Monday, January 29, 2007

More cucumber please!

I am already starting to worry about our financial future when our boys are teenagers. And I have good reason to.

I have been talking to some other moms with tots the same age as Elijah. I have discovered that Elijah eats a tremendous amount compared to his peers. Especially lately. How many 2 & 1/2 year olds can polish off an entire English Cucumber by themselves for a snack and then ask for more? I am continually amazed at how much food that 28-pound boy can pack away. And every so often my amazement turns into "Oh my gosh!! What will it be like when he's 14??"

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

An 80's child born in the 21st century.

It is difficult to feel sad while dancing. For this reason, Elijah, Toviel and I have been dancing. It's also extremely fun to dance with a 2 year old...another good reason to dance. And it makes Toviel giggle...yet another good reason.

Elijah is fairly picky about a lot of things. Music is one of them. I managed to get him to dance to some classical music. His moves were very ballet-ish and graceful. I wanted to take it up a notch so I put on some more aggressive music. Every song that started he showed his disapproval by acting scared and asking for a different song. We went through many songs which were just no good according to Elijah. Finally, the beginning of a song made him smile and he climbed off the couch and started to dance.

The song?

Eye of the Tiger.

Oh yeah.

Monday, January 22, 2007

The Start of Something New

Yesterday Cris announced in church that he was leaving. Most everyone was surprised. We are still getting over the shock ourselves.

He didn't resign. And when it boils down, there is no reason or cause to his leaving. All I can do is believe that God has us in his hands. And He knows what is best. His wisdom and knowledge are too deep and far beyond my understanding.

We are very sad and very hurt. But God is still God. Cris' last day of work is February 14th. He is busy in a whirlwind of getting things wrapped up and making sure the transition of the ministry is somewhat smooth (although that seems an impossibility at this point).

Pray for us. Pray for the youth ministry. Pray for the dozens of community youth who have no other connection to God except through Cris. Pray for the people of our church who are bewildered.

The end of something good is also the beginning of something new.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Toys! Toys! Toys!

I am continually amazed at the things that children play with.

Elijah has lots of toys. Lots and lots of toys. Too many toys.
His favorite "type" of toy by far are Hotwheels vehicles. The way he likes to play with them is to make them "talk" to each other. So we figured he'd really like the Cars movie that came out in November. And we were right. Now we are totally immersed in the Cars culture.

Elijah plays with Cars stickers, he names his Hotwheels after Cars characters, he has a Cars book and a Cars coloring book. He even has seven of the Cars figurines. But more than any of those right now, his favorite thing to play with for the past 2 weeks are some pictures of the Cars characters that Cris printed off the internet onto some card paper. He would rather play with these pictures of cars, driving them around and making them "talk" to each other, than play with his really super cool Cars figurines that are 3 dimensional and actually drive around on wheels. Hours and hours on end he plays with them.

Which brings me to the question, why do we bother with toys, when pictures of toys are just as (if not more) exciting?

Monday, January 15, 2007

Some time for Me

Today I had the opportunity to go out and have some "me" time. I got to sit in a relaxing comfortable chair for an hour, recline, watch some TV and have two people fuss over me pretty much the whole time. All for the low price of $120.00.

Included in the great package was some local anesthetic, a clamp with a wonderful green rubber dam (which I actually like the smell of), a few minutes of drilling accompanied with a fine spray of water and some suction, and some filling with premium quality amalgam, which I discovered only has a small percentage of mercury in it.

Yes. I went to the dentist to get a filling.

And I got to watch part of CSI:Miami on TV.

And lay back in a very comfortable chair.

And my dentist and her assistant fussed over me pretty much the whole time. Just me.

And....next week I get to go back for another one of these relaxing "me" times. Yippee.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Er...uh....thanks....I guess...

Yesterday we happened to be in Calgary so we decided we'd stop by our sick car and pick up some things that we wanted that had been left in it. We phoned our mechanic (Len) to let him know we'd be by and he said he was just heading out to "have a look at the car".

We arrived at his place about an hour after we phoned. Our car was running. The bill? $240.00.

Apparently we had miscommunicated with him and he thought he wanted us to fix the car no matter the problem. We thought he was going to call us when he figured out what the problem was before he fixed it.

I just hope Janie was worth the investment of that kind of money. I'm sure she is. She is like the energizer bunny.

The irony of it is that it was some module that had to be replaced. This is the 3rd one to be put into the car since the beginning of this decade. And we had a spare one in our garage courtesy of my dad, just waiting for us (when I say "us", I really mean "Cris") to simply and easily replace it. And this spare module is still sitting in our garage - I guess for the next time.

So, thanks, Len.....er.....uh....I guess.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Good Old Faithful

Our Ford Escort is 17 years old. We have had it in our possession just 4 months shy of 10 years thus far. About 3 years ago we resolved not to put anymore money into it in the form of repairs. My dad checks it out regularly and keeps it tuned up whenever he comes for a visit. Other than that, our car is just aging naturally while we passively wait for it to die.

I fear her time has come. "Janie" may never drive on the road again. She wouldn't start for Cris yesterday so we had it towed to our mechanic. Thank goodness for AMA. (Cris even made buddies with the tow truck driver, who in turn said that he wouldn't charge us for the extra kilometers that weren't covered by the AMA insurance.)

So our car waits patiently to be examined by our car doctor in Calgary. His name is Len. But he currently has a hernia and Cris said it didn't look like he was doing too well, even though he said he was doing fine. That, and he is going to some United State of America next week for who knows how long. So our little "Janie" may have to wait a while for her check-up. If its an easy and cheap (like $30) repair, we will invest that money into her well-being. If its too much more than that, we will likely call the Kidney Foundation and make a donation to them.

So don't send the "In Deepest Sympathy" cards yet. There still may be hope for good old faithful.

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Poor Distribution of Resources

I am not a very organized person. My husband would disagree with me, but then I ask him why is it that I lose my keys on a weekly basis and have lost either my or his wallet 4 times in our 10 year marriage? Obviously not the work of an organized person.

Once again, I misplaced my wallet. I actually remember the place I left it at in Calgary this time though, and was given opportunity to recover it. Cris said he would pick it up as he was in Calgary for part of the day anyways, and this place was right on his way. So he picked up my wallet and all seemed in good order.

About an hour later, I got a call from him saying that he had tried for 15 minutes and he couldn't get the car (Ford Escort) started. And I had the AMA card at home. But we were able to work around it because AMA doesn't need the card, just the number. So the tow truck came and towed Cris and the car to our mechanic.

My job now was to bundle the kids up and go pick Cris up in our Jetta. It was when I was going out the door that I realized that my keys were in my wallet. And Cris had my wallet. No problem....I have a spare key. And I always keep it...........in my wallet. oh.

Cris and I brainstormed for a bit and determined that we remember seeing an extra spare key for the Jetta floating around somewhere but no one remembered quite where. So I did some looking around before getting another call from Cris saying that he had found that spare key in the Escort.

So Cris had his key, his spare key, my key, my spare key, and the spare spare key all within his posession. He had all 5 known keys to the car that was working, and a broken down car. I had a working car, but no keys to it.

Talk about divying up resources poorly!

He has found a ride home, but this includes getting picked up by his friend, going to a truck shop with him, getting picked up by his friend's wife and unavoidably being invited to their house for supper. So he has not even started making his way home yet. But sometime tonight I hope to see him.

Monday, January 8, 2007

Rocketship Sweetness

I have discovered why I like the name of my blog so much.

The word "Candid" resembles the word "Candied".

Anyone who knows me knows how much I like candy. My husband especially knows that I like candy. That's why he gave me 4 pounds of "rockets" candies (those candies that most people think are gross) in my Christmas stocking this year. Nothing but pure sugar, baby!! I like them!

Elijah occassionally asks me for a "rocketship". That's what he calls those tasty little sugar tidbits. So we share a "rocketship" moment together. Sugar makes those bonding moments just a little bit sweeter.

My point of view

In the midst of reaching out for help with postpartum depression (PPD), I have been asked several times by several people "Are your children safe? Are you going to hurt your baby?"

You've got to be kidding me, right?

I mean, I know PPD can do weird things to you, but just because I'm having difficulty doesn't automatically put my baby or toddler in danger.

I'm the one who doesn't want Toviel to sleep within 3 feet of the clock radio to protect him from the electromagnetic field that the radio may create. (Can you say 'Anal'?)
I'm also the one who insisits on "airing out" our new dining room table and chairs for a few months before setting them up to omit the possible dangers of any residual VOC's that may be off-gased from the new furniture into my children's brains.
I'm the one who has thrown away the bounce dryer sheets and replaced Tide with Seventh Generation, a natural laundry detergent to minimize exposure of chemicals to my dear ones.
And have you ever seen the way I wash grapes when I cannot buy the organic ones?
And you want to know if I am capable of hurting my children? Wha???

My children are very safe with me. Safe as safe could be. More than safe. Even though I feel sad.
Sometimes, procedures make me laugh. I'm glad I have a doctor who doesn't lump me in a category or tell me that if I need to fit into a certain box.

Note to self: Community-based programs are not the best place to turn to when you need some help.

Saturday, January 6, 2007

Sleep is for the non-hallucinators

Sorry I have not posted for so long. This past week has been extremely challenging and a couple days were quite devastating in the most devastating devastate that I can imagine, short of someone I love dying. But that is none of your business, and someday I will see the comical side of it all and write about it all the while laughing. And I know my parents and siblings will be able to laugh with me because they know how policy and procedure can cause the authorities to overreact.

Anyways, apparently I am very sleep deprived. A "professional" person (I think counsellor or something like that) told me I was close to hospitalization because of breakdown. Now, I think that was an exaggeration, as most opinions of me this week were (proving once again that I am sometimes too candid), but nonetheless, yes, I know I am sleep deprived.
My 5 month old wakes me frequently during the night (babies are babies 24 hours a day, and still require parenting at night - especially my babies) and that combined with my inability to sleep well because of post partum depression has given me the lovely gift of hallucination.

Yes, I had a hallucination.

It was weird.

I was laying in bed early one morning, and I heard Elijah running around with his barefeet in our room and through the rest of the upstairs. I sighed as I looked over at Cris sleeping soundly and proceeded to get up. When I was dragging my butt out of bed, I looked over and saw Elijah was also sleeping soundly on the other side of Cris.

Hm. Weird. *shrug*

I guess I can try to go back to sleep.

This happened to me one other time before Christmas. I was putting the kids to bed and I heard Cris come in the door. I heard him move the chair in the kitchen and could tell he was rifling through some papers. I excused myself from the bed I was laying telling Elijah I'd be right back because I wanted to go say hi to daddy and get him to come up and say goodnight to Elijah.

Upon going downstairs, I observed all the lights still off. I called for Cris, but there was no one there. I even opened up the door to the garage. Nope - car was not there either.

Hm. Weird. *shrug*

People pay big bucks to have experiences like this! I get it all for free!

Either I am hallucinating, or my sleep depravation has made me super sensitive to the supernatural and I am actually hearing ghosts who abide in our house. Either way, its, well, weird.

I am pleased to announce that last night Toviel went a full 5 hours without eating for the first time ever, and he slept for a longer stretch that just an hour, which has been his pattern for the past couple weeks. I think he has reflux which is making him uncomfortable at night and I'm hoping we have alleviated the problem by raising up the mattress on one end so he is sleeping with his head slightly raised from his stomach.

I'm hopeful about a lot of things this week. More sleep is just one of them. And I am pleased to announce that I am actually going to get this post partum depression treated instead of just "riding it out" in hopes my brain will correct itself.

And once again I will join the billions who already know how important sleep is.

Monday, January 1, 2007

I resolve to.....

Happy New Year!!

Today is the first day of a brand new year. It is the day that most people resolve to change something in their life - to eat healthier, exercise more, watch less TV, and on and on.
I bet not a lot of people did what we did today.
We rang in the new year with some New Years cookies - deep fried, we chowed down on some chocolate cheesecake, which tasted surprisingly good to me since I have never liked cheesecake before, and then in the afternoon, we cooked up a 2 pounds of McCain fries, loaded them up with 1 pound of melted cheddar cheese, and ate almost the whole thing with more than 1/2 a cup of yummy Kelly O'Bryan's pacho sauce that we brought back home with us from BC.
And it was good.
So while most people were starting new diets and exercise regimes, we were stuffing our face with ooey gooey fried goodness.
I figure since most people's resolve peeters out within the first month or two, I'd be farther ahead if my resolution was to eat more fat and sugar and gain a bunch of weight. If I'm like most people, by March I will have completely abandoned my new years resolution. And in my case it woud be a good thing! Hooray for New Years Resolution failure!