according.to.kim

What's up with me

I think that stomach bug I had last weekend really did a number on me. I feel like crawling into bed right now, and that's just not like me. I've been tired all week.

It took several days for my stomach to recover as well. I haven't had much appetite (until today), and worse, my tastebuds aren't quite the same anymore. I could hardly drink coffee at all this week; it just tasted bad. I usually drink more coffee in one day than I've had in the past six days all together! Maybe that explains my general sleepiness!

Work was rough this week too. I just had to stay focused on my dreadful project as the deadline is getting very close now. I felt like my eyes and brain were fried at the end of the day today. I was looking too long and hard at the computer today with not enough breaks. I know I shouldn't do that. At least I know this project will be over soon.

I wish I could show you what I've been doing. Even though I don't care for the work itself, the end result is very cool. I've been developing online training to teach trucking company dispatchers how to use a web-based application that shows them where their trucks are anywhere in North America. It also provides all kinds of real-time information like speed and direction of travel. The training is comprised of 16 interactive tutorial 'movies'.

In case you're wondering, what I really like doing at work is technical writing (mainly procedures) and web design. And this is pretty geeky, but I'm itching to sink my teeth into CSS (cascading style sheets). I've had just a little bit of training on CSS, but no time to work on it!

Mmmm, good supper

I didn't cook tonight, but our supper wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I said I'm not cooking anymore (that is when I'm alone with the kids).

My coworker, Joanne, invited me to take the girls to her house after work today to see her Shelty puppy, Shelty, and Golden Retriever. Joanne trains her Shelties into obedience champions, or nearly so. I think her dog who passed away a couple of years ago was a Canadian Obedience Champion at one time.

She wanted her puppy to get some experience with small children and I knew the girls would love her dogs. Joanne gave us a little demonstration of what her dogs can do, and then she also showed us her huge garden pond fish (goldfish and coy) which are now in a large trough of water in the house for the winter. The girls were enamoured with both the dogs and the fish.

At work today, Joanne asked me if she could offer the girls "a cookie" when they came. I said sure. Well she invited the girls to sit down at the table and brought out a tray of squares--not just one kind, but three kinds of mouth-watering homemade squares. She sat the tray down right in front of Sophia. Then, she offered them a choice of two kinds of fruit punch and poured their choice into nice drinking glasses. That's Joanne--hostess extraordinaire!

Madeline was very proud that she was drinking out of a glass just like everyone else and would have nothing to do with a straw when offered one (though she adores straws at home). So, while I was making sure Madeline didn't spill red raspberry punch on Joanne's upholstered kitchen chair, Sophia helped herself to two brownies and another square. Madeline also filled up on punch and a brownie. Well, what can you do?!

As you can imagine, the girls weren't very eager to leave Joanne's when it was time to go home!

Three years ago today

28 September 2001

I can’t believe Sophia is eight months old already! I want time to slow down! I hug and kiss her dozens of times a day. She fills my heart more than anything. I constantly marvel at how beautiful she is and how quickly she’s learning things. Sophia is such a miracle to me.

Today, she learned how to go from standing to kneeling or sitting. This will be very handy since she now stands up every chance she gets! She especially likes to stand up in her crib, or holding on to the toy box (a laundry basket) or UltraSaucer. Yesterday, she really started to explore the house. She now likes to crawl out of the living room and either into the front entrance or through the kitchen and into the dining room. She has discovered that there are lots of things just the right height for her to pull up and stand. Tonight, I placed her on the living room floor and quickly went to wash my hands, and she decided to go after me down the hallway. She tries to explore every nook and cranny of the house.

That's it.

I hereby pledge that I will not try to cook anything for supper from scratch (with the possible exception of eggs and toast) after I get home from work, when I'm the only parent here with the girls. It is just a terrible experience. No one is happy. The girls end up eating all kinds of things that bear no resemblence to supper, and I don't get to eat my supper until way too late--like tonight, for example, I ate at 7:30 p.m.

From now on, while Neil is busy harvesting, we will have to live on slow cooker meals (if I can get my act together), leftovers (if the slow cooker meals pan out), sandwiches, eggs, and perhaps cold cereal. Anything would be better than listening to one or both of the girls crying for the better part of two hours after getting home from work, and/or trying to cook something while dealing with stuff like...

Sophia wants help in the bathroom... Madeline is helping herself to drinking water... Sophia wants me to look at a book... Madeline doesn't want the food I put in front of her... Sophia wants milk... Madeline is trying to use the potty by herself... Sophia is standing on the cupboard trying to find candy... Madeline is trying to wash her hands and falls off the toilet... Sophia wants to go to the park... Madeline wants to colour... Sophia wants pickles... Madeline is colouring the inside of her nose with black marker... Sophia wants to make pipe-cleaner snakes... Madeline doesn't like getting her nose washed... Sophia wants milk... Madeline wants milk...

I think you get the idea. So do I. Loud and clear. No more cooking.

It's a girl!

My niece, Kacy, was born at 2:20 this afternoon! She's a healthy 10 lbs. 4 oz. Mother and baby are both doing well.

Royal Saskatchewan Museum

I took the girls to the Royal Saskatchewan Museum this afternoon. It's such a great place! Sophia loves it. We have taken her a few times, and so has her babysitter, Sharon. Madeline is just getting to know the museum, and she really seemed to enjoy it too.

The displays are really impressive. We're lucky to have such a wonderful place in Regina. It doesn't have the "Royal" designation for nothing. (P.S. The Royal designation is shared by only three other museums in Canada: the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.)

We didn't see everything today because we arrived there too late. It was just as well though because Madeline wanted me to carry her quite a bit and my back was hurting from being in bed and on the couch for most of 36 hours.

A poster titled "Bison Supermarket" caught my eye at the museum. It was produced by an organization called People in Their World located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. They have a lot of neat products and educational materials--many of which focus on bison, which is of particular interest to my family.

Timing is everything

While there's certainly no good time to get sick, it seems like there are better or worse times than others. And whether the timing seems good or bad all depends on how you look at it. I guess it's a glass half-full or half-empty kind of thing.

Madeline was sick Friday morning. When she called me to get her out of bed at 7:00 a.m., everything in her crib was covered with vomit. I don't even know when it happened because she didn't cry. Kids are amazing sometimes. Anyhow, it was quite a job to clean it all up. Plus, she threw up again in the living room (narrowly missed me) and I had to clean that up too.

Well, that was pretty bad timing because not only did I have to get things ready for Sophia's special day at preschool, I had to be there to be the parent helper and supply the snack. Any other day wouldn't have been a problem because I could've stayed home from work, but on this particular day, I couldn't stay home. So I called Neil's mom, and she was able to come in and stay with Madeline. (Thank you Donna!) It was lucky though that I knew I had this problem early enough that Donna could make it in to the city (an hour drive) in time for Sophia and I to go to preschool on time.

On the other hand, what bad timing for me to have to deal with some major germs and get a snack ready for 10 kids at the same time. I did my best, and I can only hope that no one else gets sick too.

And then there was my illness. Friday evening, I layed down with Sophia to help her go to sleep at 9:00 p.m. and when I woke up at 10:30 p.m., I was ill. Very ill. Is-ebola-going- around? (okay, just the vomiting part, not the other symptoms) ill. The onset of my illness was particularly good timing because the worst of it occurred while the girls were asleep. In fact, they slept wonderfully all night, and that seems amazing, considering I visited the washroom (very close to their rooms) about 20 times during the night. If they had awakened, I don't think I could've done anything to help comfort them (Neil was at the farm).

At 6:00 a.m., I called my Mom to ask for help because I knew I wouldn't be able to take care of the girls. By that time, I could barely even sit up. Luckily, though she had been scheduled to work, she had taken Saturday as a vacation day and was able to come in to help me. (Thank you Mom!) I hope so much that she (and Neil's Mom) didn't catch this dreadful bug.

The bad timing of it was that it has mostly ruined my weekend. I was only going to have two days off as it was, and just like that, it's down to one day--and not a fully productive, feeling well day either. I hate to say it would've been better to be sick on a weekday, but I think it's true--that's what sick leave is for. At least I wouldn't have to miss doing a bunch of the things I need or like to do on the weekend.

Bleh, what a week it has been (Sophia was sick on Monday). Makes me want to plaster Purell all over everyone every five minutes.

Sophia's special day

Friday was Sophia's special day at preschool. She had to bring an adult helper for her special day, so I got to spend the whole morning there with her. I really enjoyed it. As the helper, I sorted out several bins of toys, served the snack, and washed the plates and cups afterwards. I also read a story to the class--Sophia's choice: "Make-up Mess" by Robert Munsch.

The best part of the morning was seeing what they do at preschool. They had two classes on Friday. One class was about stained glass. First, they looked at several books about stained glass that were from the library. Then they made their own "stained glass" by gluing pieces of tissue paper onto wax paper. They had bowls filled with coloured glue and the kids used paint brushes to put the glue onto their paper. Well, Sophia used a lot of glue! I must have said something like, "Sophia, I think you have enough glue on there" and the teacher, Marcie, remarked "Yes, Sophia really likes glue!"

In the other class, they listened to five different pieces of music. I'm sure someone with more knowledge of music could identify the pieces because they were very familiar to me, but I just don't know the names of them. The childrens' task was to think of actions or movement to go with the music. For example, one piece was reminiscient of the circus, so the children danced with quick silly movements, and another soft piece had the children moving like ocean waves, and another reminded them of sneaking, so they acted like they were sneaking out of their bedroom and then quickly ran back to bed and pretended they were sleeping. It was all very cute!

Beautiful fall weather

Oh my goodness, it was gorgeous out this evening. It had to have been near 20 C around 6:00 p.m. and there wasn't a breath of wind.

I was going to cook supper tonight--had the meat all thawed out and everything--but I decided the rake the leaves instead. Neil stayed at the farm today, so I didn't have time to cook and rake. That's just the way it is. (We just ate vegetables and dip for supper, and lots of milk, so that's not so bad, right?)

Definitely the right decision though. The leaves were perfectly dry and crispy and light as air. While I raked, the girls had a ball swishing through the leaves and falling in them. They even helped me get them into bags, and we filled three large leaf bags.

Plus, a hot air balloon went almost directly over our house while we were in the front yard. The girls waved and shouted and I think someone actually waved back!

Life stages

I'm 34 today.

So here's how it breaks down:

• 6 yrs not in school + 12 yrs in school + 6 yrs in university + 10 yrs at SaskTel Mobility
  
• 25 yrs without Neil + 9 yrs with Neil
  
• 29 yrs single + 5 yrs married
  
• 30 yrs without children + 4 yrs (almost) with children
  
• 18 yrs living with my parents + 16 yrs living on my own
  
• 12 yrs on a farm + 6 yrs in a small town (Yellow Grass) + 6 yrs in Saskatoon + 10 yrs in Regina
  
• 1 yr an only child + 33 yrs a sister (to my brother Rob)
  
• 16 yrs not driving + 18 yrs driving
  
• 27 yrs not a home-owner + 7 yrs a home-owner
  
• 27 yrs without internet at home + 7 yrs with internet at home

Well that was kinda silly. What a thing to do at six in the morning, huh?

So how will I spend my birthday? Let's see... I have to go to work, and the thing I have to do at work today is my least favourite work thing to do. I'm not sure if Neil will be home for supper, so that's a bummer. I get to spend the evening with my kidlets. I think I'll pick up subs or something for supper because we have no leftovers today, and the girls tend to be a bit cranky and/or get into too much trouble when I'm cooking supper and not paying 100% attention to them. I'd like to avoid that today.

Hmmm, I was thinking, just to make work a little better today and a little more fun, maybe I'll go to Tim's and buy coffee for my coworkers (they have these big thermal jugs that hold a whole pot of coffee for take out). They'd like that, and so would I. The coffee that's dispensed from the machines at work is terrible sludge.

Here's something I didn't know before: September 22 is the 265th day of the year, so there are 100 days remaining. Also, a bunch of famous people were born on this day (as with all days), but no one I consider to be super-duper exciting. If you're interested, see for yourself (kind of a neat website anyway).

A few bad things

(1) Sophia being sick to her stomach and throwing up four times between 1:30 and 5:00 in the morning. Suffice it to say, Sophia, Neil, and I didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night (amazingly, Madeline slept right through the ruckus that was just outside her door). Fortunately though, we managed to prevent her from vomitting in either her bed or ours, but I can tell you there is quite a large splash zone when a lot of liquid hits a hard floor from approximately three feet high. (Sophia started recovering about mid-morning today and she seemed perfectly healthy this evening. I stayed home from work this morning to get a bit more sleep, then went to work this afternoon. It was lucky that Neil could stay home with Sophia in the afternoon.)

(2) The smell of milk that's been in a cup for probably close to two weeks. I found the lost sippy cup in the recycling bin this evening when I was getting the recycling ready for pickup. This affirms my method of dumping recycling from one bin to another anyway.

(3) Spending many, many hours entering contact information, scheduling, and trying to find volunteers on short notice for the preschool. I think it's probably pushing about 10 hours of work over the past eight days. I spent all evening both last Monday and today working on it, plus a bunch in between. To be honest, I don't really mind doing some of these tasks; it's just that I can think of a gazillion other things I'd rather be doing with my time.

Sleepy head

I really thought Sophia was watching a video while I wrote that last post!
I guess she's pooped out from our visit to the Tot's Cafe this morning. Madeline is sound asleep too. Ahhh, if only I could just let Sophia sleep for a long time...

Baby talk

My friend Karla just called a few minutes ago--they had a baby girl early this morning! One day before her due date. No name yet; baby was 6 lbs. 5 oz., and was delivered by C-section. Their twins, Aly and Zach, are 28 months old, so they are going to be very busy!
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My brother, Rob, and sister-in-law, Robyn, are due to have their third in about a week. I can't wait to meet my newest niece!
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Shauna, Cole, and Donna came to visit yesterday afternoon and stayed for supper. Shauna and Cole are returning to Edmonton on Sunday, so I was really happy to see more of my two-month old nephew before they leave. It was difficult to focus on Cole though or to hold him for any length of time when my rugrats were needing and wanting my attention too. I know Laurel always felt like that with Sophia because Bronwyn is only seven months older and she wanted Laurel to hold her.

Growing up

Madeline is 20 months old today.

Recent additions to her vocabulary: boots, straw, juice, cracker, book, over, bug... milk, done, water, why, and socks.

She wants to have a pony tail in her hair like Sophia and the other girls at daycare. It's so funny because there's only a small patch of hair that will actually gather into a pony tail.

I got her some Easy Ups "absorbant pants" yesterday. I was happy to find that they come in her small size. She sits on the potty so often now (without success except that one time), and she often refuses to lay down to put on a diaper, so these pull-up style diapers are working well.

Three years ago today

18 September 2001

Sophia eats her solid foods enthusiastically these days. She eats 1/3 cup oatmeal cereal for lunch and 1/3 cup rice and/or barley cereal, plus 2 or 3 tablespoons of vegetable for supper (this week it’s squash, which she seems to like better than peas).

Tonight, she pulled herself up to standing in her crib for the first time. She can stand with her arms over the rail. Time to lower the mattress once again!

Sophia goes to sleep at naptime and bedtime very well. She only fusses once in awhile. She always has her soother to go to sleep. Our bedtime ritual starts with nursing, a diaper change and into a sleeper, and cleaning her gums with a wet washcloth. Then in her room, I sing “Hush Little Baby” while holding her in my arms. After placing Sophia into her crib, I read Goodnight Moon or Time for Bed, then one more story before kissing her goodnight.

Preschool day

It's Jackson Pollock week at the Preschool Fine Arts Coop. The kids are to dress in "crazy colours". It would be interesting to see how they introduce Pollock's art to preschool children.

Update: When I took Sophia to preschool this morning, I saw a few works of art produced by the children this week. They used a variety of methods to apply colour to paper. Today, Sophia's class blew paint through straws to create something Pollock-esque, but I haven't seen the result yet. I'll have plenty of opportunity to see it next week when I'll be helping in the classroom.

Idol news & volunteer blues

So our Theresa Sokyrka did not win Canadian Idol. I'm not really surprised. Kalan Porter certainly is deserving of the title. I think they're both great, especially after seeing the clips of their previous performances (I just started watching a couple of weeks ago, so I hadn't seen a whole lot of them). I also think Kalan did a better job of the Canadian Idol single, "Awake in a Dream". I'm sure Theresa will end up having a very successful music career anyway.
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My volunteer coordinator job turned ugly yesterday. I learned at 2:00 p.m. that I needed to find an extra parent helper for today and this Monday. Brutal. For today, I managed to line up a mother who will have to bring her six-month old baby to the classroom as well. Apparently the extra adult is needed because there will be two more children in the class today and Monday, and they hadn't hired the second teacher for those days yet. Once the second teacher starts full time, this won't be an issue. Nevertheless, I was not happy about having to phone and email people all of a sudden like that.

Sports news

I played volleyball on Tuesday evening. It was just lucky that Neil could be home as they're waiting for the crops to ripen. (He wanted to be home to watch the final of the World Cup hockey tournament anyway. Canada won!)

My volleyball team (a competitive ladies team) plays twice a week, but I'm sharing a full-time position with another player, so I'll be playing Tuesdays and she'll be playing Thursdays. The league has 12 teams on the A side and 12 on the B side. We were ranked 7th on the A side after last season.
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As of midnight last night, there won't be an NHL hockey season because the owners have locked out the players. For some reason, that doesn't bother me--except for the fact that they'll be talking about it in the news, ad nauseum I'm sure.

Perhaps too much info

I went to the gastroenterologist today. I had waited more than six months for that appointment and actually felt pretty well (at least in that area) since the appointment was first made. The reason I was referred to the specialist back in March was that I had experienced almost-daily abdominal pain accompanied by, um, frequent trips to the bathroom for well over two months.

The doctor said it's possible that I have Crohn's Disease (my brother has it), but the only way to tell is to have an x-ray, and since I'm feeling fine now, it's not really necessary to do that at this point (whew!). If something flares up again, then I should see him again. He also said that the flu I had last year (late November) may have triggered something. Anyhow, the appointment was quick and painless. I'm glad that's done.

I'm watching, R U?

I'm in the midst of watching the Canadian Idol finale (part 1). It's a good thing we have two TVs, or that would be awfully difficult to do in this house (if you've read any of Neil's comments on this subject, you'll know what I mean).

I don't know about those judges. They're just mean and nasty sometimes. I didn't like how they criticized Kalan after his first song, "I Can Only Imagine". I thought it was nice, but what do I know? They've been great to Theresa though.

I think it would be cool for Theresa to win--just a touch of excitement for Saskatchewan, and we could use a little excitement right now. Hmmm, perhaps I should actually vote...

Update Sept 16: I used text messaging to vote for Theresa seven times last night. It's interesting to see that my site has had a lot of Google hits because I mentioned Canadian Idol.