Friday Sucked!!!

Friday was not my best day at all - I was just working away on the shipping, minding my own business and everything went wrong. First, I usually go to Mike's doctor's appointments with him, but this Friday was shipping and so he had to go alone. We had been all encouraged by the new doctor that we had seen the week before, he had many ideas of how we could change things up for Mike to get a little relief from his chronic leg pain. However, the new doctor was not WCB friendly and could not write up orders for Mike, but that was no problem, Mike was going to see his surgeon doctor on Friday anyway and all he needed to do was run the suggestions by Dr. Hurdle and then he could prescribe the treatments and drugs. I wrote up the list and Mike faithfully took it to his appointment.
To make a long story, short, Dr. Hurdle did not approve of the drugs that has been suggested, and after some discussion, Mike found out that he (Dr. Hurdle) had actually concocted that drug and DID NOT want Mike even trying it. I guess he should know, being the creator of the drug. Then he told Mike that there was a year long wait to get into the Calgary Pain Clinic and so that was very discouraging. He could put Mike's name on a list, but there was no getting there any earlier. THEN he said that in his opinion, the best thing to to would be to take the leg off above the knee, something that we had been dreading for a very long time. he had recommended it before, but Mike did not want to lose his knee and so they had compromised with "below the knee" in December, instead of what he really wanted to do. Mike was devastated!!!!
That evening, because I could not be home, I phoned Megan to see if she could swing by and spend some time with her Dad and try to cheer him up - but she was dealing with an enormous problem of her own and was crying when she answered the phone. Not the best person to send out to the farm to cheer up Mike!!!! Scrapped that idea!!
So here we go again, another surgery, another set of staples, another hospital stay and a whole 'nother set of problems to deal with - including a new leg, that requires a prolonged stay in a rehabilitation facility to teach him to walk with and operate a much more complicated leg. Not to mention dealing with all of the emotions, seeing as the last amputation was only December 17th, and it had gone so horribly wrong. Yikkes!!! I think that I need to start drinking!

This Is What Shipping Day Looks Like

This is the typical last day of shipping - stuff all over the place, piles and piles and piles. Yesterday was a bad, bad shipping day. Actually, I phoned Christy and quit. But she wouldn't let me, so I took a break, calmed down and went back to work. Everything was going wrong, we found last minute mistakes in two kits and had to pull them all out of orders that we had finished (even had to open a few boxes that were destined for Canada Post) and fix the problems. I hope we got it all right!!

On the plus side, having all of the room in the new workshop is a real blessing, as we are not tripping over each other trying to work. In the end, hopefully, it all worked out, even though we are a little behind schedule at this point. We tripled checked everything this morning, after we had a good night's sleep and now it is out of our hands. In a few hours, all of this will be gone and on the way to a lot of scrapbookers. I always wonder if after we send out our baby kits, if the languish in some one's craft room, or if they are attacked as soon as they arrive and get turned into a fabulous scrapbook layout. This could be a new topic for Kimberly's Monday Night Class blog - are you a consumer or a hoarder? I used to be a consumer - I bought a lot of scrapbook products, but in all honesty, I used a lot of product, as I used to complete about 10 albums a year. Now I am a hoarder. I don't have time to pull it out nearly as often as I used to. But summer is coming and it is almost time for Scramping!!!

What Makes Me Mad?

Have you ever just been sitting there and you are in a foul mood, and then you realize that something is making you tense and making you feel this way? But nothing really bad has happened, so you can't really put your finger on what is upsetting you? Well, that happens to me a lot. I was sitting watching TV with Mike the other night and a gardening show was on HGTV. All of a sudden, I felt tense and crabby and I didn't really know why. So I said to Mike "What was the last thing that you said to me?" To which he replied, "Nothing, I'm just sitting here watching TV. Why?" "Because I am mad at you right now, and I don't know why" I replied. Mike almost fell off his chair laughing. "Oh, great, now I can get in trouble just sitting here!" he laughed.
It took another 10 minutes and a couple of commercials before I figured it out. On the program, they were showing a back yard reno with a new fence - that was it! I hate the fence around our yard and I guess subconsciously when they panned around the yard and showed the new fence, I tensed up because it reminded me how much I hate the fence that we have. When I told Mike that it was the fence in the program that had made me mad, he went into hysterics and remarked that for sure it had to be his fault somehow, because I didn't like our fence.
Today at work, I had another one of those moments. I have a big, long closet called "The Pantry" when I store all of the completed Monday Night Class kits. It is narrow and long and hard to navigate well, seeing as there is a huge fricken tool cart in there that has sat there all through the workshop renos. It has come in pretty handy, as all of the screw drivers and hammers and nails have sat on it and you could just go and grab whatever was needed. No one has taken anything off of it in the last two months, however. Yet every time that I go to get a kit, my pants or belt snags on the cart as I try to squish past it. Today it tore my jeans. I could have beaten it with a sledge hammer, I was so mad. Those were my best jeans! How many times have I manoeuvred around that darn thing, without realizing how mad it was making me? So, at lunch I took it out, put it in the back of the truck and took it home. This afternoon, I had to go and get a kit for shipping, and guess what? I walked right in. There was plenty of room, I easily reached the kit and I was out in a minute. Why had I let that cart irritate me for so long?????
So, in March, I am finally making my New Year's resolution! I didn't have a good one until now. Everything in my life that irritates me is GONE!! (Not Mike, though. I have to keep him for a few more years) but I am going to try and be aware of all of the things in life that make me tense and crabby and inefficient. I am going to fix them, one by one. That is, if I can just remember what is that is pissing me off, in the first place!!!

Another BBQ????

When Amy submitted this layout, called "The Sweet Taste Of Summer" I could not wait for all of the supplies to come in so that I could make one up of all of the fantastic camping food that we enjoy during the summer, that we never eat the rest of the year. I have some amazing BBQ recipes that we enjoy out at the lake, when we go Scrampin' (scrapbook camping) and on our veranda. I fully intended on photographing the recipes and doing the layout on the food.

Now I am afraid that I am going to have to have a different plan, because guess what? My husband came home with yet another BBQ this week!!!!! That makes a grand total of four BBQ's. The one that we bought last summer has hardly been used, except for the family reunion and the designer's BBQ at the workshop. The stainless steel one that we bought the summer before that, is GLISTENING clean after only about three uses. Then there is the other stainless steel one, with big burners for boiling water in pots for corn and such. The previous summer's model that obviously failed some sort of guy test.

So, now we have a smoker/BBQ that is gynormous and has a big black smoke stack and burns wooden pellets. We also have about three different bags of flavored pellets that came along with it. I have to ask, how many BBQ's does a man need? The jury is out on that one...

Top Ten Things That Made Me Smile This Week

1) I never thought that I would hear Megan say "I can't afford it right now". Was I hearing things???? Am I getting senile??? I am pretty sure that I heard those exact words come out of her lips this week - and where is she now? Off to Spokane for a shopping trip! Maybe I was hallucinating...


2) After giving my poor Dad a break for the past few weeks, I innocently asked him to built me something - a shelf for above my computer - and he didn't tell me (for a change) that I "have too many ideas". He must be feeling rested again, so now I can hit him up for all of the other things that this workshop needs to make shipping run smoothly! Like bins for the orders that have been pulled, another "coffin" for under the table to store paper in, a pick up box for local ladies etc. etc. etc. (I do have a lot of ideas!) Sorry Dad, back to work!


3) The mud is drying up!!!!!!!!! The front of the workshop looked like a mud bog competition was held here lately. On Monday, five loads of gravel arrived and the sun came out. Yahoo!!!!!


4) Christy fixed my email woes when she was here to pick up kits for all of the events that we are appearing at in the next few weeks. I HAVE FILES TO PUT DESIGN NOTES IN!!! No more deleted emails, girls! I now have a SYSTEM!!!!!


5) I got to meet the manager of the Lethbridge Scrapbooker's Paradise when I went in to drop off their very first selection of Monday Night Class kits and she is very nice. Several days later, I got an email saying that the kits were selling really well and the customers were glad that they were finally there. That really made me smile!


6) I got to take time off and go for a massage this week. Thanks to Simone, I do not hear a "broken glass" sound when I turn my head. I do however, have bruises to prove that my massages are anything but relaxing. I totally had a "no head ache" week and that is something to smile about!


7) My best,best girlfriend is coming to spend the weekend with me and we are going to SCRAPBOOK!! Can't wait for Loretta to get here!!!! I have not got out pictures in ...well, forever!! She is even going to sleep over, so we can scrapbook all night if we want to. Heaven!!!


8) If the weather stays this nice, I am going to wash all of my exterior windows this week. Being able to see through them will make me not only smile, but laugh out loud. Okay, if you saw how dirty they are right now, you would be happy for me too!


9) Mike came over to the workshop with his Rhino and picked up all of the garbage that has been driving me up the wall - bits of hardwood floor and tile, cardboard boxes, underlay and carpet - all of the junk from the reno. Gotta love that guy - one leg and all! He is still stronger, standing on one foot than I am on two good feet. Reed fixed the hot water issues with the floor heating and now we will not be cold any longer. Debbie and Andrea are probably going to be happy next week when we get to ship kits in comfort!


10) I have to say that this is the nicest weather that I can ever remember during calving time. Every farmer in Southern Alberta should be smiling along with me right now!

Time off!!!

Thanks to our wonderful family, Mike and I played tourist and went to Banff for a holiday. I was slightly nervous about us two hayseeds being on the gold floor of the Banff Springs Hotel, I just didn't think that we would fit in! When we unwrapped the gift certificate at Christmas, I could not believe that the kids would have done something like that! Book us into a place where you have to phone in your pillow preference??? Us??? Really???
I had visions of us rolling up to the main doors, duct taped luggage and all, Mike on crutches...to a place where some of the restaurant's have a dress code of "no denim". Really??? I actually was thinking that I would have enjoyed a few nights at the Ramada in Lethbridge more than this trip. I am a denim girl!!! I have one funeral dress that reluctantly gets pulled out every time that I need an outfit a little dressier than my jeans and hoodie. I don't like dressing up, I don't like unfamiliar places and I certainly don't like swanky places. But Megan wasn't letting us get out of this one!!!
What a surprise, it wasn't anything like I imagined. The whole gold floor was inhabited by English families that were staying at the Banff Springs, because one of their couples were getting married there on the weekend. There were little kids in pajamas running everywhere, even some of the adults were dressed in pj's at breakfast, and the rest were dressed to go snowmobiling and dog sledding as soon as they were finished eating. There were squabbles over finishing their breakfasts and kids with bed head and we fit right in!!!!! They totally put us at ease. Yes, we were still instructed to put our shoes outside the door at night to be polished (we had a good laugh over that one, as Mike has only one shoe and I was in runners) and we had amazing room service and champagne, but all in all, it was not the dreaded experience that I expected!
I may have actually had the best meal that I will ever have in my life! And quite possibly the largest, because I just about ate everything on the menu. My appetite has been off since before I left the Inn, I think stress has played a big part in killing my desire to eat. I just don't look at food the way I used to. Well, for what ever reason, my appetite reappeared that evening - in the most expensive place you could imagine. I think that Mike must have been slightly alarmed at me ordering so much food, but the atmosphere was perfect, the candlelight was beautiful, the window seat in the restaurant was awe inspiring and the food was to die for!!! So I ate my body weight! Even had two desserts!!
The ultimate best part of the trip was the fact that the holiday included a professional photo of the two of us - something that we have not had done since Megan was just learning to walk. The entire experience was so relaxing (I slept for three days straight, before I woke up and decided that I wanted to look around) and so enjoyable that I can only say "thank you, thank you, thank you" to everyone who made it possible!!