On The Bright Side

We had a real adventure last night. At least, that's what we're telling Caleb.

Yesterday afternoon our power shut off, which is not unusual, but it only came back on in half the house. The rooms that were not working were very sporadic: the master bedroom, the living room, the toy room and our dryer (but the washer was okay). Most of you are unfamiliar with the layout of our house, but the master bedroom and the living room are on opposite ends and two different floors - so it doesn't make a lot of sense for them to be out at the same time.

So I did what every electrically defunct wife does: I told my husband. :) He went down and checked the breaker box - nope. He turned the main electricity thingy (and yes, that is the technical term) off and back on - nope. He finally called his dad for advice. Fortunately his dad was curling, and one of his teammates was an electrician. After a conversation about which electrical thingamabobs and doohickeys had been checked, the electrician (a mere 1,600 miles away) diagnosed the problem that one of the "legs" coming into our house was not functioning properly and we needed to call our utility company. So we did.

Two hours later, a man in a truck showed up, trudged through the foot of snow to the meter box. Scott and I were watching a movie, and the electricity in the affected rooms flickered on and off a few times. "That's a good sign!" we smiled to ourselves.

About twenty minutes later, the man from the truck knocked on our door. "Did you hear me talking outside on the phone?"
"No sir."
"I was just on the phone with my boss because I don't know what to do about your problem." Uncomfortable pause. "The way that electricity comes into your house in through live 'legs'. Your house has two of them. In order for the live legs to work, there has to be a ground, or a neutral, in order for them to run. What has happened here is that your house has settled and one of the live legs has been pulled out completely. The neutral is barely attached."

And then came the words which shocked me the most "It's amazing that your house hasn't caught on fire."

Woah. Sharp inhale. Amazing that our house hasn't caught on fire!?!?

He continued. "I can try to jerry-rig something so that you will have power tonight, but I think that your best option would be to completely cut the power off, go to a hotel, and call an electrician in the morning. The electrician will have to get your a new meter box, drop it down about six inches, reconnect you, and then you will have to have us turn the power back on afterwards."

Exhale. My mind started racing. Do I need to pack all of the photo albums? What essentials do I want to bring with us? What will we do with our pets? It's 30 degrees outside... they can't be outside all night! Scott saw my panic and quickly assured me that if they cut off all the power to our house that the risk of it catching on fire was gone.

So, at 10PM, we packed a suitcase with clothes, a bag with bottles and formula, the pack-and-play and headed to the Hampden Inn, 15 minutes away. Caleb was confused, but saw it as a cool experience. Chloe wasn't so thrilled and had a rough time falling asleep in the room. Caleb then proceeded to switch whom he was sleeping with about, oh, 83219 times. I don't think I slept more than half an hour at a time, with Caleb kicking, both boys snoring, Chloe whimpering, and my mind still racing.

We woke up at 7AM, after a 4AM feeding for Chloe, and had our complimentary breakfast. Scott called an electrician and met him at the house. When he came back, Caleb and I went swimming. (Somehow, in all that mayhem, I thought it would be a good idea to pack bathing suits.... funny how our minds work.) We had a slightly later check out of 12PM, went out for lunch, and when we returned the meter box was ready and the electric company was on its way.

It was... an adventure. I know that it could have been much worse. I know how blessed we were that we were given the sign of the power going out rather than the house catching on fire. I know that we are blessed that we are all safe and sound. But really, I could have done without the excitement this weekend.

When the power was finally restored, Scott went to the grocery store. When he came back he said, "On the bright side hon, I won $30 on a scratch ticket."

On the bright side. :)

I'm working on it.

Some how, over the past six weeks, between children being ill, parents being ill and my new job (more on that later), the blog has fallen by the wayside. Sleep has also fallen by the wayside, but I guess you are to expect that to an extent as a parent, right?

When we got back from Christmas in Canada, Chloe "forgot" how to sleep through the night. I have tried everything: giving her cereal at night, feeding her late at night, trying to let her cry it out. The problem is that she has been growing, teething, and had two ear infections and she consistently wakes up between 2-4 AM. This is tough because I have to get up at 5AM for work, so there have been many a day that I am up at 3:30 for the day. Blah.

So, about my new job. I loved the clinic that I was working at, but after bedrest and mat leave that ended up being for 7 months instead of 3.5, I needed the full time hours to catch up, money-wise. I am working at a hospital 7:30-4:00, M-F, no weekends, no crazy holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas. So, while I don't relish the idea of cleaning up as much poop and sputum as I have over the past 5 weeks, it is a necessary evil ... at least until we win the lottery ;)

So, more to come soon. The kids are doing great - Chloe is military crawling, pulling up and chewing on everything in sight. Caleb has had a couple of problems at daycare and is definitely showing his older "jealous" side... but I promise to elaborate on this soon.

And then there were four...

So, what have you been up to?
Not much -just kinda busy with the holidays.

Oh, where did you go?
Well, we went to my in-laws for what was supposed to be a week, but then we got snowed in for another two days. Twenty four inches of snow in twenty four hours does that to you.

Was it a good trip?
The travel part pretty much sucked donkey balls. On the way there, our first flight was stuck for 3 hours on the tarmac - it was pretty awful with a 2.5 year old, even though he was trying very hard to be good. We got re-routed from our original itinerary to International Falls (close to my hometown) to this other place called Bemidji which is an extra hour drive... in total we spent 22 hours travelling on the 19th. We also lost part of our luggage which added to my frustration. We hjad a nice visit with Scott's family though, and got to spend a lot of time with Great-Grandma, who was kind of the point of the visit. She has colon cancer and we wanted to make sure that we were there this year. Caleb got to build snowmen, go sledding and play curling. He was pretty thrilled! On the flight back they lost all of our luggage, including Chloe's car seat, plus we were late getting in AND my dad was already at our house.

Your dad was down? That must have been nice.
It was, but with work I didn't really feel like we had a good visit. I spent most of the day Tuesday running errands, worked Wednesday and Thursday, which left Friday for visiting and he left Saturday. I was really sad to see him go.

***
What is new with the kids?
Caleb decided at Thanksgiving that he was ready to be potty trained. That was pretty fantastic. He has had a couple of accidents (maybe five..) since then, but is doing really well. He is still wearing a diaper at night, but I am okay with that! Chloe is growing like a weed. She has three teeth now, all bottoms ones which weirds me out a little - I hope she gets some top ones soon...

How is Scott?
Frustrated with his job, frustrated that he is so far away from his family, but he hasn't had any nasty migraines since his doctor improved his "sleep hygiene". I am really thankful for that!

What about you?
I am doing pretty well. I had to resign from my job yesterday which was really difficult. I love doing outpatient, but in order to have full-time hours my boss wanted me to work until 7PM three nights a week, and I just can't do that with two little ones. I have a new job at Select Speciality Hospital in Camp Hill with much better hours, benefits and pay so I think in the end it will be a good situation, but I am really going to miss outpatient and my co-workers.

Anything interesting happened lately?
Well, Caleb is really big into pretend play now. He makes either a train, plane or boat every night and you are expected to ride on it. He also makes up songs and is getting much better at repeating songs. The funniest thing that he has started doing is wanting to play hide and go seek, which is great, but he tells you where to hide, or where he'll be hiding. Scott and I have tried explaining that you have to look for the person, but he doesn't really get it.
Chloe is all about rolling to get where she needs to go. This morning I put her down in the toy room while I was cleaning up the breakfast dishes and found her 20 feet away near the open door to the basement stairs. Needless to say, she'll be put in the Ring of Neglect (Exersaucer) or Pack and Play when she is not in my direct line of sight.

That's a Daddy Question.

There are numerous reasons why I love being married to my husband. He is kind, he is funny, and most of all, he is an active partner in parenting.

I was particularly grateful this morning. While I was getting Caleb dressed, he kept pulling at his underwear.

"What are you doing, Buddy?"

"I'm trying to put my hand in my pocket."

"That's not a pocket Bud."

"What is it?"

"Go ask your father."

Orange Cat

I have a new man in my life.

Let me rephrase that.

I have a new used-to-be-a-male in my life

His name is Orange Cat, and he is wonderful.

We initially met one day while the entire family was out for a walk in the easement property, and there was this small, orange cat lying on the large pile of grass clippings that we had accumulated over the summer. I was initially very skittish and worried that he may be rabid or wild, but those fears were quickly assuaged after Callie went up for a smell and this little cat wrapped himself around her legs. The first words out of my mouth to Scott were "Looks like we have a new cat!" to which he replied "No, we don't."

Over the next three weeks, we (Scott and I, just to clarify) put out small bowls of food for our new friend. Caleb would wake up every morning and want to go outside to see Orange Cat. We often found Orange Cat sleeping outside in Chloe's stroller (which we leave on our porch for ease of use), and if we went for a walk in the neighbourhood, he would follow us along.

Then we found out he was cheating on us. Three other families in our area were also feeding Orange Cat - but he went by different names: Kit Kat, Tom, and Kitty. No one, however, seemed to know where he came from, and he was just too friendly to be a wild barn cat.

Barb, my next door neighbour, and I both tried to find Orange Cat a home. I tried to pawn him off on my patients, particularly those that had expressed an interest in getting another cat. I even tried to give him to the lady that cleans our house. No luck.

Finally, when the weather started turning cold last week, Scott said "You better take Orange Cat to the vet and make sure that he is healthy before we bring him into the house with the other animals." And just like that (!), Orange Cat became ours.

The first night in our house, Orange Cat curled up on my lap and took an hour and a half nap: safe, warm and secure.

I have tried calling him different names ( I am really partial to Oliver), but both Caleb and Scott insist that his name is Orange Cat. So, Orange Cat it is... and it suits him.

Back to the Land of the Living

We have had a household of sick people this last week - varying degrees of sickness, but sick nonetheless.

Chloe started it all with a stomach virus that she was kind enough to share with me.

Then Scott decided that he should get the worst migraine known to man and be hospitalized for three days while the doctors ruled out diagnosis after diagnosis, including my personal favourite: brain hemorrhage. Let me tell ya, there is nothing like getting a phone call at 9:45PM from your husband and him saying: "They just did a lumbar puncture and now they have to send me for an MRI because there was blood in it. They think I might be hemorrhaging from my brain. I love you."

I sat up most of the night waiting to hear from him, but the doctors had him too sedated trying to control his pain and nausea. Finally at 5:00AM I called the hospital and was relieved to find out that he had been admitted, that there was no hemorrhaging and that they were trying to rule out viral meningitis.

The whole experience has put a new meaning to the season of Thanksgiving.

The past few days I have been watching Scott with new eyes, and loving him with a renewed heart. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful, caring, and compassionate man in my life. I've even stopped nagging him about the popsicle wrappers he leaves everywhere. ;)

We went out for lunch today, the first time we had done so as a family of four. Amazing that it took five and a half months.

Kate Inglis's Meme

I've already mentioned my admiration for this author www.sweetsalty.com and NOW I have a chance to win a copy of her first book: http://www.dreadcrew.com/ through her "authoress" website http://www.kateinglis.com/blog/2009/10/13/the-dread-crew-meme-stories-that-stick.html?lastPage=true#comment6075904

I hope you find my answers entertaining - many of you yankees may be confused by some of my answers as I am pretty sure it is Canadian literature ;)

1) You are facing an epic journey. You may choose one companion, one tool and one vehicle from any book or film to accompany you. Or just one of the three. It's up to you. What do you choose?
Companion: Ramona Quimby
Vehicle: Cinderella's Pumpkin Coach
Tool: Harry Potter's Wand

2) You can escape to the insides of any book. Where do you go, and why?
Pfft.. easy. "The Neverending Story" because my imagination changes the landscape and everybody needs a luck dragon.

3) You can bring one literary character into your current life. Who do you choose, and why?
Atticus Finch. I need sound reasoning and a calming voice in my life right now.

4) The Princess Bride is my go-to book. I could read that book fifty-seven times in a row without a break for food or a pee and not be remotely bored. In fact I’ve already done that but it wasn’t fifty-seven times. It was sixty-four. And that was just during my first year of university.

5) Of all the literary or film characters that made an impression on you as a kid, who was the most enviable?
The Child-Like Empress. Something about looking 8 and ruling over another dimension....

6) Of all the literary or film characters that made an impression on you as a kid, who was the most frightening?
Jack Nicholson in the Shining. Why oh why would you let a group of 10 year olds watch that at a slumber party?? Since then, I've not been able to watch a scary movie.

7) Every time I read The Stone Angel, I see something in it that I haven’t seen before.

8) It is imperative that Don Cherry's Hockey Stories and Stuff be made into a movie. Now. I am already picketing Hollywood for this—but if they cast Julia Roberts as Rose Cherry, I will not be happy. I will, however, be appeased if they cast Rachel McAdams.

9) Where the Wild Things Are is a book that should never be made (or should have never been made) into a film. Seriously? How do you get a feature length film from a book that was 10 lines long? Second runner up: Flowers in the Attic. (Another sleep over mistake.)

10) After all these years, the interactive television scene in the book & movie Farenheit 451 still manages to give me the queebs.

11) After all these years, the "As you wish" scene in the book/movie "The Princess Bride" when he is the Dread Pirate Roberts still manages to give me a thrill.

12) If I could corner the author William Faulkner, here’s what I’d say to them one minute or less about their book, As I Lay Dying: I love your book, but why so many narrators? I had to keep flipping back to figure out who was family and how everyone was related. I hate making flow charts for books less than 500 pages long.

13) The coolest non-fiction book I’ve ever read is Gorillas in the Mist. Every time I flip through it, it makes me want to pack up my career as a physio and follow my dream of working with animals.