When you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while

Ok so I've been pretty bad this summer about keeping this thing updated but it seems like we are always busy or I just haven't felt like updating. I've been in those kinds of moods lately.

I've been looking for a new job. Applying like crazy because I need to make more money and hours. I'm trying in entry level positions in offices and the government but everyone wants me to have at least some classes in business, but I dont have the money to pay for them and to get that money I need a better job. It's a vicious circle really. I even looked at a part time loan for school but the province of Quebec doesn't offer the part time loan to any out of province schools and none in Quebec offer distance education in English. It sucks bad because although I would like to go back to school full time to be able to get the degree faster, I can't because student loans and working wouldn't give me enough money. It sucks hard. But I need a new job because last week at work I had a mini breakdown, that was not a fun day.

Yesterday I had off because I  worked all weekend and Chantal and I took the kids to the beach because we are going through a heat wave again. It was the first time Olivier went into the lake. At first he wasn't too sure and then a minute later he was sitting in my lap splashing around. He loved it.

This weekend we are going to visit Jonathan's mom in Quebec, it will be nice to get away, and its supposed to be nice and cool and we're going to go apple picking and then there are a few little events going on in the city so we may check out a few.

And so I am going to end this post with some pictures!

'Cause it goes on and on and on

So its been a busy few weeks here in our house (or condo, you get my drift) so I haven't had time to update really. First I would just like to say that the month of July was not kind to my poor little booter. First of the month he got his ear infection. On his birthday he got an eye infection. And on his baptism week he got sick again. Wednesday last week I got a call at work from Ollie's daycare, he had a fever, they wanted to make sure it was okay to give him tylenol. When I went to get him after I was done she told me he had diarrhea as well. I thought he was teething. That day he pooped 3 more times and his fever creeped higher. Thursday I stayed home with him. He got worse throughout the day. Friday we went to the doctors. She thought it was just a case of the stomach flu but said if he wasn't feeling better by the next day to take him to the hospital to get checked out because it could be something else. Normally the stomach flu doesn't last that long or have such a high temperature. Next day I was stalling on the hospital. I hate going to the hospital. But I had just taken Ollie's temperature and he pooped pure water onto his change table. Off to the hospital I went, Jonathan stayed home, he was now getting the flu. Lovely. I decided CHEO (Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario) was the best bet. I got there and over all we waited less than 2 hours and were out the door. With a diagnosis of stomach flu. They said if he wasn't better Monday to bring him back. He had his fever longer than expected and higher than expected. Not long after we got home Ollie was feeling better. He was playing and having fun and his fever was GONE. So that evening I went to my Aunt Lises house since my dad was there with my stepmom, sister, grandma, and his other sister and a couple of my cousins were going as well. It was going to be the first time all 3 great grandchildren were going to be together. He was fine for almost 3 hours when I noticed Olivier getting warm. I left right away hoping to head off the fever. No such luck. We got the highest temperature to date. Lovely. Next morning he was still warm but not bad. As the morning went on, it went away. I decided to take Ollie out for some fresh air and we went for a walk at Lac Leamy, to watch the finals for the water ski jumping in the Jeux du Quebec. We were there a little over an hour and headed back home. As soon as we got home he started getting warm again. Lovely. That night we thought Ollie's fever had FINALLY broken. At 4.30 I woke up to change a diaper and he wasn't warm, at all. 5 he woke up crying, with a high fever again. WTF. So we gave him some tylenol, a bottle and I procrastinated on the hospital again. Finally I decided to get it over with and back to CHEO we went. Less than an hour later we were out the door again, this time with the diagnosis of Hand, Foot and Mouth. No daycare while a fever is present. Lovely. And this time I actually mean it. I stayed home from work Wed and today with Ollie (and during the day Monday and Tuesday but I worked the evening shift). He was a total crankpot today but I would so rather deal with that than go  back to work tomorrow. But I know his babysitter misses him. She has called me twice asking how he is and whenever I call to tell her he wont be there that she says she misses him and is sad not to see him. I now officially love his babysitter to death.

Other than that not much else except family family and more family! I'll try and post some pics and a better update tomorrow after work.

You're hot like the summer heat.

So. Hot. OMG. Gatineau/Ottawa has been breaking records all week with this heat. It's unbearable. Beyond unbearable. We were hitting 44 with humidity easily. In the kitchen it was worse. Much worse. On Tuesday evening for the dinner shift I got a 61 on the temp in the kitchen. I wanted to die. It actually felt like I was in Hell, literally. Actually, scratch that, I'm sure Hell wasn't that hot, Hell probably felt the Arctic compared to here.

I had my chiro appointment yesterday. I came away from that appointment with several things.

1. Chiropractors should be employed by the US to interrogate terror suspects. That was painful! I have an 8-10 inch bruise on my lower back from a 10 minute treatment yesterday! I was almost crying, if it had been my friend Rahim doing the treatment I'm sure I would have cried and then kicked him in the shins lol.
2. I have 2 problems so far. One with a tiny joint at the bottom of my lumbar, when I move in certain ways it either is pinching a nerve, disc or cartilage. The other is with my hip. I didn't quite understand that one, but usually the two things go hand in hand
3. I have to get xrays to make sure there is nothing major wrong.
4. I need to go back for at least 6 more visits and an adjustment (if my xrays are clear) which means lotsa $$$

 I got dropped off downtown kind of early for my appointment but I knew if I took Jonathan and the baby home I wouldn't have made it home on time with all the construction going on around the city. So I got some Starbucks (blended light caramel frappuccino) and wandered around Chapters for little before heading off to the Aulde Dubliner to see Jenn for a few minutes. We chatted a little and then I headed off for my appointment. It was hot so I didn't want to walk too fast so I wandered through the market and wound up at one of the stages for the BluesFest and the Stereos were doing their sound check for their show that night, and its free so I got to hear a few songs. I love a few of their songs, and got to hear one (Summer Girl) so that was fun.

Olivier is full blown walking on his own now! I missed it too, I was at work, Jonathan texted me on Tuesday night to tell me. I haven't gotten video of it, he gets excited when he sees the camera so he falls over. And he's teething, yet again, we think its molars this time, or Jonathan does anyways.

On Wednesday night Chantal and I went and saw Eclipse! It was so so so good. Way better than the first by far and better than New Moon as well. It followed the book although there were a few very minor parts I wish that they hadn't cut but nothing major, I know that sometimes things just don't fit or theres not enough time. I am going to see it again though, on Sunday with my Aunt Debbie and with my mother. We are going to see it in IMAX which I cannot wait for. After having seen it I know that its going to be amazing in IMAX, plus a 6 story high Edward? Who wouldn't love that, right?

The rest is still unwritten

So this past week was Canada Day and my mom's birthday. She wanted to celebrate at the cottage so off we all went, trekking out to the middle of nowhere's to spend a few days at the cottage. My mom, Amelie, Don and Grandma went up on Wednesday, but since I was working on Thursday me, Jonathan, Olivier and Marc-Andre went on Thursday after I got off work. We had lots of fun. We showed up around supper time, with the cake (which is a whole other story) and bags in hand. Ollie had a blast and didn't want to sleep. He woke up around midnight screaming. Finally we got him back to sleep but he didn't sleep well at all. The next morning he was congested too. On Friday we went into Maniwaki to pick up a few things, lets just say I was less than impressed with Maniwaki, their Canadian Tire was smaller than the pharmacy for crying out loud! And how people can survive without a WalMart is beyond me. While we were in Maniwaki we (me, Don and Amelie) were just supposed to pick up a little pool for Olivier, some graham crackers, chocolate, Kleenex with lotion for the baby, a magazine for Amelie and a head band for me...200$ and 2 hours later we were on our back to the cottage lol. We were a little disappointed by the pool. The picture on the box made it look big, this was a tiny little pool, but it served its purpose and Olivier had fun in it.

While Olivier took his nap me and Amelie went fishing off the end of the dock. I was getting discouraged after she had caught her 2nd fish and I had caught none. That was until I hooked something. At first I thought I had just gotten caught on the bottom but then Amelie, who had stood up by this point, started screaming I had a fish. So then we started screaming for Marc-Andre to come down and help us since me and Amelie, we don't fish. I ended up getting a big bass, at least 3 lbs, closer to 4 lbs. We got a few pictures then let him go.

That night Olivier woke up again screaming. This time he was tugging his ear. We didn't want to go to the ER in Maniwaki. Not at all. ER's usually mean a 14 hour wait minimum, so not what we wanted to do. But off we went anyways, back to Maniwaki. We pulled up to the hospital....it was empty. There were 2 people in the waiting room, both healthy and watching the FIFA World Cup. Okay then. We waited a total of 20 minutes, including our assessment time, before we were walking out of the hospital with a prescription for antibiotics for Ollie's ear infection. Let me just say that 1. the dr was a jerk. He never spoke to me, only to Jonathan and when Olivier threw up after he looked in his throat, I caught it in my hand so he wouldn't get covered in milk vomit, and the dr didn't even give me a kleenex, he just washed his hands and that was it. and 2. he doesn't deal with kids often, he practically had Jonathan holding the baby in a headlock to look in his ears and mouth.

The next day, Saturday, we came home, bringing Amelie with us. We had a few errands to run and wanted a day to relax before going back to work. And we went and saw Chantal and Tony as well at their new house so we had a great long weekend!

You're the only thing that drives me crazy

So I feel like I am dying. Literally. I woke up Sunday morning in pain. Horrid, terrible, excruciating pain. In my back. So bad I can't bend over, at all, turn side to side, lay down on my back, walk up and down stairs and do pretty much anything. I've been taking pain meds but they help for like a nano second, and I can only take them every 8 hours. The tiniest twinge makes me want to cry and the spasms are pure hell. Last night I got into bed, an hour after taking my pills and had spasms for over 20 minutes. I didnt even do anything to tweak my back either. It's been horrid since my c-section but the last couple of months were really good, only a small twinge here and there. Now I think I need to see a chiropractor. My friend Rahim is one, but in Toronto. He recommended a friend of his here in Ottawa for me to see. I have a feeling its something not good because they had such a hard time with my spinal, there were mutterings from the anesthesiologist about my vertebrae being too compacted, so its making me think I may be getting arthritis in my back or a degenerated disc or something equally horrid sounding. I hope a little physio helps get rid of it and fast because I can't stand the pain. There are times I'm walking in the apartment and my legs just want to give out under me from a twinge in my back, which makes me really nervous. I hope I can get in to see the chiro soon that's all I gotta say.

This weekend we are going away, well tomorrow after work actually. We are going to my moms cottage to celebrate her birthday, the whole family will be there and there will be people sleeping in tents, but not us. We get one of the beds in the house. And Ollie has his playpen, and high chair booster seat thingy there. It'll be fun

Yesterday was Ollie's follow up with the dr. She was ecstatic he was doing so well, he gained a half pound in 3 weeks, and is drinking so well and eating well. We really think the old daycare was part of the problem because we have had no problems since switching, everything is great and he is gaining weight well and drinking from his bottles taking homo milk, regular food, napping and is happy. He's not burnt out when he gets home either, which is nice.

Competition? Doesn't that mean we compete? How does that work when I always win??

Well I got sent home today from work. My first day back and I get sent home after 3 hours because I don't look too well and I am hacking up a lung and people think I am contagious. Whatever.

It's pretty much official now. I will be going back to school part time in the fall. Nights. One or two classes depending on the amount of hours (some are only once a week, others are twice). I'm excited, while I like my job and the people I work with, it's definitely not what I want to be doing in 5 years that's for sure, let alone in 15.

Jonathan and I have been talking about what we want to do this summer. We don't have a lot of money at the moment so we are just thinking a long weekend someplace. I want to go to Boston. My friend Dylan is there, and I love him to death, he's like a brother to me (and I have several so its not like I'm lacking in brothers either lol) or to New York, maybe Syracuse, where my friend Shawna lives with little Miss Ireland (who was born 2 weeks before Ollie). I don't know, we shall see what we come up with. I'd like to do both if I can get away with it, one in early summer and one in late summer maybe. But I still have to find out when my dad will be here because I don't want to go away when he is here, plus he wants to see the baby I'm sure (right dad? I know you're reading this lol). And as the title implies, I usually win so it just may happen

And the winner of the worst boss goes too.......Me!

And so summer has begun....in April. Not even the end of April but the beginning. Yesterday the temperatures got up to 27 and today they are supposed to go higher than 30! I hate the heat. I hope that this means this summer isn't going to be hotter than usual. Olivier already fits into his summer clothes which is good because otherwise the poor boy would be sweating his little tush off. Today we finally rounded out his summer wardrobe with some sandal and a cute pair of trainers (they look like the classic ADIDAS' with the 3 stripes). I also got a few new things for summer, a couple pairs of cargo capris in black and army green, and some tops. I still need to get a bunch of tanks though.

Yesterday we went to the hospital and saw Marc-Andre. He was in pain but had some morphine for it so he slept a lot, most of our visit in fact. And we saw Amelie and my mom and Don as well. Amelie and I talked about our tattoo and we aren't getting it on our wrists which makes me sad because I really really really wanted it there. We're either getting it on our foot or on our back right under the neck where the t-shirt is. If its there I think I'm going to get it bigger.

And my job. A job I used to love, I now hate, with a passion. I hate my new boss, he's such a jack ass. I'm looking for a new job and I keep asking Jonathan to email the woman for me who had handled his contract but he 'has to find the stuff' and its been over a month and he hasn't done it yet. He keeps saying stuff about how he knew this would happen and its selfish of me, as if I would quit without another job lined up. He has such a bad attitude lately its driving me nuts, he's never happy, always grumpy, always complaining about something and if he can't think of something he just sits there in a bad mood. I'm going insane.