pages

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

I haven't burned anything in a very long time..... until those ribs

I don't think I could have fit anymore into the day if I tried. Little Susan went to school to meet her teacher for the first time. She was so excited! Little Susan and Latoya both started school a few days after all the "big kids" went back to school. They were beside themselves with anticipation :) The Teenager was recovering well from her recent surgery and was on her second day of high school (I've never wanted to re-live those days - I cringe at the thought of lockers, cafeterias and pep rallies) she was staying late for an event the school had planned for all the grade Nine students. Daniel had classes at Sylvan after school and my Hubby took Shane and Nicholas to the dentist for a check up.  We had a later dinner and were sitting in the backyard watching the kiddlings burn off some energy.... wondering where they get it from and why it seems to be self-generating. The sun was begining to go down and Daddy was playing a game of chase in the yard with Daniel. Daniel is so fast! Daddy has trouble keeping up with Daniel because of his speed but what Daddy lacks in speed he sure makes up for in noise.
 Daniel seems to feed off of Daddy's screaming, roaring, and laughter. The louder the noise the faster he runs. Around and around the playfort at the back of the yard. "You missed me, You missed me!" Daniel excitedly shouts over his shoulder. Hurdling the picnic table bench and leaping over sticks. Up the ladder to the top of the tree fort and straight through to the other side, reaching for the fireman pole to slide out of pretend danger...... but Daniel missed the pole ..... and landed with a loud thud on the hard packed dirt below. When Grandma later recalled the events she and the other children were stunned at how hard Daniel hit the ground. They said they saw a cloud of dust rise up from the ground when he hit. His head came down on a stink bomb (walnut) from the surrounding walnut trees and the nut exploded, squashing green sappy juice across the side of his hair and forehead. He had a small abraision on his head and shoulder. Daddy helped him up and he went to the porch to rest for a minute. He said his arm hurt. He was wiggling his fingers and could move everything fine it seemed but within a few minutes I noticed a familiar swelling on his forearm near his wrist. I had just been to the hospital with my nephew Daniel a couple weeks ago for a broken arm and this looked all too similar. On closer examination I could feel the break. We cleaned him up and put a sling on his arm and off to the hospital we went.
Triage for vitals, tylenol and an ice pack, off to xray to "get the proof" :) and then the wait....... the wait that causes you to ponder whether or not your injuries are REALLY that bad..... There was only one doctor there and so many people. I was more than a little frustrated at seeing so many "supposedly" sick and injured people there behaving like they would have at a beach party instead of an Emergency waiting room. Kids who looked completely well running around, climbing under and over chairs, laughing, yelling, playing..... not a cough or runny nose to be seen. Clearly there were many non-emergent cases that should have been seen at a doctor's office or clinic. Don't they know that the Emergency room is for emergencies only!?! I was so saddened and horrified to watch a young woman have a miscarriage right there in the waiting room.
She had been waiting just as long as the rest of us - and in the end she would go home without a baby in her arms :( Some people gave up waiting and left after being there for a few hours.  I didn't even want to get up to use the washroom incase we got called in and missed our turn. Papa and Grandma and James arrived to keep us company and brought us coffee and cinnamon buns :) What a treat after just sitting there for so long (Thanks so much for that!) After being there for four hours we made it into a room. Another gruelling wait for the doctor to arrive (two more hours) and a very sleepy Daniel was casted up and ready to go home. "Can I sleep on the couch?" he asked as we left the hospital parking lot. "Sure buddy," I said. "You can even stay home from school tomorrow if you want to."
On Sunday after church we usually have our family over for lunch. I planned a delicious lunch and got the barbeque fired up as soon as we came home. We were having ribs!!!! One of the kid's favourites :) (probably because they can eat them with their hands and get messy without Mom having a fit) As always, Sunday's are a little hectic. I am so excited to have adult company that I tend to neglect things here and there. My Hubby normally does all the barbequing and I do the indoor cooking. But he had plans after service so we were having lunch without him. The kids hollered to me off and on to let me know when the barbeque was smoking and I went out to flip the ribs, add the sauce, etc.... but then I got caught up chatting with "adults" and neglected the ribs...... those poor ribs :(
I used to have a problem with cooking - I just didn't have enough time to do it! LOL. So I would cook everything on high and often ended up with a burnt mess. You could always tell when it was dinner time. The smoke alarm would be beeping that annoying high pitched shrill sound and the kiddlings would all be announcing "Mom's cooking!" loudly from wherever they were in the house. I used to be concerned that if we ever did have a fire in our house none of them would respond to the smoke detector except to call out "Mom's cooking!" from their beds as they were burned alive. But I haven't had that problem in such a long time. I had learned to slow down and cook on Medium :) I haven't burned anything in a very long time..... until those ribs :( I don't even know how it happened but when I went to pull them off the barbeque all I could find was a charred mess. I understand the concept of cremation now ..... even the bones were disintegrating as I took them out of the barbeque. Those Charbeque Ribs weren't even edible :( but the Teenager and Papa tried to salvage some of it.... they looked like they had been chewing on charcoal by the time they gave up on the challenge. (well actually I guess they were chewing on charcoal weren't they?) All was not lost - the barbeque was still hot so we threw some burgers on ... lunch just took a little longer than expected. I was just very thankful that I hadn't invited anyone else over for lunch .... how embarrassing would that have been?
_________________________________________
Here are a few funnies from our house to yours:
*Daniel was in the backyard by himself one day and Grandma overheard him singing this song;
I just get in trouble by myself
I'm gonna be in trouble by myself
I don't know why, just I get in trouble and I'm gonna go to bed
'Cause I get myself in trouble
I don't know why!
*Daniel had come to church with me to set up things for Sunday school. When we were finished we got into the van and drove back home. When we pulled in the driveway, Daniel had a serious look on his face and a solemn tone in his voice. "I knew I wasn't allowed to drink in the van when we we're driving so I put my pop in the cup holder Mommy, cause only bad people drink and drive and I don't want to go to jail" He said.
*I was doing dishes one day and turned around to find The Baby pulling the bottle of dish soap out of the cupboard. Little Susan saw her and exclaimed "Baby, No! That's for when you say bad words!"
*Little Susan was missing Grandma the other day. "When's Grandma coming home with us? Her not coming home yet" She pouted.
________________________________
Here are a few funnies from Grandma's Archives:
Golden Nuggets = nibblet corn
Snow Caps = cottage cheese
Silver Dollars = tiny pancakes
Skin Milk = that's milk with no fat in it - just skin.
Nerd = a name they call eachother. I think it's the same as dummy.
Doing a Hawker = jumping off the bars at school.
__________________________________
I wanted to include a video clip I created a while ago. My husband is a practical joker and needed to be taught a lesson..... so enjoy and have an incredible week :)
Blessings,
Lucy


Blessings,
Lucy

Monday, September 20, 2010

No, that's not a bindi on her forehead in the picture - that's Poo. (Summer 2010 ~ Part 2)

Ok, so where were we?
......... and that's when the REAL chaos began......

"Latoya! Quit scratching your head.... what's wrong with you? Come here.... Oh my Lord!!!!! Please tell me I'm seeing things..... not now, not at a time like this...... The Teenager with a post-op infection on her way to the hospital, six other kiddlings underfoot but trying to be helpful in preparing the house for an open house and now THIS! Could it really be lice? Maybe I was seeing things..... come here kiddo, let me have a look. Oh good golly! "Where did this come from?!"  I holler to no one in particular. "KIDS!!! COME IN HERE PLEASE!"
I grab my desk lamp and begin the intense search through each head of hair looking for the ever illusive louse. As I checked each mop of hair I breathed a sigh of relief. Only one child had it... how is that even possible? All the adults flew into action. My Hubby immediately ran out to the pharmacy in search of lice shampoo (which there seemed to be a shortage of - the pharmacist said it was "going around") then took the Teenager to the hospital to have her infection looked after. Grandma rounded up the other children and put them to work on chores to prepare the house for the Open House while she stripped beds, gathered combs, brushes, hair clips and stuffed animals and the like and headed off to start laundry. While I set up my lamp at my makeshift nit picking station...... little did I know I would spend more than three days at this gruelling task.  Latoya has hair and plenty of it. She has long thick hair that flows down her back to her bottom and cutting that hair (even because of lice) was NOT an option for me. Did I mention she is my drama queen and noramally cries and fusses over just having her hair brushed on a daily basis?This was NOT going to be a pretty sight. I was already a little stressed due to summer vacation and having the house over run with wild kids high on sugar (Thanks Grandma!) and then with having to care for my Teenage cripple - but a lice invasion on the kid with the longest hair in the house was almost more than I could bear. Praise God for Grandma's. Between her and my Husband the other six children were taken care of. I thought they were a little hard on them and must have scared them into not coming near our "nit picking station" but I realized after seeing a few of them scurry through the kitchen looking back over their shoulders that it was not the lice they were afraid of - it was that crazy woman with the wild look in her eyes mumbling things incoherently while hunched over the sobbing child on the counter pulling out her hair strand by strand. Not only had the lice set up residence in their sister's hair, those little creepy crawlies had also taken away their loving mother and changed her into something strange..... her only language was sighing, growling and occassional crying. Powerful little bugs.
Three days later the nit picking was finished. I did a thourough inspection of Latoya's head looking for any foreign critters, Latoya looked up at me and whined "I don't WANT all these tiny eggs - I only like big eggs anyway - like from birds and chickens."
I hardly recognized myself by the time we were through. My back and shoulders ached, my eyes couldn't focus and my finger tips were raw and painful. I found myself behaving much like an ape whenever I walked past a head of hair - I just couldn't stop myself - I had to pick through and do a quick search. "Just checking" I'd sing.
On Sunday morning with one final "head check" the nighmare was over! I couldn't wait to get to church. I was so exhausted and I needed to get out of the house. Chaos consumed the morning and finally all kiddlings were at the table eating breakfast - except the baby..... who was unusually quiet upstairs........
I went up to get her for breakfast and was horrified at what I encountered....
"Ewwww" she said, holding up her hands ( that closely resembled chocolate dipped ice cream cones from Dairy Queen) The darling Baby had been exploring her creative side (apparently that's her back side) and had painted her crib and reachable walls with POO. Ewww is right. So much for my escape to church this morning.... looks like I'll be staying home to bathe the stinky little one and then sterilize the bedroom :(     *No, that's not a bindi on her forehead in the picture ... .that's Poo.*
So later that night we had stew for supper. When I walked into the dining room I saw my little darling Baby playing in her food. She had it smeared across the table and was poking at it saying "Ewwww!" I suspect it looked too familiar to her. She refused to eat it, not even one bite. She turned her head away and made a face and said "Ewwww."
_______________________________
This is usually the place where I add "Here are a few funnies from our house to yours." I have a treat.... when we (my sibs and I) were little my mother used to keep a book where she jotted down funny things we said and did. When she came to help out last week she brought that book with her! For the next few posts I am going to include some of these "funnies" for your reading pleasure. I hope you enjoy them just as much as I do.
Here are a few funnies from Grandma's archives:
Bunner = butter as in peanut butter
Boneys = small strips of ham
Dip Eggs = fried egg - you dip toast in it
Unders = underpants
Under Arrest = taking a nap under a blanket
Marbles = bits of hamburg, rolled
Sheep Dip = sour cream
Patakiller = caterpillar
Beatlers = beaters - as in "Can I lick the cake mix off the beatlers?"
Quack = is what a quack says and Quack is french for duck.
Pipi has "feathers" on his chest! (Hair)
Annette thought she lost her "patakiller" and she looked down on the floor and "Prisco!" (presto) There it was!
Prejudice is when you get big and fat and you have a baby.
Crunch - ga - munkies = Capt'n Crunch Cereal
Soldiers = strips of toast with butter and cheese. When you have no cheese the soldiers are bare naked.
Cloam = is that nice smelling stuff Melissa likes that Daddy puts on after he shaves (Men's cologne)
Dimes = hot dogs sliced in circles.
_________________________________
Just a reminder that the next AVON order will be placed on Tuesday September 28th - contact me if there's anything you would like me to get for you!


Have an incredible week!
Blessings,
Lucy

Monday, September 13, 2010

"Elvis, Elvis!" She exclaimed. "It's Elvis and the Chipmunks!" (Summer 2010 ~ Part 1)

FINALLY....... the kiddlings are back to school and there's a little less commotion around here. Back to all the things I love..... cooler weather, predictable routine, and on occassion a little "me time" during the day. I honestly do not know where the summer has gone! I feel like this is the first time I've been able to sit and catch my breath..... but not for long I'm sure :) Let me tell you a little about summer vacation at our house.....

The Teenager had her scheduled knee surgery in August. She had a Fulkerson Osteotomy. A big fancy word for lots of pain :(
We brought her home from the hospital and got her settled into the recliner in the livingroom. Little Daniel took one look at her and ran to Grandma. He hugged Grandma and cried his heart out. Such big sobs coming from someone so small. "They didn't fix her leg Grandma." He sobbed "They made it worse - it's bigger! They just broke it more!" He was inconsolable for a few minutes until we were able to explain to him that although it would be swollen for a while, the brace and bandages just made it look much bigger than it really was.
Little did I know that the drama was just beginning...... no, not from Daniel..... from the Teenager! The first day home was pretty quiet and comical as she was still pretty sedated from the drugs she'd gotten after surgery. She was actually pretty pathetic :) I had taken my camera to the hospital with me to "capture the moment" for her (since I knew she'd never remember it anyway) when she woke up in the recovery room. We sure did get some beautiful footage of our Teen in rare form. Crying, confused and in pain yet still so agreeable...
Mom: "Hi Baby, how are you feeling?"
The Teenager: "I'm Okaaaaay. It hurts."
Mom: "I know. It will feel better soon."
The Teenager: "Okaaaay. But it hurts."
Mom: "I know. You just rest a bit and Dad will come get us soon."
The Teenager: "Okaaaaay. When will he come? It hurts." (closes her eyes and drifts off momentarily then wakes up startled and looks confused.)
Mom: "Hi Baby, how are you feeling?"
The Teenager: Hi Mommy, I'm okaaaay, it hurts. How are YOU feeling?"
Mom: "I'm good. (suppressing a giggle)  I love you."
The Teenager: "It hurts. I love you too Mommy. It hurts. Can we go now?"
Mom: "Soon Baby. Do you want something for the pain?"
The Teenager: "Okaaaay. It hurts. Yes please."
...... etc...... leaving the hospital was a unique experience. We didn't know how to get her into the van to take her home. She was in obvious pain and had her leg in a brace to keep it immobilized so it wouldn't bend. We had to handle her gently and with great care - especially since a crowd of on lookers gathered nearby to watch the spectacle. After a few failed attempts (I'm sure we looked like a comedy act) at trying to get her into the van we finally got her shoved through and resting across both the middle seats. Thank God for sliding doors on BOTH sides of the van - I don't know how we would have pushed and pulled her into place without them. Getting her out once we got home was equally challenging. We even had to stop part way up the sidewalk to rest for a moment because she felt dizzy - so we opted to carry her in instead ...... speaking of feeling dizzy.....
The poor girl couldn't have a regular shower for the first few days because every time we took the bandages off and tried to get her standing up to get into the shower - she'd passout! It was so odd because she has never fainted before .... the pain would overwhelm her, she would get sweaty and turn white and down she'd go. It became a family joke .... "Okay, let's try to get her cleaned up.... got the fan? cold compresses?" It took three of us to keep her upright the first few times.
During this time my workload got heavier and heavier..... my right-hand girl was now out of commission and ooking after The Teenager became a full time job.... she couldn't do much on her own and she had to be assisted at all times.  My mother came to stay with us for a bit to help out - Thank God for mothers! (Mom, if I didn't fully express how grateful I am to you for all your help - THANKYOU! You've made a difficult situation easier to contend with and I appreciate all your effort.)
Eventually the Teenager got an infection in the incision :(  Of course both her surgeon and her family doctor were away on vacation (not together ... at least I don't think so) at the time. It got concerning enough that Daddy took her to the hospital to have it looked after. A few hours later and a script for antibiotics and she was back home. All the while I'd been cleaning and preparing for an open house we had scheduled for the following day. Days were melting into nights and I couldn't even remember what day it WAS anymore..... and that's when the REAL chaos began......
"Latoya! Quit scratching your head.... what's wrong with you? Come here.... Oh my Lord!!!!! Please tell me I'm seeing things..... not now, not at a time like this......
(I think I'll continue this in the next posting as I'm sure this is going to be a long story) ......
____________________________________________
Here are a few Funnies from our house to yours:

*After breakfast one morning Nicholas asked "Can I have a neckturn Mama?" (He meant a nectarine.)

* Little Daniel couldn't remember what those things were that he built in the winter time .... the things made of snow.... "Oh ya! The snow gloos." He blurted out excitedly.

*Dad and the boys were out on the boat fishing and eating their snacks when Little Daniel remarked "Mmmm, this tastes like oatmeal." (He was eating a Quaker oatmeal -to-go bar. LOL)

* Latoya got very worked up over a television commercial one night. She recognized a picture of Elvis and became very excited. "Elvis, Elvis!" She exclaimed. "It's Elvis and the Chipmunks!"

* We were watching a kids program on television one night and the question was asked "What do you want to be when you grow up?" One child answered "a veterinarian." Shaned piped up and said "Oh, I know what that is.... it means you don't eat any meat." He said matter of factly :)
____________________________________

Just a reminder that the next AVON order will be placed on Tuesday September 14th - contact me if there's anything you would like me to get for you!
To be continued in the next posting ...
Blessings,
Lucy