Top Ten List of Random Updates

I can't believe that there are only weeks left of school for this year! Our winter went by so slowly; it was such a struggle and now, hello June! Sheesh, once Spring Break hit, the weeks seemed to go by much faster!

In January, I was reflecting over 2013 and thinking about how the stress of the unknown and finding some sort of diagnosis for Rhys really weighed over me. I decided that I didn't want to spend 2014 focused on that. I didn't want all of my thoughts, all of my posts, all of my top concerns to be about him. So that meant that I stepped back from blogging and from doing searches and from all of my thinking and just took a break. I needed to just enjoy who he was without looking too deeply.

But now half a year has gone by! It's crazy to think of!  So, just to catch up a bit, here is my Top Ten List of Random Updates:

1. We had our share of events as well as sicknesses. Full of illnesses. Oh, the illnesses. *sigh*  The Strep Throat that Abi caught in December returned in January and spread. In fact, for one week, Abi, Kai and myself all had it! Except that it turned into Scarlet Fever for both the kids.  Then in February, Strep Throat hit Bryn, which also turned into Scarlet Fever! What are the chances of that happening to three children in the family? (Since it comes about from the way your body reacts to a toxin created by Strep, that is, and not everyone will get it)

2.  We got ourselves a new computer for Christmas. (a gift from Hunny's grandma)  Our old one is slower than molasses and keeps telling me that it's memory is full. BOO! So Hunny came home with a funky tv/dvd/computer all in one. It's apparently the way to go! This one has Netflix already installed (nice) and access to cable and the internet, so the kids are happy. However, it also has Windows 8 installed on it! Oh good grief, what a terrible system that is! It is *not* user friendly at all! In fact, it is one of the main reasons why us adults still hardly use the new computer! (go figure)  We now have Firefox installed, but it still feels "different" to use. Maybe it's the huge screen, or the way the keyboard feels so....jelly and flexy.  I don't know. I"m sure we'll get over it...because eventually the old computer really will die on us.

3.  I have been without a cell phone for three weeks now. *sigh*  I know. #firstworldproblems eh?  I can't help it, we live in an area where cell phones just are used all.the.time. I dropped my cell and it cracked on the back, but no big deal. A week later, I dropped it again and it cracked the screen a bit at the bottom. That sucked because some of the letters wouldn't work anymore, so I had to do a lot of flipping my phone in different directions just to get my texts written. It made texting very slow. (and I pride myself on being darn fast! lol) A week after that, my kids dropped my phone and it cracked across the whole screen! It looks scary! It is so bad that I can't swipe to unlock my phone now! The kids felt bad. I felt bad. It's sucks all around. What doesn't help is that we can't afford a solution right now. We just got these phones in the fall, so we can't afford to pay out the $300 for a new contract to get a new phone (since our warranty doesn't cover the break. Hunny covered that on his, since he works with heavy machinary. Well, now he knows that children are just as bad as machines!) and we can't do the $180 (or whatever) it will cost to have the screen fixed yet. *sigh*  It is painful.

Out of everything, I miss most not being able to text people. It's as if my social life took a hit! No one really emails anymore, and calling people at home never seems convenient anymore, so I have to wait for any news to come through on FB Messages!  I also really miss my Bible Study! I was doing a few of them through YouVersion and it would send me reminders every day to do my next devotional; it was great. I don't find it as convenient at all to go online on the home computer and check it out! I somehow never remember! So that is disappointing. I feel like I was really getting somewhere with these devotions, too. *sigh* But maybe this just shows how complacent and lazy I (or we, really, since many can relate I'm sure) have become. It's too much work to call someone and have a live conversation?  I can't do devotionals on the PC? How sad.  ...I'm still finding not having a cell phone really sad still though.


 4. This song makes me Happy. It seriously does. How can it not make you want to dance? It always makes me smile.

 It's no Happy Happy Joy Joy, but it still makes my heart happy. And it makes me want to dance. No wonder the song is huge all over the world!

5. My Hunny finally got his knee surgery! He had been on the wait list for about 6 years when he gets a phone call from the doctor asking if he had the surgery yet and if he still wanted it! (they were cleaning up the list, I guess, and had to go through everyone. I guess they didn't realize it had taken so long)  He went in for a day surgery on his torn meniscus. They cleaned up his knee, fixed the muscle, removed some floating around cartilage, stuff like that.  {shudder}  He came home on crutches, used a cane for the next day or two, then worked on putting pressure on it for the rest of the week.

He was hoping to be only off of work for two days, but it ended up taking a week. And then on top of that week, he was struggling to return to work since he has to stand on concrete floors all day, working with machines, so that added stress and pressure. It was a rough time. He stayed downstairs for that week too, in the spare bedroom and on the couch watching Netflix. I wasn't bothered about it at first. I figured it would be like when he is gone for his hunting trips, no big deal. Except it hit me that it wasn't like that after all! I'd have to be nursing on him as well as the kids. Bringing his meals downstairs, getting him coffees, checking if he needed anything, stuff like that. And when I realized that, suddenly I felt very stressed. It was a long week. But I am happy to say that he is doing great! No more knee popping out when he climbs stairs or turns or tries to crouch. Hooray!

6. After seven years of being with  Stampin Up!, I let my demonstrator-ship lapse. It was so tough. To be honest, if I didn't have to, I wouldn't have. In fact, I'd sign up again right now (since there is a special deal on joining) if I could. But it just isn't something I can do right now. Suddenly, all of my past customers went into different life phases: money wasn't available for crafting, or their interests changed, or they moved.  It was disappointing. I still love the company though, and I do love to create and make cards, so I'm still doing those things; I'm just not holding classes or making money at it. And that sucks.  I guess there is a reason for it, and maybe something better will come up for me, but right now it is just disappointing to not have this to share with others. I loved teaching others how to create! I loved having friends (and people I didn't know become friends) over and being crafty with them! It was so enjoyable to get together and just make something. *wistful sigh*

7. We had talked about cancelling our cable for three years before Hunny finally agreed to it. We weren't really watching it. The only shows that we did watch were on the specialty channels, and even our watching was sporadic!  We loved a few tv shows, but were never serious or faithful viewers that had to watch every episode. (we also don't have a PVR so we weren't recording shows to watch later either) Really, we were watching Netflix, and the kids were watching Treehouse or Teletoon. So we cut our cable for a whole year.

And then the cable company called us and offered great promo deals to Hunny. He had always been able to tell them a firm, "no thanks!" but not this time. They offered HGTV and a few other specialty cable shows for $5/month! He couldn't pass it up! So we have been engrossed with Income Property (man, that Scott McGillivray is sure pretty! Look at his white teeth and his perfect locks!) and Leave it to Brian, and now Decked Out and Sarah Richardson.....it makes me think that maybe, just maybe, we can reno our house too! Hunny is a great handyman and he has done so many great upgrades to it since we moved in 12 years ago (such as a complete gutting of the kitchen when we moved in, and a new bathroom, wood flooring in almost the whole upstairs, etc) but we just needed a push to start again. Watching all of these shows have inspired us again! So I can handle that he signed up for cable again.

8. I discovered two things the other night: our organics bin that sits out of our deck (before it gets emptied every Thursday for pick up the next morning) really is critter proof when it is latched properly, and two, we have raccoons at our house!  I was hearing a 'scratch scratch scratch" and looked out the window to see this large raccoon stare up at me from atop the bin!  He slowly jumped off and sauntered away. So sneaky and casual and over confident!  (I have also recently found out that if you don't latch that bin properly, it isn't critter-proof and your organic waste gets spread across your deck in the night. It's not always fun to clean up. ugh)

9. To celebrate my Mom's birthday, my sister purchased tickets for us three to go see Stars on Ice! It was such a blast!  We got to see Kurt Browning (who has always been my favourite), Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (who was a crowd favourite...man, they are beautiful. I took a picture of them introducing the second half of the show by telling us that we would all be getting some Lindt chocolates at the end! Sweet!) Joannie Rochette, and Patrick Chan to name a few. What a fun evening! We are already talking about pre-purchasing tickets for next year's 25th Anniversary tour!  My Mom has always been a huge ice skating fan, and I remember always watching the competitions with her on tv, but I haven't paid too much attention to it in the past few years. (other distractions in my family) It was a fun way to spend our evening together!

10.  I saw the dentist again. I don't like the dentist. At. All.  I will do all that I can to avoid going to the dentist for a cleaning/work, even if I need it done.  It occurred to me one day that I don't just "not like" the dentist, because there are a lot of normal people out there who don't like the inconvenience of going to one, but they get over it and get it done (like my husband). But me, I have a fear of it. There is something about the dentist that makes me feel cornered and frightened and full of anxiety. (probably due to them always finding something that needs to be done at every visit. I am not blessed with great strong teeth. I take after my Dad and his sweet tooth. Too bad, because my Mom has great teeth.)  I will sit in the chair and I will be all tense, I ball my hands into fists and I hold my breath without realizing; I have often left the office with sore legs from tightening up my muscles!

There is a new hygienist in the office now though. I saw her and it was 100% better! I have never had a visit like that before in all my 30-something years!  She was so wonderful and fun and nice and gentle. We had a great conversation! I realized halfway through it that I wasn't holding my breath or keeping my legs all tense! I was breathing just fine and felt relaxed! What a change! By the end of it all, I wanted to invite this girl out for coffee and a shopping date!  I just may never cancel an appointment again!...except that the dentist says that all of the fillings that we did last year may need to be exchanged with crowns "soon".  What? *sigh* Way to ruin the moment, Mrs. Dentist!



So there you go. A few random things to update you!