SO TIRED

At least now we know what all the pain is about and why the ulcer medicine wasn't working..... the product of 4 days of agony, 1 doctors appointment, 5 hours in emerg. yesterday, and 7 hours at the hospital today! After the blood test, urine tests, X rays and Ultrasound, and finally consultation with a surgeon.

It is gallstones, and his gall bladder is agrivated and swollen from them. They decided NOT to take T's gallbladder out tonight... then they sent him home. The pain is no longer ACUTE so they figure healing is an option, so now he has to heal a bit THEN they will take it out (apparently there is less risk that way).

No trip for us tomorrow, that's for sure.

That's good 'cause my list is nowhere near done with all these hours shuttling the kids to care and time at the hospital with my poor pained hubby.

Siderailed plans

So much for the panicked list before leaving on the trip.

Well yesterday was stressful. I took T to the emergency room with severe gut pain (that has been going on since Saturday) and we were there for 5 hours with him getting poked, prodded and scanned. He has more tests today, so it looks like the big trip North is postponed until he is feeling better. The family doctor he saw on Monday gave him a prescription but he seems to be getting no better -- yet. Hopefully the ultrasound this afternoon will reveal the source so he can be helped.

I am to be his nurse and chauffer until he is able to drive med-free. So that's what I'm doing today again. I will keep you all posted.

The trip is obviously post-poned to a later time -- maybe even Spring.

(I am happy to be in Canada's health care system right now.... )

Oh and I had my first taste of what teenagehood with my oldest son will be. He went for a visit to a friend's, with clear instructions of when to be home. Then when we were at the hospital I called to make sure he was okay, and tell him that we weren't sure when we'd be back, but to be home before dark. He mumbled something about wanting to ask for a sleepover, but his friend's parent's weren't there to ask yet. So we get home at 7:00pm, no Steve. I call the friend's house, no answer, I call again at 8:00 no answer and the light is fading..... I call at 9:00 it is DARK out, no answer so I hop in the car to find him. The friend's house is dark and empty, so I drive to another friend's house, but they haven't seen him either. I call again, no answer, I drive by again, no answer..... finally I get a call! Him and his friend (and parents) went to a movie. THEY COULD HAVE LEFT A MESSAGE!!!! They apologized (Steve lead them to believe it was all arranged with me already).

The hospital husband stress and the missing kid stress are a terrible, helpless feeling combination!

It wasn't a stellar day in the life of me.

Bucket List

My whole life I have had a bucket list... even before the movie came out (wink-wink).

You see, my dad thought it was infinitely important to visualize what you want so that opportunities present themselves to achieve the goals.... (and this was WAY before "the Secret" came out -- which I have not read BTW). That old story: If you don't know where you are going, how will you know when you've got there? And the sterner version: People don't plan to fail, they fail to plan. ... you know what I am talking about: Life is what you make it, Make your own luck, etc, etc, etc.

Having this drilled into me from a tender age, and seeing how much happier my dad was after he discovered these "truths", I integrated goal-setting into my life pretty darned early.

A few of the goals I have reached already (in no particular order):

1. get a drivers license
2. get a motorcycle license
3. move out on my own and not move back
4. post-secondary education
5. shave my head
6. have a "bad" boyfriend for fun
7. learn to cook intuitively
8. have a dog
9. make money being creative (not a starving artist!)
10. marry a good man
11. keep my friends dear to my heart
12. buy a house
13. start a savings regime
14. have kids
15. be a work-at-home mom
16. make sure I have a will
17. touch ancient architecture
18. walk on cobblestones that existed even before Christianity
19. see real treasures and luxury (the Vatican was excessive)
20. dip my feet in the Mediterranean Ocean
21. stay in Venice
22. eat good, local food in Europe
23. grocery shopping in a non-english shop
24. learn to love camping
25. have a job that involves needing steel-toe boots and reading blue-prints
26. pilot a plane (okay it wasn't really on my list, but Bean MADE me take controls on the little plane one time, so I count it)
27. see dinosaur bones
28. Disneyland
29. eat all I want on a cruise ship
30. cross the Atlantic
31. see the frozen North (through a tiny airplane window, but I SAW it!)
32. ride in a helicopter
33. catch a fish and eat it
34. grow my own vegetables
35. learn what wild plants are edible in my area
36. see original art done by a "master" of the Renaissance
37. Hack my hair off to raise for charity

I think I have all the BIGGIES covered (except my old age goals) Now onto the things I haven't done yet....

1. Go to a real costume ball (where you have to wear huge gowns and powdered wigs)
2. Play the Cello
3. visit England (my father's homeland) especially want to see a medieval castle
4. Go to the East coast of Canada by train
5. Ride a motorcycle down to Pebble Beach to see the annual car-show
6. Design my own house
7. Invent something and have it produced
8. See Aztec or Mayan pyramids
9. publish something
10. retire comfortably
11. pay off my mortgage
12. create fine art as a hobby
13. tour north america in an RV
14. live off the grid
15. live in the wilderness (like a pioneer) for one year
16. Design a car
17. go to Japan
18. jump out of a plane

okay, I know some of these are FANTASIES more than goals, but I'm putting them on there 'cause it's MY list.

Burning the Midnight Oil

Those of you who know me know that I need my sleep.

I need to get to sleep early and I need to sleep LONG.

Deprive me of this basic need and I get stupid and cranky.

So when I say I stayed up late to catch up on some of my work, you may be surprised. When I say I worked until MIDNIGHT and was still cognitively fine, you may be dumbfounded!

But I am happy with th results, and that means one less thing to do before we go..... still....

I HAVE SO MUCH TO DO BEFORE WE LEAVE FOR THE BIG TRIP NORTH!

It's a little intimidating actually.

The good news is I took a couple hours to hunt down, buy and sort and label all the kids' school supplies into their backbacks for when we get back.

I also did war on the laundryroom-of-doom and dug out the floor! (Treadmill is still stacked up though).

Things to do before Thursday (the work stuff is cryptic but you get the idea):

1) 5 ad sizes for ad campaign for OOB in black and white and colour

2) Email flyer for chamber of commerce blast for OOB

3) Schematics for RDN admin addition -- about 1/3 done

4) Schematics for a northern island Community Centre -- very complicated! I am scared of it.

5) Scan and send sheets for other schematics.

6) Tidy up the 6 tasks for new web client

7) One more Creative Comp for the big design brochure I just got

8) Follow up to make sure poster is done for chorus porgram

9) Finish invoicing for the month

10) Back up all business files to keep off-site while I'm gone.

11) Make and can apple sauce or otherwise prep and freeze the massive quanities of apples we were given.

12) Line someone up to care for, water and harvest my vegetable garden while we are gone, and generally not have the house look abandoned!

13) Get house clean enough to leave (no use having an icky house to come home to).

14) Make sure no bills will go overdue while we are gone.

15) Eat as much as possible out of the fridge

16) Clean and pack tent trailer... it will be our home for two weeks!

17) mow lawn and clear dog poop.

18) give the stick bugs to my sister to bug-sit

19) last minute stuff..... turn off water and gas, unplug all non-essential electrical items, make sure cat has clean litter, lots of food, take out all garbages, leave key with neighbour, make sure toilets are clean, windows and doors are locked, dishwasher is clean, etc.....

THERE MUST BE MORE! But that's enough for now.

(I lost where I got the picture.... some mortgage blog... sorry)

A new flurry of ACTION

Wouldn't you know it, just when I am trying to wind work up to escape for a BIG camping trip, work hunts me down and sends me more than I know what to do with!

(It's a good thing I got away to do fun stuff with the kids last week)

I am BEHIND on my construction drawing work. Seriously behind actually. Terribly embarassed by how far behind I am....

I just landed a new contract with an old client that is worth a significant amount to this household (BIG for my one-man-show anyways).

An annual publication that I have held the contract for 5 years running is coming up about 1 1/2 months earlier than usual.... like NOW.

And my regular clients have all their regular bits and pieces for me to do... logos, magnets, bus benches, a couple magazine ads, etc.

The most interesting thing is that my graphic's blog just was "discovered" by a new client out-of-province and is throwing new projects at me EVDERY DAY since they contacted me (thankfully they are bite-sized jobs)!

And to top all that I still need to do the prep for the camping trip... deal with my Summer kids, AND think about things like school supplies and new kids shoes (since we will be gone up to the LAST SECOND, and then some).

(picture from here)

Lovin the bloggin

There is so much stuff out there that I can really relate to in blogger-land! People who have terrific ideas and ideals, people going through the same challenges and people that have already overcome those challenges and are willing to share their successful strategies. It is a great pool of free-thought and I am happy with it.

I don't randomly search blogs, all the ones I have visited are somehow connected to my regular favourites that somehow I have found through my friends (and Gail's blog). Even so there are more than I can possibly follow daily!

So far, I have found a great, silent support network for everything that matters to me.... parenting, graphic arts, frugality, money management (short and longterm), conquering clutter, dreams of more world travel, and general search for peace and beauty in my life.

I'm feeling the love for the internet right now.... so I want to say "thank you" to all the people out there putting their experiences and thoughts out for the world to read.

Another lovely day out

I'm not getting much work done these days!

I have been enjoying many activities with my boys....

library, local museum, parks, shopping (back to school!)

But the highlight of the week was Wednesday.... we headed North to go visit Tai who was staying with Spider for the week! Because it is Summer, I had the boys with me, and because it's a weekday I had the dog with me.... they added a whole other dimension to my usually mellow visits with my friends.

We started the day by stopping in Parksville for a round of mini-golf.... I had to stop there to get a sample for a design quote anyways. (weekday business).

It was PERFECT weather!!! Not too hot at all!

Then after getting to Courtenay and getting darling Tai, we went out to a tiny farm- market to get some veggies for dinner and on to the unparalled beauty of Kye Bay!!!! OMG!

The sand was sumptiously soft and went on for MILES, the warm clear water shallow and SO RELAXING to wade into.... it was delightful.... EVEN with a hyper dog and two excited boys running past, splashing and cavorting!

We only stayed for about an hour before we headed back to Spiders to prepare for a delicious BBQ. Everyone really loved the food, it was so good.....

Me and the boys said our goodbye at 7pm so that we could make it home before too late (T has to get up SO early!). And we had perfect timing, T was just brushing his teeth as the noisy, salty crew exploded into the house!

Well we had SO much fun, we just HAD to go back! Grandpa Russ offered to take the boys up to the Comox Airforce Museum this Sunday, and as luck would have it, it's not 5 minutes from Kye Bay! We kidnapped Spider again on the way up to the museum, then we were all hungry so went back to town for a quick lunch. We dropped Spider back at her home (thank you so much for coming out with us Spider!) and then we made for the beach. It was much windier and colder than last time, but the boys still moaned and whined when it was time to go......(we had to stop at the same little market to get more of that amazing corn and basil and a bunch of dill too)!

Beautiful Weekend

My niece called me up last week....

"Can you bring Steve and Cami over to swim at Twin Beaches? It's really great and the sand is SO soft!" she pleaded gently.

I said I thought that was a great idea, and maybe I can talk Uncle T into bringing the tent trailer and we can spend the night! She loved that plan and I said I'd call back and ask her mom (if it was okay with Uncle T). I insisted with T that it was a great idea, and I called her mom to confirm that it was okay... yay!

So the tent trailer got dusted off for the first time this year (embarassing but true!) and we hitched it up to spend the night on Gabriola Island!

She was right... it was really great and the sand was SO soft! We ended up going to 4 beaches really, the gravel one out their front door, sandy Twin beaches (the sunny side and the shady side) and a sandstone beach near Silva Bay (I don't know the name).... we stayed until dark both days!

And besides the beach fun of swimming, snorkelling, shell hunting, paddling, "seaweed dress-up", and of course burying kids in the sand, there was some tree climbing, rope swinging, bike riding action from the kids, and a fresh, delicious BBQ'd salmon, home-grown balsamic grilled zucchini (with fresh basil) and tastey home-made, fresh-fruit flan desserts for the gourmet grown-ups!

The only hitch in the whole weekend was on the next day, Steve got either heat exhaustion or dehydrated (or both) and had a headache that got worse all day... then at 9:20pm on the rush to catch the ferry he threw up in the truck, then he threw-up ON the ferry, then once more at home!!!! ewwwwwww.....