It's snowing ...

We're expecting a lot of snow and I had to shovel half way thru because K's Grandparents came and stole her away for the next week or so(yes she will not be here on Christmas Day - her choice, she wants to be back for her BFF's birthday.

I decided to post because it's been a while and I'm just enjoying being indoors - the wind chill is pretty nasty out there and my winter coat is in the shop being fixed up for this winter(I can get it tomorrow). I also left my fave winter hat(the one with earflaps) at S's last puppy play date and am waiting to hear back from them if they have found it. Thankfully I still have my scarf that I can actually cover my entire face with and see through well enough to walk :) I bet I look super spooky LOL.

So I walked in a snow storm to go get M at lunchtime because she only goes half days. A & K ate pizza at school and then got to walk home in a snowstorm and I got to go back out and shovel, even though I really didn't want to. I'd complain(more) but it IS winter and I DO live in Canada - so I guess I shouldn't let it get to me. This is our first really heavy snowfall though for this winter. I'm still not looking forward to going back out when the snow fall is over to shovel again and you know that S will still expect to be walked tomorrow, right?

On other topic(and trying not to complain) - the kids had their Christmas concert: They were cute and I enjoyed watching them. I can't say anything more on that if I follow the "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." rule. Other than I got a hug from a friend of mines daughter - I thought it was very sweet of her to give me a hug :)

Okay that's it - I think I'll go find something else to do now otherwise it'll be back to grumbling :)

Cass :)

A month in review ...

Long time no update so I'll try to remember everything and get it all down here. M had her birthday and is now 5 years old and looking forward to Christmas.She loved her cake and got lots of Bratz stuff for her birthday to go with it.

Susie had another play date with little Mia a JackRusselXPug mix. another little dog with a big attitude like P(also a pug cross).This is Mia.Those shots are of Mia and S playing together. I love how S adjusts her play to how much the other dog will handle. It's nice to know I've done a good job and also that I've got a good tempered dog.I also want to share with you the funniest shot I have gotten of S to date:I thought it was too funny :)

Also in the past month we've had a couple play dates with my friend L's two dogs(she has two now). The three dogs got along really well.This is Bo her new dog, a 2 year old CollieXSheppard mix.You can see the Shep clearly in both Bo and S in the following two shots:Pretty aren't they? :)

S& Bo get along very well for a couple females and they play as well - although you have to know dogs to understand how they play. It doesn't always look like much fun :)Finally this is what happens when you're in the kitchen offering treats(in this case raw hamburger for our rawfed dogs).I felt very paid attention to!

Just so you don't think I've completely forgotten my dear sweet children I would like to share some shots that the girls took of themselves:
K in all her 13 year old glory.

M is a very goofy 5, but cute :)

Also because I realized I hadn't taken one last year here is our tree this year - there will be presents under the tree once I wrap them.I will take a final shot once the pile of presents dwarfs the tree.

Hope everyone is well - I will try to take more pictures of the kids and maybe a few on Christmas Day.

Cass :)

Tuesday Adventures!

Yes today turned out to be such an interesting day that I thought I would Blog about it while the children got ready for bed.

Most of the day was fairly normal; up at 5am to take meds and make food & tea for J then back to bed for an extra hour & 1/2 of sleep. I almost didn't get up at 7am when my alarm went off but then I did(I had to go to the bathroom anyway). Grabbed a shower, got the kids fed and myself fed. Then the usual "Get dressed M. A put some socks on. K have you showered? It's time to brush teeth! Lets go." Walk kids to school, walked the dog the long way home and relaxed. Mom called and needed me to get a couple things ready for her to take up to Grandma & Grandpa's with her(she's staying there for now because they both say they need her there - I miss her). I did that then watched more TV until she got here and we visited for a bit. Then it was off to the school to bring kids home for lunch, feed them and send the older two back to school. I messed around on the computer for a while, finished a book I was reading and talked with Mom on the phone while I put supper into the slow cooker. Then M complained of a earache so we hung out together and watched TV while we waited for J to get home and take us to the clinic.

Yeah I know so far it doesn't sound all that exciting but I have to tell you about the whole day - one of my long stories.

So off to the clinic to wait an hour, M has an ear infection and has meds now, Yay. she was the perkiest kid at the clinic :) My kids'r crazy man. Anyway we got back home in time for me to finish making supper(I had to make rice and veggies to go with the stuff in the slow cooker). We ate and I took the dog for a walk, my usual 3km loop. About half way thru our walk I found a wallet on the sidewalk, looked for an owner nearby - none. So I brought it home. There was an expired license in the wallet but no phone number - I called everyone with that last name they didn't know the guy. Tomorrow I will have to drop it off at the police station. I feel terrible for this guy - he's 22 and I'm pretty sure it was him that rode buy me about 3 blocks before I found the wallet. There's money in the wallet - I didn't count it but it looks to be around $60 maybe more. He's going to be so mad when he finds he lost it - I hope the cops find him and give it back with the money still in it. I hope he doesn't lose too much sleep over it.

So that was my adventures for today - tomorrow morning I will add the police station into an extended morning walk for S and I after I drop the kids off at school. What fun!

Cass :)

Evil M strikes again OR The Halloween that never happened.

Also cute doggie pictures in this Blog(what else is new?).

I would have loved to have made up a Halloween blog and shown you pictures of the kids(especially K & Big M - they looked uber cool!!). However I wasn't quick enough to download the pictures off the camera and M managed, somehow, to delete them all :( :( So no pictures. M went as a princess, A as Darth Vader, K as a girl that had cried herself to death(too funny - black face with blood tears all over her face) and Big M as a girl that had been shot in the head(white face with a well painted and blood coming from bullet hole - I must be watching too much CSI around the big girls). They all looked great but alas I have no way to prove that because of M. So you'll all just have to imagine, I guess.

I discovered the loss of our Halloween shots when I took these wonderful shots of my now almost 1 year old S - she's so pretty in these pictures it ~almost~ makes up for the loss of the others.

S loves to look out the window so I got all the shots while she was being all cute and focused on the goings on outdoors:


Now all the pretty closeups:


This next shot I grabbed when S yawned, I am oddly obsessed with how pretty her teeth are and since I am raw feeding I figure I should keep track of her teeth. At only 1 year old her teeth are still clean and pretty(although a kibble fed dog's may just be starting to tarter up around now they usually don't look horrid until closer to 5 years old). Just for the record though(I say in all my Dog Food Snobbery)this is what a healthy set of teeth & gums look like at one year old:

For those of you who don't know, I ordered a fancy new harness and leash from a company down in California and finally got it today. YAY! I will be sure to get shots of S in it once I recharge the batteries in the camera(yeah - that took me over a month last time so don't hold your breath!). Also my oldest is now 13. GASP! I know - I'm entirely too young and pretty to have such an OLD daughter! I will be having my birthday this coming Sunday and never mind how old I will be. Shhhhh!! Evil M will be 5 on the 13th(we figured it out when she was born - she'll have her birthday on a Friday the 13th when she turns 6). My Mom is currently staying with her Mom while my Grandpa is out hunting with his sons, I miss her. I think that pretty much updates everyone - Oh! I got to do a meat order now that I have two fridge freezers and discovered that $250 worth of meat only fills one of them - the other is good for frozen veggies and frozen juices and stuff. J is resigned to me being happy about having two fridges and the corrupt movers who rooked me out of $60 are no longer advertising on my local Kijiji - I like to think it's because I posted to advise others what happened to me.

Hope all is well with everyone. K says thank you to Aunt C and her crew for the e-card, she liked it.

Cass :)

"I'm not the Baby Daddy!" and other stuff ...

Just for fun I'm going to Blog backwards today, so I'll start with my thoughts of today and go backwards ... where I'm sure to not remember 1/2 of the interesting things I thought in the last few days :)

First of all I'll address my Blog title for today; I was watching Maury, which pretty much explains it all but I love telling long stories so I will expand on the title. So I have a somewhat passing interest in watching the DNA testing, "I'm sleeping with your Mom", "I've been messing with your sister." and other fun topics that make up the human car wreck that is the MP Show. My favorite to date though is "I'm not the Baby Daddy and she's a Ho." The current generation seems to be pretty good at this one - it could almost be their logo. Now I sympathize to a point with the ladies involved, I've been around, I understand about having a little fun, and there was a time in my life that I had no idea how the reproductive cycle really worked. What I don't get is why these women aren't on birth control?!? I mean, even when I had no idea when exactly I was most likely to get pregnant(I didn't really find out until I started trying to have babies)I was on the pill. Forgive me if I'm out on a middle-aged limb here but isn't this the Aids generation? Should these young women be having unprotected sex at all? I mean if I was in my late teens now I would be terrified - the whole concept of 'when you have sex with someone you're having sex with everyone they ever had sex with and everyone THEY had sex with and so on...' scared the tar out of me when i was in my mid-20s. Ah well - it's sad that they all seem to feel that going on TV to find out who their baby daddy is(or isn't as the case may be)is such a wonderful idea, especially when you bring in 3(or more) men and NONE of them turn out to be the guy. Sad sad - and really in most cases I would be just as happy, considering the loser guys I have seen, to raise the baby on my own. I would just tell the kid "I'm sorry Honey - I know it's been hard but I have no idea who your Daddy is, I was really drunk that night and I just don't know." All the more reason not to drink :)

Okay on to other things - I could go on for 15 pages on this topic. here are my final final pictures of the two fridges deal.

Here they are with the pantry with them:


I have more shots of the back room and how it looks now but I seem to have neglected to upload them and it's pretty messy anyway so I'm not gonna do it now either :)

I dog sat T again this weekend and S and he had a great time:
Here he is - my S's bestest doggie pal.

And here they are playing tug with one of M's abandoned slippers:


Here is pretty S, winner of the slipper:


T is a total sweety and I love dog sitting him but I am always happy to see him go home as well, 2 dogs really are too much for me in a long term situation.M hid somewhere pretty much the whole time T was here, he ate his food but we never saw him after T cornered him on K's bed the first hour he was here.

Speaking of M(before you think I'm talking about Evil M)I love this shot - it's adorable when M & S sleep on the bed together:and before you all think I have forgotten the fact I have kids, a token shot of my Evil M:Those blue eyes get her away with a lot. Good thing I love her, huh? :)

M had a vet appointment today as well and has another one in about a week to have a tooth pulled. The vet is making money off us on M again and since he's 10 now it's only going to get more profitable for them /sigh/. In other recent events; even though I really really didn't want to I did my 3km walk tonight, S really insists on her walks. I'm glad once I'm out there moving but it sure is a pain when I'm comfy in my computer chair!! I'm hoping to get S's new harness and leash in the next couple weeks and hope I don't end up owing tax at the door.

I'm sure there is more but as expected I can't remember. have a great night all - I'm going to bed!

Cass :)

A tale of two fridges ...

To solve my massive fridge space problem I decided to buy a second fridge(second hand of course) thus doubling both my fridge and freezer space. I kept this rather off-beat idea a secret from J so that I could do it and be done and not have any arguments with him about it. I found a fridge that a nice lady was selling and arranged with a mover to move the fridge the 10 km from her house to mine. I was told this small move would cost "$50 to $60" which isn't cheap but better than trying to move such a big heavy thing myself.

Everything was planned to go down yesterday so once J left for work I shifted things around to make room for the second fridge and was very excited to get it all done. I then walked the kids to school as usual and walked the dog. I relaxed the rest of the morning and went and got the kids from school and we had lunch. Then Mom, M and I went to Nice Lady's house and paid her for the fridge. The movers were late so Nice Lady and I chatted about stuff for a half hour until they arrived. It was a pleasant visit and I will do my best to focus on that instead of how the rest of the day went when I think about yesterday in the future.

The movers arrived a half hour late and loaded the fridge onto the van but then there was a delay while on of them talked to their boss on the phone, they asked for money so I gave them the $60 that they guy had told me. I went to find out what was taking the guy on the phone so long and he got off the phone and handed me a bill for $221!!! I flipped "I don't have this! Your boss told me $60!" the guy got his boss back on the phone and I proceeded to tell him the same thing; "You said $60 to move the fridge! It's a 10 km room, what is this?!?" So he says "I meant $60 deposit." I hung up on him and proceeded to tell the guys to take my fridge off their van and that I wanted my $60 back. Of course I used a few swearwords and this was at the top of my voice. The one guy was trying to get me to be quiet but I kept yelling. They took my fridge back off their van and refused to give me my $60 back and still handed me the $221 bill and had the gall to say I still owed that!!! I ripped it in half, crumpled it into a ball and threw it on the ground and told them to get out of my sight.

I was so mad I was shaking like a leaf, as you can imagine. I apologized to Nice Lady several times during and after my yelling at the crooked movers and told her I would be back for the fridge as soon as I could either yesterday or today. Nice Lady was very nice about the whole deal even though I had just thrown a huge fit in her driveway in her neighbourhood. I hope she knows how much I appreciate her kindness both in selling me the fridge and putting up with the confusion over pickup.

I got in the car where Mom and M were waiting and burst into tears(why do we women always have to cry when we're angry?!) and told her what had happened and then said "I'm sorry! What a mess!! Just take me home!!". On the way home I did my best to calm down but it wasn't easy. When I got home I called a couple of my friends to see who was around to help - one of them had offered to help me move the fridge and told me to cancel the movers on Friday and I didn't, now I wish I had! No one was home and Mom suggested we get my Grandfather to rent U-Haul van and a fridge dolly and move it ourselves so that is what we ended up doing.

We got the van and headed back to Nice Lady's house, luckily she was there as it was time to get kids at school by then, we left M at my friend J's house(Thanks again J!) and I had left a note for my other two when they got home. Once there Nice Lady said her husband had decided to pick up the kids at school so she was home, finally some luck! I'll tell you now; fridges are heavy - very heavy. With some help from Mom I got the fridge up the ramp and into the van and together we secured it so it wouldn't move while we drove. With a final apology and big thank you to Nice Lady we were on our way at last with my fridge!

Of course with anything getting it on the van is only half the job. I knew it was going to be way harder to haul the fridge up the 4 stairs into the house and swing it around and get into the kitchen. My house is very hard to get things into, although you'd never know it with the amount of stuff we have in here! Once up on the small back deck and nearly falling down the yard stairs we got the fridge swung around to go into the back room off the kitchen only to find that the door was in the way. So we removed the back door and were able to get the fridge into the back room. Once again we had to swing it around to get it thru the kitchen doorway but finally it was in!

I will tell you now yesterday I was tested to the limits of my temper as well as my strength. It took me every ounce of determination to pull that fridge up those 4 stairs and I will never move another fridge into or out of a house ever again and the next time a friend offers to help me I'll take it!!

Total costs: Fridge $100, To get the fridge home $110(60 to bad movers - 50 to U-Haul). I learn some expensive lessons $Priceless.

Okay now for the fun part; Pictures!!

The back room before moving stuff:

The back room after moving stuff:


My kitchen now(if you want before shots look at my House Tour Blog):

And a bad shot of me - I look at touch insane but I was going for very tired/happy/hope J doesn't yell at me:

I spent this morning cleaning my old fridge(which is the smaller one in the shots - the new one is where the old one was) and putting all the food where I want it. I have a hard time believing I had all that food in only one 18 cubic foot fridge.

Here are the final shots of both fridges:


And that's the whole story!!

Cass :)

Look! I made one bed into two(Sorry no pictures)...

Okay so my 4 year old has been complaining about sleeping in her own bed for a while so finally she had a fit last night and complained that K shook the bed and that bothered her. I think what bothers her is not being able to see her sister at night since she was above her.

Yup, was, it's been a while since I put the bunk bed together for K & M, I even Blogged about it. It was a very eventful day. Today was also a very eventful day - this morning I got up(reluctantly, I love fall but it makes me sleepy as well), took a shower, got dressed, made sure everyone ate something, and sawed that same bunk bed in two.

I did it right, measured and everything, even used a square to make sure my line was straight all the way around the parts I sawed. I impressed K with my strength when I removed the side rails from her part of the bed(it's pine and a well placed hit with my fist popped the dowels thru the side of the rails so I could remove them). Mostly I impressed myself by getting it all done. I had to move a couple wall mounted shelves, which is never fun when you have walls made of lath & plaster, but I did it with a minimum of yelling and swearing ... okay - make that moderate yelling and swearing.

That was almost all I managed to do today and I will have to try to play catch up tomorrow(starting with an extra long walk for S who got no walks today) - which includes laundry and housework as usual, yeah I've fallen off the clean wagon again.

This afternoon I had a rare Mommy afternoon out with my friend L who took me to see Momma Mia, which was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it a great deal. Now I have to go empty the kitchen composter into the big backyard one and send children to bed. I promise I will try to get those batteries charged for the camera soon as I know my posts are more fun with visual aids :)

Cass :)

Wow - a belated update.

Sorry it's been so long, I've been doing stuff and being lazy all at the same time. So same old same old.

School is now well underway and we're all falling back into a good routine and it's finally cooler out, yay!

About a week ago I went to help my Mom move all her worldly belongings into storage and she is now sharing A's room with him. I figure she'll be here as long as she's here at this point. So yeah 6 people, 1 dog and 1 cat can live peacefully in a 900 square foot house. Who knew?

Otherwise I don't have a whole lot to say. Life is what it is, everything is pretty much going the same as always. I'm happy, J is happy the kids are happy and the animals are happy. There you go.

So in short; school is back in, my Mom is living with us and we're all fine.

Cass :)

My son and his birthday(s)

Yup, my sweet boy, who I pushed shoved and needed assistance for getting into this world is now a whopping 8 years old. Yay! Sorry no pictures - the camera batteries died and I haven't gotten around to re-charging them yet so this one goes undocumented. Uh-huh, I'm a bad Mom.

Like with most things in life there is a story behind A's 8th birthday(s) - wondering about the plural? I'll explain in my usual long winded fashion:

A's birthday fell on a Friday this year so we decided we would celebrate on Saturday by inviting two of his classmates(chosen randomly from a list of 4 he could think of that he though would like to come watch Star Wars: Clone Wars with him) to go to the theater and watch a movie with him. I wrote a letter to each kid, they read:

"To: The Parent(s) of Invited Kid:

My son A would like Invited Kid to join him in watching Star Wars: Clone Wars on Saturday September 13 at the theater to celebrate his 8th birthday.

Due to budgeting only Invited Kid and one other boy has been invited. I need to hear back from you as soon as possible so a replacement guest can be chosen if Invited Kid can’t come. The boys will be coming to the house and my husband will take them to and from the theater.

When: Saturday September 13th at 11am
Where: Our House
Why: To celebrate A’s 8th birthday.

Please call me to confirm as soon as you can. Our phone number is ###-###-### or you can e-mail me at email@isp.ca

Sincerely, A’s Mom, Cass"

I thought that was perfectly clear - no one called. I asked A to remind his guests to remind their parents to call - no one called. I told A on the Wednesday before his birthday that it looked like no one was going to come and he seemed okay with the idea of just going to the show with his dad. I wasn't very happy though. A seemed a little bummed on his birthday though(the Friday)because even though it was his birthday nothing was going to happen. One of his guests had told him he had lost the invitation and so his family couldn't call, the other just never called, period. To cheer A up I called J at work and suggested he pick up McD's as a surprise dinner and we give him his gifts from his Nana on his actual birthday. I baked a cake. A was cheered up and we all had a lovely evening.

Saturday came and no kids showed up so A invited his big sister and he and J and K all went to see the movie which they enjoyed. When they came back we gave A the rest of his gifts(all pretty much Star Wars stuff) and he had a good day. So two birthdays, kinda, and no guests.

I'm still mad though - go figure - and the chocolate cake gave me a headache all last night and a good chunk of today. I guess A is fine though so that's the important thing. There is other news but I will cover it in a separate post, later, when I'm not feeling so tired and grumpy.

Cass :)

Being wrong and Knowing limits.

I am very foolish - B is back at the rescue he came from and I have come to the rude(and rather late) awakening to the fact I am currently at my person limit.

3 kids, 1 dog, 1 can and a house I can deal with, barely. Adding B was a huge mistake and now I have to spend the rest of the month explaining to everyone that I'm a big failure and dumb to boot.

So now he's looking for a home again - I sure hope he does better with his next one because I was sure a mess for him.

Cass :(

Bringing Home B - our first night and day.

Night One

After waiting at the shelter for almost an hour B finally was handed over to us all neutered and everything. Since I had been told and read that it's best to treat an adult rescue as I would a puppy I plan on spending at least the first week sharing a room with B at night. So now I am camped out in my son's room - he's up in his loft bed and I am on a mattress on the floor. The things I'll do for a doggie family members!

B so far: First thing I noticed is that he appears to be quiet, not a barky dog. That may change once he relaxes a bit.

Second thing is that he is very nervous/uncomfortable and can't seems to relax. He spent half the night standing next to my bed breathing on me! I wouldn't mind so much but it's hot here anyway and that didn't help. He did unbend enough to go lay on the bed I had put out for him a few times and I'm pretty sure he was licking his stitches but I was so tired by that point I was just glad he was laying down!

S also was a pester whining at the closed bedroom door because her dog buddy was being kept from her /sigh/ I only had to speak to her a few times. I also put B out every 2 hours or so during the night 2am,4am and 6am. Both dogs are currently outside now but being quiet so I figure all is well. They've given me time to post anyway.

So the journey starts - he really does have a beautiful temperament even wound up like he is right now I can see it. What a wonderful addition he is going to be! Any suggestions on how to make him comfortable would be great - I'll be taking both dogs for a walk once it's light enough to see.

Day One

B actually lay down 4 - 6 times today for short periods! At one point I swear he was falling asleep on his feet - his eyes slowly closed on him and then his head drooped. It was too funny!

S&B seem to be getting along pretty well - he sometimes pins her but she keeps pushing and at one point she mounted him so I think they are slowly working something out, what that is exactly I have no idea. I sure hope he sleeps tonight because even though I napped I am still pretty tired.

Pictures:

The dogs coming up the back steps


Some nice shots of B, yes he does have yellow eyes:




Getting ready for me to throw that ball:


My 4 year old took some pics as well, I always get a kick out of how her perspective is totally different than mine. As unflattering it is to see my backside from that angle I had to include all the shots she took.


Best for last - one only a 4 year old could have gotten: