Next?

We finally had a successful furnace inspection. We had our new furnace and on-demand water heater installed in November. Two months, three service calls and three inspections later, it finally passed code inspection. All of the issues were very minor, and were easy fixes. Just wish they had all done it correctly the first time.

Next is removing some demolition materials and doing some more demolition. And then we can get the electrical panel replaced and get an estimate on what it will cost to add to the basement lighting etc. That means I need to get going on a final floor plan. I *almost* have it ready. It looks good on paper, but I need to actually plot it out on the floor with accurate measurements. Then we move on to some real work down there. Subfloor and walls - here we come!

We had some good news for Bryan this week - he challenged the exam for his 1st year apprenticeship and passed. He worked really hard to study for this and I am proud that he met with success at the exam. He's going to try to get on to the wait list to take his second year of schooling at NAIT - here's hoping that he is able to get on at the top of the list, otherwise he has to wait until July. (There is a session in the spring, but we have a vacation planned in the middle of it.) His company laid off more employees last week, so it looks like there will be nothing there for him until spring. In the interim, school and working for another company, as well as working on the renovation should pass the time.

We really want to get this done - our goal is to have most, if not all, the work done for Christmas of next year.

Picasso? Miro? Ritcey?

My budding artist drew this today. When I asked her what it was, she told me it was her Auntie Keltie.

(Click on the image to make it bigger)

Things I am reading right now...

Raising Your Spirited Child

Hippos Go Berserk

Eat Pray Love

The Pocket Parent

Setting Limits for your Strong Willed Child

Too Big for Diapers

The Cat in the Hat

It's been another fun week at the Carbol Carbol-Ritcey house. I do believe I will be leaving the country the day she turns 12. I might move that timeline up a bit, say on Tuesday.

(And Mom? Once again, I am so sorry that I put you through this when I was this age. I'm not sure how you did it. And you had a newborn when I was Lily's age! At least I know that it all turns out in the end. You did a great job with Craig and me.)

Sigh. Please send chocolate, coffee, earplugs and kleenex. I need a time out.

OK, so my last post should have said, back to my regular posting NEXT WEEK.

I fell off the wagon, or was rather, just running behind it, and couldn't quite hop back on.

Lily spent a good portion of Thursday through Tuesday NOT sleeping at all. One night we didn't get her to bed until after midnight. We seemed to have solved the issue with her getting up a bit earlier in the morning (7:30 instead of 8:00) and making sure she had a better wind-down period before bed.

Bryan discovered the hard way, that games of 'chase Daddy' and 'Daddy the Jungle Gym' are not really appropriate pre-bedtime activities for a 2 1/2 year old. She was WAY too wound up to sleep. Quiet post-dinner activities the past 3 nights have made a huge difference.

So, now that I don't have to get up every 5 minutes to retrieve a toddler from the hallway to put her back into her bed, I can write again.

Coming soon - an interesting interview, a book review, and pictures from Lily's big girl room.

Due to a very late night with very little sleep, this is all the blog you get today. Back to regularly scheduled blogging tomorrow.

Did I miss something?

Was it declared 'Sleep Optional Day' without my notice?

Lily's bedtime is 8:30. It is now 11:12 and she IS STILL AWAKE.

We have had cuddles, books, 14 trips to the potty, warm milk, another 3 trips to the potty, 2 night-diaper changes and a visit from dad. NOTHING is working.

I even tried telling her that her beloved Buppa won't come over unless she goes to sleep.

Argh.

It's going to be a long night.

Thank goodness I'm 36 and still haven't slept through the night. I should be used to this by now.

Meg and I had an interesting night at the service desk tonight...

Customer:

I need this blind cut but I'm not confident that your staff will cut it to the right size. She doesn't know how to use her tape measure.

Us:

What do you mean?

Customer:

She doesn't have a tape measure with centimetres on it.

Us:

All the blinds and cut goods are sold and measured in inches.

Customer:

We are in Canada, aren't we? (Hands us a sheet with dimensions in cm) I need this cut in centimetres. She doesn't know how to convert this.

Us:

(Meg) I don't know how to convert either. We are provided with tape measured in inches.
(Me) Most building materials are measured in Imperial sizes, not metric...

Customer grabs her paper and leaves.

Sigh. We really wanted to help her. But we didn't have a metric knife to cut her blinds.

Someday, I will get a day off. Maybe when she's 18.

I was excited for this morning, as the Christmas break from daycare was over. Woohoo! Free day for mom!

Or so I thought. When we walked in, Gidget asked if we had a long sleeved shirt or sweater for Lily. We didn't, because they asked us to keep the kids in short sleeves to avoid play/painting messes. Gidget recommended that Lily keep her coat on because the heat in the school was barely working and they needed to keep the kids warm until the repair man came. Hey, no problem, all the other kids were in their coats so Lily thought it was fine. Repairman was due any minute, all seemed fine.

I went to the Second Cup, had a coffee and some breakfast, read a magazine and casually made my way home.

I let Bryan know about the heat issue, and grabbed a book and hopped in the bath tub. After about 20 minutes, the phone rang.

"Hello? No, she's in the bath right now. Yes it is. Yeah, she told me about it. Oh. OK. Yeah, I'll let her know."

(I would love to know why my husband always feels the need to tell people that I am in the bath/sleeping when he could just as easily have told them I was BUSY! At least he didn't hand the phone to me while I was in the tub. He often comes in to the bedroom while I am napping and hands me the phone...)

That was the call I was dreading. Still no heat, please come get your Popsicle of a girl. Because I knew she would not keep her coat on. She's that kind of kid. And sure enough, when I came in, her coat was in a pile on the floor, her hat beside it, and she was an interesting shade of purple. Some of that was paint, the rest was cold kid with pale skin.

We headed off to Value Village to search for some fabric for her new quilt. I found a great Martha Stewart twin sheet for $3 and another plain white one for $5 - these will be the backing and additional fabric for the quilt face. Can't beat well washed cotton bedsheets for cheap fabric!

We headed home where Lily ate her school lunch and had an excellent nap while I worked on her new quilt. I promise to post pictures of it, and her new room when it is all done. We have the floors and the painting done, still need to complete trim work and final touches.

Bryan called in to work today, and they did say they have a job for him. They just don't know when they can schedule him in. I'm hoping for next week. EI still hasn't paid him, so if Lehman can find 2 or 3 shifts a week then at least we have that coming in. I certainly can't handle working this much any longer. See yesterday's post for my thoughts on being away from home.

It was still a good day, just not the one I had planned for.

I told Lily I was running away to join the circus. She said she would like to come too...

Wish us luck tomorrow. Bryan should find out whether or not he is back to work.

While I have enjoyed the family time, I can't wait for him to be back at work. When you are with your family pretty much 24/7 it can make you feel a little stifled. I have no space and no time to myself. I really enjoy Lily's nap time in the afternoon - it's 2 hours that I get to myself. I can read a book, take a bath, play on the computer and relax. It's been a month since I've been able to relax in any way and I miss the down time. And it's been way too cold all month, so we've been cooped up inside with a cabin feverish toddler that doesn't understand that it's too cold to go out.

My only time away has been work, and while it has not been busy at the store, it's not time to myself. I hate how much I've been away from home.

I miss my girl.

This week, she wants Daddy before Mumma and it breaks my heart every time she does it. The rational side of my brain says it means she has a strong bond with her dad, and that's a good thing. The emotional side of my brain is another matter. I know she asks for him because he's the one home during the day, and that it's not something I should take to heart but I do.

I hate that 3 or 4 nights a week I have to miss out putting her down to bed. I miss 'cuddle in chair', as she calls it.

I miss our quiet afternoons together, playing with puzzles, or going out for a coffee (steamed milk for my girl), or running errands.

If the paycheques were actually going towards something fun, then I wouldn't mind so much. But they have to pay for the groceries, utilities and soon, if EI doesn't come through, the mortgage. It worries me.

Today was not a good day. I really just want to run away, just for a moment, so I can feel ok again. I know it will get better; it has to. I'm just overwhelmed with it all.

Thanks for listening.

Minus. Thirty. Two. Celsius.

(That's -25.6 for my American friends)

That was the temperature when I left for work this morning. I wore two hats, and two sets of mittens.

I like winter. Or at least I try to. It's fun when it's -5 or even -10, because you can go out and play in the snow, or go for a walk. It's not fun when everything is frozen solid, the car takes 15 minutes to warm up, and the roads look and feel like finely polished granite.

This is the kind of weather that, as Christine puts it, makes your nostrils freeze together if you dare to breathe in deeply. I don't like having my nose stuck together, thank you.

It should warm up soon. I am done with winter. To quote Lily:

"I won't like it. I won't like it more. All done winter."

Amen to that my girl, amen to that.

Today was fairly uneventful and VERY cold.

Lily passed the time by being very two and very silly. She ran into the kitchen and told me she was busy. I asked her what she was doing that she was so busy. She replied "

"I'm spinning" and proceeded to spin in circles, saying "I'm busy!" and then stumbled off because she was dizzy.

Then it hit me. In toddler-speak, she was DIZZY not BUSY.

Sometimes I need a translator. Or, just think like a two year old.

I really need to do this during the day, and not at night when I am wanting to curl up on the couch with one of my new books. I probably wouldn't last long. Work, as boring and uneventful as it was, is tiring me out. I haven't worked full time since before Miss Lily was born, and the close to fulltime hours I've been averaging right now are wearing on me.

It's not particularily challenging work, especially when you work on New Year's Day and all people want to know is

A) What time you are open until

B) Where the lightbulbs/batteries/garbage bags are

C) Where the washroom is

The answers were 6, over there halfway down the right hand side (this is an all purpose answer that works for most things at the store!) and all the way to the back. (Alternatively, they could look up at the GIANT sign that says "Washrooms" and follow that.) I still think we should just stencil toilets and arrows on the floor to lead them to the right spot. It's that or I send them all to aisle 53, which doesn't exist.

Tomorrow I work on the switchboard, which means I get to answer silly questions BUT I get to make faces and roll my eyes when the silly questions are asked because they can't see me! It's very very hard not to give the answers I want to sometimes.

"Hi, I'm just wondering what time you are open until?"

"Six o'clock"

"Are you sure?"

This is where it gets tricky. What I want to say and what I am allowed to say are very different things.

"Yes, we ARE open until 6" is the correct answer.

What I really wanted to say:

"No I'm lying to you, we've been closed since 2."

"Actually we aren't open, they just asked one of us to stay here to answer the phones all day."

"Are you calling me a liar? Of course I'm sure."

Instead, I play nice, mentally roll my eyes and wait for the next call. Which rolls out the exact same way as the previous call. If I could have kept a straight face, then I would have pretended to be a recording, stating the store hours, and asking the customer to press 95642 if they wanted to speak to a person.

"Thank you for calling the Home Depot. Our New Year's Day store hours are 10am to 6pm. Regular store hours resume on Friday the 2nd of January. To speak to an associate, please press 95642 now."

*95642*

"Sherwood Park Home Depot"

"Hi, just wondering what time you are open until?"

Sigh...