The New Car

After our exciting trip, off we went to the Mazda dealer. Tanya has had her eye on the Mazda3 for some time now, but we had two cars, both running fine, and no payments, so there was no justification for buying a new one. Not the case anymore!

She had to leave for work after already taking a few extra days off, so the dealer had to work fast to get her exactly what she wanted. He did. He was great, and as personable as Tanya is, he even began to confide in her about his personal life. He just figured she would understand. She did.

We took B with us to pick up the car, and he was in his glory. As obsessed as he is with vehicles of ALL kinds, the showroom became his playground for the day. How many 21 month old toddlers do you know who will sit through a half hour demo of all the features of a loaded car. He payed attention better than junior high kids in a classroom. I told his parents to keep the car keys hidden because that little sponge brain of his missed nothing! The last thing we need is for him to be driving before he is two!

B picked out a red convertible MX-5, and spent a lot of time in it. When a customer sat in it he just pointed to himself with a distressed look on his face as if someone was taking what was really his. It is hard to explain to a toddler that he has to share when all he wants is his turn. He is learning though because we go to Gymboree where he has to wait for his turn on his favorite equipment. I had to use that analogy to help him understand why the man was in his car.


The new car.


A very happy Tanya.


The one B picked.

What a Trip!

I have been gone a while as you can see, but what an adventure. Tanya and I went to her Grandma's 70th birthday party in Kamloops B.C. It is an eight hour drive for us, so we planned to go part way the day before and get a hotel so we would not have a long trip the day of and have to rush. The party was a surprise, so we had a time-line for when Grandma was to arrive.

By 1:00 a.m. we had reached Revelstoke and our drive had been quite scary in that we were coming around a mountainside in the rain, snow and fog. The truckers who travel that road all the time, and could likely do so with their eyes closed (which is what it was like driving much of the way), were very impatient with our caution. So with the engine making a strange sound for the past hour, we search for a room. NO Vacancies!!!

We eventually found a motel that came highly recommended by another motel that had vacancies but no hot water. When we get there we find ourselves in a 1970's dive with lumpy concave mattresses and pillows like bricks. I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry!


Yaaay! Great! Who recommended this "really nice" motel?


You can see the concave in the bed, and the other bed was on a slope, and they were both VERY lumpy. LOL

As it turned out it was a blessing because we got only a few miles out the next morning and the engine quit. The first thing I did was thank God we did not break down the night before or decide to continue on. Where we broke down was on a straight stretch where we could be seen, and a shoulder to pull onto out of the line of traffic. I was happy that we didn't break down the night before with the lack of visibility and no place to safely pull over, a transport truck would have surely sent us careening off the side of the mountain.

This is the first time I have thought of a breakdown as a blessing, and we laughed about everything for the rest of that day. The first bit of comedy came into play when we realized that we had 2 cellphones, roadside service memberships, but no signal. Tanya got out of the car an started walking hoping to get a signal around a corner. That was never going to happen, but what else do you do? I was sitting in the car with the hood up as Tanya got into a silver Dodge Ram with a boat hooked to the back. I began to envision all the creepy movies where people disappear and never come back.

I got out the camera and began to document the events unfolding around me. "Tanya got into a silver truck with a boat on the back," my video begins. I took time to capture the images of the beauty that surrounded me also, and I sat and waited.


The yellow sign up ahead reads - NO STOPPING, AVALANCHE AREA. You can see how narrow the shoulders are even when we did have them.


Thinking... If a truck hits me from behind I will be in this pretty little pond!

Now not long after I had videoed and photographed what may have been the last moments of my life, I snapped back into reality and got the map out to see where the next town was assuming Tanya would be taken there. Just as I did I heard a 'beep beep beep'. Clearly the sound B makes when he is pretending to be a truck backing up! I peered again between the dash and the open hood to see a wrecker backing up to load the car and rescue me! Whoo Hooo!!!


Are we having fun yet?


Safe and sound in a parking lot.

Well, now that we were safe and sound, we recall that it is Good Friday in a very small town and everything is closed. The manager at the dealership was there on his day off doing paperwork, and unlike a big city, small town business folk are happy to help out even when they are closed. He took the car and the keys, gave us the mechanics card, and said we could call tomorrow to find out what the problem was. So, now we needed to get to Grandma's party which was still a two and a half hour drive. I know, we will just rent a car and be on our way, right?

Nope!

The only car rental place in Revelstoke was a guy with a few cars at the FasGas. The tow truck driver took us there, and we asked the attendant if he had any rentals available. He said he didn't. Now what? He said he might have a Chevy Impala coming back, but he made some calls and that wasn't going to happen. Then the surprise. He told us he had one car in the back, but it had been reserved for Sunday afternoon. He told us that if we could have it back by Sunday morning we could have it. "Oh Yes, for sure, no problem," we told him. So credit card in hand, paper to sign, and off we went in a Toyota minivan! We laughed a lot. Tanya and I laugh a lot anyway, but this entire situation was all so funny to us, and now we are two dykes in a minivan with no kids. LMAO!!!


On the road again!


Well, we are cutting it close, and I still have to shower and change, but we might just make it. Look at all that room back there!

We did make it, and thankfully Grandma was late, so with wet hair, but clean and dressed, I made it to the banquet room on time with the camera all ready for the surprise. She was very surprised because people came from far and wide, and although she is very perceptive, and the planning had been going on for months, she had no clue.

Next on my agenda was a nice cold beer. The dinner was great, and I met even more of Tanya's HUGE family. I don't feel bad not knowing who everyone is when she still has to ask her Mom who people are. They are a lot of fun, and because of our car dilemma we stayed a day longer than we had planned.

The trip home was as eventful as the trip there. We had to take the van back by Sunday morning, but we were wanting to go home Saturday night because we had planned to leave Willow for only two nights. We left Thursday and it is now Saturday. I called the dreaded Greyhound and realized that our bus was leaving Revelstoke at 11:15 p.m. The car rental place closed at nine, so we had to get it back by then. We made the two and a half hour drive arriving at 3 minutes to nine. Since we had two hours to kill before the bus left, it was raining, and the small depot was closed, the rental place let us keep the van, lock the keys in it, and park it at the Greyhound depot for him to pick up in the morning. What a great guy. We went for some supper and then waited in the van for our bus to come.


Tanya in the minivan, in the rain, waiting for our bus.


The little warehouse behind the van is for Greyhound express packages, and there is a small waiting room in front for passengers, but they have only daytime hours.

Here we wait in the van. At least we are out of the rain!


Our last sane moments before boarding the dreaded bus for an all night ride.

When we got on the bus and found a seat we settled in for our trip home. The people on the bus were what we expected... some drunk, some sleeping, some eating, some making out, one a little disturbing, and us laughing hysterically at our own situation. I am sure some people thought we were a little crazy.

At one stop people got off for a smoke and to buy snacks. There was an older gray-haired man who I found interesting to observe, but happy to be five rows back on the opposite side. He didn't smell very good, and he was quite large. His legs and arms seemed average size, but he was very tall when he stood sideways he resembled an over due pregnant woman carrying very high. In his hands he carried the biggest hot dog I have ever seen, a chocolate bar that would feed an entire family, and a 1 liter carton of whole milk. Our stop was a total of 20 minutes, and we departed within 10 minutes of him returning to the bus with his feast. By the time we were rolling he was finishing the last of his milk and the food was gone. Fascinating.

As if that were not enough he took to scratching one spot on his head, with his eight fingers (not his thumbs), at warp speed. He reminded me of primates grooming each other and I got to thinking how we are so genetically similar to them. After about 5 minutes of this he took out a comb and combed his entire head at the same rate he was scratching. This lasted about 10 minutes. Just when I thought I could close my eyes and stop watching, he took off his shirt and began shaking it like someone waving a white flag to surrender to the enemy.

After a couple of minutes he put his shirt on, turned of his night light, reclined the seat and never moved again. I chuckled again at the situation I was in, looked beside me at Tanya sleeping soundly, and closed my eyes. I didn't sleep much, but enough to make the trip bearable.

I kept loosening the laces on my shoes as my feet and joints swelled with the water I was retaining. After seeing so many guys going to the toilet, only 2 rows behind us, I knew they would never hit the hole on such a rocky mountain road... hell, most guys can't hit the hole standing sober in their own bathrooms... so I thanked God that the water was in my ankles and not in my bladder!

At 6:30 a.m. we walked into our cozy home to find Willow waiting and wondering where we had been for so long. Happy to be home we were!


Willow

Nannies Unite

I have been reading some other Nanny weblogs and having flashbacks of prior jobs. Although I have a great job now, I do have experience with those families who would take advantage of a Nanny and then have the gall to pay so little, and criticize so harshly about petty issues that don't really matter in the realm of child development, care and safety!

This is something that has always gotten under my skin. The job we do is like no other. How many jobs are there where you are solely in charge of the safety and well-being of someone else's children only to get scolded for a book on the floor, or have your payday forgotten?!

People in general either praise us or loathe us. They don't believe we should be raising other people's children, and they fail to realize that we believe the same. Unfortunately there are the parents who can be legitimately questioned as to why they had children in the first place, but there are also wonderful parents who hire a Nanny as a valued member of their child's extended family and view us as an enhancement to their parenting experience and to their child's development, social skills and relationship building.

When you have the later you are typically not worried about showing affection and creating a bond with the child. These types of parents view this as a sign that the child is happy and content with the Nanny, and trust is built between all involved. When you have a parent who does not consider the best interest of the Nanny/parent/child relationship, this same bond can create jealousy and resentment from a parent. They don't see their lack of involvement as much as they see you taking over the parenting of their child. Well... SOMEONE HAS TO DO IT!!! So they will criticize and sabotage in order to make themselves feel better and justify paying you.

I can't stress enough how fortunate I am. I have a wonderful family who are the primary caregivers and decision makers. I go to a clean and organized house every day, and I leave it the same. If toys or books get left out by them because of a priority with the child, I have B help me clean up later. Usually by the time I get there Mom, Dad and B are on the floor with toys and books already anyway, and it is the same with me at the end of the day.

Mom and Dad do all the tidying, organizing, their own laundry and even most of the cooking. They have housekeepers come in every second week to do the major cleaning. I do B's laundry and throw together a recipe about once each week. All my time is spent with B doing fun activities and guiding him through his daily routine while making every aspect of it a learning experience. Even his meals are often pre-made, so I just heat them up. When he naps I have time to read, watch TV, study, or just relax and store energy for the afternoon. Mom and Dad value my time and realize that I am still on the job even if I am not filling every minute with their agenda. As a result, if I see anything I can do that would be helpful or allow them to give more time to B, I do it.

When they have a day off, I have a day off. When they go on holiday, I have that time off. I am on salary and they pay me the same regardless of my days. If they are out of town (like right now) they leave a post dated check for the next payday. If I babysit outside of my scheduled hours (7:30-4:30 or 5:00), they pay me extra. They plan all kinds of activities to do with B on their days off and on weekends, and if he has an appointment, one or both parents take time off work to take him. The best part... Every single day they kiss B goodbye, tell him they love him, and then turn to me and say, "Thank you." They always say things to me like, "Have fun," and "Have a good day." It seems so simple, but it makes a real difference to how I feel as an appreciated, trusted and welcome addition to B's life.

We do need more of these families because in comparison, my last family was the worst 18 months of my entire career. The sad thing about that statement is that my career involves child welfare!

PINK Is My New Favorite Color!

Chilled me to the bone this did. Please click on the "watch it" link under the picture of Bush. You can choose Quicktime or Windows Media Player.

Sorry, the link on Rosie's blog is no longer available.

The song I am referring to is Dear Mr. President by Pink. The CD is titled I'm Not Dead.

Just For Fun - Life Survey

Place an X by all the things you've done, or remove the X from the ones you have not. This is for your entire life:
(copy and paste into comments window if you want to complete)

(X) Smoked a cigarette
(X) Drank so much you threw up
(X) Crashed a friend's car
( ) Stolen a car
(X) Shoplifted (Never as an adult.)
(X) Been laid off/fired
(X) Quit your job
(X) Been in a fist fight
(X) Snuck out of your parent's house
(X) Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back
( ) Been arrested
(X) Gone on a blind date
(X) Skipped school
( ) Seen someone die
(X) Been to Canada
( ) Been to Mexico
(X) Been on a plane
( ) Purposely set a part of yourself on fire (What the hell???)
( ) Eaten sushi (I go with other people but refuse to eat the crap - I order off the cooked food menu!)
(X) Been snow skiing
(X) Water skiing
(X) Met someone from the internet
(X) Been to a concert
(X) Been to the Opera
( ) Had a root canal
(X) Taken painkillers
(X) Love someone or miss someone right now
(X) Laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by
(X) Made a snow angel
(X) Been to a pajama party
(X) Had a tea party
(X) Walked in the rain without an umbrella by choice!
(X) Flown a kite
(X) Gone puddle jumping
(X) Played dress up
(X) Jumped into a pile of leaves
(X) Walked in a rain forest
(X) Gone sledding
( ) Gone snowboarding
( ) Been to a ballet
(X) Been lonely
(X) Fallen asleep at work/school
( ) Used a fake ID
( ) Felt an earthquake
(X) Slept beneath the stars
( ) Been robbed
(X) Petted a reindeer/goat/kangaroo OR jackalope
( ) Won a contest
(X) Run a red light/stop sign
(X) Been suspended from school (Grade 8 for hitting Lori Heggie in the face with a badminton racket and then telling the principal to F-off ... sorry Lori)
( ) Had braces
( ) Eaten a whole pint of ice cream in one night
( ) Danced in the moonlight (I will put this one on my to-do list.)
(X) Liked the way you looked
(X) Witnessed a crime
(X) Questioned your heart
( ) Been obsessed with post-it notes (My friend, Shannon is. hehehe)
(X) Squished mud through your bare feet
(X) Been on the opposite side of the country
( ) Gone to Washington, DC
(X) Swam in the ocean
( ) Been to Italy
(X) Cried yourself to sleep
( ) Played cops and robbers
(X) Recently colored with crayons
(X) Sang karaoke (Once and I was drunk... I hate karaoke.)
( ) Paid for a meal with only coins
(X) Made prank phone calls
( ) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
(X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue
(X) Danced in the rain (Folk Festival)
(X) Written a letter to Santa Claus
( ) Been kissed under the mistletoe
(X) Watched the sun rise with someone you care about
(X) Blown bubbles
( ) Made a bonfire on the beach
( ) Crashed a party
(X) Gone roller-skating
(X) Ice-skating
(?) Had a wish come true
( ) Jumped off a bridge into a lake or river

A War Within A War

I have been over at rosie.com which is one of my daily blog visits. Rosie keeps her comments option turned off, and it has been that way since before I discovered her site. Well, now I see why.

She posted a beautiful article titled After grilling Bush, Helen Thomas gets thousands of flowers. By Albert Eisele and left the comment option open. This incited a riot crew, apparently called "trolls" to come in and attack with proverbial guns blazing. Americans at war with Americans over opinions. Very amusing.

Granted, people have very strong beliefs when it comes to Bush and the war, as do I, but to launch personal attacks on looks, intellect, weight, sexuality, beliefs and status, rather than debate their points and accept that others also have valid points. Absurd! You might think that even those who have their reasons for supporting the war would be able to envision some sort of peace as an ultimate goal. Nope, just vicious attacks. (A few respectful Bush supporters excluded)

There are some links to some very disturbing videos, photographs and articles about the politics, and the human carnage that has resulted. I wish I had not linked up to such graphic information, but I certainly got a realistic view of the corrupt soldiers who derive pleasure from their attacks, and those expressing contempt at their orders to refrain from killing children who throw rocks at their vehicles as they drive by. Perhaps some resemblance to the corrupt who served Hitler? But now they serve Bush.

Don't get me wrong, I am aware of the many troops who are serving out of loyalty to their country, and the ones who don't even believe in the reasons they are there. I am referring only to the cold, cruel killers who do not even regard the Iraqi people as human. So many innocent lives lost! Perhaps more than Saddam killed? Wasn't part of the rationale for an attack based on stopping Saddam from killing his own people? The irony.

The corrupt will return to live in civilization...

...to be continued