Halloween Pictures

Better late than never, right? Here are Husses' Halloween (p)Hotos:

Pumpkin Carving. Note the look of disgust on Hayden's face.

Which then turned to curiosity.

Trepedation at putting the hand into the pumpkin.

Fears conquered! The hand is in by a few centimeters!
The Brother's Hand follows suit.
Together they entered the pumpkin fully.

Citrouillies.

Our dog Tilly. For size check.

North Bay Trick or Treater Group

Through the Haunted Fire Hall ('Casper' was the safety word so the zombies waved instead of grabbed).

Rawr.

Cat in the Hat held Dinosaur claws in front of many Jack O Lanterns.

El Lunar Observito Bambito

My lovable little creatures walking down the street.

Treats!! "With eyes as large as saucers..."

Teri-Mai's Birthday

Today is Teri-Mai's birthday. In her honour, Hayden and I made a little something. I hope she enjoys it!

Blog Blog Blog

I've been AFK (away from keyboard) lately. Well, that's not entirely true. I've been away from BLOG lately.

City of Villains has captured my attention. (Blame could be routed back to Carol, but that would be unfair - BJ was the one who gave me the software). This computer game is played online, and you create your own villain and choose their height, body type, costume, powers, and more, then run around earning enough experience points to progress to the next level where you get MORE powers or more strength with your current powers or ... yah. Online gaming has me hooked. I play several times a week with my sister, and it's so much FUN cuz we meet online and play as a team to beat the REALLY bad guys or the good guys. There are missions which help you earn experience points, or you can just run around the city killing and maiming willy-nilly.

I used to *cough-still-do-cough* yearn with Sean to have super powers. In fact he has a very large intricate and probably super-costly tattoo on his arm of Ice Man from the X men. I wonder if he knows about this game? I should email him...

Tattoo

On Saturday October 4th I got a new tattoo. It's my 8th design and my 9th tattoo (I had one redone, which I count twice, because it hurt both times). It's still healing, but it's doing well. It's shiny from the polysporin. I had the little daisy flower done a long time ago, and the bigger flower and all the stems and leaves are new.

Hair Fiasco

I had a haircut from Josephine* on Monday night. I told her that I wanted an angled cut, long in the front and short in the back, showing my neck. I had had my last haircut at that same salon in February and had been very pleased with the cut. When I'd described the same haircut in the same way, the woman had known and provided the exact thing I had described. Monday was a different story.

When I told Josephine what I wanted, she said "oh ok an angled bob then." I said "Okay but do you have any pictures of that?" because that sounded like it could be the technical term for what I wanted, but I didn't know for sure. She said there were too many pictures to go through to find one that was what she was talking about. Then we had an argument about where my part should be. An argument. She asked me which side I parted my hair on, I said the right, but that I wanted it cut part in the middle. She said that she didn't recommend that. I explained that I wanted it parted in the middle because if I part it on the side, it would be longer on one side than the other when I DID part it in the middle. She still insisted that I part it on the side to get it cut. Then she talked about layers. I said I didn't want layers. I said I didn't want layers twice. She tried one more time to get me to agree to part my hair on the side, and I had to get firm and insisted. I said I didn't want to be difficult, I just wanted it done the way I wanted it done. She parted it in the middle, but it was crooked and it was off centre. Then she parted with the razor at the back of my head. I had my glasses off so I couldn't see what she was doing. When she got around to the right side of my head, I could see vaguely that she was razoring quite a lot shorter than I was expecting. I put my glasses on and picked up a piece of hair to check the length. It was terribly short. I mentioned this to her. She said she was doing an angled bob, this is what an angled bob was. She talked about weight line. She said that she was a professional and knew what she was doing. I said I am NOT a professional and I DID NOT know what she was doing, and that the terminology she was using meant little to me because of that fact. I said I did not want it to be long in the front and then a huge step to the level at the back, that I wanted it to go in a smooth angle. I asked her if she had any pictures again. I begged her for pictures. She said that we could look at pictures but it would take a long time to find one. I told her that I was just worried that she was taking it too short. She reminded me curtly that I had wanted to be able to see my neck. I made a motion with my hand indicating the angle from the long front to the level of my hairline at the back and said that I'd expected her to follow that kind of line. But it was too late, as she'd already made cuts to the hair in question behind my ear. I said I was panicking that it was too short. She said "This is what you said you wanted, an angled bob". Then I noticed that she hadn't fixed the part, it was still crooked and off-centre. I tried to fix it with my fingers. I was getting very upset and did not understand why she was not listening to anything that I was saying. She re-parted my hair correctly and proceeded to continue with the cut. She asked me to measure out how long I wanted it in the front, which I did. I said I wanted it to be angled backwards, and not be a large step in the length. She said she was making sure to do that. But that is not how it turned out. She said that if I'd allowed her to make the weight line higher it would have done what I wanted. I do not agree with her statement. She should have listened to what I was describing instead of jumping to conclusions and doing what she wanted. After she blew it dry and used the straightening iron, she made a few more cuts here and there, and then showed me the back. I told her it was nothing like I wanted, but that it was too late to do anything about it. She said she wouldn't charge me for it. I said fine, and got up to leave. I said next time I would bring a picture. She said that a picture makes it easier for everyone. Then why couldn't she have taken a few moments to help me look for one prior to the cut? Probably because I was the last customer of the day and she wanted to get me out of there as fast as she could.

I provided the details of this complaint to the owner of the salon, and she invited me in for today at noon to fix it. She and her sister consulted and the finished product was VERY acceptable to me. They assured me in two months my hair will have grown an inch and another cut would straighten out that awkward bit they couldn't fix behind my ears.

*names have been changed to protect the moronic.

Happy Birthday Jake!

Happy Birthday To You

Happy Birthday TO YOU

Happy BIRTHDAY dear JAAAAA-AAAAAKE

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUUUU!!

I love you, Honey.
Happy 33rd.

September Activities

A couple weekends ago my dad and us went to Fielding Park to feed the ducks and walk around and play on some playground stuff. And that's almost exactly what we did. Here we are walking.

Sage is 'feeding' the ducks. And by 'feeding' I mean throwing chips and crackers and cheerios into the lake and having the ducks ignore us. Turns out ducks are snobs and only eat fluffy white bread. Which they were full of because of the group of kids who were there just as we got there, throwing the good stuff in.
Pretty.

Don't let's let any of us fall in!
Including YOU Tilly!
Daddy/Grampa/Boppa and Pretty
Walking the family and dogs down the lane.

Different ducks, just as snobby. They're all swimming away to that same group of kids with the white bread. Note all the ignored stuff we threw in.

So we gave up and went to the playground! Here's an action shot of Tilly sliding down the slide.

Action shot of Hayden sliding down the slide.

Climbers
Sage's first Big Slide! He looks pretty excited.

Yep! It was fun!
Climbing the equipment.
"Hey I thought we were going to slide down side-by-side!"r
Teeter Totter Tots and Daddy/Grampa/Boppa

My pea plants are STILL flowering and making big peas, even though we've already had at least one frost. Next year I'll definitely start them ON TIME.
Both the kids and I luurve fresh peas.
I had to fend off many hands in order to take this picture.

This picture was from a week or so ago. Since then the plants have become so top-heavy that my flimsy little dowels that I gave them have all broken or popped out of the ground and the whole thing is now sprawled on the ground. Next year I will have a MUCH weightier support system for the peas.
My watermellon flowered.. a couple days before the first frost. LOL I don't think I'll be getting a watermellon this year.
My tomatos! I've since harvested them and have a gazillion green ones and 3 or so red or turning-red ones. I have one for breakfast every day. They are SO tastey!
PUMPKIN!! I had two but the other one isn't growing very well. I have mildew and didn't catch it in time to save the life of the pumpkin. I thought it was dirt. Next year I will know better.

HHHHH

Ever since Saturday night, Hayden has had yet another set of ear infections. He ran a fever on Sunday night 3am of 103.2 degrees farenheight. I worried. I wondered what the temperature was that you were supposed to panic and run off to the hospital. I gave the poor guy kid's ibuprofin and wiped him down with a warm wet cloth. He was so drowsy and out of it he wanted the heavy quilt on him up to his ears. I had to fight him to get him to only have the sheet up to his waist. I took all his clothes off except his diaper (which he still wears overnight) and dabbed him with the cloth. At first he didn't want it, and wimpered pathetically, but after a few dabs and wipes he was offering me his arms to keep wiping. The fever broke and he slept beside me.

Tuesday I stayed home from work and kept the kids home from daycare. When Jake got home we went to the clinic and saw awesome Dr David Joyce. He spent time with us, and even though the clinic was busy, took care of all our needs. He even recruited us for a study that his daytime job was conducting with regard to children's development. Its purpose is to compare kids' doctor's notes on their development with their actual development. Development development development. I'm saying that a lot here. Anyway someone would come to our house and assess both kids thoroughly with regard to language, fine motor skills, the other motor skills that I can't think of the name but the big ones, and other things. Then compare to our dr's notes. Seemed like an interesting study.

Anyway the dr also looked into Hayden's ears and said yes, both ears were quite infected. Also to my horror, Hayden's left ear drum has a hole in it, caused by the infection. He said definitely if Hayden's not feeling better in two days to come back and see the dr again. I have appointments for both kids to see our regular pediatrician Dr Catherine Pluta on Monday, and from there probably get a referral to see an ear nose and throat specialist. We are concerned because especially this time around, Hayden's hearing is decreased. I am hoping that it is just temporary, caused by the infection. It's pretty bad though. We're making sure to enunciate clearly and speak loudly so he can hear us. The kids went back to daycare today and Jake let them know his hearing is low right now, so they'd be aware.

Lame joke: instead of Triple H, he's Quintuple H: Hard of Hearing Hayden Huxley Huss.... but just till his ears clear up. I don't know if holes in eardrums heal. I don't want to look it up, in case they don't. I want to be ignorant on that for a bit. Just in case it's bad news. When he told us, I forgot completely about asking if it healed or what it would mean or anything. He said "I see a hole in his eardrum." then he stood up. Then he said "Wait, maybe it was a bubble. Sometimes that happens." he looked again "nope, it's a hole." And we were like "a hole.. ok a hole."

I'll keep you posted.

On another note, Sage said to me on Tuesday: "I want apple juice, in this cup, now mommy!" A very long and demanding sentence! Of course, to the untrained ear it might've sounded more like this: "Ah wah bapp jooss, ih dih cup NOW MOMMY"

And yet another note Hayden stood on the scale at the clinic yesterday and he finally made it to 40 lbs!!! YAY!! That's a milestone because NOW he can graduate from the harness carseat to the booster with seatbelt! It only took 2 years to put 3 pounds on him. I never thought he'd get up to 40 lbs! He's been 37 lbs since he was 2 years old. Sage is about 33 lbs.

ta ta for now!