Thursday, March 21, 2013

Coolest Experience of my Life

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The coolest experience of my life was flying Tim Air in a Cessna from Montego Bay to Negril in Jamaica this past January. Our pilot was Fraser and he was super cool. On the way to Negil I flew with my family of 5, along with my dad, and on the way home, my brother & his girlfriend joined us as well. Honestly, it was one of the coolest experience of my life.

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Isn’t the scenery stunning? Look at the turquoise water!

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This is a video (above) of us in the Cessna taking off from Montego Bay to Negril on the first day of our vacation. I sat in the 3rd row (we were 6 of us plus the pilot on board). I took video of us landing, but my camera battery died while I was filming and the video file is corrupted. I’m not sure if there is a way to salvage the file? Does anyone have any ideas?

This is a video (above) of us in the Cessna taking off from Negril to Montego Bay on the way home from our vacation, to catch our flight from Montego Bay to Montreal. On the way home, I sat in the first row behind the pilot and my father. (Both ways I sat in the same row as Quentin).

This is a video (above) of us landing in Montego Bay in the Cessna. My dad was giving me the play by play with how many feet we had until we landed (not sure why, lol).

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Hockey Season

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Sean’s hockey season with our city team is coming to an end. This weekend is the last weekend before the summer break. Sean is already registered for hockey from April until June at another place, and will probably take private goalie sessions as well over the summer. He wants to play goalie next year in Novice. We have a family full of goalies (my brother, my nephew, etc… no wonder Sean wants to be goalie!)

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Sean’s been taking turns this season playing goalie (they don’t really have set goalies in MAHG). Only once the kids get to Novice, do that have set positions. Above, Sean is in white, just in front of the net #12). Below, is from a tournament he played, when he was goalie. Sean is just an all around athlete. If he’s interested in the sport, he can play it. He just got his report card last week and again he got an A in phys. ed. (gym). (Along with 4 other A’s! And 2 B’s!) Very proud of Sean.

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Saturday, March 16, 2013

Visiting Kindergarten

SMPattys

Mack visited Sean's kindergarten class yesterday for Sean's St Patrick's day party. Mack had no daycare yesterday (he didn't go on the field trip his class was going on) and he is fearing Kindergarten (Mack is shy and sensitive). Sean's teacher and I felt it would be a good opportunity to bring Mack in to see the classroom (which more than likely be Mack's kindergarten class (of 4 classes) in the fall as teachers tend to take siblings as they already know the family, etc.) so he sees Sean in his class environment and sees there is nothing to fear about kindergarten. From saying last week that he doesn't want to ever go to kindergarten, and that he will whisper so no one can hear him and he won't speak French (English only – school is French Immersion) and that he will sit in the back of the class (not that there is a “back of the class” in kindergarten, but he doesn’t know that) and away from everyone, he did not want to leave the class at the end of the party, is success to me! Our plan to introduce Mack to kindergarten so the fear of unknown subsides was a good one!

Parents/Teacher 1, Fear 0.

Friday, March 15, 2013

Happy Friday!

sillyfaces

Hope you all have a great weekend!
(This picture of Mackenzie & Quentin makes me laugh!)

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Taught

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Dr. Collins fantasizes about the female students in his college classes. He never expected that one of his students, Elizabeth, has some fantasies where he plays the lead.

A short little novella, Taught is very descriptive, has steamy scenes and was fun to read. The sexual scenes were way better written than they where in Fifty Shades. I cannot wait to see if Jenna Owens writes more about Dr. Collins and his new student (the following semester), Emily. The ending left me wanting to read more. I am not shy when it come to reading erotica or the likes, but I have not read much of it in my lifetime. Not just men can enjoy this "for men" novella, which I think might be the intended audience. Women can enjoy it just the same.

If you’re looking for a quick read with some juicy sex scenes, this is a great choice. I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.

I was given a copy of Taught in exchange for my honest review.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

One Happy Kid

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When we were in Jamaica, there was one thing that drew Sean almost every day while we were there: The water slides. There were 2 slides, one super fast one and one slower one, which Sean went on over and over and over again.

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He had a blast.

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I think he would have taken the water slide home with him if he could.

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He tried to do something differently each time he went down!

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Thumbs up!

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Cool dude.

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The daring devil!

I think we’ll have to take the kids to the local water park this summer.

Monday, March 11, 2013

The Mum Song

To all my mom friends out there. This is hysterical!

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Yarnster

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A few days ago I finished Yarnster, a free pattern by Shannon Cook. It’s such a cute hat pattern. At first I wasn’t sure it was going to fit my head, but it was deceiving on the needles, it actually does. The yarn, I got 6 and a half years ago, in a swap I was in. The dyer of this yarn has passed away, so it’s a one of a kind skein, and I cannot get any more of this yarn. I had 130g to work with and only used about 83g. I wonder if I can do anything with 47g that I have remaining. I used both US6 and US4 needles and cast on Feb 28th, 2013 and cast off March 7, 2013. A perfect beret to keep my ears & head warm this spring.

hat1 hat2

Friday, March 08, 2013

Facetime with Elmo & Cookie Monster

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Quentin is still home recovering from his surgery. He goes back to daycare on Monday but I had to find something new to entertain him so that he doesn’t tornado my house. I came across these 2 apps on my iPad where Elmo or Cookie Monster (each their own app for .99¢ can facetime or call you. You can set scheduled calls, it’s great!

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His face when Elmo called was PRICELESS! It truly is amazing what kind of technology is out there. (Elmo was moving around, which is why he is blurry a bit – but the call itself is very clear. It was Quentin’s facial expression I wanted to capture.

Tuesday, March 05, 2013

15 Books

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On Sunday I hit 15 books read in 2013. That’s 1.5 books a week on average. We’re now in the 10th week of the year. I’m feeling quite confident that I can reach my pledge this year. So far this year I’ve read: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, Beyond the Sling by Mayim Bialik, Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks, Where’d you go Bernadette by Maria Semple, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall and Sh*t My Dad Says and I Suck at Girls by Justin Halpern, Three Good Things by Wendy Francis, Mistaken Identity by Dan & Susie Van Ryan, Colleen Newell, Whitney Cerak and Mark Tabb, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, Daring Greatly by Brene Brown, If You Ask Me by Betty White, I Like You by Amy Sedaris & Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick. When I posted my 15th book, the 50 Book Pledge let me know that I was on pace to read 86 books this year – which is FAR more than the 24 books goal I had set on Goodreads as my original goal, and way more than the 50 Book Pledge goal, as well as more than the 52 books, 52 weeks goal. I’m on a roll, and I can’t put these books down! (While not all the books I have been reading have been the greatest selections, I’ve been enjoying them anyhow, for what they are).

Monday, March 04, 2013

Editing Photos

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I’m in the process of finally sitting down to edit my photos from my trip to Jamaica. A LOT of pictures were taken. At first it was a bit intimidating, I didn’t know where to start. (This photo above is of my fave scenery shots from the trip). This was taken on the beach in Negril, Jamaica with my d300s Nikon.

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I am working on a photo order (prints) so I will slowly upload some photos to my blog. Be patient with me though, besides Quentin home recovering for another week, it’s spring break for Sean, and I have 2 kiddos home with me this week.

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Sunday, March 03, 2013

The Perfect Pattern?

cakeofyarn

I got this skein of yarn, 6 and a half years ago, in a swap I was in. The dyer of this yarn has passed away, so it’s a one of a kind skein, and I cannot get any more of this yarn. I have about 260 yards to work with. I’ve cast on 2 projects with this yarn, but have frogged both of them. Because it’s a one of a kind skein, it had to be the perfect project. And I finally found one.
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I cast on Thursday night at knit/crochet night.
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And as of dinner time last night, I had done about 30% of the hat. As of this morning, I’d say I’m about 50%, maybe 55% done. I just hope it fits… It seems like it might just be a tad tight… It’s flying off the needles, and I think it might just be the perfect pattern. I should have a finished object soon. I went through a phase at the beginning of this year with reading going a lot more quickly than my knitting, but I’m finally getting back on track with my knitting, I guess because I found a project that I actually want to knit. (Same way with reading – when I find I really get into a book, it gets read a lot quicker). Hopefully it was just a phase, where I was just knitting at knit/crochet night, and neglecting it otherwise. It was probably because there haven’t been any projects lately that I have wanted  to work on at home as well.

Saturday, March 02, 2013

Trip to the ER & Surgery

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Just over two weeks ago, I took Quentin to the ER at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. He had mucus coming out of his ear. (It looked like what you would find coming out of your nose if you were sick, so it looked like green snot, to be politically correct). I figured it was probably an ear infection, as we have never had a child who had this before, so since it was a Sunday and our doctor’s office was closed, I took him to the ER. They determined that it was probably an ear infection that ruptured and gave us some antibiotics and some ear drops and told us to come back the next day to the ENT department (Ears, Nose, Throat) to have his ear cleaned as they couldn’t determine what sort of ear infection it was (middle ear, outer ear, etc…) as he had way too much fluid in his ear. They told us his ear did rupture, which is why the liquid was coming out of his ear.

ERvisit (3)ERvisit (4)

The next day, we came back for our appointment and after listening to Quentin’s symptoms, they determined that he should go for an X-ray to see what was going on that we couldn’t see. So after they drained his ear (above left hand picture) we went for an X-ray.

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The X-ray, determined that his adenoids were huge and blocking his passage not allowing him to breathe properly through his nose. You see the space where the red lines are? The dark black between  the two thin red lines is the space after the blockage. That black space, should be black all the way up to to the nose, where the thick solid red line is, should be dark space, not white where his adenoids are blocking. So they recommended him for surgery, and we were put on the wait list. The ENT doctor we saw that Monday wasn’t our regular ENT, who was following Quentin since he was 2 months old and diagnosed with Laryngomalacia. Her wait list was only about 6 months (+), our regular ENT who has been following Quentin had a one year + wait list as he has been doing research and is extremely over booked. So I decided to stay on with this new ENT doctor, and put Quentin on her cancellation list. We were given a Pre-Op appointment right away, since being on the cancellation list, you could get called any time, with 1-2 days notice for surgery. Our Pre-Op appointment was scheduled for this past Monday and Friday last week we got a call asking us if Wednesday was good for surgery, and I took it.

When we did the Pre-Op appointment on Monday, the doctor did a more thorough exam and asked us more questions and recommended that not only we take out his adenoids, but put tubes in his ears as well. His adenoids were so enlarged that they were pressing up against his ears, causing the constant runny nose and the liquid in his ears, and probably also causing Quentin’s speech delay. 

SurgeryDay (1)

Wednesday we arrived at the Children’s Hospital and got settled in his hospital gown. He was in good spirits for someone who usually has eat twice already on a normal day. It killed me to deny him food, twice he tried to get food from the cupboard at home before we left.

SurgeryDay (2)SurgeryDay (3)

We waited in the first waiting room for a while and then we went with a child care worker to talk to Quentin and explain to him what was going to happen and she read him a story about a little child going though a surgery as well, and showed him pictures of what the doctors would wear and the nurses too, so he wouldn’t be afraid. She even showed him the mask he would wear to fall asleep & had a (germ) mask for Doggy to wear too (above right hand picture) which was too cute. I liked that the hospital has child care workers doing this, because it makes surgery SO much less scary for the children.

SurgeryDay (4)SurgeryDay (5)

He went with the nurse when it was time for surgery, I was shocked he went without hesitation or any tears. His surgery was from about 1:30 pm until 2:05 pm, and I had just enough time to run down to the cafe, grab a sandwich for both Jamie & I, and head back up to the OR waiting room. I saw when they wheeled him over to the recovery room, at about 2:05 pm. It took him about 30 minutes almost to wake up from the anaesthesia. Once he woke up, he coughed a lot, (they were working through is mouth to remove his adenoids, so this was normal) and just wanted me to hold him. He was very clingy, but graciously accepted a cup of apple juice and even had a bit of popsicle. They let us go home around 3:20 pm after taking him off the IV drip and getting a prescription for ear drops to help his ears heal properly. Before leaving, I made an appointment for a hearing test in the audiology department, so we can see if he has any hearing loss damage at all. He crashed in the car on the way home – surgery is exhausting!

He’s been in a good mood since the surgery. Almost like 100% himself. Thursday & Friday he decided he didn’t want to nap at all, but was a disaster (over tired) by dinner time. Today he finally napped again, and I stopped giving him advil. (I was told to give him advil for the 1st 3 days (Wed p.m.-Thurs-Friday-Sat a.m) So far, so good! I even have caught him trying to repeat new words, and I think the tubes are making a huge difference.

Do you have any children with tubes in their ears? What’s your opinion on them? Was it for repeat ear infections, liquid in the ears, or speech delay?