Happy Thursday!

Why yes, for once I am actually saying Happy Thursday. Today has been a fairly good day. It started out with the kids GOING TO SCHOOL! Yes, yes they did. They were actually happy about it too. I had to drive them and while I expected it to be a bit of a circus, it was actually a very smooth process. It helped that the school arranged for the RCMP to direct traffic at the intersection that leads to the school. Traffic was slow but it kept moving and there weren't any accidents because the police kept things under control.

Pick-up after school was pretty easy too, all things considered. They had assigned times for parents to come to the school and they opened up the bus lot for parent parking. Parents had to go into the school to get the kids so no kids got lost (that I know of). I won't have to do that tomorrow because our school has decided that the bus routes are clear enough for the bus to run. The kids were excited to find out they can ride the bus tomorrow. They like seeing their friends on the bus.

One of the little perks from driving the kids this morning is that I finally got to see what one of the local RCMP constables looks like. The local RCMPs have a twitter account and they share photos of the roads and traffic and any accidents they are dealing with. This morning the one constable who tweets a lot was on duty directing traffic. It's silly, but I was curious to see what he looked like because I am always seeing his tweets. He's an older gentleman and he was good at directing traffic!

Another good thing about the kids going to school today was that I was finally able to make it to my hair appointment. All my gray hairs are now hidden away. I feel young again. :-)  My stylist decided to curl my hair when it was dry. It looked cute at first but after awhile the curl started to droop and then it just stuck out kind of funny because my hair isn't quite long enough to be curled like that. I promptly dug out my flat iron and straightened it out so at least I don't look like a cat slept on my head.

This morning before my hair appointment I started making the chocolate ice skate candy favours for S's party. I got all the chocolate ones made with only a few hiccups. Today when much smoother and faster than my first attempt the other day. Tomorrow morning I have cupcakes to bake and pink ice skates to make, as well as goodie bags to stuff. There are some parents I never heard back from, so I guess I better prepare for more kids than I expect, just in case. I would hate for some kids not to get their goodie bag so tomorrow I will have to run out and grab a few more bags to fill. Oh, and get some more fake mustaches. S chose fake stick on mustaches for her goodie bags. Don't ask me!

Tomorrow is Friday, so I will be getting another clue for my Snow Queen shawl - yay! This week I finished up an infinity scarf I've been working on. I just need to sew the buttons on it...once I find them in my yarn drawer. I started a second mystery shawl. This one is called Solar Flare and the yarn I chose for it is bright but I love it:

My first thought when I ordered it was that I'd work dark to light, but when the yarn arrived and I started winding it up the yarn spoke to me and said work light to dark. So, I listened to the yarn and I cast on with the yellow/orange skein. Like I said, it's bright, but I'd like to have something bright and fun to wear. The yarn is a new kind of yarn for me - it's a blend of cotton and bamboo. I was a little unsure of the cotton because pure cotton yarn is always hard on my hands but with the blend of bamboo in there it is soft and easy on my hands. I'll grab a picture of my work so far tomorrow.

Tomorrow should be interesting weather wise. There is suppose to be some rain tonight, which could then turn to freezing rain, before it turns to snow. I'm not 100% sure the kids will have school tomorrow, but I think that as long as it's not to slippery they will be going. School has been canceled 12 days this year and I don't think anyone (including me!) wants them to miss anymore school!

I made it to Thursday!

I made it to Thursday! The kids are alive, the planning for J's birthday party Saturday night is just about done, the invitations for S's party have gone out and I'm already getting responses, laundry has been done, and C is on his way home! I am very glad that he will be home soon. It hasn't been the best week, but it hasn't been the worst week either.

Today has had it's ups and downs. J still wasn't feeling well this morning so I let him stay home again. By hockey time he was feeling better so we went to his game. Too bad I effed up the time and got him to the game after it started. I had it in my head it was a 6:20 game and it was a 5:15 game. He got changed faster than I've ever seen him and made it out to the ice about halfway through the second period (they play 12 minute periods). They ended up losing but J did have an awesome breakaway that almost got them a goal. Tomorrow he has another game. We will be there early for that game! Yeah, total Mommy fail on hockey today.

S went to school, had a good time, and came home tired. She had fun running around playing with another girl at the rink but managed to bang her knee. It was totally fine until it was time to sleep. She's been up out of bed at least 6 times now. My patience with her is wearing very thin. Hopefully she's gotten up for the last time. She has a busy day at school tomorrow so she needs to sleep.

The weather was crazy today. One minute it would be snowing with almost total white-out conditions and then 5 minutes later it would be sunny. The weather on the island does that a lot. And then to add to the joy that is Thursday, Environment Canada announced that there is the potential for a snow storm on Sunday. They aren't saying how much yet, but I've heard the number 30 and the word centimeters thrown around by some people. I do not like those people right now. And someone mentioned something about Wednesday but that is too far away for me to worry about snow. One storm at a time, please!

Tomorrow is Friday and that means my next clue for my Snow Queen shawl comes out. I totally missed on the last clue that I was suppose to start transitioning to my new colour. I checked with the designers and they said I would be fine doing the transition on Clue 4, so I have some yarn to wind tomorrow. I probably won't get to work on it much until Sunday since Friday is S's birthday and we have a hockey game, and Saturday is J's party at a hockey game.

I'm working on another knitting project right now but I'm thinking it isn't going to turn out the size it's suppose to. I used my yarn that is a blend of alpaca, merino, and musk ox yarn to make a cowl but it's turning out smaller than it should. Perhaps I should checked by gauge! Oh well, if it doesn't fit it can either be a present for S or I can frog it (that means rip it out to non-knitters. Rip it, rip it = ribbit  = frog) and use the yarn for another project. If I do frog it the yarn will sit for a while because I'm dying to start on the Hobbit scarf, although winding up 1500 yards of yarn doesn't sound fun. I will break out the electric winder for that!

All is quiet from the kids rooms, so I think they have finally gone to sleep. I am going to sit, enjoy my last peanut butter cup, watch some mindless TV, and do some knitting. Tomorrow is Friday and it will be a good day!

Doctors, and Dentists, and Thursdays, Oh My!

S had another rough night with lots of coughing and getting up twice. We decided this morning that it would be best for her to go to the doctor to make sure she didn't have a sinus or respiratory infection. Thankfully she doesn't. The doctor did swab her throat for strep but I expect it to come back negative. Neither one of my kids has ever had strep and they have both been exposed to it. In fact, I can't remember the last time I've had strep (if ever) and I know I have been exposed many times - by the same child. When I used to teach I had one student who would do two weeks of antibiotics for strep, be fine for a day or two, and then wham! come down with strep again. That kept happening for a three month period. I felt so bad for that kid! And yes, they finally found the right antibiotic to get rid of it. So if I was going to get strep, I would have gotten it then. I think my kids are very lucky and resistant to strep. We'll get the results of her throat swab by Saturday morning.

After coming back from the doctor I had a short break before it was time for me to head off to the dentist. C was able to watch S for me so I could go. Yay? I could have rescheduled the appointment but I decided it would be better to just get it over with. So I went and it wasn't as bad as I expected.

They did an incredibly thorough exam - they checked facial muscles, my thyroid, how my jaw opens/closes, and did a visual mouth cancer screening in addition to checking the health of my gums and my teeth. The dentist only found one major problem area - that effing tooth that's had two root canals on it. Apparently the tooth under the crown has broken. He said he had never seen anything like that before. Since there are no nerves left in that tooth, I haven't had any pain from it so I never knew anything was wrong with it.

Between a visual inspection and the x-rays, he decided that there is no way to save the tooth so it's going to come out. Honestly, I've had so many problems with that tooth that I will not miss it. Yeah, I'll be short a tooth but you know what? I'd rather it be gone than causing harm in my mouth. He said I've lost some bone where the tooth has broken and by taking it out it will stop any problems spreading to the tooth in front of it. There are some gum issues related to the tooth but hopefully those will get better once that tooth is gone, gone, gone!

The other thing he noticed is that my bite is effed up - I only use my 8 back molars when I chew instead of all my molars. The ones that aren't crowned are quite worn while the premolars look like practically brand-new teeth. He said that's probably what led to me breaking the tooth under the crown. He's recommended a mouth guard at night to protect my remaining molars from any teeth grinding I may do while I sleep. I doubt there's a way to change my bite easily, so I'll wear the mouth guard and know that probably one day I will have more crowns on those teeth back there.

So now I have a bunch of appointments for April - the extraction, having a couple of fillings redone because they are showing some wear, a cleaning and then a follow-up to the cleaning to make sure problem areas are getting better. I'm sure there will be an appointment for fitting the mouth guard too. Dental fun for me!

All in all, it could have been worse. It is Thursday after all. The dentist said that except for that stupid tooth everything looks pretty good for not having been to the dentist since before we moved. Yeah, yeah, I know. But the staff at the dental office was wonderful and didn't lecture me about anything. They just made me feel like they wanted to do what they can to help me have a healthy mouth. I walked out of there feeling good about how things went, which didn't happen often at the dentist I went to in Virginia.

Today is Thursday, which means tomorrow is Friday. And Fridays mean a new clue for my mystery Snow Queen shawl. I have been waiting all week for the next clue. I have other projects I've been working on but I am enjoying the Snow Queen pattern so much that it's hard to wait for the next clue. If I was hardcore (I'm not btw) I would stay up until midnight and get the clue then. I can wait until I get come from the kids' teacher conferences tomorrow to print it out and get started. But I am definitely looking forward to tomorrow!

Oh, it's Thursday again...

It is S's bedtime and I realized that I hadn't had a chance to sit down at the computer today. Looking back at today, I realized that it was actually a rather busy day. And all in all, for a Thursday it wasn't that bad.

We started out the day by taking C to work since his car and deep snow don't really go together. I will admit I was grumpy doing it (I already apologized) because I am still sick and even though I have to get up at the crack of dawn when the kids have school, I'm not really a morning person. But we got him to work on time and I didn't get stuck in a snow drift, which would have made the day not fun.

I then got to ship J off to his friend's house for the whole morning. It was nice - almost like he was back in school. While he was gone S and I made a delivery of brownies to the hockey rink. There's a tournament this weekend and they asked parents to provide food for the hospitality room. There were some other brownies already there when we dropped ours off and I have to say, mine looked better. They were big (2"x 2") and had chocolate chunks in them. You'd choose those over tiny 1"x 1"brownies, wouldn't you? And the road to and from the rink wasn't bad, so driving wasn't as stressful as it could have been.

After the rink S and I headed to the library. She was really excited to go to the public library. Because the kids haven't been in school for a week, she's missed her library day. And when they do go to the library, they can only check out one book at a time. At the public library, I usually let her check out a whole bag of books. I hadn't taken a bag with me today because I thought we'd just be picking up the two books she wanted but she talked me into a few more (which isn't hard to do).

I love public libraries. Right now, S has been enjoying the Rainbow Fairy books by Daisy Meadows (if that's her real name, then I am Ms. America!). I read a few chapters to her each night I put her to bed. I have been borrowing the books from the library instead of buying them. I'm sure S would love to have her own set of them, but at $5 a book times 7 books, that's a lot of money, especially when we can get them from the library for free. When she's older and can read the books by herself, then maybe I'll get them but for now, the library is the way to go.

After the library we came home and S worked on building her Elsa Lego castle. She is building the whole thing by herself. I basically just sit there and help her snap the occasional stubborn piece together. I'll check every now and then to make sure that she's got things in the right place and she usually does. At almost 6 years old, she's got a fantastic eye when it comes to building things. I think this is the biggest set she's built, so it's taking her a while. We should finish it tomorrow.

After Lego time, J came home. They played video games for a bit while I kind of snoozed on the sofa. I'm still sick so any rest time I can get helps me be a better mommy. When they started bickering too much it was outside time. Today was actually sunny and almost warm (compared to what it's been). The kids had fun playing with their friends, both outside for a while and then inside. J was awesome and helped my friend by cleaning her kids' playroom. I had a good time hanging out with my friend, helping to save her sanity since her husband has been away all week.

Then it was time to go back downtown to pick up C from work and also pick up a Starbucks for my friend. She wanted Starbucks badly but getting two young kids downtown when there's a parking ban is tough and C works near there so he picked one up for her. That's what friends are for, right?

And now? Now it's snowing. Again. And school has already been canceled for tomorrow. Again. J is suppose to have hockey tomorrow morning at 6:15 am. We shall see if that still happens. We're only expecting 5-15 cm, which is nothing when you compare it to the 80 cm we got earlier this week. But still, it may be enough to cancel practice. At least I don't have to take him, which is good because as I said, I'm not a morning person. :-)

This was my Thursday

Ah, it's Thursday again. I had a very hard time getting up this morning. The snow plow woke me up at like 5:15. It had been flurrying when we went to bed last night and I guess there was enough snow to require a snow plow. Thanks! I was able to get back to sleep but that made getting up at 6:15 even harder. But I did manage to drag myself out of bed and get the kids ready for school. Once they were out the door I settled down on the sofa with my tea and the TV remote. Yup, I had already decided that it was going to be a lazy morning.

I located Les Mis on one of the movie channels and pulled out my knitting. I got the gauge information for my mystery shawl and had begun working on the swatch yesterday. I had planned to finish it last night but I was tired and tired me + lace = disaster. So, I set it aside until this morning. I finished it and it's now blocking. I can't wait until the first clue comes out on Feb 20 so I can get started. The yarn is a blend of merino wool and silk and it's lovely to work with.

After I was finished being lazy I did some errands around town and then met the hubby downtown for lunch. I somehow managed to score a parking meter down on the main strip. Someone must have just left when I got there. And there were 55 minutes left on the meter, so that was nice! With all the snow we've had lately parking was a disaster for quite a while, so getting a meter space that was fairly free of snow was like hitting the parking space lottery.

We went to a restaurant that specializes in cooking with local ingredients and supporting local farmers. We like going here for lunch because it's a place we don't get to go very often. S is a picky eater and they really don't have anything on the menu she would eat. Example - they had wild rabbit stew on the menu. I will admit, I was tempted to order it because I have never tried rabbit before. But it was a dinner entree and I was afraid it would be too much for lunch. Maybe I'll have to try to arrange for a babysitter so we can go for a dinner date.

I ended up having a grilled cheese sandwich. And this wasn't just any old grilled cheese made with plain white bread and American cheese slices. This was made with fresh baked multi-grain bread, cheddar and mozzarella cheese, cherry tomatoes, and a smoked pork product that they didn't call bacon but it tasted like bacon. It was delicious! The restaurant serves salads with their sandwiches instead of fries, which made lunch the perfect size. The hubby got potato and leek soup and then a PLT - panchetta, lettuce, and cheese. He said his was really good too.

I just have to add that as I was driving home from lunch I saw about 10 seals just chillaxing on the ice by the bridge that goes over the river/harbour. There's a section of the river that hasn't frozen this year and the seals had obviously popped up in that area and decided to take a break on the ice. I will admit I squealed like a little kid when I saw them because seals are cool and we don't see them there very often. It's sunny and warmer today than it has been (-7C instead of like -15C) so I guess they wanted to enjoy the nice weather too.

Now I'm back home, enjoying the quiet of the house before the kids get home from school. Thursdays are actually nice in the afternoons because we usually don't have anything on the schedule. We can just finish up any unfinished homework and then the kids can go play with friends until suppertime. I'm sure J will be asking to play video games and S will be asking to go play at her friend's house. So I may actually get some afternoon writing time. I should be able to get some writing done tomorrow because the potential snow storm has been downgraded to 2 cms of snow, so the kids will be going to school. Sunday is another story - they are saying blizzard. Joy! We'll see how that turns out. Welcome to February in Canada!

Ah Thursday

"It must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays." - Arthur Dent, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

That's how I often feel on Thursdays. I can totally sympathize with Arthur Dent and how he feels about Thursdays. It's such a blah day of the week. When you look at all the days, Thursday comes out last on the list. Don't believe me? Let's see:

Friday - the last day of the work week for a lot people, which is good

Saturday - weekend - woohoo!

Sunday - still weekend, although not as good as Saturday because well, tomorrow is Monday

Monday - some people would say this is the worst day of the week, but as a SAHM, Mondays are nice. The kids are off to school so there is a break from all of the crazy weekend activities. Although Mondays are a bit crazy since J's hockey practice at the same time S's soccer practice starts but we have a system down now so it's all good.

Tuesday - an okay day. By Tuesday people are getting back into their work groove, kids are in their school groove, and I'm in my SAHM groove of doing laundry.

Wednesday - The middle of the week. We made it this far and the end of the week is only two days away. But before we can get to Friday we have to get to...

Thursday (dun-dun-dunnnnnn) - That's where we are today. By Thursday I'm tired of getting up at 6:15 every morning to get the kids ready for school. I have to pack two lunches on Thursdays instead of one since neither child buys a lunch that day. I usually have to go to the grocery store on Thursdays to get ready for the weekend.By Thursday I'm tired of cooking but not feeling like going out to eat either (we're ordering pizza tonight). Last Thursday I found out that all the Targets in Canada are closing, which sucked (Target was like a little piece of the DC area up here for me and I love shopping there). I made a cup of tea to drink while I sulked and promptly spilled it down the front of my shirt. Luckily the stain came out but it still made me grumpy. I even think it was a Thursday when I broke my toe last year (okay, it probably wasn't but I can blame it on Thursday).

My kids and hubby have just about gotten over their colds. I can tell my body has been fighting getting sick for the last few weeks. I woke up today, a Thursday, and could feel the pressure building in my ears and head, which triggered my vertigo problems. So I've been quite dizzy today. On a Thursday. See what I mean?

I had planned to do more writing today but with my head feeling like someone is squeezing it while I'm on a tilt-a-whirl, I decided to just rest and wait for Friday. Friday is a much better day of the week. I'm sure Arthur Dent would agree with me. :-)