Poop and Boogies.  The name alone makes you want to go there, doesn't it?

This article only completes my love of this blog. 

heh heh heh.

The trip to Ottawa was fun, exhausting, a bit crazy, slightly damp, exhausting, and quite exhausting.  Try sleeping with a three year old who thinks she needs to be touching you with some part of her body at all times.  It really isn't pleasant.  Not to mention that I simply don't sleep well when I'm at other people's houses.  Some kind of weird phobia, I guess...  although, now that I think of it, I don't really sleep well in my OWN house, so how could I sleep well at other's?

We got into Auntie Jessie's place around 9:30 Friday night.  She, crazy woman that she is, somehow thought that it took 4 hours to get from Peterborough to Ottawa instead of 3.  She's a bit of a nutbar.  But we love her anyways!  So, because she wasn't expecting us for another hour, she had her apartment in shambles.  Trying madly to put doors on her cupboards so that it would be nicely organized while we were there.  It didn't happen.  For the whole weekend.  Add all the crap that I think I need for a weekend getaway, Keyz's crap, and then Jessie's crap, and it was like a big crap fest.  Our crap all partied together for the whole weekend, creating frantic searching for clean underwear and socks. 

Saturday morning started off with a trip over to Wool-Tyme.  A seriously lovely yarn shop with a bit of everything.  I didn't even look at sock yarn because I have forbidden any new sock thoughts until I finish the pair I started for Jessie something like 2 years ago. 

 

((okay, this really isn't my fault...  socks are...  kind of... well...  boring.  And, I had started the second sock and my hideous son was "helping" and pulled the needles out.  I've been so depressed since then that I just can't bring myself to pick it up again!)) 

Anyways, Jess thought it was touted as the biggest Yarn store in Ottawa, but I'm not sure.  It was really lovely though.  The people were wonderful.  I was asked if I could be helped when I walked in the door, and I explained that I was from a small town with not much yarn choice, she laughed and said, "I understand.  I'll just let you breathe it all in for a bit!"

I bought two skeins of a sweet blue cotton for $2.00 each, and I'm kicking myself for not getting more!  Then I wanted to get something fancy...  something I wouldn't be able to necessarily get here... something yummy and soft...  I've been a bit jealous over Allyson's recent acquisition, and I really thought I should get something on the equivalent.  They had baby alpaca on sale for $10 a skein, but it was kind of ugly.  Probably the reason it was on sale, hunh?  One was a two toned yellow twist, and one was a two toned pink twist.  So, I'm wandering around, fondling the bamboo (what could I make with that??  I was sooo yummy!), touching the angora, wishing I wasn't allergic to wool or angora, and I stumbled across this.  I did the neck test, carried a skein of it around on my neck for a while to see if the prickle and the itch would start, and lo and behold, it did not!  It's Alpaca Paint from the Luxury Collection.  $7.99 a skein.  Spun in Peru.  No idea if that last part means anything!  I got three skeins to make myself a scarf out of.  (((But, which one??)))  I love the colours.  It's really beautiful.  Tones of blue, purple, and turqoise.  And SO soft! **drool**  **drool**

Ahem.  Moving on.

Then we did a little trip over to Old Macdonalds for lunch, and then it was a little hop skip and jump over to the Museum of Science and Technology.  It was pretty good, except for the tired little three year old we couldn't shake all weekend...  They had some experiments going on that the kids got to do, and Keyz did enjoy tearing around the crazy kitchen.

After a little rest back at the old apartment, we were off to the Kanata Wave Pool.  Keyzia was a bit weirded out at first, it was pretty noisy with the waves and everything, but after forcing her to go in (as I am wont to do) she did pretty good.  It was a lot of fun there at the wave pool.  They had a giant water slide, and as soon as Keyz caught site of it, she looked at me very sternly and said, "I am NOT going down that slide!"  There was also a warmer kiddie pool that we took some breaks in.  The way the pool worked was kind of interesting.  There would be a loud buzzer and then the waves would go for about 15 minutes.  Then the waves would stop for another ten to fifteen minutes.  They had a bunch of big things to float on, and they also had life jackets.  By the end of the night, Keyz would hear the buzzer and go, "the waves!  Come on, we can't miss the waves!!"  She loved it and was totally beat by the time we got back to Jessie's.  We all cozied up and watched a movie for the evening...

Sunday was pretty laid back.  Jessie took us out for breakfast at Cora's.  We had amazing crepes.  mmmm.... makes me drool just to think of them.  Then we hopped over to Value Village and had a look through.  We were looking for a fall coat for the Keyz, found one, bought it, discovered the big rip, went to the park and ripped the other side!!  Needless to say I was not impressed.  I'm hopeful that I can fix it though.

We headed for home at about 3, and were home by about 6.  It was a long drive home...  I had one big ole' Cafe Mocha to make it through, that's for sure.  Keyzia slept from before Carlton Place until just after Norwood...  Just for perspective, Carlton Place is about 20 minutes out of Ottawa, and Norwood is about 20 minutes from Peterborough. 

It was a really nice weekend.  Keyzia sucked up the adult attention like crazy.  She adored having me to herself, and I think her little twitch has stopped...  the lack of fear of some two year old brother smacking on her. 

Would I go again?  Sure would!  Although maybe next time I'll leave the kid at home and just do an Ottawa yarn store prowl...  Hmmm, maybe I should start saving now?

 

Pics to follow when I'm not feeling too lazy to bother with posting them....

Tomorrow night after madly packing, getting things ready, switching carseats, buying groceries, ballet, and any other little thing that needs to be done, the estrogen half of the family is leaving the testosterone half of the family at home.

Keyzia and I are going to visit Ja's sister Jessie in Ottawa until Sunday afternoon!  All by ourselves!

On the agenda, the Museum of Nature, the biggest yarn shop in Ottawa, and the wave pool in Kanata.  Also, revelling in our lack of boyness.

Ooo baby, it's gonna be fun!

Dear nasty mom of mean boy at the park this afternoon,

Here's the thing.  When I have five kids in my care, and am still able to manage all five of them, keep track of all five of them, and play with all five of them, it seems to me that you should have been able to care for the one child you had with you.

When your child is approaching strangers to ask for pushes on the swing, to lift him up to the monkey bars, and to play ball with him, then maybe it's time you paid some attention to your child and not expect everyone else's parents to look after him for you. 

And then, when your child pushes down a three year old in my care, and hits my daughter with a stick, and I tell him he can't play with us if he's going to be mean, coming over to me to tell me I need to talk to an adult instead of the child is probably not a smart thing to do.

Here's the thing, nasty mom of mean boy at the park this afternoon, if you had have been supervising your child the way you should have been, I would not have had to tell him not to push my child.  If you had have been giving your child the attention he needed, he wouldn't have been begging strangers to do things for him.  Another thing, do you really think I would lie about your child pushing my child?  Do you think I get kicks from telling other people's children what to do?

You know, seeing as how we were there for well over an hour, with your son constantly tormenting us to play with him and push him on the swings, and we did not even know he was there with anyone, would kind of scream the words "neglect" to me.  What would have happened if your son had have taken up with people not as nice as us?  We had no problem including him in our games until he started to get violent.  The thing is we shouldn't have felt like we had to.  Other people, or other kids would have fought back, or the more horrible thing, anyone could have taken your son from you.

Maybe next time you should pay a bit of attention to your son, maybe next time you shouldn't get upset when someone tells him not to push other children when it should be you doing that.  Maybe if you don't want to play with your child you shouldn't take him to the park.

Next time I'll send you a bill for child care and services rendered.

Sincerely,

jamie

We have a wading pool not too terribly far from us.  A wading pool that I spent a lot of time at last year during the summer that would not be warm.  And now that we are nearing the end of the summer that will not cool down, it was our first time going.

So, they start filling it at 11 in the AM.  And that's all fine.  I managed to get a load of laundry out on the line before we left, etc, etc...  make a lunch to take with, etc, etc...  don't happen to see the sunscreen where it should be, so I assume that I put it in my bag.  Without checking.  I just figured it was that.  You know, because I have those angel like children who would never just move something to make me crazy and want to pull out my hair and give them to travelling gypsies.

But, I digress.  It's a theme.

So, we get to the wading pool after walking for about 20 minutes in the hot sun, and there's no sunscreen.  I think ((stupid stupid stupid)) well, no big deal, it's kind of cloudy in between the periods of hot hot sun.  This is me, the gal who when it says on the weather network that unprotected skin will burn in 15 minutes, burns in 7 minutes.

The kids are fine.  Not even looking any darker.  Me, however?  I can feel the fireback taking over.  Oh yah, it's gonna need some aloe tonight.

You know what sucks about being a mom?  And a Christian who has been all gung-ho about taking responsibilites for your own actions, blah blah blah...  I can't even blame this on anyone.

sigh.

If I ever say, ever, ever say that it should be no problem to bike to the zoo, take my bike away from me, get a strait jacket, and lock me up in an asylum.

We went to the zoo today, took the brand new trail just down the road from us that goes pretty much right to the zoo...  almost all uphill...  took us about twenty minutes, even though I had to stop for water and walked up one nasty hill.  So that wasn't horrible.  Not even terrible.

Had a lovely time with Tracy, Rachel and respective children.  Played in the splash pad, had some picnic food, it was all good...

then it was time to go.

Silly me, thinking, oh, I won't take the trail home, even though I know it's all downhill but for two hills, in order to skip the last hill, I'll take... let's call it evil road that you should only ever go down, my traitor of a brain said.  Yes, the Evil Road will pop me out above the house and hence, no giant hill!  Hooray!  Here I am already patting myself on the back for being such a genius!!

Wrong.  So wrong.  So very very wrong.  Evil Road just goes up the other side of the massive hill that I live on top of.  With even more hills.  It took me about an hour to get home.  With Keyzia crying and whining and complaining about missing her puppy pretty much the whole time.  With a brief stop in a church yard to sit in the shade and have a cry and think about how I could get someone to rescue me from the hideousness that was this bikeride.  Or, even someone that I could sell the children to... 

So, I'm lamenting what horrible shape I'm in, vowing to never bike to the zoo again, etc, etc, I get home, haul everything up the steps into the backyard and realize my front tire isn't spinning very well...  interesting.  And, there's a whole bunch of little bits and pieces of my front brake pad all over the tire spokes and the tire itself.  In essence, my front brake was on the entire time I was biking home.  I was biking with the brake ON, people.

Nice.  Not only was I fighting the hills, but my own BIKE was against me.

---

UPDATE

It turns out that my quick release front tire wasn't on properly, so it was rubbing the whole way there and the whole way back...  Causing friction and making it really hard to pedal.  I wasn't coasting at all!

The bike is still having a time out for a few days though.

It's JUNE, not JULY, which means that Michael's doesn't open for another month.

 

That was a waste of gas.

and self centred.

**begin rant**

I was out at the mall yesterday, just kind of an in and out trip with both kids, so I didn't bother with the stroller, and there were no available carts to use.  All fine, Keyzia stays close to me, and Ephraim actually does quite well with holding my hand.

So, our trip was accomplished fairly successfully, and we were leaving.  I had my bag in one hand, and I was holding onto each of the kids hands as well...  which, as I'm sure most of you mothers know, makes it difficult to open those swinging doors. 

An older woman came in the first set of doors, coming in as I was going out, stood there and waited for me to open the door for her!!!  She was completely capable of opening the door herself, in fact I had just seen her do it, with no trouble at all since she was holding NOTHING in her hands.

Thankfully, there was an older man after that that held open the next door for me, and who shook his head at the other lady.  At least I wasn't the only one who noticed!

Can you imagine how different the world would be if everyone was courteous?  If we all put ourselves out just a little bit for the strangers that we live side by side with??

I am so sick of the rudeness in our society.  I'm so tired of the lack of responsibility.  Why admit to your mistakes and learn from them when you can blame someone else!

**end rant**

I challenge you to do something nice for someone today.  Hold open a door.  Help someone with their packages.  Smile at a stranger on the street.  It takes no time at all but it can make a world of difference.

I tell ya, it's been a few days!  And, it's only going to get worse.  WE. ARE. MOVING. IN. 5 DAYS.  5!!!  commence freaking out... now.

Yah, so we're moving.  Next weekend.  Ack.  Crazy.  Insane.  Can't I just go to sleep and wake up in the new house?  Everything clean and tidy?  Nice and put away?  Now that, that would be ideal.  But, instead, I have a bazillion things to do this week...  and a zillion places to be.  Play practice Monday night, Women in the Word and Ballet on Tuesday, Wednesday we're going for dinner at Ja's Aunt's house...  Thursday, babysitting and packing like a maniacal woman....  Then Friday is painting day!  Hooray! 

Have we been packing?  Probably not as much as we should have been.  Friday I went to see an old friend from Highschool...  who, weirdly enough, has a little girl now!  Man, we used to pass notes in math class all the time.  It had been far too long since we had seen each other.  I tell ya though, she hasn't changed at all!  Still the same old Patricia!  Her baby, eight month old Alexandria is too cute...  She will just about melt your heart with those huge blue eyes.  What an absolute doll.  Don't you agree?

Then, on Saturday, we went bowling with Russell and the boys for their birthdays...  belated for Dalton, and the day after Noah's.  Hard to believe that they are 7 and 5 respectively!!  You can take a peak at some pictures here...  or click photo ops, then find the Bowling Party category.

Frankly, I sucked at bowling.  Came in dead last, but Russell did Cheat!  Lori played a few rounds for Russell, cause she made some crazy excuse as to the baby being hungry...  yah yah.... 

But, it was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.  Even though I lost hideously.

Today, it's time for church, vegging out, and more packing...  at least unpacking will be fun, won't it???

It is a balmy -18 degrees here in Peterborough, with a lovely cooling windchill that takes it down to -28 degrees.  ahhh yes...  lovely....

In our apartment right now, we have the thermostat cranked all the way to the top and we can feel the wind whistling in through the two inches of ice encrusted on the windows...  The kids are so bundled up it's crazy, and I have long johns on, two shirts, and a wool sweater...  we even had the oven on with the door open for a bit to try and warm it up in here!

But, this is Canada...  "Sure is cold, eh?"  And, I have to admit, I do love the craziness of the weather here....

Although, I sure wish it wouldn't ruin my plans for dinner out with no children!