Outdated Easter Photos

Friday: Szabbies come to Sudbury for 4 days! Dinner at our house Friday night.


Saturday: Treated to Science North as a Raciszabihussicots Clan by Patriarch.

chain o kids

Science North was sooo interesting on the way in, we could've spent all day with the parabolic echo wall, locker room, bunnies and chickies, water fall, and plastic practice milking cow (with functioning milkable teats)!

black chickie and kid cluster - only one kid isn't ours. can you tell which one?

Sage pats the bunny. Can you pat the bunny?

Interesting caves lead us to the exhibits.

Promo for Uncle Ron's 3-D movie which unfortunately we couldn't work into the schedule.



Grampa investigating the tiny play-cave.


Twinsies running into the tiny play-cave. It's only as big as you can see there.

examining horns and antlers

Hayden said "This is the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built." when we got to the rat exhibit.

Snap Snap! This one's for you, Delbert. May you rest in peace.

Mindi, concentrate on Sage's uber-cute expression and don't read what's next!! While we were examining this milk snake, an employee came by and said that this little guy was lost within the center for a month because he escaped his prior habitat. Eeeeeeeeeeek.


If you bring in a piece of nature, you can trade it for what they've got in all those shelves and drawers. My dad gave Anya and Hayden little rocks to donate, and they each picked out a bunch of shells.

Sage and some dinos

Carol took this beautiful butterfly portrait.

Twins on a Butterfly Bench

And then the most hideous Easter Bunny in the entire briar patch came by to hug the children. Hayden wasn't terrorized. He wasn't even shy!


Sage would not get closer than this to the bunny, and yet he also was so intrigued that he wouldn't move away from the bunny either. He had to be carried away and he complained the whole time. Weeeird. I think the large flower on the hat was hypnotizing him.


And then I was brave enough to hold Sammy Snail's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-...-great-great grand-nephew and/or neice. This snail is clinging to a rotting piece of apple he or she had been eating for lunch when plucked from his or her habitat to be held by various people such as I. It wasn't too bad until he or she started to go forward. And then I was done.


On the way out, we stopped and touched a piece of history. Coke-a-cola sponsored photos being taken with THE Olympic Torch, which we downloaded from the website about a week later. Complete with police guard. Plus an athelete. And a really tall dude. And a winnibego.


Sunday: woke up with sore back, had Easter presents for the kids at our house. Deux parapluies et du chocolate. Not many photos of easter at our house because of my sore back making me grumpy and ibuprofin not working fast enough.



By 10am-ish we were back at my dad's and had the easter egg hunt for the kids. I'd given them bunny bags to collect the jelly-bean filled treasures.

Finding Eggs

The Official Count for fair-and-square divvying.

And since it was such a nice day, we didn't want to go back inside. We threw plastic balls all over the yard and Carol invented running-around games for the kids to play.

Put All The Red Balls Into The Yellow Hoop game
Throwing More Balls Into The Yard

Hoop Toss

Sand Garden Play

Run over there and salute the captain! now... run back here and swab the deck!

Hayden introduces The Face to a young Szabbicotian. (Is that pronounced Szabico-ee-an, or Szabicoshan? hmm)

Quick mastering of The Face

And so it spreads, as The Face has tremendous appeal for young minds eager for attention...

nuff said

Carol tells Stories

A Very Interesting Look

At one point during household nap time, Anya meticulously arranged all the toys in the playroom while Carol slept on the couch. Note the symmetry in the wooden block castle. Note the cars under the coffee table.

Note the windowsill guys. And the stuffies bookending Carol. I couldn't believe it and had to take pictures.

Kids Being Have

These are some pictures from the week before Easter that I wanted to post as well:

A cool Hayden-taken photo

Hayden drew a "mushroom" on the right, and traced his hands on the left. Easel purchased from Kijiji ad for $7.

At daycare Hayden's class made bunny ears and also washable-markered on whiskers and bunny noses. Hayden also wanted a bunny beard on his chin, to be just like Daddy.

At school Hayden's class made bunny ears which he shared with Sage, since he then had two pairs.

whew. sorry that took so long.

I don't like arugula.

whaaaat the heck am I still doing up??

I'm off work still because of my back. And will be next week as well. Forms filled out, xrays taken, work informed... I did a little experiment this week because I was feeling better, able to put on my own socks, for example. I stopped taking the tylenol 3s on Tuesday night. That night also I didn't take my muscle relaxer. Wednesday I took only the Rx strength ibuprofin, and then Thursday morning realized that two days without the muscle relaxer or T3s was a mistake. But but but I felt okay, no agonizing pain! I said to myself. Ah yes, but I was also either lying down or reclining and nothing else for prolonged periods of time. Giving myself the time and oportunity to recover. I drove myself to the doctor's office on Thursday. Thank goodness it's a short trip. Sitting up straight for more than a few minutes feels like bad things are happening. It isn't the kind of pain that kills you immediately, but it's the kind that says "I'm tolerable now, but just wait cuz you ain't seen nothing yet! lemme rev my engines!!!!" Imagine locking your elbow for a few hours. (If you've slept with a cuddly child, you will know of which I speak.) It's ok for a few minutes, but when you go to move it a couple hours later, LOOKOUT. Now multiply that by say, 75, and speed up the tolerance time and...

What the hell am I doing up so late??!! That's where this started. I had a nap. I woke up late. The muscle relaxer knocks me out. This other medication I'm taking has insomnia as a side effect. I love City of Heroes. That's what. All those things. Add those things up and you get me awake at 3:26am. And I'm still not even that sleepy!

what a crock.

Story now, pictures later

Happy Belated Easter!

Last weekend the Szabbies came to town for the entire weekend. We were thrilled! We had dinner at our house friday night and I'd slow cooked a couple of chickens. Saturday morning my dad treated us ALL to Science North where they had special Eastery displays including live bunnies, chicks, snails, and a (hideous) walking Easter Bunny costume. After the science center, we parted ways for kid naps, and reconvened for dinner at my dad's. Sunday morning I woke up with a sore back, but wasn't bothered too badly by it. We gave our kids their Easter presents at home, then went to my dad's to give all five kiddies a little bag with a few toys/treats inside and I hid a bunch of easter eggs in his back yard. The weather was beautiful and on the warm side of chilly. Sunny skies and not very much wind meant the kids were fine with lighter coats and rubber boots. I was fine in just my t-shirt if I sat in the sun, which I did. B.J. even got slightly sunburnt! We wanted to stay outside some more, so when my dad brought one little plastic ball out and lamented it was all he had, I remembered that the Xmas present for the boys from the Szabbies was still in the car: two bags full of balls, so we got one and threw them in the yard (and at each other a little bit) and Carol made up games for the kids to play. She is a genious when it comes to inventing games/stories on the spot. She got those kids to run allll over the place and REALLY wear off their candy breakfasts. We had a very simple turkey supper and pie for dessert. After dinner, my dad put on Pinnoccio on his huge TV and we watched the restored and enhanced cartoon. Most of the kids watched for most of the time even! We had popcorn and it was a really awesome family togetherness experience. Monday around lunchtime the Szabbies came over to eat at our house on their way home. We had a few more hours of familiness until they left for true. Jake went to pick up Sabrina and Robbie for a visit, but it was cut short because I was so miserable. Unfortunately for me, Monday morning I'd woken up and my sore lower back had turned into immobilizing pain. It still is aweful. I couldn't get in to see my own doctor, so I went to a clinic on Wednesday morning and that took a lot out of me.. those hard waiting room chairs and complete lack of waiting room beds to take the pressure off my spine. He gave me some good painkillers and a powerful muscle relaxer and ordered I follow up with my family doc as early as possible. I've been off work all week, but I'm hopeful that by Monday when I go in, I'll be able to make it all day.

L'ecole

Last week Hayden came home saying "ketonkatoo aujourdhui". I said "pardon?" and turned my child's phonetical mispronouncing french filters on. "Ketonka too aujourdui!" he said again. Then: "Il fait froid!" and made shivery arms. OHHH! Quel temps fait-il aujourdhui! What is the weather like today! Il fait froid. It is cold. I said "il fait froid et il fait du neige." (It is cold and it is snowing) He said it back. Neige. Very french accentish too. Nayeeggeee. Two syllables. I say it in one. But I'm from Toronto. Every day he asks me ketonka too aujourdhui, and every day I repeat it back properly, then he says it's cold. Today was very sunny. Today I said "il fait du soleil". He liked that one. His face lit up. I think he remembered it from class because he got it right away and knew what it meant. He also knows Il fait du vent. It is windy. Yay! He learned something! He can also count objects in french. Like, pointing to each of the 9 pies in Harold's Purple Crayon and counts them in french. Not just rhyming off a memorized list of sounds.. actual comprehension. I'm so glad. Yesterday afternoon I heard some numbers past 10 come out of his mouth, but he hasn't gone past 10 for me directly yet. When he sings the Alphabet song in french, he gets all the letters right except he adds Y in English after he says it in french. "Koo, ere, ess, tay, oo, vay, doobluh-vay, eeks, egreck, why ay zay... " I just discovered that it's fun to spell out how letters sound.

I'm so amazed at child development. It's astounding what has to take place to become an adult. It's a wonder any of us get here. I said that as if I've completely grown up. Nope.

According To Google..

On your sixth year of marriage the gift should be either sugar, iron, or wood.

Happy Sixth Anniversary Jake... I love you.

(Coincidentally enough, the movie Ironman is on tonight, which we are going to watch.)

Chicken and Ribs

I bought a whole chicken the other day in order to slow cook it. I've been craving another slow cooked whole chicken ever since Tilly stole the other one I made a few weeks ago. I love my slow cooker! While fast cooking supper tonight, I realized the chicken was going to expire tomorrow. Eeek! So after I made dinner #1, I started dinner #2. I made another herb and spice rub with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, parsley, and thyme. No sage or rosemary. Although I do have rosemary, and of course there's a little Sage around here always :) Hopefully this chicken will be done before I go to bed.

This morning I saw the doctor about my ribs. He said I shouldn't have left them on for so long, and that was why they scortched. Heh. Just kidding. He poked and pushed and asked me to breathe while he listened to my lungs, then pushed some more and kept saying "does it hurt here? how about here?" arg!! Yes! Right there where you're pushing!!! Does your shoulder hurt? Right there where my teeth marks are? Hm. Odd. He sent me down the hall for some xrays and said he would go down and take a look right away. Why do they make people in pain do the most painful thing they can think of and then take a picture of it? I bit the xray tech too. When I got back to the doctor's office, he took me into an exam room, left for two minutes, came back and said the xrays were not the best quality and he was not able to see if there was a break or not. He obviously took a lot of time and care looking at the xrays in those two minutes. He sent them to a radiologist to check out. But treatment is the same either way, he said. Tylenol or advil for pain, and he gave me a cough suppressant to help me sleep. Lying down is the worst position, and the past two nights have been brutal. Hopefully the cough suppressant knocks me out. Mamma said knock you out.

Ribs

Ribs I
On Saturday I slow-cooked a big rack of ribs in my sporty slow-cooker. Oh my goodness they smelled the house up something wonderful. I ate three for supper. They were big. Awesome, falling-off-the-bone, sauce-just-right, yummy yummy dance for joy. Tilly ate the bones. On Sunday late afternoon I turned the ribs back on thinking I'd have another ribby dinner. I didn't QUITE forget about them, but I had had a late lunch and wasn't hungry for supper at supper time, and since I'm the only one in the house to eat my slow-cooked ribs, they left the front element of my brain. [How come no one ever says that? They say 'put it on the back burner' lots, but never say when they're using the front coils. Weird.] I kept smelling them through the evening, and because it's a SLOW cooker I never thought I could burn anything in there. Wrong-o. If you leave stuff in there long enough, it burns. At 9pm I went to get some and found a large black mess. I picked a few out to see if they were scortched or just blackened, and the meat was not charcoal, but it was VEEEEEEEERY black, all the way through. Terrible loss! Oh woe betide the ribs of yumminess! They hath forsaken me. Sniffle.


Ribs II
I have a cough. I've had it since the day after the day I came back from North Bay for the Spa Weekend. So that would be March 16th. It started off not so bad, loose, no stuffy head to accompany it, just a little rattley cough that stayed. About a week later it started to tighten up a bit. Coughing wasn't so easy. Had to use vicks vaporub at night. A few difficult nights. Let's say that started last Wednesday. Coughing fits at work are AWESOME, let me tell you. Coughing fits in general are spectacularly fantastic. I love them. I've had a lot of practice and now am really good at them. Sunday night I had a particularly bad coughing fit, and afterwards my right side ached. Saturday morning I had another really bad coughing fit and that was NOT fun because the ache became real pain in my ribs. Grimace-of-pain-on-the-face pain. At work people who'd had broken and bruised ribs before sympathized and offered suggestions of holding a pillow tight against your painful ribs when coughing, and I discovered the support does help ease the pain. I made it through my day, but at home it just got worse and worse. Sleeping last night was terrible. Getting ready this morning was painful. And after I came back from walking Hayden to the bus, the coughing fit I had was so bad and so painful I decided to call off work and am headed to the clinic after Jake gets home. I don't think it's broken, but I just want to make sure. Also ibuprofen is not working to take the edge off the pain, so I'm hoping I'll be able to get something a little stronger.

Aspartame

For all you diet pop drinkers and gum chewers and other "diet" junk stuff eaters, I ask of you to read this website.

http://www.sweetpoison.com

I was at work, reading my package of gum (I was actually looking to see if there were an expirey date or not) and in big bold letters it said after the ingredients "Aspartame contains phenylalanine." So I looked it up. I have often heard before that aspartame is worse for you than sugar, but never took the time to discover how much worse. How much worse could it be? you ask. Well, if you don't take the time to read that website and all the revealing information within, here are a few key points [I added the bolding]:

Aspartame is the common denominator for over 92 different health symptoms at the root of modern disease.

Phenylalanine is a neurotoxin and excites the neurons in the brain to the point of cellular death.

Aspartame dissolves into solution and can therefore travel throughout the body and deposit within any tissue. The body digests aspartame unlike saccharin, which does not break down within humans.

Adverse reactions and side effects of aspartame include:

Eye
blindness in one or both eyes
decreased vision and/or other eye problems such as: blurring, bright flashes, squiggly lines, tunnel vision, decreased night vision
pain in one or both eyes
decreased tears
trouble with contact lenses
bulging eyes

Ear
tinnitus - ringing or buzzing sound
severe intolerance of noise
marked hearing impairment

Neurologic
epileptic seizures
headaches, migraines and (some severe)dizziness, unsteadiness, both confusion, memory loss, both severe drowsiness and sleepiness paresthesia or numbness of the limbs severe slurring of speech
severe hyperactivity and restless legs
atypical facial pain
severe tremors

Psychological/Psychiatric
severe depression
irritability
aggression
anxiety
personality changes
insomnia
phobias
Chest palpitations, tachycardia
shortness of breath
recent high blood pressure

Gastrointestinal
nausea
diarrhea, sometimes with blood in stools
abdominal pain
pain when swallowing

Skin and Allergies
itching without a rash
lip and mouth reactions
hives
aggravated respiratory allergies such as asthma

Endocrine and Metabolic
loss of control of diabetes
menstrual changes
marked thinning or loss of hair
marked weight loss
gradual weight gain
aggravated low blood sugar (hypoglycemia)
severe PMS

Other
frequency of voiding and burning during urination
excessive thirst,
fluid retention, leg swelling, and bloating
increased susceptibility to infection

Additional Symptoms of Aspartame Toxicity include the most critical symptoms of all
death
irreversible brain damage
birth defects, including mental retardation
peptic ulcers
aspartame addiction and increased craving for sweets
hyperactivity in children
severe depression
aggressive behavior
suicidal tendencies

Aspartame may trigger, mimic, or cause the following illnesses:
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Epstein-Barr
Post-Polio Syndrome
Lyme Disease
Grave’s Disease
Meniere’s Disease
Alzheimer’s Disease
ALS
EpilepsyMultiple Sclerosis (MS)
EMS
Hypothyroidism
Mercury sensitivity from Amalgam fillings
Fibromyalgia
Lupusnon-Hodgkins
Lymphoma
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)

These are not allergies or sensitivities, but diseases and disease syndromes. Aspartame poisoning is commonly misdiagnosed because aspartame symptoms mock textbook ‘disease’ symptoms, such as Grave’s Disease.

So does anyone want the rest of my case of Diet Dr Pepper? Half-price because it's full of poison.

Spring!!

Today we were supposed to get 10 cm of snow. Instead we got rain! I'm stoked. They're still saying we may get snow tonight, but I don't think it will. I keep checking my now-exposed garden for my daffodil sprouts. I have no idea when they should be appearing, but I figure the ground LOOKS thawed.. and it's almost April... I think it'll be any day now. Of course I could be way off. This is my first year of daffodils. In addition to them this year I think I'll have tomatoes and peas again, marigolds because Carol said they keep bugs away, zuccini, aaaaand.. um... some other kind of flowers. I was thinking also of having a large hanging basket of morning glories and letting them trail down instead of twine upwards. Think that'll work? [it would take a miracle]

My front garden is shady until later afternoon, so I looked up what flowers like shade. Marigolds are not on the list. I think I'll put them on the side with my peas, tomato, and daffodils. I did find out that Bleeding Hearts and Bugbane are both very pretty flowers that like the shade. Bugbane repells bugs as well.

I'm getting excited!!

March's Picture Catch-Up

You've all been so patient waiting and waiting for the pictures I've been promising. Here they is.

The new face of choice of my boise. I don't know where they picked it up. Probably daycare. These are the first couple of pictures from my new camera, which I got for my birthday to replace the spa weekend that was cancelled.

I should say the SPA was cancelled. The weekend was not. I went to North Bay and left all the boise at home, and Carol left her gurls with BJ and Chantelle (as seen below) was lucky enough to have all her three kids at her mother-in-law's house for the weekend. LOOK OUT! Three Mammas all kidless and looking for a good time! We didn't actually have to go far for a good time, Chan is Carol's neighbour and she'd prepared a FABULOUS and YUMMY meal, and we gave each other spa treatments.

We had yummy wine. Yes. I said yummy wine. I liked it. (I don't usually like wine at all) And very appropriately called Girls' Night out!

Yummy feta bruchetta appetizers.

Beautiful decor.

Home-made bread and buns with red pepper butter individually served in rosettes.

The Main: pork with three different kinds of mushrooms sauteed and served with roasted and herbed mini potatos and honeyed carrots.

Dessert was home-made tiramisu. FANTASTIC.

After supper we had pedicures and painted toenails and did facial treatments too.

Mindi! MY foot! Look! And funny toe separators.

Lookout. Aromatherapy hydrating masked madwoman.

Biore Nose Cool Masked Avenger!

Some of our later night drinks: 7up and grenadine and cointreau for Chan (in the middle) and strawberry daquiries for me and Carol.

Making our midnight cheese-dip snack.

Eating our late night cheese dip snack.

And then moving on to St Patrick's Day, I made cupcakes for my team. The one at the very top is a DX cupcake for Jake. Wrestling reference.

Hayden showing me he doesn't have a scraped cheek.

Sage's scraped cheek. He fell off the equipment at daycare and had a partial black eye and scabby cheek and nose for a while.

Last weekend was cousin Rachael's birthday party which Hayden and I went to. Hannah was there looking like a very grown up little girl. They had a good time together, and played in the 'tent' that was set up in Elizabeth's guest bedroom bunkbeds.

Playing "naptime".

Cutie Pie!

Carter! Rachael's dog.

We went to the library on Sunday afternoon and there was a little boy who came along, 4 years old, named SAGE who pointed out to Hayden that they had the same boots. They had a good time together.

Hayden shows off his new face again.

Little Sage wouldn't pose for any pictures, so he rolled around on the floor, pulling books off shelves.

Last week Sage pushed all his goldfish crackers into his sandwich.

And then decided he wanted to show me The Face. Her's The Face getting ready.

And there It is.

Camera? Pictures? The Face? I want to join in!

Before the March Break Thaw, I was walking back to the house from taking Hayden to the bus and noticed some birdy footprints in the snow. I thought I should capture it and write a blog about it. Not a whole blog, as it turns out, but this much anyway.

Why I Quit Facebook and Other Stories

I guess I owe my fans (fans? or readers? readers.) I mean readers an explanation as to why I quit Facebook. Because I wanted to. I didn't know BJ joined facebook. I thought he would've been like you, Carol, all untrusting and stuff. Facebook was good while it lasted. I reconnected with a whole whack of people I never would've reconnected with, except if I bumped into them in Yorkdale Mall at Christmas time. Which is how I reconnected with Iris from highschool. But we can't all be at yorkdale mall looking in the right direction at the right time in the right overly crowded corridor of the right wing of the right big ass mall ALL THE TIME. So yay for Facebook. I got to know a few people from my teenage years a little better (Christopher W.C. for example) and made new friends (Cathy L for example) and chatted with old friends and updated the world on what I was feeling at any given moment. But I was not happy. Jennifer was not happy with the voyeuristicness of Facebook, amongst other things. They change the format very frequently. Why are they messing with it so much? They need more change control. At my job, it takes months, nay YEARS to get things changed. No that's not true. But it feels like it. I felt like a lot of the control I thought I had was not had, over privacy mainly. I hated getting 20 invites to dumb applications a day. I hated being invited to join all these worthy causes, and being made to feel that if I didn't join, I would've then personally and single-handedly PREVENTED the cure for breast cancer, or cauliflower ear, or whatever. Plus there was that article that Carol showed me about the terms and conditions of FB that were in such fine print, who in their right mind would have time to read such a long and tiny fonted bore-fest? But apparently Facebook owns everything you upload, write, create, read, publish, or even think of. Forever. You can't delete your profile, you can only deactivate it. It is still there. Along with all your photos, thoughts, blogs, comments, etc etc etc. Which they now own. So goodbye yellow facebook.. side blog. See next paragraph.

Um.. has anyone ever read the lyrics to Good Bye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John? here they are:
When are you gonna come down
When are you going to land
I should have stayed on the farm
I should have listened to my old man

You know you can't hold me forever
I didn't sign up with you
I'm not a present for your friends to open
This boy's too young to be singing the blues

So goodbye yellow brick road
Where the dogs of society howl
You can't plant me in your penthouse
I'm going back to my plough

Back to the howling old owl in the woods
Hunting the horny back toad
Oh I've finally decided my future lies
Beyond the yellow brick road

What do you think you'll do then
I bet that'll shoot down your plane
It'll take you a couple of vodka and tonics
To set you on your feet again

Maybe you'll get a replacement
There's plenty like me to be found
Mongrels who ain't got a penny
Sniffing for tidbits like you on the ground

I feel like I've got to take drugs for these words to make sense. Yellow Brick Road is an allusion to the Wizard of Oz, which is in Gay circles the Movie to beat all Movies, and anything referencing the movie is hinting gay hints. So considering that Sir Elton is gay, and that this song was put out before he was (haha - I don't know if that's true or not, because I don't know when he came out of the closet but it sounded funny) but it still doesn't make sense. Putting gayness behind him? Like, trying to be straight? Was he? But those sunglasses.. those suits.. who was he kidding? Anyway side blog now over.

I'm going to bed.

Spring Has Sprung

I have a new camera. I have lots of pictures to share. I have such a large memory stick in my camera I am not forced to unload my pictures after every photo shoot. This is bad news for you.

I am going to do this soon. I have a few blog ideas I need to write. I will write them. You can then read them. Not today though. I am going to bed. And tomorrow night I have a poker tournament (the semifinals of Q92's Ultimate Poker Challenge. 100 people qualified and the top 8 will go play the final table at a real casino in Sault Michigan. Top player will receive $3500 entertainment center.. tv, blueray, other stuff, from Biancos).

Anyhoo.. yah.

Oh and I quit facebook. So this is where your Jennifer News will be gotten. Hm. I guess that means I should update more frequently.

Accident Prone

Today has been quite the disaster, in Sage's world. He's been sooo clumsy! I don't know if it's because maybe he's gotten a lot taller lately and his balance is off with his new height, or maybe he's just in a huge rush, I don't know. Today he fell off the bed, fell loads of times in the living room, tripped twice on the way INTO the grocery store (scraping of all things his forehead on the second fall), poked himself in the eye at the checkout, and then when I was closing the front door after all the groceries were inside, he held onto the doorknob unbeknownst to me, and when I pushed it closed quickly, he was pulled forward with a jerk and his face bashed into the corner of the living room doorway, and he cut both lips. Poor kid. I felt so bad. And then later on, he threw a box of DVD-Rs with cases up into the air, it landed on my knee and I spanked his bum.