Dog days of summer and patriotic pride

I think the dog days of summer are here. Or in our case the sick dog days of summer are here.

Not sure what is wrong with the pup these days. He upchucked Sunday around lunch, which isn't unusual for a dog, but then refused supper that night and appeared to be what I can only describe as nauseous.

Yesterday he was good, kept all his food down, we had reduced the amount just due to the actions of the day before. He seemed a bit more perky this morning and quite hungry, but then proceeded to upchuck all his breakfast. Not cool. The fact that he didn't do it outside but instead on the carpet in the living room sucked even more.

He's not himself that's for sure. The heat isn't helping either, we're in the heat of summer and that cannot feel good when you are wearing a big furry black coat.

Gonna get some pumpkin and mix it with rice tonight for his supper and see where that gets us. He's really hungry and drinking lots so I'm not suspecting any sort of weird wormy thing, but here's hoping we don't have to go to the vet!

I like the hot days, anytime I don't have to wear socks is a good day in my books. Big C just shook his head the other night when I put my feet on the back of his legs in bed and they were like icicles compared to him.

I have to remember that when I'm comfortable in the summer, that other people are probably sweating their you know whats off. And when I'm feeling hot, they're probably in the air conditioning somewhere.

MIss K and I are kind of at a loss without the Pan-Am games being on TV. They were held just down the road from us and it was nice to see athletes competing at places you were sort of familiar with.

Miss K was so excited that bowling was in the Pan-Am games, its one of her favourite things to do, and thought it super cool that you could win a medal doing it. Not much for TV coverage on bowling though, but she still enjoyed all the other sports.

And I was impressed with the eloquence of our athletes when they were interviewed. Most were gracious and humble and genuinely happy to be competing at home in front of Canadian fans. In fact even athletes from other countries were similarly grateful to be competing and spoke as if they had more than just a limited vocabulary of "gave 110%", "did my best", "trained hard" responses too.

I love that Canada won 217 medals, not as much as the USA, but then again they have 10 times the population that we do, so overall, I think we kicked some pretty serious ass.

I'm proud to be Canadian, very proud, we have a respected country, great rights and freedoms and generally good standard of living. The climate may not be ideal in some locations, hence why our population isn't that of the USA despite being bigger in land mass, but I will take it.

We come from a pretty awesome nation, and while there are 100's of places I would like to visit in the world, I very much always want to come back and call Canada my home.

Til next time…show some patriotism, no matter where you live.

Living with your kids, or without them

I had a conversation with Miss K last night before bed that made me a little bit sad.

We were talking about how tall she was getting. It seems with the summer sun that she grows about a millimetre per day. I know she doesn't, but I nearly dread going through the pants we have for fall, as I'm sure at least half will not be long enough. And as a mom who is nearly 6 feet tall, I will not have a kid who wears floods just because she's tall for her age.

We struggle a bit with packing on the pounds, but she's not going to complain about that in 10 years for sure. She's bound and determined that by the end of summer that she will weight the requisite 40lbs to have just a regular booster seat in the car instead of the 5 pt. harness type seat she has now.

After we determined that she was at least as tall as Queen Elsa was at her age, she stuck her lip out and started to pout.

Here's the conversation that followed.

What's wrong?

I'm sad.

How come?

If I get bigger and bigger and when I'm older I won't be able to see you and dad.

Well, why is that?

Well, when kids get big they have to move out of the house and I won't get to see you guys everyday and that makes me sad.

I began to tread carefully here, as I do not want to say that some kids live with their parents long after they're adults, but don't want to crush her either… Draw the fine line between independence and being close to your family if you know what I mean.

You would still get to see us kiddo.

No I wouldn't, I would leave and live somewhere else and not see you.

We see grandma quite a bit right?

Mm-hmm.

And we just went to see Poppa right?

Yes.

And grandpa Doug comes by sometimes to visit?

Uh-huh.

Well, that's what would happen probably. I get to see my mom and dad still, and so does Dad, we could do the same.

You mean I could come and visit?

Absolutely!

So I could go and be with my friends but I could still come stay here? Or you could visit me?

Yes we could.

Oh, well that would be ok then, but where would I live?

Look, that's a long ways off, let's worry about getting a good sleep first and we can talk more about it in the morning.

OK Mom, can I have one more last hug?

You betcha.

I was thinking later that night that I would be sad too if I didn't get to see her everyday too. The adjustment might be bigger on our end than it would hers. Big C has been away a lot for work lately and while we Skype twice daily and talk on the phone once or twice, Miss K is my companion for the most part when he's gone. Now that she's 5 the conversations are a little more grown up, but usually still revolve around school, Frozen, animals or food, but you take what you can get.

I will take the next 13 or 14 years with her and hopefully remember this conversation when she does want to move out of the house. I hope she does want to move out, but I hope she does want to come and visit us often.

All part of the process of growing up and letting them go…

Til next time, call your mom or dad or someone close to you…they'd probably be happy to hear from you

Gemini's and summer bugs

First full week of July. We just returned from a vacation to the Nord. For those of you not familiar with the Nord, we're talking off the grid, no cell phone, no TV, no radio unless you have Sirius or XM radio, that sort of thing.

I shouldn't have said no TV, because if you bring your satellite dish and place it out in the lake in about 18 inches of water, apparently you can get  reception so you can watch your "programs' in the middle of the bush. To each their own, if there is no hydro readily available, I'm not about to run a generator and drag a dish out into cold water just to watch the evening news or the latest Bachelor or whatever like folks at a neighbouring site did.

It was a peaceful week for the most part, lots of sleep, lots of boating/fishing, lots of eating, lots of relaxing, did I mention lots of sleep? Almost 11 hours straight one night…so fantastic. The bugs are not really my thing and the fact that one morning it was only 4 degrees leads me to believe that life in the "nord" will never be my thing, but it was still a great vacation.

Miss K had a wonderful time. She brought the bare minimum of toys with her, some bubbles and a soccer ball for outside stuff and had a blast. Ask her in the morning what she wanted to do and it was always go out in the boat. She didn't fish much, but she had great fun on minnow detail, and helping us reel in fish.

I grew to love her more over the week if that is possible. She is a true Gemini, twins in the same body for sure. That girl will go on and on about princesses and the movie Frozen and dress up in heels and gowns til the cows come home, or Olaf or whomever she is waiting for at her castle. Then the next day she's got her camouflage shorts on and is headed for a day in the field training the dog or playing in the mud.

She makes me so happy. She's got that feminine side but isn't afraid to get dirty. She made her dad just grin from ear to ear when she said her favourite place to shop was Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's. She requested a camouflage t-shirt as she did not have one, you can bet that it wasn't long before one of those found its way in the cart. And real camo, not the stuff with pink in it for girls.

I think she is missing her friends at school already, not even out of the classroom 2 weeks and she's talking about seeing her buddies again. Thank goodness there is quite a crew at the sitters so she can hang with some kids all week. Will have to see if we can arrange one of those play date things over the summer to get her school friend fix in.

I think I mentioned the bugs earlier, they are absolutely atrocious around our place right now. The mosquito's have multiplied to near swarm capacity. Let's put it this way, at night I still hear the high frequency "eeeeeeeeeeennnnnn" of impending mosquito attack even when safely inside the house.

The poor dog has little swollen marks all over his muzzle every day. We give him stuff to keep them off his back/body which seems to do the trick but it can't protect him from everything.

I've owned a bug jacket ever since I met Big C and there were trips to the Nord in the summer. I've used it once in about 9 years. One time. I've used it 5 times in the last week, and not one was when we were on vacation in bug country. Nope, bug country has moved south this year and I'm not liking it one bit.

I love summer. LOVE IT. But being a blood donor for multiple tiny insect strikes does not a good evening out make. It will get better, and Big C promises to break out the "fogger" on the weekend. Not sure if this will kill them or just give me time to duck and cover and make a break for the house when they're in the fog…LOL

It's still warm and I don't have to wear socks, so that makes me happy…

Til next time, swat a mosquito or two for me will ya?

Summertime and the living is easy, or something like that

June 24th, huh, where did that month go?

Never mind month, where did the school year go? Miss K is darn near done JK. One more day, one more lunch, then summer vacation. Whoo hoo! 

Whoo hoo for no more lunches, but I think our girl is going to miss school a bit. She took some time to adjust but now she's digging everything about it, so I wonder how many days into July we're going to be before she starts asking about school and when she gets to go back.

She loves our sitter and the kids there so that will help, and next week we're going on vacation too. Lots of stuff to keep her busy.

Miss K turned 5 last week. Wow. Five. Crazy stuff. She was super stoked about her birthday too. Basically after Christmas was over she began counting the days until her birthday. Not sure what it is. But she loves birthdays and celebrating them.

Yup, vacation next week, going off the grid for 5 or 6 days. Its always an adventure, we're not really roughing it since we're staying in my father in laws trailer. But there is no electricity, no cell service, no wi-fi, no nothing but the crackle of the campfire and call of the loons. It would drive some people batshit to be without their precious phone or internet or twitter or Facebook for that long, but I kind of look forward to it.

I say kind of, because I can totally dig being outside for the majority of the day, taking in nature, reading a book, going boating or whatever. It's the bugs I could do without. I'm a magnet for anything that stings/bites/devours human flesh. Not looking forward to being surrounded by bug mesh suits or smelling like DEET, but you take the good with the bad.

Not too much else new. The puppy dog is doing well, we've got more time to spend with him this year and get some more training in. Big C is always annoyed that he's not perfect or isn't doing things as quickly as he thinks he should but he's a good dog and I think in time will be spectacular overall.

To those of you who will soon be school lunch free, enjoy it, only about 71 or 72 more days and you are going to have to go through it all again

Til next time…enjoy the sun…I'm loving summer!

5 years in the making

I've had a couple posts started lately but they've never made it to the world wide web.

I'm not really even sure what they were about, or if they were of any substance or just mindless drivel, probably a mix of the two.

So, what is happening? Ehhh, not much really. Work is work, life seems to be a never ending merry go round, kind of the same all the time, but it never stops.

My kid is going to be 5 years old in a couple of weeks. Yup, the big number 5. Cannot believe it, she's grown so much and become her own little person its fantastic and scary all at the same time.

Where did my little tiny baby girl go? She's all legs, and elbows now. She still loves to curl up and snuggle which makes me happy and I hope that never changes. And she gives fantastic hugs without provocation and I hope she always wants to.

Miss K is everything a 5 year old should be. Brimming with confidence and bravado the one minute,  and the next they need you there to hold their hand.

She's a cautious kid for the most part, unsure of herself and what she can and cannot do. We are exhausted listening to her say she "can't" do something and we tell her that all we want her to do is try. Just try. You don't have to be perfect, you just have to try and ask for help if you need it.

Her current obsession is making books. She likes to take a bunch of paper fold it in half and staple the edge and then begin making a written and illustrated book about whatever comes to mind.

They're all pretty funny, we've had the "planting" book, the picnic book, my family book, the zoo book and so on. The spelling is atrocious, but in her defence, it is as the words sound for the most part, plus she is only 4 almost 5 years old

I can see that I will have a battle with some teacher down the line as to why they don't crack down on bad spelling and word usage but for now I will let the phonetic spelling slide…I say for now because adults who cannot spell or don't know the difference between "there", "their" and "they're" drive me crazy.

English is a tough language. We have a ton of words that don't get spelled the way they sound and a ton more that are homonyms. I get that its hard to teach all the kids in the class to spell words correctly and that the main goal is to get them writing and expressing their thoughts, but you have to draw a line somewhere. 

If as a kid in 2nd or 3rd grade you can't spell basic words I think we need to take a look at our educational system and stop settling for "good enough" or "well, you know what I'm trying to say", how bout we focus on getting it right for a change.

Sorry district school board, but I'm teaching my kid that there is a difference between pair, pear and pare, or hair and hare or that phone is spelled with a "ph" and not an "f" despite how it sounds. Maybe I am just siko (psycho) but there will be no excuse for poor spelling in our household.

So that is life around our parts. Gotta figure out something to do for the big 5 year old party. We didn't have much of anything last year as we were living in the in between house, maybe have something more fancy this year? And by fancy I mean have a half dozen people over for cake…lol

Better get going and get this posted, or else it will fall in the heap of things written and never quite said out loud on the internet

Til next time...

If a mom yells in your bedroom, does anybody hear?

It seems like forever since I last wrote a blog post. I know I had one started and didn't finish it for one reason or another. Life is like that in some ways, too many things started, not enough finished.

Spring has sprung here. In the form of an inch of snow on the ground this morning when we got up. I call bullshit on mother nature, she is one cruel and tricky lady. Last weekend was gorgeous for the most part especially Saturday, no jacket required if you know what I mean and 4 days later white shit floating from the sky.

Oh well, you can't control the weather. It will get better, as everyone says in about 3 weeks it will be so warm we'll all have the A/C on

We're about the same on the home front. Enjoying the new place more now that it is not under renovation and we have more of the sense that it feels like home. Hard to believe that a year ago at this time we were living under "show" conditions and were needing to keep everything clean and tidy to sell our old place. Weird how a year can just slip by almost unnoticed with a ton of changes in the process.

Miss K and I had it out last night. I couldn't take it anymore. I am so sick of the whining and complaining and crying about anything and everything that I snapped. 

I'd been doing pretty good with not yelling and keeping my temper in check and treating her outbursts with kindness and compassion, but I couldn't do it last night. I cracked and cracked big time.

We've all been getting better in the sleep department and Miss K is having much better nights so that helps us all out. So I know her being overtired was not really the issue, but she was having a night.

Big C was away on business and I picked her up from the sitter as usual. She was in a great mood chattering and talking away about her day. We had a nice chat about things on the drive and even when we got home things were still good. I got around to starting supper and that is when things started to derail.

Miss K is dramatic and emotional, and that is ok, it comes when parenting a girl I think. She is a smart, clever and quick witted child so that is why the whining bothers me so.

She's lost her glue stick, it's not anywhere, I can't find it, I can't finish my craft, on and on at a pitch only most dogs can hear. Then she didn't cut a circle out the right size, or it looked like a heart instead or something of that nature. Then there was no pink paper, and the orange paper wasn't tearing out of her book right it went on and on ad infinitum.

I don't care if she asks for help, does it get annoying? Yes. but it beats the whining and crying all to hell.

After about 20 minutes of meltdown after meltdown I told her to either stop making what she was making or figure it out herself, if you don't have something you want, figure out something else you can  use…pretty simple. She sat for a moment and had a good sulk and came back with a better attitude and made some pretty awesome "earths" for earth day.

We had a great evening and she was very helpful and pleasant over all. Getting ready for bed went smoothly and she was chatty with Big C when we called him before bed. We read some prayers from her prayer book and got her snuggled in with her stuffed friends in bed.

Then the snivelling started. I took a couple deep breaths and told her that she was going to be fine, the lights were on, under the bed was clear, she had her friends, I was downstairs, we would keep each other from being alone, as Big C was the one that was truly alone on this night etc…

Lots more time and lots more hugs and kisses and general stroking of her ego and I left. I had not hit the bottom of the stairs and the crying started.

That was the final straw, it broke this mama camel's back. I am tired of the general lack of wanting to "try" anything, it's just the automated response of "I can't" from her. You can poke, prod, cajole, encourage all you want but this is what she comes back with.

And don't start in how she needs encouragement and we should foster a sense of independence etc… I can write you a list as long as my arm at all the things she does and is brave enough to do that at almost 5 are quite impressive.

It's not a cry for attention, it's not anything I'm sure than just being almost 5, but I can't take it any more. Don't be duplicitous around me, don't get ready for the day, pack your back pack, let the dog in and get him in his crate with cookies, get your coat and shoes on and be standing at the door ready one day and tell me the next you cannot put your milk back in the fridge. I'm not buying that box of cookies from you there girl scout.

I hit the bottom of the stairs and the waterworks started, so I counted to 10 and went and let the dog outside. Sometimes the whining stops and she falls asleep, but no it was escalating. I yelled up the stairs to cut it out and it got worse. I was done, just done with all her crap. 

I yelled at her, a lot. I didn't call  her out and swear and say she was stupid or cut her down or anything, but it was loud and long. 

I told her to cut the crap basically, if there was nothing wrong and she couldn't tell us anything was wrong than stop, stop whining, stop crying, stop generally being douchey. That's all, that this carrying on was all bullshit (not using that term exactly) and there is no way that I can help you if this is what your response to everything is. I said I didn't know what else to do, that I was out of options, being nice and supportive and so on didn't seem to work so what exactly was the problem.

Of course all the yelling just made her cry harder, and she was fearful that I was going to close her door and that is a fate worse than death for her. 

I wouldn't, I'm very mindful of empty threats around her these days, but after the tears had calmed down we had a chat and agreed on a few things

I told her I would try not to yell as she said it was scary. I would not close her door in her room ever and that all crappy behaviour on her part and mine was in the past and thus done and over with and could be forgotten.

She agreed that she'd try to do what we asked, as in what she does most other nights but for some reason cannot manage to do on a consistent basis. She agreed that she would try to figure things out for herself as much as she could and understood that mom and dad were there to help but could not prevent all failures and she'd have to deal with that too.

I knew even as I was doing it that yelling was wrong. But as I told her I didn't know what else to do. We've tried the punishment route, i.e. taking things away for bad behaviour and the reward route of encouraging good behaviour but neither seem to stick no matter how long we carry them out. 

I know last night wasn't the answer, but perhaps it just shocked her enough that she gets it, that I/we really are there to help, but not to shelter her from life. She is a great kid and we tell her that often, and honestly she doesn't seem all that insecure, but the break downs about meaningless things have to stop or I'm going to the loony bin on an express bus.

She was a happy go lucky kid again this morning, and we'll see tonight how things go…maybe we're turning over a new leaf, lets hope for all our sakes its one of warmth and happiness

For now I've told her how grateful I am for her everyday and that she fills my "bucket" with lots of wonderful things and that she should be proud of all the things that she can do and is good at.

Maybe its the only child syndrome of thinking she has to be good at everything, but we can only hope for more peace and less whining at our house

Til next time…give those little people a hug in your life, lord knows they deserve it, even the whiny ones

Life is finally ordinary…for now

Rainy day in these here parts. I wish for a warm spring rain, but today alas is a "it could be snow almost" cold rain. Spring is coming but at a glacial pace. When it does arrive, it will be here for 2.4 weeks and then it will be hot hot hot for the next 5 months.

Hmmm, not much to discuss today. Miss K feeling better after the 250th ear infection she's had this school year. Yes I exaggerate, but it feels like that at least. She had the equivalent of a Denny's Big Slam breakfast yesterday, this is how I know she's feeling better. She is eating us out of house and home. I am very very afraid for the teen years!

On a sad note, Big C's sister had to put their dog down this week. He was 14. He lived a good life, the last years a bit hard on him, but a good life nonetheless. 

These furry friends are in our lives for too short a time. It brought memories of our girl flooding back, how the seizures took her from us long before her time. They all leave such big paw prints on our hearts. They ask for nothing but a little food, some clean water and a warm place to sleep, and give back love that is bigger than any human could offer.

I think our boy knew something was up the other night. Wasn't sure why we all had tears in our eyes. There wasn't huge sobs, just a melancholy feeling in the house. Our pup somehow understood, he sat close to Big C and kept an eye on him most of the night. Somehow sensing he as a fur kid could possibly ease the pain of losing a life that was considered family, even if only a canine life.

Easter is around the corner, and with it the pressure to visit every relative and family member, plus do yard work and other weekend type things. It is nearly worse than Christmas.

We have to take our taxes in to get done too. Yuck. We could do our own…I know we could and save ourselves the 100 bucks to have someone else do it…but, let me think about it for a second…that'd be a no. Can't do it, never have, probably never will. I hate that we have to do it, because in this day and age I think they have a pretty good handle on who is doing what and making what, but whatever.  I will comply with the law and have this necessary piece of evil done by the end of April.

I think that's it. Life is pretty ordinary, which is not a bad thing.

Til next time, HJ Heinz is going to merge with Kraft foods, does that mean that KD will now be sold with the ketchup already in the box? Makes you think right?