Ikea trip

Since when did I become the one taking these quizzes?  This morning Sophia (5) at sunrise - before I even had the chance to stretch starts by asking me several questions.

1) mommy does Milo have a:

A) pool

B) trampoline.

2) who had a despicable me birthday party? Was it Joe? 

 

Oh my she brings me to my knees with laughter most days.

Today we decided on an impromptu ikea trip. I'm trying to completely finish the kids bedroom. 

What a disaster of a trip.  First fail of the day - kids up early.  Early meaning 7am.  Usually they are pretty good at sleeping in past 8am.

Second- zero parking at ikea.  This should have made me clue in.  Anyways after circling the lot we found a space - the very furthest space from the ginormous north York location. 

Ugh!  Instantly it starts. Charlotte wants to walk.  But not hold my hand.  This is not an option so I tightly grip her little hand as we slowly fight our way through the large parking lot.

She buckles her knees and twists and turns.  I pick her up and she arches her back and screams.    Finally I make my way to a cart.  Strap her in (thank you safety belts in shopping carts). 

She loses her shit!  Screaming kicking,  hitting me.  It's hot and humid and insanely busy.  

We must trek on.   We just drove 90 minutes to get here.   

Elevator broken at main entrance.  So we push our way through the store in the wrong direction of traffic to find a central elevator.   Of course people are glaring. Me firmly reminding Sophia and Christopher to

Hold the cart which is holding the screaming banshee aka Charlotte.  Spiralling through the store trying to find our way to the start of the store.

Ugh!  Charlotte is losing her mind.   I let her out while swooning over a 'model kids room' all three go into discovery mode - testing the furniture for durability by slamming themselves on the bed and chairs.   Time to keep moving.  I ask the other two to hold the cart again and i quickly snatch Charlotte up and rebuckle her into the cart.  

It's so busy.  She's losing her mind on me.  Part if me just wants to leave. But the other wants to finish the mission.   Must find plastic bug light, malm shelf and new duvet for Chris.

People are glaring at me : whispering - Charlotte continues to scream.  She wins this one. Jason packs her up and carries her to the van while I'm

left with team  older two. 

Easier now?  Nope. We get to the fabric section.  Oh the ideas that are flowing though my brain.  I could sew this and add this trim and ohhhhh the beautiful colours of drapery fabric.   The possibilities are endless.  

Then of course the older two start nattering at each other.  Sophia slugs Chris in the back. People are glaring, I'm trying to smile and hold myself together.   I do the right thing.  I take a way this princess stuffed puppet I intended on buying for her.  She loses her ever loving mind.  "I'll stop it, I'll stop it, I'll stop it, she yells!  Chris is crying people as looking at me.  I just want to crawl into the pillow bin and cry.  Nope:  I'm not giving up.  I've got a cart full of cheap ikea goods. We make our way to the warehouse to pick up our big ticket items. 

Holy crap!  My blood pressure is on the rise.  It's so busy, people are cutting in front of me.   I'm looking for aisle 12 bin 19-25 - Sophia and Christopher are somewhat under control now except the fact that Chris has announced he has to pee.   I beg him to hold it. I'm scrambling to make sense of the bins and pieces.  Thinking to myself, why the eff do I need to buy the legs separate to the base of the high chair?   Can't you just sell it as one piece?  Argh! 

We race to the self check- out where we wait. And wait, all the while Chris is telling everyone he's going to pee his pants.   And all the while I'm promising him the world if he holds it til we get to the bathroom.

Phew, we check out and make our way to the family bathroom...... That has 10 people waiting in line.  Frantically I push through the crowd to get outside where thankfully Daddy is parked at the exit waiting for us. (With a now sleeping Charlotte)  Jason takes Sophia as I rush Christopher to the rear tire where he relieves himself. 

Safely we exit the parking lot and head to our next stop.   Is it mommy nap time yet?

Veggie week 1

This year we joined a CSA - community shared agriculture.

We decided on the 1/2 share since its just Jason, Charlotte and I who eat veggies.

So excited to try a few recipes and discover some new healthily alternatives. 

This week included.

Spinach

Mixed Mustard greens

Mizuna

Chard

Kale

Radish 

Turnip

Chinese cabbage 

Scapes

Basil

Kohlrabi

Lettuce

The weekend was a bit hectic so we didn't get to jump in to our new basket of vegetable goodness.  I added some fresh lettuce and basil to my sandwich on Friday. Tres Bien!

Tomorrow we are making a frittata.

My Grandpa

In April my Grandpa was told he had a 

tumour on his lower calf.  A cancerous tumour nonetheless.  It needed to be removed ASAP.  The following week he was booked and scheduled to have this giant tumour.  And by giant I mean his pants were very tight to put on. So the survey was completed in early April by a surgical oncologist by the name of Dr Jay Engle.  Dr Engle is also a Associate Professor at Queens University. Smart guy!  For the surgery he would have the lump removed along with a skin graft from his upper thigh.  Surgery went really well, he stayed in Kingston General

Hospital for 2 weeks recovering.  He was then transferred to Lennox Addingtons hospitals convelesant home for long term care.   Every couple days we drive up to see him.  Usually bearing donuts or some

kind of delicious pastry. He absolutely loves seeing the kids.  Even though they are usually hyper and a bit crazy.  Playing with the bed and getting into everything.

A few appointments later due to post surgery follow up we hear things are healing well and other then him not walking we think he will be home in no time!

June 13th my Uncle Mike and I take him to another oncology appointment at the cancer Centre in Kingston.  The appointment was to talk about the possibility of Chemo therapy.  Dr Baetz the oncologist takes a look at his leg and looks concerned.  A new mass on the same site as his tumour has started. She immediately called in Dr Engle to take a second look.  Luckily he was on the floor that day. He looked at this new mass and

said he wasn't happy.  He took a biopsy on the spot.

Dr Baetz then sent us home with a referral to get a CT scan. 

Wednesday June 25th I picked up my Grandpa to take him to his scan.  He was feeling a little sluggish and was concerned as to the Ct scan.  I explained to him how it would work.

June 27 I pick Grandpa up nice and early and we drive to his oncology appointment in Kingston.  Dr Baetz would be reviewing the CT scan results as well as a follow up to some

Blood work and biopsy. 

The news was not what I wanted to

Hear/. I immediately was overcome by emotion as we listened to her speak.  My grandpa just nodded his head as he understood. 

The new mass had a name.  Merkel Cell cancer.  A very rare and extremely aggressive type of skin cancer.  Not only was it in his leg but a 10 mm growth on his bladder and a 4 mm growth on his right lung.  

Because of his kidneys being so weak Chemo is just not an option.  Radiation is far to risky because of the open site on his leg. 

Before the appointment started I asked my Grandpa if he wanted to consider moving home and getting some round the clock care.  He declined.

After the diagnoses he looked at me and said 'Jennifer, i want to go home now, where I'm comfortable'  

So now instead of focusing on my Grandpa getting better I need to

Focus on making him the most comfortable for how ever long he has left with us on this earth. 

As much as my heart aches I have to be strong now.  Knowing that soon he will be around those in heaven.  His daughter, his wife and many many relatives. I feel at peace knowing he won't be alone.

Despite the news that day was also Sophia's 5th birthday. He wanted to

Celebrate so off to Red Lobster we went. 

Peterborough Zoo

Well after a extremely rough week of illness after illness we woke up today feeling the need to escape the house.  Somewhere fun and somewhere free!  Off up Riverside Park and Zoo in Peterborough .  Perfectly sunny day.  Packed a light picnic, saw the animals, rode the train and called it a day!

Birthday x 2

Yesterday our sweet Charlotte turned 1.  I picked her up a couple small gifts.  A glow worm and leap frog spinny toy thing.  More so for Chris and Sophia to see her get something.  I picked them each up a helium balloon to pls with. I'm sure Charlotte was saying balloon, sounded more like ball though. We had cake from Riverside bakery and pancakes, sausage and bacon for supper. (Pancake Tuesday) we spent the evening doing what I love. Being with the 4 most important people in my life.  Oh and Parker to.  

Today our Christopher turned 3!  

He is absolutely the most interesting person right now.  Every day he just wakes up smiling and eager to make everyone's day brighter.  In absolutely love our mornings with him.  He just wants to snuggle right in.  

After we got up and around he decided to take Daddy's ipAd to his room for some quiet time before breakfast.  

He heard me mention presents and whisked his way down the stairs to see what I was talking about.  What a great smile he has. We spent the morning lounging around and then saw Daddy off to work.  We watched Frozen and played.  Once Jason came home we headed into East Side Mario's for a special birthday supper.  The staff even sang to him. , which he didn't like.

After supper we quickly picked up a chocolate cake and headed to Great Grandpa Thompsons for some celebration.  Aunt Jill, Kevin, Makayla & Jackson were all there too.

Perfect way to close out a couple great days.

Christmas 2013

Well it was here and then gone in a blink of an eye!! The weekend prior we travelled to Oakville to spend Christmas with Jason's parents.  The kids loved spending the two nights at the holiday inn.

Christmas Day was a hoot!! The kids were absolutely spoiled rotten by Santa.  

Charlottes Cheese face

In January every time a camera flashed in front of Charlotte she would make this hilarious cheese face.  Over and over.  It never got old.  Sadly it was just a phase because she no longer gives us this happy grin.