Some things are best left in the past

We all have those favorite childhood memories, you know playing in the park, eating a favorite meal, general tomfoolery and those things that just made you a kid. This month, we decided to relive some of those favorite meals, inspired mostly by Amanda's cravings (although only one meal was actually eaten by her as a child).
Meal #1: Flipper on a raft (aka homemade Tuna Helper on bread). For those of you who are wondering what this culinary delight might be, its basically homemade white sauce with tuna thrown in, spread over sliced bread and topped with cheese. Mmmmm! Or not. This was a favorite of Amanda's mother growing up, and sometimes was placed over cooked Mr. Noodles (dubbed Flipper in seaweed). Sounds great in theory, however when it came to actually consuming said meal, neither one of us thought too highly of the recipe. Dan detested it so much, he actually called Amanda's mother and proceeded to inquire where the recipe came from and why she would actually serve this to a child. I do believe I overheard the words "medieval torture devise" within the conversation.
Meal #2: Mac N Cheese...Whiz. (Dan's favorite growing up). Okay, seriously, Mac N Cheese Whiz is not good. Especially since Dan seems to think that mixing cheese whiz with milk somehow makes it better. Well, it doesn't. Traditionally Dan served this meal with a breaded chicken patty (we left it out) or with hot dogs (which may have added some much needed flavour).
The point of all this has been to show that some childhood memories are best left in the past. Especially the childhood culinary ones. When its got a name like Flipper on a raft or a main ingredient like cheese whiz, you should back away quickly. Do not make such meal. Nostalgia is not worth all the dry heaves and nauseousness, or questions like "Why did I just do this to myself?" Some things are just best to leave in the past.

So this is what being a parent is like...

Dan and I agreed (what are we insane??!?!) to keep the kids overnight last night. Their parents went to a concert and we had Bible study. The kids were fairly good, only coming out a few times to see what was going on. I had to go in a few times to break up fights, but what can you expect? They are little. They finally went to bed at about 10:30/11ish, which is not abnormal for them. (although, they were bouncing off the walls, and my eyes were drooping...) I had a good nights sleep, until....
5:45am. River wakes up screaming and crying. Something about his leg hurting. I never did find out what the problem was. I just tried to calm him down and keep him from waking up Cypress who is in the same room (probably a cardinal mistake on my part, but I'm still learning)
6am. Cypress wakes up crying, complaining that something hurts. I assume she wants some sympathy after hearing me with Rivs. Then the coughing starts. I pick her up to take her out of the room, so that River can sleep. As I'm picking her up, I feel this gross heave extirpating vomit onto my shoulders, back and hair. By this time, I know what's happening and make a run for the bathroom. I stand her in front of the toilet and instruct her to barf in it. Meanwhile, I'm peeling off my shirt to keep the vomit from dripping all over the place (needless to say, there is a nice trail from her room to the bathroom). She vomits again...but instead of her aiming for the toilet, she turns her head at the last minute and it ends up all over the floor and the bath mat. Gross! We clean her up, change her shirt and put her to bed. Dan and I spend the next 15 minutes removing barf from our floor and bedsheets. We go back to bed, tired yet very awake. We are just about asleep when at
6:30am I hear Cypress complaining that her tummy hurts. I run to her room, just in time to grab a blanket to catch her vomit. I yell at Dan to run and grab a bucket. (he walks) It's dripping through the blanket (which is still wrapped around her), and into my hands. Finally, Dan gets the bucket to me and we yet again clean up. I instruct Cypress to vomit into the bowl if she needs to barf again. I ask Dan to get a towel to put under the bowl (see, I'm getting smart), while I settle her down. We both head back to bed. We are just about asleep when at
7 am I hear her start to gag. Up it all comes, this time in the bucket. But she is screaming. When I finally calm her down to understand her, I realize that she is upset, because the vomit is on her chin. I wipe that up and head back to bed. I'm just about asleep (do you sense a pattern here?) when at
7:30am. She does it again. A quick run to help and an equally quick cleanup and we all head to bed. I'm just about asleep and at
8am. She's gagging again. No barf, thankfully. Just not feeling good. Then River wakes up. He's doing fine until he starts to cough. I grab the bucket and in the barf goes....well at least most of it. It kinda splashed everywhere. Another bed spread into the laundry. It doesn't help that his diaper was all out of place and he wet through the bed. Yippee!

Needless to say, that's the last barf we've had so far. It's currently 10:30am. I'm on my third load of laundry (and there are at least 2 more). Oh the joys. I think at about 6am this morning Dan and I had a conversation that went something like this:

Amanda: So, this is what having kids is like.
Dan: We are NEVER having kids.
Amanda: Nope, never.
Dan leans in to snuggle up next to Amanda.
Amanda: Are you kidding me? Get away from me! No kids! EVER!

I think our sleep loss led to this but, needless to say. If' you're going to practise, you may as well have a bad experience. If you can make it out alive, I think you're ready to go forth and multiply....but maybe not until this experience is forgotten.

A cop a day, keeps the criminal away

Or should we say, a cop a minute keeps the criminal away.
We went to return a video to the video store tonight, an eight minute return trip. We literally counted eight cop cars passing by us in that eight minute trip. It doesn't really make the neighbourhood feel any safer. In fact, in this town, it makes you wonder if there is a Bacon Brother running loose. Lets just hope that the cops catch who they are looking for, and that no one gets caught in the crossfire.

H1N1 and the line from Hell

Generally, I have found that there are three different ways that people have responded to the H1N1 flu shot.
1. The "I want the flu shot and I want it now. And I will do whatever it takes to get it" person
2. The "I'm not afraid of the flu, and I'm not sure about the safety of the vaccine, so I'm not going to get it" person
3. The "I'm only getting the shot, because.....I have kids, I have a pre-existing condition etc...." type person

Unfortunately, the type that you meet in the H1N1 line are the number one, aggressive type person. Last week, I took both kids (age 2 and 3) to get the flu shot as their parents requested. Let me say that taking two kids to stand in line for 2.5 hours is not my cup of tea. But then, the line from HELL made it that much worse. I took the kids to Mission, since there was no clinic in Abbotsford that the kids would qualify for (their clinic happened a week earlier, when the kids didn't qualify). People in line, were getting angry and aggressive. They kept saying, "This line is for Mission residents ONLY! People should stay in their own city and get the shot." Unfortunately, not every city had a place for a flu shot, so others would retaliate in angry outbursts. The Health Nurse came around to answer questions, and remove people from line who didn't qualify. Only, she didn't come alone. She came with a body guard. On top of that, there were times in the 2.5 hours that I waited in line, in which I needed to leave the line to gather the children to keep them safe from a delivery truck that was driving by. When I would return to my place in line, people would get angry and refuse to let me back in line. They would force me to the back of the line. I would play oblivious, since there was no way I was going to wait one extra minute in that line. By the time the kids actually got their shot, I was done. We ran out of snacks about an hour into the line, and we were hungry. And tired. Let's put it this way, I felt like going crazy. I laughed when Cypress got the shot, cuz I was DONE!
Needless to say, the next day Cypress got a high fever....a reaction to the shot. Two days later, River came down with a high fever. Now, we all have colds. Probably got them from standing in line with hundreds of other people. (so much for avoiding "close contact" with people who are sick..a slight oversight on the organizers part).

Walking and the Weather

Walking in this weather can be fun. Dan and I were walking home in the pitch black since the power went out around town. It was fun to walk with the wind screeching by and the rain dumping down. Dangerous at times.....some people still don't understand four way stops or that some people are crazy enough to walk in the wind and rain.....but fun.
On Saturday afternoon, I went to the mall to quickly pick something up before returning home. It was pouring and my umbrella broke on the way to the mall. (the handle came off and it refused to open). I decided to take the bus home, since the heavens decided to open up and dump rain like the world was ending. I ran to the bus, only to have an elderly gentleman take his sweet time to close his umbrella and get on the bus. So, needless to say, I was drenched. Happy (since I found the whole rain dumping on me quite humorous), but drenched. Anyway, as the bus starts to drive, I notice that there are fish tails about 10 feet tall coming straight out from the wheels of the bus. I haven't seen any fish tails that huge since I've been in a large boat. I actually joked that I didn't know if we were on a boat or a bus. Then, we passed this man in a bus shelter. The rain dumping on his head and then, to add insult to injury, a 10 foot wave of water splashed on him from either wheel of the bus. The man, was wet. Sorry to the man, but it was hilarious. From the front of the bus, I hear the driver giggling. He said, "I moved over as far as I could, but there was nothing I could do." (I must interject and say that this driver has a good sense of humour, as earlier this week he drove right past me at the bus stop, only to stop about 200 meters away with the comment, "I've always wanted to do that!") The driver continued to giggle and so did a few others (including me) on the bus. It was like a bunch of elementary school kids after someone farted. Giggles followed by controlled silence, and then bursts of laughter. I eventually got off at my stop and noticed a HUGE puddle that the bus needed to drive through. I know that after laughing at the man who got drenched, I probably deserved to be soaked as well. But I'm a smart cookie and waited a great distance from the puddle, so as not to get wet. I even had to run half a block (or the length of the puddle) so that a passing car wouldn't give me the same fate as the drenched man.
I love this weather. Sometimes though, it doesn't love me.