Found It!

I forgot to add that after getting home & unloading things out of the front seat, I found the credit card hiding in with a pile of mail. I immediately phoned them to "uncancel" but it was too late. Now I have to wait a week to 10 days for replacement cards. That'll put the brakes on the mad frittering rampage I've been on lately!

CRUNCH!!!!!!!

Owie! Owie, BIGGGGGGGGGGG OWIE! Today was a little crazy. Ok, so you think every day is a little crazy around here but to us "crazy" is a whole other level than what YOU'RE used to. So if my normal is crazy to you, then my crazy is probably just about unfathomable! (see, it's so crazy here, THAT didn't even make sense to you did it?????????)

With much effort, we managed to get to preschool on time today. Small victory but I'll take what I can get :)

While they were there, I decided to get started on spending my birthday money from Murray's parents. I looked for a fall jacket that's nicer than a windbreaker but less fancy than a dress coat. As usual, when you have specific parameters for something, it is impossible to find. I checked at Mark's Work Wearhouse, Reitmans & Winners and only came up with one possible. A whopping $24.99 later I came out with a mediocre (but RED!) coat. As I was transferring my pocket contents, I realized the new coat didn't have any means of containing my treasures and the pockets aren't even angled so that your stuff will fall down into them. They're just straight up and down and risky. I only had a quick stop at the pet store to look for an ID tag, what could go wrong? Off I went. Then I zoomed back to pick up the kids and realized I couldn't find my credit card anywhere. New pockets are empty, it's not in my wallet, not on my seat, not on the floor of the car, don't see it anywhere. Crap.

I grab the kids & we race back to the parking lot so we can search for it. Once everyone has disembarked, I shut the door. Only to notice Honey has tucked her fingers in the opening. Too late the door has already fully closed on her tender little hand. I whip it back open in a split second of total silence. Maybe I was fast enough that it didn't really pinch? Nope. Full wail was quick to follow. I jammed my thumb in a car door when I was a kid and it hurt like the dickens so I was pretty sure that having your entire hand in there must be way worse. (although in my case, the car door was locked and my grandparents had already gone inside & didn't believe me when I was screaming for help!). I scooped her up and hugged her tight while making sure the other 2 weren't wandering off in the parking lot and scanning around for a flash of silver plastic & hoping some fraudster wasn't Ebaying his way to my financial doom.

Of course there wasn't a glint to be seen & poor Honey Bunny wasn't feeling any better. I held on to her & ran into a couple of the nearby stores, with the other 2 close on my heels, to see if the card had been found but there had been no sightings. I got everyone back in the car & phoned Murray to ask him to call the credit card company before some jerk spent all my birthday money and our retirement savings! I had visions of massive internet purchasing going on while I drove home.

When we got here, Honey still didn't want me to touch her hand and wouldn't let me wash it or put anything cold on it. So we just sat in the rocking chair and eventually she stopped crying and we had lunch. While I was getting that ready, Sweetie got Honey her Baabee & Lovey read her "The Hungry Little Caterpillar". They can be sooooooo nice to each other sometimes!

Murray & I were debating whether or not to take her to emerg. I knew "sore fingers" would be pretty low on the priority list if we went but didn't want to be wrong & have her grow up with broken twisted fingers because of my negligence.

I watched her over lunch & she mostly used her other hand to eat. She did let me put the cold gel pack thing on it & then when that got warm, we used a bag of corn from the freezer. She wasn't complaining about it and I was able to bend her fingers a bit without too much complaint. It was obviously painful but not brain rattling screaming painful. Then she wanted candy for dessert & she had to use both hands to unwrap the Kraft caramel she was working on. Her fingers were working fine for that & they were bending as she peeled the wrapper off. I phoned public health just in case & they agreed that we could avoid a lengthy visit to the ER.

The girls have been wanting to go swimming for some time. They'd done enough "jobs" to earn the trip and had wanted to go yesterday but it didn't work out so we had planned it for today. They'd been looking forward to it all day. We'd arranged to go with Teena & Boo who were meeting us there.... Honey was disappointed that she wasn't getting a trip to the doctor's office (probably remembering the time we had cheezies for supper when we had to wait 2 hrs at the after hours clinic when she had an ear infection last winter). I decided a soak in some chlorine wouldn't hurt & we took off for the pool.

The swimming part went fine, Honey's hand wasn't a problem .She jumped and swam and floated and played for an hour and a half. She had a great time. Lovey worked hard and managed to do a lot of swimming with her head above water and was quite pleased with herself. It was a slow day at the pool and one of the lifeguards kept staring at Lovey as she paddled around unassisted. She either thought I was very negligent to let her do that or was quite impressed to see a 4 yr old navigating the waters so well! (I'm going to be cocky & assume the latter! lol) Sweetie was more timid and didn't want to try to swim much & preferred to hang on the side and only swam when I pulled her out to the middle with me & gave her a big boost to glide back to the edge.

The getting ready to go home part was a disaster. We got through the showering & washing hair without incident. Somewhere around the hairdrying & getting dressed, things went downhill. Sweetie had a wicked meltdown & I still don't know what it was about. She shrieked and screamed for at least half an hour. After determining that I wasn't going to be able to determine or even solve her problem, I ignored her & worked on getting the other 2 dried off, dressed & hair brushed. Eventually all 3 were ready to go but it took them forever! By the end of it, Sweetie was screaming for Bunny (like I can materialize her out of nowhere?? she knew darn well that freakin' animal was at home!!!!!!!!) and continued it all the way home. When we got in the driveway, she bumped her hand into Honey's while trying to undo her buckle and although Honey was the one with the tender fingers, it was Sweetie who did all the sreaming about that. And kept it up for another half hour while the rest of us went inside to wait it out. By this time the brain scalding was almost more than I could bear. It probably sounds terrible that I left her in the car but having her inside doing that in my face would have been far riskier for her. I did open the windows & watch from the living room periodically. The constant noise was easy assurance that she wasn't running off anywhere and in that state I was pretty sure a kidnapper would quickly lose interest.

Once she decided her tactics weren't getting her anywhere, she got out of the car, closed the door & knocked at our front door to get in.

It was a pretty intense afternoon but they had fun at the pool, we have no broken bones and Old Nanny called to invite us over for lunch next week so all is well with our world!

Out On The Town

What a weekend! Murray's boss was up for a big award so he brought everyone & spouses to the ceremony. We got a fancy dinner out & it was interesting to hear about all the other projects that had been nominated. There are some freaking smart people out there! Heaven help my kids if it's up to me to help them with that kind of homework assignment someday.

Murray's boss was very generous with the invitation. Everyone got Friday off (but Murray went in anyway, such a brown noser! hee hee!), gas money to drive down, tickets to the dinner & a night at a hotel and a breakfast buffet the next morning. We opted out of the hotel & just stayed with Murray's parents as we'd already ditched our kids there for a weekend not too long ago and we don't want to burn them out! LOL

After breakfast on Saturday, we decided to take the girls over to visit Murray's great aunt while we were in town, then we got home again & Karen & I took off for a rushed shopping trip. Our usual routine includes several stops at stores I don't have here. My sister in law is very good at humouring me & patiently letting me browse to my heart's content. I think it helps that I treat her to an icecream cone if she's good!

After returning from our whirlwind big box tour, it was off to the hairdresser for Karen. I picked up my other sister in law, or as Mandy always says "Murray's sister in law", for reinforcement and then we had our evil hairstyling way with Karen's do. Karen's husband Paul wanted her to try a new look. She's had the same haircut for pretty much as long as I can remember, varying lengths maybe but pretty much the same since 1986 ish. Mandy & I have been secretly plotting for years on this but never put a plan into action. When Paul enlisted our help we were only too willing to play a part! We didn't go too wild and we veto'd the foils he had in mind but we did get the gray covered and took out a lot of the bulk. She's not one much for salons or spas or anything like that and generally views getting a haircut as a chore to be endured. Even though it wasn't her idea of a good way to spend a Saturday she did play along & was a really good sport & we only had to handcuff her to the chair once! : ) She got it straightened (just for the day) and it was so sleek & sophisticated! Pretty much everyone thought her new hair was awesome. Unfortunately, she wasn't one of them and the straightening was washed out the next day. So in case you missed it here is Karen looking HOT HOT HOT! :)))

and as if all this wasn't enough fun & excitement, I also got to spend time with Flowergirl. Not as much as I'd have liked but some is better than none! She did my hair to match hers and I don't think I pull it off nearly as well as she does (must be the height thing) but I'll take any bit of her I can get. She played with the girls Friday night while Murray & I were out & came back over on Saturday to see me and play with them some more. She's my rockstar and I love her more than any girl I didn't give birth to. She turns 19 today so Happy Birthday Flowergirl!

the whole fam damily out for supper to celebrate Karen & Paul's 5th anniversary.

Wandering About

I hustled the girls outside for a walk the other day & Sweetie once again wowed me with her fashion sense. I also like how the bear is hanging in a bag which is tied to a stick, sortof like a runaway would tie up his possessions in a handkerchief.

Sweetie doing a little shooting. Now they allllllll always want a turn with my camera. It's a little nerve wracking to say the least, especially when we're on hard pavement! I always make sure the strap is around their neck (not tied toooooooo tightly though...) but sometimes they decide to just free hand it and then I go into panic mode. Not that possessions are more important than your children but....

I'm finding the days very full & busy & fast lately. Every morning it's hurry up & get out with no time to do any tasks other than get dressed, eat, brush teeth, make beds. Then we're gone til lunch, lunch is late, clean up and then try to get caught up on email or whatnot, take the kids out to play, go for a walk etc. All of a sudden it's time to start supper, then I go to the gym (for what I ask? I weigh the same as I did when I started going in May. Although people swear I look more "toned", the scale still screams the same awful digital reading of 180, blech!) and then I get home it's almost 9pm and I have a hard time summoning up the interest/energy/motivation to do housework. Now that the sale is over, maybe things won't feel so hectic, although here it is 11:30pm and I'm updating the blog because I've missed so many days.

The kids are still comfortable at preschool and have no concerns with being dropped off. The director mentioned that Sweetie was having trouble listening the other day and was laying on the tables and stuff when she should have been working on something or getting lined up etc. I overheard one of hte other teachers mention that the whole day had been weird with all the kids & that he'd had to give two time outs that day for the first time so far this year. (none were for our kids, whew! dodged a bullet there!) I asked about the time outs on the way home & the girls were glad it was someone else too so hopefully they'll have enough fear to avoid getting any themselves. Some days I get there to pick them up and they've only been having "recess" outside for a few minutes and they ask me "WHY are you here ALREADY?????" So you can see they're having a hard time coping with being away from me but I think they'll adjust eventually.



On the drive home the other day, a city truck was grading the sides of the road and stirring up quite a bit of dust. The girls asked me what was going on so I explained about the grader when Sweetie interrupted me and said "no. I think that car in front of us must have farted."

dance like no one's watching!

and on that note, I'll go to bed!!!! LOL

Rocket Man Got Ripped Off!

getting his race face on.... I'm bored & practicing the "panning" technique. Took many many many shots, got 2 right.

Murray had another race recently and managed to get to it without succumbing to the cold virus that was plaguing the rest of us. He drank his OJ, took his vitamins and went to bed early every night. I believe this would be one of the first times that I caught a cold that he didn't. His training was going really well leading up to the race and he felt that a PB was within his grasp. The weather was a little iffy but the rain held off. He did an awesome job and when I saw him loop back around the starting area on one leg of the race, he was hot on the heels of the lead runner. He managed to maintain that position for the rest of the race and didn't let anyone get past him!

Imagine his surprise then, when crossing the finish to hear "Congrats! You came in THIRD!" WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?????? Some putz from BC, who was never seen by the first guy or Murray, suddenly appeared on the course in the lead! The first place guy passed him but Murray was a few minutes behind & never even set eyes on him until he showed up at the awards ceremony to claim his prize.

We talked to the race organizers but there wasn't much time between the race finish and the ceremony so they didn't get a chance to look into it. They are however checking it out now and maybe the 4th place guy will get bumped up to the 3rd place that he should have had.

coming in for the big finish! and he's got another sub 3 hour under his belt! It wasn't a pb but it's a might respectable time nonetheless, way to go honey! I'm soooooooo proud of you!!!!!!!!!

Murray was completely disgusted with Mr. 1-2-skip-a-few-26.2. He was so furious that he sat tensely in his seat and clenched his jaw. It's rare to see Murray mad and I bet many of you have never seen him display his temper. But it was there that day. I was a little concerned what he might do while they were up front lined up on their spots to get their prizes but all he said to the guy was "gee, never saw you out there". Buddy didn't look at him or respond and just went back to his seat, next to his proudly grinning father. Maybe it was an honest mistake, he could have missed one of the markers and accidentally shortened his route. Fine. It could happen. Murray's been googling and searching out finish times for this guy & the best time he could come up with for the guy was a half marathon at 1hr 44min. A full marathon would be more than double that as nobody maintains the same pace in a full that they do in a half. One of the people watching the race told Murray that when Mr BC crossed the finish & saw the clock that he looked really shocked. So we figure he knew something was wrong but he never owned up to it. Anyway, the race people are looking into it but there's not really much to be done. At least Murray let him know that he was aware that he hadn't run an honest race.

so maybe the key to getting your speed up is to run half naked??????

On the upside, Murray gets to send away for a new pair of sneaks, I got a new Timex (he won a ladies watch in a draw, woohoo!), he qualified for Boston & got a hat for that and also won another watch for coming in "third".

Sick Day

We kept the girls home from school today, as much as it pained me to do so! So much for being footloose and fancy free. Darn common cold! They had a good sleep in though so hopefully that'll go aways to getting them over this. Temperaments weren't too bad considering they're not feeling well. They played and ran around imagining all sorts of stuff as they went. They're so funny to listen to and for the most part great playmates to each other (until things flare up!). They're very into playing "mommy" now and every once in awhile I hear one say to the other "oh, are you ok dearie???" and it just cracks me up to hear the concern in their voice as they fuss over their "little one". They seem to all take turns being the child & mother and give each other lots of direction along the way. "Ok, now you say how did you get here Flowerah???" and stuff like that.

This afternoon they had a nice warm bath and then I got them dried off & dressed up to see if we could get some decent "4 year old" pictures. I never did them around their birthday so we're a bit overdue. Since I have the really nice family pictures from Shooter Shelley, it seems like a waste to put up anything else now! I'm certainly not taking hers down for a good long while but I have another set of frames from when they were 2 that could be updated so maybe I'll do that.

I was mostly workign on finishing the family session from last week so I didn't really get far with these tonight but here are a few out takes for now!

this one looked so cute when I pictured it in my mind!!! so much for my "artistic vision" !

Happy Birthday Bro!

It's my little brother's birthday today! We celebrated yesterday at M&D's and he's never been one much for cake so Mumma makes him a birthday pie most years. The girls were thrown for a loop. What??????? NO cake????????? They managed to adjust though and decided not to boycott the party. : )

We were a little late getting up there as we decided to take down the pool yesterday while it was warm out. Murray let it drain over night & then we got in & scrubbed it out. He held on to it from on top of the deck while I hosed out the scuzz. It was quite a project but we managed. Teeeeeeeeeeam work! What's gonna work??????? Teeeeeeeeeeam work! Murray also mowed the lawn for what we hope is the last time for 2008.

With less than a week to go before the sale, I'm getting anxious about details & worrying about remembering everything so I'm waking up way too early and not getting back to sleep. And of course I stay up way too late working on pictures but I've got all my "customers" looked after and no more shoots coming up so I should be able to focus on getting my stuff ready for the weekend. I havne't done my baking yet, haven't sorted out the winter things to see what fits & what can go.... 3 nights left and kids that have bad colds. Time will tell!