My friend Alisha over at Sharing Slices of my Life … One Day at a Time posted on my facebook wall that she misses my posts, so I promised her I would post today.

I had gone to my doctor to talk to her about Ethan’s speech and she referred us to a speech therapy organization in our area. Today I took Ethan (age 4) to a speech Pathologist for testing. She spent 2 hours doing tests with him and talking with him (and I a little bit) to find out what his issues are. The conclusions: He’s extremely bright and has a very good understanding of words, instructions and descriptions. He is mildly delayed with some grammar – ie: rather than saying “I like blue” he says “me like blue” or “me hungry” rather than “I am hungry”, he also uses he/his and she interchanged with him and her (“him is tall” rather than “he is tall”). He tends to shorten multi-syllabic words, so we have to teach him how to sound them out into their syllables properly. She figures with a little practice and a change of habit those should be fairly easily remedied. Ethan also has some speech (sound) issues and is moderately to severely delayed in some sounds. The K (or hard C), G and L sounds are the ones we’re most concerned about. He also has trouble with CH, SH, TH, R and J sounds, but sometimes children do have trouble with those sounds until around the age of 8, so while we’re watching them we’re not concerned yet.

The first step is correcting his grammar, which, so far, an hour after the appointment ended, has been a great success. Once we have that improved we will move onto the next step, which will be one of the first three sounds. Whew!

So now, after his initial assessment is done, we are on the waiting list to get into a speech program. Hopefully it will be soon. Until then we’ll work on him as much as we can at home … and at school, because you know me, I’m going to make sure the teachers know about it and stick with the program. :)

Onto other news.

• October 24th marked the 13th year that Michael and I have been married. Love that guy. Sleeping or not. ;)
• October 19th my cat Milo died. He was 13 and had acute kidney failure. His sister, Otis, doesn’t seem to miss him, but she always thought of herself as an only child anyway.
• October 29th my very good friend married a wonderful man and I couldn’t be happier for her. PS. My dress was AMAZING. I even wore heels.
• November 1st I got to go running with Michael.
• I’ve decided to put off my 1/2 Marathon until the Spring (I’m hoping) because I don’t feel prepared for one this Autumn. Also I need new running shoes and don’t have time to properly break them in. Some may say I’m making excuses, but I’m still running on a regular basis so I say there are no excuses just extensions of my goal.
• I love my job. My boss is great, my co-workers are great and I get to play with random dogs almost every day. What can be better than that!?!
• On August 20th Dozer was extremely sick. We thought he had an intestinal blockage. After x-rays and a bunch of tests at the vet (and $700+ later) it turns out it was nothing more than an irritated bowel. However if you had seen how he was acting you would have taken him to the vet too. Poor guy. :(  I was at work when I found out he was okay and coming home and I burst into tears in front of a client. It’s okay, she’s a dog owner too and very understanding.

I am once again proudly supporting The Terry Fox Foundation in its ongoing work to fund innovative and progressive cancer research programs. I very much hope you will consider making a donation in support of my effort, confident in the knowledge that your kindness will impact the lives of so many people living with cancer.

I dedicate this year’s 10km run to Nana, WanniEtta (hooray for a clear 1 year scan!!), Emerald, Grandma and everyone past, present and future who have had or will have to fight this disease with all their might; to those who have won and those who have lost. My strength, at least for this one day, is theirs … on this day each step I take means something.

Thank you.

But I digress …

My shame and embarrassment has been caused by the Vancouver hockey fans who are a bunch of sore losers and started a riot after last night’s game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs. I hope they’re all arrested. I’m ashamed of the Facebook page someone started to share videos, stories and pictures of the riot. The fighting has continued on that page. People swearing at one another, though in the mess there are some people with clear heads and voices I hope are being heard far and wide.

This happened once before, when the Vancouver Canucks lost the Stanley Cup. It was 1994. I only vaguely remember it though because I was a 16 year old girl who paid no attention to hockey or the news, though I’m sure the rest of our country felt the same type of shame then as they do now. It’s reverberating throughout Canada. Twitter, Facebook, the news …

I am proud to be Canadian. I love my country. My favourite holiday is Canada Day. Please remember, when you’re reading about the riots online or seeing them on the tv, that all Canadians are not like that. This one incident does not represent Canada.

We need to help them!

Text REDCROSS to 30333 to donate $5 to the Canadian Red Cross relief efforts in Slave Lake.

or click the link to make a donation online

https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/donate.aspx?EventID=56096&LangPref=en-CA&Referrer=http%3a%2f%2f%3Ca%20href=

I got the job.  Part-Time Sales Associate at Pet Valu.  It’s similar to the job I had when I went on maternity leave with Owen … Full-Time Sales Associate at Pet Valu (different location).  Don’t let the similarities fool you though.  A lot has changed in a decade and while I still know the basics I have a lot to take in.

So, yeah, life has gotten busy.

I haven’t really been juggling, per say, but there has definitely been a transition.  My first shift was last Thursday.  My 2nd shift was Saturday and I have four shifts this week.  Including this evening.

I’m making charts for the kids to follow (and so hubby has an idea what I require the little gaffers to do — not that he doesn’t know, but this way it’s written down for ALL to see) and we’re now in the stage of figuring out who is home when and whatnot.  It’s not exactly difficult.  Just different.  I haven’t had an out of the house job for almost 10 years.  October this year makes 10 years.

Let me tell you, it’s nice to be back out there.  Exciting.  Different.  Fresh.

And since it is only part-time I can ensure my house doesn’t implode while I’m away.  Excellent!

Also, Michael fixed my van.  YAY!  This is very exciting because it had gotten put off because 1st we had so much damned snow and 2nd because he hurt his back.  It was a busted transmission line so we weren’t paying for towing and then someone to fix it for us when he is entirely capable.  So we had been sharing his car.  A bit of a pain, but do-able.  I’m happy to have my ol’ girl back up and running though.  She needs a good vacuuming out though and after sitting for a couple months a bit of febreeze.  The inside kind of smells like feet.  It’s faint, but it’s there.

I’ll be back.

I’m applying for a job this week.  It will be my first Out Of the House job since I went on Maternity Leave (for a year!) almost ten years ago.  It’s kind of scary to be interacting in the real world like this.  Don’t ask.  I’m not saying where or what until I have more details.

The most scary part of it is learning a new balance in life.  It’s only a part time job, but it will eat into time I would otherwise have for other things.  Kids, husband, etc..  Also, we’ll have to learn to balance my (tentatively) new schedule with the kids’ school schedule, my home schedule with Ethan and Michael’s work schedule.

Oh yes, there will be a whole bunch of kerfuffle in the beginning, but we’ll manage.

Funny — my spell checker is saying “kerfuffle” needs to be revised and the suggestion it is giving me is “reshuffle”.  Interesting.

Wish me luck.

And lets hope I don’t babble too much should I be so lucky as to get an interview.

I have an obsession.  Obsession is a really strong word, yes, I know, and while maybe it’s not quite the right term – I could use fixation or attraction, but it doesn’t really cover it – so I’m going to use it anyway.  My obsession is called: Star Wars.

If I could join the Rebel Alliance, I would.

My running hat?  It’s a Star Wars (in Concert) hat.  Yes.  Michael and I went to Star Wars In Concert.  And yes, I’d like to go again … with the children.  I wore high heeled boots that day, for 14 hours straight, and my feet hurt for literally months because of it, but it was worth it.

Our house is very Star Wars oriented.  My husband can be a bit of a traitor though, because he is a fan of that other “star” oriented tv and movie series. Gross.  I know.  It’s okay though, the Wars wins out every time.  Four against one, majority rules.

Lily thinks I have The Force.

Seriously.

One day she walked up to me and straight faced asked me to teach her how to use The Force.  I asked her what she meant and she gave me a play by play of a specific incident she remembers in which I used The Force on one of her Bakugan thingamajigs.  It was a very detailed report on precisely what I did when I used The Force.  So detailed in fact that I am beginning to believe she’s right.  I possess The Force.

Yes.  I’m insane.

Obsessed.

My Mom always told me obsessions aren’t a healthy thing to have, but it’s STAR WARS, how bad can that be, really?

We watch Star Wars in our house – all six movies – on a regular basis.  We use Star Wars puns and references daily.  I nicknamed Owen “Obi-Wan Kenobi”.  It started out as Owen-Wan, but grew to be Obi-Wan.  He responds to it.

I love Darth Vader.  If I ever get another black lab and it happens to be male, his name will be Darth Vader.  Michael and the kids agree.  Michael named Dozer for the guy in The Matrix, so why can’t we have a Star Wars dog too?

I even have a Darth Vader bobble head in my living room.

Okay, maybe obsession is the right word to use after all.

It’s normal to have a favourite colour.

Right?

Ask my dad what his favourite colour is.  Go on, I’ll wait …

He’s off his rocker, isn’t he?  He doesn’t have a favourite colour.  Weird isn’t it? How he could not have a specific favourite colour baffled me as a child.  I would quiz him on it frequently.  ”Hey dad, what’s your favourite colour?” … “I don’t have a favourite colour.”  It drove me nuts.  It probably drove him nuts too – the questioning, not the lack of a favourite colour.  The colours he prefers at any given time are muchly related to the season, his mood, his surroundings, time of day, weather, etc. etc.

When I was a small child my favourite colour was yellow.  In around grade 6 I decided I liked blue the best.  Somewhere along the line that all changed …

Apparently I’m off my rocker too.

I absolutely do not have a favourite colour either.

Today?  I like grey.

Today’s writing prompt:
3.) If you really knew me, you would know that…

The other day I was talking Laurie about death and funerals.  I told her how I’m going to plan my own.  I am not ready to jump out and pick out a coffin, but I am doing other things to plan.  Funerals are not, to me, about sadness, they are a way to honour a person’s life.  There is no reason why I can’t have a say in how it goes down.

We have a family plot Michael and I plan to be buried at along with my parents and paternal grandparents.  I’d like to buy a headstone and have it put there. Kind of like making a reservation.  We both agree we want one that will age well, made of a strong natural rock.  I love cemeteries and want a headstone that will be here in 100 years so other creepy people like me will be able to look at it, be able to read it and wonder what the people beneath it were like.

I’m planning to write my own obituary — aside from cause of death, which will need to be filled in, of course, by someone else.  I saw an obituary in the newspaper about a year ago in which the woman (the deceased) had written herself.  It was fantastic, funny, heartwarming and I’m sure something that will bring her children and grand children comfort in the years to come.  I feel an obituary saying “So-And-So died from Such-and-Such, here’s a list of all their relatives (15 minutes of fame?) and here’s the funeral information” is not really how an obituary should be.  An obituary should be about a person’s qualities, about their life achievements about their personality.  It should be that person’s story, not the story of those who survived them.

Also, my funeral will be by invitation only.  Sort of like a wedding.  Only there won’t be a white dress.  There are people in my life (past, present and I’m sure future) whom I really don’t think deserve to see me put in my grave.  I’m going to limit it as best I can.  20-30 people sounds like a good number of people.

I’ve never been to a funeral where everyone wears black.  I think it’s classy and elegant.  That’s what I want.  I’m hoping for a Spring funeral so everyone can use those big black umbrellas, but planning for Spring might be pushing it.

Lilies.  Those are the flowers I want.  It doesn’t matter what colour.  Just lots of them.  They are my ultimate favourite flower.  And yes, I named my daughter Lily for that very reason.  That and when we couldn’t find a name I happened to be reading Harry Potter and any Harry Potter fans will know Lily is his mother’s name — but that’s a story for another day.

So, those are the basics … As time goes by I might change some stuff.  As time goes by my obituary will be added to because as my life grows so will my story.