The new snail is dead...

I repeat the new snail is dead however, I have managed to avoid a nuclear meltdown by saying the she COULD possibly be sleeping. Apparently, she is a VERY tired snail.

Definitely NOT a morning person

Here I sit, 6:30 A.M., eating a bowl of packaged, instant oatmeal that leaves me desiring, well, the real stuff. However, not being a morning person I can't seem to wrap my brain into being concious enough to do that-perhaps if it were 8 or 9. Why on earth am I up at this hour? Why? Oh yeah, someone decided we needed to work for a living instead of just being cute (* grin *).

I don't think I would be quite so tired but it has been a busy few days at work. I went there for a shift Thursday night and left agreeing to work everyday since up to and including today. Thursday I was cleaning all the discharges and did 12 rooms (after 11 they tell you that you don't have to clean the room completely), Friday night I did 19 and last night, thankfully, I only had 8. This was all on top of cleaning the lab. Now, don't get me wrong, the work was great (perhaps a bit stressful on Friday and I did threaten to cry if I got one more phone call but...); being busy like that really makes the night fly by. The thing that I don't like is coming home from work at 11:45 P.M. and needing to be back at work for 7:30 A.M. the next day.

It is my own fault though; I agreed. Technically I agreed to a Sunday night shift but I couldn't work it as we are celebrating Jenn's 18th birthday today; so, I switched shifts with someone. Ah, once I get there and wake up a bit I will be fine.

Really though, I don't think I have EVER been a morning person. I will clean house at 1 and 2 in the morning. Usually I blog and surf at night too. My jobs have been mainly night jobs. Bill on the other hand is a morning person and a few years ago, one of those incredibly annoying morning people. More often than not I wanted to shoot him when he came bounding into the room gleefully screaming "Get up! Get up! It's a beautiful morning!" while bouncing on the bed. Yeah, one thing to say to that, "Bang!!".

I have to admit, I think I am getting better. I have managed to make a coherent sentence or two while writing this and I think I even spelled coherent correctly. I do think, in retrospect, that this is the reason I never passed my grade 12 math...it was first thing in the morning!!! I failed, not because I didn't understand, gave up and refused to apply myself or even try anymore; I failed because it was a conspiracy against me, from the very beginning, by the school's administration. Yeah...that's it...

Anyway, see you everyone and have a great day. (I am so wishing I could phone a couple of my friends and say "Get up! Get up! It's a beautiful morning!" but, I would REALLY like to keep them as my friends so I think I will pass.)

Good News on the Home Front

I phoned my claims adjuster today about the van because I hadn't heard anything and it had been 2 weeks since I had reported it. As you may remember, the guy who hit me had 7 days to respond to her letter to report his side of the story (and if you didn't remember, pay more attention. *grin*). Anywho, I called her and left a message and by noon she had called me back stating that the gentleman who hit me was indeed a gentleman and admitted 100% liability. Whew!!! As soon as I get my letter from her stating my liability is clear I will be taking my van to my cousin's body shop to be fixed. I was surprised to learn that while the van is in for repair that I will also be getting a rental car, for free, for 2 days.

Thank God. I was a little stressed out about it because, sure, the van is drivable but I don't want it looking like that and I am going to have to replace my windshield sooner than later as the chip I got (and fixed at the window repair place) has decided to resurface during the cold weather and also decided to begin spidering across the window. This leads me to believe it will grow by leaps and bounds once we get our COLD weather. As a side note, I got the darn chip from a truck driver throwing rocks while driving too fast on a gravel road. Sheesh!

It is an honor to have someone named after you...

We had a snail that we were given and it was HUGE (as far as snails go, I guess). I think we would have been hard pressed to get it into a glass, if we had wanted to. This snail originally began its life with our family named after Billy; the kids felt it appropriate because they saw the snail "trip", so to speak. After my grandma got sick they felt the need to change the snail's name to Freddy (my grandma's nickname). A few days ago I discovered Freddy was missing and searched through the tank for him, er, her, er, it. I found Freddy stuck, wedged actually, in the bottom of the log we have in the tank. Apparently the top was big enough for him to get in but there was no way for the dear thing to get out. Freddy was deceased and Hallie, especially, was devestated.

Hallie decided that this meant that Grandma was going to die too. After trying to reason with her that that had no bearing on Grandma living or dying, I told her that snails were very useful in our tank to help keep it clean and she could help me pick out a new one and could name it if she wanted. She decided on Freddy 2 and thought it was great that she could choose the snail.

We went to WalMart two days ago to make the purchase and Hallie was having a day where she missed Billy and Natalie a lot. We picked out a snail and I somehow got rouked(spelling?) into buying a little frog. (In my defense, he is a cute little thing.)

Hallie knows that she is named after my Grandpa, her Uncle Shawn and her Uncle Perry. She also knows that Aren is named after my Grandma, my dad and his brother, Daniel. We have told her it is because these people she was named after are very special to us.

This became her logic in naming our new snail and our frog. It is my privelege to introduce to you the newest two members of our family (and no, I don't have pictures) Billy the Frog and Baby Natalie the Black Mystery Snail. (Yes, it is called a Black Mystery Snail.)

So, Billy...Natalie...know that you are loved enough to have some cute little underwater creatures named after you. And I just pray to God that these guys don't expire in the next little while.

Take a gander...

...at what $1300.00 will get you.

It still completely floors me that it is going to cost that much in repairs to fix this thing. Thank God for insurance and keep praying that this man 'fesses up to his responsibility and he can pay the deductible.

The fear of hockey...players

Hallie and I went out, just the two of us and got a couple of ice creams and while we were enjoying them a young hockey player came into the store, about 10 years old. Hallie immediately figured he was mean and was planning on hurting her because of her episode with Mr. PunkBrat a few days ago at the rink. I tried to explain to her that not all hockey players are mean or are jerks. She didn't really want to believe me, perhaps her experience combined with the experiences she has heard that I have had with our local hockey team put up a little road block in her mind from accepting this as truth.

We asked her if Daddy, Marc, Pastor Shane or Uncle Shawn were mean and she confidently replied "No!". I think it sunk in when we then told her that they were all hockey players and still do enjoy hockey.

If that doesn't work I may show her the footage of Mr. Mark Messier's emotional hockey moment today. What a great guy! What a role model that some unmentioned hockey players should look to for inspiration and for how to truly play the game.

Excuse me, Sir, I must have fluff in my ear

You know, just like Winnie the Pooh...?

I went to the claims assessor tonight to assess the damage on the van. I think I may have lost consiousness for just a minute when he told me how much damage that guy caused because he was in too big of a hurry to use his mirrors!!!! MY only prayer is that this gentleman is a gentleman and tells the truth when he is forced to fill out a report. The damage from his hitch is $1300!!!!!! I could buy a car for that. That would pay for a trip to Kansas!!! Like for Billy's wedding! $1300!!!


$1300....

I am in absolute shock!

$1300......

A Little Tee'd Off..But I Should Get Over It

I got called into work this morning and after completely waking up and getting over the "my original plans for the day have been ruined" mood I created for myself, I got myslef and Aren ready and headed off to the sitter and then to work. My day went really well aside from the fact that I didn't have time to make my lunch and was forced to eat hospital cafeteria food which was particularily disgusting today. I made a new friend, two actually. I was working in the senior's home which is part of the hospital and one little old lady, who seemed to have an aversion to the nurses today, wanted me to give her a laxative and only me. I gently pursuaded her that she (and her butt) would be better off if we got someone who knew what they were doing and off I went to clean rooms. As I was just finishing my shift my second new friend, another elderly lady, called me over to her chair where she grabbed my nametag, which was firmly affixed around my neck, pulled me down, gave me a big kiss on the cheek and proceeded to tell me that I was so sweet to visit her and that she loved me so much. (Sad that she got that much enjoyment from a "forced" visit from a stranger and I wondered if her family came to visit her much; I also wondered if my grandfather had been that lonely when he was in there and that made me feel close to heartbroken.)

I found out that I wouldn't be getting called in any more this week (exluding the shifts I all ready know about) as I am maxed out on my hours. It is nice to know that I won't be getting any calls first thing in the morning and that I won't have my mind racing to quickly figure out what day and time it is and if I will actually be able to come into work...at least for the remainder of this week.

4:00 came and I was so pleased; I was going to be able to pick up Cherish from piano and Hallie from dance and it just felt good because I haven't been able to do that in a really long time. I stopped at the job board to see if there were any new postings that I could apply for-applied for a couple of long shots but thought to myself I definitely won't get it if I don't even apply and was out the door into the "fresh" air to begin my commute home.

I was following an elderly gentleman in a half-tonne out the drive way and towards the road. He stopped. I stopped. We waited for traffic to go by. Two trucks happened to be turning into the hospital and this old man decided that he was too far out on the road for them to drive past him (which one of them had all ready been successful at). To rectify this (ahem) "problem" he decided to back his truck up, very quickly and, without looking behind him to see if there was anyone back there (like ME!!!) and he proceeded to back right into my van. I had laid on the horn 3 times and was in the process of putting the van in reverse when he whacked me. There is a nice hitch sized hole in my front bumper now. You can see the outline of the entire hitch but only 3 of the 4 sides pierced the bumper.

I got his name and number and plate number and all that jazz but I had no other idea how to go about dealing with this. While talking to him I think I was a little numb because there just didn't seem to be any reaction to what had happened at all; it was like this happened all the time-no big deal. The longer I was in the van driving to get the kids, the more frustrated I got that this had even happened and wondering if he was going to be honest when we talk to the insurance company or what...

I was late picking the girls up so I wound up going about getting them in such a backwards, loopy, completely unlogical way because I knew that Hallie would be more upset about me not being there to get her and would panic before Rush would. So I was pretty well an hour late to get Rush from her lesson...sorry Dix and in a bad mood to boot.

Tomorrow I get to take the car in to see what the heck is going to happen, I guess and file a report or whatever the heck you do when someone smashes into you. Wish me luck and pray that I don't lose my temper...

Skating...

Today Jenn, Cherish, Hallie and I went skating at an outdoor rink. The way they have it set up there is a rink enclosed in boards where the "hockey" people are supposed to be so little people don't get hit by pucks or sticks. Just outside of the rink they have a little flooded area that is specifically designed for these little people who are just learning how to skate.

This was Hallie's first time on skates EVER and so, she was a little leary. Two tuff guys, well, one tuff guy (now known as Mr. Punkbrat) and his little twerpy follower (now known as Mr. "I'm with him" were playing hockey on the preschooler part and slapshoting the puck off the boards so it was bouncing all over the place. Another mom and I asked these boys to at least stay on the other half of this area so no one got hurt. Mr. "I'm with him" moved immediately while Mr. Punkbrat decided to gun us down and swear at us. Eventually other mom and I gunned him to the point that he felt uncomfortable enough to go where he was supposed to be. At this point the little brat (who is as tall as I am when he is on skates) started flipping the puck out of the rink and at Hallie and I.

I saw red and threw his puck out into the playground; if he was going to do it again he at least had to walk through a foot of snow to get his puck to do so. Much swearing and pottymouthing ensued, all directed towards me and I called him a little boy and told him that perhaps he should show a little respect or I would tune him in. He and his little goons then decided that they were going to put their sticks away for awhile so they could skate on this side and were going to trip Hallie every chance they got. They never had the chance.

One dad that was there with his children was trying to help because he really didn't want his kids to get hurt by these kids either and he had all ready been hit by Mr. Punkbrat's stick. There were several hockey dads in the "hockey" rink and not one of them would try to rein this kid...er, brat in. It got to the point that these kids were being vicious enough that I got on the phone and called Bill who came to talk to him and he ran away. It was not until then (and Bill calling one of the dads a tough guy too) that any of these "hockey" dad's decided that they should get involved.

It turns out that the one dad who then did get involved is our dear ward leader and a wonderful, wonderful (oh, insert sarcasm here) neighbor to our good friends. We had so much fun.

So here is my pet peeve (and then I will put up some pictures of Hallie skating): Do I really need to hire protection just to take my kids skating? Is that not ridiculous that we need to fear for these little kids because some parents have not taught their children enough respect? They have no respect for themselves, for others, for life...for anything....

I will go back to this skating rink and just to prove to this kid that we weren't afraid of him, we wouldn't leave until after he did (and besides that Hallie wanted to finish "practicing")...but anyway

Here are the pictures I took of Hallie. She had SO much fun aside from the "attempt on her life" .

She can't wait to go back
and didn't really want to
leave in the first place.
I have to admit, "episode" aside, I had a really good time with the girls too.

New Years Resolutions

Ok, It's been a while and I WILL update everyone REAL soon but first a couple thoughts on resolutions...

How many times do we resolve something and have it last a month, maybe two? How many times do we have great expectations only to have the carpet pulled out from under our feet?

My step-mom made a resolution this year to not make any resolutions. I immediately pointed out to her that her resolution had failed instantly upon making it.

I am resolving for realism so this year my resolutions are:
To gain weight.
To start smoking and...
To take up drinking.......

Perhaps these ones won't fail

but

I

am

really

glad

it

is

just

my

humor

shining

through

and

not

really

my

resolution.