If you miss me now...

…then prepare yourself to miss me some more.

BWAH-HA-HA HA!!!!

I am soon to be in such a state of complete fun, but in another state (slapping knee!)

We are off...like a new bride's panties (OMG I can hardly contain myself!)

We are nothing less than more than extremely excited. We are taking the boys for their very first camping trip. We aren't sure who is more excited, the 4 year olds? or those of us who are a little older than that.

Can you tell I am just a little more than giddy??

We are headed to Lake Placid, NY to set up camp at the KOA. I am all a flutter in anticipation of watching the boys, and hope they love every minute of it. I did have to (sadly) burst the bubble after I overheard Ben telling the librarian that we were going camping to a hotel. Sorry buddy, it's a sleeping bag on a mat. When I told him there wasn't even a bathroom where we sleep, he asked, "Then, where will we go pee?" and his response after I told him it was a walk down the path to the public washroom : (paaaaauuuuuse) "Woo Hoo!" We are currently in a semi-intense paced packing mode and hoping to pull out of the driveway Wednesday morning. We are armed with all the necessities, as well as much much more. Also included are the newly deemed necessities from the dollar store such as lanterns and bug catchers.

The absolute worst part of it all? Leaving Sydney.

At the spa.

(really a kennel, but a very nice one, but sssshhhhhh don't tell her). We've only ever done it once before and I cried more than I did on our first day of preschool.

I have a lot of very fond (some unique) memories from Lake Placid, have I ever told you? Here are a few:

- going with my dad the week prior to the start of the 1980 Winter Olympics and seeing Eric Heiden train at the outdoor speed skating venue, only then, no one knew what he was about to do, which was win 5 gold medals

- camping at the very KOA with friends, for a long weekend of mountain biking and hiking, and then to be covered in mud after a day in the bush, head to a pub for a beer to find out that Princess Diana had died, two days prior (no newspaper or radio for us those few days)

- being in the seediest motel room I have ever seen, cause our planned canoeing weekend was predominantly rained out, having to start suprefact injections which was the very beginning to our 2nd IVF cycle, the very one that resulted in my precious, amazing boys

I can't wait to take them there, in hopes that it is the start of a new found relationship where it will conitnue to be a favourite place of ours, and also theirs.

Anyway, we'll be back sometime next week, we aren't really sure when, but I'll be sure to let you know (as if it really matters).

Check it out...

You must go see this, it is truly wonderful, beautiful and inspiring.

The Shape of a Mother

I may see you there one day.

M.I.A.

Hello?

Hello, may I please speak with Nancy?

I'm sorry she's busy.

Oh, well, er, um, can I leave a message?

Sure you can, but I can't guarantee it will do you any good.

I see. I would just like to see if she is doing ok.

She is.

Are you sure?

Yes.

Is that it?

Yes. She is just really really busy.

Okay then, can you please tell her I was checking up on her?

I'll try, if I can find her. Last I heard she was tending her little garden of green beans and cherry tomatoes.


But I also heard they went to a picnic in the park, where her kids played on the swings for two solid hours, but the good news was nobody threw up.

She's also rather stressed and knee deep in this:

Then she got really pissed at having to look AGAIN at her neighbours underpants

And she's been into quite of bit of this lately

and this

And as those typical nights carry on, it makes you forget to take the cap off to fill your glass like a MORON:

So she took off and found some quality time with her kids...

I'll save the message for her, she'll be back in a few days.

Invite.

In response to Marla's rainy day post, we are wondering if Josie would like to come and play at our house?

And it wasn't even a rainy day in May when this happened.

Mean

I am so mean. According to my son, I am just oh, so very mean. It doesn't matter what it is I do, I am just mean.

I have tried various responses such as:

(1) explaining the meaning of 'mean' and the proper way/reasons to use it

no success

(2) using examples of all the wonderful things I do for him, and then asking him if that makes me mean

limited success, he concedes that I am really not mean, will use alternate wording for about 18 seconds and then reverts back to usual terms

(3) jumping up & down while hootin' and hollering "Hurray!! It's working! I have been trying so hard for so long, and really practicing at being the meanest Mommy ever and it is finally working! Do I get a prize?"

while this has worked for some of my friends, my sons just look at me with an expression that pretty much says "Man, you are just really stupid"

(4) Laughing my head off at him, and cause it was just really really funny! Time to put the hose away, we need to go inside and get cleaned up and ready for bed, and he LOST it, yelling over & over "You are SO mean!" so yes, not sure if it was the right response or not, but it was just so funny as I was hanging up the hose I couldn't stop laughing. He didn't like that and asked me to stop laughing. At least he stopped saying I was mean!

So, what do you do? How do you respond? I am really not all that bothered with it, more a little amused. I know it will pass, but dish it out, what do you say?

And you can be really mean if you want to.

A (not so) funny thing happened...

...as I walked the dog the other night. As we do every day. In our very own suburbia laden neighbourhood.

I noticed about 3 houses ahead, an older lady struggling with her garbage can. I said, "Self, when we get there, I'll offer to help her with that." As we approached, my dog, er, um, well, shit relieved herself just shy of her property line. I promptly cleaned it up as we always do, and always have with every single shit since the very first day we had her. Then I stood up, about to offer said help, only to receive,

BOL: Keep your dog off our property!

moi: (almost singing and nicely) I cleaned it all up

BOL: Don't let your dog touch our property

moi: I always clean it up after my dog

BOL: but then they leave their stink for other dogs and animals, i have a dog too. just stay off our property

moi: (in high falooting bitch mode now) actually, this isn't your property, as the first 4-6 feet actually belong to the city. what do you do when you walk your dog?

BOL: I don't walk my dog

moi: well, I believe a dog should be walked

BOL: just stay off or I'll report you

moi: report me for walking my licensed, leashed dog after which i cleaned up? go ahead (walking away)

BOL: I'LL REPORT YOU!!

and I walked away.

I was laughing out loud. Out LOUD. and I think that pissed her off too. I walked to the end of the street, about 10 houses, turned to look before crossing the street and there she is at the end of her driveway, standing there, arms crossed, trying to intimidate me? Whatever.

I waved, blew her a kiss and crossed the street. (Hubby says that was being a little too sassy, but it was kinda fun)

What did I want to do? Not only go back, offer her my name, address and phone number and look forward to getting 'reported' but to blare at her "DO YOU THINK I FUCKING CARE ABOUT MY DOG PISSING ON YOUR LAWN 48 HOURS AFTER MY SON HAD LIFE ALTERING SURGERY?"



Oh ya. About that.



Last Wednesday night Trevor had a sleep study, we suspected some form of sleep apnea. A home study where we attached the probe (a.k.a. laser toe) to his foot, attach wire to portable recording machine thingy, return machine next morning for lab/docs to review results. Hubby dropped the machine of at 10 AM. By 11 AM they were calling us, he needed to be admitted. Now.

His results were staggering. Category 4. The worst on their scale. Hospital protocol in such cases, immediate admission and corrective surgery within 72 hours.

Where were we thursday morning? At the pool, doing lessons, jr. jr. swim team, the boys went ot the park with a pre-teen, I stayed in the pool for Aquasize. I get out, someone says "Your phone has been ringing a lot" I check it, 8 missed calls. I haven't had 8 calls in the last 3 months! It rings again. That was noon. By 3 PM we are on our way to the Children's Hospital.

Long story short, after some routine pre-op tests, the no food/drink rule started at midnite, and at 8 PM Friday night he was called to the OR. A quick surgery to remove both adenoids and tonsils that were "unbelievably huge for a child that size", followed by 24 hours in the ICU (again another policy for category 4), we came home.

Phew. It's done. We always suspected this would be the case, but never to such severity, and not quite in the fast-action fashion it happened. We were more than happy to follow referral after referral and take our place in line to take care of things.

The 'severity' in this case is that there are risks in a category 4 as scary as oxygen deprived brain damage, and even fatality. We weren't given any odds or percentages, just the 'risks', which defines the reason for their policy.

Now at home, we have a Tylenol junkie who know sounds like he's been sucking on helium.

I learned so much from our experience, as traumatic as it may seem to our cushy little lives, there is oh, so much more going on out there. No comparison to what some go through, but I'm saving that for another day. Till then, I need to go cuddle my little munchkin (his voice sounds just like the ones from Oz) cause he says he isn't "feeling really well" cause his ankle hurts. Go figure.

Then maybe we'll go for a dog walk...heh heh heh.