Happy New Year!

"We will open the book. It's pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called "Opportunity" and its first chapter is New Year's Day." Edith Lovejoy Pierce

May all your dreams, hopes and wishes come true this year!

Bring on 2011!!

Love, The 'Zog' Family!

Go!

Spontaneously at the right moment.

Thoughts?

Missing...

I miss my Husband.

<3

That is all.

One Of "THOSE" Days!

You know when you have 'one of those days' and you look back to where it probably began.....

That was me ...

In the wee hours of the morning I decided to grab a shower... To which I slipped in (one foot in, one foot out) and bashed myself up pretty good....

Then later today my oldest does a full out belly flop on the ice at the beginning of her lesson.... I think her toe pick caught the ice and BAM! It looked painful.... She was down... After some tears and hugs she decided to get back on the ice and enjoy the class.

Near the end of class the same child was doing bunny hops and landed right.on.her.knee. The inside half. A-W-E-S-O-M-E. She came off the ice and needed an ice pack.... here's a lovely lump and walking is interesting.

I'm sure she'll be fine by tomorrow! ;)

AND THEN.....

Tyler is up North for work (North of Fort McMurray) and was supposed to start driving home tonight after work (so heading home for the long, slippery drive at around 7:30pm)..... And then I get the text...

"Flat Tire!!!"

WTH??!!

Turns out there's a HUGE nail jammed into the middle of his tire.... So he has to now find someone to follow him into Fort McMurray tomorrow morning (he did get the stupid, tiny spare on) to be in line for the doors to open at 7:30am.... Get the tire fixed (can't remember if he wanted to go back to camp while all of this was happening or whatnot) and THEN start heading home.

ONE.OF.THOSE.DAYS.

And it's only 8:17pm! Ack!

Frustration...!

I have a few friends that are going through some..... Relationship issues.... And tonight, tonight my limit was had... I found myself putting down my cell phone and taking a few moments to close my eyes and breathe....

It's funny really, two different relationship groups, along the same lines but years apart... Odd. Is this just how life works sometimes?

So I would like to give a public apology to my friend for not picking up the phone again after the many texts we sent back and forth (the problem is not my friend and I but their relationship, I'm just the shoulder that is needed sometimes), but please understand... I was tired from a long day (who am I kidding, a very long year) and found myself not having anything nice to say towards the said topic...

And as I was taught growing up, "If you have nothing nice to say, then don't say anything at all!"...

And so, I followed that golden rule....

And I'm off to bed.

Kelly Moore Bag GIVEAWAY!

OH.MY.GOODNESS!!!

My friends from Eternal Reflections Photography have this wonderful giveaway on the go right now.....

Have you heard about Kelly Moore Camera Bags? I hadn't until they posted about this giveaway they're having on their blog..... And let me tell you, I'm in L-O-V-E!!!

Kelly Moore has found this amazing way to allow you to carry all that crazy camera gear that you know we all haul around and yet still look stylish!!



Check out this giveaway (honestly, why are you still reading this? Head on over to Eternal Reflections Photography!!) and follow the instructions on how to get the most out of your entries!!

And don't forget to tell them that you saw this on my blog!! Thanks!!!

OH! BTW: There are bags for Women AND Men!!!

My Strive to be a Unicorn....

I'm not one of those people who has a scale in her house.... I also don't obsess over my weight.

I don't allow a scale in my house simply because if I did.... I'd be on it every five minutes. No joke.

I'd feel gross about myself, have some sort of eating disorder.... And pretend to not to....

I'd be a horrible example to my children regarding body issues and such.

I could go on forever....

INSTEAD, I leave the scale on the Wal-Mart shelf and, when I feel the need to (like once a year), I make a trip there and weigh myself.

The only other time that I get weighed is at my annual doctor's appointment.

That's it.

Pretty simple, right?

Now, some of you may be asking.... Am I obese?

Nope.

Am I under weight?

Nope.

I'm exactly where I should be.

How?

I base it off of how I feel.... In my skin.

I am woman. My body changes day-to-day. It's bloated some days, then I look like I magically lost 10lbs the next... Soooooo odd!

I've decided to ride the roller coaster.... And try to enjoy it.

BUT... I've also decided that I will join a gym...

I don't weigh myself there.... I don't stare at everyone else around me dreaming of that 18 year olds' body type (Honestly! I've birthed kids! HA!)...

I'm proud of what my body has done for me. I've carried two wonderful baby girls.... Had an emergency c-section, 3 days overdue, and produced a 9lbs 2oz baby... Then a year and a half later I pushed out a 9lbs 5oz baby a week overdue.

My body rocks.... But it could be a bit more toned.

So I joined the local gym here on September 10th and have been going ever since.

Do I have a routine?

HA! No.

I try hard to get there right after dropping the girls off at school in the morning.... And Tuesday/Thursday's I have to make sure to be back at the school for 11:30am.

I find that if I don't go right after taking them to school, I'll never get there.

Now... I also have to throw in being the Chair of our Parents' Association... And being on 11 other Committees to boot.

As well, I'm the Carnival Chair (year end show) for my girls' Figure Skating Club....

So toss in a bunch of meetings, skating schedules, volunteering constantly.... Well, life gets busy....

So I didn't make a plan to be at the gym every.single.day.

I get there as much as I can.

I've gone for hours at a time and then I've gone for a quick 30 min's.

Life happens, I just try to keep up.

So I'm taking my stand... I'm making a promise to myself (not my Husband, Children, Friends, etc........ M-Y-S-E-L-F)...

I promise to not obsess over my weight. I promise to try my best in eating the right things (this includes a fair amount of chocolate ladies! As well as treating myself out to dinner when I feel like it!), drinking the right things (more water, less pop.... But not cutting pop out completely!).... I promise to make sure that I'm in tune with my body.... I promise to listen to the ACTUAL little voice in my head (not the nagging 'you should look like...feel like...be like...' voice) in regards of how I feel about myself. I promise not to spend hours staring at my body in the mirror (ha, ha , ha.... When do I have the time anyways??!) cutting myself down with stupid remarks about the love handles I have or any marks from pregnancy. I promise to take the time for myself to go to the gym...to do what will make me feel better about myself after my workout (even if the workout is only 15 minutes!). I promise to start loving myself for who I am. I promise that ANY time spent away from the home/children/crazy life schedule and in the gym is for me and me alone. And if I only make it up the stupid flights of stairs (hey, at least I didn't use the elevator), and on the machine long enough to learn how to use the actual thing (Honestly people, there's soooo many doohickeys on those things now!) before I have to head home... Well heck, I took the time for me. To better myself and clear my mind. No strings attached.

I promise to do this for me.

Me.

Care to join in?

(My strive to be a Unicorn... My Way!)

Cookie Toss

You can actully buy this game! Click it!

So in the wee hours of this morning Emma woke up and tossed her cookies... In bed... And down her sleeve of her PJ's....

*sigh*

After getting the bed cleaned up and ready to go she went to sleep feeling great.... Until the next time she tossed her cookies.

The odd things about this? She has a "warning system" like I do. We usually have enough time to get up, make our way to the washroom, sit there for a few min's and then toss.

See the odd part of our early morning?

After cleaning up the bed again and grabbing a bucket, she was back to bed. Every 20 min's to an hour she would toss again... Or have tummy issues... At the same time.

A-W-E-S-O-M-E.

Very little sleep happened by the time my alarm went off at 7:15am.... She then proceeded to toss again and I phoned the school.

*sigh*

Liquid has become an enemy to Emma.... Poor kid. We've gone from pink toss (the Pepto I gave her after the first time stayed in her tummy for a few min's) to a teal look (Grape Gatorade)...

Now.... Sorry about this vivid blog.... I'm tired of dealing with this.... But what I'm really frustrated about is that this has happened after only 3.5 days at school..... I'm slightly apprehensive about this school years illnesses with Emma's immune system being shot after having H1N1 last October....

Anyhoo, so far we're doing alright. She's laying watching TV in my room with her trusty bucket and water bottle.... And a little Sister who will hold her hair for her while she tosses! (What a great little Sister to have!)....

Oh! I also have to thank my Neighbor for taking Zoe to the play date today, she had a blast!!

Too Late?

For my birthday this year I was given one of the best gifts ever. EVER.

My Nikon D3000!!!

Everyone now: *GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!* (Repeat as many times as needed for full effect!)

I was SO very thrilled that my friends and family joined together to give me this wonderful gift.... I had been dreaming of such a thing for 15 years!

And then the total excitement started to fade and my fear started.... What if I totally, completely sucked as a photographer?? ACK! Could you imagine?

It took me about a week to get the courage to haul out my soon to be newest addiction (named Delilah) and take photos.... Which rolled into taking my girls out on one of the smokiest days here (forest fires from BC took over where we live) to the country to take some photos...

I don't know if I have an 'eye' for photography.... I like to think I have some talent hidden somewhere inside of me... But even if not, at least my everyday photos of the girls will be... Prettier??! *L*

You may notice that some say 'Cinnamon Photography'.... That's what I would call my company.... So I am! *L*

Am I too late in the game to be starting my passion in life?

Humm...

Almost!

Around here the 'New Year' begins when the new school year begins! And this year BOTH girls are in school! GEEEEE!!!

Emma will be entering Grade 2 and Zoe Kindergarten!!!

Again, GEEEEE!!!!

This doesn't really get to start up until the week into school as Kindergarten has three intro days (three different groups for this), but I'm excited!

Yay!

THEN Emma is registered with the Boys & Girls Club to give her something to do after school (esp. on cold winter days.... She'll need this!).... The best part? They help with homework! Phew! *L*

Zoe has KinderCare three times a week... So yes, I'll be picking her up at the end of a regular school day and not Emma... But really, who cares??! *LOL*

What, you may ask, will I be doing with 'all this spare time??!'.... I'm not sure. Maybe a class.... Probably a lot of housework (time to get that basement ready for another winter).... And a whole heck of a lot of volunteering!

Again this year I'm the Chair of the Schools' PA (Parents' Association) and on a hundred different committees.... As well, I'm on the Board for the Figure Skating Club that the girls are with (I'll be running their yearly 'Carnival')... And I offered to help decorate and plan activities for the Boys & Girls Club instead of paying the non-volunteering fee (that might change depending on how much time they need....).... *L* So I guess I'll be slightly busy.

Anyhoo, just thought I'd do an update of our household, it's been awhile!

More another day!

Update from the last Update...

Well.... We drove into the city for Emma's Doctor's appointment with our family Doctor (we all know how I feel about the Clinic Doctor...)...

Our Doctor looked in *gasp* BOTH ears (the clinic Doc didn't do this) and said 'Well yes it's a little pink, but so is her good ear!'... What does that mean? Her ears are normal.

Pain? Nope.

Infection? Nope.

Sick? Nope.

Fever? Nope.

Ear drum intact? Yes.

Humm.... So off our Doctor went to call the head people at the Stollery Children's Hospital... While I drove Emma back to school for her spelling test that her teacher was kind enough to hold out on until she arrived.

After chatting with her teacher and a few others I had 15 minutes to get home and take my med's (which I refused to go back for in the morning as we were cutting it close in time already) and be back at the school to work the Hot Lunch (Domino's!)...

Zoe trudged along with me! She's such a trooper!

Hot Lunch ended so Zoe and I rushed home for me to get portfolio completed for Emma's teacher (of the kids work) so she could show me what was to be added next....

As we were getting ready to go and pick up Emma from school my cell rang... I didn't get it in time... So I listened to the message... It went something like this:

"Hi there! It's Doctor Thompson.... We need to talk about Emma's hearing. If you could please call me on my cell (insert number here)! Talk to you soon!"

Uggggghhhhhh! You just know when a Doctor is freely handing out her personal cell number to you, it's not good.

So I called back..... For your sake I'll sum up what our conversation ended up being...

Emma has no reason to have hearing loss in that ear. No one (not even the specialist) can figure this out After going through her file over and over and over again they came up with a few things.

1) After a major viral cold (IE: flu) you can sometimes have hearing loss. Emma's was H1N1 back in October. So her hearing would have been lost in November. Odd.

2) If she's getting sick. Sometimes a cold/flu can cause temporally hearing loss but goes away once the cold shows up or leaves. Emma's not sick.

3) Fever. Fever's can do strange things to your body. Emma has no fever and hasn't.

4) We're out of ideas.

So... I was told that our Doctor was faxing over a prescription to our pharmacy ASAP for a certain Steroid pill. She's to do two days worth.... IF she gets sick, has a fever or whatnot (hey maybe her hearing will come back!) we are to phone and make an appointment with our Doctor for this coming week.

IF the pills do nothing then we are to rush over to the Stollery Emergency and deal with things there. Lucky for us they already have her files (and they will be resent Monday morning as our Doctor said, 'Things get lost in the shuffle!') and the ENT knows to take her ASAP for testing.

They believe that (if the pills don't work, etc.) nerves in her ear area have become inflamed and are causing her to have hearing loss. If left for too long it could cause permanent damage.

Awesome.

(For information you can check out this link regarding Sensorineural Hearing Loss).

So after taking a moment for myself, loading Zoe in the van and driving to the school (while having a heart-to-heart with my Mom) I took a breath and had to continued on.

I'm not going to lie.... I cried. It's annoying when you're unable to fix something that is wrong with your child medically. It's frustrating. Emma is as healthy as she has ever been since October. She's... Emma! And yet, she's gone deaf in her right ear! For lack of better word usage, WTF??!!

Anyways, I took the time to talk to Emma's teacher and explain what is happening and that if she's not there on Monday... Well it's because we're at the Emergency at the Children's Hospital. We're VERY lucky to have a kind, caring teacher for Emma. She understood completely and said 'not to worry!'... Phew!

I also took a moment to call Sarah and give a heads up about maybe not meeting up at Ikea Monday... (If you don't know... Sarah is one of my best friends... She's "Auntie" to the girls! I've known her.... Almost 10 years!)... Sarah was lucky enough to have the day off as she worked a show this weekend... So her response? 'Guess I'll meet you at the Stollery!'... Thank you, thank you, thank you! I don't think words could describe how much that means to me... Especially since Tyler is out of town working right now.

Later on in the evening I was able to call Tyler and update him on the situation.... I didn't feel the need to call and wake him up (he's working the night shift) as there's nothing we can do about this yet. This is turning out to be just another chapter in our lives... *L* And we, of course, will pull through.

We picked up Emma's pills and decided not to give them to her at night as they could cause her to not sleep... So Saturday morning Emma swallowed the pills down in hopes that her hearing would come back by the end of the day.... (As well, what a big girl I have! She actually swallowed the pills with water! No crushing them up, etc! Ha!)

No such luck. Maybe a good nights rest will help....

Emma woke up this morning... When I asked her how her ear was she quickly replied while heading downstairs to play with Zoe "Still can't hear!"

So, again, Emma took two more pills.... With the same hope that things will get better by the end of the day....

But yes... There's the most recent update. I'll keep you posted on the happenings of the next few days. Sorry that this one took me a few days to get around to post.... I needed a few days to digest everything and sort out how I'm going to handle this all....

Until then... Here's some photos of my girls from their last photo shoot! Geee!

My Emma!

Zoe is expressive when speaking!

*L*

Love!

Emma loves her new rain boots!

My Girls!

Emma outside!

Cuteness!

Her 'eyes were cold'... *L*

Gee!

Emma loves the outdoors!

Oh my!

Update 2010

Today I fully realized something... I had talked about it to others without thinking much of it... Just trying to 'survive' really.... But tonight, with a rare moment to myself at 12:30am it hit me...

Emma has been sick since October.

We've had a week here and there where she seems healthy but it just seems to be a lay over for the next thing that's about to hit her.

It all started with H1N1. By the time I got her to the Hospital she barely had a heart rate and was lethargic. I did, however, realize that Emma's mind would be one of the last things to go... After the Doctor had tried many times to find her heart rate with that finger heart rate taker and saying to her 'push your finger all the way to the end', she responded without moving a muscle: "I AM!".

That's my girl!

Emma the first night home. She was REALLY sick.

A check-Up at the Hospital. My Mom got creative and drew lips on her mask! *L*

Hallowe'en was spent sticking indoors taking med's all the time. Thankfully a friend from Church stepped up and made us a pizza dinner and candy grab bags for the girls! We were very, very blessed for that!

Emma made, what we thought, a full recovery from H1N1.....

The months that followed we dealt with colds, ear issues, throat issues and a cough that wouldn't let up. I have NEVER given my child so many different drugs in her entire life! Strep throat seemed to be hiding in her body just waiting for her to start to feel better!

The Olympic Torch after party. Didn't know just how sick Emma was! By the end of the night she just laid in this snow pile and couldn't move. Turned out she had the first major round of strep throat in her.

Last month, February, we had an appointment with a Specialist to see if there was something wrong with Emma's throat and/or sinuses. They gave her adrenaline to see if she had asthma... Which, thankfully, she doesn't... A little bit of a 'funny' feeling in her legs was all that proved to come out of that. Her sinuses were a bit swollen but nothing that a nasal spray couldn't clear up.... As for the cough that seemed to have taken up residence in her (honestly, she would get over every illness that hit her and there would still be this cough!).... We found out that Doctor's are still learning more about H1N1. Thinking we were in the clear was way off. Apparently the black showing up in her lungs (x-ray) was still from, you guessed it, H1N1! I guess it can stay in the lungs anywhere from 3-6 months after you're "healed". As well, the specialist called a few days later to say the swab they took of her throat came back.... And "nasty things (were) happening in her throat!'.... Yes, the typical med's they give you to clear up strep throat would no longer work for Emma (although she seemed healed from it!)... She needed the strong med's to kick it out of her.

Yet another trip to the pharmacy (I should get a special rate for being there so often! *L*) for another med...

Emma seemed to recover from her last bout of strep throat pretty well... I was starting to release my breath that I had been holding since the last time... Her snoring had stopped and everything had seemed to go back to normal. We had a final check-up with our family doctor and she gave us the all clear!

Finally! I could start to see the light at the end of the tunnel... So close! Emma was feeling good and happy that I didn't 'have to' keep her home from school on some random days.

Not only was I thrilled to see my daughter healthy and happy once again (although I do have to say, Emma is a trooper when sick. She'll tell you up front if something is wrong and she's gotten quite good at explaining the different symptoms going on.... As well, she keeps up with her medicine chart really well!) but I could sleep again! It may sound a bit selfish but I hadn't had a good nights sleep since the H1N1 back in October. I've been getting up multiple times a night just to keep up with her medicine schedules! And my Husband has been working 24/4 schedules... 24 out and 4 in (at home). To say the least, I was getting pretty worn down!

Life seemed... Good, slightly back on track. Last week I ended up with what I thought was a regular cold. Instead it turned out to be bronchitis with a sinus infection and pink eye in both eyes. Awesome. Thankfully my family was able to pick up the girls so I could have a few days rest... And for the first time ever in Emma's school life, I allowed her to skip school and stay an extra night with my family so I could sleep more. If the sinus pain (wanting to rip my eyes out to release pressure was a vision I saw daily) and pink eye didn't suck enough... Coughing until you bruised your ribs, threw out your neck, almost tossing your cookies (from coughing over and over again) and not being able to breathe as your body wouldn't take a second to relax to, well.... breathe sucked twice as much.

I was lucky enough to be prescribed some med's.... The pharmacist informed me that it may make me feel nauseated but that would be normal. I spent the first four days wondering if I was pregnant and why I had this horrible flavour in my mouth... It would wake me up in the middle of the night. For some reason it made my brain think I was hungry... Acid reflux? Huh. Turns out that one of the side effects is 'bad flavour in the mouth'. Nice. Imagine that you held a Tylenol, Advil, whatever powdered pill in your mouth for too long... You know that gross flavor that takes forever to leave? 24/7 here! *L*

Anyways... It's been four and a half days and I finally had enough energy to sit in our living room and read to Zoe while Emma was at school. I'd been in bed all day everyday up to today with the exception of taking Emma to school, feeding the kids, etc. My energy would be done by 9am... When I was only up at 7:30am... Yeah.... Oh! I would like to re-thank the two friends from Church that were kind enough to cook us dinner while I was down for the count. I don't think you'll ever know just how much I appreciate that! Thank you!

But back to Emma. Wednesday morning she wakes me up and informs me that she can't hear out of her right ear. I checked it out and couldn't see anything that stood out as 'wrong'.... So she went on with her day, no pain, no fever.... She went to school, she went to skating.... I had hoped that maybe her ear would pop and let her be able to hear.. A seasonal thing? After skating I drove her to the Hospital where they checked her out. The doctor said it was a bit red inside and handed me a prescription. The catch? I'm only to fill the prescription if she *hopefully* gets a fever and/or ear pain within the next few days. That was it. I wasn't told what to do after those 'days' if those symptoms didn't appear. So I took the prescription (and knowledge of Polysporin drops for the pink eye that seemed to be trying to kick in) and went home.

Thursday Emma still couldn't hear from her right ear. no pain, no fever. As the doctor had put it, 'weird'. I called our family doctor and asked for an appointment ASAP. It's amazing how quickly you can get in when you announce that your daughter has 'no hearing in her right ear, no fever or infection'.... We're booked for (today at) 9am! (And her 'pink eye' went away over night! Phew!)

So *fingers crossed* that everything will work itself out. I suppose I should get some sleep. It's 2am here and we have to be up for 7:30am.

Thank you for taking the time to read my little 'rant' if you stuck around... I haven't been able to blog as much as I've wanted to, and now you all know why. I'm exhausted... Totally, completely exhausted. But it was nice to take some time to finally update everyone on the major stuff that's been going on in our household. Maybe next time I'll be able to write about the 'other' stuff that ties in with the information above.

Have a great day! :)

Catch Up!

Merry Christmas 2009!

Happy New Year 2010!!

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