I Had a Vision

For once I had a vision and it actually worked out. This is not normally the case. Things don't usually turn out the way I see it in my head.

JJ and I are starting completely from scratch with Christmas decorations. As of 2 weeks ago, all we had was a Christmas pickle (thanks Jay!) and a Christmas wine stopper (mine...not JJ's). We have decided to go in a completely new direction. Think color and sparkle. None of that stodgy old monochromatic stuff for us. We felt we needed some pizzaz.

On to the vision. A few months ago I came up with the idea of wiring groups of Christmas balls together to make cluster. Then I thought I would put the clusters on the tree as a base. Much to my surprise, it turned out just the way I envisioned it. We are using only 5 colors on the tree (I had to have some standards). We're using red, silver, green, blue, and purple. The clusters have 4 balls each and the color combos are whatever I grabbed. I love how it looks and I'd like to do the entire tree like this. However, my dear daughter is very excited to put more on. So, of course, that is what we will do and it will be beautiful!

Here are some photos and they do not do the tree justice. It doesn't look as skinny in real life. I got the tree at Michael's last week. I didn't not look as glittery when it was waaaaay up on the display shelf. I'm going to be glittery for months. Maybe it will give my personality some sparkle.

Top part of the tree:

Whole tree:

Cluster:

That creative flow from this morning came to a very abrupt halt around 2:30 pm. The phone rang and JJ's father said "JJ need to go to the hospital." I immediately asked where they were. He told me about the accident and said he needed to get her stuffed animal and then she needed me. I told him I would meet them at his house.

They had gone sliding at a friend's house this afternoon. Apparently, they got about 15 mins of sliding in and she had an accident. She was going the hill by herself and hit a rock (as big as her) head first. He said she hit so hard that she flew backwards into the air. She split her head open and hurt her foot.

I arrived to see her and she enough her head was split open. I could immediately see that it needed stitches. Bad thing to say. She started screaming that it would hurt. Right or wrong, I told her it would hurt but only for a second while they gave her medicine to take the pain away. I don't believe in lying to her. Her foot was injured too and she couldn't stand on it at all. Off the ER we go.

There was a huge waiting period at the hospital but she needed her head look at. We waited about 3 hours in the waiting ear. I just say the LPN (Marion) on duty was fantastic. She was very helpful and compassionate too. She bandaged JJ's head to keep the wound from drying out and it was hilarious. I wish I had a picture but grabbing my camera was the last thing on my mind. Finally, they offered to glue her head for us. By that point she could stand on her foot a bit, wiggle her toes and rotate her ankle. It was mildly swollen but nothing horrible. I told them to glue her head and we would call our doctor about the foot tomorrow.

The nurses started to clean her head wound and tears started to well up in JJ's eyes. She held my hand but you could tell it hurt. She loves to sing so I told her that when I hurt I sing to make the pain go away. So right there in the middle of the ER, we weren't in a room...we were just behind the triage desk, I started to belt out Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. I didn't even try to keep my voice low. I just let it go. JJ sang along with me and by the time we finished the song the glue was done. As I got her coat on to leave, she started to sing the song again and looked up at me and said "It stings." and she kept right on singing. I almost cried.

She is such a brave little kid. I made her laugh hysterically at one point in the waiting room. I looked at her with fake surprise and said "I can't believe you hit a rock head first and that tooth STILL didn't come out!!" She thought that was hilarious.

Mish Mash of Stuff

I have my internet homepage set to Yahoo and when I got online this morning I saw an article that made me chuckle. The headline is that a woman was charged for careless driving. What was so careless you ask? She was trying to eat a bowl of cereal while driving. I know you think I'm going to ream her for trying that, right? Wrong. I've tried to eat soup while driving. Not from a fast food place either. In a bowl I brought from home. Let me tell you, it's not easy to eat soup while speeding down Route 8 because you're late.

I woke up with a bit of a creative itch this morning. That is big news in itself (is that grammatically correct?). I've been so creatively stunted lately that it's driving me crazy. I have nothing to say let alone to write about. I have no desire to make or send Christmas cards. In fact, I think I'm going to get rid of my stamping supplies. The same unfinished scrapbook layout sat on my table for over a month Decorating is not even on my radar. Clean is good enough for me.

I think the bug bit yesterday. I finished the layout. It just needed a title and I even had the title in my head. I just didn't have the motivation to put it on paper. After that, I used some scraps to decorate an empty coffee can in a Christmas motif. This morning I woke up at 6:45 to watch cartoons with the Littlest Princess. After she left with her Dad at 8:30 am, I did an entire layout. Yup, a whole one. Then I saw the Yahoo article and decided to blog.

I need to get up and do something else before this creativity escapes me again. Who needs a shower anyway? I'll just rub some glitter on myself and call it pretty.

For the Love of Money

I've mentioned in the past that my 5 year old daughter loves money. She especially loves toonies because they have a "golden middle" and pink and golden are her favourite colours, you know.

JJ lost her first tooth in August while camping with my parents in Shediac. Unfortunately she swallowed the tooth and boy was she pissed about it. All ended well because Grampie helped her write a letter to the Tooth Fairy explaining the situation. The money left behind by the Tooth Fairy left a lasting impression on my daughter. Teeth equal Toonies. It's that simple.

A few months ago, I realized that JJ had 5 more loose teeth. From that day forward, it has been her mission to get those teeth out of her head and under her pillow. She plays with them constantly and 2 of them have been hanging by a string for weeks now. Wednesday night, JJ had been in bed for 45 mins when I heard her yell like her pants were on fire. She came charging out of her room yelling that she pulled her tooth out. She was beyond herself with excitement. So we put the tooth under her pillow and, sure enough, the tooth fairy came in the night.

Now, you must understand that my daughter is an all or nothing kind of girl. Of course, she sees this tooth thing as a way to get more toonies and it just so happens she has 4 more loose teeth. What luck! Last night after she'd been in bed about 20 minutes, I hear a yell and we have a replay from the night before. The little bugger tried to pull out another tooth! This time it didn't go nearly as well. She came of out of her room with blood dripping down her face and the tooth still attached. She asked me to pull it out but after one failed attempt she was over that plan.

I cleaned her up and put her back in bed with strict instructions to leave the tooth alone. The things we will do for money.

Safety Warning

You should never attempt to blow dry (actually any activity involving electricity) your hair at the bathroom sink while a 5 year old is brushing her teeth. Failure to heed this warning could, no, probably will result in electrocution.

Perfectly Perfect

Do you know someone who has the perfect life? Everything about their life is just textbook perfect...everything is just so and the way it is all "supposed to be". Everything is just so perfectly perfect. You know, the person who makes you feel inferior because you didn't iron your underwear today or serve a full course breakfast using the fine china before sending your kids out the door this morning.

For these people, no mountain is too big to climb, no crisis is too much to handle. Just put on a smile, be positive, and charge on. Oh, and don't forget the perfect handicraft for the occasion. After all nothing says "Flood Relief" like a homemade tea cozy.

Funny this is, I find that often these perfect people tend to be the most judgemental. Geez, if I could just have made the perfect Christmas topiary then maybe my marriage wouldn't have fallen apart. DAMMIT! I deserve to be judged. Actually, I think that judging is just part of human nature. I'm guilty by times. If anyone tries to tell me they are too perfect to judge, I would call them a liar. We all do it.

Over the past 10 months since my separation, I've tried to stop talking about issues pertaining to other people. I'm not perfect and yes I have my opinions. But I've tried to stop sharing those opinions. More specifically, I've tried to stop gossiping. I try not to say anything that I wouldn't want to be public knowledge. Gossip is hurtful and often not true. I'm well aware that separation/divorce is a juicy subject. But you likely don't know the whole story. I've been pretty lucky in my situation. The whole thing has been amicable and my soon to be ex as even said that he realizes that I did the right thing and it was courageous.

Unfortunately, it seems like I set off an epidemic. Alot of people around me are having similar issues of their own. Unfortunately, it seems that marital issues are a conversation topic that is too good not to talk about. It might do us all good to remember that Karma can be a real bitch. Be careful or she might just bite you in that perfect ass of yours.

Well, I'm off to scrub the floor with a toothbrush. It is simply the only way to make it sparkle to perfection.