Ear We Go Again!!!

Ugh!!! Ears are our downfall this week! 

First, I took Checkers to the vet as he had really begun shaking his head almost constantly. We thought he might have gotten an ear infection but since they do t do anything or give antibiotics when  the kids get them, we thought it would clear up. The vet looked at me stunned when I asked her if that would have happened. "Are you talking about your kids' ears and your dog's ears...!?!?!?" Ummm uhhhh, no of course not cuz apparently that would be idiotic. (That last part might have been just in my head...)

So once a day we have to hold him, squirt cleaner into his ear canals, massage for a couple minutes to work it in well. Then I have to clean it all back out with cotton balls. Twice a day I need to jam the long nosed bottle of medicated drops down inside each ear and squeeze out 4-5 drops (which I can't actually see coming out and have to guesstimate that I'm applying the right amount of pressure to release), and more massaging. He fights us a bit less if we double team him and the bottles are warmed a bit first so they're not completely cold. 

So that's one situation. 

Next, we went shopping today for earrings. Honey had a $10 coupon for Claire's and Sweetie is able to change her earrings tomorrow but had none to put in. Honey couldn't find 3 pairs she liked so she and Sweetie shared her coupon and the buy 2 get 1 free deal. They decided to spend the extra and get sterling silver so they wouldn't have problems with the cheap metal. Yay! Lovey found some that she liked and everyone was happy. 

Happiness is a tricky thing. It can disappear soooooo fast! Sweetie decided to clean the new earrings so they'd be ready for tomorrow might. Unfortunately, she knocked over the bottle of peroxide which somehow bumped her brand new sparkly turquoise earring and send it....somewhere. We shook out the bath mats, we swept the floor, rumbled around in the drawer by the sink and we removed everything from the counter. Murray used his high power flashlight trying to catch a glimmer...nothing. The last option was the sink. It could have fallen down the drain. Sweetie was extremely upset and the tears were flowing. We examined the drain pipe and it has one of those U bend/trap things that looked like you could take apart! Maybe it was stuck on the little cap! Maybe it is. We'll never know because we couldn't get the thing open despite a few efforts with various wrenchy type things. 

So that was that. No earring retrieved but maybe more caution will be employed in future near open drains! (highly doubtful)

Well then Lovey decided to change her earrings to the new ones purchased today. She came to find me when she felt something hard and lumpy in the hole. "Mummy, I think the back of my earring got stuck inside the hole!"

That didn't sound good, or very likely so I took her to the vanity mirror to investigate. Oh dear heaven, there was something black and chunky in there!!! Holy crap! IS it the piece of metal that somehow got sucked into the hole and wedged there?!??? How would I get THAT out without a handy bout of unconsciousness?!?!? I decided to see if I could pull it out, but there wasn't much to grab onto. Luckily I remembered my tweezers and disinfected those. I almost had a hold of the piece protruding when she noticed I had tools involved and started screaming. We'd now been poking and pulling and disinfecting the spot for awhile and it was sore. I was worried about leaving it in but there was no convincing her to let me try much more. Instead I poured rubbing alcohol on the front and back, cleaned the studs off got them back in and put polysporin on and called it quits for now. We're hoping it is just some dried blood and will keep on disinfecting the site every day and watch it carefully. 

And if anyone (not naming any names... *cough*cough*Nanny) knows how to open that darn trap thing in the bathroom sink drain pipe, give us a call!! Sweetie is pretty sad that her $18.75 earrings are half gone!

Here are a few of the tools of the trade today!

*UPDATE*

Murray didn't give up! He was back at the plumbing tonight and managed to get the cap off the trap! There wasn't anything in there unfortunately. In a last ditch effort, he unbent a coat hanger and put it down the drain to see if it might have gotten stuck on the way down but no luck there either.

Except for some bad luck. The jiggling from the coat hanger caused the pipe to snap, although upon closer inspection, it looked like a section had already weakened and rusted away prior to tonight's activities.

But, all is not lost! Actually, all is found! He happened to look in the drawer beside the sink (previously inspected to no avail) and spied something glittering in the beam of his headlamp! Sweetie will be so thrilled that he found her expensive earring! We are not nearly as excited about the $200 plumbing bill. Nanny, cancel the trap order, can you come install a new pipe instead???

But all is not lost! Actually all is FOUND! He happened to look in the (previously briefly inspected to no avail) drawer beside the sink and spied something glittering in the beam of his headlamp! Sweetie will be so thrilled that he found her expensive earring. We are not nearly as enthused about the $200 impending plumbing bill. Nanny, please cancel the request for a trap opening and update us to "pipe replacement"???

On a brighter note, Honey had a lovely day, got some new earrings which she did not lose and found a great book to read in the latest pile from Grammie.

My highlight of the day was being able to dig some of that gunk out of Lovey's earring hole before bed tonight. The cleaning, disinfecting and polysporining seems to be working.

Must go look up that plumber's number...

Runaway Weekend

The pictures are all out of order and from my phone but you get the idea! It was a busy couple of days! We were invited to my nephew's birthday party and we really wanted to go see him! Problem: I had a client shoot the same day as his party AND he lives 4 hours away. But the clients were kindly willing to start a bit earlier and we hit the road when I got home. We were late and didn't get to see his friends from school but probably got to visit with him more this way with just the grandparents & Auntie KK present.

We stayed til around 8pm and got back in the van to drive halfway home to the cottage. Why the rush? Well, we had two more birthdays the next day back at home! (why yes, we ARE darn popular now that you mention it!)

We got home just as a big rainstorm started so I was glad to be off the highway for that! We had some lunch and wrapped presents and headed out to our next engagement! My cousin's daughter was happy to see the girls had made it to her party afterall. She told her grandmother that she likes to give them great big hugs when she sees them because she loves them sooooooooo much. (how can you not show up for a kid like that???)

We didn't stay too long but we made it! Back into the van for the big finale of the weekend, my dad's birthday dinner and we were even early! Lots of time for visits, walking the dogs, supper, cake and presents and of course, the all important selfie! Good times!

Facial Fail.

Sometime ago, during summer vacation, Sweetie asked if she and Lovey could have some cucumbers so they could do a facial. I had a cucumber already cut in the fridge so figured "why not?" (read on to find out WHY NOT!!!)

She scampered off happily to her "salon" with her new supplies and as far as I knew, all was well.

Fast forward a couple of months when I'm searching for something in her bedroom and find a container jammed under dresser up against the wall. I figured she had a stash of beads or something, until I tilted it and saw a gooey slimy mess through the plastic. I opened it up and immediately recognized the mess.

It turns out that Sweetie took the container down there, Lovey had it for awhile, then set it on her dresser but Sweetie couldn't find it so they just moved on to other activities.

I was about to go clean it out when I wondered "Why am I stuck with his stinky disgusting mess??!?!?" I quickly changed my plan. Since both were involved, I told them one could dump  & rinse the container and the other got to scrub it out. Then I waited for the wailing and hysterics to kick in. Instead they quickly scrambled for what they both considered the least disgusting job. Lovey wanted to dump & rinse it and Sweetie thought it was better to handle it after the offending items had been disposed of. Perfect!

Here's what Lovey thought of her end of the deal. Lesson learned? Hmmmmm. I'm probably the only one who gained any wisdom there. Don't let kids run off with fresh produce!!!

Camping 2013

Summers go soooooo fast! Every year we say "we should go camping sometime!" and most years we end up pitching the tent at GG's for the golf tournament and that's about the extent of our tenting time. This year we took a weekend and actually went to a real campground, woohoo!

The kids love it and lugged up all the sleeping bags, mattresses and pillows quite excitedly. Then I remembered what I hate about camping: the loading & packing of all the stuff! Gotta make sure to put the tent in last so it's the first thing on top when we get to the site. But the cooler should be packed last so it'll stay colder that way, but it's one of the biggest things so should go into the van first.... it was almost a paralyzing conundrum! Finally I had everything ready to load. Unfortunately it wasn't at 2pm as I'd planned, it was 5:30! I was going to take the girls out and set up the tent ahead of time and come back for Murray so we could eat at the site and have a bonfire. Another plan gone bad but not the end of the world.

We got everything set up and explored a bit and then turned in for the night. Checkers was incredibly restless and preferred to roam around and shake his head every 5 minutes. It was a looooooooooooong night! The kids were oblivious but Murray and I woke up not feeling too refreshed!

Nevertheless, we're camping and we're going to have fun darn it! But what to do? We shall go on a lovely nature hike and find the waterfall! We are certainly not sitting around in a tent to play iPods! I told them if they wanted to play video games in the woods, I could have thrown them over the fence in the backyard and saved myself a LOT of work! I didn't spend 5 hours baking, packing & loading to watch them do what they could do at home! They weren't very moved by my speech but didn't ask for electronics again.

We eventually found the start of the trail and began the hike. They were all excited at first, zooming along, racing around and chasing each other along the path. Then the novelty wore off after an hour and we still couldn't tell if we'd found the waterfall or not. We'd seen some water flowing over a small pile of rocks in a stream but were looking for something a little more impressive. The brochure mentioned it was "small but striking" so we kept looking, and looking and walking and looking. We ran out of trail and started back around the loop we'd taken and saw lots of other stuff in the woods but nothing that we'd consider "striking" !!! The girls weren't impressed either and made sure to let us know by subtly mentioning things like "I'M BORED. DO WE HAVE TO KEEP GOING? WHEN CAN WE STOP? CAN WE TURN BACK YET???" At one point, Murray overheard a grumbled "I feel like complaining my head off!" He lost it and said "we didn't have to come camping you know."  (<---- a="" br="" murray="" s="" that="" tirade="">
We got back to the campsite and had some lunch and shortly after that, Boo got dropped off for a sleepover as Teena & Dale had a party and we won the babysitting lottery :) They were quite excited to have her there and showed her around and got her bedroll set up. They spent the rest of the afternoon at the playground and activity centre while I cleaned up lunch, read my book and then got supper ready.

That night we did have a campfire and s'mores, roasted hotdogs, sparklers and a couple Dragons Eggs that we probably weren't supposed to have. (something about no explosives in the rules I realized after). Grammie and Grandad love campfires so they joined the party and supplied the hotdogs and stayed to enjoy the evening with us, hooray, a party!

By the time our guests left and brush & flush was done, everyone was wiped and settled down without too much furor.

Teena had saved the day and brought some ear cleaning stuff so I was able to get Checkers' ears in better shape and he slept better which meant we slept better. Somewhere towards morning, I felt Murray pushed up against me, so much so that I was barely on the mattress anymore. I looked over to see what was going on and Checkers had confiscated his mattress so he was trying to get off the ground and use mine! (despite the fact that I'd made a very nice dog bed with the removable trunk liner and some towels!!!)  Fussy puppies do not make great tentmates.

Lovey & Boo were awake at 6:30 and fairly chatty so that was the end of my shuteye! We tried to read quietly in the tent but that didn't last long and everyone got up for breakfast. They went for a swim while I dried out the tent and tore it down and reloaded the van. We grabbed a pizza lunch at the canteen and headed home!

Good times!!!

they got the "small" part right!

Tricky Fit!

When I did this 3 years ago, it was a little easier (and I used a real camera instead of my phone) http://kelmurandco.blogspot.ca/2010/06/dum-dum-da-dum.html

I was able to get the dress on for a progress check after our 15th anniversary. BUT it required a lot of sucking in and zipper wrestling. I think it's official, I've strayed as far as I possibly can and still get into this thing. I'd better get my act together!

Grade 4, where'd you come FROM!?!?!?

Well that's it. Summer vacation is officially over! School is back in and Grade 4 is our life now! There was a downpour this morning so I didn't get a good photo while they waited for the bus. I'll try and get the individual pics by the door tomorrow if there's time.

They woke up raring to go and were ready and out the door well ahead of schedule. Nothing like first day enthusiasm. That'll be in short supply from here on out no doubt!

They came home raving about their class and teachers. Lovey is excited to be back in Acorn's class. Honey is pleased with her class too. Sweetie is in the same class as Honey this year but says most of her friends from last year are in Lovey's class. I'm sure she'll find friends in this class soon though.

Lovey's planning on lots of school clubs and activities. The newest one is drama. You can't be in that until Grade 4 so she's raring to go now! Honey thinks she'll go back to book club and maybe some others too. Sweetie didn't have much to say on the subject! LOL

Traditional first day of school cake. Simple decoration this year, but tasty!

Suckers!

During a recent trip to the mall, we got waylaid by one of those kiosks in the centre. He just wanted to show us his product for TWO MINUTES! Ok, sure, 2 minutes and we're out of here. I'm not buying though, but knock yourself out buddy.

Then he put ringlets in my daughter's straight as a pin hair. That was cool. Ok, well.... still. I'll let him finish his spiel and maybe if it's around $40 or maybe $60, well. maybe but I was skeptical. Then he got to the kicker. "Regular $240!"

He was going to have to do some major discounting to get anywhere with us. He played up to the girls and showed them how smooth and shiny it made their hair. He showed the different fancy designs of the various models he had. His boss came over and chatted us up, oohed and ahhed over my cute triplets.

Then they told us about the back to school special price they were offering. Pffft. Still a LOT. I maintained my "not interested" stance. They went over my head and appealed to the girls. "don't you think your mom should get this great deal?" "Ok. Ok. You know what? When you buy more than one, the price gets better! but I will give you that price even if you just buy my last one today." Hmmm, well that's a little better but still pricey!!! "Tell you what. I'll give you a gift. What are your favourite colours girls???" They quickly told her and she pulled out little clip in hair strips in THOSE colours and offered to give them to them for free IF we bought one. and they only had ONE left on the special deal. Suddenly I was alone against 5 sets of pleading eyes that couldn't comprehend a mother who would be so cruel!

Bah. They weren't getting me with that emotional bribery business. We left but the badgering went into high gear. They were willing to forfeit allowance, they'd do this, they'd do that and on and on. I ignored and kept heading for the parking lot, leaving them to keep up or get left behind (well not really, but they're never sure. muahahahaha!). We got into the van and on it went still. Finally I thought. I'll put an end to this. I'll ask Murray if he's willing to pay a ridiculous amount of money for a flat iron! Ha! That'll fix them. So I sent him a message.  He didn't immediately say no. huh. well that's interesting. and it was kindof cute and it did make CURLS in Honey's hair!!! But, no! Fight the impulse. It's ridiculous! Who needs an expensive thing like that to do their hair!??!? Murray wanted to know if it had a warranty. Well, actually it comes with a lifetime warranty. He checked online reviews, did price comparisons. All came back favourable and the price on ebay was actually more expensive so he told us to go for it. Where was my partner in solidarity???? Oh well who am I to argue with the breadwinner???

Three little girls exploded with joy as I showed them the "go for it" message. They were out of their seats so fast that I had a hard time keeping up with them in their haste to get back there before "their" straightener got sold! "HURRY MUMMY!"  huh. so they DO know what that means when it suits them. I warned them that they'd better be VERY good for a loooooooooooooong time! (obviously this was BEFORE the wedding fiasco) They told me they would be good, they'd be super duper extra British good! Well that was a new one. I guess they think that all British people are very proper and always well behaved.

Smiles like these are priceless right?

Too bad I couldn't reproduce the sales guy's effects at home! We were getting ready to go to the wedding and Sweetie's straight hair went perfectly. She loved it. Honey was not as keen on my efforts. I pulled the way I thought he'd showed me. No result. a slight wave maybe. Hmmm. I thought it might get better as I went. Maybe it needed to heat up more. Maybe I need to put a bit of hairspray on and then try it. That didn't work much better but then after a few more attempts, I started to see some results. It wasn't much but it wasn't straight anymore. Half way through, she looked and told me it was awful, terrible, no good and to quit. Why that wasn't reason enough to walk away right there, I don't know. I'm a stubborn masochist, what can I say? I convinced her to let me keep trying and it did get better as I went. Not as good as the guy at the mall, but hey, it's my first day here! She wasn't willing to cut me any slack and stomped enough in disgust as I got the last piece done.

Lovey was undeterred though and showed up for her turn. I've now been working with this 450º wand for an hour and in the small bathroom, I'm getting hot and my last customer hasn't done anything for my mood. I start smoothing it and she jerks back. "MUM! you're not curling it right!". What? " You want yours curled? Did you SEE Honey's? That's my best so if you don't like hers, let's quit right now." Nope. She thought Honey's looked fine. OK then.

I worked away but it was awfully hard for her to stand there, sit there, wait there etc. Sigh here, sigh there. She kept turning her head the wrong way and almost singed her face countless times. I was on the last piece, now very overheated and frustrated that I can't get this stupid curling action to work well and she's still not holding her head up so I can pull the piece through properly. In exasperation, I thrust out the wand to point to the spot on the wall where I want her to point her eyes towards when I suddenly make contact with the actual wall. with the 100% 450º degree ceramic plates. Guess what happens to super hot glass like substances when they smack into a solid object. Crack! tinkle. Shards of shiny black ceramic fell to the counter and floor and then I stepped on one to add insult to injury! I almost threw up on the spot. Not only had it been a silly, impulsive, extravagant purchase. I'd destroyed it after ONE use. Oh dear heaven. Murray was surely going to kill me! I managed to hold on to my lunch and finish the last piece with my curling iron, all the while my mind racing with the horror and dread. I frantically grabbed on to the thought that I'd purchased it on my credit card! Anything I buy, if it gets lost, broken, or stolen within 90 days of purchase, has insurance coverage! I can probably buy a new one and get reimbursed! IF they approve the claim. OK. Maybe I can fix this. Then it was time to take off for the wedding so there wasn't time to dwell on it and then we had other problems to worry about there (see previous blog post for details).

Today I phoned the credit card insurance and they sent me the paperwork to fill out. They said the normal procedure is for me to go buy the replacement and then send proof of purchase and then that's when they do the reimbursement. OK no problem. Wait. It was a special offer last week, we bought the last one. What if they're now back up to regular price??? That's OK. I'm prepared to beg at this point. Maybe they'll understand and let me buy one more at the sale price. Or maybe the sale is still on and they get a few to sell each day!

I headed to the mall this afternon with the broken one, shards and all and talked to the guy from last week. He remembered me and the girls and as I explained and asked if replacement parts can be bought, I felt kindof sick all over again and he told me not to worry. He said he'd call his boss and see what she said. The phone call lasted quite awhile but after he hung up, he told me they were going to replace it for me free of charge but I MUST understand that the warranty doesn't really cover this and if it happens again, it won't apply. I was so relieved I could have done a little dance and hugged him. I managed to contain myself to an effusive thank you!

Whew! saved by the kindness of strangers again!