Monthly Archives: November 2011

Time to grow up

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There are some things in this world that I have never, ever been able to understand. One of them is complaining and whining about things that are fully in within your control.

When I was in high school, my dad was one of four RCMP officers in our town. Do you know how many times I heard,
“Your dad pulled me over for speeding/stunting/tinting/drinking/whatever“ 

Do you know what my reply always was??

“I guess you shouldn’t have been doing that, then.“

Alberta is in the process of lowering the impaired driving limit from 0.08 to 0.05, with stricter penalties for those caught driving under the influence. I love it. I am madly in love with this idea:

Those caught drinking and driving can already be charged under the Criminal Code of Canada if they have a blood-alcohol content over 0.08. Under the proposed new provincial law, people criminally charged with drunk driving will immediately lose their licences until the charges are resolved. 

Albertans caught driving with a blood-alcohol content between .05 and .08 – below the criminal limit – will be subject to a three-day license suspension and a three-day vehicle seizure for a first offence. A second offence will bring a 15-day suspension and a seven-day seizure. A third offence will bring a 30-day suspension and a seven-day seizure. Drivers will pay impound costs. 

Finally, under the proposed law, young drivers in Alberta will face stricter rules. The zero-tolerance for alcohol will continue, but those caught drinking and driving will face an immediate 30-day suspension. Also, for the first six months that new drivers are allowed to drive alone, the new driver cannot have more than one teen passenger in the vehicle. They are also restricted from driving between midnight and 5 a.m.

I’m a 145lb woman who would be fast-asleep-passed-out long before I hit a blood alcohol level of 0.08. I’m good to go if I have a glass of wine at dinner, but no more than that. I know that I am impaired far before 0.05, and I am not the only one.

But people are in an uproar over this proposed legislation, and I can’t help but shake my head. The service industry is wringing its hand, crying foul over the lost revenue they’ll experience when they can’t over-serve their customers. [Trolls] are enraged that the government will be making it harder for them to get home after a night out.

So I posted this on Twitter this morning:

Pretty simple, huh? Don’t drink and drive, and it won’t matter if your BAC is 0.05, 0.08, or higher. IF YOU AREN’T DRIVING, IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW HIGH YOUR BLOOD ALCOHOL LEVEL IS.

Yes, it’s another stricter rule imposed on your freedoms.

But before you think about your freedoms, think about 4 families in Grande Prairie who’s sons have NO freedom because they are DEAD.

My thoughts exactly.

Then, I get this [trollish] reply:

Isn’t that just awesome ignorant?

Guess what? IF YOU DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE, THIS NEW LAW WILL NOT AFFECT YOU ANYWAY. Stop complaining. If you are not one of those “habitual drunk drivers”, it will not affect you.

Don’t drink and drive. If you are being responsible in the first place, it will not matter what the legislation is for impaired driving.

DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE.

Is it that hard? I don’t get it. I don’t understand it.

I. Do. Not. Understand. This.

It’s like crying about speeding tickets, calling foul on the officers issuing them, and the cities that hire photo radar companies…if you were going the SPEED LIMIT, you wouldn’t have gotten a ticket. It is completely and fully within your control.

If you don’t drink and drive, the legal limit will not matter to you because you ARE NOT DRINKING AND DRIVING.

It has nothing to do with government involvement. It has everything  to do with blaming the consequences of your poor choices and actions onto someone else like a spoiled child.

It’s time to grow up.

Agony

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_uacct = “UA-4888259-1″;urchinTracker();You haven’t lived until you’ve spent a night with your child screaming “Owwwiiiiieeeeee!” on the toilet for an hour.

When you’ve spent the last year and a half giving her two different stool softeners a day (Lansoyl jelly and Lax-a-Da powder) and seen no effect.

When you’ve held her down with all 150lbs of your own body weight while she smashes her head against the tile floor to avoid the enema in your hand because she hasn’t gone in 2 weeks.

When you’ve thrown away more underpants than you remember buying because they were soiled by soft little accidents that can’t be called a bowel movement.

When the ER just X-rays and offers enemas. When the pediatrician just suggests to be more consistent with the laxatives. When the fissures require steroid creams.

When she’s nowhere near constipated, but holds it in so long because “It hurts so much, Mommy!”

When every behavioral bribery has backfired and made it worse than before, and you’re left feeling emotionally and physically exhausted, a failure and useless, crying in bed at night.

When it just sucks so damn much.

And now you’re trying to take out all the dairy so it hurts less, make sure that it’s not made into a big deal, make sure you’re being vigilant about her diet and aids, and feeling so hopeless because “they grow out of it” is BS when you’ve got a three-and-a-half year old who won’t eat anymore because her tummy hurts so she lies and says she’s full.

And when you have to do all of this with her twin sister watching, not understanding any of it, only knowing that her “dizzard” is sad and hurt, and that she’s not getting the same attention because she’s healthy.

Five Fabulous Things

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I’ve been rolling this post around in my head ever since I saw it on meant2bemama’s blog last week. With my bugz tucked into the beds for a nap, here goes!_uacct = “UA-4888259-1″;urchinTracker();


5 things you may not know about me:
  1. I was born in a suburb of Ottawa but moved to Airdrie when I was in kindergarten. I’m still in touch with my childhood best friend, which is super cool. We moved to the Edmonton area in 1993, and I can’t imagine calling anywhere else home.
  2. I’ve never failed a single class or course throughout my entire education. I was on the honour roll from the start, right up until I graduated from my post secondary diploma. And here’s the kicker: I’ve never worked hard at any of it. You can hate me for that, but it’s actually caused more trouble than it’s worth because I don’t know how to study or prepare for things. 
  3. I met my husband when I was 14. We didn’t start dating until I was 23, and he was never a “crush” or someone that I ever would have seen myself marrying. But 7 years later (today!), here we are. It just goes to show that there’s a lot more to a person than meets the eye :)
  4. One of my twins has the same name as her great-grandmother. The other is named after the style of crib we bought for their nursery. I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to confess that to them…such are the hazards of finding out there’s a second fetus at 17 weeks….
  5. In 3 years, I went from having no musical training to being able to play the piano, flute and saxophone. As an adult, I play none of them. I would love to learn classical guitar, but I lack the ambition (see #2…).
5 things I am knowledgeable about:
  1. Twins. My goal as a new mom was to stay as far away from the “poor me, I’m a twin mom” trap as I could, to the point where I would look at singleton parents and wonder what on earth they were whining about. I rock at mothering twins. I rocked at babying them and nursing them too. And even though my pregnancy sucked, I know all the bad stuff and can tell you pretty much everything to avoid if you want a healthy twin pregnancy ;)
  2. Pelvic floors. Yes, I could tell you a thing or two about that netherworld. I don’t do it professionally anymore because I would rather mother those twins, which is why I closed up my other blog and my consulting services for the time being.
  3. Random, insane facts and memories. Honestly, I can remember such obscure and unnecessary things. I’m sure if I cleared out all the clutter, I could solve the world’s problems. In the meantime, I can give you random phone numbers, tell you that in Grade 4, Kevin told me I had sleep in my eye, and kick your ass at Jeopardy.
  4. Breastfeeding. I don’t promote that knowledge anymore, especially after getting my face tore off due to a completely unrelated blog post last fall, but I breastfed my twins for 15 months because I was educated. I learned everything I could, and then some. I actually considered becoming a lactation consultant, but because I was not involved in LLL or a nurse, it ended up being more of a sacrifice than I was able to make at the time. I love my pro-BF buddies so much though!
  5. Life. I am sometimes amazed at what the people in this world don’t know. I don’t realize how much I know about how many different things until I meet people who don’t. It blows my mind sometimes. Maybe it’s because I’m such a voracious reader, or because I have an insatiable thirst for knowledge, but I feel like I’ve lived a thousand lives sometimes.
5 things I know nothing about:
  1. Vehicles. I can fill my gas and washer fluid, top up various things if needed, check the air in my tires and occasionally change a wiper blade if there’s no one else to do it. But that’s it. I was so excited for Felicia’s car care night out!! I want to learn to properly change a tire and change my oil, dammit :p
  2. What my husband does for a living. I know the basic gist of it, and I can carry on a conversation with him, but most of the pictures and stories I make up in my head as we go along are probably completely wrong. The scope of what he does is so huge that I am sometimes amazed by what he tells me. Then again, he could tell me that they grease the lines with llama fat and I’d probably believe him….
  3. Politics. I know when someone rubs me the wrong way, and I have a basic idea of which party stands for what, but I have no idea what’s going on and refuse to fill my head with pissing contests (for lack of a better term!).
  4. Sports in general. I played two season of junior high volleyball and one of basketball, and nothing else. I don’t get team sports. I’ll get excited if I go to a hockey game, but I have no idea what’s really going on. Don’t even get me started on football…
  5. What’s on TV. I just started watching TV again after 3+ years, and everyone is talking about this show or that show. I know what they’re talking about…I just don’t know what they’re talking about. I have my 3: TrueBlood, Vampire Diaries, and Mad Men. I’m happy with that :)
5 things I believe:
  1. All religions are the same. It’s culture that gets in the way and causes most of the misconceptions and ignorant behaviour between religions.
  2. The only person you can trust is yourself. Bitter? Yes and no. But I’m done depending on anyone but me because I am the only thing I can control in this world.
  3. Coffee is a food group. It’s not a very nutritiously sound food group, but it is necessary for life’s functions.
  4. There is a big difference between healthy and fit. I vote for healthy over fit any day.
  5. Walking away from absolutely everything to be “just a mom” is the best choice I ever made. I am dreading the day when I need to be more than just a mom.

Week Two!

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Here we are, two weeks into unemployment, and I have learned a few very important lessons._uacct = “UA-4888259-1″;urchinTracker();

First: we cannot be insanely busy every day of the week. Not only does that throw us into a vortex of whining, but it results in massively skewed nap times (for all!), very late bedtimes, very late mornings, and general fatigue and weariness.
Second: despite the busyness, play dates and surprise lunch dates are awesome :)
Third: when we are insanely busy, we need to counteract that with actual activity when we are at home (instead of sheer slovenly laziness) so that we don’t go crazy with our lack of direction.
Fourth: I freaking love being a stay-at-home-mom.
Fifth: we need a library card, and I need some new downloads for my Kobo e-reader. If I have to read Mortimer, The Paper Bag Princess, or the sad excuse of a sequel to Rainbow Fish again, I might lose it…
And that’s about it! We are going to top off our crazy-busy week with a trip to the Mommylicious trade show tomorrow and get to planning out next week so that we don’t end up over-stimulated and under-productive in our little world – especially with ERIN’S WEDDING ON THURSDAY – ahhhhh!!! :) :) :)
Oh, and we get to go to the dentist on Wednesday. Yay.

Best Ever

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I make a mean Mac n Cheese, and I’m proud of it. I don’t buy KD – I don’t believe that cheese powder is real food. This is my comfort food to end all comfort foods, and I’m always looking for ways to jazz it up and change things around. _uacct = “UA-4888259-1″;urchinTracker();

I found a one-pot recipe on Pinterest (of course!) that I’ve been wanting to try for a few days. We were tired and blarghhh today, so into the pot it went. I tweaked the original recipe a bit, and it was wonderful!!
A few cups of frozen broccoli and cauliflower, a nice big salad and a glass of wine along side, and this was a fantastic (and surprisingly low-calorie) dinner!!
My version (ingredients only):
  • 2c dry pasta
  • 2c skim milk
  • nutmeg and dry mustard
  • 1/2c shredded cheddar
  • 1/2c dry parmesan
No butter :)
Enjoy!

Slump

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Ugh._uacct = “UA-4888259-1″;urchinTracker();

Remind me not to drink coffee after 4pm, okay? It results in a restless night and blogging at 2am. We all slept in until 9:30 this morning, but I. Am. Bagged.
Done.
Exhausted.
All I want is a nap, and the minions are having nothing to do with that.
I don’t want to craft or play outside or edit photos. I don’t want to drive to town and go to the bank or buy new sippy cups (for bedtime milk…) or make phone calls.
I stopped whining just long enough to make 4 phone calls. There. I’ve been productive.
I’m too tired to even want to pin stuff!! What’s wrong with me???
I don’t want to make apple crisp or pie, even though I promised the bugz and even though they have taken exactly one bite out of exactly SIX apples, which means I really do need to make something with the damn apples now…
Whyyyy, minions? Why?
But oooh, look at me: that brief hiatus from whining means I actually called and booked dentist appointments for the 3 of us, booked my car in for winter tires (and got a cancellation for next week!!), booked out Hep A/B shots for Mexico AND called and left a message for my lawyer!
I still don’t want to get up.
I don’t want to walk on my treadmill or drink water or be healthy. I kind of want to make that apple crisp and eat it allllllllll.
I wonder if I can find a recipe for apple crisp in muffin tins so that they can be frozen individually?? Maybe I should just make apple muffins instead… I’m all about baking and freezing lately. It serves no purpose, other than to fill my freezer with things I don’t eat and don’t give my kids to eat. I don’t even have people over to feed these tasty morsels to. Weird. It’s demented really…
So here I am, blogging as though the movement of my fingers on the keys is enough exercise to wake me up.
It’s not, but I’m sure I’ve entertained you for the day now…
You’re welcome.

Wonder-filled

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I know that I am going to regret sitting at my computer in about, ohhhh, 5 hours when Kit-kat wakes up, but I’m wide-awake after a long day and need to purge my brain back to sleep ;) _uacct = “UA-4888259-1″;urchinTracker();

I had a wonderful, wonderful day today! It was one of those days that could have been stressful and painful but ended up being a sweet reassurance that I am in the best place for myself and my soul right now. We were up early after a late night of hot yoga with Sherrie (followed by an ice cream sundae, glass of wine and hot tub…which is apparently all very bad for post-hot yoga dehydration!!). I woke up sore and exhausted to two under-slept, grouchy 3 year olds. I hauled them into the car hungry and crossed my fingers…
…And we had a lovely day!!
We were at the passport office by 9:30am and spent only an hour waiting. The girls were almost perfect, with only a few threatened mini-meltdowns. I checked another item off my list of 101 in 1001 and they got a fruit smoothie (on top of their Starbucks breakfast in the car!). Mexico, here we come!
We killed a bit of time at Rona getting supplies for one of our Christmas gifts, and then went to the Shoe Company where I found black, glittery pumps for Erin’s wedding (the hazards of shopping with 3-year olds…) and sweet neoprene rainboots that are rated for -30 degrees Celcius. Hello, winter boots :)
(the yellow ones!)

(the black ones!)
Then we spent a marvellous 3 and a half hours at Cafe O Play catching up with Natasha. I also got to meet Stefanie, who is absolutely amazing! It was a much needed, good-for-my-soul afternoon that left me in such a good place…I can’t even begin to write how much needed it was. And my bugz played their little hearts out the whole time, only stopping for half a bite of nut butter and jam panini and a mini chocolate cupcake.
At this point, my in-bed-at-10:30pm-and-up-at-8:00am kids had still not napped other than a brief 15-minute siesta for C-boo. But we kept on truckin’ and went to see Aunty Jocy for a spur-of-the-moment hair colour.
Um, I am in love with my new colour. The photo does no justice to her mad skillz.
We topped the night off with dinner at my parent’s house. They both crashed on the way there but eventually perked up enough to visit. I got a great meal and a good visit, and a bit of post-Vegas swag as well.
My new beautiful…xoxo
Then we were home, 13 hours and zero meltdowns later. We talked to Leith on the phone and read a story with him, and Kit-kat crashed within seconds of her head hitting the pillow. C-boo, on the other hand, decided that she was still wide awake and curled up in my lap with her soft blanket while I caught up on the daily gossip.
Now there are two little bugz snoring in my bed, and I am wide awake but amazed at all the good in my simple life. This really was the best decision, and I am so happy to be here.
:)

Kept

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Tonight marks one week of unemployment for me ;) _uacct = “UA-4888259-1″;urchinTracker();

It’s been grand!
Although it’s a little strange, and I feel like I’m on an extended weekend, it’s really, really nice. My bugz and I have been able to spend every minute of the day together, and their rotten behaviour has taken a backseat for the time being. Of course they’re 3, and they have their moments, but those moment are few and far between compared to a few weeks ago!
We wake up early, make coffee and have breakfast, pick activities from our popsicle stick jar, do crafts, read books, exercise, play outside, go for walks in the forest, have naps…clean the house, make dinner, run errands.
It feels fantastic!
Other than finally finishing up a wedding I shot in September (!!!) and getting the finishing touches for Erin’s bridal shower together, I have nothing else to do but be a mom. Leith is back on the road, but it’s not as hard as it usually would be. The girls are sick with their last dayhome cold, but it’s not as hard as it would normally be. Everything is relaxed.
My office is even clean.
Did I mention that we made crafts??? Everyone is getting homemade gifts this year, but with much less baking ;) Although we made cookies on Tuesday too…
All this, and the first blizzard of the year snow is falling gently outside, the wood stove is roaring, the jazz music is softly crooning and my bugz are sleeping quietly.
If this is what it means to be a kept woman, I’ll take it.