aggressive technique is this?  Are there people really that stunned in the world.

Forgive my crankiness. I'm sitting her on a beautiful day staring outside at the yet-to-be-put-together swing set.

I have no opinion on the fact that it's 1pm and he hasn't done it yet.

We're hosting a "do" on Saturday. A fair number of people. I'm really looking forward to it.

John has ONE job to do before then.  Put the freaking swing set back together so that a) the children have something to play on and b) none of the children get hurt by tripping over random pieces of metal.

Today was his day to do that.

So far he has:

• Drank 3 cups of coffee, while grabbing my ass as I try to load the dishwasher
• Taken 3 decent length dumps.
• "Cleaned" the small garage looking for the cordless drill
• Surfed the net looking for an old CD he wants
• Gone down into his office to "pay some bills" (read, played Doom - I know this because I pay the bills.)

And he is now playing Nintendo with the kids.

Now, if he wants my help, I can do that. He just has to ask. I will even ignore the addendum we made to our marriage vows that says "Mr and Mrs vow to never put together cribs, arbors, entertainment units, anything from Ikea and swing sets." to get it done.

I'll keep you posted.

*** Edited to add: I'm not ragging on the guy. He works hard and deserves a day off, but I think he should just get it done and have it over with. I know we're different that way and I'm sure he'll get it done eventually. 

How would you ask?

How would you ask your Mother to stay with the kids for 5 days in January so you and your spouse could got to Jamaica?

Start with flattery? Gifts? Bribes?

Her birthday is in two weeks. Big gift? Big event? Both?

Beg?

Wish me luck!

A fellow Mom gets published ... give her some love (and read her book!)

She's a rockin' Mom. A kick-ass blogger. She's cute as hell.

Now she's a published author.

Go to Book Central at Melanie Lynne Hauser and check out all the fun stuff she has going on.

Personally, I can't wait for my copy of Confessions Of Super Mom to come in!

Besides requesting it for my regular book club, if anyone here wants to start a small book club of blogging Moms to read the book, let me know!  We might be able to get Melanie to have a chat with us to answer questions (if we ask really nice).

All new design, by yours truly.

Hey, I did it myself! It's simple and not really centred properly, but I did it!

My new design reflects my love for this time of year.  Come on Moms and Dads, you know that "Staples" commercial gets you all hot and heavy, if not a little giddy.  It's not just that the kids are headed back - though that does get me a bit weak in the knees.  The sun is still warm, but the air is cooler. The leaves will change colours soon. The fragrant smell of apples from the orchard we have spreads throughout the house ... ahhhhh... Fall fairs roll around, which means, of course, fall fair food. Yum!

There are officially two weeks of summer left for us here on the farm!  Yeeehaw!

A post where I use words like "socialization" and "impregnate" and almost hurt myself.

I was making dinner tonight and things were just a bit crazy.  The ground beef was not defrosting properly, the lettuce had frozen in the crisper, Alex was stark naked AGAIN and the IM on my computer was dinging (okay, that one didn't need to be happening, but I need to have something!).

Erin was at the table colouring and she looked up at me and asked (for the millionth time); "Is it hard having 4 kids?"

"Yes, Erin. It can be. Why?"

"Just wondering."

During dinner she announced that she wasn't going to have babies. Now, this is odd to me and worth discussing since I find Erin to be the most maternal of my four.  Her reason?  "Because it looks hard and you're always tired, Mommy and you never get breaks like Daddy and you do everything!  And I don't want to have a baby because I remember when you had Alex. It looked like it hurts. Having babies hurts." 

I immediately felt the need to defend Mommyhood and let her know that I do get breaks and yes having babies hurts, but it doesn't last long and you get a nice, pink baby in the end.

We didn't talk much more as after supper we all went for a walk and then John and the kids played video games. After the kids were asleep and I was supposed to be nodding off, I thought about what she had said.  Do I really make parenting look that hard? Am I so exasperated all the time that I have scarred my kids for life against wanting to have any of their own?  Do I need to tone it down, calm down and put on a happy face?

John was snoring, he clearly didn't want to discuss it, so I thought some more. I came to the conclusion that I don't need to tone it down and I don't think I am scarring them for life. Erin is 7 and Lord knows she has alot of time to make up her mind about kids.  Growing up in a large family is going to shape who they are no matter how I behave as their Mother.

Anyone you will meet will give you very good and very thought out reasons why they do or don't want kids and if they do, how many.  Some who come from large families specifically want only one or two. Perhaps budgeting for a large family left out some things that person sees important in providing to a child? Some who were "only's" (like John) will set out to impregnate at an alarming pace because they always felt something was missing.

Life experience plays a big role in who you become and since family is the first example of socialization, it's going to have a big impact.  I'm not going to sugar coat or gloss it over for them just to prove a point, or justify the choice I made.  My girls might not be SAHMs. They might not be Moms at all!  They might do it totally differently than I did, so I just have to give them the tools to do whatever they do well.

Huh? So that's it. Well that's not that hard, is it?

Fables Of The Green Forest

The kids have gone on an early morning trek in "the woods" (I'm sorry, I can't say "bush". I just can't!). They've been gone for about 40 minutes and I can't hear or see them. They're travelling in a pack, so I'm not worried. Gives me time to blog.

I do indeed have a kidney infection. I fling flong freaking knew it.

Get this, my doctor's office was CLOSED when I got there. I had an appointment. And so was his EMERGENCY CLINIC!

So after the hair appointment I had to keep, I took my extremely well tressed self to the local ER. I was in and out in less than 25 minutes. Prescription in hand, one dose in the belly. Easy Peasy. God bless small towns.

3 doses later, I feel much better. Miracle of miracles that my stubborn ass dragged around that long. We're celebrating this with a trip to the local Highland Games and dinner at a very greasy (but freaking yummy) restaurant.

Mmmmm...grease.

Oh! I hear them. They've returned. No one is hurt and they want a snack.