So my current excuse for not posting more often is that I've fallen into a job. I found a chartered accountant in town who needs an assistant full-time March & April and then if it's working out between us, she may possibly ask me to stay part-time the rest of the year. It's not the best paying job I've ever had, however, I've never done Canadian taxes and she was hoping to hire someone with experience, but the person she'd originally hired dropped dead (not making this up) the day before he was set to start. So she was desperate and I sounded convincing that I'd be able to do the job.
There are a lot of perks- we listen to rock music all day. The job is a 5 minute drive from my house. This means I can get the kids off to school at 8:45 and be at work by 9am. There's no required overtime. I work 9-5, only 4:30 on Fridays and no Saturdays. Most of the returns are fairly easy-small businesses that are report by the owner or seniors with pensions and government payments. Almost everyone I work on is getting a refund, which means they are happy to see me.
So far it's ok, we have a day or two where numbers don't seem to be working, we have a cranky client or I've made a big mistake that annoys both myself and my boss, but for the most part these last few weeks of a very cold winter are passing by quickly.
Sunday, March 22, 2015
H, so unpredictable....
H is his own free spirit. My last post was about "the cutting incident" as it's now referred to. But really he is a sweet soul on the inside. Each month his teacher gives them a writing or drawing assignment to be shared on their special day of the month. H wrote a long paragraph a few weeks ago but had to erase it because the spelling was atrocious, he used no spacing and his penmanship leaves a lot to be desired. So we erased it all and set it aside for a week or two. Today, I mentioned to him at our weekly family dinner that he needed to work on it. My sister in law who is a Kindergarten teacher asked him what he was going to answer so he was able to do it quickly with little fuss when we got home....
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The question posed is, "What would you do if you found a pot of gold?"
"I would give it to poor people." His aunt said, "That's so nice of you to share! What would you do with your part of it?" He answered, "oh, no, I'd give all of it to poor people, my family has enough money, we don't need it."
"I would give it to poor people." His aunt said, "That's so nice of you to share! What would you do with your part of it?" He answered, "oh, no, I'd give all of it to poor people, my family has enough money, we don't need it."
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Overdue call from school
We, as parents, get a lot of communication from the school. By communication, I mean that the school calls generally once every 1-3 weeks to tell us something that simply cannot wait until the children get home with a note. And by that, I mean something bad about our children while they insinuate that we must have gotten our parenting licenses out of a Cracker Jack box.
I mentioned to P that we hadn't gotten a call in a few weeks. Well, Karma caught up with us and it was a call principal (I was out). Apparently H had been bored/curious/who knows what during assignments and reached over to the kid next to him and cut his hand open with a pair of school scissors. The principal explained that she didn't think it was provoked or even malicious since H just kept crying and saying, "I didn't think school scissors would be sharp enough to cut skin!" Imagine H's, A's & Mrs. W's surprise when there was blood gushing everywhere. My response after trying to figure out WTH was he thinking was, "who was it that you cut? Please tell me it wasn't K. You have a birthday party with him this weekend and that would make the parental conversation VERY awkward if it's K. Speaking of, you'd better enjoy that birthday party, because once word gets out of your actions, I'd be very surprised if you are invited to many more parties. "
Word was already spreading. C asked as soon as he got home what was going on with H since the lunch monitor (a 6th grader) was telling everyone the story. Great. I was able to talk to Mrs. W and fill in some of the gaps in the story. It seems there was no provocation and the boys had seemed to get along just fine before and H seemed very upset and apologetic about the incident. Note: I made him write a note to the kid and also he's been banned from video games for an entire week-I think the biggest punishment ever given in our house and he hasn't mentioned them once all week and has been very, very serious about not playing video games all week. However, she felt a little badly for A, because it seems during the evening performance of the Christmas pagent, he'd been attacked onstage during the Grade 1 performance. When A's dad picked him up to bandage him up, he just asked if it was the same child who attacked him on stage. Mrs. W said, "no, it was H" and then A's dad and Mrs. W tried to figure out what the provocation was since A and H always seemed to get along fine. But apparently A's dad was "pretty cool" about the whole situation.
Later that night V had a fever (she's been sick all week) of 104 that just wouldn't go down. After calling our regular doctor who had no free openings in their after-hours clinic, I tried the urgent care down the road from us. After showing our OHIP card (provincial insurance) and waiting about 10 minutes we saw a doctor and were checked over and given a strep test. 5 more minutes to find out it was negative and write a prescription for antibiotics (I guess you can't just tell a mom of a child with a temp of 104 to just go home and wait it out) we walked to the pharmacy next door which was not only open, but the charge was only $25 (we have no prescription coverage) and took about 10 minutes to fill. We headed home, gave her a dose and the next day she's fine and normal temperature. I now have a chest cold but with a Dayquil/Nyquil pack chased down by Buckley's cough syrup (their motto is, "it tastes terrible, but it works" and it's correct on both counts) I'm making it through and had a lovely day of curling, lunch out with an American friend and dinner out with a friend from BC who now lives here. Tomorrow morning I'm taking my neighbor for an outing at Costco.
Final bit of news, my brother-in-law has now started his own pizzeria! Ontario's employment department has an entrepreneur program that he's graduated from to get new business owners not only working for themselves, but hopefully employing others in the community! Paul's been helping him out some evenings which is good for him to get out of the house, though he already says he's eaten more than his fair share of pizza lately. The pizzeria will be providing pizza as an after curling snack for our upcoming ladies bonspiel (a curling game where people from other clubs come to play) as well as for dinner at our curling club's progressive bonspiel. The progressive bonspiel sounds like lots of fun. It's yellow against blue. You pick a color and play 2 ends. You then change sheets and play the same color rocks against a different team but keep the score from the first game played on the sheet. Whichever color has the most points at the end of 8 ends wins the prizes!
I mentioned to P that we hadn't gotten a call in a few weeks. Well, Karma caught up with us and it was a call principal (I was out). Apparently H had been bored/curious/who knows what during assignments and reached over to the kid next to him and cut his hand open with a pair of school scissors. The principal explained that she didn't think it was provoked or even malicious since H just kept crying and saying, "I didn't think school scissors would be sharp enough to cut skin!" Imagine H's, A's & Mrs. W's surprise when there was blood gushing everywhere. My response after trying to figure out WTH was he thinking was, "who was it that you cut? Please tell me it wasn't K. You have a birthday party with him this weekend and that would make the parental conversation VERY awkward if it's K. Speaking of, you'd better enjoy that birthday party, because once word gets out of your actions, I'd be very surprised if you are invited to many more parties. "
Word was already spreading. C asked as soon as he got home what was going on with H since the lunch monitor (a 6th grader) was telling everyone the story. Great. I was able to talk to Mrs. W and fill in some of the gaps in the story. It seems there was no provocation and the boys had seemed to get along just fine before and H seemed very upset and apologetic about the incident. Note: I made him write a note to the kid and also he's been banned from video games for an entire week-I think the biggest punishment ever given in our house and he hasn't mentioned them once all week and has been very, very serious about not playing video games all week. However, she felt a little badly for A, because it seems during the evening performance of the Christmas pagent, he'd been attacked onstage during the Grade 1 performance. When A's dad picked him up to bandage him up, he just asked if it was the same child who attacked him on stage. Mrs. W said, "no, it was H" and then A's dad and Mrs. W tried to figure out what the provocation was since A and H always seemed to get along fine. But apparently A's dad was "pretty cool" about the whole situation.
Later that night V had a fever (she's been sick all week) of 104 that just wouldn't go down. After calling our regular doctor who had no free openings in their after-hours clinic, I tried the urgent care down the road from us. After showing our OHIP card (provincial insurance) and waiting about 10 minutes we saw a doctor and were checked over and given a strep test. 5 more minutes to find out it was negative and write a prescription for antibiotics (I guess you can't just tell a mom of a child with a temp of 104 to just go home and wait it out) we walked to the pharmacy next door which was not only open, but the charge was only $25 (we have no prescription coverage) and took about 10 minutes to fill. We headed home, gave her a dose and the next day she's fine and normal temperature. I now have a chest cold but with a Dayquil/Nyquil pack chased down by Buckley's cough syrup (their motto is, "it tastes terrible, but it works" and it's correct on both counts) I'm making it through and had a lovely day of curling, lunch out with an American friend and dinner out with a friend from BC who now lives here. Tomorrow morning I'm taking my neighbor for an outing at Costco.
Final bit of news, my brother-in-law has now started his own pizzeria! Ontario's employment department has an entrepreneur program that he's graduated from to get new business owners not only working for themselves, but hopefully employing others in the community! Paul's been helping him out some evenings which is good for him to get out of the house, though he already says he's eaten more than his fair share of pizza lately. The pizzeria will be providing pizza as an after curling snack for our upcoming ladies bonspiel (a curling game where people from other clubs come to play) as well as for dinner at our curling club's progressive bonspiel. The progressive bonspiel sounds like lots of fun. It's yellow against blue. You pick a color and play 2 ends. You then change sheets and play the same color rocks against a different team but keep the score from the first game played on the sheet. Whichever color has the most points at the end of 8 ends wins the prizes!
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Christmas
We went back to WA for 3 weeks over the holidays. Now that we pay for 5 plane tickets, having the kids take school off for a few days was worth it. We also opted for 1 week on my parents' boat, 1 week housesitting for a friend and 1 week back on the boat rather than having any hotel stays, we spent the money on a car rental which was a necessity now that we don't fit in most cars, especially with our luggage. We were able to see both sides of E's family with double visits to the grandparents, spend time with friends and do a little sightseeing in Seattle.
We opened our own family's gifts before leaving since some would be nice to have on the plane:
We took the boat out for a spin over to Langley as only Carter had been on the boat while it was in motion... the sun came out for beautiful views...
H is grandpa's little captain. He's enthralled with EVERYTHING about the boat-esp the engine room.
We started our sightseeing at the Chihuly museum in Seattle in Seattle Center. It's pricey, but only V and I had gone before and it's definitely worth seeing once. I was a little surprised when the kids sat happily through the video at the end of the exhibit showing information about Chihuly.
We checked out the Gingerbread exhibit at the Sheraton with some friends...these creations are taller than an adult...
Seattle from the Seattle Great Wheel . My impression? I got a little sick on the 3 rotation ride and while it was fun and we enjoyed it, I probably would only take an out of towner on it or do it once just to have done it. I don't think it's one of those things I NEED to do every time I'm in Seattle.
We opened our own family's gifts before leaving since some would be nice to have on the plane:
Christmas Eve Candlelight service
Stockings!
We took the boat out for a spin over to Langley as only Carter had been on the boat while it was in motion... the sun came out for beautiful views...
We go out past Everett Naval station. The boys were impressed by the battleships.
H is grandpa's little captain. He's enthralled with EVERYTHING about the boat-esp the engine room.
We started our sightseeing at the Chihuly museum in Seattle in Seattle Center. It's pricey, but only V and I had gone before and it's definitely worth seeing once. I was a little surprised when the kids sat happily through the video at the end of the exhibit showing information about Chihuly.
We checked out the Gingerbread exhibit at the Sheraton with some friends...these creations are taller than an adult...
Seattle from the Seattle Great Wheel . My impression? I got a little sick on the 3 rotation ride and while it was fun and we enjoyed it, I probably would only take an out of towner on it or do it once just to have done it. I don't think it's one of those things I NEED to do every time I'm in Seattle.
We recalled the one thing we definitely don't miss... the traffic....
But we do miss this guy... Mt. Rainier on a sunny day....
Winter
The boys curled in a holiday bonspiel before we left. Except for some fit throwing over playing positions, prizes and the coin toss (for Henri)... it went alright.... C's in the orange jacket, H's in the white helmet.
H being consoled on the coin toss loss by two lovely maidens as they make their way to the opposite end of the rink...
We got their school pictures back. C is in 4th Grade, H in 1st Grade, V in Jr. Kindergarten
Henri turned 6 in November
H being consoled on the coin toss loss by two lovely maidens as they make their way to the opposite end of the rink...
We got their school pictures back. C is in 4th Grade, H in 1st Grade, V in Jr. Kindergarten
V in a dress by her grandmother
and in a dress I wore at her age that my aunt saved for me... it may have been bought in Mexico circa 1985ish....
Carter made Henri a little comic book, which was sweet
The boys wore mustaches to school for Movember to support Prostate Cancer awareness
and, of course, it's been cold and snowy (a few days down to -1F and 0F)
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