Haircuts, pumpkin pies & lattes

The time has come for another hair cut.....for most people its an easy decision....they decide its time and they go in, get the cut & its done. But for me.....I'm a bit of a.....weirdo I guess. I've been thinking of getting a hair cut now or a trim since August. Yup....thats right...its now middle of October and I'm still thinking of it. Don't get me wrong....its not like I'm contemplating a major change. I'll probably just get my usual..some sort of variation on a layered cut. I usually keep it around my shoulders. Long enough to slap into a pony-tail if needed. Only issue is....I've had this same type of variation of hair cut since 2002. I'm worried I'm going to end up having the same style of hair for the next 20 years.
Neurotic thinking?? Possibly. But in my defence......my mom has had the same style since the '80's. Its just been some type of variation of the same cut. Different lengths perhaps varying in inches.....but basically the same style. Its a bit of family joke....not a cruel joke...but a joke non-the-less. I have a fear of the same thing happening to me. YET....when I do go in for my cut.....I just know I'll come out with a layered cut. So I worry about turning into my own mom.....and yet...I'll still go down that same path & cut my hair the same way again. What makes it worse is that I know it and I seem to still follow that path. Crazy right?? I KNOW!!
Anywhoo....back to the haircut dilema.....there are limited places in my small own where I could go for a cut. I could go the same place my hubby & kids go....Cheryl is good.....but....I feel rushed when I am there...she doesn't wash your hair, she just wets it and cuts and sends you home. Then there is the other Cheryl....I've been to her once before....and she cut it a bit crooked. There is also Bertha......maybe I'm just judgmental.....but I can't imagine anyone named Bertha has a good grasp on the latest cutting & style techniques. Plus....she's right on mainstreet with big windows....and I don't really feel like having the town talk about when I went for a haircut. LOL.....not that I'm a celebrity here....but its small town and people LOVE to talk here. About anything.
So.....I'll think about this haircut for another few weeks before I finally get it done. I drive myself crazy. I should just get it done next time I'm in the city and get it over with. My only goal...is to have it done forsure by the time we have the baby. Our due date is Dec 4th....so I have another 6 weeks to contemplate getting the same cut.

Speaking of cuts......we had our late Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. I LOVE thanksgiving. Its my favorite. I made turkey, stuffing, gravy, the whole works. Yummers. Hubs hacked into the pie while I was playing stuffed turkey on the couch. I am grateful he took it upon himself to serve up the pie to the kids....but seriously...he hacked this poor pie. I have a large knife & pie/cake server......and he used a small steak knife as both the cutter & server. Of course the pie fell apart and didn't come out as piece and being the A-type (only food situations) I am, this irked me. Why? I don't know. But it took all my strength & will power not to freak out about the proper way to cut & serve pie. I just had to get that out. There's no real story there.

What I wanted to mention was my addiction to pumpkin spice lattes. OMG. These are heavenly. I can't get enough. If gas wasn't so grotesque....I would drive to the city every day to get one. I know I'm pregnant and probably shouldn't be drinking that much anyways......but still. They are a taste of pure heaven. Especially with extra whip. *drool* Have you had one yet? If not, I highly suggest you go out and try one. You won't regret it. If you do.....send it to me. I'll drink it.

Good bye to you...

This is Joe. Or..was. He was our family cat for about 9 months. Not a very flattering pic of him....but its the best I have. Sierra wanted a picture of him & her and when she tried to hold him, he started fighting her hair. So its actually a very 'Joe' type picture.

We had to put Joe down. Meaning.....we killed him. Euthanized is a very soft term to killing your pet. It sounds nice...but it is not. Not in any terms. I know it was the best thing to do, but it doesn't ease the guilt I feel for making the choice. Its not an easy thing to decide to do. Saddly, the Humane Society told us they would have a hard time placing him because he was vicious with kids...and that the majority of people who come in looking to adopt a pet, are looking for a family pet. They said Joe would have sat in a cage for a few months and than would have been put down anyways. I couldn't let him spend the last of his days in a cage. It was too cruel. So we made an appointment for him & told the kids he was adopted by an older couple who had no grandchildren he could hurt. A lie....yes....but better then telling them he died.

Even though I know he attacked & hurt our kids and the neighbourhood kids.....I still miss him. He helped me kill moths, bees, spiders and other bugs. He kept me company in the middle of the night when I was kept up from pregnancy related pains. He had attitude that I admired....he didn't automatically like anyone. He had little quirks about him that I found comical. He dragged clothes & stuff into his litter box when he was upset...he was afraid of the dark and would cry in the basement if there were no lights on for him, we had to invite him to come eat his own food, he opened cupboards and once in them...he could close them as well. He was afraid of the hair dryer and vacuum......but would attack them anyways. He was a very.......different type of cat.

I won't go into his bad side. That doesn't do any good now. He's gone. Its hard enough trying to accept the fact that we did the best we could for him & everyone else.

On Friday, October 3 at 11:30am.....he died.

Rest in peace Joe.

Headed to NASA..just like mom.

Back when I was in high school....I was a bit...well...spinny. Not intentially. Not sure why...but sometimes...it took me awhile to 'get' things. But in my defense....I come from a long line of 'spinnies'. Namely...my mom.
Here's some examples of typical 'my mom' stories:
-My mom could be on the phone talking to one of her sisters and she would suddenly say "Oh, I have to go I think the phone is ringing."
-My mom called a dry cleaning service to come pick up her dry cleaning. This dry cleaning company was named "Arthur Rose". They showed up the next day for the pick up and the guy rang the door bell, my mom answered and the guy said "Arthur Rose" my mom looked at him in confusion and said "Sorry, you must have the wrong house, the Thomas' live here."
-She is notorious for wrong pronunciation. We asked her one year from INXS tapes..and she went around asking for 'inks' tapes and insisting the staff look for them.
I could go on and on....but the point is...clearly this is where I get it from. I mean...got it from. As in past tense.

Back in high school.....someone had taped the words "Space Cadet" on my binder. I was pleased and left it there all year. I thought someone thought I was bound for NASA. Little did I know....at least...ignorance is bliss.
My cousins had nicknamed me "Dopelynn" it wasn't until I was older that I finally 'got' what they meant and insisted they quit. Uhhh....some of my cousins still call me that.

I think I passed this down to my eldest daughter. Guliano and refer to her as Chrissy. As in Chrissy Snow. Trust me. She fits the name.

She is always getting things mixed up, not 'getting' things, totally off the level as everyone else....and...hahahaa...it can be quite funny. Ahem...I mean...of course we don't laugh at her...well...not in front of her anyways...okay...not usually.

Sometimes I just look at her in amazement and wonder how she gets through the day. Like last night. I was tossing together a quick casserole for supper and asked her to run down to the storage room and grab me two cans of cream of mushroom soup. She was gone for a few minutes and came up with a can of pie filling and proceeded to set it in front of me at the counter. I looked at it...and said "Sierra....I asked for TWO cans of soup..not pie filling" She looks up from her book and says "Well...I couldn't see any soup cans so I grabbed that...can't you substitute?"

Uhhh....substitute Pie filling for cream of mushroom soup?? Remind me to never let her cook unsupervised.

I tell her "You can't substitute pie filling into this recipe, can you go see what we have down there?" So she drags herself downstairs and I can hear her mumbling "I love pie filling...it would taste great in there".

All I could think was...OMG...what a lunatic. hahahah...can you imagine? Tossing pie filling into a casserole? ewwww.....we had swedish meatball & noodle casserole. Can you imagine it tossed with pie filling??

There was the time when I asked her to wash the pots as I left to go check the mail...and I came back and the pots were still sitting there. So I said "I thought I asked you to wash the pots for me?" She says "Ohhhhh....(laugh) you said wash the POTS?? I thought you said to wash the PADS..." I didn't even ask what she did.

There are tons of family conversations that have gone on where everyone is talking about a certain subject and she is WAYYYYY of course and we usually end up asking her what she is talking about...and she in turn asks us what we were talking about. 99.9% of the time....its not even close. At least she can laugh about it.

Sooo....my lil Chrissy is going to be heading blissfully into her teen years....just like her mom...and her grandma before her...perhaps someone will also make her believe too thats she's headed for NASA.

You can't handle the truth!

Everyone knows that line. "You can't handle the truth!!" Its Jack Nicholson yelling at Tom Cruise. This was pre-freaky Tom Cruise.

Anyways, thats whats on my mind today...no....not jumping up and down on my or Oprah's couch proclaiming my love for Guliano...or Katie. Hahhaha. On my couch I'd probably slip on a hidden pencil crayon and fall off the couch and lay there yelling "I've fallen and I can't get up" for hours before anyone even noticed. *rolls eyes*

Its the truth about Staying at home full time. If you don't stay at home....your preconcieved notions of what goes on is totally off. Well...probably anyways.

I'll admit....even I have these horrible stereo-type images of a stay-at-home-mom...and I am one!!

Tell me if I'm wrong...but most people think one of these things:
-SAHMs are uneducated & totally dependant on thier husbands.
-SAHMs have it easy, they just play all day long & watch TV.
-SAHMs have never left the 50's.

The truth is...is that it is REALLY hard. You give up a lot when you stay home full time. And you also feel like you can't complain because...people say: you could leave the home & go to work....but....why do people who have an actual paying job get to complain..why don't people tell them: well...why not quit work and go stay at home with your kids?

One of the things you give up is Alone Time. If you work in an office and you need some downtime, you can close your office door and have a minute or two alone. Not at home. If you close ANY door, your lil boss will be there within seconds crying and/or banging on the door. Have you ever tried to get yourself together with that going on? Same goes with bathroom time. Anyother work environment, you can go to the bathroom in peace. But at home....its hard to try to try to use the bathroom with someone crying outside the door, or...crying at your feet or trying to sit on your lap. There is no such thing as Alone Time when you are a SAHM. We've heard of it.....but we think its an urban legend.

There's also the Sense of Accomplishment. Its hard to feel productive when you stay at home. You clean up, and 10 seconds later it looks the same. There are days when 5pm comes rolling around and you still have yet to find 10 minutes to jump in the shower...not to mention thinking about what to make for supper...all the while, the lil boss has dumped out the cat food...for the 10th time that day. When your husband comes home and tells you about his meetings all day & how things are really moving along on his side-project....then he asks you: What did you do today? It feels really....lame to say: Well.....I played Polly-Pockets for an hour this morning and this afternoon I discussed 'Growing up in the 80's' with someone from PEI in a parent-chat-forum....I also picked play-dough out of the cats hair again during lunch. You don't quite feel like you are doing anything productive.

There's also no such thing as "Sick Leave" or "Earned Day Off". If you are sick, no one cares. Doesn't matter how sick you are.....you still have to get up, get kids off to school, take care of the ones at home, clean up, cook lunch, do laundry, play with the lil bosses....all the while having stomach flu...coming at you from both ends. You're lucky if you get a bless you when you sneeze. Plus all the good OTC medicines make you drowsy...so you pretty much have to suck it up. As for EDO's.....no one cares if your job is 24/7...365 days of the year. No one is keeping track and giving you an earned day off. Your earned day off is when your kids get invited for a play-date for an hour, and you are not required to come help supervise they playdate.

Gone too is Adult Time. I mean real adult time. In the office, you get adult time all day long. You converse with other adults, you talk about work related subjects, you go for coffee and get to drink a hot coffee uninterupted...you get to talk about adult topics. When you are at home and your main company is a 3 yr old.....your conversation skills tend to revolve around the same topics. You start to forget how to converse with other adutls....you start talking in statements....you become the statement talker. Just like your 3yr old. Only...you are 32. And just try to find another adult outside of the playground who can talk & laugh for an hour about Dora the Explorer....and forget about world political events...the hot topic of the day is: What do you think about CBC kids removing all the other hosts and only having Patty & Sid????

Anyways, thats just some of the truths of SAHMs.....

Jamie, Elton & Mr Clean

On Tuesday we are going to our concert!!

(Wa-hoooo!!!)

*singing* I hope you don't mind, I hope you don't mind that I put down in words....

I've been listening on Youtube to all of Elton John's tunes so I can be all prepared to belt out all my fav songs. I love Elton...I hope I can convince Guliano to dress up in Elton's 70's glory days.

Anyways, since the concert is on a weekday, we needed to find a non-teen babysitter to come keep our kids from 4pm - 12am. Or...around that time. Its quite a long time we'll be gone...we have to drive to Regina early enough that we can get decent parking...and I have to waddle myself to the concert building..than the concert itself & the craziness of leaving the grounds after wards & trying to get out of congested traffic & drive back to our small town. So....its a bit too long for our regular 14 yr old babysitters.

We found Jamie to babysit. She's the pharmasist at the drug store here. She volunteered. Thats one of the few joys of living in a small town....you just need to put the word out & you can usually find what/who you need. So Jamie is coming to sit for us. Jamie has never been to our house.....we don't really know her....but she was in weight watchers with me about 2 years ago...and her husband works with my husband....and of course....she fills our prescriptions. So we know her...in that small town kind of way.

Sooo...the key words above were: Never been to our house.

We have a SMALL house....with 5 people living in it...3 of which are kids...and 3 pets. You know that saying "Cleaning your house while your children are still growing, is like shovelling the walk while its still snowing"? Well.....who ever said that quote...obviously was at my house at some time.
If you are here between 4pm & 4:30pm, you will see my house nice & clean. Thats right after chore time....if you're not here...you're gonna miss it. Usually our house is a bit....well....crazy.

The living room doubles as a family room & play room so it usually looks like a crate of polly pockets & a crate of barbies blew up around us. We're expecting a new baby soon, and his change table is in the living room as well..because we havent' figured out where we are going to put him yet. Sooo...his change table is in the living room...and all his clothes & diapers are stacked on the shelves under the change table. Our TV stand doubles as a DVD/VHS holder & a book/magazine shelf.

Our kitchen is tiny....and our table multi-tasks as a computer table, sewing table, & temporary storage place for my canning supplies. Since we don't have enough cupboard space our counters hold all our big appliances: microwave, stand mixer, bread maker, slow cooker, toaster oven....and...well.....it doesn't take long for our place to be messy.

Since its fall, I have been going through all the kids fall/winter clothes & I have half filled garbage bags of too small clothing in the hallway waiting to be filled & donated & baskets of shoes/socks to be donated to the school.

So this worries me.....Jamie has no kids & I imagine a spotless house. I've been a little panicky about having her come over and be alone with the craziness of our household.

Enter Mr Clean.

I plan to douse the house with Mr Clean & set everything on fire & start fresh.

Just kidding....sort of. I do plan on having everyone & everything sterilized before she comes & dousing down everything with Mr Clean & spraying everyone & everything with Lysol spray...that way....if it doesn't look clean...at least it will smell clean.

Tomorrow (Sunday) I'm forcing everyone to help hide, I mean clean, the majority of the mess & hopefully come Tuesday, we can do a "10 second tidy" and have it look/smell half decent for when Jamie arrives. Pray for me people.

Signs you live in a small town

There is a big difference in people's version of 'small town'. Some people think North Battleford, Sk is a 'small town'. But really...its a city hanging on for dear life.

If you live in a small town....you know it. If you have to think about whether the town you live in is 'small town', than most likely it isn't.

So I've comprised a list of things that should clue you in as to whether or not your town is small or not.

The list:

1) You refer to things as: THE high school, THE elementary school, THE park, THE drug store, THE grocery store....as there is only ONE of each.

2) You're at the post office and you see Jason the plumber across the street & you call over to him and ask him to come repair your toilet. He shows up 20 mins later at your house...without having to ask where you live.

3) Jason the Plumber is also known as Jason the electrician, Jason the handyman, Jason the (fill in the blank).

4) You don't even have to give your Co-op member number to the girls at the grocery store, because they know it by memory.

5) The ladies at the post office call you at home to let you know a parcel has arrived.

6) If you become pregnant...everyone in town knows about it within 3 days.

7) If you get married, everyone in town assumes they are invited & show up...and your wedding is at THE church & your reception is at THE rec centre....just like everyone else's wedding.

8)If your kid skips school, you can rely on the people around town to call you & inform you.

9) If you move to a small town, you are like a celebrity. EVERYONE talks about you for months.

10)You know who a kids parents are just by how the kid looks.

Millions of peaches...

Being a 'house-wife' has turned me into a lunatic. I never would have admitted this before.....but after yesterday's fiasco...I have to admit it. I'm plain crazy.

It all started with living in a small town. People here are 'canning' crazy. Every late summer/early fall....its all I hear people talking about...and since I am such a follower...I decided that one day I would attempt canning. I mean really....how hard could it be? You take fruit, put it in a can, pour stuff over it and seal it & stash it away. Easy-peasey.

OMFG....someone should have just hit me on the head and told me I was crazy. I don't know why I keep convincing myself I can do these crazy tasks. Remember my 'chocolatier' moment. Yah. Don't ask me about it. As you can see....I didn't it into a successfull business. I'm still not a millionaire.

Anwhoo....back to thise crazy-canning. We bought the jars. We bought the fruit. We bought the canning equipment.

My first sign that I should turn back....should have been when I couldn't even identify what a 'screw band' was. *rolls eyes* But I plowed ahead with naive confidence.

I dug around online looking for step-by-step instructions and found some with pictures...(a-ha! it also identified what a screw band was). So I went step-by-step. I started at 5pm.

Lets just not go into the hell I ventured into. All I'm going to say is:

1) When canning for the first time, don't do it on a whim...& be sure your first attempt is with someone who knows how to do it...or..at least just don't attempt alone.

2) Its not as simple as "putting fruit in a can".

3) If you are determined to try...don't start late. Its a time consuming process.

4) Just BUY the canned stuff from Co-op. Its easier. Trust me.

The light at the end of this tunnel was that around 1am....I ended up with 100 pounds of canned peaches and I realized that I am not a homesteader.....I'm a home-maker. There's a BIG difference. I think that might be my new daily mantra.