#instead i got one load of laundry in and a couple doodles and a mild breakdown and floor nap

[yupyupppippi]

sometimes Sundays are chill and sometimes there's so much to do that you're paralyzed and do none of it

[westfivestory]

This month has been interesting, I was hoping, and I do mean hoping, fingers crossed and everything, that this weather would let up, and some days it did, but quickly reverted back to the depths of hell cold whenever it got the chance. I for one am sick of the weather. I watch my cat for weather changes a lot of the time. We have one that as soon as fall takes a turn she packs on the weight, this year she didn’t as much and it stayed fairly mild, at least up until New Years, clearly her weather vane is not functioning at optimal levels.

Mikayla is finally sleeping better for the most part, the medication the doctor put her on did work for the time she was on it, and upon the end of the prescription her sleep was interrupted again, since then we attempted a few other things since she couldn’t remain on the meds. Physio was one of those things. It is helping with the pulling in her leg, for the most part, but there is still the combination of pillow propping under her knees, under her feet and of course fluffing her pillow under her head. These key ingredients along with her trusty massage pad under her legs is an absolute must. Or we are back to utter exhaustion. Oh and even though she is sleeping better, I have apparently trained myself to wake up at the allotted times that I was getting up with her. Lucky me. So most nights I wake myself up, somehow, at 3:30, 5 and 6 and then at 6:30 the alarm starts and I hit snooze for the next 30 minutes or so just to feel like I can function.

Mikayla and I had read You. Great book by the way if you are looking for something to get completely lost in. Now its a Netflix show. So it became a bit of an obsession. We watched it together, and discussed it, fully analyzing all aspects and differences between the book and the series. There were a few. But all in all, both are great and very easy to lose yourself in if you need an escape.

Mikayla listens to her Spotify most mornings and evenings as we are getting ready for work and school and making supper in the evenings. One evening in particular, she was singing along to something and out of nowhere Parish piped up, “We get it Mikayla, you can sing”, I laughed. She sounded so much like her great grandma that of course they never met. The comment instantly reminded me of the time I was shopping with my grandparents and my grandpa was singing and humming under his breath, but loudly enough that you could hear him. My grandma marched up to him, coughed to get his attention and said, “Art, the talent scout has left the building.” For a moment, it didn’t register and he continued on, until it did and he kind of cleared his throat, coughed and shuffled on.

The washing machine broke down. My Maytag Maxima front load. I have had it for I think 12 years, I could be wrong, but anyway the constant error code E01 and F09 kept coming up and it wouldn’t drain at all. So frustrating. I have fixed this issue once before without warranty and for the cost could likely have paid for 3/4 of a new machine. Not doing that again. Anyway, I weighed the options out there and discussed with friends, co-workers and family. After shopping around I finally purchased a new washer from Leon’s. M took me there with her truck so if we could take it immediately at least we had a way to get it. Luckily, they had it in stock. We took it then and her and my neighbor came and helped install it. We couldn’t get the hoses unattached from the old machine so T came over with a wrench. I have minimal tools.

What I settled on?

Another Maytag, top load, still the commercial technology that the front load had, but I am actually really happy with this so far. I’m hoping that my happiness will continue and I won’t see an error code for a very long time, if ever…fingers crossed.

Gunnar turned 7. My little guy is getting so grown up.

For his birthday, as usual I took the day off and pulled him out of school. After dropping Juno off for a spa day to deshed, bathe and trim her nails, we were off to Winnipeg.

We went to Crock-a-Doodle. I was a little nervous about taking him there since he is a 7 year old boy, is he going to have any interest in choosing and painting a ceramic piece. Clearly I had no reason to worry, he absolutely loved it. We worked on one piece together, a wolf.

He wasn’t too happy that he had to leave it there to be fired, but he was happy he would be bringing it home on Sunday.

From there we went to Za Pizza Bistro for lunch and we shared a pizza, he chose his toppings for his half and I chose mine for the other half. Together we finished the whole pizza.

The one thing he wanted to do for his birthday was go to the Walmart Mall, so off to St Vital we went. There we ended up with a new video game for him and he tried out the Magic 9D place, he wasn’t overly thrilled with it. I guess he isn’t into VR like his brother.

Later that week I ran an event at work where he got to volunteer, he was in his glory getting to have his picture taken and have it printed for him to take home, honestly with that and airbrush tattoos, what could be better.

We came home from this event to the cat having broken into the turtle cage. O’Malley broke in, not to free the turtle, but to eat it. She dragged it out into the living room and thankfully we were able to rescue it and aside from a scratch it was fine. At least for that time.

Fast forward five days.

Amid some house cleaning, the battery charger and battery that we had placed on top of the cage to prevent the cat from breaking in, had been removed and put away, with of course the best of intentions. I didn’t notice until it was too late. The cat broke in to the cage overnight. It has now been a little over a week and there have been no signs or smells of the poor turtle. We think she ate the little guy, shell and all.

That same day, I came home from work and after making supper I proceeded downstairs to do a load of laundry. Half way down the stairs my foot slipped on the carpet and I went down the last half. I think I missed everything until I landed on the last step. Avoided injury to my tailbone and mildly bruised my butt, definitely not the end of the world there, but I did jam my fingers into the bottom step as I landed. A trip to the hospital confirmed that thankfully they are only sprained, so aside from discomfort assisting Mikayla and shaking hands with people I should live. In case I need support, they did tape them up for me, and of course Gunnar and Parish kept me company while waiting at the hospital.

I must have some kind of talent, really, who falls down the stairs and instead of the typical injury of tail bone etc., jams and sprains their fingers. So weird.

Driving back into Landmark after leaving the hospital, we narrowly avoided a collision. To the person who clearly has no idea about the right of way or the fact that there is not a four-way stop at the 206 and 210 intersection where you turned in front of me on to arena road, you are lucky the road wasn’t sheer ice and I was able to slam on the brakes and barely avoid t-boning your piece of shit car. I wanted to follow you home and knock you out for putting my family at risk. Maybe, think next time, since due to quick enough reflexes we are all still here to reminisce.

Next morning, as I am getting ready for work I push the button on my key fob to start my car…nothing. Its attempting, slightly, but nothing. I take the van and head over to Freedom Foods, maybe the battery in the key fob is dead. So back home, I replace the battery and try again. Nope that is not the issue. So I call Giesbrecht Mechanical. A says “can you look under the hood?” Um no, I can’t even get into the car. Then he informs me, there is a slide button on my key fob which releases an actual key. I had no clue, yes I am blonde and did wonder why I had a key hole in the door but never received a key. Oh well, live and learn. So now I can get into the car and pop the hood, but I still have nothing. So he comes over and boosts it, it starts instantly and as I go to leave I realize the reason for the car not starting. When we got home the night before, the passenger door was accidentally not fully closed and the light being on drained the battery. At least it was just a simple mistake and not another repair.

With all that goes on in our lives, its nice to get out once in awhile. I took Mikayla and J to Lorette Bar for a Karaoke Night. They had never been and even though we didn’t sing, they enjoyed themselves. They hung out with friends and I played pool for a bit while we listened to other people sing. There was a boy that was of interest. So unfortunately instead of going and talking to him, the decision was made to send the drunkest of the group to talk to him. I was playing pool against him. He came back to the pool table and just said “I was asked if I was single or gay” cause clearly those are the only options. Girls…I don’t even know what to say.

The next outing brought with it a little more culture. First we sampled some Italian cuisine at Olive Garden and from there, myself, Mikayla, J and her mom attended the Three Penny Opera production at The West End Cultural Centre.

It was interesting. The reason we went was because the cast was not entirely, but a fair portion, disabled in some degree. There were ASL interpreters in the audience to accommodate guests and a couple of the cast members were also deaf. It was a good evening.

The next day F came over for a second play date in a couple of days. This was a rematch. The first didn’t go so well as Gunnar decided to play a single player game with his friend but monopolized the controller and failed to give him a turn. So this time, they selected a two player game, Disney Infinity and his friend brought over some of his characters. They both seemed to have a much better time.

The weather accompanying the play date was awful. So cold and so windy. We got a little more snow on the driveway but no drifting due to all of the trees and direction of the wind. So clearing the driveway at home was easy. Getting into work the next morning was a different story. The parking lot was layered in drifts, I made it through, parked and plugged in before I went to assist my boss, who wasn’t so lucky. He was really stuck in the middle of the entrance drive. It took myself driving, and him and R pushing, after shoveling, to get him unstuck. It was amusing since just a week or so before him and J were discussing how Subarus are such great vehicles and can get through anything. Clearly we all have limits.

Tonight we attempted to Chase the Ace. I didn’t win and apparently it is still up for grabs. The pot is over $11,000. Guess next week the place will be packed again as people sit down to see how lucky they are. This was my first time playing. I can say hanging out and seeing some old friends is far more interesting than playing my ticket. It was nice to catch up, one friend I ran into I hadn’t seen in about 15-16 years. Time sure flies.

February 2019 This month has been interesting, I was hoping, and I do mean hoping, fingers crossed and everything, that this weather would let up, and some days it did, but quickly reverted back to the depths of hell cold whenever it got the chance.