Weekend!

Another rockin' Saturday night here. Murray's watching hockey & working out & I'm blogging. Murray's been doing all sorts of housework today, he must have really appreciated that sleep in this morning. He's starting that terrible cough at night again & I'm hoping he can fight it off before it flares up too badly.

With Murray doing all the work around here today, I've had a fairly lazy day but for some reason am stil exhausted. It's all of 9:30 & I'm uploading this & then getting ready for bed. Practically unheard of!

Yesterday I went to see Flowergirl who's in town visiting her brother & was attending a formal last night with an 80's theme. I hooked her up with a dress & accessories. I dug out my formal dress from university graduation, my favourite dress ever, my "bury me in this" dress... and was shocked to find a "size 9" on the tag. I haven't seen that number on a tag in years, I don't even remember being that size. How could I have been there & not enjoyed it? What I wouldn't give to be as "fat" as I was in university!!! LOL I have a sneaking suspicion though that it was a flattering sizing system as my highschool prom dress was a size 12. Anyway, I can't wait to hear how she made out at the party, she was sure to be the best dressed!!! : ))) She's coming over to visit us on Monday & have another secret meeting with the girls & their animals so we should have a good time then!

Last night I finished off the last DVD in the last season of the Gilmore Girls. I can't believe they canned the show! *sigh* All good things must come to an end & I'm glad they sorted out Luke & Lorelai before it was over! There are internet rumours of a GG reunion movie so there's always that to look forward to.

Today we got outside for a bit in the afternoon, played some hide & seek for a bit. Then Murray loaded up the sled train & we went over to the field to slide on the little hill over there but they wanted to go in the woods instead. Unfortunately the train fell apart and now all the sleds have some sort of damage to the rails and one set came off completely. Soon they'll be just plain old toboggans but next winter they should be old enough for that anyway.

The girls have seemed extra whiny this week so I'm going to blame it on the full moon & eclipse because I have to believe that this insanity has a specific cause that is temporary and that next week will be more normal!!!!

Whew! Made It!

Sweetie's escapades lasted until about 1am last night. After I hit "update blog" I went upstairs to see if I could put her out of her misery, errr I mean, help her out. I laid down with her, took her to the rocking chair, sang songs, got her calmed down, put her back in bed, stayed with her for awhile and around 12:30am I thought it'd be safe to actually go to bed myself. Nope. She immediately kicked it back into high gear. I closed her door, closed my door & turned on the fan in our bedroom & went to bed. I could still hear the faint screams and was waffling between exhaustion and guilty conscience for having closed her in her room when I know she hates having her door closed in the dark (in my defence, she DID have a nightlight on...) Murray went in to try & settle her and that didn't seem to do anything for her except drive her screams up to a new height on the feverish pitch scale. She was screaming for me & didn't want anything to do with him and at 1am I gave up & went & got her & she slept with me & Murray stayed in her room.
The rest of the night was fine, until 7:40. Lovey started screaming outside my door because she didn't like her hair down. She wanted it up in Sweetie's signature style "The Drop". Murray's offer to help was rebuffed rather rudely so he abandoned her to her little fit & went to get some breakfast. So that was a lovely welcoming to a new day for me! Once her hair was the way she'd wanted it, everything was fine & Sweetie slept on undisturbed til after 8:30! It's soooooo tempting to drag her out of bed at the regular time, since I don't get to have extra sleep after a night like that but then she's such a miserable cranky spitfire that you'd rather just let her get a little more rest in hopes that she might spare you the rest of the day!

I managed to get through today the best way I know how. Cheating!Luckily it was playgroup day and once we got there, the rest of the day was pretty much taken care of & I just sat there groggy & not very sociable. Getting out the door this morning though was a bit of a challenge since there were a few meltdowns & I was in no mood to be trifled with. Honey had a meltdown when she couldn't find her favourite purple bow clip that she'd had just moments before. We looked for awhile but these things tend to disappear into thin air & only reappear when they feel like it, no matter how hard you search. I wasn't willing to spend an hour on it & she disagreed. I can't remember what else they freaked out over but Honey wasn't the only one crying this morning. Finally we were in the car & got to the safe haven of playgroup.

Dreading returning to the house with them on my own. I begged my friend Yvonne to come with me & bring C&J to play with the girls, thereby guaranteeing a fun filled afternoon and another adult to keep me from losing it. The girls all had a great time playing with the dress up stuff for the most part. Her daughters can print already & one of them wrote out "kokdoff" on the magnadoodle. I had been impressed when I saw them writing their own names, I was floored when I realized not only could they do their names but also ANY letter!!!!! (yes Maggie, I did have a minor panic attack!) We are WAY behind & her girls are only 4 months older than mine! We haven't been working on the right stuff! I haven't structured hardly ANY activities around writing! I've fallen down on the job! Dropped the ball, you name it! But we've got quite awhile before they hit kindergarten so it'll probably all work out.... Anyway, I showed Murray the magnadoodle tonight but he just looked at it and said "bah! what's a kokdoff?" He was totally unimpressed with their spelling I guess! My point was totally lost on him because they hadn't used an ACTUAL real word when printing.

Murray tried to use a pre-emptive strike tonight to avoid Sweetie's wakeful wrath. He took her to the bathroom before she stirred & was able to get her back in bed without her waking at all. Hopefully he's found the trick!

Just a plain ol' Tuesday

No major excitement here today. Kids seemed a bit aggravating at times today, must be the full moon! They were fine this morning, playing around happily, then they started fighting over lots of stuff & I decided to divert them by baking cookies. This took us to lunch & then we ate & I suggested going outside. They didn't immediately resist so I thought I was on to something. Ha! Foolish woman! Sweetie insisted on wearing a heavy zip up jacket over her Tshirt. This made it bulky under her snowsuit and immediately sent her into hysterics. I offered her a different sweater that wouldn't cause the same problem and tried to ignore the screaming. Then Honey got upset about something else and Lovey developped some problem or other and all 3 were crying about something at one point. I kept getting myself ready wondering just how illegal it would be to go for a walk by myself and leave them home!!! They noticed I seemed to be getting ready without them & decided to join me. We got outside & then it was all fine. The driveway was a bit slick from the rain so they mostly stayed on the snowbanks but not before Sweetie wiped out & banged her cheek. Niiiiiiiiiiiice. oh well, bruises add character don't you think?

They decided to try & climb the trees which didn't do much for the snowsuits but they had fun & winter's almost over (isn't it???? tell me it is!) and these suits aren't going to fit next winter so they might as well go out with a bang! :) Unfortunately when you scrape tree bark, it can flake off & fall in your eye which kept happening to them. I'm sure it was uncomfortable, probably even painful but oh man I wasn't in the mood for more screaming. I tried to find whatever was in there & got some bits out & couldn't see anything else but they could feel something! After a few episodes of this I knew I couldn't handle much more freaking out & suggested we go inside. Then Honey & Sweetie got upset about something else and the screaming started all over again. I brought Lovey inside & let them calm down out in what we like to call the "crying porch". Sometimes the pitch or decibel that they are hitting is just about enough to send me round the bend & a little distance & noise barrier never hurts. After a few minutes they gave up on the waterworks and were ready to come in. They got their stuff off & ran off to play, no problem.

Actually Sweetie is having a monster fit right this very moment. Screaming and crying up in her bedroom. The atrocity we've committed? She doesn't want her hair curly. It's 11:18pm!!! Like I'm going to get out the flat iron & hair gel?!? Well what initially set her off was that she had to pee. Murray took her to the bathroom & as soon as she sat down she screamed at him, NO PEEEEEEE! and then had the longest whiz in history while maintaining her screwdriver through the brain noise. This led to the problem with the curly hair and evolved into "I only want a sheet, not BLANKETS!"

Holy crap 11:28, screaming still full tilt. I gotta go do something about that! I feel bad for the girls that are trying to sleep up there!

Whirlwind trip ie Stupid Winter Weather

We were supposed to go away for the weekend to visit Murray's parents but on Friday the weather conditions were terrible & the roads were crap too so we parked it for the night. Murray was secretly (well, not that secretly) glad about the delay as he got to play his game Friday night. (bad road conditions do not keep a good defenceman down). He said it was a good thing he showed up as there were only 4 other players crazy enough to go out in that weather for a ridiculous game at an ungodly hour. (he may have left out the part after "players" ;)) They had to borrow players from the other team but he got a goal and an assist & they won their game. (does it count if you didn't actually use your own team to do it???)

All the kids & grandkids, thank goodness for the new kitchen layout!
The boys hanging out while us girls were out on the town.
Me & my Mr. Bojangles

A little after 5am Saturday, Sweetie is having trouble in her room & needs to come sleep with us. "Sleep" being a loose term for what she had in mind. She rolled & wiggled, she talked with Bunny, she got too hot, she needed a drink and on and on it went until 6:45 she decides she'd rather be in her own room. then she slept in til 9am. Talk about annoying! Keep us up for almost 2 hours in the middle of the night, then bail when her sisters are almost ready to get up & then lounge in bed til half the morning's gone. Oh Sweetie, just WAIT til you're a teenager & want to sleep in. We will get you back & we're prepared to wait a decade to carry out our revenge. Muahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!

I tried to get updated road conditions but there was nothing new online since the evening before & it didn't look too great then. Eventually I got in touch with someone on the phone who said things were good so we packed up & left. We didn't arrive there til almost 3pm so most of the day was shot. However, the roads were clear & the screaming was almost non-existent so that beats an 8 hour stormy snail's pace trip any day. It didn't leave much time to do anything else & I had to cancel a get together with my friends but I did get to go out with my female in laws for the evening as planned so all was not lost! We had a great time & Nancy even suggested we do it annually.

When the girls arrived, there were treats waiting for them. They each got their very own box of valentine's chocolates with a little teddybear on top. They thought the boxes were pretty but were really much more interested in the bears!

Karen was kind enough to take me shopping so I could get a few things I've run out of & Flowergirl joined us so I got to spend time with her too. I haven't seen her in months & talking to her on MSN just doesn't cut it! We had fun shopping & got lots accomplished. Most importantly, I got something done that Murray has been unable to do despite intensive searching on his part. We have a dual DVD system for the car that Murray's parents got us in hopes of making the travelling to visit them less painful & it has made car trips MUCH better. In the pre-DVD days there was generally at least 1-2 hours of screaming which was a little hard to ignore, even with earplugs (yes we really did use them!). With all the kicking going on in the backseat, the cables between the 2 monitors got damaged and unless the 2nd player's cable was twisted just so, it didn't work. On the trip down, I couldn't get the 2nd one to work at all. So Lovey couldn't see the 1st movie & when I switched the players for the next one, Honey couldn't see it. I decided that just wouldn't do and went to an electronics store today. I really try to avoid Sunday shopping but I was feeling a little desperate. The first store I went into didn't have the mono to mono cable I needed but suggested a set of stereo ones that he thought would work. Karen knew there was another store nearby so we checked that out too & they did have the right ones. Time invested: 25 minutes. Money spent: $18 ($9 of which is refundable once I return the stereo one) Kicking Murray's butt: PRICELESS! : ))))) Driving home with kids contentedly watching movies: INVALUABLE!!!!!!!!

Everybody loves Flowergirl!Flowergirl hosted a "secret meeting" with the kids & their animals.
Lovey, Honey, Flowergirl & Sweetie (Flowergirl is where Lovey got her middlename)




Grampy entertaining the girls

Our trip was short but sweet, hopefully next time Mother Nature will take it easy on us & we can enjoy a whole weekend away.