Me n Sage

Me, so happy my mom's improving.

Sage with Cookie Face. We started giving him Farley Biscuits (infant cookies) and of course he's a mess, but a cute mess none-the-less.
Cookie goop everywhere...
Cookies, Day Two. Lesson learned: Use a drop-cloth to preserve the outfit.

Great Day

My mom had a great day today. She speaks normally again, just like a normal person! No scary pauses or repeating herself.. she remembers things from minute to minute, and remembers that most of this week she was confused and not well at all. She's on a new drug that helps her lungs take in more air, so that means her brain (and the rest of her body) is getting the oxygen required for cohesive thoughts and speech etc. She started working with a physiotherapist and had enough energy to not only move around so she could sit on the edge of her bed, but also to stand for a moment or two! I'm so happy. SOOOOOO HAAPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Mommy Update

She was a little better today. I didn't cry at all when I went to go see her. I think because I was more prepared with what to expect when I got there. It helped too that she was having a good day. I did tear up tho when I told her about the people who'd sent their love and get-well wishes. She really thanked me for telling her. Especially her longtime friend Carla. Hayden and I made some artwork with love messages to put on her walls, which she loved. Carol, BJ, Dhara, and Elora came to Sudbury yesterday and are leaving tomorrow, so Carol saw her this morning and I believe is going to see her again tomorrow before they leave town. (Anya is in Toronto visiting her Nanny.)

Thanks to all of you for sending your get-well thoughts. Don't stop.

Mommy

My mommy isn't doing very well. Send her your prayers if you pray, and get-better wishes if you wish. She needs them.

Some Pictures

After Jake applied for his passport downtown, we stopped in to visit Sarah Mark and Thea. They fed us yummy sandwiches and we had a really great visit, albeit short. Isn't Thea beautiful?

Our Husbands

Wednesday afternoon Carol, BJ, Anya, Dhara, and Elora (Also known as the ABCDE's) came to Sudbury for the first time. My mom hadn't met the twins yet, so she was really happy to finally do that.

Pink cheeks from teething.
Anya Stretches
A very beautiful shot of my mom.
Cake Face Hayden

ug and yay and ouch

Ug
I wrote all about our trip to Toronto and back last night, but then there was a 2 second power failure and I lost it. I don't feel like typing it all out again. We went to Toronto. Thursday. Hotel. Friday at US consulate. Jake's passport. No parking ticket. Lunch with Sarah, Mark, and Thea. Home by 7:30pm. Sabrina and Chris watched the kids for us. Great friends. sigh.

Yay
Yesterday was my mother's 65th birthday. Unfortunately she had to spend it in the hospital. She went in on Thursday morning because her potassium levels were too high. They were worried about it affecting her heart. She's still there and will be for a few days until the potassium levels come way down and stay down. We were worried there might be a problem with her kidneys, but the hospital doctor said it was probably caused by the Celebrex her family doctor prescribed a week or so ago, to help with the pain in her legs and feet. The condition of her skin on her legs is pretty bad still, and there's lots of pain, so she's on Tylenol 3s to cope with it. I took Hayden to see her today, and while we were there Sandy, Elizabeth, Penny, and their friend Pat showed up in their barbershop quartet costumes (pink shirts, black pants) and sang Happy Birthday and lots of other songs for my mom. It was extremely touching and sweet. During one of the songs everyone got really emotional and started crying and they had to keep re-starting because the words were so powerful. At first I thought I was the only one who was touched deeply by the song, (I even had to stifle a sob! Very unlike cold, calous me) until I looked at Elizabeth who looked at me and our tears and mascara were everywhere and I noticed Sandy and everyone were all crying too. We all laughed and they tried to finish because "the ending was really great". Then they sang Zippety Do Dah to try and lighten the sadness. They also sang a few others, including Big Blue Frog. It was great! Nurses kept walking past the room peeking through the partially open doorway with big smiles on their faces. I know my mom really appreciated the music.

Ouch
Sage is still teething. His top teeth are now coming down like little chicklet submarines. The left one has broken through the skin. His bottom left tooth isn't quite broken out yet, but his bottom right tooth is completely broken through the skin and starting to get some height. Poor little guy! His mouth must be so sore. He also knows part of a song: he says "bah bah bah" all the time, so I pretend he's singing Bah Bah Black Sheep. Sometimes he gargles and sounds JUST like the seagull in Little Mermaid when he tries to sing to Ariel and the Prince, just before Sebastian takes over and sings "Kiss De Girl".

Ok they're Hazel.

From Wikipedia:

Hazel eyes are due to a combination of a Rayleigh scattering and a moderate amount of melanin in the iris' anterior border layer.[24][5] A number of studies using three-point scales have assigned "hazel" to be the medium-color between brown and dark brown.[25][26][27][28][29][30][31] This can sometimes produce a multicolored iris, i.e., an eye that is brown near the pupil and charcoal or amber on the outer part of the iris when it is open to the elements of the sun/shined in the sunlight. Hazel is mostly found in the regions of South and East European nations.
There is some difficulty in defining the eye color "hazel" as it is sometimes considered to be synonymous with brown and other times with green.[32][19][25][27][30][33] They have been described as light brown or yellowish brown,[34] or as a lighter shade of brown.[35] Hazel eyes have also been described as being equivalent to a dark black or charcoal-colored/light black eyes.[36] In North America, "hazel" is often used to describe eyes that change color, ranging from light brown to green and even blue, depending on what color clothing the person is wearing or what color is predominant in their immediate environment. (Eyes that change only between blue and green are not called "hazel"; the term only describes changeable eye color that includes a brownish shade within its range.)

An interesting side note pertaining to me exactly:

A green-brown human iris displaying a brown center and a green edge. This type of iris, although rare, is often also called hazel.

Rare! That makes me feel special. By the way that's not my eye in this post, but the eye colour is almost EXACTLY the same as mine. His has got more rust colour near the pupil. I say "his" cuz look at that eyebrow, man.

I take back the yellow bastard comment from the previous post. But I'd still like to know who said that.

Picture This

This is a picture I took the other day when I was trying to get a close-up of my eye so I could prove to my doubting cousin that my eyes are indeed green. Ha, I almost said "blue" just then. They're green. Anyway this one doesn't prove without a doubt that my eyes are green, but I thought it was hillarious that I have a Jake-shaped mole sticking outta the side of my neck.

This one does show my eye is green, in case you were wondering.

New Job

Well I started work yesterday! I worked 9-12. I had to read 2 big binders, and I didn't finish the second one. Hopefully I'll finish it quickly tomorrow (6-9) and then start learning how to serve customers and work the cash register and all that good exciting stuff. The funnest part was after my shift I had to (haha had to) shop cuz I don't have a lot of business clothes. Here's what I got: A white jacket, a lilac tank for underneath, a long black skirt, 2 pairs of black pants, a pair of kneehigh sockish nylons. All for $84! The jacket was $60 and I got half off, the tank was $24 and I got half of, and the skirt and both pairs of pants were already on sale for $10 each! I couldn't believe it. Oh and the kneehighs were $4 and I got half off. Considering I worked for 3 hours at $8 an hour, I will have to work for 7.5 more hours in order to pay for what I just bought LOL.

Stew

I made a DELICIOUS stew tonight. Here's my recipe that I made up myself, with help from a recipe I got from my mother:

Meat Cube Flavouring
1/2 C flour
1/2 tbsp Keg Salt (flavoured salt)
1 tbsp Montreal Steak Spice (dry) <- this is what I added this time that I never did before. MADE A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE!!

Main Stew
1 eye of round, cubed, fat trimmed
1 package baby carrots
5 medium potatos, peeled if desired and quartered
1 cooking onion (whole if you don't like onions, or quartered if you don't have picky eaters for this stew)
2-3 cups water
4 tbsp veg oil (or so.. to coat the pan)

Dumplings
2 cups Bisquick
1/2 cup milk

1. heat oil in a pan on medium
2. toss the meat cubes in the flour mixture and brown them in the oil (get them a little crispy if you can, it doesn't matter if they're not cooked through tho)
3. put meat, carrots, potatos, and onion into a slow cooker
4. pour a cup of water into the pan and stir to get all the good crunchy bits off the bottom of the pan (this is "de-glazing")
5. pour some of the hot water into the rest of the flour mixture and whisk thoroughly to make a thin-ish paste.
6. slowly add the paste back into the pan, stirring continuously.
7. slowly add more water (1 or 2 cups) until your gravy is not too thick (it will thicken in the slow-cooker)
8. strain the gravy for lumps if desired.
9. pour gravy into the slow-cooker, until all the meat and veggies are covered. A little higher if there's room. Add more water if you need to. At this point doing that is ok cuz the gravy isn't fully cooked yet. If you DO, make sure to stir it tho.
10. cook on high in the slow cooker for 5 hours or so, stirring once or twice if the veggies aren't fully covered. Otherwise, don't stir.
11. mix bisquick with milk and drop into the liquid in little single-serving balls. If you don't have enough room in the slow-cooker, remove some of the stew and eat it. You didn't have lunch, it's okay.
12. let cook for another 1.5 - 2 hours (don't peek because this will let all the heat escape and slow the cooking time)
13. when the tops of the dumplings look cooked, it's done! Serve and eat. Don't burn your tongue.

Yesterday's Visits

Yesterday Jeannie and her son Ethan came over to visit for a bit, and then later so did Sabrina, Chris and Robbie. What an exciting and fun-filled day!

Jeannie and Ethan play with Sage (arms a-flappin')

Hayden waves 'hello' to Ethan.

Hayden lets Ethan play with his toys.

Sabrina and Robbie in a super-cute pose.

Update

Well congratulate me, I got the Pennington's job! I start on Monday. I get a 50% off discount! I'll have 2 or 3 shifts a week, so approximately 9-12 hours, just perfect for me while on unemployment! The manager called me today and asked if I could come in this afternoon for an interview with her. When I got there, she asked me if I had any questions for her (I didn't) and then said she would like to hire me today (yahoo), as one of her other employees slipped and fell at work this morning, dislocating a hip (ouch). The dress code is Business, so since my dress-up clothes are all business CASUAL, I have some shopping to do. The discount starts after my shift on Monday. Luckily I do have ONE nice fancy blouse I can wear. I finish at noon, and I have an appointment at my house at 1:30pm, so that sounds like a PERFECT little time period to shop shop shop. I do need some new shoes FOR monday tho. Comfy dress shoes. Mmmmmm, shopping. I think the Pennington's in North Bay also needs me to shop at it, or so a little birdy told/asked me.

The other news is this week I started working out at Curves! I find it just fantastic. I got in on the last day of a really great sale. Instead of a $200 start-up fee, all you had to do was bring in 2 bags of non-perishable food items. I saved $185! That was my biggest beef with Curves before - the cost. But I will be totally able to swing the $46 a month it costs to be a member, with Jake working and now with me working. Also the added bonus of working at Pennington's is that as I lose weight and inches, I will be able to get replacement clothes at a 50% discount! Have I mentioned that I get a discount? I also get a 25% discount at Reitmans, Additionnelle, Smart Set, Thyme Maternity, and a couple other places I have neither shopped at nor heard of. My other big beef with Curves had been that I was embarrassed to be weighed and measured by a fit and skinny person. Well the person who did that for me was wearing a baggy sweater and had greasy-ish hair, and I didn't feel intimidated at ALL. I just kept my eyes away from the page where she was writing down numbers. Yes, it is a good thing.

Sage will be 7 months old on Saturday. Top of the morning to ya, Laddie. One of his teeth has erupted on the bottom, and the other one is about to do the same, and he's craaaaaabeeeeeeeeeeeeee. You can also see the outline of his top teeth through the gum as they're coming down. I was remarking to my mother that Sage is following the textbook a lot more closely than Hayden did. Hayden got his top teeth first, around 9-10 months old, and didn't roll over until after he crawled.

This morning after Doodlebops were over (Hayden's favourite show ever) I turned, as usual, to CHCH for The Price Is Right. Before the announcer said the name of the show, the sparkly lights and cheesy music came on the screen and Hayden gasped and said really loudly "AAAa!! Price is Riiight!" I guess that means there's a routine in place...?

You may have noticed my Facebook badge on the left that I put up a few days ago. You should join Facebook. It's really great to get in touch with people you've gone to highschool, college, university, or just worked with. There's even a browsing section, and a nice woman from Markstay browsed me, and now we're on our way to becoming friends! I found three cousins on there, two I'm kinda close with, and one that I haven't been, but now we have caught up a bit and have plans to get together to catch up more at Easter. Click my badge and get involved. Endorsed by Yellowknifers as well.

Dancing Hayden

Hayden and Anya watch the "Wiggles" at Carol's house. It's not a video, but if you open the picture in a new window, it's close.

Lost game

If you like Lost, play this game:

www.lost.eu/2da48

If you don't like Lost, play anyway. heh heh.

Tickling, Rolling, and Sitting

These Pretzels...

are making me thirsty.

The Call

I got a call this afternoon, and the second Pennington's store is hiring right away. They want me in tomorrow for another interview! This would be a better store to work at anyway because it's way closer, and in the nicer weather I could totally walk there. I wouldn't walk in the wintertime not because of the cold, cuz I do get really warm while walking, but because of the snowbanks taking up the shoulder on the highway. I wouldn't feel safe without lots of distance between me and the traffic zooming by.

Since the lady who interviewed me before had a list of questions on a standardized form, I expect that tomorrow's interview will probably be the exact same one I just did Monday. If it's not I'll be quite surprised. But that's fine with me, because I aced the first one, and if it IS the same interview, it's not the same lady, so who cares if my answers repeat themselves!

Wish me luck again!

First Bath Together!

Since Sage is pretty good at sitting now, with just a little support needed, I figured that he'd be ready for his bath ring! Which is great, because he'd outgrown his baby bathtub a while ago, and the bathroom sink was getting smaller and smaller. I took some pictures of Hayden and Sage's first bath, and I also took some video, but for lack of light they didn't turn out.

In other news, my interview went well. She said they're hiring in about 2 weeks when the renovations that were started today are complete, but that she wants me to have a second interview with her boss, the big manager. Also she said if I was interested, there was a management spot open as well. I told her I was perfectly happy to come into the company at entry-level, and that I was really looking for part time, because I didn't have any retail management experience. Anyway she seemed pretty enthusiastic.

Wish Me Luck

I have a job interview today at Pennington's Fashion Warehouse! I just want a part-time gig, maybe two or possibly three days a week at most. I went in there to shop on Friday and before I checked out, the clerk who had been helping me was asked by her co-worker which colour top looked better on her. She asked me as well. One was purple and brought up the pink tones in her lips and cheeks, and the other was a nice orange that went well with her skin tones, so I said so. Then a minute later while the clerk was ringing me in, I asked her about the part-time help wanted sign, if they were really hiring or if it was for show. I mentionned that after Christmas in their other store they'd had a similar sign up, however when I inquired, they told me flat out they weren't hiring. She said her name was Kym (I got the spelling of it later) and that she was the assistant manager in charge of hiring, and that they always have the sign up, just in case. She said she would be happy to take my resume and a filled-out application form, which she then started to look for. While doing that she asked if I had any retail experience, and I said I did a long time ago, and talked about the two jobs I'd had in kitchenware stores in Toronto. She asked me if I had customer service skills, at which point I mentionned my job at CBS being supervisor to customer service reps, and that they'd sent us to a course on customer service, and how it's integral even between employees, while you're out on the street, and not just something to be reserved for customer/business person relationships. I impressed her because she said "Well I think I'll bring you in for an interview on Monday! Just bring in your resume and application with you." Taa Daa! I love when stuff like that happens. So the interview is today at 1pm. Wish me luck!

I Tube

I joined YouTube just now. Here's those videos of Sage in his Jolly Jumper, with Hayden jumping with him.

Flying Leap

Or more like a crashing thud.

Yesterday our friends Sabrina and Chris and their newborn Robbie came by for a visit. Lacey gets extremely excited when they come over. To say the least. Sabrina had JUST had her staples removed, so when Lacey unexpectedly jumped OVER the baby gate we have set up to confine her to the kitchen, all I could think of was to prevent the bitch from jumping up on Sabrina's tummy. I had very little time to act as the brown fur bolted past me. I reached out and actually congratulated myself on getting such a good grip on her collar in the few milliseconds that I was still upright. And then, because it's hard to stop a steam engine even IF you have a good grip on it's collar, Lacey the muscle brained ton of bricks simply kept going. I was pulled off ballance and actually dragged a little before my brain said "Let Go Of The Collar, Dumbass". I have to take a moment to thank the Fates, because I didn't land on Sage, who was right there on the floor. I did land square on my left knee tho, which had exploded in pain, so of course I was screaming and crying. It was very dignified to watch, I can imagine. Even though it hurt so much when it happened, there's not much bruising and I don't even have a limp. I can tell it's swollen when I touch it, and it feels bruised, but besides that and a little muscle soreness in the arm that grabbed her, I'm okay. Even tho it had a violent start, the rest of the visit was very nice.

Here's a very jaunty (not jaundicy) Robbie, tilting his cap for the camera. And is that a little smile I see?

Here are some pictures of the beautiful flowers Jake got for me on my birthday.