The much anticipated night out

The girls have been asking all week if it was the day that L was coming to babysit. I finally got it through to them that Grammie was coming first & THEN the next day after that, it was L day. They double checked this morning though. Well when she came through the door it was VERY exciting. SO exciting that they clung to my legs and peeked around to look at her for a few minutes before pandemonium hit. They were running all around the house squealing and shrieking. We figured they were obviously still comfortable with her & we hit the road.

It was a great dinner! Murray's company bought a table at a theatre fundraiser and we got to eat right on stage. Very cool. What was even cooler was that one of the wives has a lot of allergies and couldn't eat any of her entrée (poached salmon) so Murray scammed two dinners & an extra half a helping of cheesecake (her husband claimed a piece of that). It was fun to be out & talking to other people, socializing! Since the kids are so in favour of us going out more, we'll have to do it more often!

Toddler Chat IV

it's alllll about the teamwork!

Oh the conversations going on around here these days! I WISH I had a little recorder on me all the time so I could remember all the gems they're tossing out lately.

A few weeks ago, Murray's parents were here & treated the girls to new outfits. The next Friday, when Mum was here, Sweetie had an accident in her new fancy skirt.

Mum: Oh Sweetie! What happened?

Sweetie: Honey was on the toilet & I had to pee and she wouldn't get off.

Mum: Well, you could have gone downstairs?

Sweetie: I didn't want to pee down there, I wanted to pee upstairs.

Mum: uh uh uh. What's Nanny going to say???

Honey: (finger to her lips) Shhh! Sweetie, don't tell Nanny!

Sweetie: (very solemnly) I won't Honey!

Mum: Well now Honey, that wasn't really the point!


Honey: wellllll.... what was the point anyway Grammie?



Tonight at supper we were having one of our many many alphabet discussions on what letters make what sounds, what does the letter b start with (this is how they ask) and Honey starts asking about "w".

Honey: what letter makes "wh" (make w sound here)

Murray: "w" says "wh"

Honey: no it doesn't

Murray: yes it does

Honey: nope. "y" says "wh"

Murray: no Honey, "y" says "ye"

Honey: no it doesn't

Murray: Honey!!! you don't know everything!

Honey (quickly & assuredly) yes I do!

at which point Murray & I both dissolved into laughter. Her confidence is unshakable, how can you argue with an almost 4 year old who already knows it all???

Sweetie made up a new song today & we've been singing it quite a bit. I've GOT to get some of these compositions on video & upload them to youtube. Typing them out just doesn't do them justice. Anway, Sweetie's newest release is short but catchy.

Climmmb UP the MOUNNNNtain,

Ruby-ruby-roooooooo

Climmmb UP the MOUNNNNtain,

Ruby-ruby-roooooooo

See? not nearly as cute as it is straight from them but we'll work on that.

Another family dinnertime favourite is:


Mum-ma likes mango!

Dad-dy likes mango!

Swee-tie likes mango!

Hon-ey likes mango!

(pause)

but Lovey doesn't.


Then Lovey decided she didn't like being left out and now enjoys her mango so we had to change her line to "loves mango" and add "but Murphy doesn't".


One week we were talking about how Grammie does nail polish for them every week & I was trying to point out how nice it was that she does that stuff.

Kelly: you're lucky girls that Grammie does your polish

Them: yeah!

Kelly: what if you didn't have a Grammie? what if there was NO Grammie????

Honey: WHAT if there was no POLISH???? (apparently an even worse situation!)

always good to know where you stand eh Grammie? ; )))

Today, while I was out, they decided they wanted Grammie to play "Sleigh" Who the heck plays SLEIGH???????? Mum wasn't too sure how this game went so went to check out the living room. They'd placed one kitchen chair in front of the loveseat and about 47 stuffed animals over in another part of the room. She asked for more clarification.

Mum: Is the chair the sleigh?

Them: No! You're the driver. We sit here (loveseat), this is the sleigh.

They then load up & the sleighdriver takes off. Everyone's sitting in their seats in total silence during the "ride".


Mum starts making some noises "chkka chk chkka chk"

Honey interrupts: GRAMMIE! You're NOT driving a train!!!

they continue on, sans sound effects.

Honey: Ok, we're here!

Lovey: Well... it was MY idea, so we're NOT.

5 seconds later...

Lovey: Ok! We're here!!!


and off they went, to the zoo.

Those are just a few of the things I can remember. There is so much more that totally cracks me up but I can't seem to keep track of them all.

We went for a walk tonight after supper and went all the way out to the main road, down the court & back home again. On the way back, just shortly after we crossed the busy road, back onto our street, the girls decided to race. Honey took off & just ran & ran. She kept going until 3 doors before our house! Murray was impressed. He thinks she can enter the kids' 1k race they have at some of the marathons.

still in the lead & almost home!

Help! I think my marriage is in trouble!!

*sigh* I've been too busy. I've neglected my family. I've asked too much of my husband and now it's all coming back to bite me. Now I can't be sure, but I think.... Murray's having an affair. He came home from work one night this week and told me a guy on his hockey team was turning 40 & that there was a party tonight AND he wanted to go. Murray. wants to go out. to a party. I mean, it's not even a believable lie. Couldn't he have had the decency to come up with a better cover story??? This cockamamie scheme is highly suspect. He doesn't go to parties. He doesn't even LIKE parties. I wanted him to throw me a party for my 30th birthday & he wanted NOTHING to do with it. (maybe that was a sign even then!) I thought I could have a party for him on his 30th but nope, that wasn't allowed either. (how's a girl supposed to have a bday party around here?) So, him claiming to be going to a party is very suspicious. VERY suspicious.

You want to know the worst part? I bet it's not even another woman. He's probably just sneaking around with another laptop or something. How can I compete with something like that?!?!?!

Want something done?

Give it to a crazy person! LOL I'm actually more familiar with the saying "want something done? give it to a busy person" and overheard this at the sale last weekend. However, I've adapted it to fit my friend Martha Sue. I sent out an email to friends & family at 9:36am about my toothbrush idea. Martha Sue responds at 9:55 to tell me she's forwarded it to a "few people". Marth Sue writes me back at 1:10pm to let me know she's issued a challenge at the call centre she works in. If her coworkers bring in 1000 toothbrushes, she will dye her hair hot pink. Within 3 hours of forwarding to "a few people", 32 toothbrushes had already been collected!!! (all from 2 people). If Martha Sue has any level of success with her challenge, Aunt Cathy may have to pack an extra bag JUST for the dental hygiene supplies! Mumma brought some toothbrushes with her today so I'm now up to 36. Not bad for a day's work! Can't wait to see what hits Martha Sue's desk on Monday!

WANTED: New Toothbrushes

Ok, I know I was goofing around, making fun of Murray's toothbrushes a few weeks ago but this is totally different matter.

My Aunt Cathy & Aunt Wendy are going on a mission trip to work at an orphanage in Mexico for a couple of weeks. The orphanage has expressed a need for toothbrushes for the children. Can you imagine if your possessions were so meagre that you couldn't even brush your teeth? Can you imagine sending your kids to bed night after night with unbrushed teeth??? Me neither.

I'd like to support them by rounding up as many new toothbrushes as possible and am having a "toothbrush drive". If you could give me a toothbrush for the orphanage by May 4, I would greatly appreciate it.

This is a covert op, so please don't mention anything if you happen to know my aunts!

Thanks blogfans!

Outings!

I'm not sure if I'm suffering from some form of post traumatic stress disorder from the chaos of the sale or what but this week, the kids seem to be especially cranky, whiny & I'm having a hard time being patient. By 9:30 yesterday I was desperate for something to do! I phoned my dear cousin-in-law, only to get voicemail. In the vain hope that she might be around or back home soon, I left a message begging to let us come visit. Luckily for me, she phoned back later & was willing to grant my request. After lunch we headed over & had a great visit.

The girls are so taken with little BJ! They kept huddling around her, cradling her head very gently and fawning over her. One of their newest expressions is "awww that's so cute!" & that got used a few times! The girls got lots of stories read to them thanks to Shona & Shona's wonderful friend Melissa. They love to check out BJ's books whenever we go there & always bug Shona to read to them.

Today we headed off for playgroup and the kids played & played. We got home, had some lunch & then headed out for a walk. We weren't even out the door when R-guy met us. He came along & brought his old junked lawnmower for the walk. The girls thought he was hilarious when he kept crashing his trash into puddles & ditches, making big splashes and getting soaked when he had to go in after it. We played in the woods for awhile & R-guy had gone across a huge puddle & wanted them to come too but it was too deep & too wide for them to jump over. He started gathering up rocks to make a path for them to cross. Once he had enough, they were across in no time. Then they helped him add to it & then they started gathering branches & sticks to make another bridge (one apparently wasn't enough!)

PW had another close call the other day! We woke up at 5:30am to Murphy's frantic barking in our room. Never a good sign. Then we heard some horrible yowling & Murphy went outside & continued his frenzied barking for awhile. Eventually PW came in & curled up and went to sleep. When we got up in the morning we noticed that his back was coated in mud and when Murray left for work he found evidence of a battle in the driveway. PW's collar was in the dirt, surrounded by tufts of long silky, slightly curly fur. We think it may have been a coyote. Murray saw similar fur on a coyote carcass in the woods once. Not sure how many more lives this cat has!!!

I'm baaaaaaaaaack!!!

Crazy crazy crazy! I've been organizing our big yard sale for the club and getting my own "merchandise" ready to sell & looking after planning details for the event itself, on top of my regular household routines & activities. Anyway, that's all over now & the sale went incredibly well! The lineups at the checkouts are usually steady from 9-10am and by 10:30 there's no wait at all. This time the lineup didn't drop off til after 11am and the cashiers worked their little fingers to the bone. I looooooooooove sale weekend! It's definitely a lot of work & I have to delegate some of it before next time as this thing is growing out of control & is no longer manageable by myself.

On Saturday after I got home, Murray asked if it was time to quit/give it up. He was surprised when I looked at him like he was insane! He doesn't understand why I'm willing to work so hard to make $200 selling kids' stuff. I guess I'm not really doing it for the $200 dollars because if you divide that by the number of hours involved, I doubt I'm even making minimum wage. I don't know why he'd want to go out running in the dark in circles for 3 hours either but if that's his idea of a good time, hey, go for it. (at least I come home with cash!) There's quite a thrill to see the event unfold, especially if things go well. So many members come out & I get to visit with friends I hardly see all year. Everyone's psyched up & boy do these moms know how to get a job done! There's no messing around. In 3 hours, we turned a cafeteria into a one day consignment shop filled with 30 families' worth of outgrown/unwanted clothes, toys and equipment and had a good time doing it.

a little hard to see, but there's a pile of people waiting to get past that grille! the maintenance guy told me people started lining up TWO hours before we opened!

I get waaaaaaay too excited about the whole thing. If you've ever seen me at Christmas, it's a little bit like that except there's a healthy dose of stress & pressure thrown in. The night before the sale opens, unmedicated sleep is impossible. The very first sale, I didn't know any better & tossed & turned all night. Since then, I pump in a little gravol when I get home Friday night & then crash out shortly after hitting the sack. This time, I got over confident. Things seemed to be under control, everything was fine, I'd been up a lot the night before with a sick girl & was very tired. I decided to go Gravol free & went to bed a bit before midnight with my alarm set for 6:30. Then my mental list making started. Don't forget the bags. and the extension cord. and the tub for the bottled water on ice. and print out the duty list. and bring the cheatsheets. and make the deposit on my way. and pick up the bagels for breakfast. and what if those volleyball players get there before us & help themselves to everything on our bakesale table??? or ransack the place?? This went on until about 1am and I must have finally fallen asleep shortly after that but only til 4:30 when I must have come out of the deep sleep enough for my nagging to do lists picked up right where they left off. I tried to ignore them. I tried counting to 100, and taking deep breaths and counting backwards from 100 in Spanish which usually requires enough concentration that I can't think about anything else & I get bored and fall asleep before I make it all the way. Nothing worked and I could feel the blood jumping in my veins & my heart pumping the adrenalin. Of course by this time, it was too late for sleep aids, they'd just mess me up at that point. After almost an hour of trying to go back to sleep, I gave up and started checking things off my list & was done & on my way by 7am. As usual, everything was fine but boy was I tired by the time I finished the last chore at 3pm ish.

I'd bought some stuff for the girls on Friday night but put it away before I went to bed. I'd told Murray he could haul it out for entertainment if things got dicey while I was gone. He didn't end up needing any diversions but shortly after I got home, things got cranky. And what cheers a girl up in a hurry??? NEW CLOTHES!! I dragged out the pile and sure enough, it fixed them right up! : ) We got 9 new dresses, 1 pair of kid sized doctor greens, 3 sets of shirts & pants, a short set, 3 T shirts, another pair of shorts (which will hopefully go with something somewhere), 3 gymnastics/ballet bodysuits, a skirt and a pair of pants. Grand total? $70 for all of the above. Grammie's not the only smart shopper around here ya know!

Sweetie & Honey are sporting some of the new duds! Lovey stuck with the old wardrobe for today.

So that's where I've been & what I've been up to. Things should be a little calmer around here now... oh wait a minute, I start teaching a cake decorating class next week! I wouldn't want to get bored now would I??? : ))