??!!??

Ok what can I put on my shoulders now that they feel like shoe leather??

Crafty

Here are a couple of the cards I made at the SU open house:

Here and here

I ordered the Letterpress alpha (it's huge like the MM foam alphas but it's wood mounted rubber) and I *cough* joined her stampin' 6 club. Hehehe so much for spending less money. Really though, I had a blast, it was a great group of women and now I'll be out of the house for something other than work once a month. It's a good thing all around, right?

Flaming

I am so stupid.

Why do we slather the kids in sunscreen but ignore ourselves? A few hours at the beach yesterday and now you could fry an egg on my shoulders. I'm already the poster child for skin cancer, you'd think I'd have learned by now. Alas, evidently I have not so I'm sentenced to a few nights trying to figure out how to sleep without any portion of my upper torso making contact with the sheets.



This is not photoshopped, that's the actual colour of my skin. Gross. Can hardly wait until I start peeling.

Good Morning!

Finally the S*ears portrait studio has developed an ounce of common sense! I called to book an appointment for Jonah and asked for "the first appointment of the day" (since Jonah is a morning person and doesn't like to wait. She said OK that's 8:15. 8:15!! In the old days their first appointment was 10, and by then the kids are halfway to crankyville. We went this morning - at 8:15 - and it was AMAZING! The place was empty, the phone wasn't ringing off the hook and Jonah was in a fabulous mood. She got 10 amazing pictures in less than 15 minutes! And - because I wasn't stressed from trying to keep a cranky child occupied during a half-hour wait - I bought 8 of them. Worked out well for both sides wouldn't you say? Sucks that I have to wait until August 10th to get them but oh well, they'll be worth it.

Today I'm off to a S*tampin' Up! open house, my first. Should be fun, I only wish I could order tons of cool stamps but after blowing a wad at S*ears I'd better keep a lid on stamp purchases! Hope the make-and-takes are cool. Plus I get to spend the afternoon with a girlfriend and no little ones, which is a rare thing.

I love weekends!

Happiness

Finally.

My friend has been waiting so long to become a parent, she's been so optimistic and so good natured through all of the long roads, dashed hopes and disappointments. Today - today she got "the call". And next week she'll meet the baby who will call her maman.

I think my heart might burst.

How I long for sleep

Why is wookie not sleeping? I spent 5 weeks at home on leave, he slept all but 3 of those nights. I went back to work July 11th, he was awake all 5 nights of that first week. He slept through both weekend nights and now, Thursday, he's been up every night tis week. What is going on?? What is he trying to tell me?

My gut says the issue is daycare. Comparing notes with the sitter his schedule is more or less the same (eats at the same times, naps at the same times). C figures perhaps he isn't getting good quality naps there because of the other kids making noise, and that seems reasonable. A coworkers of mine (a Super Nanny officionado apparently) says he needs to be up at night to spend time with me that he doesn't get during the day. Yeah, OK, I could buy that though the quality of the time I spend with him at 3am is questionable.

I came back to work believing that I could cope but that coping depended on being well rested. I have used up all of my sleep buffer and am back into serious sleep debt. No one benefits when I'm bitchy from lack of sleep.

Weather the weather

I hate complaining about the weather because everyone is living with this strange hot humid weather right now (well, maybe not the Australians) but really, enough with the humidity already, I think I'm growing gills!

I feel like posting a photo entry today :)

Took the kids to Hog's Back on Saturday to feed the ducks (and apparently the shithawks)





Then we walked over to Mooney's Bay. I hadn't brought swimsuits for the kids because the beach was under an advisory (high bacterial levels) and I didn't really want them to swim in that (not that I have *that* much to worry about - neither is confident enough to get their face wet so the odds of them getting water in a mucous membrane is slim), but once we were there Katie really wanted "just to get (her) piggies wet and not get (her) clothes wet at all". Katie's version of just getting her feet wet:


Crazy kid, but it was so hot I can't say I blame her! Then of course little "monkey see, monkey do" had to follow...


Was quite the walk back with two fully clothed and dripping wet kidlets, we got lots of looks. But, eh, who cares really. It's only water.

Oh Baby!

Congratulations to Maria on the birth of her new baby girl! I'm so jealous, I can't wait to see pictures!

drowning

My first day back at work yesterday went as well as could be expected, no one exploded, the world didn't come to an end, the sky didn't fall.

Today though - today I am every single bit as stressed out as I was when I left 5 weeks ago. The bullshit, the fucking cesspool of incompetency, nepotism and attitude, it's all still here, and it's worse than ever. I pretty much used up all of my new coping skills yesterday. People keep telling me ignore it, don't let it bother you, blah blah blah but they're not here. They don't know what it's like here.

So offer up - what should I do? I have applied for more than a dozen internal jobs but hiring in the public service is sooo..slooooow. I can't take more time off without risking losing my house (which may not be any great shakes but it's sort of nice to have walls and a roof and it's cheaper than renting in this city). I can't throw people out of the windows because they don't open. I can run but I can't hide. I'm out of ideas.

an update

We've been on vacation. We didn't go far, just to the cottage, and we went with another family so it wasn't exactly peaceful but it was wonderful just the same. The kids spent 5 days outside, almost all day, every day. They swam, they ran around, they picked wildflowers, they swam some more. The little ones especially just look so good - so alive! Even through an SPF 50 Katie has tan lines (I didn't even know she tanned, I assumed she'd be a burner like me) but she's overcome her fear of water, happily wading into the lake up to her armpits (she still doesn't like getting her face wet, but one step at a time).
It was heartbreaking to come home. Here in the city they just don't spend as much time outside. Our yard is TINY, and it's not fenced. It's bordered by a private sidewalk that is supposed to be just for the use of the condo complex but in reality the entire neighbourhood uses it as a short-cut, so it's fairly busy. The nearby park is often overrun with teenagers who have nothing to do - so they sit up on the jungle gym and smoke and swear. Actually going anywhere with the babes is exhausting, I like taking them to Mooney's Bay or Hog's Back to feed the ducks but the effort of packing up cups/snacks/diapers/the assorted crap they need, getting them into the van, carseated, driving there, parking, getting them out of the van, running around awhile then doing everything again in reverse - well it's daunting. And the sitter must feel the same since she never takes them anywhere (she seldom even takes them out to her fully-fenced-but-damned-noisy yard). I really need to move out of the city.

My leave is officially over and I'm going back to work on Monday, against the reccomendations of the health care professionals I've been seeing. I simply have no choice. I have exhausted all of my sick leave (and then some) and we can't make it without my paycheque. I'm grateful for the time I did have, especially for the opportunity to spend so much time with the babes. I've learned some new coping strategies and I'm going to give it my best shot. I don't know what will happen since all of the things that pushed me over that proverbial edge 5 weeks ago are still there, but I'll take it one day at a time.

If that doesn't work there's always booze :)

Today James and I (and my coworker T and her DH) spent the day as volunteers at the HOPE volleyball tournament. The weather turned out to be much better than expected and four very deserving charities (including one dear to the heart of a good friend of mine) received a great financial boost. Here's T and I in our volunteer shirts (forgive the retarded look on my face, it was after our shift and I was a bit sun-loopy)

So many changes coming in the near future. Hope we make it.