Blog Archive

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

The best plotted evil plans ...

... Yeah, Christmas started at 2am this morning on account of pee. A wet the bed and discovered his stocking so then he was up. Him in the living room woke M, who had also wet the bed(because I had forgotten to put a Goodnight on her). After stockings beds needed to be changed and by then K was up so we figured we'd just go with it and started on the presents.

Present opening and movie watching commenced as planned and we got down to the last 3 gifts each by about 7am when everyone finally took a nap. Everyone but J who thought he should guard the presents that were left. in case M got up. We didn't totally finish with gifts until about 11am, which is cool.

I'm worn out ... want to nap, lay down, can't nap ... I'll have to try again in a little bit. Then I'll have to give J a turn since he didn't get any nap at all this morning. I'm also too tired to go into who got what - My gifts included some cool new spice jars, a sewing machine, a new watch band, $40 in iTunes cards, a new lamp table combo for the living room and chocolate(yum!). The kids got toys and other stuff. For J I got a coffeemaker, a new clock radio and a new MP3 player. Everyone is happy with the gifts they got ... I want more sleep.

Merry Christmas!

Cass :)

Monday, December 24, 2007

'Twas The Night Before Christmas ...

...When all thru the house not a creature was stirring not even the diabolically intelligent mouse ... the monkeys were tucked all snug in their beds while visions of gifts dance in their heads ... me in the basement and J in the kitchen I settled in for a long evening Sim ...

Okay so it doesn't rhyme but 'tis close to the truth. The kids are settled and J is setting up his baked beans(they'll cook all night). I'm not going to Sim though, I'm tired and want to go to bed - I have 4 gifts to open tomorrow and after moving them upstairs and having a preliminary shake of them I have no idea what they are(although one may be a sewing machine...I'd like that, no really I would!). J knows I like to try to guess my gifts just before I open them so he sabotages at least one of them so I'll never guess in a million years what it is. One year he put cat bell balls in my gift and I couldn't figure out for the life of me what it was!

We do have a very smart mouse in the house right now, he keeps jumping out of the kitchen garbage at us ... we almost caught him today but he ran away before I grabbed him. He is totally ignoring the mousetrap. I'm thinking of getting this to trap him and then I'll carry him off somewhere and he can feed a stray cat or something. All our cat does is lurk in the kitchen looking foolish.

The kids were happy with their traditional Christmas Eve gift of new pajamas even though A was grumbling about it earlier today. K's has the grumpy Care Bear on it and it says "Seriously Grumpy" she thought it was very funny! A got skateboard pajamas with camouflage shorts and M got a set that says "Pretty Ballerina" on them. We got them many other gifts as well ... well not many many. A & M each have 7 gifts each and K has 6(she's harder to buy for), I have 4 and J has 3.

I will attempt to drag out gift opening as much as I can, as usual, and the first gift the kids will get are their stockings on their beds. Then I'll have A&M open their most boring gifts first - new sheets and a new blanket each. Then I'll have K open the gift to the three of them - the Shrek 3 movie. We'll all watch the movie before we open any more gifts. I'm sure you'll hear the kids screaming from where you all are :) I figure with a gift every 1/2 hour or so after that I'll be able to drag out gift opening for about 5 hours :) So far this plan has served me well every other year. Open a gift, explore the gift, repeat. We don't' give the kids tons of stuff but other than the bedding it's all pretty great stuff ... at least J & I hope they will think so.

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from my family to yours.

Cass :)

Friday, December 21, 2007

Snow! There goes the neighbourhood. and Now I've seen everything!

I had a few thought today - yeah hard to catch the little buggers bouncing around in my skull don't'cha know :)

Figured it was past time for an update - First of all we got a huge amount of snow last Sunday...about 2 feet of it. I was going to take some pictures of our snowbound street but then didn't. I was going to get K to take shots of me in my full(and very ugly) winter coat but then didn't. There's lots of time this winter to take shots like that ... although I saw on the weather forecast they are calling for rain the next couple days which will do one or both of two things: 1 - melt all the snow, 2 - turn into a massive sheet of ice and make anyone moving around on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day miserable or both 1 & 2. None of that will effect me because as of J getting home from work we only have one outing planned for tomorrow(swimming) and then J & I will happily stay in the house for the next 3-5 days. The kids might want to go outside though.

So just four sleeps until the Day; I am excited to see how the kids react to their presents and interested to see what J got me(I have 4 gifts). I also hope J likes the 3 gifts I got him.

There goes the neighbourhood: I noticed that there is going to be a used car dealer setting up camp less than a block from my house /sigh/ why me?

Now I've seen everything!: Apparently the Spice Girls are singing together again /gasp/. Okay this may be old news to a lot of you but I live in self imposed darkness under a rock so I had no idea until I saw a bit of a new video of them on MuchMoreMusic. I was surprised to say the least ...


Blast from the past:

Saturday, December 15, 2007

MMmmmmm Turkey!

We have had our turkey dinner! My Mom has to work Christmas day so we decided to have our turkey dinner today with her since she is in town and not on Christmas day(when we will have leftover turkey and ham instead).

Overall it has been a lovely day, we had family swim and the kids had swim lessons, I came home and took a nap, I had a lovely visit with my Mom who took me to the dollar store and bought us all a number of things as our gifts(she brought gifts as well which we all opened). I picked dishes - a nice new set of plates and bowls. I am very happy.

Then Mom and I went and she spent the money J and I gave her on new clothes, which was very nice and I'm glad she liked her gift.

We then spent the evening visiting and having a lovely time and although supper was late(7pm rather than 6pm since the turkey took longer than expected to cook) it was delicious as usual(J is excellent in the kitchen). All together it was the perfect way to spend a Saturday.

Thanks Mom!!

Cass :)

Thursday, December 13, 2007

A surprise visit on a busy night ...

Yesterday evening was very busy for me, it was Christmas Concert night at my kids' school and my two younger ones were both performing and were excite about it so I went. The crazy thing was that the two kids performed over an hour apart. M was up first and had to be at the school for 5:15pm to go on at 5:30pm ... I wasn't supposed to go get her from her classroom until 6pm but as soon as she was off the stage I took off with her. A was to be at the school for 6:45pm to go on sometime between 6:30 and 7pm - A always ends up going last so I end up sitting through all the performances ... kind of my penance for ducking out early on the little kids earlier one.

So I was sitting around in the living room hoping J would be home by 5pm so he could drive me to the school for M's performance and I wouldn't have to walk it(again for the 4th time that day: I walk the kids to school and I go pick them up at lunchtime and yesterday was Craft Club for A so I had to walk a third time). I heard the door and shouted back to the back door "Is that you honey?" and my Mom's voice answered "No it's your Mother." I was so happy!! Her timing was perfect to show up on Concert night with her car :) Of course I was happy to see her as well!

We had a lovely visit, took M to her performance came back home and had supper(which I had cooked and ready very early so it was just serve and eat) then went back for A's performance. K opted to stay at the school after M's performance and M had to be placated with making cookies with Daddy when Mom and I took A to his but overall the evening was very pleasant! Mom is going to be back on the weekend to have a more Christmassy visit since she has to work on Christmas day.

So I just want everyone to know what a great Mom I have ... she has exquisite timing!! Only her showing up made my evening as nice as it could be considering how much I dislike having my routine messed with.

K took some pictures and some video of the performance I'll post them later because M is up(and it's 6am here) and needs to be settled in her spot on the couch:)

Cass :)

Thursday, December 06, 2007

What this I'm feeling ... ?

Ah ha! I have found a glimmer of Christmas Spirit in my heart at long last! I tend to have to drag myself kicking and screaming into December. The kids beg me to put up the tree but I always refuse until December. This year the turning point was going Christmas Shopping(although finally getting my period after a week of hellish PMS may have had something to do with it as well) for presents for J with a good friend.

Today I also took the plunge and wrapped the gifts we have in the house and put them up on the TV stand with the tree ... I'm sure we have a shot in my Blog from last year let me check. Ah here it is! That's our tree from last year. The tree itself is always the same but I think we have more gifts this year. I'll post a picture later this month.

Of course let's not forget that it was almost a year ago that Sammy, our old dog passed away ... /sniffle/ which still makes me sad. Just the other day I stopped by someone's house that had a black lab that so deeply reminded me of Sammy that I just stood there crying and petting their dog. I excused myself ahead of time explaining that we had lost our dog and it still makes me sad(yes, I'm crying now in fact /sigh/).

Anyway it is meant to be a happy time of the year and although I still miss him I know he had a good life and a very long life.

Now I must brace myself for tomorrow. A has a doctor appointment and we're going to have to take 3 buses to get there! His appointment is for 10:50 am and we will have to leave the house at about 8:45am to get there in time(leaving us a little wiggle room just in case we miss a connection). I hope all the buses meet up correctly!! Yeah ... I'm sure it will be loads of fun ... not!

Cass :)

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

No words...

I'll freely admit the main reason I haven't been posting here is because I don't have much good to say. Oh, everyone is fine and our Christmas shopping is going well and I think the kids will like their gifts.

I on the other hand have not been fine. I fell behind in the housework(although the menuing is still going well) and have only just today got back to where I feel like I have my feet under me again. The laundry is under control and the house looks reasonable(although I know there are still hidden and not so hidden treasure troves of dirt). The cat is now completely switched to a new litter that is compostable and I can now flush his poo instead of throwing it in the trash(this oddly makes me very happy).

My mood this past week has been horrendous ... PMS and many other things I have no doubt. I have yelled at the kids and felt like an utter failure as a Mom and cried and yelled some more. I feel better today but I think I'll be getting my period very soon now so that helps. All in all the last 3 days have been very hard for me. As all of you know from reading my blog my temper is an issue(or I feel it is). I'm lucky to have a very understanding and long suffering man and my kids aren't near as bad as I feel they are sometimes. /sigh/ I don't know, I'm just having a hard time and it doesn't make any sense. Things are good right now, we have a budget and a plan, the house is reasonable and the kids are ... well, kids. I mean what do I expect? So things are good but I feel rotten. I'm hoping this time it was just PMS and I'll be able to shake the mood I've been in. I do feel better today(for all that I'm sniveling at the keyboard) and that is always a good sign.

I guess I'm posting this to let everyone know why I haven't been posting. I don't really want sympathy(because I don't feel I deserve or need it) I just wanted to explain.

Cass.

Friday, November 23, 2007

At long last an update!

Halloween and birthdays, Oh my! :) Sorry for the long interval in updates. I've been spending a lot of my time doing this: ... and yes my camera lens needs cleaning. I have slipped a little with my cleaning, I'll admit it. I'll get it back on track soon, I hope.

Halloween went well and the candy has been all gone for about a week now.K is dressed up although as what is anyone's best guest really. The dress K is wearing was from an old vampire costume of hers from years ago. It must have been miles too big for her at the time! M is a princess(of course) what you can't see are her red rubber boots under the dress /lol/. I left the red eye in ... she is also wearing a plastic skull ring. A went as the Grim Reaper and still has his costume set up in a corner of his room.The mask was way big and he found it hot. Next year I'll switch back to make-up.

Birthdays

K turns 12K got $50 from us as a gift and a new fancy 8Gig iPod Nano from her father. Just this past long weekend(last Friday was a PA day) she spent the night at a hotel with her Grandma and then went out to dinner and a movie with her Grandma and her best friend big M.

As you already know I am 36 this year. I got a toilet seat and the latest Stuff Pack for the Sims2 for my birthday. I didn't make myself a cake, I baked a bunch of chocolate chip cookies instead. Then I ate too many of them and felt icky for a few days after my birthday.

M is 4 this year.She got a FurReal Friends kitten and the Barbie as the Island Princess movie, she also got Money from her Grandma&Grandpa H(J's parents)with it she bought herself a pink poodle stuffy and a Fairytopia Barbie.

Everyone is well and we can now get onto our Christmas shopping. We have some things bought for the kids but need to go out a few more weekends to get the rest. Then we have the tricky part of buying for each other. Winter is here now with snow on the ground and cold in the air. I'm not sure if I'm happy about that or not. I'm currently in the process of crocheting a new throw for the living room there never seems to be enough lap blankets in there! K has also decided to learn how to crochet and is trying to make a scarf for M ... it is very interesting looking.

I think that's it ... no more news. We are still menuing and the budget is still working well for us. Our weekly grocery bill is still sitting at about $150 I can't seem to get it any lower than that so I guess I'm happy. I figured it out and it only costs us about $21.50 per day to feed our family of 5. We would spend more than that on just one meal at McDonald's! I'm pretty darn proud of us.

Cass :)

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

What a toilet!!

I just had to share this with everyone because it is so very cool and just blows my mind!

This is the coolest toilet, EVAR!

Very Cool Toilet

The draw back? The over $3000 price tag!!

In action Video.

/gapes in awe/

/feels silly/

/drools/

Cass :)

PS : This Sink is perfect! Oh and I like This Toilet.

/grin/ AND I got my birthday present early :) I asked for a new toilet seat and since the lid(not seat just lid) of our old seat came off on the weekend J took pity on me and bought me the seat I wanted Here it is! I really like it and installed it before I did anything else.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Let's all do the time warp!

Yup last night was "fall back" an hour and I am still feeling the effects(not to mention the fallout of laundry from taking it easy for a few days). I now have small mountains of laundry in all the rooms and M wet my bed this afternoon during her nap so that is a mountain of bedding all on it's own. I am going to have to chain myself to the laundry machines tomorrow to get it all done! Thankfully the laundry machines are right next to the computer machine :) So it's not all bad!

Hopefully this is only a small step back in my cleaning routines. The kitchen has been clean every night so not all is lost ... I've just stumbled a bit on the laundry.

Still to do is post Halloween and K's birthday cake pictures(today is her 12th birthday). She had a friend over last night and all day today, which was nice but still draining having an extra child in the house.

Okay, I'm wiped ... Beam me up Scotty ... set course to the bed at impulse speed, Cass out.

Cass :)

Friday, November 02, 2007

Over a month of clean!

Just wanted to make a quick post(although I know I should be posting Halloween shots of the kids ... I'll get to it) to celebrate over a month of a clean(ish) house. Yay me! Also I think we are on something like almost 2 months of menuing and keeping the grocery budget down.

The van has been repaired and only a tiny bit over what we had budgeted for it but what a song and dance before it was done! Let me tell you the whole sorry tale!

Saturday J took the van in, he had dropped a new battery in it last week so we could start it again so that was okay. He took the van to the rad shop and later came home to tell me that the rad guys had found a problem when they had replaced the rad: The tranny lines were rotten and needed to be replaced and the tranny shop wasn't open until Monday. He called in and booked Monday off work figuring that he would be able to drive himself into work on Tuesday. Nope.

Monday he got the call from the tranny guy saying that he had one line in stock for our van but had to order the other one and the van wouldn't be ready until Tuesday. So J had to carpool again to work, he's really sick of carpooling and had hoped to have his independence back sooner but what choice do you have, right?

Tuesday he got dropped off at the tranny shop and subsequently sent over to the Rad shop where they were testing the rad to make sure everything was good(because they couldn't do that on Saturday because of the rotten tranny lines). Everything was not good - no van for J - the oil line that runs thru the rad was leaking and needed to be replaced. So J got a lift home from the rad guy with the assurance that the van would be ready Wednesday. We had to let the kids know that the pumpkins and Halloween candy was still in the van and we would carve them on Halloween day before supper ... they were understanding(thank goodness) and J was frustrated knowing he would have to carpool again the next day.

Yes J got the van back on Wednesday and drove himself to work on Thursday, then to the dentist for a routine cleaning and then to the grocery store. He is a happy camper. Tonight I will have him drive us to the nearest flu shot clinic and tomorrow we will have family day again(the pool is finally done!). A shortened version of it because I don't feel we can afford to eat lunch there every Saturday ... so just family swim and swimming lessons. M is very excited to start swimming lessons :)

I'll let you all know how that goes and get those shots of the kids in their costumes up:)

Cass :)

Thursday, October 25, 2007

I don't wanna!

I get the "Don't Wannas" as I call them quite often which is when I start sliding down the slippery slope into the corner mountains of laundry and the messy house problems. I had an attack of the Don't Wannas tonight; the kitchen was messy and the back room was messy and I had to put the kids to bed/sigh/. I sometimes get overwhelmed easily and this was one of those times. By the time 8:30pm rolls around I've been up for 15 1/2 hours, have cooked and cleaned up after 4 meals(2 breakfasts and lunch and supper - although I do get help from J with supper cleanup), done a good amount of chores and walked to the school and back twice. I know that a lot of people work harder than I do, I understand that but at the end of the day I really really don't want to do my final kitchen clean up and house tidy. I really really didn't want to do it today. I did though. The kitchen is clean and the house is tidied. I didn't get a whole lot done today with housework(I'll have to do something like 4 loads of laundry tomorrow) because today was grocery/menu day and that always seems to suck up a huge amount of my time.

For those of you that may ask here is my menu for the next 7 days:This week I seem to be cooking mostly out of my Company's Coming cook books which is what all those "CC--" things are about. J suggested a lot of the suppers this week so it wasn't as hard as it could have been. He spent $190 at the store this week and before you fall out of your computer chairs he did tell me that the extras he bought(for Halloween) made up the difference from the $150 that was actually on MY list. We also got things this week that are infrequent buys like dishwasher soap and baking powder and baking soda. I didn't like hearing $190 but we do have the money to cover it this week due to my amazing saving up for the van repair going over what we actually needed to repair the van(hopefully! /knocks wood/). J will get it fixed this weekend and be back to driving himself next week(which has the unfortunate side effect of upping our gas expenses which are halved when he is carpooling).

We both feel money wise we are doing well; Not making new debt and living within our means. Yay us!

I feel I did very well tonight; Doing my housework even when I Didn't Wanna. Yay me!

Cass :)

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

3 Week celebration!

Okay I'll admit to not doing fantastic so far this week but the laundry is done and the house looks more than reasonable. I cleaned the oven yesterday and the other day I cleaned the toaster. There was over a cup of crumbs in it!!

Today was gloomy and rainy and I looked around and figured that everything looked good enough and I needed a day of a lighter workload. I am completing my usual routines though so the house and laundry are under control.

Go me!!

Monday, October 22, 2007

Part two of: The misbehaving keyboard and my adventures in transit land.

First the good news: I have a new keyboard of course it will be up to you all to decide if what I had to go thru today was worth the getting of said keyboard.

My day has been dysfunctional right from the start. Today's breakfast was French toast but I forgot to spray the pan before I cooked J and I's so ours turned out badly but still tasted good. I don't like it when my cooking turns out badly though so it didn't bode well for my day. The kids' breakfast turned out better but before then I had to deal with a poopy M and change her bed ... she had accidentally pooped in her Goodnights while she slept.

My morning then reverted to smooth sailing for a while and I got the kids to school okay although same jerk had smashed glass in all sorts of places around the school as well as on the way to the school and there was something that very much resembled puke on the sidewalk near the school as well, Ewww!

Once I got back home I chatted on the phone with another local stay at home mom and worked on cleaning up some stuff I had boiled over on the stove. One thing led to another with the stove and I ended up spraying the oven with oven cleaner while I was at it(which I still have to wipe out/sigh/). That pretty much sucked up my entire morning. I made lunch for the kids and then went to get them.

M was very obstinate and not moving at all so I sent K & A ahead so they could eat their lunch before they had to go back to school. M was very difficult to get home and I was not pleased with her but we finally got back and ate lunch. As a side note we didn't turn on the TV while we ate lunch and actually talked, it was very nice! Soon it was time for K & A to go back to school so they did and 10 minutes later M and I were out the door to go grab the first bus keyboard in tow.

Our first bus was late so we missed the connecting bus and had to wait a half hour for it. When we got off the connecting bus the doors shut before M could get off the bus which scared me to brief tears but M was fine...the bus driver was kind enough to come out and check on us as well so I managed to fight back my tears until the bus left. I could just see in my mind the bus pulling away from me with M still in it /shudder/. I needed a break after that so we stopped off at a coffee shop for a snack and a drink(M got a snack and a drink I just got a pop). We hit a bathroom(because I didn't want a repeat of last trip) and then walked over to the computer store. We had been away from home for 1 hour. I would like to state now that it is probably about 10km from my house to the computer store. It took me an hour to get there.

At first it didn't look like they were going to exchange the keyboard but then the guy(who probably didn't want to deal with a whiny lady and her whiny 4 year old) came thru but had to do a straight exchange luckily for me they didn't have the same model in and so I ended up with a slightly older model that will hopefully stand up better. If not then I will just swap keyboards with A & M's computer since they never type anyway so a malfunctioning keyboard won't bother them!

I got out of the computer store just in time to catch the bus to my local mall and when we got there I opted to go in and have some ice cream and use the bathroom. We then had to wait for the bus longer than usual since someone must have thrown up on the bus so they had to clean it first./sigh/

On the way home I decided to get out near a quieter route home and there is a park right there and M wanted to play for a little while so I said we could stay for 15 minutes. 5 minutes in she announced that she had to poo(Why is it always poo with me?!?!) so we went behind a tree but some had ended up in her pants anyway. I had some paper towel in my stroller so I stuck some between her and the poo in her pants and cleaner her up the best I could but she still screamed when I told her we had to come home.

The walk home was quiet and M fell asleep(which I knew she would) and is still sleeping. The new keyboard works fine and I am happy enough(even though it has a red back light yuck) it has silver faced keys so there isn't a lot of glare in bright light and I'll just keep the back light turned off. I'm happy but now I have to go make supper! I will share menus another day Vixn but mostly I just paw thru my cookbooks until I find something I think would be interesting to make :)

Later!

Cass :)

Sunday, October 21, 2007

The misbehaving keyboard and my adventures in transit land.

Let me start with a sad tale ... okay it's not sad merely mildly frustrating for me and probably rather dull for you but this is my Blog so; Neener neener :)

Now as most of you who read my Blog know I got a lovely new computer from my mother several months ago(Thanks Mom! I love the new shiny computer!). Well two weeks ago I noticed there was an issue with the keyboard not giving me letters(specifically the letter l)when I hit the key. So I took it into the computer store where we got the system. However I came home with the same malfunctioning keyboard because I couldn't reproduce the error while I was at the store. I thought maybe it had just been dirty and the crumb that had been causing the trouble had fallen out in transit so I gave the keyboard a good vacuuming and hoped for the best.

I noticed however that the keyboard was still messing up and since I typo badly enough as it is with no hep at all and a fully functioning keyboard I was very displeased. I persevered and finally discovered what the problem was; If I didn't hit the keys right on I got no letter. Not on all the keys but on a few if I hit them in the top corner or a little off the center at all I got no letter. I thought "Finally I can prove to them I'm not nuts and they can give me a less fancy keyboard that types when I hit the darn key anywhere!". So I waited patiently for my wonderful friend L to have her car again and she took my back today, two weeks to the day from when I took it in the first time.

After doing a quick search on the website of the computer store I discovered that the keyboard I had that came with my system was actually retailing for $70. I thought "Surely they'll be more than happy to give me a less expensive keyboard!" L took me in and surprisingly I got the same tech as two weeks ago who actually remembered me(probably as that crazy lady with the not broken keyboard). This time I explained exactly what the issue was and he saw for himself what the issue was and that sometimes even when you hit the l key right on you get nothing(darn cursed l key). I said "This is not good." he gave me a line about how it's a gaming keyboard and that it has only one pin under the key so I have to hit the keys squarely or I'll get nothing. Fine. I replied "Yes that's all well and good but it doesn't work for the way I type and that is a problem! I'm not asking for the same keyboard again, I'll be happy with that $25 over there, lets just get this done." Oh no he had to talk to his manager and he was unhappy that I didn't have the box blah blah.

Well then it was "We can give you store credit but we have to wait until the maker of the keyboard is open so you'll have to come back during the week." I explained to him, again, that I did not drive and coming back during the week involved me on transit for a good length of time and was there anyway we could work something out ... but no of course not. Miffed but feeing I had made a tiny bit of progress I left with the same gosh darn malfunctioning keyboard for the second time!!

I got home and checked the transit routes but once I had set up the morning plan(bus, transfer to another bus, walk to store, deal. Then bus, transfer to another bus, get kids and make lunch) I checked the store hours and they open exactly 25 minutes before I have to be on the bus home. Darn. So guess what I get to do tomorrow afternoon with a tired almost 4 year old in tow? Uh-huh...I get to go back to the computer store. I seriously considering teaching M how to throw fits on cue so I can say "We could have taken care of this yesterday when I had no kids with me, but no. I could have even taken the bus and come in this morning with no kids but you don't open until 10am, so no. This is normally her nap time so there's nothing I can do with her screaming she's tired and this is entirely your own fault lets get this done so I can take my screeching kid and go home." I probably won't ...

What will probably happen is that I will walk in ready for a fight and they will give me what I want and I will leave(I will however still be ready to throw a fit, just in case I actually get to). I told my dear J this evening "I am not bringing that darn thing home again. I will break it over the counter and throw the pieces at them and stop and Staples on the way home to get another keyboard but I will not bring that double cursed thing back again to this house!" :) He said I sounded like my Mom ... I agree. You know what? She sounded exactly the same in her 30s as I do now in my 30s. /lol/ I think it's very funny.

... I will add to this Blog tomorrow and let you all know how it goes. Wish me luck!

Cass :)

Thursday, October 18, 2007

WooHoo! We reach the magic number again!

As I'm sure you all know I have been meal planning all of our meals for about 3 weeks now. I have also been doing my best to stay in control of the housework ... I have passed the 2 week mark with that and am still doing well.

I am endlessly surprised by how much planning all our meals has cut our grocery bill. J has us on a tight budget of $175 a week with the goal of $150 a week or less if possible. We used to spend about $200 or more a week. Of course we started by only shopping once a week, if something was forgotten or ran out too bad. At that time I also started planning suppers but the rest of the meals were "What do you want?" "I dunno, what do you want?". Shopping once a week helped a lot but planning all our meals has helped even more! J actually said that just my list would have cost us more like $130ish but that he picked up a couple things not on my list that we'll use but didn't strictly need.This week's total bill was $148 for a week of food for our family. I was so happy that we made it under the $150 mark for the second week in a row.

Anyway just wanted to get that down before bed. If you're looking to waste less and spend less give meal planning a try and shop once a week and no more than that. Having to only think about what to cook once a week is very nice, the rest of the week I just have to look at the menu:) The kids are eating better at meal time because they know there is only fresh fruit and sometimes homemade cookies to snack on and nothing else to eat until the next meal is served. I'm seeing a great improvement in their eating.

Cass :)

Monday, October 15, 2007

Is a load a day too much?

I actually went on the defensive about laundry the other day with J when I told him I was doing two loads a day he felt that was too much. Of course those were the days when A wet his bed(which he hasn't the last three nights!) and M's bedding isn't an issue right now because we have her in Goodnights. When a child wets the bed(either A or M) I have to wash an extra load because the blanket is a load on it's own. If they both wet it's an extra 2 loads bringing my daily laundry up to 3 loads.

Just clothes and household stuff like towels is one load a day(I never separate so we have no whites to speak of) which is about 7 loads a week, 14 loads if there is lots of bed wetting going on and 21 if Meeghan is not in Goodnights. J felt that was excessive he said something about 'normal' households having a 'laundry day'. Uh-huh like I want to spend all of one day doing laundry(I did that two weeks ago Tuesday to get rid of the laundry mountains in the corners of the rooms) so I ended up being a little harsh with him. I guess he has a hard time imagining how we manage to dirty an entire load of clothes and towels every single day.

Is it too much? J, K, & I all wear clean shirts, underwear and socks each day but pants can go two days. A & M wear an entire new outfit each day and sometimes jammies as well(although both children prefer to sleep in as little as possible). I change the kitchen wash cloth and towels everyday as well to keep them from being germ spreaders. I use the old towels each morning to wipe down the bathroom(including the toilet) . I've replaced the laundry hampers(that could hold two or more loads each) in the kids' rooms with baskets(that we already had). I had three baskets that held laundry in progress, now I have one free basket for laundry in progress or I have to take one from a room. This has worked great. Each day I walk thru the house and gather up the stuff that needs washing and toss it in a basket and then put it in the machine. It fills the machine, I'm not doing mini-loads here. Then I pull yesterday's load out of the drier and fold it and put it away and use that empty basket to replace the one I took from a kids' room.

It's been so nice not to see laundry mountains in every room!! Everything is always pretty much done. After all it's kinda hard to whine about laundry if you only have to do one load!!

Cass :)

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Step by step - My version of "In the beginning."

I was thinking today and I have been asked(okay maybe only by one online friend but I have been asked) what exactly I do to keep things under control. I follow FlyLady although there are lots of groups that basically send the same message of baby steps and not letting yourself get discouraged. It all starts with a clean, shiny sink. Yup for me it is a simple as that! Watch this video and you'll see what I mean.

For me a clean sink is the key. For me once the sink is clean I am lead to wipe the counters and keep the kitchen tidy. If the kitchen is tidy I get such a nice happy feeling when I walk into it that I want to keep other areas of the house looking good as well. Walking into a messy kitchen makes me feel like going back into the basement and climbing into bed ... anything but dealing with the huge mess.

If you are really rotten at house keeping, like me, take a small step at a time and don't give yourself too hard of a time when you don't get everything done. Don't be too easy on yourself either though that is a surefire way of backsliding right back into a cave in the mountain of housework that will grow up around you. I try to remind myself on a regular basis that it's all worth it. I can do this and when I am done I can stand back and enjoy the way my home looks.

FlyLady says to just do 15 minutes at a time ... pick one fairly small job at a time and do it for 15 minutes. You'll be amazed at how much you can do in just that little 1/4 hour.

I love ruts, habits, routines and rituals. So for me having a list of things I do every single day is very satisfying. So quite a while ago I made up routines that I do everyday. I follow the ones that are given out on FlyLady customized for my house and energy levels. I have spent pretty much no money and have gotten a huge amount of peace from it when I am able to keep it up. I am vowing to myself that this time it's for keeps. I have a Morning, Afternoon and Evening routine that I printed out and put inside clear plastic sleeves(2 in each sleeve) and they are clipped together with a big old heavy alligator type paper clip like this. I keep them hung up in my kitchen and check off completed chores with a dry erase marker and then I erase my checks when I am done and flip the slip to the next list(for morning and afternoon) then I have to unclip the lists and flip them fro evening and my inspirational end of day thoughts.

That's where I started. A clean sink and routines...

Cass :)

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Things that make me go "Hey that's cool!"


Yeah I'm weird but I'd like to make note of some of the things I have re-discovered for myself because they are memorable for me.

**The sky is cool - it looks cool and is lots of fun to look at.

**If I don't stop and holler "C'mon!" to M every 3 minutes while we are walking back and forth to school she comes just as fast as if I did.

**Toilet bowl cleaner is good for more than just the inside of the toilet bowl ... it can get nasty crud off of other parts of the toilet as well!! I discovered this for myself just today(it was clean the bathroom day) and on a whim decided to put some of the blue goop on the stain on the back of the toilet rim surface(it's been driving me nuts on my daily wipe down of the toilet) and it got it off!! /happy dance/ . Yeah I know ... but like FlyLady says "Nothing says I love you like a Clean toilet to throw up in when you are sick!" of all the things to resound with me that is one thing that really sticks.

On the phone with my Mom today and she told me in the past my record for keeping the house clean and under control was a month and a half. My vow to myself is to start the new year with a clean house. Keep the supportive comments coming because we all need encouragement in our goals even the simple-seeming ones. I can do this ... I love how the house looks and feels to me when I get my work done. My satisfaction level is almost Zen like and yes I am well aware of the fact I am odd but this is my job. My dream job really since as far back as I can remember I always said I was born into the wrong time. Even when I was 12 I felt I would have been happier when women's main roles were to raise children and keep house.

I love being home. I am proud that my kids come home for lunch every day. I am proud when my family gets fresh baked bread and I cook everything they eat. I am proud when I know exactly what is in the food that is nourishing their bodies. I feel a huge amount of elation when I look at my routine list and everything is checked off. It makes me smile when I can check off a hard chore that I did even though I didn't want to. I am happy when my house is in order and my life runs more smoothly because of it.

Cass :)

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

I week celebration!

Because even small steps should be praised. I'm doing well and happy with how the house looks. Yesterday my chore of the day was the kitchen and I wiped down all the lower cabinet doors as well as the front of the stove, dishwasher, pantry and fridge(all of them are white). I was very surprised at how much better they looked ... how dirty were they?

I have more laundry than usual today. The last three days it's been all I can do to scrape up two full loads a day but I have mostly thanks to A's continuing bed wetting. Everyday this week I have had to wash a sheet and blanket from his bed and the blanket is always a load on its own. I don't mind though two loads a day is pretty easy. Today I stripped and changed K's bed with fall coming on now she's using blankets again and she's been sleeping on top of her memory foam pad(Thanks for that Mom she loves it) with no sheet for over a month so i thought it was time to make up her bed properly. I'm sure she'll sleep much better tonight. That of course added to the laundry considerably(2 blankets and a sheet) so I now have 4 loads of laundry today...although 3 of them are blankets so very easy - just feed the machines.

My chore of the day today is to wash floors ... normally I would have washed the kitchen floor yesterday but the humidity and warmer than usual temperatures here in Southern Ontario wore me out so I left it to today. This morning I re-printed my routines(the stuff I have to do every single day) in a bigger font and added Lock doors to the list for Evening Routine as I again forgot to close and lock the back door last night and it was open all night(I've done this several times over the summer - I tend to be forgetful). J gave me a chill when he replied to my "Well I can't get it every night ..." with "Think of that when someone comes into the house while we're sleeping and takes one of the kids." Yeah I won't forget again ... talk about put a scare into me!!

Anyway enough slacking I'd better get to work ... and M is upstairs on her own again I just know she's up to something!

Cass :)

Friday, October 05, 2007

I'm Simple.

No this isn't another Blog entry about a D'oh! moment in my life. I just wanted to Blog some thoughts I was having this morning. Mostly it struck me at about 7:45am this morning when I realized I was done my morning chore list(not to be confused with my chore of the day - I have a list of basic chores I have to do everyday to keep the house looking nice). Knowing that my morning chores were done and I did not have to do a single thing until 11:10am when I walk up to the school to get the kids and walk them home for lunch. It made me very happy. Then on my way back to the house(limping because I managed to hurt my leg somehow on Thursday) and listening to my MP3 player(I have a little iPod shuffle that I love) I realized that it doesn't take me much to be happy.

There are things that make me mad in my life, don't get me wrong. I spend some of everyday angry for some silly reason. My point is that it doesn't take much to have me laughing and smiling again and I am deeply grateful fro that.

So far the house is staying under control but remember I haven't even hit the one week mark yet. With meal planning all three meals a day I only have to think "What should I make?" once a week and then look at the menu for the rest of the time(I've done 1 week of meal planning all three meals so far). I found out on Thursday when I went in to swim laps that the pool, that was supposed to re-open Oct 1, will be closed until the first week of November because they found out they need to do more work on it. Ah well, gives me time to get this whole doing housework under my belt and ground into my thick skull.

I thought I had more to say but this Blog has taken me half the day to write(stuff keeps coming up) and now I forget. So - Later!

Cass :)

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

The best laid plans ...


So recently I have once again been trying to get my life on track, get settled into my routines that I know work and sticking to it. Of course as my Mom pointed out to me the other day "You're very enthusiastic when you're talking about these things Cass but your follow thru needs work.". She's entirely correct ... I'm great at planning. I'm wonderful at planning and writing down my plans and I'm even pretty good at sticking to said plans, for about 3 days.

As with many things in my life I have real success issues. I know this very well about myself and I hear knowing the problem is half the battle but sadly it's the solving the problem part where I fall on my face. Basically it's like I am afraid of actually succeeding. I see this in everything in my life from my housework to the games I play on my computer. I very rarely manage to follow thru on anything. So I end up opening my eyes and looking around my life every few weeks and saying "How did I let all this go for so long!?" At this point it's mostly the house and the things I have to do here that I am trying to focus on. Of course that covers quite a bit of stuff. My To Do list looks something like this:

TO DO
Get into a routine with the house cleaning and stick to it.
Meal plan 3 meals a day and a suggested snack every week.
Keep the laundry under control.
Set up and stick to a daily routine to help A with his school work.
Keep an eye on M, if you can't see her she's doing something you won't like.

My extended list includes decluttering, getting into the Y, finding time for J&I to be alone as well as budgeting and cutting costs. This week(yeah all 2 days of it) I am doing well. I got thru my morning routine before I walked the kids to school today(I have to be able to do that so that when I start going to the Y everything still gets done). I have been meal planning all three meals as well as baking a lot of things we eat from scratch(just since Thursday though). J expressed concerns this morning that I would get tired of the time it takes to do this and I said to him "I have time, even when I go to the Y in the mornings I have loads of time. I can't use time as an excuse. I have to quit wasting it."

I'm right. I am very good at wasting time and it needs to stop. I'm not 12 anymore I'm 35 and it's way past time that I grew up and started doing more with myself that nothing. How can I look at J and know I love him when all I do to replay everything he has given me(a home, 2 children, the option not to go out to work) is whine and moan about what a mess the house is and how I can't seem to keep my act together long enough to keep it that way for more than 3 days at a time! I have no excuses. I'm in good health and I am capable. I know what needs to be done and have the tools to do it. I know exactly how to keep the house looking great by only doing an hour or two of housework a day. If knowledge is power why do I spend so much of my time feeling powerless or is that just my utter lack of motivation to do anything I'm feeling?

So I'm kicking myself in the backside ... again ... and hoping this time it sticks. I can do this. The key is that I need to keep doing it!

Cass :)

PS - In case any of you were wondering my neck is feeling better just a tiny bit of stiffness left.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Oh my aching neck!



I have a lot to update on but my main concern the last few days has been the fact that I have a stiff neck. I just woke up this way on Wednesday and it won't go away /sigh/ I guess if it persists I will have to go to the doctor about it(I have to talk to her about birth control anyway). Lets hope after the weekend the whole thing will have resolved itself!

So my first bit of information is that yes M is doing great in school, as far as I can tell they all are. I'll know better once report cards come out ... I agree with someone's comment that M looks like Dot from the Animaniacs. She really does ... right down to the "I'm to cute to punish!" attitude /sigh/.

I have been busy with a mini-reno this last week or so; I ripped out the carpet in the back room and painted the plywood sub-floor in there. I also took down the table and put it away. We never eat at it and it was just taking up room. I love the table(my Mom got it for me several years ago) and it may serve it's proper purpose somewhere down the road. At this point the back room is mostly used as our main entry and now works perfectly for all our coats and footwear sans table. The floor doesn't look the best but I much prefer it to the stinky carpet that M couldn't seem to resist peeing on. Now my next big job is cleaning the basement carpet again because of M /sigh/before I have to close windows more often. Thankfully school seems to have distracted her enough that peeing on the floor is less interesting to her. Although she is certainly still great at making messes and getting into things when I'm not paying proper attention!!

So the back room is now properly set up as our mudroom/entry room, since white paint was what I had the floor is white ... which of course shows the dirt but I don't mind. I'll either clean it or it'll stay dirty - at least it won't stink!! Total cost(less my sweat and tears) - $15 for paint gear that I bought out of the $50 a month allowance I allow myself now. J & I have taken a very close look at our finances recently and realized we are now maxed out on all our credit(1 credit card and the line of credit from the bank) and have no wiggle room at all. It's a big old fashioned debt pit. Now the good news is that our house will be paid for in about 8 to 9 years /happy dance/ and we are now on a strict budget. The bad news is that the van needs work and we can't afford it until the end of October. J will have to carpool until then but he is not happy. I'm trying to keep the cost of food down and the last two weeks we have done well in averaging out at just under $150/week for food. I am now planning all meals again and cooking more stuff myself. Making stuff from scratch is cheaper but takes more time which really is something I have a lot of anyway even with planned trips to the Y(which I really have to get on!). We'll see but so far we're doing pretty good. Thankfully J gets a portion of his check taken every pay and put away in bonds which is our Christmas fund so we have no worries there and with my personal rules about the number of toys the children get and a nice purge of toys right before Christmas we should be fine.

Otherwise nothing much is new with me and mine. I'm once again trying to get the housework under control because I feel a large reason my neck is bugging me is that the house is not under control. So I am doing housework therapy, wish me luck!

Cass :)

Thursday, September 13, 2007

The kids go back to school - all of them this time!


Yup, my littlest monkey is now in school. God have mercy on her teachers!!

As you can see my children have super powers; A has the super power to make an unfortunate face at exactly the wrong time! K has super curly hair power and always looks like she just got up - good thing that's the style now! M has 'I'm the cute little one' power and uses it often on her older brother, as you can see here. Don't be fooled she's thinking of a way to make her brother dance like a puppet for her, I can tell.

M's first days of school have gone well unless I was there with her ... My school has a thing all this month that every Wednesday I go to school with her from 8:40am-10:30am and we do stuff together and the teacher and other school experts give us all advice on how to help out kids learn at home. Both Wednesdays now I have left first with a screaming daughter. When she is there on her own she is fine, according to the teacher. I saw when I was there yesterday she knows the routine there and seems happy,which is great and typical of my kids. They all like school - it's not as boring as home.

Also since my last Blog...Yesterday was A's 7th birthday! My Mom was surprised she was all "Seven! I thought he was turning Six! Where did the time go?!?" We gave him a mix of home made (fabric panels for under his loft bed to make a fort & a magnet/chalk/pin board combo that J is finishing up) and bought stuff(Star Wars action figures and a big 3D, glow in the dark wall puzzle of Spiderman). Mom gave him $20 which he is now thinking of 50 ways to spend!

Not much else to say ... just the usual fall routine. I'm sticking close to home the rest of this week and then next week I will be off to the Y 4 mornings. Wish me luck.

Friday, August 31, 2007

I felt like a kid again!!


So Wednesday night I got together with a friend of mine,T, and we went to the YMCA and had a mini-spa evening :) Basically we were supposed to get together for a no kids evening back on Monday but she had to bow out because Monday ended up being a super busy day for her. So I took the kids to the mall to do the shopping I had been thinking of doing with T.

Life being what it is she called me up on Wednesday and checked with me if it was okay if she was going to be quite late(like closer to 9pm than 8pm) at that point I had an idea; Why not go hang out at the YMCA then? I could shave and have a nice soak in the hot tub and she could get a better feel for what the Y is like since she is planning on getting a membership. She loved the idea so that's what we did. The main reason I was particularly interested in shaving was because I had managed to rip the hair out of one leg but couldn't face doing the other one ... yeah my mustache was no trouble but I forgot one thing. My mustache has been waxed before ... my legs haven't!! My son thought it was very funny because I made horrid faces after each time I ripped. I have cruel children! /hehe/. It was really funny that night because I had made the mistake of telling the kids I was going out after the had gone to sleep ... so then they wouldn't fall asleep. Finally I told them I wasn't going after all, 10 minutes later they were both asleep. In fact, when T got here at about 9:15pm everyone in the house was asleep but me. She came to my computer room window and whispered "Quick! Lets make a run for it!" and away we went. Of course, being slimmer than I am she insisted we walk the track for 20 minutes before we went back to the change room to shower and soak. Happily my YMCA is open until 11pm on weeknights and the Plus Change room was empty except for us.

It was so nice to get out away from the kids and the house! I told T we have got to plan on doing this twice a month for sure - I love getting together with my friends one friend at a time! The biggest thing for me was to be out after dark ... I rarely am so it's always a treat for me.

Thanks again T!

Cass :)

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

KaChing! Whoever said having kids was expensive ...


... was right on the money! I will now tell the tale of the last few weeks, where lots of money has been spent on the kids as well as on other things.

I have receipts here for back to school clothes shopping. Now I know I could have went second hand for A's clothes but I prefer hand-me-downs for my kids(hey they're free!) but we don't know any boys that are in the size up from A(who now takes a 10/12) that live locally. M got a huge bag of hand-me-downs from a good friend of mine(Thanks S and sorry for nagging!) as well as some from another pal of mine, T. So I bought him all new stuff and some new stuff for M as well(they both really needed underwear and socks).

The first $122 I spent got me:
2 pairs of heavy track pants
4 t-shirts
6 pairs of boxer shorts
6 pairs of boy socks
6 pairs of girl socks
6 pairs of panties
1 pair of indoor shoes for M

I knew that wasn't enough so I ventured out again(this time with my Mom who wanted to buy some new stuff for M). Not counting everything we bought(Mom had to return a pair of pants so I don't think her total is accurate). I spent another $136 and that got me:
6 pairs of girl socks
6 pairs of panties
6 pairs of boy socks
4 t-shirts
2 pairs of heavy track pants
1 hooded sweatshirt sweater
1 pair of new shoes for A
2 sets of headphones for home computers.

Mom dropped $75 on her return trip to the store to return a pair of pants that looked all wrong once we put them on M. Once I added the hand me downs to that both A & M are ready for school, all except school supplies which they will be sending a list home for after the kids start school /sigh/. M has a huge amount of clothes now, I could barely fit them all into her dresser! A has enough that I'll have to keep on top of the laundry but not be super concerned about it. Total for back to school shopping out of my wallet? $258. Not great but not horrid. It would be more again if I didn't have my Mom and hand-me-downs for M and K's grandparents buy all her clothes as well. Thank goodness for friends and family!! Now I have several bags of clothes that I can hand down and once I sort them and get some idea of how much and what sexes and sizes I'll be all set to share as well!

Now on with the show! I told this story to my dear sister-in-law in IM last night and she was amused by it so I figured I would share here as well since it is partially money related but mostly about going places with children and how ... interesting ... it can be.

Yesterday I decided to take the kids to the mall. Now anyone who knows me knows I highly dislike leaving the house, and I like leaving the house and taking the kids with me even more! Now, K is away until the weekend so it was just almost 7 year old A and 3 1/2 year old M and I. I had ulterior motives; I wanted to buy a book I had been waiting to buy. So I told the kids we were going to the mall for lunch, they've both been nagging to do "something" and were very excited about getting out the door. I looked over the bus routes that I wanted and wrote down times and the list of stuff I wanted to get while I was out. My third shopping trip of the month started badly with A complaining about how thirsty he was while we were waiting for the bus. For some reason my children seem to feel that they should guzzle water the entire time they are away from home or at least have water available at all times. Since we were traveling on the bus I decided to take the umbrella stroller and my backpack for kid and shopping transport so I had not brought our usual cargo of water. At one point his whining forced me to threaten to just go home and forget about the whole thing and with me that's not an empty threat. My kids know I would just go home, that, in fact, I would much rather be home.

So we got on the bus(running total: $5 for bus fare) and headed for the mall. Well actually we headed for another bus after that because you need to take two buses to get to the mall if you grab the bus closest to my house. The second bus I wanted to take was taking too long so I grabbed a different one and we ended up having to walk two very long blocks to my bank(stop #1) for money. The walk to the bank was interesting; A can't read but he sure knows his company logos from watching TV, which is kinda scary, he also knows the jingles and can quote parts of the commercials easily. He knew the Pizza Hut sign even though we have never eaten there. He also knew the Red Lobster sign. All he manged to dredge up out of his amazing head for the Wendy's sign was "Bacon!!" from their latest commercial. He went wild when he saw the Burger King sign and sang "Always fresh at Tim Horton's!" when I pointed the Timmie's sign out to him. It was very interesting to say the least.

Nearer the bank we had to walk by a machine boring a hole into the sidewalk that was very loud ... my kids covered their ears. A especially hates loud noises. The mutters of thirstiness were still coming from A but he wasn't being too loud about it. After the bank I walked a 1/2 a block only to have to turn around and go back up to the lights I had crossed at before I went to the bank because the next set of lights were too far down the mall from where I wanted to be.

We had left the house at 10:10am and it was now 11:15am so I had to change my plans and took the kids to the McDonald's for lunch(stop #2) before we did any other shopping.Running total about $27 - for bus and McDonald's. Of course the kids didn't finish their food, well A did but M and I didn't so the leftovers went into my backpack.

Our next stop(#3) was Sears where I spent $14(running total $41 - bus, McDonald's, Sears) on two waterproof vinyl mattress covers that are like a giant pillow case cover that zipper shut at one end. A has one on his bed but it's starting to get holes in it and I wanted to grab a second one because it's always a good idea to have a backup. While we were at the Sears A was sad because the escalators were shut down for servicing and M was sad because she doesn't like the elevator(it scares her and you have to hold her when you're on one to keep her calm). I really can't win with these two.

We made it thru the Sears stop just fine and moved on to Pharma Plus where I got myself a hair removal kit and bought two bottles of water for A & M because "I'm thirsty Mommy!"& "I'm thirsty too Mommy!". Total at stop #4 $14, running total $55 bus, lunch, Sears, and PharmaPlus.

Our next stop was Office Depot(Stop #5) for some index cards, an index card box and dividers for inside the index card box. This purchase was for my Sim note taking and other stuff. The small index card box is easier to keep on my desk than the big binder I have been using in the past. Silly I know and they came to a total of $15, running total $70 - bus, McDonald's, Sears, PharmaPlus, and Office Depot.

After Office Depot I bought the kids ice cream at Laura Secord(Stop #6) to the tune of about $4, running total $74 - bus, McDonald's, Sears, PharmaPlus, Office Depot and ice cream. At this point my wallet was getting very slim and I counted my money and change. After setting aside another $5 for bus fare I had about $27 ... I wasn't sure that would be enough for the book I wanted to buy at Chapters but we went there anyway.

On the way to Chapters we got to go on an escalator ... I thought A would be happy but once we got there he locked up and refused to get on. By the time I realized he wasn't going to be able to do it M and I were already on and on our way down. I kept encouraging him to get on but he was too scared to do it. So there we were; M and I at the bottom and A at the top in tears. I was going to have to go back up(the up escalator was right there) and get him when a nice lady helped him on and brought him to me. Poor A was almost in a panic from the whole deal. I must remember in future that A doesn't do escalators well at all ... better to go on the elevator and hug M the whole time!

Our final stop before heading home, #7, was Chapters where, thanks to my iRewards card, my book only cost me $21 so I got to get it after all! :) Running total $95 - bus, McDonald's, Sears, PharmaPlus, Office Depot, Laura Secord, and Chapters. Almost out of money we needed to head home ... so we went to the bus area at our mall. Now the mall is a large one so there is a large area set aside for the city buses, it's all landscaped and everything. The bus we wanted pulled out as we were headed to the stops but I figured we would just snag another on and transfer again like we did on the way in. So while we were waiting for a bus I figured would get there anytime M says "Mommy, I have to pee!" of course I should have thought of this before we had come outside because she had sucked back a bunch of water. I didn't want to dash back into the mall because I didn't know when the bus was coming and I really wanted to go home. So instead I sent her behind some bushes to go ... good thing too; our bus pulled up just as she was pulling up her panties and we got on. Add another $5 to my running total and that brings us right up to $100, which was exactly the amount of money I took out of the bank.

Of course the story isn't over until we get home ... while we were waiting for our second bus I got "Mommy I have to pee!" & "I have to pee too Mommy!" luckily there was a little donut shop right there so I just took them to their bathrooms(hoping that someone would give me a song and dance about customers only so I could yell at someone - no such luck) and went back out to wait for the bus. We got home fine, broke, but fine. I have $6.50 in my wallet in change and a coffee date with a girlfriend tomorrow night.

Whew! That trip wore me out ... I slept very well last night :)

Cass :)

Friday, August 24, 2007

Ugh! Me Good Brush Piler! :)

All done finally!! Here are A, M & I striking a pose in front of the brush I have spent the last almost two weeks bundling and spent yesterday hauling out to the street. I'm very proud, even if I do look awful in pictures :)

Sunday, August 19, 2007

The Brush pile continues to grow...


I've got to hand it to me ... I've kept to my word and done at least an hour of yard work everyday for the last 5 days and the yard is looking better all the time. I've even manged to get into our years old brush pile enough to decide that yard waste bags will work better there ... all the stuff in the bottom of that pile is so dry all I have to do is stomp around on it and it will all be itty bitty twigs :)

I've also started moving some of the small logs(too big for my loppers) to the back of the yard and decided that I will place all the logs where the old brush pile was once I get it cleaned out. Today I have to move more small logs and trim the brush around the kids' play area and clean out the 'pit'.

The 'pit' is an area next to my small back deck where things get tossed so I have to bag up the stuff that's junk and clear out the brush and logs that got left there. I probably won't get to that until Monday but I'll hope for today.

Tuesday will be more brush work hopefully in the driveway(the last of it) and then the next couple days will be moving logs. The big job will be Thursday when I move all the brush bundles to the front of the house. I've kept them in the back because I was worried that some drunk rowdy might come along and be tempted by a mountain of flammable stuff ... so no brush out front until Thursday.

I worked hard enough yesterday to have sore muscles when I came into the house but my arms feel okay so far today so I guess I didn't hurt myself. Yesterday was also our last Family Day for a while, with the pool closed and our van broken down as well(on Friday just as J got to work) we'll just wait until the pool re-opens to go to the Y on Saturdays again. Once school starts I will be heading to the Y every day that the kids go to school ... at first just for the walk there and home but eventually I hope to pick up some of the classes I used to take like Muscle Works and Aquafit, and maybe swim some laps.

Hopefully my next Blog will have a picture of a mountain of brush bundles outside my house and the pile of logs back by the shed!

Cass :)

Friday, August 17, 2007

A busy Visit ...

I've been slacking a bit on this Blog entry because it's about a visit from my father. The last time I saw my father in person was about 6 years ago. A was just a baby and M hadn't even been thought of. Now, I have an odd relationship with my father; things happened a long time ago that I feel can be placed at his feet but there is no point in getting into that now because the few times we have touched on the subject I saw that we would never agree so there was no point in getting into a fight over it. My compromise is that I keep in touch badly partly through choice partly because I never know when it's a good time to call and often forget when I mean to e-mail him. I should be famous for my awful memory, although I feel mostly I forget things because I'm too lazy to remember them /sigh/. I do try to keep in some contact when I remember; my Mom has always been very clear that I have a certain duty to him as my father and that what happened in the past is the past. If my Mom is willing to let it go than so am I but she will always be number 1 to me, of course it helps that she lives right in the same city as me too :)

Anyway, my father was in the area for the funeral of his father ... I could have gone but have decided after seeing Old Dog dead and gone that I cannot handle having that be the last memory of a person that I cared about. So I have a new found resolve to never go to a funeral. But I better get back on track here :)

He got here by bus on Friday August 10th and kept us busy his whole four night stay with us. J & I are not people that are used to being busy but my father certainly is and we did stuff everyday(Who does stuff everyday?!?!). Friday afternoon we walked over to a local department store and he bought each of the kids something. K picked out a new style ant farm that actually is made of gel so you don't have to feed or water the ants while they tunnel. The ants are non-breeding so they will only live a couple months before they die ... we're waiting for the ants to be delivered now :) Friday night J & Dad went to Toys'R'Us and bought a remote control truck for us all to play with. Saturday was family day as usual and we all went to the Y for the morning, Saturday evening we went to a nearby park that had just had all it's playground equipment changed, Sunday we went to a small Zoo and even that trip went well(although J & I are usually very reluctant to go anywhere) and the kids had great fun at the splash pad at the zoo. Monday J had to go back to work(he had been off the previous week) and Dad and I hatched a plan to finally get rid of the trees that have been messing up my satellite TV all summer. He really wanted to help J & I with a house project and is comfortable with a chainsaw so after leaving a note on my neighbour's door(technically they were his trees although he had told me back in June that he was going to cut them down it hadn't happened - Thanks to my good friend FF in Florida for the note's wording) we started in on the trees. When J got home he and dad went and rented a chainsaw and Dad took the rest of the trees down with it.

You should have seen it ... I thought of taking pictures but was too busy cutting up brush to run into the house for the camera ... my 60 year old Dad climbing in the trees taking off the limbs with a handsaw. He dropped every limb without hurting any of the phone or cable lines that run into mine and my neighbour's house: it was very impressive.

I have to say I am truly blessed to have such good parents: Mom, of course, for always loving me no matter what and for always helping me(so many times!) when I needed it and so recently sharing her good fortunate with me as well. My father was a huge help to me getting those trees down and I'll admit is was nice(though tiring) to have such a busy 4 days. The kids weren't bored even once. So I'll say it now: Thank you both for coming together and having me ... because without you both there would be no me.

Of course I will only mention in passing how much work I have left to do. My city takes yard waste so I have been bundling up all the stuff I can cut up from the trees. I have 40 bundles done now and am getting close to being done with brushing(Brushing: the act of cutting up branches and smallish limbs while trimming brush on your property, also the act of bundling said branches. - now it's a word) in the back yard ... I'm currently working on our years old brush pile at the back of the yard having already conquered the two mountains of brush nearer the house from the freshly cut trees. After that I will cut back anything that needs cutting in the back yard and move to the brush in the driveway. Then I get to move all the logs and bigger wood to one place in the yard, we may someday use it as firewood for camping. I figured when I started I may have up to 100 bundles of brush done by August 23rd ... yard waste pick up is the next day after that so I'll have the chore of hauling all those bundles out to the front of the house ... I will take a picture because this may possibly be the most work I have ever done in my life.

That's it for me, Blog more another day,

Cass :)

Saturday, August 04, 2007

Kitty tries things out ... sort-of.


So I lured the steps by putting a bit of meat on each one and Kitty was nice enough to test things out for me ... reluctantly and with a little help.


He wouldn't stay on the platforms ...



He does use the steps a little now but only because I put his food on the ceiling platform :) He'd rather hang out with M.


Well that's all for now. We had a heat wave this past week but it's cooled off again, thank goodness! The kids and I haven't missed any Early Swims mostly thanks to the fact my Mom(have we established how wonderful she is yet?) drives us home one of the two days :) The YMCA pool will be closing for repairs/cleaning on August 20 till October 2nd :( but happily the Plus Change Room that I use is open again today! /does a happy dance/. We pay extra so Jim and I have towel service, access to a hot tub and steam room, and free stuff to use like blades, shaving cream, shampoo, conditioner, and body soap. With the swim lessons for the kids free with our membership and lots of other classes and stuff for all of us included as well I really love our YMCA. If you have one near you you should check it out!

Well that's enough from me for now ... I'll update more another day!

Cass :)

Friday, July 27, 2007

Project Complete ... Waiting for Cat.

Here's the whole wall of cat steps from the window platform.

A cat's eye view up to the window platform.



A cat's eye view up to the ceiling platform.

There I am done. Hopefully Cat will thank me by using it!

Cass :)

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Of projects and mishaps and a reluctant cat.

Okay so two days ago I was looking at Cat Condos when I came upon this site ... "Coool!" I said and shared the link with my friend Kitty whom I was IMing with. We both agreed it was cool(she has 8 cats - I have 1) but I took it a step further and said "I could make something just like that for less!" and I started right away. I was in tears and highly discouraged by the end of the day ... I had implemented my idea badly and would have to take everything down and fix the problems. War wounds : One hammered finger and a blister from putting in 40 screws.

Today was another day ... I went to early swim with the kids and asked my Mom to take us on a couple of errands(she had taken me out to the hardware store yesterday as well) ... she graciously agreed and off we went. I picked up the stuff I needed and went back to work on my project. Once again I have everything up but I see I have to re-enforce the first step(even with plugs it's just not holding) and I have to fix on of my platforms properly to the wall.

Ah well ... tomorrow is another day. Day three of my Cat Wallk project and I'm not even sure if the dang cat will even use it!

Cass :)

Monday, July 23, 2007

K comes home and I clean up the house ...

Yeah I know K has been home since Thursday, she was actually waiting for us when my om drove A, M & I home after our visit with her after Early Swim. She had a great time, of course, and was glad to be home. My shorter and coloured hair was a huge surprise to her but she later said I looked like a teenager :) Have I mentioned how much I love my oldest child?

A is much the same; drawing tons and talking non-stop. Early Swim is a nice break as he spends most of his time underwater since he discovered goggles let him go underwater without the whole chlorine is brining my eyes out deal. He's also still very sensitive and a bit of a fit thrower like his mother.

M has improved somewhat with her choices of where to pee ... I remain hopeful.

J and I are reading the latest Harry Potter book ... or rather he has read it and now it's my turn so I am reading it and playing my Sims game as well. I spent a good chunk of today cleaning ... or rather tidying. I'll actually clean for the rest of the week but first I had to find the dirty surfaces of my home. I also gave the kids a wake up call; They will help from now on, whether they like it or not. K already helps with very little prodding but I've not really worked with A and M to teach them how to help me keep our home clean.

Tomorrow is Early Swim once again so I will leave it there. I have to get some sleep and I'm pretty sure M is rattling around upstairs causing trouble ... she took a late nap(aka she fell asleep on her bed after yet another crying fit because someone said she couldn't do something) and now clearly can't fall asleep *sigh*

Cass :)

Monday, July 16, 2007

Picture Blog - My trip to the Hairdresser's :)

So today I went to get my hair dyed for the first time in my life ... okay it was a big deal for me. I brought along the camera and had the hairdresser take pictures and I took some as well. I didn't go for a full dye just streaks or highlights in a nice red. I think it turned out pretty good but it will take a little getting used to!


Here we are leaving my place...the kids are saying "C'mon Mom!" :)


I had to take a shot of my backyard...I love all the trees and green.


M didn't want to go in the stroller she wanted to walk, but with only 15 minutes to get to my appointment she had to ride.


Bye bye house ...


Cannibal rag doll(aka Good Luck rag doll) says "Arrrr!" A made this doll and loves it ... he drew the face and I taped it on ... he used to have a much nicer less sharp toothy face.


The dreaded bridge hill ...


One of my fave weeds.


"Psst!! You has keys?" ask the kittens in the window ... my homage to this website :)


Wasting no time; once I got to the hairdresser's D slapped this thing on my head ...


.... and then used a crochet hook to pull hair thru the holes in the cap. That didn't really hurt ...


... then she put on the dye and another bag ...



... and tossed me under a dryer.


Evil Boy gets in my way as M starts her haircut ...



M kept that same concerned look through-out the trim job
but didn't cry or anything. I was so proud.


All done! Fake smile for Mommy!




The kids goof off :)


I'm all done ... here's a shot to show the colour at it's best.


Some tracks near my place and another shot of high summer green.


Cool funky clouds!


Home again!

So there you have it ... all in pictures. *lol* Only I would put such terrible pictures of myself up, huh? Let me know what you think of my new do ... but remember ... if you can't think of anything nice ...

Cass :)