Recently I found a blank greeting card with this picture on the front (and I found more by the same artist here). I bought it because it spoke to me, but I wonder, should I just mail it to myself? Am I the only one who enjoys this? Should I feel guilty that I do?

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Ken went away this week to the Interbike show in Las Vegas with a couple of his buddies, and I've had the whole bed to myself. Oh yeah, I'm sleeping right down the middle. Unfortunately, he took our only camera with him. Ken tells me that he got some great pictures when he was out riding, but I feel like I've been disarmed. Can I write about my comings and goings of this week without pictures to speak for me? Must this post be longer than usual to compensate for the *a picture is worth a thousand words* story-telling-deficit this puts me in?

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I have been struck with two unsubstantiated moments of worry this week, which isn't my usual way - what's with that? Maybe my subconscious self doesn't enjoy having the whole bed to myself quite as much as my conscious self does.

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The first moment came when my visiting teachers were sitting in my living room. I have new visiting teachers, and they are a power couple. I mean, if I were the Relief Society president I would send these ladies out to *high needs* homes. As I sat there thinking how lucky I am to have such terrific new visiting teachers it crossed my mind: what is coming up in my future that is going to require me to have these wonderful women to lean on? I expressed this thought to them, much to their amusement.

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My second moment of unbidden worry came this afternoon, but let me start from the beginning on this one. As a dental hygienist I have to register for a licence to practise on an annual basis, expiring every October 31st. One of the requirements of annual registration is to take a CPR course, which I did in June with the rest of my office. However, it came to my attention on Wednesday that the required CPR course has changed this year, therefore the 'usual one' I took back in June was totally worthless. On Thursday I went into work and this was the hot topic amongst my fellow hygienists: How could we have missed this? Why did our governing body not alert us to this sooner? When a former coworker came in for treatment yesterday afternoon, it was the first thing I told her about. She hadn't heard about the change, and she was booked to get CPR training the next day with her husband's office, so she became concerned that she was also booked for the wrong course. She checked into it right away, and came back to tell me that purely by chance they had in fact booked the correct course: CPR for the Health Care Professional (a brand new course offered for the first time this year). She then invited me to attend the CPR update at her husband's office the next afternoon for free! I cleared my schedule and made it work, so here I am now, two days after I found out I had a problem, with the problem totally behind me. I mailed off my registration with all the correct documentation on my way home from the class this afternoon.

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I recognize that the chain of events came together very nicely for me. If I had found out about my CPR bungle a day later, or if my former coworker hadn't come in for treatment on Thursday, I would have missed receiving the correct training so easily and immediately.

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Here's the paranoid part:

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Most of what I learned today was just repetition of what I learned in June, with only minor additional information. Taking two CPR recertification classes three months apart has me very well trained at this time, and as I practised my CPR skills this afternoon I found myself thinking: Am I going to need these skills sometime soon, and did this whole certification problem come about so that I would have stronger life saving skills right now? Basically, again my question was: What terrible thing is on the horizon?

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Don't worry about me, though. Ken will be home tomorrow, and I'm sure once again I will see clear skies in my forecast. For tonight, I'm sleeping with the kids.

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The road less travelled

(I'm camera-less this week, but I'm going to try to tie in the SPT challenge with this post)

I spent one day last week exploring Fish Creek Park on a 9th grade science field trip. In the morning before I left I was grumbling (on the inside) about going out in the rain all day with a bunch of 14 year olds when I had so much to do at home, but once I got out there I really enjoyed myself. I'm a nature girl. I love the outdoors. Unfortunately, my job as a mom usually confines me to the house with homework, music practise, and housework, and sometimes I forget how much I like being outside.

Ninth grade field trips have serious perks. The kids were fun to talk to and they didn't really need my help, so my job was easy. And I won't have any trouble signing up to chaperon future 9th grade field trips because not very many parents sign up for them, unlike say, 1st grade field trips where you feel like you have to have an 'in' with the school secretary or all the parent helper positions will be filled before you even know there is a field trip.

I can't believe I thought I wanted to clean the basement rather than go out into nature with Jaclyn and her class! I'm kinda proud of myself that I didn't go with my *default priority* of cleaning above all else.

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SPT tie-in: I've been meaning to clean and organize the basement for a long time, but I''m so glad I postponed it. (I'll also be glad to finally get around to it this week!)

Oh how the mighty have fallen

Chloe had her first ballet lesson on Saturday. It was also my first day as a ballet-mom, and I didn't know that the elastic ties on Chloe's slippers were supposed to be tucked to the inside, so her teacher took care of it.

How could I have missed this part of my education as a mother to three daughters?

Well, with the first two girls Ken took a stand on ballet lessons. To quote him directly, "It's the lamest thing you could put a girl in."

He still feels that way, he's just been worn down by years of Barbies, Fashion Polly's, and Disney Princesses.

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Better late than never

We were slow to throw a birthday party for Steven this year. He wanted to wait until after school had started so that none of his friends would be away on summer holidays, and then once school did start he and I had a hard time finding something he wanted to do for his party. I did my research and found voucher packs for minor hockey tickets, which put a hockey-game-birthday-party in my price range: $8/ticket.

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So on Friday night Ken and I took Steven and six of his closest friends to the season opener for the Calgary Hitmen. At the game there were Saddledome employees handing out inflatable noise sticks, which the boys put to good use.

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I don't know, do we need a picture of the game in this post somewhere?
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I bought the tickets far enough in advance to get first row seats, right behind the glass, and right next to the opposing team's bench. I would have to say that the boys were effective in distracting the visiting team.
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The noise makers were SO LOUD on the glass. Luckily everyone around us were very good sports about sitting behind our crowd.

The game turned out to be the best birthday party ever. A few players got checked into the glass right in front of us. A puck also hit the glass almost directly in front of me - it sounded like gunshot! We won (very important). The boys were put up on the jumbotron screen twice for their antics. They also got their picture taken with the mascot, Farley the Fox. And there was a minor fight between the players - just a small fight, but enough to count (for some reason a hockey game isn't truly complete without a fight). And of course the big bonus was the noise makers - one boy took home 11 unopened & uninflated noise stick packets he'd stockpiled with every trip he made to the washroom. I wonder if his parents are speaking to me.'

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Steven got a t-shirt this summer that says:

$ is my symbol

And he's been working hard to live up to it.

For more than a year now, he's been making regular trips to the bottle depot. The earnings here are slim - I think that the deposits on canned pop, bottled water, and juice boxes are relatively low. All the money from bottles goes towards Steven's mission fund. The savings aren't building very quickly, but the principle of working towards a mission is probably more important at this point.

Steven has been unhappy to be on the chore 'dole' of mowing the lawn or doing other jobs around the house. He has things he wants to spend money on, and his parents don't pay enough, so I helped him find a new source of income.

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I knew that whatever I helped Steven find for a job was going to be an equal burden on me and my schedule as it would be on him, so I kept that in mind as I looked around at flyer routes. We found an advertising strip that is delivered quarterly, and Steven lucked into getting the route for our own community.

Steven now thinks the people in our community are 'paranoid' because so many of them have security systems, which he hadn't noticed before he delivered the flyers. I explained to Steven that many of the houses in our community are empty all day during the work week, and that's at least part of the reason why our neighbors get these security systems. He summarized his understanding of my explanation by saying, "So basically you're our security guard?" Well, I'm home during the day, so yeah, basically. Flex and I are scaring away any potential prowlers, I guess. And Steven would tell you that he now thinks having a dog is a big help - he hated delivering to any doors where his presence was met by barking. The funniest security system Steven ran into was a motion sensitive sprinkler system.

Steve delivered 850 flyers for $85.00 which I think sounds like loads of money for an 11 year old, but it's already disappeared. He set aside 10% for tithing, 45% for savings (all of our kids' earnings get this breakdown) and the remaining 45% went to a new Xbox game.

$

$

Self Portrait Tuesday

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This week is Clean Hands Week, and what a great thing to celebrate. There is nothing like the feeling of doing the right thing and getting a clean start.

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Thanks for the SPT challenge, Lelly!

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That's so random

I was tagged by Annalisa and Jenny to come up with eight random things about myself:

I have a one-way cell phone. I don't have problems making calls on it, just problems taking calls. Problems like I can't hear it ringing in the bottom of my purse, or I leave it at home, or the battery dies and I don't notice for 3 days. I'm pretty happy with my one-way cell phone, but some people find it annoying (Ken).

I hate being in the room when a balloon is popped. If I need to collapse balloons I use scissors and I cut a small hole near the knot to let the air leak out.

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I store all the *sets* of toys we have in large rubbermaid containers: Brio trains, Fashion Polly's, Barbies, blocks, dinosaurs & zoo animals, and so on. Only one rubbermaid container can be open at a time, so when the kids want to play with Brio, the Barbies have to be put away first. Although, if you were to look in my basement right now I think you'd find a system failure.

h

My engagement ring has been uninsured, therefore off my finger and in a safe place, for more than a year. I need to get the errand done of having it reappraised - a good project for the Year of Barb.

6

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I've done laser hair removal on my upper lip.

6

a

I like to go to sleep in a cold room and wake up in a warm room.

6

The first thing I notice about someone is their smile.

6

a

Getting up for early morning seminary is as hard for me now as it was 20 years ago.

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I've got the suds

We've been living without a working dishwasher for the most part of the last 7 months. Even after we repaired the dishwasher and cleaned out all the hard water deposits, the dishes were still coming out dirty.

And just when I finally broke down and bought a new dishwasher, hand washing the dishes became fun.

dirty jobs

On Sunday Steven and Carmen were doing the dishes (the new dishwasher was bought, but not yet delivered). Steven grabbed the next dish in line, a colander, and pressed it upside down into the dishwater. Bubbles came popping through the holes of the colander, bursting into his face. That was entertaining, so he did it again and again.

As the suds built up higher and higher in the sink Carmen begged for a turn washing the colander.

Carmen worked the bubbles till they were overflowing all over the counter, and soaking her pajamas. She said, "Look Mom! I've got the suds!"

But as fun as Sunday dishes were, all the kids were very excited when I gave them the good news on Monday that the dishwasher installation was booked for Thursday.

Then I gave them the bad news:

The clothes washer has come down with a case of "the suds" (won't drain the water). Carmen asked, "Does this mean now we have to wash our clothes by hand???" No dear, I'll take care of this one right away.

sheesh

I clearly remember my first day of class. I remember wondering if I would I know anybody there. I remember standing with a group of students, some of whom looked as nervous as I felt. I wondered if my teacher would be a boy or a girl. Yes, I remember it like it was yesterday.

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Um, that's because it was yesterday - I started swimming lessons last night.

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I'm afraid I'm abusing the "freedom from the 'self-portrait' guidelines" in Lelly's SPT challenge this week. I did "take the time to find those old photos" and as I looked through my old pictures, it wasn't a school picture that jumped out at me, it was this one:

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I'm the one in the pigtails and the bikini (shocking!) and I've never really passed this level of comfort in a pool. I failed nearly every swimming lesson I took up until the age of 9, and then my parents stopped putting me in lessons altogether. I enjoy water sports like water skiing with the security of a life jacket around me, but I'm not a swimmer. I have happily spent the last 14 years in the baby pool, letting my children graduate up to the big pool in turn while I stayed behind with the next baby. That's not working for me anymore because Chloe learned how to swim this summer, and really, it hasn't been working for me for a long time. The fact that I can't really swim holds me back from certain opportunities for fun and recreation, and I'm tired of it. So for the next 14 weeks every Monday night I'm taking a swimming lesson.

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I told one of my friends on Saturday night that I was starting swimming lessons this week. She asked me why and I told her because I can't swim. My answer caught her off guard and it really hit her funny bone, and we both had a good laugh. She didn't know I'm not a swimmer, so when she asked my why I was going to take swimming lessons she thought I was going to say something like 'because swimming is terrific exercise'. Well, it is. My lesson really took it out of me.

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As far as last night goes, everything I said at the beginning of this post was true. I really did feel like a kid on her first day of school. There were 20 people standing with me on the deck next to the pool - way more people taking adult lessons than I thought there would be. When the teachers (both are boys, my teacher's name is Jon) came to divide us into two classes they said, "If you can't swim more than half a length come in level 1, if you can swim a length or more, go in the level 2-3 split." Well, I had signed up for level 2 based on the description in the program guide, but suddenly I felt really insecure with that decision, and several of the women around me were second guessing themselves, also. Ultimately 12 women entered level 1, all the men entered the 2-3 split level, and one other woman and I entered the 2-3 split. I hadn't tried to swim a length at the YMCA ever, but something inside of me decided I'd have to be drowning in the middle of the pool and rescued by my teacher before I'd go in level 1.

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So once we were in our classes, my teacher asked us to each swim a length to assess where we were at. I wasn't crazy about swimming with other people watching me, but what did I think was going to happen at a swimming lesson? My real problem was that I was barely or maybe not even a level 2 adult swimmer, and I'd been lumped in a class with level 3 swimmers (who are just there to learn how to swim faster and get tips for races), and I didn't know if I'd be the only weak swimmer or what. I sucked it up and swam my length. That went alright, but then swimming another length to get back to the teacher was rough. When I got back to my starting point I looked around and saw we'd been joined by one more class member, someone in my social circle, in fact someone who had been at the wake on Saturday night. Remember my friend who thought my taking swimming lessons was funny? She is going to think that having this guy (a high level-3 swimmer) in my class is hilarious!

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A couple of years ago I was feeling like I wanted to be more involved in my children's school, but I still had a small child at home, so I wanted something flexible. Here's what I wandered into:

Campbell's Labels for Education™ is a school support program whereby registered schools collect labels from Campbell product labels and redeem them for educational resources ranging from sports equipment and musical instruments to video equipment and computers.

Okay, that didn't sound like me at all just there, did it? I pasted and copied the above straight from the Canadian website (American webiste here).

So basically it is my job to make parents in my school community aware that by saving labels from Campbell's Soup products we can earn cool stuff based on a points system.

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I keep a box for label deposits just outside the main office at the school, and 2 or 3 times a year I count up all the labels and submit my count to Labels for Education.

This year I've really procrastinated setting out the box. I'm on the parent council now, and I enjoy working with people much better than counting labels at home alone. I think I need to invite some school-mom friends to help me with with this fundraiser, just for the company.

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SPT - The kids are back in school

The first I thing I tackled this back to school season was meal planning. I guess I'd have to say that I'm not really that in to food. I like food when I'm eating it - I just don't think about food the rest of the time. This gets me into trouble as the chief chef in the house, because I'm always just as happy to have pancakes for supper as anything else. So 'winging it' for dinner all summer has had some close calls, and it's definitely time for 3 square meals a day with the kids back into their school schedule.

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The rest of this week is going to run so smoothly now that I know what I'm going to make for supper every day, and better yet, I already have the ingredients!

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Having said that, I feel like I could win a limited-ingredients cooking contest. I can really 'pull one out of the hat' when it comes to cooking dinner. There was one evening when all I had in the fridge was fresh mint and a cucumber. I found some rouladen (skinny cheap steak) in my freezer and made up spectacular (never-to-be-duplicated) Greek-style skewered beef with mint, which I served with cucumber salad (I pretended it was Tsatziki-like) and rice. I was so proud of that meal. My family had no idea how close they came to eating cereal for supper that night.

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Just on this past Sunday we had nothing in the freezer or fridge that looked like it could be the main course for Sunday dinner.

Popcorn Chicken is really more like Saturday lunch food, but it was all I had to work with.

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I did have lots of fruits and vegetables , so I turned the popcorn chicken into a faking-it recipe for Orange Chicken with Tomatoes served with fried rice on the side.

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Will I miss the summer challenge of coming up with dinner on the fly? Yes, probably by the time spring comes I'll be ready to dump my lists and fly by the seat of my pants again.

Fifty million years ago

They walked upon the planet so

They live in a museum

It's the only place you'll see 'em.

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The Police: Walking in Your Footsteps

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On Saturday I went with my sisters-in-law on Ken's side and all of our children (except the man-child, my 16 year old nephew) to the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller.

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I snapped only one quick picture of the kids together before we entered the museum, and I should have taken the time to make sure everyone was looking. There are 11 kids grouped together here, but one of them is easy to miss - he's hiding behind Steven and facing away from the camera.

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The museum has been updated since the last time I was there and I love the new gallery. They've taken the most valuable and scientifically significant specimens and put them behind windows that are framed with gilded frames as though the exhibits in the gallery room are fine art. This dinosaur is in what's called the 'death pose'. After death the ligaments dried and contracted thereby pulling the head and neck back on the body.

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In addition to the preparation lab that can be viewed through windows, there was a paleontology technician working on a fossil out in one of the halls. He was totally approachable and ready to answer questions. The fossil he's working on here is a turtle shell.

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The giant sponge fossil became much more fascinating after I told Carmen it was Sponge Bob's great-great-grandfather.

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T-Rex Chloe

Steven kept teasing me with quick pseudo-dinosaur motions that he knew I wouldn't be able to catch with my camera. I actually got one picture snapped, but I only caught his forearm, so he won that session of camera hide and seek.

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My sister-in-law, Christy, thought this sign was amusing and pointed it out to me. Was she calling me a Camerasaurus?
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This was so funny. We were up on a hill above the museum and I asked Steven to pose with the view finder, and when he stepped up to it he managed to hit himself in the eye. He backed off and was saying 'Ow, ow, I can't believe I did that! . . . take a picture.'

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The picture I was trying for.
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There's this fun scale inside the museum that tells you what animal you match in weight. The platform is big enough for a small group, so the kids all got on and together they weighed as much as a male lion.


Then Christy, Natalie, Stephanie, and I got on (we made sure we all stepped on together) and we were the same as the kids!

We came home and found the men and the man-child as we had left them: roofing Christy's old house that she's got up for sale.

Christy, I don't imagine I have to suggest this to a saver like you, but tell me you're hanging onto the extra tar paper!

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