Beth Wilson's blog

Moving to...

I am currently in the process of moving my blog forward to Moving Forward  It's on blog.com now.  I may move again if I find that I don't enjoy it, but we shall see.  It has the privacy settings that I like and I like the look of it so far.

 

Days Go By

It seems like life can slip right past me while I'm busy doing random stuff.

I finally finished "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle".  I am glad that I read it, but found myself a little bit angered by the ending.  I know I was hoping for the unrealistic.  I really wanted it to tie up nice and neatly, with the "bad guy" getting what he deserved (which he did) and the "good guy" triumphant.  I may go back and re-read the last 20 pages in order to fully appreciate the implications of the ending on the other layers of the story.

I managed to get the house relatively clean, with some nagging laundry issues (what's new?  It never ends).  I wish I had a Folding God-mother.  I so hate folding clothes.  I have no problem laundering, my problem is that I despise folding so much that I put it off far too long.  Why should I fold something that is going to be unfolded and worn within 24 hours or even 48?  It just seems so pointless and hopeless.

End of the season wrap up tournament for Sista's in Soccer is here on the weekend.  I can't believe how quickly the summer went.  Hopoing to kick a little butt, yet disappointed that there will only be 3 games.  Don't get me wrong, the 6 we played last year was a little much, I just was hoping for another game or so.

I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of this year's first volume of our family yearbook.  I placed the order on Tuesday and the company emailed that the order was shipped out yesterday.  I patiently waited for the 30% off photobooks day and love that my version of scrap booking comes out to $1.15 per page.  Non-digital scrapping is upwards of $4.00 per page.  I am also very happy that I decided to do the family year in pics and not just do books for special occasions.  It is well worth it and allows me to do something with the pics other than slide shows.  I should do another one of those, since I haven't done one since Cullen was 2-ish.

 

Friday Drabble

The blank stare was infuriating.  Why won't he answer any questions?  A simple yes or no would suffice.  There needn't be a power struggle.  I'd be happy to assist him with whatever he needs.  There was a cool breeze.  It was quite welcome considering the stifling heat and humidity engulfing us under the little maple tree.  As the stand off continued, I glanced back and forth quickly between the child on the equipment and the one causing my blood to boil.  He was seated in his red wagon and I was crouched next to him waiting for him to respond before I unleashed him into the park.  As I rephrased the question and had him repeat that he would not throw the stones at the park, I realized that for all the adult sounding words, phrases and sentences that come from his mouth, he doesn't understand much of what he is parrotting.  My frustration subsided and I vowed to remind myself in the future that he doesn't understand, he's just mimicking.  He ran off to the slide with care free abandon, going as fast as his little legs would carry him.

Hodge Podge

Well, I asked Cullen about the Ipod in the morning and he had no idea what I was talking about and suggested that it must have fallen behind the nightstand, exactly where Barry & I both looked first.  He's a funny little guy, he was sure to tell me that he had no idea because he must have been no where near it when it happened.  After I told him I found it in the couch, I asked him if he saw anyone with it in the living room and he had no idea.  It therefore must have been his little buddy.  All's well that ends well and I made sure to tell them not to play in our room when little buddy came over a day or so ago.

 

Barry ran into the people that bought our old house from us today at the Post office and they were there turning in mail that belonged to us.  What an amazing coincidence!  That mail would have been put in the dead category, since our forwarding time ended quite a while ago.  In it were two statements for a credit card that I thought I cancelled when we moved.  There was no balance, thankfully, but yikes that is still fairly dangerous to continue to have going to the wrong address, not to mention hanging around my credit record.  I must be sure to call the card company immediately, although I really don't know how I am going to identify myself, since I do not even have the card anymore.  We'll see.

 

I am definitely down 10 pounds since the start of the progesterone and I really haven't been trying.  I also have a better outlook on life and am getting much better sleep (aside from the other night of course).  I wish I would have known sooner, but at least I know now.

 

Swimming for Cullen, baseball for Barry and our nieces as well, soccer for me and it's our nephew's 2nd birthday.  Quite a busy weekend, but it should be fun.  I always love watching Cullen at swim lessons, he absolutely loves swimming.

Awake

It's 2:30 AM and I am awake.  I slept from 10:30 PM until 1:30 AM.  Why would I wake up and stay up?  Well, before I went to sleep I was reading.  When I have a Tuesday night read, sometimes I like to enjoy some background tunes from my IPOD.  Tonight I was dumbfounded when I went to the location of my IPOD spot (the place where it lives) and it was not there.  I looked in the other two places it could possibly be, but it was not there either.  I decided I was burning valuable reading time and would ask Barry when he came home, since he may have seen it.  He got home from hockey around 1:15 AM and I awoke and asked him if he had seen it and he had the same thoughts on location that I had.

Suddenly I remembered that Cullen's little buddy had been over to play the other day.  This particular little buddy doesn't pay much attention to where he drops things he is no longer interested in.  I asked Barry if Cullen & Little Buddy were in our room during their play.  He said he didn't think so, but maybe.  Since Barry had now re-checked all the places that I had checked and came up with the same result, I started to get a little anxious.  Nano's are neither cheap nor large in size, it could be any where.

Barry decided we would find it in the morning and went to sleep.  I laid there getting more and more nervous about ever finding it's location. 

I had no doubt that it was in the house somewhere since little buddy is not a clepto, just doesn't have a sense of this isn't a toy, I should put this back where I found it.  To be fair, Cullen isn't fabulous at putting his toys away, but he does seem to have a sense of what isn't really a toy and A/ doesn't tend to play with things that aren't toys and B/ Generally puts things that aren't toys back where they should be.  He doesn't leave clothes in the middle of random rooms, doesn't just drop garbage where ever he stands (a lot of little kids do this if they don't hand it to their parent), he puts his empty juice cups either on the kitchen counter or on the little end table next to the couch (not toppled over in the middle of the room dripping whatever liquid), and when he is finished eating he goes straight to the bathroom to wash without being asked (he has ALWAYS done this and it was definitely NOT because we trained him, it's just his little personality).  Cullen has never thus far attempted to play with our IPODs.  He has asked to hear this or that song, has asked to see the album artwork, but never tried to play with them himself.  He was told when he was first shown them that they are not toys and not for him to touch, if he wanted to see or hear something he should just ask and we will do it.  He was never the kid that played with the remote or the car keys or a phone (cordless or cellular).  When he was told that those are things for adults to use and that if he messes with them he could break or damage them, he just didn't touch them.  He is 4 and still asks me to change the TV channel and has not dialed any bizarre foreign phone numbers.

So, I figure that little buddy has picked up the IPOD to investigate and or play with it and has most likely dropped it where ever he was when he lost interest and that it could literally be in ANY dark corner, underneath anything.  The prospect of finding it in a timely fashion was spiking my anxiety, so I started searching.  I began in the office where Cullen's upstairs toys are.  I didn't move anything I just took a look ( I didn't want to wake the house up).  I then moved to the kitchen and kept looking underneath as well as around furniture.  In the living room I decided that if it was in the couch I had better start looking now and pray that it didn't go down the back or the sides, since I don't know if I would ever have really been able to find it then.  I lifted the first two cushions to no avail, but as I lifted the last cushion, there it was.  I couldn't believe how lucky I was that it hadn't gone down into the couch abyss and that I had actually only spent 15 minutes looking for it.  It was total luck that I chose to search the couch cushions before heading downstairs.

I have since been on an adrenaline rush and could not go back to sleep.  Starting to feel sleepy now though.  Tomorrow I will ask Cullen if he has seen my IPOD and then he will either rat on himself (or his little buddy) about playing with it or maybe he didn't even know his little buddy had it, we shall see.  To get the most honest result I will just inquire  without accusing or being angry.  He'll just tell me about the last time he saw it.  I can just hear him now "Well, we (or I or little buddy) were just doing XYZ with it and then I don't know what happened after that."  It should be interesting.

 

Witnessed another idiot driver on Walker Rd. on Sunday.  Full on reading a book, not notes or a page or a letter.  This guy had what looked like a novel cracked open across the steering wheel and was holding it with his thumbs while driving. 

The new table arrived this...

The new table arrived this morning.  It's bigger than I imagined, as usual when I try to pick out furniture.  It still definitely works though and it looks very nice too I might add.

 

I went to Lowes and a couple of other places on Friday and I found the main and accent tile that I definitely want to use to finish the bar area.  Barry liked them too, so as soon as we're ready, we know what to go get.  I am super geeked about it, I love the combo I found.

 

So tired today.  I am not sure why, but my eyes have felt so heavy all day and I am definitely grumpy.  Trying to get to bed early this evening and maybe that will solve it.

 

How Does One....?

How does one....

A:  Get to the age of 40 something and not know what a cricket looks like?  To the point that you are asking random strangers since you are about to freak out, thus likely freaking out your child.  Then she says, oh I feel better now, are you sure?  I respond Yep, black, shiny kind of like a grass hopper but not - cricket.

B:  Drive with their foot out the window?  I have seen many people in the passenger's seat with their foot out the window.  I have even done that one myself in younger years.  What I had never before seen was the driver of an older style van driving down Walker Rd. (Windsor) with their foot out their window.  How can one possibly have their best reaction in potential disaster if they first have to attempt to pull their foot into the car so they don't get ripped in half?  Oh how I wish I would've snapped a cell phone pic of that, but I was also driving and therefore not willing to put myself in danger to get a pic.

 

Today was another good day.  I purchased a counter height pub table with 4 chairs.  It's espresso finish, matching the rest of the basement furnishings and it was 40% off.  We ended up investing a little more than we planned, but we got a much higher quality item for it.  It's kind of like a pedestal mounting with a shelf and cupboard door storage under the table top.  Now, if we could just get to laying the infloor heat and tiling that would be a great accomplishment.  I believe that is on the fall agenda, with potlights and drop ceiling not far behind.

 

Unfortunately

Last night's scheduled read was postponed due to a severe headache.  It was so bad that I still had it at half strength when I woke up this morning.  I even had to move to the couch in the middle of the night because of discomfort and not wanting to keep Barry awake.  Maybe it has something to do with all the recent jump in humidity.  Last week wasn't quite as humid, but this week, YIKES!

Soccer tonight and not looking forward to exercising in this heat & humidity.  It seems like the weather is like this every Wednesday.  That's good for the weekend activities, but not so much for the Wednesday night league.

I guess I'll drink lots of water and plod my way through it.  There was a girl on another team on Sunday that had to be attended to by ambulance.  From what I gather they didn't have any substitutions on the bench and she became over-heated.  That's why I am definitely attending this evening.  I wouldn't want the team to have to play in that position.

 

A Good Day

Having a pretty god day today.  Yesterday I was able to vacuum and steam mop the whole house and clean both bathrooms.  Phew!  I really enjoy getting something accomplished that I actually planned to do, it's so infrequent lately.  Yesterday's work left today open so Cullen & I ended up in Essex hanging out with SGW while his mother and sister went to the clinic.

It was a pretty good day and when we got home the day got better.  My cousin Dana and her 2 boys went to Alberta for vacation and sent a package to us for Cullen.  It contained a book, some stickers, pamphlets, a lapel pin, and dino crayons all from the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller.  She & I had been talking at our Uncle's birthday party and I was telling her about our plans for trips this summer and that we were planing a trip next summer to the Royal Tyrell.  Cullen is an absolute Dino nut.  Dana loves to hear things like this since she loves learning and science.  She has her doctorate in entemology (bugs, specifically Marshland bugs).  He thinks the package and it's contents are "super cool" and "neat o mosquito".  He gets the last phrase from me I am afraid. I read him part of the book already.  He is such a lucky and blessed little guy to have people send him things while they are away.

He is a pretty cool little dude in my opinion, but I do have a bias.

He seems to be using quite a few of my phrases lately and not all of them are fabulous.  The other day he told Barry to "Put your hand over the end (of the sprinkler), for cryin' out loud"  apparently the spray was hurting his feet.  At supper today the news had come on the TV and he said "I don't have much interest of the news.  I have more interest of a Cullen show."   I don't think this one came from me.

I am pretty sure I have to buy him bigger shoes before he starts school, he went and grew again on me.  It was tough to get him into his indoor shoes at daycare the other day.

I am off to possibly read some more of Edgar Sawtelle.  I aim to finish it by the end of the month.  We'll see.

 

Tidbits

Been busy as usual. This week is our son's last week of soccer and this swimming session.  He'll start back at swimming lessons in a couple of weeks.

I have recent knowledge of some interesting stupidity, but not juicy enough that it can't wait.  What's done is done.

Barry just got back from a 5 day golfing trip with his brother and 25 other guys.  They rented 3 condos nearly adjacent to two courses.  Sounds like they had fun and happy father's day to him. 

The wind turbine allotted to my mom & dad's property has recently made great visible strides towards completion.  It's tower is complete halfway up.  They now await the use of an even larger crane to finish the top half that includes the blades.  It is pretty cool to see and we took numerous pics thus far.  Mom wants me to make a photobook of it.  I'm thinking that maybe this project will be suitable to try out the soft cover type book.  We'll see.

Note to neighbours everywhere:  Don't be inattentive or careless when applying substances like round up to the weeds in your driveway.  I don't know what the neighbour lady did when she sprayed their driveway weeds, but we now have 2-3 dying patches of grass on our front lawn in large (1m) half oval shapes (really? she couldn't even apply it in a straight path?!).  It's going to definitely be a sight to be seen. 

Technically it seems to currently stretch only about 1 - 1.5 feet onto our actual property, but we're the ones that maintain and actually sodded 1.5 years ago that stretch of their property that looks like it's part of our front yard.  Barry mows it, fertilizes and weed and feeds it.  I include it in watering and pull weeds from it. 

Yes, that's right ladies and gents it was a beautifully sodded and well maintained yard and the intellectually challenged woman next door decided to spray.  She sprayed while it was windy, and if I remember correctly from seeing her on the other side of their driveway when I came home, at a height that was not conducive to a focused and properly aimed stream.  I vaguely remember thinking when I saw her, I hope she was more careful than that if she did next to our lawn and maybe she was just doing the middle of the drive. 

I hadn't noticed until today after she apologized to me in the drug store.  What I was picturing when talking with her was a possibly 6 inch strip (because who doesn't spray in a straight line onlong the edge of a driveway?) right next to their drive.  I knew I should have been more concerned when she said something about her husband mentioning that it was part of their lot anyway.  Maybe they would like a bill for their portion of the sod, or perhaps they could pay us for their portion of the fence, like they said they would? 

She said she feels really bad and that she has grass seed if we want it.  At the time I said, we'll just wait and see what happens and replant it in the fall. What can you do?  Now that I see the size and shape of the ruined lawn in question, I see all kinds of wrong with her statement.  First of all, if your husband wants to mention that it's your property, then lets get technical and his lazy ass can mow it.  Second, it's late June, there is no way that grass seed will grow properly in this weather.  Third, it's all well and good to mention that it's your property, but you don't have to look at it through YOUR front window, and it doesn't look like part of your lawn.  Fourthly, John Q. Public is going to drive by and wonder what the hell did they (us) do to their (our) lawn.  She has pretty much ruined the look of our front yard single-handedly.  Fifthly, seed will take years  of overseeding to become as thick as our sod was/is AND it will NOT be the same colour. 

Before anyone gets all, you shouldn't have sodded their land in the first place you have only yourself to blame on me;  We had a conversation with them about how we were getting grass (at that point we thought seed) and did they have any garden plans for that area, did they want us to leave it alone, or would they like us to include it in our plans.  At this point I would have rather either left it bare in the first place or that she dug the grass up to put a garden of some sort there.   The other issue is that it isn't just on their property, it stretches onto ours as well.   UUUUGHHH!!!!!  Very frustrated by that this evening, but again what's done is done, I can do nothing about it but move forward.