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Singing in the Shower

Finn was singing in the shower this morning. (To the tune of Katy Perry's "I kissed a girl".)

"I kissed a girl and I liked it.
Taste just like cherry chop sticks."

(Image source: www.geeky-gadgets.com/lightsaber-chop-sticks-15-07-09/)

I wonder what cherry chop sticks taste like and who he has been kissing.

Sisterly Advice- A Vaguely Serious Post

My most recent example of excellent big sisterly advice... via text messaging.

Her: When you went off birth control did you have any noticeable side effects after having been on the pill for years?

Me: Yes. Pregnancy. Every time.

(Insert Sister rolling her eyes heavenwards and deeply regretting having asked me the question in the first place.)
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BEFORE ANYONE ASKS: NO, this is NOT me telling everyone my sister is pregnant. Because to my knowledge she is not. Quite the opposite, in fact.
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She thought I was joking but she knows my (and her own) history... we are fertile girls after all!

That, of course, wasn't what she meant at all. She actually wanted to discuss side effects of going cold turkey off the pill and what it would do to her. She had been reading internet "medical" data and chat room horror stories and had successfully freaked herself out. She'd had some symptoms and wanted to know if this was "normal". So, she came to me, her big sister, for some advice. (Mom was probably busy.)

I told her, reasonably I thought, that she should consult her doctor and that some of the things she had read about where possible but it was unlikely that she would get ALL of the symptoms at the same time. She knew all of that.

But I also told her something that she didn't know yet... "normal" changes after the age of 35- menustrually speaking. But that she knows her body best and she has to pay attention to what it is saying. She also has to share that information with the doctor to get the best information.

I illustrated this with a personal story, with a point, from a couple years ago. SPOILER ALERT: this story is about my period so if that sets off your T.M.I. alarm scan right down to the bottom for the point of the story.

I went to see my personal doctor because I was concerned that my cycle had been doing some wonky things. Until that time I had always been regular like precision Swiss clockwork, both on and off the pill. Now I was +8 days one month and -2 the next. It was very odd. So, of course, I did some internet research and had convinced myself that I had early stages of ovarian cancer. (Yeah, I'm an idiot. Not the point. Keep reading.)

So I go to my doctor and I describe my lack of normal cycle. He listens and then asks me my age. I tell him. He said that this change in my cycle could be that I was now over 35. That things change at about this age for women.

I emphasized how regular I had been, like, forever and was he very certain that there might not be anything else at play here. Seeing that I was not going to let this go he dug around on the inside of his desk for a little bit until he procured a little pad of paper. This was a menustral tracking chart. He then advised that the only way we would know if this was normal was if we tracked my menstrual cycle for 6 months or more. (Insert smug doctor face of knowing I would go away for at least 6 months and let him deal with patients who had real issues.)

So I dug around in my purse for a moment and handed him a piece of paper. I told him that I had already charted this information on my own over the previous +12 months and I still saw no pattern. (Bazinga!)

He was a little dumbstruck as he looked at it for a moment but evetually concluded that it was well in the range of normal but that normal, for me, had obviously changed since I had turned 35. He also added that I'd had regular PAP test which showed normal results so we had no reason to suspect anything odd was at play here. He also added that he thought I was a very peculiar woman for having had that charted already.

My answer to that was that how was: of course I had it charted. I noticed a difference and how was I supposed to prove a trend if I didn't have any data?

Any I bring it around to my points and I have a few:

1. Being aware of YOUR body is what is relevant. You should know your normal and know when your body is deviating from it.


2. Stay away from the internet for self diagnosis.


3. Charting and graphing- all the cool kids are doing it! You should too.

All of this sisterly advice in 140 characters or less. Not bad but I'm not going to quit my day job.

We'll be careful... I promise!!!

"Mom, can we do our nails ourselves?"

"I'm busy right now, Honey. Can this wait, please, until I am done cleaning the pool?"

"No! We want to do it now."

"Okay. Please do it in your bathroom and be really careful."

"Thank you Mom. We will. I promise!"

Exhibit A

Take one tiny bottle (10-15 ml) of Essie "a list" nail polish. Add two little girls and a curious kitten inside the boundaries of a bathroom. What could happen?

Yeah, well we all know what came next... an accidental spill...panic... a panicked attempt at clean up before your little brother can tattle ... dabbing the spill marks with nail polish remover hoping to make a clean spot... dumping the nail polish remover on the floor/counter/sink and scrubbing like mad with the bathroom towels...kicking the cat out of the room again before he can drink more nail polish remover... figuring out that you have stepped in the nail polish and you are leaving more marks on the floor with every step you take (including on the white bath mat)... and finally... sending the child whose arms and hands are 60% covered in red nail polish to tell your mom.

This is another one of those moments where I should have had the presence of mind to have taken a picture. But I didn't. I have not yet reached the Zen enlightenment stage in parenting where I can laugh before I yell. I'm working on it- I seem to be getting lots of opportunity to practice.

There was nail polish on the wall, the floor, in the sink, on the counter, on the door, on the mirror, on Georgia's arms and hands, on Olivia's sock, in the cat's fur, on the bath mat and covering 4 separate face cloths or towels.

Important lessons the girls learned from this:

1. 
   
   It might have been better to have confessed sooner.


2. 
   
   Cats are never helpful in stress inducing nail polish incidents- no matter what anyone says.


3. 
   
   It is a lot of work to clean this stuff up! But it is easier when mom helps.

Important lessons I learned from this:

1. 
   
   Holy F***! 10-15 ml of nail polish can go a LONG way! (Did they drop it from the frickin' ceiling?!)


2. 
   
   I have pledged my love and eternal gratitude to the makers (obviously a parent) of Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. I will NEVER be without these in my house.


3. 
   
   Initial reaction aside (yeah, I yelled, but HOLY CRAP you would have too!) I was calm enough to realise that each of the girls felt really bad about the incident and that they were punishing themselves worse than I ever would have. Accidents happen.


4. I really need to buy some new face cloths and towels for the kids' bathroom. I'm thinking black ones would be good.


5. 
   
   
   

   AND I'm putting a live squirrel in the car of the next person who buys my kids nail polish. I'm just saying.

Friday

Well, we are nearing the end of our time at the Lake. We leave tomorrow evening. We are full to the top of cinnamon buns, ice cream and candy. The kids and I have eaten so much cheddar popcorn our fingers might be permanently orange. Yes, I do know none of those are actual food groups but hey, we're at the lake. Give us a break.

The girls have done 3 days of art camp at the Art Gallery here in the park and have made some really good art. We did a lot of swimming. We've gone on adventure walks. We've played at the parks and walked along the main strip. We have shopped. We have visited the wishing well, Deep Bay and the pier several times. All major bases covered. The kids and Scott rented a 4 person bike with Scott's sister Tammy.

Scott and the kids have enjoyed watching the Retro Teletoon channel. Such quality shows as The Smurfs, Spiderman (1983), Thundercats and The Smoggies. I didn't like any of those shows when they were on the first time and lets's just say that they haven't aged well with time. The one exception is Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner. Quoting one of Finn's favourite animated characters, Mater, "Well, I don't care who you are. That there is funny."

Scott has been watching the Game Show network too. I may scream if he makes me watch one more episode of Match Game or $25,000 Pyramid. I can actually feel myself getting stupider. I remember, at times like these, why I realy dislike most of what is on TV. Reading is much less frustrating.

I am making excellent progress on Scott's sweater "Golden Boy". I have (nearly) 3 of the 4 pieces complete. I'll add a picture a little later.

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Scott is getting VERY excited for what comes next week. Comic-Con in San Diego. He is spending his time reading about Comic-con exclusives and artists etc. If you don't know what Comic-Con is you should check out this article or just goto http://www.comic-con.org/ .

New Camera - Out and About

I bought a new camera for our holidays. (For those who are interested: a Samsung ST700.) It is a little handheld thing that has many more features than I am currently able to figure out but it does have a few interesting settings. It helps me take much better... or at least much more interesting pictures.

Here are a few from this morning.

This was in Vingette setting. perhaps not the best example but I like what it did with the light.

We briefly got stuck in "olden times". And, as is apt to happen in Oldy Timey type photos, I have captured photgraphic evidence of Olivia's darker side.

This is a picture of Georgia and her monkey ZigZag monkinating. (Definition: to sit quietly while contemplating your inner monkey.) Her word not mine.

A good day.

We had a very good day today.

I just bought a new camera and I am still working out the bugs.

Remembering Margaret

Margaret was a good cat. She was sick and today we made the hardest decision that pet owners have to make. She will be missed.

In her memory I will tell you 10 things that you may not have known about our cat Margaret:

1. Margaret's full name was Margaret the Log Lady. Our previous cat's name was Deputy Andy and he was Margaret's litter mate. (Do I know how to name a cat or what?!)


2. Margaret was a boy cat but by the time I realized that the name had stuck. In my defense she was VERY young when I got her and to that point I had been a life-long city girl. I just referred to her as being transgendered and that we were okay with her decisions. I have been openly mocked by every vet who has seen her for the past 14 years. I'm still okay with that. (Although we have wisely sought sober second opinions on gender assignment on every cat owned since.)


3. Margaret and Andy were gifts from one of my previous co-workers. I had casually mentioned one day that I was contemplating getting a cat because Scott didn't like dogs and I wanted a pet. He brought me two the very next day. Um... thanks. Now what?


4. Margaret was also known as Margaret the Bad Cat as she was a very mischievous kitten and young cat. She liked to ride on the dashboard of my Neon while I drove (I guess she liked to go fast.). She stole entire loaves of bread that were way bigger than her, took pieces of ham right off the Easter dinner platter left briefly unattended, somehow managed to eat the rubber handles off an exercise bike and knocked a light fixture off the ceiling at my house in Pierson. She ate every single house plant I have ever owned and knocked the ones she didn't like to eat off the shelf or table as a sign of her displeasure.


5. I once found Margaret tied to a couch. Oh I wish I'd had a camera that day!She had been playing with a ball of my knitting yarn and obviously had a great time rolling the ball under the couch and back up over the other side- many times. She had created a tangled spider-web up, over and around the couch and then proceeded to play inside the web- until she got stuck. I found her with her back leg hopelessly tied and her trying to act all casual. I stopped knitting for those years as I recognized that this might have been a first but it would not have been the last time I found her like this. I did a lot of reading in those years.


6. Margaret was a fierce fighter: she believed her tail was actually something scary lurking behind her and attacked it bravely and regularly. She also kept Scott and my bed free from bed mice. (Bed mice are anything that happened to move under the covers.) She hated shower curtains, especially the ones with magnets in them. And she ran around the house every night at 10:30pm patrolling the house and ringing out the cat alarm for other lazier cats who will remain nameless to get off their butts and to help her out on patrol. She routinely killed the kids' slippers. She would leave these now-dead offerings on Scott's pillow...which, now that I think about it may have been a thinly disguised threat.


7. Margaret was possessive. I belonged to her and her alone. She got slightly more social as she got older but not by so much as that she wanted to be touched by anyone just to be in the same room to supervise you. She gave the best purr therapy.


8. Margaret always slept with Scott and I and was very snugly. She liked to sleep curled up in my arm crook under the covers or right on my hip as I slept on my side.


9. Margaret woke me every day by butting her head into my open palm and demanded being petting RIGHT NOW. She would lick my hand or inner elbow if I didn't wake up fast enough to please her. Sometimes she would switch it up and sneeze in my face if I was being persistent about wanting to be asleep. I would have to pet her until she was satisfied and then she would walk away and go back to sleep- we called this "loving the Margaret".


10. Although quite anti-social she was quite patient with the kids and was a very good family pet.

Thank you Margaret for being part of our family. XOXOXOXO

Not dead- Just trapped in summer!

All is well with us. Honest. I am not dead. Just a little pre-occupied right now with summer time activities. Not much longer now until I get a little quiet time and I can fill you all in since I was here last.

Hmm... March was it... yeah, sorry about that. One thing blended into the other and next thing I knew it was the end of school.

This week's activities will only involve one trip to Winnipeg. Finn is off to the Abel's for some solo grandparent type fun.

I'll be back soon!

A really good day.

We went to Disneyland yesterday. We had a great day.

Here is the list of characters we saw today: Belle, Ariel, Cinerella, Snow White, Aurora, Jasime and Aladdin, Mary Poppins and Burt, Pluto, Goofy, Giepetto, Rapunzel and Flynn, Mickey and Minnie Mouse. And the best little evil queen ever.