Monday, April 30, 2007

Kim Possible!!!!

JJ has watched the cartoon Kim Possible a few times but it's not something she watches regularly. However, a few weeks ago when she spent the weekend with Nanny & Grampy, she suckered Nana into buying her a Kim Possible outfit. Since then she has been talking about Kim Possible.

This morning before leaving for work, I called KimMartha at home. Just was we were hanging up, JJ comes tearing into the room yelling "I want to talk! Can I say Hi?" while pulling on my arm to get the phone. I tried to end the conversation as fast as I could before JJ got the phone from me. After I hung JJ says "But Momma, I wanted to talk to Kim Possible." LOL...she really thought I was talking to Kim Possible. KimMartha is a teacher so I just said "Oh, well Kim had to leave for school." and JJ was satisfied with that.

I'm sooooo going store that in my arsenal for future use. I think the possibility of a chat with the real life Kim Possible will be powerfully persuasive.

Friday, April 27, 2007

So Bad Yet So Good

I know tanning is really bad for you but it's so relaxing. I don't normally go to a tanning salon unless I'm heading south. But today I threw caution to the wind and to Miami I went.

I'm reading the form they have you fill out and the whole process cracks me up. They give a list of things that make you a high risk tanner and if you say yes to a few of these they don't suggest you are a good candidate for tanning. Here are the criteria I remember:
* cancer runs if you family - not that I'm aware of
* you burn easily - Yup!
* you've had moles removed - Check!
* were born with many moles on your body - Of course!
* have a very fair complexion - Call me Casper!

So what did they say when I answered yes to all of these? "Do you want to start today?"

LOL...sign me up! My gravestone will say "She died of cancer but boy was she relaxed."

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Route 8

Ah, the infamous Route 8. I normally I only travelled Route 8 from Killarney Lake to Doaktown. The highway is known for being dangerous. It's narrow, curvy, heavily travelled by transport trucks ,and the road surface is in bad shape.

I travel Route 8 on a semi-regular basis and I don't like it. But I don't like it for a different reason than what I've listed above. I don't like it because there are precious few restrooms on the damn road from Boiestown to Fredericton. If usually get a large coffee on my way to Boiestown/Doaktown. If I don't hit the Boiestown Irving on my way home I'm out of luck.

Yesterday, I didn't think I needed to stop and was I sadly mistaken. I drove straight through and then made a detour in Durham. Well, by the time I left Durham I was in a bad way. I had so badly judged my need to stop at the Irv that I was shaking. I couldn't even sit in my seat properly for fear I would have an accident. And I don't mean the motor vehicle type.

So I say never mind the new highway, just put in more spot for pee breaks and it'll all be good...for me anyway. And a pot of coffee wouldn't hurt either...I'm just sayin'.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Scary Incident

A very scary incident took place at the swimming pool this morning while JJ was at swimming lessons. JJ's group was in the small warm pool and Eric and I were upstairs in the viewing area that was filled with other parents watching.

With about 5 minutes left of the lesson, I see one of the life guard come running, and I mean a full on run, across the pool deck. I'm watching her as she runs up on the side of the small warm pool. At this point I'm waiting for her to dive off the side of the warm pool into the big pool. It was obvious from her run and demeanor that someone was in trouble. The lifeguard gets on the the side of the small pool, reaches over and grabs my daughter. She rescued my daugther. Not someone else's child. Mine.

Okay, deep breath, I'm trying not to cry as I write this. I could see JJ swimming around but I was way upstairs. Then I started watching the lifeguard when she was running. The lifeguard was running to save my child. My 3 1/2 year old child who was in a small pool with a lifeguard beside her. Unfortunately, he had his back to her. Shit, the more I type this the more I shake and the harder it is to type.

I've spoken to the teacher one time before because JJ was bouncing all over the pool and he wasn't telling her to listen. I told him not to be afraid to talk to her about it. His only answer was "She's a very good swimmer." Eric and I both go to swimming every week and I've told E before that it concerns me that the teacher has his back to the kids sometimes. I think the teacher pays less attention to her because she is a good swimmer.

Swimming was at 9 am and it's now 3 pm and I am still very emotional thinking about it or talking about it. In fact, I couldn't even tell anyone what happened until about 45 mins ago. I can't believe my child could have drowned with her father and I watching from upstairs and in a pool with a lifeguard. I will be addressing this with the pool but I can't do it today. I'm far to emotional for that.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Whaddya know...

Hmmm...it turns out the board at the restaurant with the blue door was right. Spring has Sprung. It it wasn't a cruel joke after all and they did know something I didn't. I'm so happy to see the sun yesterday and today. I'm going to be even happier when I see it tomorrow.

So what does a Princess do to celebrate the sun? She goes shopping of course. New capris and a sleeveless shirt for me. Yay me! I really have to make a point to stay away from stores. Yesterday I bought the Littlest Princess a good portion of her summer wardrobe. Darn kid keeps growing. It is almost beyond my comprehension when I hear other parents say that clothes from last summer still fit this year. Good lord, JJ's pants from December are too short. I'm not kidding. At her 3.5 year assessment earlier this week, they told me she is 43 inches tall and 47 lbs. They said her height and weight are perfectly in proportions with each other. However, those numbers are off the chart. Meaning she is in the most upper percentile of height and weight for children her age. I worry she'll be teased about this when she goes to school. But I have a plan, I will have Mr Princess beat up the father of any kid that picks on her. ;)
Anyway, we are headed to my parent's deck for the first BBQ and Friday drink of the summer. Tomorrow I'm going to sit outside in a lawn chair wearing flip flops. Even if my chair is in a snowbank. I'm done with winter. And that is that.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Noticeable

I notice things. I notice things that other people don't. I can't help it. I don't try to pick things apart or to scrutinize. Things just jump out at me. I'm not sure if this is a good quality or a bad quality. I'm sure it drives people crazy by times but it also works in my favour at times. I don't necessarily notice bad things. Just things.

I tend to notice people's shoes, rings, and earrings quickly. I might not know what you wore yesterday but I likely noticed your shoes. For example, I know that KimMartha wears rings on 3 fingers. I know that Mel wears more rings when she dresses up.

I also tend to notice habits. Nic always gets 2 packages of the same gum. Okay, in all fairness, Nic gets everything in pairs. But it is always the same gum. Shelley does the same motion with her hands when she is explaining something. The list goes on.

So the point here is that I notice alot of things. Today I noticed someting new. I have a mole on my hand with a hair growing out of it. I bet you didn't see that one coming.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Sugar Bugs

Yesterday JJ went for her 3.5 year assessment at Public Health. She went through it with flying colors and was even bored at points.

The nurse asked me if I had any concerns about JJ. I brought up her speech. JJ does really well for the most part. She has no problems with R, L sounds or any of the other sounds that are typically challenging for a child. However, JJ does lisp when she says an S sound and it is rather awkward when she says a word like MINT that has an "NT" combination. I've studied her speech (c'mon you knew I would) by watching her when she speaks. She can't seem to relax her tongue. It pushes up against the top of her 2 front teeth. Try saying an S sound or MINT like that and you'll see what I mean. Okay, I'll wait while you do it......

So anyway, the nurse gets her to say a few S words and then mint and the little bugger proves me a liar. I wasn't actually that surprised. I've noticed that over the last few weeks her speech has improved vastly. At one point over the weekend, I was talking to her on the phone and I'm not sure I would have recognized her voice if I hadn't called her.

As part of the assessment, the nurse showed JJ pics of healthy goods and a happy smiling tooth. On the other side of the page was a sad tooth covered in "sugar bugs" and pics of junk food. JJ was quite enraptured by the sad tooth with the sugar bugs. She kept asking the nurse to see it again.

Last evening when we got home, she started asking about the sugar bugs. She asked me to check her teeth repeatedly to see if there were any sugar bugs. When I said no, she wanted to know if they were in the house. The child is now OBSESSED with sugar bugs. Before she will eat anything, she asks me if it has sugar in it and will is give her sugar bugs. She will NOT eat anything with sugar for fear of sugar bugs. It sounds good on the surface but my child has a wee bit, just tiny, very small, almost don't know it's there dramatic flair. Sugar bugs could become an issue. I will say no more to avoid jinxing myself.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Got an Ark?

It's raining something out there, let me tell you. I've been in and out all day and I still have yet to dry out from my first outing early this morning. My hair is wet and stringy, my bangs have taken on a life of their own, my pant legs are wet up to my knees, and my boots are just holding tanks for cold water. But such is life in the Maritimes. Just smile and run like hell to get out of the rain.

Mr. Princess and I went to a local restaurant for lunch. I'll give you a hint. It has a blue door :) They have a large chalkboard on the wall that has "Spring has Sprung!" in big old letters. My first reaction was "WHERE???????" I thought for sure that restaurant knew something the rest of us don't. I was hoping my server would tell me where to find spring when she brought us the cheque but no dice. I guess I'll keep looking. To be honest, I thing it was just a cruel, cruel joke. Either that or the writer of that particular message has lost their sense of touch, sight, sound. I'm pretty sure they've never had a sense of humour...otherwise they wouldn't have written that damn message to begin with.

Edit - I was so cold after lunch that I asked my dad to bring me a sweater after his lunch. We work in the same building but for different departments. Anyway, he brings me a knit atrocity that is 5 sizes too big and is covered in dog hair. The dog has been dead for at least 2 years. Oye.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Thank You

This may be a bit presumptuous but I'm posting this here in the event that any of the ladies from the crop this weekend read my blog. If anyone does read it, will you pass my message on to anyone else you know that was at the crop? I'd really appreciate it.

The ladies who attend our Diva Crop this weekend got together and hatched a plan. After our opening remarks, one of the ladies took over the podium and presented each of the committee members with a gift certificate to Avalon Spa. The entire committee was all so touched. I don't think I've ever seen 9 women all start to cry so quickly. I instantly had tears running down my face. The certificate to the spa was wonderful. But more touching was that these ladies thought enough of us to do this for us. I know Karen and Mary Kay were involved in spear heading this project.

I want to thank each and everyone one of the ladies involved in making this surprise happen for us. I wanted to go around and give each and everyone of you a big thank you hug. I'm getting teary again writing this. I'm not usually a big cryer but I just can't believe you did this for us. We have always thought everyone enjoyed the weekend crops but this certainly validated it for us. You probably have no idea how much your actions and kind words have touched each and every one of us committee members.

Angela and Eleanor - thank you for the sweet cards. Thank you for your kind words and for thinking of us.

Each time we have one of these events, participants comment on how much work must go into the weekends. My answer is always the same - Yes, a lot of work and planning does go into it but we really have so much fun doing it. My answer probably sounds like a cliche but it's so true. I only wish you could be a fly on the wall at our meetings where we laugh so hard our stomachs hurt. I wish you could have seen Nicole and I on Thursday afternoon at the store. We were surrounded by tonnes of boxes, totally overwhelmed, no idea where to start and both of us giggling with the same "oh my, what do we do now" nervous giggle. But we were still laughing and having fun.

Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for your kindness and a great weekend.

Monday, April 09, 2007

Is it Time for Work Yet?

Oye. It's been a loooooong day. I love my daughter dearly but today was trying.

Last Saturday, JJ was running through the kitchen and took a spill. Neither the Mister or I saw her fall and just came running when we heard the ear-splitting scream. My kid is tough as nails and if she screams or cries, she is hurt. We ran into to the kitchen and she is bawling saying her foot hurt. She couldn't walk on it and it hurt to touch it. We elevated and iced her foot and gave her some motrin for the pain. She limped on it for a few days but it didn't seem to slow her down. We figured she just twisted something. She was able to rotate her ankle, point her toes, etc so we knew it wasn't broken.

Fast forward to this weekend. She was still limping on Friday and I decided it needed to be looked at by a doctor. I tend to be obsessive compulsive once I get something in my head. I worried about that foot all weekend and was going to call the doctor Tuesday when they re-open. Well, doesn't she take a spill yesterday. F***! Now the foot is swollen and he limp is even worse. She is alright after we ice it but it isn't long before that wears off.

We've been trying to keep her quiet and off the foot all weekend. Especially after she re-injured it yesterday. I'm telling you it's like trying to get the sun not to shine. We haven't taken her out to play because we don't want her walking on the foot. Especially on ice and snow. I can't begin to tell you how many times I had to ask her not to do things today. She as so much pent up energy and no way to release it.

Our night ended with her biting my finger. She is 3 1/2 years old! She knows better than to bite. I was telling he a story (I make up a story every night about her Ducky) and at the very end she reaches over and bites my damn finger. WTF?? I didn't even finish the story. I got up, told her I was done because she bit me and I left. She came out once, I explained again what was happening and sent her back to bed.

I feel bad because I know she *must* have been frustrated today too, not to mention all that unreleased energy. But, seriously, biting me?!?! What is up with that??

I'm calling the doctor first thing in the morning to have that foot looked at. I hope she has a better day tomorrow.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

It's All Over Now

The Easter Bunny came bright and early to the Princess household. I mean 5:50 am kind of early. Oye. Christmas morning we have to wake her up but this morning JJ's up before the birds.
We bought her a new bike for Easter. Mr. Princess and I were totally excited about the bike. It's awesome. We didn't exactly get the reaction we were hoping for from the Littlest Princess. She said "Oh, the Easter Bunny got me a bike. And an Ariel snowglobe." Ugh.

Here she is seeing the bike for the first time. She was quite non-chalant about the experience. We're going to let her drive it in the garage later.
Well, I'm now trying to talk myself into going to start the turkey. Blech. Turkey is not one of my favourite foods to begin with. And sticking my hand inside it displeases my like you can't imagine. I'm a bit of a germophobe to start with and I don't like getting my hands dirty. So putting my hand inside of a dead turkey doesn't exactly tickle my fancy. I can clean up puke or whatever but I don't like putting my hand inside the turkey. Call me what you like...it makes me squeamish. But here I go to do it any way.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that we has souvlaki for for supper last night. LOL...JJ was less than impressed and refused to eat it. I guess that is the result when you name your buddies after food.

Friday, April 06, 2007

What a Trip

I've been more involved with Facebook over the past few days. When I first found out about it, I wasn't that gung-ho on it. I already have email and this blog so I didn't feel I need yet one more thing to look at on the internet. Well, here we are a few weeks later and I'm hooked.

I guess it took making a connection with a few key people to really get me hook line and sinker. I have been in contact with my "core" group of friends that I hung around with in high school. I have to say that over 10 years later and I can't believe how much I've missed them. I've really only been in contact with them over the last 48 hours and it is somewhat mind boggling to me. I'm very surprised the emotion it has all stirred up. A couple of us are talking about together sometime. I really hope we can get most of the group to meet up. It would certainly be a trip down memory lane.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Music

My cousin left a comment the other day suggesting I check out www.theevolutionofdance.com on if I had the Monday blues. Well, I cheated and watched it on a Tuesday. It was hilarious!! The guy dancing hit the moves spot on for every song. I highly recommend it for your viewing pleasure.

While I was watching the clip, I could remember the times in my life that went along with every song. It's incredible the way just a few notes from a song can evoke some many feeling, emotions, memories and reactions.

I was standing at the scrapbook store the other day and an Aerosmith song came on. I said to Nic "Doesn't this song just make you want to toss your hair around?" That's really what that song did to me. Some songs make me want to get up and dance as hard as a can, some make me want to wrap myself around a pole, others make me want to sing as loud as I can, while still others make me sing softly.

The song America Pie, the Madonna covered version, takes me straight back to maternity leave. I only had to sing a few bars of the song to calm JJ as a baby. It worked almost every time. I sang that song so often that I thought it was imprinted in my brain forever and that I would never, ever forget the words. A few years later and I can only remember a few words.
On the flip side, I can remember other songs word for word that don't really have any significance for me.

Some songs bring particular people to mind. Richard Marx "Right Here Waiting" reminds me of Shelley...we listened to this over and over. Extreme "More than Words reminds me of Janet...not be allowed to play the song because it reminded her of someone. Outkast "Hey Ya"...as a 6 mth old JJ loved this song...as a 9/10 mth old she shook maracas and bopped to this song. The list goes on and on....I probably have a song that reminds me of just about everyone.

Hmmm....does anyone else car dance? Just wondering...

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

The Family that Parties

If you look at the links on the left of the screen, you will notice one called Not the Favourite who happens to be my sister. I read her most recent blog and got a really good laugh from it. Mel read it and called me. She asked "How did you guys get to be like that?" The truth is...it's a family thing. And I don't mean just me immediate family...it my extended family too. Yup, there are more out there like me. I was telling Mel about some of our family parties/incidents and she requested that I write about it. Here is a small glimpse into our fun family...NO NAMES!!

* My extended family used to get together at my parent's house on Christmas Eve. We don't do this any more because we have children which makes it tough to have them out late on Christmas Eve and there are too many of us to fit into my parent's house. There are 2 things that come to mind from Christmas Eves past 1) a cousin peeing on her skirt...you know who you are 2) my aunt and uncle saying they were going home to turn the bird (meaning their turkey that was cooking) and me turning that around to be a dirty comment. That comment still lives.

* We are Irish folk on my mom's side of the family and boy do we like to celebrate our heritage. We used to have great St. Patty's day parties until our elders turned into snowbirds...damn them! See me shaking my fist at them. Anyway, our parties tend to involve beverages which result in very happy, fun people. One year a happy, drunk cousin tried to convince the rest of us to play arse darts. Can't imagine why that didn't catch on. That was the same year I didn't notice the buttons on my shirt were undone.

* More than once my dad, my sister, and I have been the only people on the dance floor. We don't hold back.

*My cousin and I often used to hit the dance floor in our own style. Just incase she sitting there wondering "Is that me?" Yes, yes it is...she also split open her pants on the dance floor more than once. Incidentally, this is the same one who wanted to play arse darts. Oh...I can hardly type I'm laughing so hard.

* More than once I've attended wedding receptions with my family where we've been the last people on the dance floor at 1 am, left, and found somewhere esle to keep the party going.

* My father enjoys doing the Macarena and the bird dance. You can dress them up but...

* One of my family members makes horse noises when they've had too much to drink. Oh, I'm just dying writing this.

* One of my family members got so liquored at my wedding shower that her small dog sat on her to protect her and wouldn't let anyone near her. I should say this was at the after-shower party.

* I once asked my dad to get me a drink of water at a party. He must have been trying to teach me a lesson about being a lazy. I took a great big drink of water and found out it was pure vodka. I was in my 20's.

* People who marry into the family become like us. Mr. Princess breaks out his own funky dance moves after he's had a few. Churn the Butter, Drive the Bus, the Sprinkler, the Chainsaw, and the Wheelchair are just a few of his classic moves. Envision him dancing just like the name of the dance move. Eventually, he gets everyone doing it with him.
I actually have lots more but I think that's enough. So we like to have fun...big deal. At least we all like each other!!

Monday, April 02, 2007

It's Monday. Yay.

I'm not one that normally dislikes Mondays. But boy did today start off with a bang.

We were busy but fine leaving the house. I had to take everything but the kitchen sink with me this morning. Daycare drop off was no problem. Getting in and sitting at my desk was a breeze. Without getting into specifics, I got bitched out this morning for no good reason. I was just minding my own business and bam! I got sucked in the middle between 2 people. I'm a helper by nature but, unfortunately, that will be reigned in from now on . I will stick to being helpful to a select group and that's it. The rest can stick it. Bad attitude yes but I'm sick of bitchy civil servants with a chip on their shoulder. I won't let them drag me down...they've gotta catch me first.

Then I started working on a complicated task that is overwhelming me. I just need some guidance. Once my super co-worker with the patience of a saint returns to correct my errors, I'll be back on track.

My tax return is lost in cyberspace. I received a letter saying my refund was deposited but hence it's not in my accounts. It's not that I need the cash but it disturbs me that the revenue agency can't find it and neither can the bank. Ahhhh...just another case of them asking my family to bend over and take it. Seriously, they have my parents, my sister and I blacklisted. Some perverse sicko is sitting in an office somewhere laughing. On a slow day at the office, he/she thinks "Oops, the Princess family is starting to think they are in the clear. Time for action, boys!" And we bend over once more...

I'm drinking my second coffee of the day. Tims. I cannot drink Tims any longer. It makes my stomach hurt. While you must be thinking "OMG, the poor girl! What will she do without Tim's?!?!" This is actually good news. At least it's one more clue as to what I can avoid eating. Any other coffee seems fine.

I'm starting to come around now. It'll all work out...it always does.