last year

It's hard to believe that a year ago today this happened.

Looking back at the large and small gestures offered by friends and our community I am still in awe of the support we were given. Aside from the huge blessing of our close friends opening their home to us and having the Husband's Mom arrive to help with the move and cleaning; it was the small things that were done for us that I will always remember. The little things that brought tears of gratitude.

A year later, we still talk about fire trucks and alarms (although not so frequently). We have added fire extinguishers and smoke detectors to our home. We have an escape plan in case we need it again and in light of what has happened in Haiti we are getting an emergency kit together in case of something larger and more catastrophic happening.

All in all I'm thankful, thankful for so very much and I only wish I was in a position to do more.

Updates and a litany of woes

from the sounds of my title you'd think this post is going to be a pretty negative one. Well, it may be a little on the long side, but I like to think that I can usually find the positive in most situations. I'm pretty sure I've been able to do so here. To make up for the lack of photographic illustration I'll be posting a word free post to make up for it.

Before we get started, help me celebrate one whole year on Etsy and enter my giveaway! The deadline to enter is rushing this way, you don't want to miss out.

Besides the news of my Step Dad's heart problems last week we've been hitting a streak of weird bad luck but more on that later. My Step Dad is home and on the mend. It turns out my Mom saved his life by getting him to the hospital as fast as she did and there are going to be some changes in lifestyle and diet there. It was very hard to be out of the loop last week in regards to wanting to be there getting the blow by blow after they got home and knowing that he's going to be OK make up for it.

In other news over the last three weeks I've lost my mobile phone and had it stolen. How is this then? The phone slipped out of my pocket on the bus and was found by an unknown and dishonest girl who; after answering my phone and assuring me that she would give it to the bus driver to take to the lost and found instead took it and made $60 in texts and phone calls in two days. Lesson learned? Cancel the mobile if or when it gets lost again. Fortunately, when we finally called to cancel service to the phone our provider was good enough to delete all charges to our bill that were not our own.

The day after the Peanut's birthday party we decided to hit the Jazz festival at David Lam Park in Vancouver. We used to go every year for an afternoon of good music and people watching. When I was pregnant we decided on the Gastown venues so I wouldn't have far to waddle and we'd be closer to the Seabus if the Peanut decided to show up a week early. Since then we've missed the festival, and this year was no exception. After we moved into the new place after the fire, the ball joint in the left front of the car broke causing $400+ to fix. On our way to this years festival we passed the library downtown and lost the right side tire to the other ball joint. One very loud noise and some fancy driving by my husband later we were double parked on Georgia with tourists posing in front of the car and pointing at the tire. We've since donated the car and joined the Car Co-op with very positive results.

Have you ever been awakened from a deep deep sleep by a creepy crawling sensation? Like say some unknown insect type thing has somehow entered into your ear at the ungodly hour of 3AM?

For those who have pondered this and other survival questions I will tell you:

You get that little bugger out by any means necessary, as fast as you can.

Then you attack your ear canal with an arsenal of things that should never be put into your ear based on years and years of professional medical opinion ie. elbows, q-tips, hot water and hydrogen peroxide if you have it; among a few other things.

What this does, is give you a little peace of mind while you stew over the possibility that the bug you squished out of existence while trying to get it out of your ear canal did not

A: have a friend who got in undetected and is setting up house out of reach of the above mentioned ear contraband.
B: bite you in the ear while you were mercilessly removing it from existance.
C: start to nest in there because you really value the ability to hear things.
or in a related to C option D: come from a nest that was (as in option A) previously undetected by you.

Then you visit a Dr, who thinks your story is very interesting ie. something he's going to tell all his friends in order to make a sensation at his next cocktail party; and examines your ear with that really nifty ear and throat instrument so that he can tell you that everything is clear up there, not even a thin coating of earwax to be found.

Then, and only then do you consider the irony of reading about someone who had a bug crawl into their ear the week before and being totally grossed out by it, and having the same thing happen to you and being totally grossed out by it (or is that irony? Ever since that Alanis Morrisette song I can never tell for sure)