Half the Energy, Twice the Spunk

The boys are doing great.

Enough about them.

I'm on the job hunt. I am 3 courses away from graduating university - since the 3 year bachelor of arts degree I will be getting has taken me 10 years thus far, I anticipate my graduation to be sometime around 2013.

In the meantime I have discovered that one cannot actually pay their mortgage with smiles, and no matter how much my kids like bologna, eventually even they tire of eating it.

So I'm on the hunt for employment.

Here's the dilemma: Tyler starts kindergarden, and for this year it is on Day 1, 3 and 5 of a rotating 6 day school schedule. Now who the hell decided on a rotating 6 day school schedule? I think school administrators are just looking for ways to skrew with parents now.

Add to that the fact that I get IVIG treatments every 2nd tuesday and spend the next 3 days feeling about as chipper as a drugged up sloth with the flu.

So... my availability for September is as follows: the first Monday and Wednesday (or 'Wodensday' if you prefer to give the old Norse God and Wednesday's namesake it's due credit) of the month, the third Wednesday of the month, and *maybe* the last Friday.

I'm not thinking my potential employers will leap at that...


So the job hunt continues. I've been hounding a few newspaper editors hoping one of them will mistake me for an actual writer with some actual talent, or maybe just pity me enough to throw money at me for writing jibberish.
Not sure how well that retirement plan will work.

In the meantime I am considering selling a kidney. Though Im not sure many people would want it. I'm sure it's a lovely shade of pink.... would go well on a mantle? Im dissapointed that ebay explicitly states in its terms of use that selling body parts or organs is forbidden... not sure how else to break into that market.

Well - time to stop rambling - off to try my hand at the loom.

K

Enough Said.

Today we went to the beach.

Today we ate sandwitches with real sand in them, and didn't mind.

Today we put a lifejacket on Tyler and let him splash and play and chase his cousin Charlie in the water for 2 full hours.

Today we helped Brandon bury his teenage cousin and shaped the sand into a mermaid (thanks Kyle!).

Today I cleaned a full inch of sand out of the bottom of my bathtub at the end of the day.

Today we put 2 very tuckered little boys to bed.

Today we all got a little darker skin, and a little sunnier dispositions.

Tonight we went for a walk past the house that was burnt in the deadly fire up the street on Friday.

Tonight we washed some of the firefighter gear dad wore to the fire Friday morning.

Tonight we are goign to bed comfortable that we double checked all our smoke detectors.

Tonight we're counting our blessings, and are thankful everyone under our roof will be safe in bed for one more night.

Tonight we're feeling lucky, and remembering that EVERYTHING can change in an instant.

Looking forward to more todays (and hopefully no more Fridays).


Goodnight.

1. Tyler learned what 'dense' means (as in dense meat). Try explaining 'dense' to a 5 year old.

2. 'Accidentally' dumping 1/2 a bottle of kids shampoo into the bathwater is ALOT OF FUN.

3. It is going to cost over $4000 to feed my 7 year old for the next 3 months. (Thank goodness for insurance)

4. Typing 2204355 into google and clicking the 'I feel lucky' button produces a strange man singing into chicken drumsticks set on a psychadellic rainbow background that makes my children laugh until they cry no matter how many times I play it.

5. If you forget that the Seating Clinic delivery guy is supposed to come pick up a base at 10am, and you ignore the stranger at the door hoping he will just go away.. he wont. He will instead go back to his van and call you several times (calls you will ignore), then wander around your house, hoping you left the aforementioned base outside somewhere for him to pick up... he will do this until he happens to see you and your 2 kids hanging out in the living room through the front window (at which point it will suddenly dawn on you that he's not a murderer - he's the delivery guy you were supposed to be expecting)... You will feel like a moron when you go and try to pretend you didn't hear the doorbell 5 times and the telephone 3 times and 'honestly' only realised he was there when you saw him through the window... He will smile and pretend he buys it. But you both know you're just a big chicken who doesn't open the door to strange men you aren't expecting (or have forgotten to expect). You won't really care that you looked like a fool though.

6. When you take 30 GREAT pictures of your kids playing under the big beach umbrella at the bottom of the wheelchair ramp, it is for naught if you have not put the memory card in your camera first.

7. 5 year olds can actually eat 1/2 a large watermelon all to themselves. 7 year olds can eat the other half.

8. You are a lucky woman when you can email your child's pediatritian and request 6 perscriptions/letters for insurance companies, charities, and non-profits, and he responds within a few hours with 'we'll try to get them out this week to you!'.

9. The 5 year old will eat ANYTHING if it comes out of our garden. The child HATES onions with a passion but he watched me pick one out of the garden and decided it was his favorite food ever - and he did indeed eat it.

10. When it's brutally hot out the cat will sprawl out in the kitchen sink just for the feel of the cool metal. The children will LOVE this, and will attempt to use the opportunity to offer said cat a bath. The cat will NOT love this.

11. Letting the kids spend 1 hour in the bathtub before bed is the maker of miracles I wish I knew about years ago.

12. 3 queen sized sheets, a camo throw rug, 5 utility clamps, a few chairs, and a whole wack of pillows and stuffed bears can transform any living room into a fort of epic proportions - and will bring mom HOURS of peace (well 'peace' is a relative term in this house...)

13. Setting up bird feeders within 'cat-leaping distance' of the deck rail is either a wonderful source of entertainment or a cruel cruel joke...

14. At the end of the day - when the floors are washed, the fans are on full blast, the laundry is folded and the kids are healthy and sleeping in their beds... the house is quiet... It's a little piece of paradise...

every night. :)

Today's entry will be short on account of a rather deep cut I managed to give my poor finger while peeling/slicing the 50 odd pounds of apples we got from neighbors today (yay!!). It's amazing how much a sore finger impacts your life when you are a computer junkie...

Anyways - rough day here - the boys were up at 630am, rearing to go. They were up late last night - so all around not enough sleep. It's been HOT here (like 35C - 95F hot) and I think it has finally caught up to Brandon.

His movements are worse than I have seen in a LONG time in spite of an increase in his medication this week. For the medical junkies - his dystonia is quite bad - lots of posturing at night etc, which im sure is contributing to his being tired. During the day he is stubborn enough to insist on walking around the house, but falls constantly because of the ataxia which is also worse than it has been in a long time. He has hurt himself countless time this weekend.

It's days like this I just get mad at it all. It's not fair that he has to weigh walking against getting hurt. :(

We have been lucky so far - he is rubbery and hasn't broken anything yet. But we all know it's just a matter of time until he breaks a bone. It's impossible to tell him not to walk, but at the same time, we know it will hurt him.

~sigh~

Life just sucks sometimes.

To ice the cake we had to bow out of a bonfire tonight that both boys were REALLY looking forward to. Brandon is just too tired. By dinner time he was a whiny grumpy mess. So we called off the late night and went to bed early.

Again. ~sigh~

I was looking forward to just doing something 'normal' as a family. Staying up late on a summer night, hanging out around a bonfire with good friends, marshmallows and hot dogs. It's hard to admit when normal is out of reach.

Alright - pity party over.

At the end of the day nobody is actively sick, and I have a freezer full of apples, so I really can't complain.

On that note I believe I will go indulge in the last chocolate chip cookie.

Goodnight friends.