Bi And Large

This is a copy and pase of an email I sent this morning - with apologie to the recipient! It just summed up what is going on with us so well I figured I'd save myself the hassle of typing it twice :)

Happy Halloween!!!

It's morning here and Amy is off to school. Fridays I have off so Iris and I are just relaxing into the day! Both the girls have colds, although not bad ones, it's enough to make them sooooo whiney. It gets a bit rough to put up with! So we are hanging out in pajamas and I am having another cup of coffee as we decide how to attack decorating. We didn't have time to do it properly earlier in the week. We have 6 pumpkins but only one is carved so far, so we need to get the rest organized! We have fake cobwebs to put up around the doorway, a black cat sign hanging by the front door, and a little machine to plug in that makes fake thunder and lighting noise and sound, and the girls will help me stuff leaves into white cloth "ghosts" to hang in our trees in the front yard. I think I have a scarecrow in the garage as well. We usually get about 50-60 trick or treaters so it is fun to play it up. Most of our neighborhood is still young kids so I don't like to do anything too gory or scary, but just play kind of stuff.

One of my patients is a monk at a monastery out here and he says they have the best time at Halloween. All the monks dress up, they go bobbing for apples, have a pumpkin carving contest, lots of food, and then they make popcorn and watch scary movies together into the night. How much fun does that sound like? I'm gonna join a religious order when I grow up, I swear.

Last night Iris' daycare had a Halloween party and we brought the kids over. Everyone was in costume, from the kids to the teachers to the adults, and every room had a game or craft or food in it. The kids frosted pumpkin shaped cookes, and did lawn bowling with a pumpkin, and played 'pin the worm on the apple,' and made little spiders out of pipe cleaners. That kind of thing. It was really cute. I let both girls completely pick out and organize their own costumes this year. Amy is a princess riding a pegasus unicorn (seriously!) and Iris is Darth Vader. We had lots of compliments on their costumes!

Last night was also our first teacher parent conference for Amy now that she has started elementary school. She is bright; good at math, and the best reader in the class, reading the same stuff they do in 2nd grade. But she is such a dreamy kid, head always off in the clouds. Now, nothing wrong with being a dreamer, and I encourage her creativity. But it is frustrating sometimes that she is so out of touch with reality that she doesn't hear instructions, and this causes behaviour problems. She can't focus long enough to get her work done and she often doesn't even hear what she is supposed to be doing because she is imagining up some new story in her head. We notice it at home too - she misses the bus CONSTANTLY because she gets so distracted by her own thoughts and dreams instead of eating breakfast or getting dressed, even though we constantly remind her. Or we'll all have finished eating dinner and she won't have even taken a single bite of hers yet because she was too busy telling us a story. She's a lovely girl, and I appreciate that she is so creative and don't want to stifle that - any suggestions??

My job is going excellent, actually. I didn't realize how much I would enjoy it. The people I work with are fun, the hours are good, and my patients are 99% nice. The other 1% are SO crazy that they make the day go by with a laugh. Many of my patient are quite aged, in their 90's, and they just kind of lose their filter on what they say I think. I have one who believes baby formula turns babies gay, and one who believes fluoride in drinking water is a government conspiracy to give people strokes. Just this week I had a very pleasant, normal looking little old Italian man in his 70's come in and when I went to laser his lower back for sciatic pain, he stripped OFF his pants and underwear, stuck his arse up in the air, old man bits hanging in the breeze for all to admire, and started SPANKING his backside and saying "Here!" - I suppose he wanted me to laser his erm, crack. Which is probably where he felt pain to be fair, I mean sciatic pain does run that way. But it was QUITE an experience and it was a bit hard to keep a professional straight face! I left and ran to the break room and just howled. But yes, the days go by quickly and I enjoy the work. The girls have adjusted to the new schedule and things seem to be working out.

Hope Everyone has a Happy and Safe Halloween!!!!!

Just have to quickly wish little Mr. S. a very happy birthday as he came into the world tonight! We're all so pleased to meet you! Congrats to H and G, and special congrats to Eric on becomng a big brother today - that's so cool!

Can't wait to hear more details, you did good, girl!!

Oh, the horror. I am sad today.

One of the most amazingly brilliant writers I know of (and secretly kind of follow around the internet, and I hope that doesn't make me sound too stalker-ish, because I totally don't mean it in a freaky kind of way, although she is pretty cute and I could probably be talked into a little Madonna-Brittney action if she were so inclined, but honestly I just mean it in a very platonic and admiring kind of way. She is witty and chooses perfect words and is just tops.) is a woman named Kim Brittingham. She writes engaging, ballsy, funny stories about life as a woman of some size, and she has amazing strength of character that can't be squelched. The link is to her blog, seriously, go read her stuff.

Anyway this happened to her recently, and I do hope she doesn't mind that I am doing the c/p thing to bring it over here. I'm just appalled - not surprised, but pissed off - about the whole thing. It shouldn't happen to anyone, anyway, ever. It just shouldn't. Discrimination based on appearance is wrong, end of story. But it should absolutely positively NEVER happen to anyone so talented. Please to read the following:

Monday, October 13, 2008 

OK so we went rollerskating with the girls this afternoon. We found a GREAT family owned rink near us that is so cute and clean and has great prices.

Apparently, I have not been rollerskating in a very long time. And apparently, I am thus much older and fatter than I used to be, because I suddenly am unable to rollerskate. I used to be good at it. I could speed skate, and go backwards, and shoot the duck.

Now? I stepped off the carpet, wobbled crazily with my back spasming like I was being electrocuted and my arms flapping wildly, and promptly fell down. Twisting my ankle. And coudn't figure out how to get back up. Every time I tried, my legs shot out from under me. God, it was embarrassing!

So yeahhhh, that was a great sight I am sure. And my foot and back are killing me and I'm sure that will be fantastic tmorrow when I need them all day. BUT we had fun, and the girls did great for their first time, and even Pete who said he can't skate at all made it all the way around the entire rink once without falling down. A huge success. We just maybe should go back for lessons on Saturday before we attempt this again....

How is it Sunday already?? MAN the weekend goes fast!

It's gorgeous into autumn here - just at the peak of the colors! Yesterday Iris, Charlotte and I went walking in the woods and it was breathtaking. Every color around you: Green, yellow, peach, orange, chocolate brown, red, purple. It's like walking through a sunset. Leaves swirlng around you, above you, covering the ground, the bridge over the creek. It is truly amazing. I will have to see if I can get some pictures and put them up later. It's been a really nice year for colors!

Work is fantastic, I really enjoy being there. Iris seems to have settled into school a bit more, too, and that always helps. She is learning a lot and having fun, and I am grateful that I know both girls are somewhere safe. Amy of course is thriving too - she loves kindergarten and now she is in aftercare at the same place Iris is in school, with good friends and she is very happy.

Otherwise no news! We are relaxed, we are working on getting bills and marriage and other issues organized so that we can live comfortably and I have my fingers crossed it will all be okay. I'm baking pumpkin bread this afternoon... after we take the girls rollerskating! Their first time, we'll see how it goes. I can't wait to see Pete on rollerskates. I wish I could skate and take photos all at once! The girls are out in the yard with friends from the neighborhood, jumping in piles of leaves and laughing, the dog is snoring on the floor. Life is pretty good on this Sunday afternoon.

Amy has pretty bad allergies and she has been sniffly for the past few weeks. So we dose her up with Zyrtec (lovely stuff) and send her off to school and all is well. But Friday she plopped off the bus like she was a sack flled with warm jello and gurgled up the block to our driveway where she leaned on my hip and moaned, "I don't feel so good."

Sure enough, she came down with a vicious cold. Followed by Iris that evening, and now, Saturday, by me. Rest and fluids. OJ. Chicken soup. Because I have about 2046297932027456 patients on Monday, I'm booked for a 10 hour day with no lunch break as it is, and I HAVE to be well to cram everyone in. And not too loopy on cold medicine, because, well you know, that whole shooting lasers thing. Please, say a prayer for my sinuses.

In other news, we got Iris her Darth Vader costume for Halloween yesterday, and she's bloody adorable in it. Pictures will be forthcoming when we are not all mucus filled and headachey!

Well, I did it! I have survived my first full work week. And it wasn't TOO bad. There were some tough moments, for sure, but some fun ones too. Overall I think I have found a really great fit in this job. The commute is fantastic, I enjoy the work and feel that I am making a difference, I love my coworkers. The pay is not huge by any stretch, but it is a heck of a lot more than I was making teaching.

Iris doesn't love daycare yet, and she still cries most mornings, but it is FAR better. Now that she is there full time and every day, she is adjusting much better via immersion. Most days when I pick her up now, she is happy. After school, Amy now goes to the same place for afternoon care and I think that helps too.

Still no good solutions on the dog, however. Dog daycare is amazing and wonderful, but also $26/day, which really adds up! We are thinking she is probably old enough and mellowing out enough that if we give her a good walk in the morning, and totally dog proof the house, she might do OK with a dog walker coming by arund lunch time and giving her a walk and potty break in the middle of the day. Which is all good, except I can't find a dog walker. You'd think that would be easy. But noooooo. So the search continues.

The only other news I have from this end is it's already bloody cold here in the mornings. Frosty cold. The trees are changing and several in the neighborhood have lost their leaves already. Considering we had snow into May this year, this means we'll have a grand total of a whopping 4 months snow-free in 2008. Ouch. Global warming can kiss my ass!