So here is my week so far and then at the end, if you feel like it can tell me how your week was.
I will warn you that this one is a little long. It has been a LONG week.
So as a prefix I will let you your know that I had planned on going to Vancoucer on Sat, the 16th. Then we could watch 2 of my little brother Lance's hockey games. This kid (who really isn't a kid anymore) kicks butt on the ice from what I am told. We may not be very close but I sure am proud of him.
Side bar---- Lance if you happen to hear about this or actully read this. I AM very proud of you and if you if EVER want or need a place to stay weither it is for a weekend or for school you are more than welcome at our place.
Monday- I put my back into spasms helping Haylei off the recliner. Which put me out of commission flat on my back for Tuesday and Wednesday. Which was fun with the kids. I arranged for them to stay at their daycare over night once but other than that Keenan was my right hand man. He was such and immense help. Poor guy shouldn't have to have that much responsibility but he did it all willingly. He pretty much did everything from putting her in and out of bed to helping dress her and changing her diapers. Only pee diapers though. No way will he go anywhere near a poopy one, don't blame him.
Thursday I had to go to physio. For some reason our garage door isn't working properly so I had to open it manually. Moved the truck out and went to close the garage door. I got it half way down and it got stuck. With my back I couldn't bend over and pull it the rest of the way closed so I used the palm of my hand to kinda pull it down. While doing that my fingers got caught in between two of the panels right when the weight of the door finally caught and brought it down completely. WITH MY FINGERS STILL IN IT !! The sounds were gross, all I heard was crunching and grinding coming from my finger tips. Of course my first reaction was to pull my hand out but that was not going to happen, it was in there good. Finally with my other hand I got the door up enough to get my fingers out. So there I am in my driveway screaming, crying, jumping up and down and cussing up a storm. Keenan is in the truck freaking out. He gets out and comes over and his screaming and crying adds to the scene. I am sure my neighbours were wondering what the heck was going on over at my house. I did have a lighter moment in all of this. When I finally calm myself down enough to get back in the truck Keenan says to me..."Thats it I've had enough, where is you cell. I'm calling 911." Smart kid but I wasn't letting him call 911 for my fingers.
Thursday night- we had our "storm" which I later was told that had been a class 2 hurricane. So no power, phone, TV, no nothing. We all have gas fireplaces in our developement, they are a standard feature in all of the homes. So at least we had a heat source. But that was it. I am sure that everyone has heard about the damage that it caused. Sean and Holli, the neighbours, came knocking on my back door sometime around 0300-0330 in the morning as the storm was going on. They were just checking on everyone to make sure we were all okay. I only heard them because I was sleeping on the couch because of my back. So there we are in the middle of this storm in my backyard trying to get my lawn furniture into the house before it flew away. I am glad they showed up because with my back and my hand pretty much hooped I couldn't have done it myself. The winds were so strong that it picked up the fort I built for Keenan (which is huge) moved it over about 15 feet or so, turned it 180 degrees and layed it on its back. So its door now faces the sky and the roof faces the house. His slide I found 3 houses down with a huge hole in it, one of the roofs had been ripped off. It was absolutely amazing. You could hear the wind building up then it was like the house would shake. I have never seen or heard or been through anything like it. There were so many trees down everywhere that it took them until sunday night to restore power. We lost all of our food in the fridge and freezers. Almost all of our salt water tropical fish died. All we have left is our Nemo, somehow he made it through. They just couldn't survive without their heaters running, the water just got too cold. It is soooooo sad, I loved those guys. I mean I just got our sting ray and now hes gone too. Sucks, big time.
So while we are out of power the kids get restless, and in my state there really wasn't much that I could do to entertain them. We did go for a walk the next day to check out the neighbourhoods damage but by the end of that I was dying. It felt like someone was kicking my back with knives in the tips of their boots. Just brutal.
Friday- I start packing for the trip but with no power I ended up packing a lot of dirty clothes. Plus I had to do it after Haylei went to bed because she would be unpacking as I was packing, so only having candle power made that task a little frusterating. Finally I gave up and just started shoving clothes and stuff into bags.
Sat- We leave tonight so I had to get all the garbage and recycling ready for Monday. And with all of the food I had to get rid of that in itself was a feat. I get the stuff ready for Cleo as she will be staying with a friend while we are away. Drop her off, head back to the house to finish up all the last minute packing stuff. My friend calls and says that he can't keep the dog. She wouldn't go in his house, all she would do was run back and forth from gate to gate in his backyard and dig under the fence trying to get out. He was afraid that if he kept her we would come home to no dog because she would have ran away. I kind of understand but this was not the time to tell me that I now have nowhere to put my dog. Then he books her on a flight up to my moms for Sunday...when we weren't going to be there until Tuesday. By this point I am a blubbering mess on the phone with my mom trying to figure all of this out. I called every Kennel in the book plus a couple that weren't listed and ALL of them were booked over Christmas. My only choices were to put Cleo on the flight or stay home with Haylei and send Keenan up to my moms. There was no way that I could keep Keenan here, he was SO excited about going up to Nana and Papa's and playing in the snow and everything. I couldn't do that to him. Mom said that if Cleo had to take the flight then that is what we would have to do, she would figure out how to get her from the airport and what to do with her until we got there. Mom and Dad don't have a fenced yard so that would be FUN!! So that was the option we went with.Obviously we didn't make it to Van that night.
Sunday- Okay, TODAY we will get out of here !! I get the truck all packed up with our luggage, kids, dog, and of course food and drinks for my two never ending eating machines. Plus one small cooler of food I managed to save from the deep freezer. Not much but I wasn't losing it if I didn't have to. Which is now in my Dad's girlfriends freezer in Vancoucer. Then we get to my friends house who is lending me a carrier for Cleo. I go to the Vets to see if there is something that I can give her to make the travel less stressful. Apparently you can give them gravol. Didn't know that. Too easy. We get some gravol and do a couple more quick stops. I give Cleo some gravol in a treat about 1 hour before I take her to the airport, just like the vet said. We get to the airport, get the dog in the crate and take her in. I go up to the Air Canada desk and ask what I am supposed to do with her now. I'm in the wrong building. NICE!! The one I am looking for is down the road a bit. Okay, we walk down there. At this time it is 1pm and the flight is at 2pm. Lots of time. I ask the lady there what I do with Cleo now and she tells me that Cleo can't go!!!! WHAT!!!! Apparently I was supposed to be there 2 hours ahead. No one told me. I mean how much time does it take to "check in" a dog ???!!! Plus the crate wasn't big enough, she couldn't stand up and turn around "comfortably". She
could move around but not enough for this ladys standards apparently. I am BEYOND my breaking point already and now this!!! OMG!!!! YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS !!! This week can't be happening. So both me and Keenan are crying and so I tell him that I will still send him up to Nan's and Haylei and I will stay at home with Cleo. Out of the blue this lady pipes up. "No, you won't!! Don't be silly you can't be all separated at Christmas. I won't let you. I will take you dog. I am here to pick up my daughters 2 dogs so I will take yours with me too." I'm stunned. All I could say was. "Are you serious ? I'm gone for 3 weeks, thats a long time." She was totally adiment about keeping Cleo. She hugged me and kissed my cheeck. (Keenan pulled me aside and whispered, "Why did that lady kiss you ? We don't know her. He's didn't get it, he's so cute.) So ya, she took Cleo. No problems. While we waited for her dogs to arrive we got to talking and her son in law is on the same ship as James. Small world eh ? Okay, now we are off to the ferry to finally get to Van. At this point we are too late to watch any of my brothers games which SUCKED. But on the way to the ferry the check engine light comes on in James truck. WHAT NOW!! By the time we hit the ferry it was off again. Cool. We get to Van and now I gotta remember how to get to Lougheed Mall by my Dad'a place. Suuuuure. Nope, don't remember. I just kept driving straight until I hit and area that I recognised and then went from there. I figure it out and get there. But now Dad won't be there for another 45 minutes or so. Great, I take 2 tired, bored and cranky kids into the mall right before closing time. Good times!! We get to Dads chat for a bit, my brother Lance was there and so was my little sis Courney. Finally the day is over and bedtime comes quickly.
Monday- didn't do much. Took the kids to a couple cool fish stores and to Metrotown mall. By this time Haylei was sick of sitting, with all the time she spent in the truck yesterday and she did NOT want to be in a shopping cart either. Haylei puked once today, right down my clevage!! GROSS!!! But rather uneventful, which was nice.
Tues - I am up by 0430, kids are up at 0500 and we are out of Dads by 0530. Get to the gate okay then they announce that the Terrace airport is under a weather advisory and we may not be able to land. Sweet, could this get any better ? Yup, if they don't land they will take us to Prince Rupert and bus us from there. Which would probably get us in around 3pm (ish). All of that time on a bus with the kids. We did manage to land in Terrace so that was good. Then collecting the bags and we are missing one. Yep, it just keeps coming. I go to the counter to ask about it and Haylei pukes. YA!! Also there had been massive rain the night before and it caused a mud slide on the highway between the airport and Kitimat. The road was closed. Eventually the cleared it enough so that there was single lane traffic through that area. But the mom didn't want to chance the highway, she even called the RCMP to see what they had to say and they advised her that if she didn't NEED to go then to not. So that left me waiting for the "nobody loves me bus" to take me into town and she would get us from there. Kicker.....the next bus didn't show up there until after 2pm. And we didn't leave there until after 3pm. I STRONGLY suggest NEVER having to spend almost 6 hours in a SMALL airport with 2 cranky/tired kids who have been up since 5am and nothing to do.
So, how was your week ?
These two with me...I can't find the right words for them....SIMPLY THE BEST!!! Brian and Sherri
And a group of us at Moose Wanooski's in Barrie.
While the cake was baking the these two had already started on the decorations...
