Cool Printable Calendar

Every month I google: Printable Calendar, and every month I get a different page.  Well this month, I wanted a two-page spread, and I found this cool website.

http://donnayoung.org/household/fullsize/block-planner.htm

Me vs my Gallbladder - so far I am losing:(

In mid-February I had my first "attack".  I had no idea what it was!  All I knew was I wanted to curl up into a ball until it went away.  Unfortunately, that wasn't an option.  I had two of my three kids, and had to take one of them to a birthday party.  The pain subsided after about 5 hours (or I got used to it!).

The next day, the same thing happened, this time the pain was later in the evening and lasted well past my bedtime.  I tried Tylenol and hot water bottles, but this didn't help.

Then a week later, it happened again.  This was getting annoying.  But after some googling, I found out that it was probably my gallbladder so I tried to avoid the foods that cause the attacks.  Then for the next week, everything was better.  I didn't have an "attack".

Then the pain started, but I wouldn't call it an "attack" it was more like a dull pain in that area that never went away.  The pain was somewhat manageable  although I would rather be curled up in a ball, I was able to work and take care of the kids like normal.  This went on for a week before I went to the doctor.  I really dislike the time it takes to be at the doctor's office.  This is time I could be spending at home with my family.  Also I usually have only small windows of available time while the Husband is at home, otherwise I have to take all the kids with me!  That is definitely not a fun time.

The doctor sent me for an ultrasound, and basically confirmed what I had googled.  I spent nearly three hours at the walk in clinic waiting to see the doctor.   Three hours!  Wow!  I arrived home hungry and tired at 10pm that night.  The doctor told me if my symptoms worsened or I got a fever or vomiting I was to go straight to the hospital.  She also told me to not eat any fat.  Ok....really? No fat? How is that possible?  I turned to Google, and searched for 'Gallbladder diets'.  I didn't like what I found.

• Eggs this sucks, because eggs are my saturday morning treat
• Pork - OK we eat this once a week
• Onions - don't like onions anyway, so good riddance!
• Fowl (turkey, chicken) - we eat a lot of chicken, this is bad!
• Dairy (milk, cheese, cream) - I love cheese and yogurt!
• Gluten (wheat, barley, rye, spelt, kamut, etc.) - Bread...really?  It's hard to make a sandwich!
• Corn - we eat corn, the kids like it!
• Coffee - I don`t really care what organ it is hurting, I NEED COFFEE
• Oranges, grapefruit - I like orange juice, so again, this sucks!
• Nuts - not a big deal, unless I was a squirrel or a bird
• Trans fats, Hydrogenated, partially-hydrogenated oils - hmmm....this is in a lot of food, but not really good for you anyway, my guess is the next one on the list should be here too!
• Margarine
• Fried Foods - Obviously. I will do better!
• Saturated fats(even coconut oil until feeling better) - again, not good for me anyway! 
• Red meats - I like steak a couple times a month....boo!
• Spicy foods - I`m not really a spicy food person, so this is OK
• Chocolate - hello!  Just shoot me now.
• Ice cream - It is March in Canada, not really ice cream time, but if this hangs on until July I might feel differently!
• Black tea - I am not a tea person, so I can cut this out.
• Alcohol, beer, wine, liqueur - I have three kids, I need the wine!
• Fruit juice - apple juice is one of my favourite drinks, even as a grown-up!
• Carbonated water - OK I can pass on the Perrier for a while
• Tap water - can`t live without this!
• Turnips - any excuse not to cook turnips is a good one in my books!
• Cabbage, cauliflower - I like coleslaw and I like cauliflower, so this hurts a bit
• Colas and all sodas - I love my Coke Zero....
• Oats (for some people) - let`s just believe that I`m not `some people`

What foods are left?  How am I supposed to bring my lunch to work?  Surely there is nothing in the food court that I can purchase for lunch.  I tried this diet for about one day.  I was starving!  So I decided to think back at what the triggers were for my "attacks":  Hamburgers with bacon and french fries, although delicious, are probably responsible for attack one and two.  I am thinking the second one was due to pasta with Alfredo sauce and mushrooms.  I haven't had either of those meals since.

Yesterday I had my ultrasound and it hurt.  Then the doctor called me to come in and get the results.  I had to do what I hate....go to the walk-in clinic with three kids and no snacks!  The receptionist promised to put me right in, I said I couldn't come otherwise. It was a torturous half hour.  The Toddler cried, the older ones couldn't sit still and I got to see the doctor.  The doctor gave me some pain pills and a referral to the surgeon.

This morning I felt great after a good night's sleep with the pain pills!  I also got an appointment with the specialist for tomorrow night!  Wow! Things are looking promising.

February 23, 2013 - Family Wedding

Today my niece got married.  Wow!  I feel really old now.  It was a lovely day, the bride looked beautiful and happy.  I don't really know the groom too much, but hopefully we will all get to know him at upcoming family functions.

The Girl and the Boy were in the wedding party.  The Girl was a flower girl and the Boy was the ring bearer.  After the wedding the Boy proclaimed that being a ring bearer was the most important job he'd ever had!  I was really proud of both of them.  They smiled when they were asked and behaved themselves at every moment.  People complemented our well-behaved children.  The Boy looked so grown up in his tuxedo, he definitely looked older than eight.  The Girl got her hair done and she was so good, she sat still for over an hour while they curled her hair.  We got her hair done at the Manewave.  Hopefully she will be able to wear her flower girl dress for her first communion next year, the dress was very pretty and she loved it.  She told me that she liked the way the shoes sounded when she walked.  I vaguely remember liking that as a child too, she said her shoes sounded like tap shoes.


The Toddler was semi-well-behaved.  He pretty much acted like a 17 month old child.  Which is all I could really expect from him.  He was happy and spent a lot of time wandering around the hall with various family members.  He ate some dinner, drank some milk and refused to go to sleep (even with his soo-soo!).  He looked adorable in his outfits.  He had the cutest vest and pants outfit that he wore to the church, then he did a wardrobe change before the reception, and put on an elegant suit that was complete with jacket, vest, tie, pants and even a little handkerchief in the pocket.



Everyone was asleep within a half hour of arriving home.  Even the Husband and I were too exhausted to even watch TV!

February 15-20 - Family Day Activities

 This weekend was Family Day in Ontario.  We had a busy weekend planned.  The Boy was going to camp on Friday night and wouldn`t be home until Sunday.  The Girl had a birthday party at a school friends house on Saturday afternoon.  Sunday we drove up as a family to pick up the Boy.  Finally on Monday we went to visit my Mother-In-Law.  Lots of driving this weekend.  I got to spend some quality time with the Girl on Saturday before and after her party.  The Toddler and I went to the mall for a bit, while the Girl was at her party.  It was busy, but a great weekend.

Cake is fun!

On the way home from camp on Sunday afternoon, the Husband treated us to lunch at Frans`Restaurant in Barrie.  I hadn`t been to a Fran`s Restaurant in many years (since I did my nursing pre-grad at Sick Kids Hospital!).  

The Toddler was very excited, I think because the Boy was back.  The Boy seemed happy to see everyone (he is making his happy face below!).  He had fun at camp, but we aren`t completely sure what he did, because he is not good at recapping his activities.  The only things we got out of him were:  he played with the other kids with his camera and the sleeping bags, something about being a worm.  The other thing he told us was about making a rocket.  He said the Beaver`s rocket exploded before it fell back to the ground.  Oh and he was able to tell us what he ate, but according to the amount of food he at at lunch, I think there probably was not enough food at camp for my big eater!

The photo to the left is from last night.  Which is technically not Family Day, but he was so happy that I just had to take a picture.

This week is going to be crazy!  Tonight I need to take the Boy to get his Tux (he`s going to be amazingly handsome) for the wedding on Saturday, and then straight to Cubs.  The Girl is going to Sparks tonight (not her normal night, they are visiting with the Guides).  My parents are going to watch her and drop her off since I haven`t figured out how to clone myself yet.  If anyone knows how to do that, please let me know!

Things I miss

I love my kids.  I love my Husband.  I really do.  I love their cuddles, sense of humor, their quirks and their differences.  I especially love watching the Toddler grow up!  I am older now and he is benefitting from our experience with raising kids.  He also benefits from his older siblings who just love him to pieces.  Even though I love my kids, I miss things that I used to have.

I think the thing I miss the most - and you might be surprised by this - is my waist.  Somewhere in the last 10 years of pregnancies and up and down weights, I have misplaced my waist.  I know this because my pants never stay up.  It is embarrassing when I have to hike them up every time I get out of my chair at work.   I've tried belts, but they don't help.  Probably the only thing that will help me is to loose 50 lbs.

I also miss silence.  I enjoy my ride to work, it is quiet.  I enjoy being at work, it is quiet. There is no quiet in my house.  Even when the kids go to sleep I can hear the constant noises from the baby monitor (the humidfier and the space heater go on all night), there is also the snoring husband.  His snoring is worse when he is sick or if he sleeps on his back.

I miss the movies.  We used to go to the movies all the time.  Once I week.  The last movie I saw was...OK I just drew a blank.  I literally can't remember.  I think it was Megamind...or perhaps Tangled....no it must have been more recent. I think I went with the Girl.  Maybe it was Journey 2 the Centre of the Earth?  Is that even a movie?

OK so obviously the next thing I miss is my memory.  I can remember most things, but my long term memory isn't what it used to be.  Last year I even forgot to take the Girl to Sparks on a Monday night.  In the summer I forgot that I signed the kids up for skating, and then remembered 30 minutes before class, and we had to collect everything and head out the door. Somehow we made it on time.  This week we forgot her Sparks homework.  I should really be better at setting reminders on my phone, but I always forget to do that too.

This one I think about alot, and it is kind of a viscious circle.  I miss scrapbooking.  I started when the Boy was a baby.  I scrapped alot about him.  But now it seems as though the more things (and kids) I have to scrap about the less time I have to do it.  I think if I was kid-free I'd have so much time to do scrapbooking, but then I wouldn't have anything to scrap about.   I think the Girl thinks I don't love her as much because she doesn't have a scrapbook, and the Boy points it out all the time!

Anyhow this is a short list, I am sure there are more.  I also know that once the kids are older, I will have more time for these things, and probably (just maybe) get my waist back along with my memory.  Off to hike up my pants and get some stuff done - I just can't remember what I was going to do:)

Missed A Big One (January 29, 2013)

Yesterday I missed something great at Daycare.  Felt proud and sad at the same time.  The Toddler slept on a cot without his soother and he didn't cry.  What is better, his teacher said he woke up clapping and happy.  Like he was so proud of himself.  I suppose that is a good thing, but I feel like I missed it and it was a surprise to me when she told me.

This morning I dropped him off and he ran in and didn't even look at me.  Then he saw the door was open that joins the toddler and infant rooms and he ran inside, gave the teacher a hug and proceeded to find something to do in the toddler room.  He is trying to graduate all on his own, how independent!!

Valentine's Day

So every year we purchase those cheap looking cards from Walmart, and the kids have piles of them to sign and bring to various events the week of Valentine's Day.  This year they only needed Valentine's for their classes, which seems like a relief, but it is 24 for the Boy, 24 for the Girl and 14 for the Toddler.

I scoured Pinterest for ideas that were cute and easy to make.  Also for the school ones, they shouldn't include candy.  Well I included candy, but not much and the Valentine's were not centred around candy.

For the Boy and the Girl we picked out the "Bugs and Kisses" valentine.  Which is adorable!  I found it here.  I hunted around for the "bugs" to include in the gift, but when I finally found them at  Party City, they only had one bag of 48 bugs (which was enough for 24 valentines, and I needed 48 valentines - 96 bugs!)  The employee at the store called around to some other stores but no one had the package of bugs.  So we decided to do the Bugs and Kisses for the Boy and something different for the Girl.

For the Girl we wanted to make this cute butterfly out of a lollipop that I found here.  We were so excited!  But we couldn't find the round lollipops anywhere!  Disappointed we decided to make valentine flowers out of flat lollipops.  I found them here.  Well we used two lollipops and I added a label that personalized them.  I think they turned out alright, but I wish I had made the leaves better!

For the Toddler, I needed something that was toddler/baby friendly for his friends, some are just 6 months old!  So I decided that what ever I gave had to be in it's own sealed package and I didn't want to give out candy.  I found this cute valentine using goldfish crackers.  Instead of making my own packages of goldfish, I used pre-packaged store bought goldfish (like the one's you can put in your kids lunch!)  I printed the template and glued them to a larger circle of red paper.  Then I quickly wrote: from the Toddler, on the bottom and the girl taped them to each package of goldfish crackers.

And because I haven`t posted in a while, here is a picture of the Toddler making his `cheese`face and proudly climbing the stairs!  I tried my best to crop out the junk at the bottom of the stairs.  The Girl never puts her bag away!

The Toddler`s Vocabulary 2013

Before this gets out of hand.  I want to keep track of words that the Toddler says.  This is the list so far. Some he can say more clearly then others.  I will update this when he adds more!

All done - complete with hand motion
Baby
Ball
Book
Box
Bubba - for bottle
Bye-Bye (Feb 16, 2013)
Car
Cat
Cheese
Dat - means what's that?
Go? - with hand gestures (Feb 2013)
Hello kitty (about our cats, not the character)
Hot
Kitty Cat (Feb 2013)
Mama (Jan 28, 2013 - finally!)
Pablo (more like Paba, but he means Pablo - Feb 18, 2013)
Up (Feb 2013)


Maybe we need to work on some other letters of the alphabet??

Signing

January 29, 2013 - Last night he clearly did the sign for "more".  He used it in context (while he was having ice cream).  Also it was so adorable when he had to concentrate really hard and look at his fingers to make sure they were together!

February 13, 2013 - He now also does the sign for drink/milk as the daycare teaches him.  He can also indicate that he has a dirty diaper too.  It's awesome:)

January 17, 2013 - 10 Years today

Today would have been your birthday.  I can't believe I might have had a 10 year old daughter had things been different.  I found some journal entries that I wrote after we lost you and they brought tears to my eyes even now. 

January 14, 2003 was the worst day ever.  I didn't really understand pain and heartbreak until that day.  For a long time after I hated ultrasounds. The day started out with so much hope, we went shopping.  I remember, we bought a diaper bag and some socks.  I think we also picked up things for a baby shower the next month.  Then we headed over to the hospital for our first ultrasound.  It was at 24 weeks.  We were so excited.  All that excitement ended when we begged the technician to tell us what was wrong and why did we need to see our doctor.

Turned out that our daughter died sometime since our last appointment.  After speaking with the doctor, he told us that the baby had some horrible malformations that could not be predicted.  I was numb with pain.

It took nearly 30 hours to induce and deliver her.  I asked not to feel anything, and I felt everything.  She was small.  I never held her.  I have a foot print and a hand print along with some clothing that they would have put on her.

After that day I didn't think I wanted to try again.  I was so scared and it was easier to try and convince myself that I didn't want kids.  I am glad though that I changed my mind and we now have three beautiful kids that are my reason for being. 


GONE TOO SOON.
--------------

This was a life that hardly begun
no time to find your place in the sun
no time to do all you could have done
but we loved you enough for a lifetime

No time to enjoy the world and its wealth
No time to take life down off the shelf
no time to sing the song of yourself
though you had enough love for a lifetime

Those who live long endure sadness and tears
but you'll never suffer the sorrowing years
no betrayel, no anger
no hatred, no fears
Just love, only love in your lifetime..

Odd thing to consider when choosing baby products

When purchasing stuff for your baby think about how it will look in photos.  For example the high chair:  as soon as your baby gets more mobile, he won't want to sit still to have his photo taken.  If the high chair has nice and simple decorative padding on the back of the seat your photos won't appear cluttered.

I never really thought about this until my Dad mentioned that the photos I take of Toddler in the high chair look nice.  I take a lot of photos with him in the chair.  Last year during my photo a day blog I was having time constraints when I went back to work and the only place I could quickly get a shot was in the chair.  I am glad I got a nice high chair:)

By the way I have the Peg Perego Prima Pappa in Savana Cocao.

Inner Geek - Work Stuff I Might Need Later

I love this blog post - I'm a geek!  I know...but it shows clearly how to format your letter in word so that the address shows in the window of the envelope.  NO MORE GUESS WORK!  I am definately going to use this next time I type a letter.

I hate it when I use labels and they get all blackened when they run through the printer more than once, what if I just need to do one envelope?

Make address guesswork a thing of the past

October 23, 2012

Writing and printing letters in Microsoft Word is a fairly simple task that all virtual assistants must know how to do. Yet recently, I was asked a question that I actually didn’t know the answer to. I was asked “what are the measurements for placing the address block in a letter in the correct place so that they show in a window envelope?” Well, I thought, surely it’s just one of those things that you know. I just KNOW where to put it so that it lines up with the window as equally I just KNOW where exactly to fold the letter so that it folds tidily. Perhaps it’s an inbuilt secretarial sixth sense? No, I doubt it, it’s more likely to be the numerous years of trial and error, frustration and wasted paper back when I was an employed secretary!

Now that’s fine for those of us who have these great letter typing/folding skills, but what about those who don’t, your clients for instance? As a result of this conversation, I was then asked if I could create a template letterhead for my client, so that they can make sure they always get their address block in the correct place so I thought I’d share it with you.

It’s important to remember that it’s possible that the window positioning could vary slightly depending upon the manufacturer, but on the whole, these measurements should work for most envelopes. The standard window (a left-hand window) size and position is the same for all commercial window envelopes, regardless of the size of the envelope. It measures 9cm wide and 3.45cm deep. It is positioned 2cm from the left side of the envelope and 1.2cm from the bottom of the envelope.

Create your address container

To begin, open a new Microsoft Word document. Then using either paragraph formatting or a text box or frame we want to position our address. With my template, I chose to use a text box, as I feel that this will eliminate user error with accidentally moving the text box and upsetting the alignment. You could just as easily the address directly onto the document, using paragraph formatting to set the address block alignment.

To insert a new text box click insert > text box > draw text box

then click anywhere in your document and draw a small text box. At this point, the size doesn’t actually matter as we are going to set the dimensions from within the text box properties.

Size & Positioning

Next, right click in your text box and select ‘more layout options’, you’ll then be presented with a further box with options. Firstly, choose the ‘Position’ tab and set the settings as in the image below. As margins may vary in different documents it is important that you set the absolute position relative to the page and not the margin:

• Horizontal alighment – set the absolute position to 2cm to the right of page
• Vertical alignment – set the absolute position to 5.5cm below page
• Make sure that the options to move object with text are unchecked to avoid the text box moving when the letter is edited.

Next, select the tab named ‘size’ and set the size as in the image below:

• In the first section, set the height to 3.45cm
• In the next section set the width to 9cm

When you are done, click ‘ok’.

You should now see you text box positioned something like this. You can add in a dummy address at this point so that you can see how to position your text. Your text box should be almost exactly the same measurement and positioning as the window in your envelope. The next step is to position your text inside the text box, allowing perhaps for slight errors in folding the letter or slight variations in window position.

As we did before, right click on your text box, and this time select ‘format shape’

In the resulting window, select ‘text box’ from the menu on the left (near the bottom) and then you will see the options for formatting the internal margins of your text box. You can play with these and set them to your preference, but I found that an internal margin of 0.5 – 1cm was sufficient. I made sure to leave at least 1cm in the left hand margin to make sure that the address won’t be cut off by being too close to the edge of the window on the envelope.

Also, make sure that the check box ‘resize shape to fit text’ stays unchecked to avoid your text box changing shape when you alter the address.

When you are done, click ‘close’ and that’s all there is to it.

One last thing…

One final little touch that I added to my template was two very small marks in the margins of my document positioned at 10.4cm below the top of the page. I simply did this using the line tool to make a tiny line, then right click and position as we did for the text box. I put these into the header of the document so that they couldn’t be accidentally deleted, but they serve as a useful guide for folding your letter and making sure that you get it right first time!

January's First Snowman

The Girl played outside on the Sunday before we all went back to school and work.  She worked hard on rolling the parts of the snowman, and I helped her by lifting them into place.  The Boy played outside for a little while, but he was much more interested in playing Skylanders Giants (the most amazing Christmas present ever!  Santa is so smart!).

She was so excited to finally use the snowman kit that they got for Christmas 2011, last winter there was no snow, so they weren't able to build even one snowman.  She made up for it with this Girl-sized snowman which looks awesome!

The Baby was feeling under the weather (I think he had a reaction to the Chicken Pox vaccine) because he was running a fever and still had that horrible runny nose.  You can see in the photo....not all my photos are nice....it is important to remember that the kids had snotty noses, it's all part of being a kid!

January 8, 2013 - Off to a Sick start

I was hoping to enjoy the week off between New Year's and going back to work, but I spent the week caring for three sick kids.  The Girl was still fighting off her ear and throat infection.  She was getting better, but still had sporadic fevers.  I spent the morning of New Year's Day in the walk in clinic with the Boy for the same issue.  Turned out he had tonsillitis.


On the 3rd I took the Girl to the dentist to have her first tooth pulled.  Unfortunately my kids tend to have new teeth come in just behind their baby teeth, this doesn't allow for the new teeth to push out the baby ones properly.  I thought she was going to cry, but she just made an "eek" when he pulled it out.  What a brave girl!


On the 4th, I took the Baby Toddler to the Doctor for his 15 month check-up and vaccinations.  He got a fever on the 5th, I assume it was from the chicken pox vaccine, although none of my other kids ever got sick from it.  I have learned that child #3 doesn't follow any of the familiar patterns of my other kids.  I suppose if we were crazy and decided to have a 4th kid (which is impossible now and not going to happen) that child would have his or her own way of being too.  I love the uniqueness that each kid has.  Their different personalities and their own way of seeing the world.

The Girl is beautiful, positive, happy, giving, loving and creative.  She would give you her last piece of chocolate if you asked, and would cuddle with you all night if she felt you needed it.  She loves both of her brothers and looks up to her big brother so much.  She loves getting her photo taken, dressing up and getting dirty.

The Boy is silly, smart, eager to learn, interested in science, nature and the world.  He can be selfish and mean at times, and has a hard time understanding how he speaks with people. But he can also be cuddly and gentle.  He loves his little brother and he is great at watching him and holding him.  He loves his sister, but he can't or doesn't know how to show it.  I wonder if he is just getting to the age where all girls are gross, and his sister just happens to fall into that group?


The Toddler is hilarious, he is funnier then the Boy (and we didn't think that was possible).  He is smart and learns quickly.  He loves playing with cars and dolls and he gets along with everyone.  He is also stubborn and hates having his nose cleaned (it sounds like I am torturing him just so he doesn't have a boogy filled nose!).  He is also cuddly and is most content when his entire family is home with him in the family room.

Going back to work on Monday was bittersweet, again, because I enjoyed being at home, and I got so much done over the break, I know that if I had a few more days, I could get the house into a better place (organized wise).  Being home with the kids was nice, even though they were sick.  Things would have been worse if they were sick while I was supposed to be at work, because it would probably have resulted in me missing work to take care of them.

I am not sure how my posts are going to happen this year, but I will definately keep them up.  I might post two days in a row, or not for a week.  I am still taking pictures at home of the kids, but I'm not sure how many of them I will be posting.  Life is busy, and I think I am going to try and spend more time living it then writing about it.  If I have something interesting to Blog about, you will find it here.