I just want to give you a quick update regarding Mondays post.

The specialist did a scope on Tuesday and found a hole in her esophagus caused from an aspirin getting stuck and burning a hole. Apparently it is in a very bad spot and is having a hard time healing (right att he base of the esophagus where it meets the stomach). Needless to say she has lost a lot of blood and is still bleeding internally. Because of this she has had 2 blood transfusions and will have to stay in the hospital until the hole heals up. She is very tired and doesn’t feel like doing anything but sleep (understandable). Even though this is very serious we are thanking the high heavens that is isn’t cancer.

So, I want to say thank you to all of you for your thoughts, comments, emails and phone calls

I was rudely awakened this morning at 6:45 by a tap tap on my shoulder so I rolled over and realize that #1 it was my husband and #2 I was on the couch!?! What the heck was my husband doing tapping me on the shoulder to wake me up and what the HELL was I doing on the couch? I was told that I fell asleep at 10:00 watching Medium (I think i watched about a minute of it.) Anyhow, I got up to start the day and remembered that today I had to do payroll and month end - my least favourite things to do - especially on a Monday. it really doesn’t help matters that I had to do it with an annoying coworker in my office. Ugh. Anyhow I got to leave early to take Sarah to the Doctor to see if she is in fact allergic to peanuts. He confirmed that he is 99% positive that she is allergic so now we are heading to the paediatrician to have tests done to see how severe it is. This is the one thing I NEVER wanted my child to be allergic to. Life is going to change around our household. Geeze i just realized that if she goes to someones house they have to know and they can’t have peanut butter in site - JOY! So on my way home I decided that at least its just an allergy and something we can deal with.

I walked in the house only to be reminded by the mess that I didn’t do the dishes after dinner last night and still had to make dinner for tonight - then the phone rang…it was my Dad. I knew there was something wrong when the first thing he said was - “are the girls around?” and “where’s Kevin?”. He proceeded to tell me that my mom got really sick this morning and couldn’t stop vomiting and was vomiting a lot of blood. So he rushed her to emerge (under her orders - she’s a nurse) and when she says she needs to go to the hospital you know something is wrong. Anyhow, they don’t know what it is and will be doing a scope and a number of other tests in the morning. The scary thing is she’s had cancer in the past so we are obviously more concerned than normal. I am really trying not to worry and thinking that everything will be fine but I guess it’s natural to think the worst too.

Well, I hope you all had a good Monday - thanks for reading…

OK, I’m not going to write this like a story is written - just thought I’d catch your attention.

I’ve been meaning to write about one of my dearest and best-est friends in the world. A few weeks ago I was informed - via Facebook - that she and her family are moving away. It is the day that I have been dreading since the day we met.

Let me tell you about the day we met - or the events leading up to the day the actually “met”. I believe it was November 2003 when I saw the moving truck pull up. I must have watched - through the slits of my kitchen blinds for at least 20 minutes to make sure that a young family with kids were moving in. It wasn’t until a few days later that I was coming home from work when I saw the new couple sitting on the lawn in between our townhouses with a case of Kokanee - hellos were said and they moved their party inside (probably thinking I wouldn’t approve or something - boy were they fooled!) I went inside and said to my hubby that I think they might be pretty cool (NO, not just because they had a case of kokanee).  Apparently the husband was outside one day and noticed the 10 empty cases of beer stacked up in our garage and said to his wife - “I think we’re going to get along.” Days and months passed and finally one day Elizabeth was outside playing and the next thing you know the little girl from next door came outside too and they played together! For those of you who don’t know, I am talking about Jen, Ken and Paige . After we did our intros we planned an Easter Egg hunt for the neighbourhood - well those we knew at the time who were”The Germans” and “The Lee’s”. It seemed like from that moment forward we were going to be friends forever. Elizabeth and Paige (6 months apart) became inseparable and were like sisters.  Jen and I became best friends too. There were so many things we could relate to like when we were having a rough day with our kids and we could say things to each other that would make it seem so funny. I’m not going to mention the things we would say because we would probably end up in jail or our kids would be taken away from us.

I have so many reasons to be thankful for our friendship Jen - you have inspired me to find my creative side of which I didn’t know I had, you have been a support through many stages in the last 4 years of my life and I cannot be more grateful and blessed to have someone like you my life. I am so completely devastated that you guys are moving away but I am incredibly excited for you to be going through this major change in your lives. You will grow stronger each and everyday, you will not have a problem making friends and most importantly you will be closer to your family. I am going to miss all of you so much but know that you are only a short plane ride away. The one thing that is keeping me positive about this is the fact that I know we will be close friends forever. We may not live next door or in the same city but we will always be in eachothers lives. There are some friendships that grow apart with distance but I know that ours is not one of those.

Anyhow - I had to get this off my chest and Jen you know me well enough to know that there’s no way I could say this to your face without being a complete bawling mess. You are an amazing woman Jen and I love you

We were at the hospital from 9:30 am to 2:30pm! She had a tough go of it. They attempted to give her an IV 3 times and kept missing so they ended up giving her gas to fall asleep then put an IV in then. She wasn’t fighting them they just didn’t want her to remember all of that. I was there for that part. She was in the OR for 90 minutes then in recovery for an hour before I was let in (took them an hour to wake her up). Once they got me Elizabeth and I sat there for about 30 minutes so her nausea could go away. She’s sound asleep now and in some pain from the tube that was in her nose and hates her silver teeth but other than that she’s fine. She’s worried that people will make fun of her – I told her that a lot of kids have them and that her cousin has 1 her friend Jasmine has 2 and Paige will have 3. Now that I told her that Paige is going in for the same thing, she is worried about her - she says that she doesn’t want her to have to go through it because she didn’t think it was fun at all. Elizabeth is so sweet. The dentist was great and also wanted to tell me that her teeth have cavities due to the antibiotics she had as a baby! Anyhow, flouride drops it is and she is happy to take them.

On another note, they wouldn’t allow me to leave the hospital so I got to stay in the waiting room the entire time - which was fine considering I needed some down time anyway. It’s so interesting what goes on in the waiting rooms. Everyone is wondering what the other person is in for and no one wants to make eye contact in case a conversation is started - that won’t stop. I also noticed that the only time people spoke was when there was a child in the room - conversation starters I guess. i swear there should be a comedy written about this. One woman and her son came in from a town about 3.5 hours away and were told that his appointment would be delayed by about an hour due to other emergency surgeries. The mother LOST IT!! She yelled screamed cried and did absolutely nothing but yell at her poor son who was about to go in for surgery. She told him that he couldn’t have the freezing cream on his hand because he wasn’t behaving and the IV would hurt because it was his fault not hers!! WHAT A B*^$#. The nurses had to calm her down and she finally gave in. i’m thinking social services were called.

Anyhow, all is well and hope the same for you

My heating bill will increase starting today - bahumbug.

For the first time this year I have turned on the base board heaters in every room. I think today was officially the first frost - I actually had to go outside and warm up my car!

Have I ever told you how much I dislike base board heaters? They have got to be the most inefficient, expensive, dangerous way to heat a house. I swear the Hydro companies invented them with devilish grins on their faces. We do have a fireplace - but its a fake one! It is powered by electricity (again thanks) and has got to be the dumbest thing invented. One thing that irritates me about it is that you have to take the cord out from behind it and plug it into an outlet somewhere because there isn’t an outlet behind it - how tacky.

After all that I’d like to share my list of required items when we purchase our next house:

A Furnace - oil, electric, gas, who cares as long as it is a furnace
A REAL wood burning fireplace
A kitchen with more than 3 cupboards and more than 1 square foot of counter space (we new this would be the only major downfall when we moved in)
A Den/Spare bedroom
A Playroom
A Livingroom with out a wall of mirrors - lol
Oh, and it MUST be in a neighbourhood that is kid friendly.

It probably sounds like I am not happy where we are right now but that is far from the truth - I love my house aside from its few quirks. Afterall it gives it character and gives me something to talk about!

We went trick or treating in the neighbourhood that we originally wanted to live in and saw that a house we made an offer on was for sale again. When we made the offer it was listed at $309,000 and now it is listed at $366,000!!!!! WOW! I knew that ranchers were at the top of the wanted list but i had no idea the prices would go up that much. it makes me very hopefull for when we decide to sell this one considering it is a rancher on a third of an acre with an 800 square foot shop. i guess we will deal with that when the time comes - hopefully not for a year or so.

Now that I’ve rambled on I want to wish all of you a warm and cozy fall and winter season.

Don’t forget to check out my NEW BLOG!!