KaPOW

Well, the argument with my friend over the stupid little thing came to a head last night. I went ahead and did the thing she said she would help with. Because I had time, and didn't want to be asked to do it late at night, or at the last minute. Well, she got mad. Figures. Now, in her defense, all it would have taken was a phone call or email from me to remind her...but I was at the point in the friendship where I was tired of doing all the reminding. So I went Pfffft on the situation and that was that. Dumb, immature. Needed. There was yelling and door slamming and miscommunications. But, at least it's out there, and we've gotten it out of our systems.

I am so touched by all the wonderful comments I've gotten about the Monster Cupcakes!!






Onto cookies for Mason's class for tomorrow.. They won't be as exciting though :)

annoyed

a certain friend of mine asked me to do something WITH her. It's something that I have a knack for, and since I had extra's of this stuff, I volunteered my time, supplies and ingredients. She suggested today. I got everything ready. She knows we're leaving at 2 for Julie's party. She was reminded this morning by Al. She's not home now. I'm leaving in 20 minutes. I don't know why I ever bother. So effen' annoyed.

Also, I can't find the tights I got Jenna for her Witch costume. I saw them 2 days ago, moved them to a 'safe place' and now can't find them. UGH!

To top it all off I have a cold.

Kill me now...before I kill a certain friend of mine maybe??

The girlie bits

Are probably okay. Maybe. I took my list of symptoms to my doctor today. He put little stars beside a few of the things on my list. Then pushed on my tummy a bit (well, not my tummy really, but you know what I mean :)). We sat back at the desk, and he said he thought that my hormones could be a bit unbalanced. I said hmm... that's not what my internet self-diagnosis told me :) He laughed, and I admitted that I probably shouldn't be allowed to use the internet for medical reasons :) Anyway, he asked what the internet diagnosed me with, and I told him that I had a lot of the symptoms associated with uterine fibroids. He thought about it a bit, and looked at my list again, and then said I could be right. He doesn't think that's it, but agreed to order an ultrasound to rule fibroids out. Which makes me feel better. He also ordered some blood tests to check my hormone levels, and has put me back on the pill for two months, and then I'll go back and report on if there's been any changes.

I'm relieved to be getting somewhere with this, and happy that I didn't accept his diagnosis as the be all and end all of the treatment. Also, Al was able to decipher what my Dr. had written on the ultrasound req. It said dysmenhorrhea. Which after some quick research means painful cramps. BUT!! There's some sort of "secondary" dysmenhorrhea...which can be caused by fibroids! So, I may still be onto something. But if not, well, that's probably a good thing :)

Straaange things are happenin'..

(Toy Story fans will get that :))

There's some big things going on over in my neck of the woods. And both scare me, for profoundly different reasons.

First, we're about 1 step away from buying this house from my Dad (Well, actually the mortgage..it's a long..complicated, story). And in the process, paying off our new van and a loan we took out to pay for Al's student loans. I've been an unofficial homeowner for 2 years.. but this is for real for real. It's scary to go from the small amount of debt we had, to this huge amount, but at least it's good debt! And, we'll be in a position where if we don't want to rent the apartment, we won't have to. Although, I have a lot of renovations in mind for the house, and the apartment would pay for those no problem...so I imagine we'll keep it rented for a year or so.

The other thing is still a bit of a mystery. I've got some stuff going on, with my inner girly bits. I've done a tonne of internet self-diagnosing, and I think I know what's going on, but without seeing my doctor, won't know for sure. The solution could be as simple and being on birth control pills for the rest of my life(not too scary), or it could mean a hysterectomy (way scary), and there's a bunch of other options in between those two. Either way, I'm ready to start feeling normal again. I wrote out the list of my symptoms to take to my doctor (I go Monday afternoon), and as I was writing, it scared me how long the list was getting, but hopefully it just helps my doctor to pinpoint what's going on in there. That's all I know right now. Just that, something isn't right, and if it's the something I think it is...there are ways to fix it. I'm adopting Al's, "Don't worry until there's something to worry about attitude" on this one :) I promise to update when I can.

Okay, because I'm lazy, and haven't blogged in a gazillion years...this is what you're gonna get...bullets.

*Brian and his wife have spoken, have come up with a temporary visitation agreement for Brian to see Damion.

*They are definitely getting a divorce. She's not at all willing to go to counseling, or try to mend their marriage.

*My Thanksgiving was ok. My Mom was all pissy, and I heard more than once that it was probably because it was hard for her to have my kids around, since Damion wasn't there. That hurt. I don't know if it should have, but it did. I could do a whole blog on how my kids used to be her favourites, and that makes me a bit resentful about how she treats them now as compared to before Damion was born, but that will make me sound like an AWFUL person, so I won't.

*I had a great time with my Grandparents over Thanksgiving. Which is super. We weren't close when I was growing up (my Mom's doing, even though she'd deny it :)) So to be able to have such a good, healthy relationship with them now feels really good.

*I am seeing some great signs of maturity in my brother. And i like it, and I am so proud of him, and I want to figure out how to tell him that without it going to his head. hmm...

*I made this with Micheal today. It was totally cute :)


*And that's that.

On a happier note..

Look what I made!!



I saw something very similar in a parenting magazine when I took the boys to the Ontario Early Years Centre on Monday. And as soon as I saw it, I knew my Halloween wouldn't be complete until I made one :) But was worried that I wouldn't be able to find the boa! Well! Lo and behold, I was in the grocery store (of all places!) and there they were, for $2.00 a piece! So I decided to get the orange and black (my inspiration was only orange..and I am tempted to make one in all black). I had the eyes already for crafts with the kids (note to self, get more googly eyes!). I cut a circle out of the bottom of a case of pop, and got out my handy dandy glue gun, and away I went! In total, including cutting the ring out, I think I spent about 10-15 minutes on it! And I LOVE it!! Okay...enough bragging :) Sorry 'bout that...kinda ;)

Still nothing much to report.

My brother applied for Legal Aide today. He is aiming to file some sort of emergency visitation request on Wednesday.

He still hasn't been contacted by his wife. He still has no solid lead on where they are. He is still going out of his mind, as are the rest of us.

As far as having him here on Saturday, it went really well I think. Al and I managed to talk to him, and, we hope, get his mind set in the right direction.

But the longer she stays gone, and the longer she doesn't contact him...the longer he has to sit and stew on his future, and that can't be any kind of fun :(

What a pain in the ass this is.

Goodish news

The police found my sister-in-law and nephew last night. Although, for some asinine reason all that they will tell my brother is that both have been found, and are in a safe place. I don't know any more than that right now.

We're shipping all our kids out tonight for sleepovers, and having my brother here for some kind of intervention. I need to know where his head is right now, and what he plans to do about all this crazy drama. Here's to hoping some good will come of it.

I can't thank you all enough for all your messages, thoughts and prayers. They mean the world to my family and I..

Still nothing.

My brother has Finally called the police to report both his wife and son missing. She's had no contact with my brother, and as far as he knows, did not show up to work this evening.

I've spoken twice with my brother now, and what worries me the most is that he seems more concerned about getting his wife to come back than the fact that their three year old son hasn't been seen for 30 hours. Hasn't been heard from. Now, he did break down momentarily at one point in our earlier conversation...but I don't know...my kids disappeared for 20 minutes a couple weeks ago, and I was on the phone to 911 in an instant. I was distraught. Inconsolable. So why is he so calm? Why did it take me 30 damn hours to call the police to report that his wife had taken their son? It just doesn't make sense. I guess it just shows his immaturity too.

I think I'm going to try to get to my Mom's tomorrow. I won't be able to update much, but I'll do my best.

Please keep Damion in your prayers. He needs everything anyone's got right now.

If you could...

Say some prayers, send some thoughts out to the universe, or just keep some good thoughts in mind for my brother... his wife has taken their son, emptied their dressers, taken Brian's car keys (but not his car), taken Damion's car seat and left. No one knows where she is, or who she's with. And no one knows how long she'll be able to keep up the act of being the good mother that she's never proven she can be. I'm so afraid that she's just going to use Damion as some kind of bargaining tool.

I don't know what brought this on. But I do know that it will break everyone's hearts if we never get to see that little boy again. My brother called the police last night, and they told him they couldn't do anything. So I guess we're on our own in this fight. (Which doesn't make any sense to me!! She took their son without permission, is that not kidnapping?!)

My brother plans to go to the court this morning to file whatever papers he needs to get custody of his son. He's emptied their bank accounts, and is opening new accounts that she won't have access too. Not that they have any money for her to take, but still :) He's said that she can have every single possession he owns, as long as she brings his son back.

No Throttling occured here today

Well, it's all said and done and over for now. And there was no under-educated, under-qualified diagnoses offered today. Mason was brilliant :) I love that boy :) He didn't flick a light switch or line up a car once!! Phew!

She managed to do a more formal assessment of him, and came to the conclusion that WOW! He DOES have receptive language! shocking. **Rolling my eyes here** He is on the low side compared to the average, or just below average, but I'm okay with that, and take responsibility that perhaps I focus on getting his speech improved, and have let his language fall behind a bit. But, now that I am aware, you bet that we'll be working on prepositions and 2-3 step instructions :) (also plays in here the fact that he's the last baby, and sometimes it's just easier to do things for him instead of asking him to do tasks that I need to have done quickly. We'll work on it :))

She said that he definitely has speech and language delays, and also social delays. I'm not sure where I am on that one quite yet. I mean, he's only just 3, and he and C, who we invited to play for the assessment (as requested by Carmen), were parallel playing quite a bit I thought. Mason's eye contact was very low today. Which is a definite social red flag. But then at the end, when she was going over things, she said that his eye contact with C was low...but Mason spent a lot of the time trying to show Carmen things, and interact with her...so I don't know what she was basing her opinion on there. We'll work on that too. AND! When I gave Cory a snack Mason wanted the same thing, and wanted to leave the table where he was working with Carmen, so that he could sit with Cory. Seems pretty social to me...but I don't know... he also spends a lot of time doing his own thing.

I can't wait to get her report. My doctor is getting a copy as well. So I want to set up an appointment with him to go over everything that we've been through the past few months and see what his opinion on all of this is. To see if we need some sort of assessment done.

Al made a good point last night when I was talking about how I thought Mason's eating (or lack thereof) was sensory. Al pointed out that I have a lot of sensory issues as well. I can't stand pudding, because of how it feels in my mouth. I won't touch cotton balls because of the way they 'squeak' in between my fingers. I've been known to cut the tags off my shirts, especially the ones sewn into the side of the shirt. I don't do great with a lot of mixed media noises. like if the TV and radio are on, and then the kids are being loud, it drives me nuts. There's more, but this is supposed to be about Mason :) So, I'm in some ways leaning towards having him tested for Sensory Integration Disorder.

She is recommending him for the speech program (no surprise). That will start in a couple weeks. We are also going on the waiting list for him to get a resource teacher, who will be able to go into his pre-school and discuss ideas and therapies with them to work on with him while he's at school. I'm happy about that one, especially since he'll need that resource teacher when he gets into Kindergarten next year, and hopefully we won't have to get onto another waiting list for that!!

So, I think that's about it. Until I get her report, I won't know what our next step is really.

Scared today

Mason has his in-home speech assessment with Carmen today. I'm terrified about what she's going to say this time. I'm worried that she has this preconceived notion about Mason, and is going to assess him using that :( I'm really hoping that she's more professional than that...but I'm not convinced.

I'll update when it's all over. But in the mean time, I'd love some positives thoughts for Mason. And perhaps Carmen so I don't throttle her if she crosses the line again :)

Because I can't stop looking at them...

I just HAVE to add the cakes I made for this weekend. I am in LOVE with the face of the Baby Einstein caterpillar :)






From these two orders, I got a repeat order from the woman who ordered the Hannah Montana cake. She wants a Lightning McQueen for her son in November, and I got an order for a Finding Nemo cake from the woman that I made the Elmo cake for last year :) I can't believe that I have a very real chance of making this a business!!

Lost in conversation

Last night the kids for some reason were discussing how Humans came to be on earth. Jenna's theory is that we were dinosaurs, and just changed to look like humans. Aidan's was a little more indepth.... First we were dinosaurs, and then we were birds. After that we were squirrels, and then Humans.

Take that Darwin! (And God?)

And later when I was at the grocery store, there was a couple there, and she was probably about 7-8 months pregnant. We were leaving the store, and I overheard her say to her husband, "So, 30 bucks for 112 diapers, how long do you think that will last?" He replies, completely straight-faced, "I don't know, like, 2 days?" and then broke out in a huge grin :) It made me miss that feeling of becoming a parent for the first time, and how everything is so new and strange, and exciting :)

However, after the day I have with C yesterday (the 1 year old), I am well aware of the reasons why we stopped having babies :)

Note to self..

When you look online and see how much cake batter is needed for a 10" round, 2 layer cake, DO Not bake it all in one pan. Your stove is CRAP, and you will end up with a burned outer layer, and runny middle.

off to cry into my cake batter coated dishes now.

Thrilled! And Stuff

Mason had school today. Both of his teachers made a point of searching me out and telling me what a wonderful day Mason had!! They even had a fire drill (Which, Hi! Coulda warned me!) and they both said he handled it really well!! Phew!! I am so happy that we were able to put him into pre-school. I just can't imagine him having to figure out this process with 20 other kids next year. Especially if the school is as disorganized next year as it was this year!

Speaking of that. I'm so grateful that Jenna and Aidan are so adaptable. Jenna was switched into a different class, a 1-2 split class (which she thinks is great, since she gets to be bossy to the grade ones :)), and I love because she has the same teacher as last year, and she's a brilliant teacher!! Aidan has had two different teachers, been switched from A days to B days, endured having 3 classes crammed together into 2 classrooms while they wait for the kindergarten portable to be brought in, and is so popular, that his best friend's Mom switched her son from a different day, and then to a different class so that he would be with Aidan! :) I can't imagine what a hell of a time the teachers are having right now, trying to keep up with everything, learning the names and then the new names, and having to deal with the shuffling of classrooms!

Our school is the over-flow school for Barrie. So we get kids from all over the city in order to make room for everyone. The big hassle this year is that the city decided to close one of the public schools, because it was going to cost too much to repair it, and bring it up to date. So we have all those kids at our school this year, until another school is built and ready for next year. crazy.

Also crazy is my week. Mason has school Monday and Wednesday, I have TWO cakes orders (one pretty big), and to top it all off, I took on a 1 year old in my daycare this week!! Now, he's a great baby, and totally cute, but his schedule is waaaaay different than ours, so it's gonna be a little difficult wither adapting to him, or having him adapt to us. I'm really hoping for the latter, since he'll be here 4 or 5 days a week! It's fun having a baby around again :) He fell asleep in my arms this afternoon. I miss that. I don't have the ache in my arms that I used to get when I wanted to have another baby of my own, but it definitely felt nice having him there :) Actually, it's his cake that I am making :) No pressure huh?! Talk about a test...here, care for my child, who is on a whacked schedule, pick up and drop off a gazillion other kids throughout the day, oh, and while you're at it, can you whip together one of these???


No pressure huh??

McAlendin Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

McAlendin Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

McAlendin Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Free family history - Family reunion

I have a fairy Godmother ;)

And because of her, every Monday and Wednesday morning I get to take Mason to the most wonderful place in the world..Pre-School. He's been 4 days now and just Loves it there :)

We were advised by the speech therapist at the hospital (the evil one) that Pre-School might be a very good idea for Mason. I happen to have a friend that is a pre-school teacher, so I tackled her in the school yard one day, and begged her to Please let Mason go to her school. Please! She laughed at me, called me crazy (the nerve huh?) and said they had Lots of spaces available, and that the info night was the next night! Whew, cut it close there. So, I went, got the info, got depressed over the initial price, and then down swooped my Fairy Godmother, and granted a wish so important to me that I'll never be able to thank her enough. Ever.

So, Mason's first day there was okay. He ran in without looking back, and seemed thrilled to be there. When I went to pick him up, it was a different story :( His teachers said he'd had a really hard time sitting in circle, and preferred to do his own thing. (Eek) So, they said they would brainstorm, and try to come up with ideas on ways to keep him in circle. Apparently they are brilliant brainstormers there :)

What they did for Mason was give him a little squishy ball. And when he's sitting in circle, he gets to hold it. But when he leaves, he loses the ball. It's worked Great for him! So great in fact that he didn't even need it for the second circle time today!!!!

And in even better news, S told me that she can't believe the change in him! She said from that first day to now, he seems like a completely different kid! I've noticed big changes too :) His speech has Exploded!! To the point where, when we were at my Mom's for her annual corn roast this past weekend, I didn't interpret ANYTHING he said for anyone! Not a single thing!! I didn't have to endure the looks of "Man, there's is something Wrong with this kid!" or the puzzled "What the hell is he saying to me!?" look either! It was sooo nice. He was friendly, and pleasant, he played with everyone, and answered questions from the adults. In times past, with a huge group like that it would have been SO hard for him to function. I am SO proud of my little boy :)

When I was talking to my Dad last night, even he was understanding Mason over the phone! He thought it was Aidan talking! We have our dreaded home visit from Carmen on the 30th, and I am kinda looking forward to it :) I can't wait to show her how he's changed in a month!

In other news, Jenna is doing terrific in school. Aidan is so popular that another Mom switched her son's school days so he would be going on the same day as Aidan! Al is having a hard time at work, and that worries me. He and a few other of the drivers got together and asked for a union to come in. So not it seems as though there's a hit out on his head :( As much as I want their working conditions to improve, and the pay to be higher, if it means that Al loses his job, or isn't being respected at work, it's SO not worth it. Maybe you could keep positive thoughts going his way. He could certainly use them right now :)

And that's us! Oh wait! Me! ummm...I'm just Happy that Mason is doing so well right now. And I am adding a 1 year old to my daycare next week. (Yikes!) AND!! I have TWO paid cake orders for next weekend!! Woot Woot!

That's all :)