Grey's Anatomy

I can not believe they killed Kyle Chandler. I realize he was only in the show for 2 episodes, but did they really have to blow the poor fella up?

I think he's much sexier than Dr. McDreamy, Patrick Dempsey himself.

Damn Grey's Anatomy writers.

Missing my baby

It hit me yesterday, this overpowering longing for both Saoirse and William. I miss them terribly. I am used to William coming and going, this is what our relationship has been like from the start. But Saoirse...being without her is breaking my heart.

I actually enjoyed the first 6 days. I like a quiet house, I don't mind being myself at all. When people asked how I was doing, I'd say fine and feel guilty that I was not as down as everyone (including myself) expected me to be. All my friends called the first 3 days, just to make sure I was okay. Yesterday I was thinking about how before William came back in July, it was always me that Saoirse wanted and I was constantly holding her. I had said one day that I didn't want to hold her all the time. And I broke down, because right now I would give anything to have her following me around, with her arms in the air, wanting me to pick her up. I think all I needed was a good cry, as I feel much better today, but still desperately missing the pair of them.

The above picture was taken the day they left, Saoirse absolutely loves yogurt.

The important thing about the Olympics

The clothing. That's what matters. Not the medals. Because you know Canada's going to pull a 2002 and walk away with a record low number of medals in these Winter games.

HBC (otherwise known as the Bay, or worse, Zellers) paid $100 million for the right to outfit the Canadian Olympic team.

And what did they design? Perhaps the most unattractive outfit since the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, when they wore the horrid cowboy hats.

The Olympic committee should have stuck with Roots, who, since 1998 have designed great outfits, so much so that both the British and American teams have used them.

Anyway, if one is going to spend $60 on a shirt, it would be much more sensible to have it with a Roots label than an HBC one.

As far as the hats go, I quite like the one with the maple leaves, but what's the deal with the big fur one? These games are in Italy, not Antartica.

How Liverpool can ruin a person's day

Poor William. He is not very pleased with the efforts of Liverpool, who have not won in their last 3 games. I was talking to him during the Chelsea game, which he watched at 3 in the morning Melbourne time. He was not very pleased that they were losing and I said "But surely you didn't expect them to beat Chelsea." Not so smart, Emma. Apparently, they should have won and this loss just proves they are not ready to be at the top.

And to lose to Charlton. Well, I couldn't even try and console him on that one. That was just wrong, really. Sometimes you wonder what these men who make so much money are playing at.

I think what really has him annoyed is that they are now 6 points behind the very despised Man U, whereas he feels they should be well ahead of them.

Although I feel for William and other Liverpool supporters, at least your team is in third place. Look at Aston Villa. 13th, for feck sakes. Now there's a reason to be upset.

Raising the age of consent

The Conservative government is looking to raise the age of consent from 14 to 16, with a "close in age" exemption.

I can't believe I agree with something that the Conservative party has put forth. In fact, I would take it one step further and raise the age to 18.

It is one thing for teenagers to have sex, most people I know had had at least one sexual partner before the age of 18. And the great majority of those teenagers were having sex with other teenagers. It is another matter totally when teenagers are having sex with adults.

At 14 or even 17 are kids wise enough to know that if they are having sex with someone in their 30s they are completely being taken advantage of, even if they consented to the act? I don't think so myself. I look back to me at that age and know that I would have had absolutely no clue. And I thought I was pretty smart, that I knew all there was to know about sex and relationships. How naive was I?

This motion was defeated just last September under the Liberal minority government. I would hope that this time it goes ahead.

A lack of Scrapping

Today was my first official childess day since Saoirse went on her holiday as I have had either one or both children at home. My friend Candy came over with her son Ethan (so I wasn't totally child free...though he's a pleasure) and while she made about 8 cards all I managed was this one page.

I'm putting this one that I did ages ago in, as it is one of my favourites. There's nothing at all fancy about my pages, but I love that I managed to get a picture of the water in the air. Very rare that I actually get a good shot. And anyway, isn't she a gorgeous child? You better all say yes.

Prosperity Cheques

There is finally a plus to being an Albertan. Last week, after months of talking about them our prosperity cheques arrived. Alberta had a huge surplus thanks to oil and gas revenues and Albertans benefited to the tune of $1.3 billion dollars. Every man, woman and child who was a resident of Alberta as of September 1 received $400. It was great to receive, especially after Christmas. Mine almost completely went to bills. Sad, but true.

One reason why I could kill my two oldest children

I think people that have only one child are geniuses, I really do. What do they know that those of us who plan a second child do not know? How do they realize that they are avoiding subjecting themselves to the unforeseen tortures of multiple children? Geniuses, I swear. So are the parents who put 7 or more years between children. So bloody smart.

My two do nothing but fight. Constantly. They can not be in a room together for more than 5 minutes. In fact, I can not even send them both up to their rooms as a fight will start moments after they have walked up the stairs.

"Liam's standing at my door staring at me!" Taylor will shout.

And yes, it usually comes down to Taylor. I wouldn't know about 90% of their arguments if it wasn't for Taylor. She tattles about everything. Plus she yells at him constantly. Hmmm...wonder where that comes from?

Liam is a smart kid, much like my brother was. He stays quiet. So while he very well may be torturing his sister, I can't hear him. And frankly, that's the way I like it. Do what you want, but keep it down. I do however hear Taylor as she comes running up or down the stairs, screaming about Liam bugging her. Which annoys me. So it is that poor child who ends up in trouble, not her brother who very well may be at fault.

Yesterday was Faith Day for the Catholic schools in the city. So while all the teachers who should be teaching our children were off at some faith festival (or more likely sitting at home enjoying a day off) I was tortured by my children. Liam had a friend over, Taylor came home from a sleepover. We had plans to go to Galaxyland. Taylor went downstairs to see what the boys were up to and almost immediately I heard Taylor yelling and then she came up the stairs with this line "Mummy, Liam's trying to be the boos of me." See, the thing is I didn't hear Liam do anything at all, only Taylor yelling. I said to her that I didn't want to hear about it. "But Mummy! He's being mean to me!" On and on this conversation went until I screamed. "If you say another word you won't go to Galaxyland." Of course she said another word, that child doesn't know when to be quiet.

I came to a realization yesterday and it is this. Taylor is not going to change. So I will have to. Instead of saying I don't want to hear another word, I will tell her that I will deal with it. I don't usually do that unless I know one of them has actually done some serious, like hitting. I figure they should be old enough to deal with small problems themselves.

Old enough, but obviously not mature enough.

Why there are days when I could kill my daughter

I know I have gone on and on about my Taylor and how she drives me absolutely mad. Alot of this may be repeat of past posts about her. It's just that it is the same thing over and over. Bear with me please.

She's a whinger. A conversation can not be had with her without whingeing and whining. Not on my part, but on hers. I am not a whinger, I am a yeller but even when I am at my most calm she whinges which eventually causes me to lose all patience and start screaming.

Example: On Saturday morning she was getting ready to go to the library with her friend Zack. She came into my room wearing her Girl Guides shirt and yoga pants. I said her shirt was for Guides only and not going out. "But I nevre get to wear it!" Whinge, whinge. "That's because it is for Guides, you are meant to wear it once a week." Very calm. She next comes into my room with a bright orange Halloween shirt on. "It's not Halloween." says I. "But Liam wore one and never got in trouble. Why can he do it and not me." On and on she goes. I explain that I did not see Liam dressed like that and had I, he would have been asked to chnage. Halloween shirts are for Halloween, St. Patrick's Day shirts are for March 17 and so on. Right over her head. She nexts come into my room in a jumper that can only be described as burnt orange. With navy blue yoga pants. There was a fit over me asking her to change pants. This was nothing over the argument that took place moments later when I saw her bedroom which not did have a single inch of visible flooring. This argument continued while I ripped a brush through her hair. I shan't get into it, but suffice it to say that if Social Services had been a fly on the wall I might currently be daughterless.

She's a stubborn wee thing. She has been stubborn since birth. Prior to it actually. After 36 hours of off and on labour she finally decided to make an appearance, forcep scars and all. She must have known was she was in for, poor girl.

She's lazy. This child hates to clean, hates to do homework, hates to do anything that is not for herself. And even things that are a benefit to herself come to think of it. That would include a reasonable clean room and completed homework.

She's a liar. I hate to say that, but it is very true. She lies about absolutely everything, from her brother picking on her to schoolwork. Liam could be in the next room and she would tell me he has hit her. She once accused him of bothering her while he was in the basement and she was in her room. Two full floors away. She lies almost everyday about her homework using the tried and true excuses of "I left it at school", "I finished it in class", "I forgot my agenda." And oh, that agenda. I was going through it the other night and saw a note saying that Taylor had two incomplete math assignments and the next step would be a conduct report. Now, Taylor does realize that she is on the verge of being kicked out of the gifted programming she does. Apparently, this does not bother her at all. She has had since November to improve and has not done so at all, not one iota. I could let everything else go, the poor sense of fashion, the messy room, everything, if only she would take school more seriously. I often say to her only chance of a higher education is via scholarships and with her smarts she would be able to get them if only she applied herself. Not in Grade 10 or 12, but now. She just doesn't care.

Our new rule is that the moment she gets home she does her homework and leaves her agenda and the completed work on the table for me to sign. This was to start yesterday. I was due home by quarter after 5, my mum was to meet them all at the house just after 3.30. A few other rules were given, as this was the first time neither William or I would be there. These included no going into my room to watch T.V. with her friends and to clean their mess in the entryway. When I got home the entryway was a mess, coats on the floor and all, including a bag with the agenda still in it. Taylor and her friend Ashley were in my room. "I forgot" she whinged to me. "Isn't that convenient," I said "that you can forget everything you are asked to do and yet you can remember that you want to have a sleepover?"

Typical, I suppose.

Theo Fleury and the Belfast Giants

There was just a bit on the news about Theo Fleury and what he is doing during his indefinite suspension from the NHL. What he's doing is making me slightly jealous playing for the Belfast Giants. Not that I want to (nor could I) play for the Giants, mind you, but I wouldn't half mind spending a year in Belfast.

I always liked Fleury, though as a Oilers fan, you could never admit to liking a Flames player. That was back in the day, of course. Today, you constantly see Flames jerseys around. He did a royal fuck up though, with all the drugs and quite possibly did knock himself out of the Hall of Fame.

Still, ending up in Belfast isn't bad at all. They're on top of the league and he gets to live in Belfast which is a thousand times better than living in Newcastle or Coventry. Or anywhere else in England, really. And he looks as though he is enjoying it.

Just a note that when I last checked the Giants player list, quite sometime ago, every player except one was from Canada. Today, the majority are still Canadian but a number are from the U.K. (I'm even including N.Ireland in there just to please William) and there's 2 Americans. I still can't imagine English kids on skates. Just seems odd.

And what was the deal with cheerleaders at the game? It's hockey, people, not football.

Finding CDs

On my quest to become a neater person I have decided that I need to reorganize my CD unit. Saoirse is quite fond of pulling CDs off the shelves and with her away, I have a chance to keep them in order for awhile. I can't blame Saoirse for the missing CDs though, I am famous for taking a CD to another room in the house and leaving it there for months and months.

So here's what I've found in assorted places throughout the house:

The Master Bedroom
-Songs of the Mississippi. I assume that Saoirse must have brought this upstairs as I have never actually listened to this album. I think I got it when a store I was working at closed down.
-Cool Christmas. Features the likes of Barenaked Ladies, the Pogues and two of my favourite songs, 25th of December by Everything But the Girl and Joni Mitchell's River. I think I brought this upstairs sometime around Christmas 2004.
-Martina McBride- Greatest Hits. I only have it for 'Blessed' and 'In My Daughter's Eyes.' I swear.
-Pink Floyd- The Wall. This is William's.
Johnny Reid- Born to Roll. He's Scottish. What more do I need to say? Oh, and he's country. Which I secretly like.
-World on Edge- Briefly popular in the early 90s. I saw them with Roxette. And the West End Girls. Ach, the West End Girls. They were terrible. World on Edge was not. And I don't care what anyone says.

Liam's room
-Sterophonics- Just Enough Education to Perform. Again, Scottish.
-Daniel Bedingfield- Gotta Get Through This. William bought this for me because I loved the song 'If You're Not the One.'

The Main Bathroom
-Spotlight on...Nat King Cole. It's very dusty in my bathroom apparently.

Taylor's room
-Carter USM- 1992- The Love Album. Quite frankly, one of my favourite CDs. I liked every song, which I rarely say about an album.
* I know my Moulin Rouge soundtrack is in Taylor's room, but I can't find it anywhere.

The Landing
-Travis- The Singles. Another Scottish band. The Jesus and Mary Chain started my obsession with Scottish bands and apparently it continues. This CD was in Liam's Cd player, but I guess he just put it whereever. Not his sort of music really.

The Livingroom (on top of the DVD)
-Wolfe Tones- Live Alive-Oh.
-Lump of Coal- Features perhaps the most frightening Christmas reading ever, Henry Rollins butchering 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.
-A mix CD titled 'Emma #1'. Has a few Gordon Lightfoot songs (I was going through a phase) and whatever was on the radio in 2001. Including 'I'm Like a Bird' twice.
-The Lightning Seeds- cloudcukooland. Another album where I loved every song. So much so that I own this on both cassette and CD. It was so good the next album had to be a huge letdown and it was. When I opened up this CD case I found...
-Jann Arden- Time for Mercy- my birthday present from Liam this past December. No idea where the cover is. Great album though.

The telephone table
-A Child's Christmas. Obviously, this doesn't belong to me.
-The Stone Roses
-The Stone Roses- Turns Into Stone. Do you get the distinct idea that I am still back in the 90s?
Hunters and Collectors- Collected Works- Bought only for 'Throw Your Arms Around Me.' In 15 or so years of owning this album, it is still the only song I have listened to.
-Kenny Loggins- Return to Pooh Corner. Bought when Liam was a baby for To-Ra-Loo-Ra.

The Computer Desk
Jann Arden- Happy? Quite a depressing album really.
Bob Kemmis- Arena Ready. A very funny album. He opened for Jann Arden back in October. Formerly of the Odds. And if you have never heard the Odds, well, that's just sad. I'd recommend downloading 'Freak Luck' and the entire Neopolitan album by the Odds.
-2 Wilco albums that my friend's husband copied for me. I actually wanted the Corb Lund Band, bur Wilco's not half bad.

This was just me scratching the surface. When I actually start seriously cleaning all the rooms I'm sure I'll find more.

The Sound of Silence

They're gone. Friday was, quite possibly, the worst day of my life thus far. I hated watching them walk away, with Saoirse looking at me as though she was thinking "Why are you not coming with us?" She looked so sweet at the airport, in her jeans and jean jacket and her brand new pink runners. She had her Goofy stuffy and was throwing him on the ground and picking him up over and over. Some wee girl was smiling at her so Saoirse kept doing it. When the girl and her family left she ran after them and cried when I picked her up and walked away.

William called me when they got to Vancouver and said that she was a bit grumpy as she had to sit on his lap the whole time. I wondered what she would do for 15 hours on the way to Sydney. She had to sit on his lap on the way to Hawaii, but on the way to Australia she had 2 seats to herself so was able to sleep. Somewhere between Sydney and Melbourne Quantas lost her stroller. A brand new one at that. We complain about Air Canada to no end, but at least they managed to keep track of her stroller, which was brought right to the plane doors by William. How do you lose something that is supposed to be right there?

They arrived safely and Saoirse seems to be doing great. She loves all the kids there and was even following William's step dad around. This is unheard of, as here she keeps her distance from most adults.

So now I'm doing a countdown, which is very hard as I don't have a return date. I hope it ends up being much shorter than 3 months. Once he gets back we are filing the papers for permanent residency. Hopefully, all will go well after that.

I'm looking at the positives to try and keep myself from losing it...I will actually be able to have a clean livingroom. I can sleep in. There is no baby kicking me during the night. (I actually sort of miss that, I liked knowing she was right there.) I will have time to sit and make some cards or do some scrapping. (Will I? Probably not, but the time will certainly be there.) There's probably a few other positives, I just haven't come across them yet!

4 Things

I've been tagged by Andrew over at 42 Year Old Loser... (it's no longer called that, but it's like that in my links and since I still can't figure out that nifty highlighting trick that's how you'll have to get to him if you so choose to do so, and I would advise that you do.)

So anyway....

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. underage babysitter
2. bookseller
3. observation monitor (pretty much paid to sit and read)
4. nursing attendant

Four movies you would watch over and over again:
1. It's a Wonderful Life
2. Stand By Me
3. Some Mother's Son
4. Fried Green Tomatoes

Four places you have lived:
1. Sutton Coldfield, England
2. Birmingham, England
3. Edmonton, Alberta
4. ummm....slightly further northwest in Edmonton...can that count?

Four T.V. shows you love to watch:
1. CSI
2. Without a Trace
3. Gilmore Girls
4. Amazing Race
Yes, I am pathetic. I could name more.

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Ireland
2. France
3. Disneyland
4. The Canary Islands
I am not counting England, as it was more visiting than vacationing.

Four web-sites I visit daily:
1. Google (I have no choice, it's my home page)
2. For Better or For Worse
3. BBC UK
4. Aston Villa

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Enchiladas (but only my own..they are delicious)
2. Spaghetti
3. Salsa Salad
4. Chicken Wings

Four places I’d rather be right now:
1. Vancouver
2. Disneyworld
3. Belfast
4. Melbourne (as of next Friday anyway)

Four people to tag:
1. Eric at Terminal Dysfunction
2. Boliath at In My Head
3. Emma at Welcome to Melancholy (another one with a new name)
4. United Irelander (just because I'm making it a habit)

Stephen Harper and Gay Rights

Towards the end of the election campaign Stephen Harper said that having a free vote on the gay marriage issue was not at the top of the priority list, that there were many other issues to be taken care of.

Yesterday, it was said that he will open talks on this issue. The first big announcement. Gay marriage. Nothing about health care, child care, education or military spending. But gay marriage.

Do we not have bigger fish to fry in this country?

What's next? Women lose the right to vote?

Didn't I say we would be taking a step back? I think I did.

This pretty much sums up my week

Where is the moment when we need it the most
You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost
They tell me your blue skies fade to grey
They tell me your passion's gone away
And I don't need no carryin' on

You stand in the line just to hit a new low
You're faking a smile with the coffee to go
You tell me your life's been way off line
You're falling to pieces everytime
And I don't need no carryin' on

Cause you had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know
You tell me don't lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
The camera don't lie
You're coming back down and you really don't mind
You had a bad day
You had a bad day
-Daniel Powter
"Had a Bad Day"