Hateful Lemmings

I was on msn.com today and there was an article there quoting John Elton as saying that religious people are like 'hateful lemmings'. Here is the actual quote:

"I think religion has always tried to turn hatred toward gay people," John said in the Observer newspaper's Music Monthly Magazine. "Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays."
"But there are so many people I know who are gay and love their religion," he said. "From my point of view, I would ban religion completely. Organized religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into really hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate."

Sorry, it looks like I misquoted him, it's REALLY hateful lemmings. That made me laugh. Of course we (religious people) are going to look down on gay marriage etc., because it's wrong! Then I started thinking, I've never seen a lemming, let along a hateful or really hateful one, but if I were to imagine, I think it might look something like this.....

(I added the bushy eyebrows to make it look mad. It just looked too cute without them!)

Anyways, enough about hateful lemmings. I figured it was about time for an update. Michael has been gone since Thursday afternoon, and with all my time off last week as well as this long weekend, I'm going to be pretty messed up as far as what day of the week it is for awhile! Maybe a regular weekend this coming weekend will help me get my bearings.

I went back to work Thursday and Friday and it must have been my stomach because it felt like longer than 2 days. On Friday I said (sarcastically) 'Man it's been a long week!' Martin and Thyra just looked at me...it was kind of funny. I'm so lucky to have such an understanding boss like Al. He said I could take as much time as I needed after my surgery, paid for my days off, and doesn't mind if I bring Aidan in on the weekend for a couple hours if I need to get some work done. Although I think Tammy was getting kind of annoyed by Aidan today, so I packed him up and headed home. I had brought him in so that I could finish fixing all the invoices that I got Thyra to post. Last week she came downstairs and was wandering around saying she had nothing to do, so I got her to match packing slips to invoices and post the invoices. There were quite a few and she managed to make such a mess out of it that I had to go through every single one myself to make sure they were posted correctly. Some dates were wrong, she was posting in the previous fiscal year, she created this project that she allocated stuff to...it was a disaster. I came in this morning because I wanted to try and get it all done before Tuesday so that she wouldn't know I had to go through everything, but she was there AND had taken the new invoices upstairs to post! Tammy told me to go take the new invoices away from her, so I just went upstairs and took them off her desk. I hate confrontations, so I didn't say anything to her and when she asked me what she had done - I think she saw me going through the invoices she had posted - I just ignored her or said something else and she let it drop thankfully. I think I would make a horrible manager or boss! I'm just too much of a wuss!

This weekend I brought up Aidan's ball pit that he got for his first birthday. When he got it, the box said ages 3+ and I thought that was kind of silly because he was 1 and thought it was pretty cool, but now that he is actually 3, he can play with it properly. And more importantly, he can clean up the balls when they roll all over the living room!! Mostly it just lives downstairs because it takes up too much room in our tiny little house. Every time Aidan came downstairs with me he used to ask if it could come up and I would say no, so he stopped asking. He was very excited to see it upstairs and treated it like a very special treat, always asking before he jumped in which was pretty cute. Today he was wearing his robe and he asked if he could play in his ball pit and I said yes, then he asked if he could wear his robe in too. He pronounces a lot of difficult letters (for him) with an 'l' sound, so robe is lobe, what is lut, whoa is low, ribbit is libbit. My favourite is when I call him and he comes running up saying 'Lut, Mommy?'

Well, it's getting late and my tummy is hurting so I think I'm going to go off to bed. I think it's my own fault that my stomach is hurting because I haven't been taking it easy at all this weekend and now it's catching up with me! It was really hurting earlier, so I took some advils and then got super sleepy and lay down on the couch, it was kind of weird. I'm so happy that it's healing nicely and that I'm mostly back to normal - and all in a little more than a week. Isn't the body amazing?

Good Morning, Good Morning to you!

I'm not sure how many of you know the viagra commercial on tv, but it shows these women singing along to a song from the movie Singin' in the Rain that goes 'Good mornin', good mornin', we've talked the whole night through, good mornin', good mornin' to you.' As soon as Aidan heard it for the first time he thought it was cool and tried to sing along with it. During a hockey game on Wednesday night he heard it come on and sang along with it and then kept singing 'good mornin', good mornin' to you!' while he was finishing his dinner. It's so cute when he sings along with stuff.

He doesn't pronounce the 'g' in words ending with 'ing', so eating is eatin and sleeping is sleepin and morning is mornin. Sometimes it sounds like he has a tiny little southern accent. He saw the leftovers of my oranges and ice cream on the table one morning and said to me 'You eatin' that?' He's really doing much better at putting together sentences and also using people's names to address them. When I was picking him up at the mall on Halloween he said 'Bye Haley' to one of his little friends which was really cute. I think he's really making some good friends at this new dayhome and I'm very thankful for that. Darlene says he had been acting out a little bit when I was sick in the hospital and off work, but hopefully now that we're back in our regular routine he'll settle down a bit.

I told him if he was a good boy last night that I would take him to McDonalds today and he could choose whether to go in the morning or evening. It was a tough choice for him because in the morning he could have hot chocolate, but in the evening he could have grilled cheese. After thinking it over he decided he wanted to go in the morning and wanted pancakes and hot chocolate. We went this morning and he was so excited to be there and so excited about his pancakes, it was so cute. He finished all of his 3 pancakes and drank all his hot chocolate and just about finished his whole hashbrown - I've really noticed his appetite increasing!

I'm just cleaning up my desk and closing everything down - hope everyone has a great weekend! We've got snow coming down and reports of super slow traffic...sounds like a good weekend to stay home and drink hot chocolate!

It is November 8th and they are playing Christmas Music in the stores!

Seriously! I'm going to be done with Christmas in 2 weeks! And usually it's not even good Christmas music, usually it's the stupid stuff. I don't mind Christmas music, in fact I have even been known to put the holiday music channel from our satellite on from time to time, but only after December 1st. At this rate by the time I'm 35 I'm literally going to hate Christmas, it's awful! The one exception to this rule is eggnog. I was excited when I saw it in the stores in early October. But then we bought a couple liters, drank it and now we're done. Maybe I'll buy some more or make some more closer to Christmas...it just really really irritates me how commercialized literally everything is these days. Absolutely nothing is sacred!

Anyways. The reason I was in the store (Superstore) in the first place is that Michael unknowingly got me velour pants today. *shudders* I don't think they were real velour, but they were pretty darn close. Close enough that they had to be returned. He called me earlier to ask if I wanted anything and I said I wanted another pair of pajama bottoms that I could wear to work tomorrow, so he came home with these pink fuzzy pants. It was very kind of him to think of me and get them for me, but this would be the third pair of pink pajama pants I've gotten in the past 3 weeks - and they were velour. I wanted a solid color, but they didn't have any except the pair I was returning, so I got a broadcloth cotton pair with a white and black print. Then Michael called to say he was stuck in the snow, so I started looking around and found a couple shirts - and this is why it is a very good thing I am back to work tomorrow! Less time for me to wander around in stores finding stuff to spend money on!!

I called Michael's friend Pat's wife Michaela today. It occurred to me that with this surgery, I'm going to need a little help with shaving my legs and Michaela is an esthetician. I think that's how you spell it. Usually Michaela and I mainly ignore each other, but I think she's feeling bad for me right now, so I took advantage of that and asked if she could help me with this and now I have an appointment for a manicure, pedicure and leg wax. Why am I inflicting more pain on myself by waxing? I'm not sure. I've never had my legs waxed before, and Michaela made a good argument that with waxing rather than shaving I won't have to worry about it for awhile. Oddly I'm kind of excited about it. We'll see how it goes.

Well I've been up and around for awhile and it's back to work tomorrow so I need to get my stuff together so I can take my time in the morning. I'm planning on driving rather than getting Michael to drive so that should be interesting. Hopefully I can make it to work on time!

Update From the Couch

I'm getting kind of tired of sitting on the couch and I'm also running out of shows to watch! There were so many shows that premiered this year and it got kind of ridiculous - I didn't think I would have enough time to watch them all. Now I'm pretty much all caught up, just in time for re-runs!

Yesterday was pretty uneventful, but I ended up doing more than I should have probably. Aidan woke up in the middle of the night with a yuck diaper, so I took care of that, and then he managed to produce another one in the morning - quite a talent that boy has. Since I've been home I've been very clumsy and klutzy, I'm not sure why but it's pretty annoying. Michael and I stopped at the grocery store on the way home from the hospital and I saw this new product called Supreme Oatmeal, so I got the Strawberry Yogurt flavour. Aidan was pretty excited about it, he's really into oatmeal. I was trying to make us both bowls of this stuff and accidentally knocked one of the bowls onto the floor, spilling water and oatmeal everywhere. The night before I had spilled juice on the shelf by the bed (another benefit of sugar free juice and pop is that when it spills it's not sticky!) and then this morning I dropped a little ceramic ramekin and broke it in half - that was pretty funny because Aidan just went off and got so excited trying to tell Michael what had happened. Anyways, he had the oatmeal and declared it the best oatmeal he had ever had. Better than Apple Oatmeal (his all-time fave) and Dino Oatmeal (his current fave). I tried it and thought it was kind of gross...it's got a separate little topping pack with little circles of yogurt, freeze dried strawberries and then sugar and the yogurt was kind of yucky. While I was cleaning up the oatmeal I noticed that where I had cleaned it off the door there were clean streaks - that is just so gross, it's so dirty that where I wiped it is visibly, obviously cleaner than the rest of the door. So I had to wipe the door down and then I noticed the floor was dirty, so that had to be swept. I also tidied the kitchen and living room which wasn't crucial but sure made me feel better. Except my stomach. Michael got mad at me for doing stuff, but it's hard not being able to do stuff for yourself. Even if I ask him to do something, he would do it differently and probably not right away - it's hard to be satisfied with that. He did put together the roast in the crock pot today which is what we're having for dinner tonight. He let me supervise, so I got him to do it the way I do it which was nice of him.

Michael took Aidan off to Darlene's house - I haven't heard much from her so I assume he's doing alright there. Apparently other kids have been picking on him a little - I'm not sure whether it's actual picking on or just regular acting-out stuff, but the good news is that Aidan says he hasn't been reacting in the same way. For example, if Andrew hits him, he doesn't hit back and that is really wonderful. Yesterday he said that Sammy hit him and that then she got a time out. I asked him if he was happy that Sammy had gotten a time out because of that and he said that he was. Michael has been letting him listen to the kids stations on his Sirius Radio and says Aidan really enjoys that. He also made Aidan a couple Veggie Tales cd's that Aidan listens to when he goes to sleep.

I stayed on the couch catching up on Lost in the morning and then CSI and Close to Home in the evening. It wasn't a particularly good combination of shows because my dreams were filled with incidents and ideas associated with those shows and I kept waking up thinking I was in trouble or something. I had a nap in the afternoon (mostly for lack of anything better to do) and woke up 2 hours later totally disoriented. I thought it was night or morning and we had forgotten to pick up Aidan, but then it turned out that it was only 3:30 and that was a relief!

Michael took me out to Reitmans to get an outfit for his and my Christmas parties before picking Aidan up. I had expected a selection of dresses at decent prices, but all they had was a couple different styles in this super skinny slinky material that I absolutely refuse to wear. It's right up there with velour and spandex in my heck-no category. They did have some skirts that I tried on and was pretty thrilled to find that I fit a size 9. My stomach literally will not move, so I have to conclude that I have either lost weight or the sizing system has changed because there is no way that I can suck it in. They seemed to be obsessed with a certain neckline at Reitmans this year - I know I'm picky - and I didn't like it so after ruling out about 80% of what they did have, there wasn't much selection left. I got a cute white wool sweater which might work with a little tank top underneath, if not then it's going back. They had accessories 2 for 1, so I had fun picking out some earrings and a necklace. I haven't gone shopping by myself or with Michael in so long, it was really fun. I had totally forgotten to do anything with my hair or face, and I was hobbling around in pretty much my pajamas, and I think I'm a little paler than normal - I must have looked just awful, but I wanted to take advantage of my time off from work to get this outfit taken care of. My Christmas party (if it's still a go) is happening Nov 17th - crazy early. Oh, and while I'm talking about clothes and such, I have a question for you Rachel. I have this pair of open toe wedge sandals, black with a silver buckle that I am planning to wear (because I don't want to buy new shoes). Is it really awful to wear nylons with them or can I wear skin color ones and not black or fishnet ones - what do you think? You know my legs have always been weirdly pasty (remember Elenna freaking out over them once? I never wore shorts around her again!) and I'm so accident prone there are going to be bruises, so I thought it would just be easier to wear nylons.

Aidan's having a little difficulty adjusting to my limitations. I'm not supposed to lift more than 10 pounds for 4 weeks, no baths, only showers for 4 weeks, no vacuuming or mopping and I'm supposed to take it very easy. I never realized how much I lifted him until now all of a sudden I can't. The biggest thing is him getting into his car seat in the car, especially when Michael is going to be gone for his trip this weekend. He's been getting Aidan to practice getting in by himself, and today they brought a stool out to the car for Aidan to use, but Aidan hates doing it by himself. I feel bad for him, but I wish he would be a little more understanding! He got up last night in the middle of the night and then wouldn't go back to bed. It was so frustrating because I couldn't lift him and forcibly remove him to his room! I've tried to explain the situation to him and he sort of gets it, but he's a kid and keeps forgetting and acting up. As a treat, I got him 4 cans of different pasta and sauce kind of like Alpha-getti's. He was very excited Monday when he got home, he got to choose from Dora-getti, Bob-getti, Winnie the Pooh-getti and Dino-getti. He chose Bob and then yesterday he had Dino-getti. It's also super easy for me to just open the can and warm it up for him.

Well, I think that's enough rambling from me for today. Oh - Rachel, I tried the mocha at Starbucks and it was so gross. Way too strong. Is the peppermint mocha a lot different from the regular? Next time I'm there I thought I would try a short one and then if I didn't like it, I could just give it to Aidan. He's really into Starbucks too and loves Vanilla Latte's, Steamed Milk and Hot Chocolate - pretty much anything in a coffee cup! Do they still give sprinkles if you don't get the whipped cream? *smiles* I didn't think ahead and forgot to ask for no whipped cream on my mocha when I got it - I hate unnecessary whipped cream! Thanks for all your comments! I always check back to see if you've left any new ones. Maybe stress brings out your funny side because you seem both very stressed and also very funny *smiles*

Back Home

So I had a pretty interesting weekend. I had all sorts of plans for cleaning the house, doing my huge piles of laundry, even starting in on my Christmas shopping...but none of that happened. Saturday morning Aidan and I headed out to the Veggie Spectacular - Gideon Tuba Warrior. I let him pick out a bunch of candy from his Halloween stash, and then I bought him some popcorn and pop at the theater. Of course after all this he was pretty grumpy so I took him home. I had to do some grocery shopping and I asked him if he wanted to come and whether he would listen. He said yes, he wanted to come and he would listen, but then he kept collapsing and dropping his bear...so I thought it was time for a nap. I took him home and put him to bed and then headed out to the bank and the grocery store.

On my way out I got these really awful cramps, but I didn't really think too much of them, just planned to have a bath when I got home. When I did get home I planned to have a bath, but felt nauseous so I lay down for a bit and then had my bath. I had to get Michael to help me out, and then in the hall on our way to the bedroom to lie down some more, I just collapsed. It was pretty freaky. I came to and Michael was on the phone saying '911 Grande Prairie' but I told him I was fine. Michael said I was just lying there with my eyes open and may have been twitching. It was the strangest thing, I think that's the very first time I've ever blacked out! I told Michael not to worry, that I would just lie down and rest, but looking back, I think I should have let him either call an ambulance or at least take me in to the ER. I mostly stayed in bed for the rest of the day sleeping and watching TV, but in the evening Michael had to go work security for the Thousand Foot Krutch concert. Before he left he had been talking on the phone to his parents and his mom suggested that it might be an ectopic pregnancy. Of course since there is a possibility that I could be pregnant, then there is also a possibility that my problem could be an ectopic pregnancy. I went to the internet and looked on a number of websites for symptoms of ectopic pregnancies and one of them was that your shoulder would be sore. That kind of freaked me out because my shoulder was definitely sore and didn't seem to fit with stomach cramps. So then I figured that I might as well go in to make sure that it wasn't anything serious, so I called Michael at about 9:30 and he came back and drove Aidan and I in. He dropped me off and then went and took Aidan to McDonalds to get us all some food. Aidan actually did very well, he was happy and content to sit and eat his grilled cheese and drink his juice and my pop. At about 11:30 Pat came back from the concert where he was doing security as well and picked Aidan up and took him back to bed and stayed there which was so nice of him. Finally at about 12:40 I was called in and got to go wait in a little room for a doctor to come and see me. Michael and I waited for awhile, the doctor came and we explained the problem, she felt my stomach and went off to talk with the other doctor and then about 2 I suggested to Michael that he go home and get some sleep because it didn't look like things were going to be moving very quickly at all and I might not be home the next day. Then at least one of us would have a little sleep so we could be up with Aidan. At first they weren't sure what it was, then they thought it might be gall stones, so I was sent for an ultra sound at 9 Sunday morning. That confirmed it wasn't gall stones (for which I was thankful) but did show there was fluid in my abdomen and also that there was something, they weren't sure what, on one of my ovaries. I talked to a surgeon who had been called to look at the X-rays and he said that I wouldn't need surgery and that he would call a gynecologist who might be able to figure out what it was. I was so happy that I wouldn't need surgery, but then the gynecologist came and I told her my story again and she said that I would need surgery. She said she thought it was a ruptured cyst on my ovary but that it might be that the ovary itself had twisted or was dead, so the form I signed allowed her to go in and look around and also to remove the ovary if she had to. She said that I was going to go in for surgery in 1 hour, so I got all my stuff packed up quickly, got myself ready and called Michael to let him know what was going on. He felt really bad that he wasn't there, but someone had to be with Aidan and I didn't think there was anything that he would be able to do at the hospital except just wait.

They wheeled me up in the bed to the operating room and I got to put the little hat over my hair and everything. The lady wheeling me in said that I could work there, I looked better in the hat than some of them. I thought that was kind of weird, but maybe she was just trying to make me feel better. I was pretty nervous, but everything went very smoothly and everyone was very kind and explained everything. It was so frustrating because every single person has to hear the whole thing again and asks what seems like exactly the same questions, so I got really tired of repeating myself. And, they all want to feel my stomach and ask if it hurts. That got old REALLY quick. I just wanted to tell them that yes, it would hurt, so don't feel it! Anyways, I was scheduled for laproscopic surgery where they just make little incisions and then I think they stick something in to do their work - I'm not too clear on what happened and don't really want to know more details. When I got out of surgery I was shivering really bad, all I remember is kind of freaking out and being really cold and having a mask put over my face. Then I woke up and they were wheeling me into my room, so I assume they got me warm and calmed down. By then it was Sunday night about 6 pm. I felt pretty good considering what had all happened and could move around a little. Michael came in to see me and I was starving, so he went to get me some soup, jello and juice. I thought for sure I would eat a lot of soup, but he fed me 2 or 3 bites and I was done. I thought I would throw up if I ate more, so that was it. I was really tired, so he went back home and I went to sleep.

I managed to get a lot of sleep which was so nice. I woke up in the middle of the night and had some jello, made it to the bathroom by myself...I kept thinking there's no way I'm going to be able to sleep, but it was the middle of the night, so I lay down and sure enough, I fell asleep. In the morning I got to have jello and coffee for breakfast, and the nurse asked if I wanted a shower. I was so excited that I got to have one because I'm sure you can imagine what I looked like by then! Not that it was a big deal - obviously there are more important issues - but by then I was rivalling my post-giving-birth look. After my shower I felt so much better...Michael came to see me and the doctor also came in to discuss what had happened. From what I understand, what happened was that last month the egg that was released stayed at the edge of the where it was released, and then this month at this particular time in my cycle it started bleeding and all the pain in my abdomen was caused by the blood that was spurting out of this egg. The doctor said that it could have been really bad - but fortunately everything is looked after now and she's going to see me in 4 weeks to make sure everything is good. She was really really nice and patient and a doctor like that in Grande Prairie is pretty amazing.

I think I have learned that I am scared of needles. I had blood taken about 5 times, the first 2 times were 5 vials each and the other times, fortunately, were only 1, but I think they were running out of places to get it from! Since I had the IV in my left hand, they could only take it from my right arm and the 4th time they came to take it, they had to use a special butterfly needle because the first one they used didn't work. The IV was also pretty awful. They tried to put it in my right hand and that didn't work - and really hurt!

Anyways, I think that's enough for me for today. I'm off work probably until Thursday. I was told I shouldn't drive for a week, but the doctor said I'm free to drive as long as I'm confident in my ability to be able to slam on the brakes and if I can't do that then I'm impaired, which makes sense. I can't lift more than 10 pounds for 4 weeks, so hopefully Aidan will be understanding about that! Michael leaves for his trip on Thursday afternoon, but my boss has been super super nice about everything and said that he would make sure I was able to get home and to work on Thursday and Friday. So that's the plan right now, but we're just going to take it day by day and see how things go.

Right now I'm sitting on the couch using the laptop to blog and Michael thinks I'm crazy...I'm telling you, this blog thing is addicting *smiles*

Since when do I care about hockey?

I wore my Oilers shirt today because last night, as I was picking out my clothes, I looked at it and thought 'Hmmm...I haven't worn that in awhile. I think I'll wear it'. It was only after I got to work that I wondered if they played recently. Michael usually lets Aidan and I know when we need to wear our BC Lions or Oilers stuff. Proper protocol in our house is to wear stuff on the day that the team plays and/or the next day after they win. If they lose, you're not supposed to wear anything reminding anyone that they lost. So I got to work and Jeremy asked if they won and I said I had no idea. I figured I better see if they had and it turns out that last night they lost their first home game to Nashville!! What a day to wear it! I got comments all day, and I noticed that it became 'my' Oilers that had lost, simply because I was wearing the shirt.

So now I know. Next time I'm planning on wearing anything sports related during their season of play, I will check to see if they won and not embarass myself by wearing anything after they lose!

Pictures as Requested

I thought I shouldn't leave that rant up for too long, at least not right at the top. Today went pretty well. I left late again, but got everywhere on time, so I can adjust my morning schedule accordingly. That's good because I can't seem to get up earlier than 6:30. I tried this morning and it didn't work. I just pressed my snooze an extra time and ended up getting up at the same time. Strange. The roads are much better, which makes me a little over-confident which is not good, especially with those patches of ice. It's so tempting to drive at a normal speed, but I'm trying to remember to sloooooooow down.


I set up the mini dvd player for Aidan in the car yesterday. We have a case thing that straps to the back of the front passenger seat, so it's right at eye level for Aidan. This morning on the way to Darlene's he watched Diego's Dinosaur Adventure. I have my music on in the front so I can't hear what his show is saying, but I heard him say 'yes' and 'no' a couple times and then out of the blue he would roar and a coupld times he caught me off guard and startled me. I'm not sure why they were roaring, but it happened about 3 or 4 times during our drive. The only downside to having it set up is that when we get to our destination and the show isn't over, he's upset.


I'm so excited that we have nothing planned this weekend! I'm going to try and get some food cleaned out of the freezer for my meals next week. It's amazing how food just collects in there - it's like it multiplies or something, and then next thing you know you're shoving something in and shutting the door really quickly so it doesn't fall out!! I know I'm not the only one who does that....


Rachel, there's a reason why there aren't pictures of me on this blog...I hate my picture being taken and besides, Aidan is so much cuter. That being said, I got Michael to take a couple pictures of me and Aidan, so here you are: (tell me if you like my new hair color)

Okay, so they actually turned out better than I thought they would. This last one is pretty cute, with us doing the swiper smiles.