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.

Last Day Of February

As you may have noticed, we are looking forward to March and the season change it brings. In theory. We usually still have snow through April, but we can hope. The daylight is already around MUCH later than it was, and that makes me so very happy. I planted daffodils last fall and I can't wait to see if they pop up and if they do, if they flower.

Speaking of flowers, after Christmas I bought an amarylis on sale for 97 cents and subsequently forgot all about it. I just found the box tonight and when I opened it, it had not only grown, it had FLOWERED. In the box. Without light. Without soil. Without water. Isn't that amazing?

Speaking of flowers some MORE, yesterday Jake dropped me off at work because he needed to go grocery shopping. He had the boys with him. To my surprise just before lunch they stopped by and Jake had a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me! I wasn't able to bring them to my desk because we have a no-scent policy and there's at least one woman who's very allergic to flowers especially. But woo hoo he certainly got tons of brownie points with me (and with my friends at work).

Happy March tomorrow!

happy birthday to me
happy birthday to me
happy birthday to meeee
happy birthday to me

Hayden - adenoid-free for 12 hours and counting

So here's the thing. Hayden and I went to North Bay to see the Ear Nose Throat specialist and have his tubes put in and adenoids removed. We stayed at Carol and BJ's house overnight last night, got up at 6am this morning, and were at the hospital for 7am. He got to wear a really cute little pair of scrub-like pj's and was super cute! Jake and I had explained to him about his operation over the past few days, but of course he didn't really get it. He said he did though. After we waited and read a bunch of books from Anya's library and he weighed himself about 20 times on the large scale next to his crib/bed, the anesthesiologist and two nurses came to get him. I wasn't allowed to go with him into the prep area, so I said goodbye and they wheeled him away in a little green wagon. He looked a little nervous, but he had his Dragon Tails toy that Jake had given him for Valentine's day, and a little monkey that Anya lent him. About 30 minutes later Dr Prinja came out and said he was done and it had gone perfectly. Hayden was just coming out of the anesthetic and I'd probably be allowed to go see him once he was more coherent. Another half hour later instead of being called in, I saw two nurses pushing Hayden's crib/bed/gourney through the big double doors, and Hayden sitting up in bed with blankets and his little stuffed friends still watching him protectively. He had an IV, which the nurse had told be they put in after he was asleep. Smart thinking! I'd wondered about that. We settled back into the ward, and I told him how brave he was. He stared into space. He had bloody crusty nostrils and some blood on his lips. The nurse brought him some water and wanted him to drink a bunch of it to induce vomiting, but he only managed one swallow. Later he managed one swallow of apple juice. Later again she brought him a freezie and it prompted him to want more water and more juice, so he drank a bunch. When the nurse came back to take out his IV, she thought it had stopped bleeding and a minute after she took the pressure off to take out the tweety bird bandaid SPLOOP blood squirted from his hand. She quickly covered it from Hayden's view and reapplied pressure, but he turned ghost white. She told him to lie down while she finished up with the bandaid. A couple minutes after she left, he puked. The nurses had told me that during the surgery some of the blood and other stuff goes down the back of the throat and is swallowed, so that is why it's good he threw it up. It helps them feel better faster. And there it was. I rang for the nurse because it was going everywhere (is this too gross?) and she came with a nursy friend and they were both soo happy he'd thrown up! She cleaned him up with a few warm wet cloths and towels, he put on his regular clothes and 10 minutes later we were in the parking lot! The difference in him was amazing after the puke. He went from dopey drowzy zoned-out Hayden to the regular inquisitive happy Hayden in no time flat! While he was recovering he had told me several times "I just want to get out of here" in his super quiet little Hayden way. Poor baby. ("I'm not a baby, I'm a big boy!") We went back to Carol's house and he played quietly and drank some juice slowly and I made jello (which I just remembered I forgot in her freezer and am calling her right now to inform of such) and he ate a few animal crackers. Carol went to the store and picked up his four (!) prescriptions for me, because I was super tired. She also (smart girl) picked up some ready-made jello and some yummy sandwiches and salads for our lunch. Then we packed up and headed home. Sage and Jake and Tilly all greeted us with kisses and jumping up on us and squeals of happiness. Hayden played and seemed his chipper little self. He'd dozed off and on during the 1 1/2 hour ride home. He has tylenol with codine for pain, ear drops, nose spray, and antibiotics. So far (knock on wood) he's not protesting any of these treatments. We have him booked off daycare and school this week, but I predict he will be able to attend by the end of the week. We will see :)

My blog makes me feel guilty

I've been sick lately.
I work full time.
I have two kids?

I'm feeling really guilty about the neglect I've been amounting on my blog. I had previously explained why I wouldn't apologize for not writing. But now I feel so overwhelmingly guilty about not keeping updates going here.. I think one is going to slip out.

imsosorry!!!!

yep. There it is.

I'm not the only working mother out there. Why can't I find time to blog? Have I lost interest? I think mostly it's that I'm very interested (not addicted) to an online role playing game City of Villains/City of Heroes. Most of the interest is because it's social time with my sister and/or her DH. They play too. We run around as Heroes beating up bad guys (or good guys if we're Villains that night) getting experience points and picking new cool powers when we level up. It's fun even when they're NOT online, but having daily fun playing games with my family is really rewarding.

I have to cut this short as we are going shopping for

Originally on Facebook - Opinion Poll

Okay here's a poll I want to take. How do YOU say COTTON CANDY? do you say COTTON candy? or cotton CANDY? (the caps word has the emphasis) Let me know. I have been trying to show my friend Mindi the error of her ways (she erroniously says cotton CANDY) for 13 years.

Mindi Funk at 10:42pm February 5
I would like to vote for cotton CANDY.

Jennifer Huss at 11:08pm February 5
You don't get a vote.

Mindi Funk at 11:16pm February 5
Oh. :(

Rhiannon Pollino at 12:46am February 6
I find myself saying both ways or should i say all 3 ways with the emphasis on both words, when talking to the kids and we are really excited. but who am i, just someone from the dumb ol states. lol I guess i wasnt any help!

Sassy Chris Nerpin at 7:17am February 6
Sorry Jen I am with Mindi... I always have the emphasis on the CANDY part

Doreen Hicks at 7:53am February 6
Oh its got to be cotton CANDY because the CANDY is the exciting part. Not appealing to be eating cotton.

Mindi Funk at 12:22pm February 6
Hahaha! The woman makes a good point. Go mama. :P LOL

Jennifer Huss at 8:20pm February 6
Doreen I'm not surprised you also say cotton CANDY because you are Mindi's mother and she could only have learned the wrongness from you. Blame blame blame. Nature vs nurture again proves nurture wins. And I take your vote away because of it. *yoink* Sabrina you are from a tiny little town about the size of the one Mindi grew up in (and Doreen still lives in) and therefore your vote doesn't count either. Rhiannon, only 2/3rds of your vote counts. And the states aren't dumb. And you were a help! well, 2/3rds of help anyway. Seriously people, COTTON candy, to describe what kind of candy! Say it to yourselves a few times, the RIGHT way. COTTON candy. COTTON candy. COTTON candy. Why would you have to emphasize the candy part? Emphasizing the candy part suggests you thought people mistakenly thought you were eating cotton UNDERWEAR or cotton T-SHIRTS. What kind of candy are you eating? COTTON candy. What kind of sandwich are you eating? TUNA fish. not tuna FISH. See?

Tanya Borsuk at 9:23pm February 6
hmm...actually I think I say COTTON CANDY. No preferential emphasis. Am I broken?

Jennifer Huss at 12:15am February 7
nope. Cotton Candy with no particular emphasis counts towards the COTTON candy vote. :)

Iris Hollander at 8:26am February 7
I think i say it like your friend Mindi. I've never heard anyone say it any other way actually. Emphasis always on the Candy.

Tanya Borsuk at 4:48pm February 7
now I think you're just making up rules......

Jennifer Huss at 11:31pm February 7
Tanya, now whatever gave you that idea ? *flutters bambi eyelashes*

I think I give up trying to convert you guys. But *I* will never convert. Never. I'll be like Picard in that episode where he gets kidnapped by the rogue Romulan who then tortures him and tries to make him say he sees five lights when there are only four. And Picard never says there are five, even though he's beaten and tortured for so long, they never get his spirit. But one of the last shots of the torture chamber scenes the camera shows you that Picard ended up really seeing five lights, even though he didn't admit it. Except I don't see five lights. I don't pronounce it cotton CANDY. Me and Picard = the same. I miss Star Trek.

Rhiannon Pollino at 1:19am February 8
this is funny to read up on. so where did my 2/3 come in? ok so the states arent dumb...i know its just me lol it seems to run in my family a bit. dont worry jake doesnt have that dumb gene. but any who i am loving this debate! love ya

Jennifer Huss at 9:53am February 8
Well, as you so intelligently noticed, there are in fact THREE ways of saying Cotton Candy. The right way, the wrong way, and the OMGIGOTTAHAVESOMENOW excited way. Therefore if you, Rhiannon, say it all THREE ways then you are right 2/3 of the time. As stipulated above, saying it in the uber-excited way counts towards the right way.I'm glad you're enjoying the debate! I am too. I think I'll put this whole thing on my blog: www.hussicots.blogspot.com[Any objections to me posting this are too late as I am going to do it now.]

Jennifer Huss at 9:55am February 8
PS Jake's got a little bit of dumb in him :P relating to the nature vs nurture topic also discussed above.

February already?

Well it's February and I've hardly blogged this year at all. Sorry about that. Days are short and computer time is being spent playing City of Heroes/Villains.

Hayden started school yesterday! We decided in January that French Emersion would be a great idea, and then took it a step further to start him now so he wouldn't be behind in the fall. Regular kindergarten is 100% French all day every day.

We went to meet Madam Monique on Monday after school was finished and she showed Hayden where to keep his shoes, coat, and everything else. He was SUPER excited and didn't want to leave. He goes for the full day on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and every other Friday.

Frozen Pipe Cracked Windshield Frozen Pipe Cracked Pipe SCHOOL

I'll catch you up on life in our family since last Wednesday.

On wednesday night we discovered our hot water pipes had frozen. This was inconvenient. The landlord said he would be able to send someone over the next day to fix it. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, however that particular Thursday we were taking a day trip to North Bay for Hayden to see the Ear Nose and Throat doctor and have supper with the Szabbies. He's had 6 ear infections in the past 12 months, and the GREAT doc in N. Bay will be doing tubes (actually super tiny little beads to allow air through the ear drums) and adenoidectomy some time in February. This story is very condensed. I was upset that the landlord wanted to send some guy over to our house while we weren't there, but what else could we do. Not much. So we left Thursday morning for the Bay and ate lunch, saw the doc, had an awesome visit with the Szabbies, and ate a yummy supper too. Good friends cared for Tilly while we were gone. We got home not-so-late Thursday night and had a fun time running the hot water. We left it dripping, as recommended by those in the know, to prevent it from freezing up again. I should mention that this week we've been having record-breaking low temperatures of (close your eyes Yellowknifers, it's nothing compaired to your temps) -30 and below. Quite cold. -40 is the same in Celcius and Farenheight, to give the American readers a point of reference. Friday morning was uneventful, showers were had by Hayden and me, hot water still good. On the way home from work, the tiny chip in the windshield which had come with the car (already a spider and beyond the fix that they can do) popped into a 2 foot crack. Damn. And since then has grown to 3 feet long. We need to get it fixed the next time we have a spare.. uh.. wad of cash. [wonders to self how much a windshield costs.] Saturday morning we woke up to frozen pipes again. We called the landlord to ask if the guy who'd fixed it Thursday could call us to tell us if we could do anything. The landlord said we could use a hairdryer. Jake got my hair dryer out and took it to the back and began thawing. About 15 minutes later he called to me, quite calmly, and said "I need help." I was in the living room with the kids. I turned while asking him what did he need help with, and as he said the words "A pipe burst" I took in the (now hillarious) image of him standing in the kitchen, dripping and soaking wet in all his clothes. I took the phone from him and called all three numbers of our landlord, trying to get a hold of him. No luck. Jake turned off the water to the house (after I told him where it was) and an hour later the landlord called back. He said we should turn off the water to the house. Yuh. He's a brilliant man, our landlord. He coudn't get anyone to come right away, but promised someone would be by at 5 or 6pm. It was noon, and we'd already had no water for an hour. At 8pm (scathing look in the landlord's direction) the guy showed up and said he didn't have the parts to fix it. It was a Saturday and Home Depot is just up the road, open till 9pm on Saturdays. But I bit my tongue. He came back the next morning at 9am and fixed it. We melted snow to flush the toilet once. Arg. When I told this story to someone at work she asked why we didn't go to the store and buy large bottles of water. Frankly, we never thought of it. It only occurred to us to melt snow at 7pm Saturday night.

And then. Monday came. And with it ... a decision. Jake and I decided that Hayden (and Sage when he's older) will go to French Emersion. And since we want to give Hayden as much background with the language as we can between now and next fall, the best place for him to learn is Junior Kindergarten, which he is now signed up to attend. His first day will be February 3rd. He'll go for the full day on Tues, Thurs, and every other Friday! He will take the bus and have a backpack and take his lunch and ..and ..and :) Mommy is very excited about this. I've already started introducing him to French, and he knows quite a few colours, can count up to 5 reliably (and somewhat unreliably to 10), and we're starting on a few simple phrases and clothing pieces. I'm nervous but excited, and I know he'll be just fine. I took him to the dentist today because someone told me they had to go before school but I learned it's not obligatory. He was a perfect little patient! They counted his teeth and even polished them with the "tooth tickler" then the dentist came in and scraped a little spot, complimented how nice his teeth are, and then Hayden got a new toothbrush and a toy from the treasure chest. He didn't squirm or protest or anything! I was so proud of him.

And now you're caught up. Oh. Tilly has her licence to dog, and we have a spay coupon for her, good till March. $115 off the price of a spay, so it'll cost about $200 to get her done. And NOW you're all caught up.