Marriage

The kids have never really asked about marriage before.

I know some of my friends have talked to their kids about it, but the subject has never come up with us, and I don't bring anything up at this point that I don't have to.


Setting the Scene:

We are getting in the car after picking up ice cream to make sundaes before bed. Maxman, Hops & Barley and I are planning on having a perfect ending to a wonderful party of a day.


We're driving home and the word "wife" was used (the following is paraphrased of course):

"What is a wife?" Maxman asks.

"I am daddy's wife and he is my husband and we are married." I say. "When two people love each other they have a wedding and get married."


"Is there a party and dancing?" Max asks.

"Um, of course." I say.

"And is there cake?" Hops & Barley pipes up.

"Yep! There is cake and dancing and a party and you exchange rings."

Maxman then decided that he would like to get married and that he will marry his best girlfriend A. Banana.


Hops & Barley decided that she too would like to get married and will marry her best girlfriend D. Doo.

"I will be D. Doo's wife, and D. Doo will be my wife." Hops & Barley says.

Then they started chatting about marrying more than one person.


I explained to them that you can't marry more than one person at a time, but that when some married people fight a lot they can get very sad and some of them get something called a divorce.

Maxman assures me that he and A. Banana will not be getting a divorce because they will not ever fight because they will not have any swords.

Tomatoes and Witches and Candy, Oh My

(was going to fix the pics below, but thought I'd leave them "as is" in the spirit of the post).

Halloween was a blast.

One of my favourite holidays of the year.

Tons of excitement and candy and pumpkins. So much fun that I forgot to take any pictures that night (bad mama).

Have recreated the costumes (Maxman was not happy about this as you can probably tell from the picture).

Ahh...School Crafts

Maxman brought various school crafts home today.

This is my personal favourite: the Word Bubble:


I am keeping this one FOREVER!

A Book

Found this book one day in the children's section of the library.



I thought it was lovely, and loved how everyone had their own explanation of what happens when we die.

Then I forgot the name of it and had no idea how to find it.

Stumbled upon it again the other day and took it out this time so I could read it and would remember the name of it this time.

I don't need it right now, but think it could really come in handy someday.

Our Little Bartender

While enjoying smoothies at lunch yesterday, Hops & Barley turns to me and asks,

"Mommy, would you like a beer?"

"Ummm...maybe later. How about at dinner?" I reply.

"Okay, how about I open it for you and then go to bed."

Hilarious.

The Grocery Cart Chronicles

At the grocery store.

Trying to pack the groceries and get out of the way.

Told the kids to put their hands on the cart so they would stop pressing the button that makes the conveyor belt go and piles our groceries up on top of each other.

Turn around to finish packing and hear a huge crash.

Hear all customers in line and cashier GASP.

Turn back around and Hops & Barley is PINNED under the cart (one heavy bag of groceries is already in cart).

Kids have done what I asked and held on to the cart, then took it a step further when they both climbed up on the same side of grocery cart.

Heroically lift cart of H&B's legs (okay it wasn't that heavy but it felt heroic).

Hug her like crazy and check to make sure nothing is bleeding, broken, crushed, etc...Make her wiggle her legs. She tells me she's okay.

Finish packing groceries quite calmly.

Give very long lecture on what you are NOT allowed to do with the grocery cart.

TaaDaa!!

What We Will Try and Do Today

Install new weatherstripping on the front door to eliminate the strip of daylight shining between the door and the door frame.

I have complete confidence this will be as successful as trying to stop the leak in the downstairs shower.

Good luck to us!!!

My Beautiful Crop

JEM has been suffering from serious allergy problems for about a month now. He's been popping allergy medecine like candy, sniffing Otravin and has a box of Kleenex attached to his hand at all times.

About two weeks ago I was telling him that I'd heard it was a really bad season for ragweed sufferers. We were in the car at the time and as we pulled into the driveway I took a really good look at the weeds we've been cultivating all summer along the edge of the driveway.

Along half the driveway were some bushy looking weeds with lovely little green/yellow bell-like things on the top. For some reason, I still don't know why, I pulled a leaf off one of the bushes and went inside to Google ragweed.

I know basic gardening things, but many, many things are new to me. I knew for instance that we had milkweed growing in the driveway, but the butterflies like it so I left it. There are also morning glories covering the fence that are intertwined with everything else and I haven't liked to pull them down.

Google informed me that JEM and I have successfully grown a huge healthy crop of ragweed right outside our open bedroom window. Poor, poor JEM.

The plants were about three feet high and the crop filled one and a half yard waste bags.

BEFORE


AFTER


Then, just when I thought I'd got it all, I peeked behind the fence that runs alongside the big garage. This ragweed was also about three feet tall (at least):



JEM feels much better now that billions of ragweed particles aren't blowing into our bedroom window every night.

In my defense, I thought ragweed looked like golden rod. It doesn't.

Maxman Says...

Maxman: "I'm going to be a great dad when I grow up."

Me: "That's so nice honey."

Maxman: "I'm going to be a great dad when I grow up, just like my dad."

The Lake

Pics from our fabulous trip to the lake last week. The weather was perfect, unlike the blazing hot, body melting, anger inducing situation in which I find myself right now.

being Darcy

While we were at the lake recently the urge to dig and move rocks came over me.

Those who know my lineage know this is something I am powerless to resist.

However, while my mentor always uses the right tools for the job, I still have much to learn.

If you look closely at the picture below you will see the shovel I was using to dig up the big rock in the bottom left-hand corner. Next to this shovel you will see the one that JEM (who was fed up watching me dig with a Dollarama kids' shovel) went to the baby barn to get for me. I call this situation - being Darcy.

A Normal Day In Our House

Kids get up at 6am-ish.

JEM gets up for work and feeds the animals (Maxman and Hops&Barley).

JEM tells me he has to leave for work and I roll out of bed.

H&B greets me with shoes in her hands and says we must go for a walk.

"Later," I say. "I must eat breakfast."

Before eating I decide the mound of dishes should be done.

While washing the dishes I notice H&B rooting around for a different pair of shoes. She sometimes changes her shoes five times in half an hour.

After rooting around, I hear H&B fall down ALL the basement stairs.

I run to the top of the stairs and she's lying at the bottom on her back crying, a runner clutched in each hand.

I tear to the bottom of the stairs and kiss her head asking if she's okay. I'm trying to decide whether I should move her. I'm trying not to cry.

H&B says, "I okay. I get up now." She takes her shoes and runs off.

I sit on the floor for a second marvelling at a) how tough she is, b)how lucky I am she's not hurt, c)that I still need to finish the dishes.

I go upstairs, pick up the cutlery I dropped on the floor in my mad dash for the stairs and finish the dishes.

That was before 7:30am.

Now we go to the beach. Have I mentioned that the beach is a half hour walk from our house - yippee!!!

Ask questions of the door-to-door energy salespeople

Just a note to all about what happened to me today.
It's long so bear with me. Man I was fuming by the
end.

I had two seperate people come to my door this
afternoon trying to get me to sign contracts to
purchase electricity from them.

I feel the need to tell people I know about this
experience because it riled me up so much.

Salesperson #1:

The first girl from "So-and-So Energy Savings Company" started
into her spiel immediately and asked for a copy of my
Hydro bill. I was confused and asked her if she was from my
city's Hydro company. She said no she was with So-and-So Energy
Company and that they were licensed to do this or something to
this effect.

She started going on about wanting to check my bill to see if I
was getting the "rebates".

Confused, I got the bill, she took it and started chattering away
about this is what I pay, this is what I can get in rebates, etc...
All the while she's flipping back and forth in her portfolio book
showing me my city's Hydro newsletter and saying that it is my
responsibility to know this information.

I ask her again if she is with Hydro. I tell her I don't understand
who she is working for. She tells me again (see above).

Then she starts to write down JEM's info on the form she has. It's
all folded up so all I can see is one paragraph and the info she's
filling out. She never lets me hold it. I ask again what exactly
she is wanting from me.

She then tells me it's time to sign. I say, "I am really
uncomfortable signing anything." She tries to tell me that it's
fine and that someone will call in 5 days and if we're not happy
that everything is cancelled.

I tell her again that I am uncomfortable with the whole thing and that
I won't be signing anything today.

She doesn't like this, but I refused. She gave me the "Customer
Agreement" she had filled out and my Hydro bill back and left.

I looked at the agreement and was angry to find that it had been
folded to prevent me from seeing that it was an agreement as well
as to prevent me from seeing that what I would have been signing was
the "Yes, Enroll me in the Electricilty Price Protection Program"
for a 5-year term.

Salesperson #2:

A guy came to the door around 5pm. He was from a different company
but I was sick of the spiel. I told him someone else had already been
here. He jumped all over that and says, "Did you get protected?" I say
no. He says, "I need to see your Hydro bill to tell you."

I tell him that I am not interested but if he wants to leave his
flyer/information I'll read it.

He tells me that customer service is his company's priority and that
he will tell me everything.

I say fine, but just leave your info and I'll get back to you if
interested.

He says listen I can tell you everything (as he's waving his binder
around). But I need to see your Hydro bill.

I tell him I don't have time for this and just leave the info. He
interrupts and says something (not having listened to anything I said)
at which point I SLAM the door in his  face and lock it. I have never
had to do this before.

About an hour later he came back and knocked. I just didn't answer.

Conclusion:

I don't have a problem with what they are doing, but have a serious
problem with how they go about doing it. The first girl was prepared
to let me sign 5-year contract without every really explaining what
it was (remember how it was folded very carefully to hide the other
information).

If you enter into an agreement with these suppliers you need to be
aware of everything.

One of my concerns is that I used to work with someone who quit
their job in the province I was living in at the time to move out here
when they first deregulated - he was a very experienced salesman and
was excited to come out and sign people up and make tons of money. He
knew how it works and how easy it was to confuse people.

I also just found out that my mom and sister both signed up with the
sister company of So-and-So Energy in their province. They signed up
last June for Natural Gas service and both were really upset when their
bills started coming in this winter. They were waaaayy too high.

My mom called to complain and they were told sorry it's a binding
contract.

She told them that the salesperson had told them if they were unhappy
with the contract they could just change the name on their energy bill
and get out of it. Sooooo untrue!!

The company looked in to the situation and called them back and let
them both out of their contracts and said the salesperson they dealt
with would be talked to.

That's it. I am just really uncomfortable with the idea that people are
roaming the city trying to hard sell people something at the door that
binds them for 5-years.

Ask questions, take your time, you don't have to sign anything at the
door.

For anyone interested, here is a link to Frequently Asked Questions
about this process.

There, now I feel better.

Phone Update

As promised, here is the update about the phone battery I bought on eBay.

Old battery was terrible. It held a full charge for all of 5 minutes. Then I had to plug in to the charger. This is not a good thing when you have a cell phone.

Took the plunge, went on eBay, bid on a battery, won the auction. Paid $20 Cdn for the battery (this includes shipping and US exchange rate).

Battery was shipped. I received it. Put it in my phone. Battery DID NOT WORK. Argggg!!!

E-mailed company. They said ship it back. This only cost $1 so I did. They sent back another one. I put the second battery in the phone. It turned on!!! I charged it. It held the charge!!!! It still holds the charge to this day. I can talk for 1/2 hour or more and still be at 50% battery.

Compared to what a new battery costs in Canada, this was a great deal. I am happy. Some day I might bid again on something else.