#1

It has been a long, hot weekend of baseball, and I am too tired to 'catch up' on everything that has been happening over the past week or two. Another season of baseball has come to an end, and Casey's team finished well, winning the year end tournament with a 10-3 victory over Westside.



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A Little Bit of Catch-Up

It is the final day of school before summer holidays, which means that my work schedule is about to become busier in a hurry. I have been working on average 2 shifts a week for the past two months. Next week I am scheduled for 4 shifts totalling just over 30 hours! That's a huge jump from the 8-10 hours I've been getting. Thankfully, both my ankles are no longer bothering me, so I'll just have to see how the back holds up to that much work.

I have a long list of chores that need to be done this summer and another list of chores that need to be done before July 2nd when I am hosting a Beauti-Control home party. The kids will be responsible for many of the chores, but I will still need to find the energy, after long days of work, to finish everything off. It would help out a lot if everyone could get into the habit of putting things away properly and picking up after themselves, but this is one life lesson that seems impossible to drill into them.

Today I baked a couple of loaves of bread and did some deep cleaning in the bathroom. The boys did help somewhat with some minor tidying, although Casey is always more willing and productive than Sam. Sam will be helping me make supper tonight though: Swedish meatballs!

Casey's baseball team played their first game of the year-end tournament last night against our "bitter" rivals. The rival team used to be Casey's team, our baseball association, and we had failed to beat them this entire season. Last night was a great game of baseball; at least for our team! We finally bested our rivals with a 9-3 victory. We have three more round-robin games to play over the weekend. Statistically, we are the better team of the three remaining opponents, but we cannot take these teams for granted. So, one more busy weekend of baseball, and then our baseball year is over, except for Casey umpiring a tournament and maybe a few games. It has been a good year, a positive year, and I have enjoyed every minute of it, even though we still ran into bumps along the way.

Yesterday morning I attended the awards assembly for grade 5/6 students at Abby's school. Abby received certificates of recognition for: Environmental Award, Social Responsibility for the term and for being a lunch monitor, Safety Patrol, Work Ethic, and Academic Excellence for an average of 4.6 and above in core academic subjects. I'm looking forward to seeing her report card when she gets home from school! Casey and Sam both have respectable report cards. Casey received Academic Recognition and Work Ethic Recognition and had all As and Bs. Sam also received a Work Ethic recognition (surprised me!). Most of his grades stayed the same as last term, but he did improve in two subjects. We won't know how he did on his final exams until the end of July.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

We finally received our new garbage, recycling, and yard waste bins late last week with out first pick-up tomorrow! I am both excited and annoyed with these new bins. It will be nice to have yard waste pick-up from spring to late fall, but I question the efficiency of the system in the fall when the maples drop their leaves. In years past, we could set out our 20+ bags of leaves for pick-up. Now we are restricted to what will fit into the yard waste bin with pick-up every other week. Knowing that our trees tend to drop their leaves later in the season, I cannot see how we will ever get all the leaves into the bin before the end of November and yard waste pick-up!

The recycling bin presents another case of uncertainty. We have had unlimited number of bags of recycling pick-up every two weeks, but we're now restricted to what fits into the bin. For the most part, I think this will be manageable, but I am a little nervous, knowing how much we usually put out. It's the end of the school year, which means a lot of paper will be heading into that bin, on top of the normal recycling! But, I think we'll be okay.

The garbage bin is what concerns me the most, because it is easily half the size of the recycling and yard waste bins! With a large household producing garbage on a daily basis, I just don't know that this garbage bin will hold it all.

This is a change, just another shift in the way we think about garbage. When I was a kid, there was no such thing as recycling programs. Several years ago, we paid someone to pick up our small bin of recycling every week, and then the city instituted a recycling pick-up program. A few years ago, we purchased a composter, and while we haven't made great use of it, this is something that we will now need to take better advantage of. We have been talking with the kids about the need to think about the garbage we create and how to reduce it.

It kind of goes hand-in-hand with other changes in life: the desire to simplify, baking homemade bread, using natural cleaners, conserving energy and water, being mindful of unnecessary trips in the car, and so on. As always, these changes tend to come through little steps, one foot in front of the other, until suddenly you find yourself running.

The Ankle Bone's Connected to the...

Despite my reluctance to visit a doctor, I forced myself to drive to the clinic, walk in the door and wait for my turn to be quickly shuffled back out the door. I don't even feel guilty for being glad that my doctor wasn't in this morning! In fact, I was rather relieved to see this other doctor instead. I've seen Dr. S. a few times and been content that he takes me seriously and considers all angles.

Dr. S. felt my ankle, moved and manipulated virtually every joint from my hip to my toes, tested my reflexes in both legs, checked out my back, and asked me more questions than I think I have ever been asked before! Some of the questions seemed to be a little beyond the scope of an ankle problem, but I got the impression that Dr. S. had a mental checklist of probable causes and was ticking things off one by one. It may seem bizarre to me that a recent cold might affect an ankle, but there must be a potential connection somewhere! Actually, it was rather nice to be asked so many questions instead of having my problem brushed off without a second thought.

I left the clinic without a satisfactory explanation, although Dr. S. said that there were two potential though unlikely probabilities: gout or a bulging disc. I'm a little young (thank you!) for gout, plus I don't really have the degree of swelling typical of gout, nor any of the other symptoms. The bulging disc, at times, sounds plausible, but again not really. The doctor is just as baffled as I am. He instructed me to take one ibuprofen 3x a day and to make note of what aggravates my ankle or makes it feel better, etc. I was also told to try not to do a lot of sitting. Increased ankle pain while sitting would point towards the bulging disc, and conversely laying down would alleviate the ankle pain, if the source is a disc.

I honestly don't think I have a bulging disc. Wouldn't there be other symptoms going on? I would think so, but I don't know! I do know that as I lay in bed last night, my ankle was in a whole heap of pain along with "heavy" and tingling toes. However, I have noticed today that the pain does tend to intensify if I am sitting for a bit, but two separate periods of laying down today produced different results. The first time made my ankle feel "lighter" and less painful, while the second time seemed to increase the pain somewhat.

I am really no closer to knowing what is going on than I was before, but at least I left the doctor's office feeling like I had been taken seriously.

A Fresh Start

I am not so growly today as I was yesterday. My ankle still throbs though, and it is slightly swollen and even a little red. I still don't know why, and that annoys me almost as much as the physical discomfort.

Sam talked to his math teacher yesterday. It seems the teacher simply forgot that Sam was in class and would fix the attendance record. Good grief!

While I am still not pleased with the baseball communication problems, I am somewhat mollified when I realized last night that I am not the only one sitting in the dark! At least I did find out what was happening and where, unlike most of one team that showed up at our diamond when they were to play somewhere else. There were some less than happy people driving away last night!

And it is raining! All the windows are open wide to receive the cool, fresh breeze, and I am enjoying the smell and sound of the rain. I'm a little cold though between the breeze and the ice pack on my ankle.

Snarky Face

I am just a little snarky right this moment. Actually, I have been rather snarky since I first stepped out of bed at 5:30 this morning. Somehow you just know that your day isn't going to go well when you wake up with pain in a body part where there hadn't been pain when you went to bed!

I've had some pain in my LEFT ankle for the past few weeks, but I knew what the likely reason was as this pain has been recurrent over the past couple of years. Without any medical diagnosis (because my doctor is a tool), I discovered that this pain in the left ankle means I need new shoes for work. I realized this after six months of ankle pain, a trip to the walk-in clinic, x-rays, and a waste of time trip to my own doctor. So, I bought new work shoes last week and the left ankle pain has greatly subsided!

This new ankle pain is in my RIGHT ankle, and I cannot recall the last time I ever had pain or problem in this ankle. I'm sure I probably sprained it once or twice as a child or teenager. This pain is not the same as the left ankle pain, and it is actually in a slightly different location, more on the top of the foot/ankle rather than below the ankle. I am at a loss! Perhaps in my sleep and crazy dreams my foot twisted into an awkward position...as unlikely as that may be.

As if that wasn't enough, this morning I discovered a voice mail left last night by the high school while we were at baseball. The automated message stated that Sam had been absent for a class, and I needed to call the school to confirm if this had been an excusable absence. Sam was still at home, so I asked him and he was as equally surprised as I was. He says that he was at school and present for each of his two classes yesterday. I have no qualms about believing my son, because a) skipping school just isn't like Sam at all, and b) Sam had talked with me about his school day yesterday afternoon. I called the school and was told that he had been marked absent for his math class, first block of the day. Sam says that he was there and told me what they had done in class. So, it is now up to Sam to go talk to his math teacher and get this sorted out. I am sure that it is something as simple as the teacher marking the wrong student absent, but it is a frustration and hassle that is unnecessary.

But the biggest source of my frustration has to do with baseball and communication issues. Abby's team played their final regularly scheduled game last Thursday. Play-offs or year-end, whatever you want to call it, is supposed to be this week, but as of our game last week we were still sitting in the dark as to what the play-off schedule would look like. All that we knew was that there was a scheduled practice for Tuesday night. I frequently, like every day, check the team website to see if there are any updates or changes to any game or practice, because we have been encouraged to use the website for up to date information. Also, for some unknown reason, I seem to be missing out on numerous emails sent by coaches or the team administrator. The missing emails have been going on since the beginning of the season. I've been aware of it and have mentioned it on several occasions, but I still am not getting most of them, even though they have my email address and I check my spam filters regularly.

Yesterday morning, I checked the website again, because I like to know what is planned for my week and was hoping play-off games would be posted. They weren't posted, but I did note that the practice for Tuesday was still on. Late last night I checked the website again and discovered that the practice was now cancelled. No play-off games posted yet though. Okay. I was actually kind of glad that the practice was cancelled, because it then freed me my day a bit and would allow me to go to the gym during Casey's practice (same time as Abby's practices). This morning, I checked my email and found one from the mom of one of Abby's teammates. She had forwarded me an email from the coach which was sent out late Monday night. She forwarded it to me, because my name was not on the list of recipients. This email stated that practice was cancelled, and instead we had a play-off game tonight and another on Thursday night!

My annoyance meter went off the charts! If this mom hadn't thought to forward this email, then we would not have been at the game tonight. I paused to quickly check the website, but it still hasn't been updated to include these games. Once Abby was awake, I told her that she now had a game tonight and Thursday to which she replied that she knew about Thursday's game but didn't know about tonight's. What?! Apparently her coach had told the team about Thursday's play-off game after our last game. Abby didn't tell me, because she thought I already knew. No! And I am a little irked. I did not hear either of the two coaches say anything to the parents anywhere in my hearing. I am not the kind of parent who doesn't get involved. I have been behind the scenes with this girls' team program, maybe not as much this season, but the coaches know me and often talk to me, listen to me, and ask me questions.

Ironically, I was talking with Kane last night about how frustrating I have found the communication this season. I like to know what is going on, especially when it applies to me, my kids and our schedules. It isn't easy organizing a family of five with a couple of jobs, school, and various sports and activities to fit into a calendar. We are frequently pulled in two, sometimes three, locations at once, so I like a little advance notice of additions or changes to schedules. I understand that sometimes things have to come last minute, but those are the types of situations when communication is of the utmost importance! If you tell parents to rely on the website for information, then that website needs to be accurate and updated as often as necessary. If you're going to email information to parents, then you need to ensure that every email is included. If you're going to verbally tell kids important information, then it might be a wise idea to include the parents in that little pow-wow after the game or talk to the parents as a group before the game begins, because sometimes kids forget what you tell them! If you do all those things and people still don't get the information, then you've done all that you can do and the blame or responsibility falls on the shoulders of the parent.

If it wasn't for one thoughtful and alert parent, Abby would have missed tonight's game and quite likely Thursday's as well. She may not be the best player on the team, but she is still a valuable part of the team and would be missed. And if we had missed a game because of a failure to communicate...I would have been really angry, and you might not like me when I'm angry.

Grrrr!

Shopping Saga

I went to Wal-Mart today, because I needed to get new shoes for work so that my ankle can stop hurting. I dislike shopping at the best of times. Today was an exercise in frustration! The store is undergoing renovations, which means departments are down-sizing and being moved around the store. There are aisles blocked by boxes, and rows of shelving that no longer exist. I don't go to Wal-Mart every week, but I am there at least once or twice a month. Still, I barely recognized the store I entered this morning.

My shopping list was rather short: shoes, AA batteries, milk, magnetic tape, and maybe a pair of shorts. I knew that finding the right pair of shoes would take some time; however, I honestly expected to just find the same style as I have bought the last two times I've needed new work shoes. Why change when one style meets my needs? Of course, the shoe department has been mixed up. The women's shoes are now where the men's shoes used to be, and the "work" shoes are now in an obscure corner of the men's section. And wouldn't you know it, but they no longer have the same style of shoe! The same brand, yes, but not in styles that were what I was looking for. After trying on countless pairs of shoes, I finally opted for a cheaper pair of ordinary shoes. They probably don't have the same non-slip factor as the "work" shoes, but I was not happy with how the "work" shoes fit or the support (or lack thereof) they offered. Really, I just want my ankle to stop hurting, and a new pair of work shoes has done the trick in the past.

The milk was in the same place, so that was easy. The batteries, and the rest of the electronic department, had moved to where the linens used to be at the very back of the store. I had to make a second trip to the back just to find those batteries! I knew I was likely to find the magnetic tape either in the stationary department or the craft department. Since the stationary department used to be close to the store entrance, I started there. I soon discovered that half of the department had disappeared! I found much later near the back of the store. Eventually I found the craft department where the electronics used to be, and so I found my magnetic tape. Finding a pair of shorts didn't require a map-thankfully!

The next time I venture into Wal-Mart I should be better able to navigate...unless more changes take place before I get there!

We have a baseball-free night tonight. It's hard to believe that the season is rapidly drawing to an end. I cannot say exactly how many days we have left, but we're looking at possibly a little more than 2 weeks and definitely less than 3 weeks. Either way, all good things (or bad) must come to an end, and this season has been quite good!





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It is another crunch day today, but I don't feel quite so crunched knowing that, after working tomorrow, I have at least 4 days off in a row! Still, today is going to be spend catching up on laundry, some housework, some baking/cooking, and back to the ball park tonight.

Headache. Sore feet. Back pain. Tired. That's me in a nutshell this afternoon!

I wasn't even sure what day it was by the time I finished work today. It felt like Wednesday, and I was sorely disappointed to realize it was only Monday.

Losing My Connection

We lost internet and TV yesterday, when Kane inadvertently nicked or tugged on the buried cable in the front yard. What should be buried a minimum of 12" is only 2-3" below the surface! After a call to the cable company, we were put on the emergency service call list for today. They came, they saw, they set up a temporary fix! Another service visit is needed to fully repair the cable and bury it at the proper depth.

If I had more time I could ponder all the ways that the computer and the internet have been melded into our lives. We didn't notice the loss of TV too much. We had a DVD to watch and things to do. However, we all felt the loss of internet connection.

But, I don't have time to ponder it all in written form...

Abby's team won their baseball game tonight, even though they were missing quite a few players and had only 7 in attendance. The opposing team was also missing some players, but it was a good game overall.

I am glad for the weekend. It was a long and less than enjoyable day at work. Too much drama. Too much attitude. Any joy and enthusiasm I had when I arrived at work was sucked out of my within the first 30 minutes! Next week will be better, I hope.

It is another crunch day, but I am taking this afternoon to relax and spoil myself. After a morning of watching Abby's track & field, going to the library, and doing some calisthenics, I have had a shower, put fresh paint on my toenails, and will get cozy with a book in about three minutes!

A little 'me' time works wonders...and it, the 'me' time, doesn't last nearly long enough! The kids will be home in a couple of hours, and the busyness will begin anew.

76 Trombones...

Tonight was the year end band concert for Sam's band class. I only bothered to take one still photo and one video. Since he plays the trombone, he is always seated towards the back, so visibility is always an issue. I took this photo before the concert began, when "seeing" Sam was just a little bit easier. He is the dark-haired boy sitting in the middle.

Kane and I only stayed for the Sam's group performances, opting to skip out of the other groups. Kane wasn't feeling too great, and my back was already beginning to hurt by that time. However, we did enjoy the music we heard. In particular, I really enjoyed Schindler's List. World War II history is my favourite time period, and the movie is one of my favourites. I also love the song as performed by Itzak Perlman, but the band did a fantastic job (even without a violin!)

To-Do/Ta-Da!

This is a 'crunch' week for me. I am working Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which means that most of my domestic duties will be crunched into Tuesday and Thursday. Sometimes a crunch week can be crazy yet productive, other times crunch week is simply exhausting. Thursday might be a completely different day than today, but I'm feeling pretty good right now!

It is currently 11:20 in the morning, and I have already done a lot. I have baked bread and made home-made double almond chocolate ice cream! (It tastes divine!) The laundry mountain has almost been conquered. My kitchen has been cleaned, all dishes washed. And I even made it to the gym for 30 minutes (10 km) of cycling!

All that is left to do is a bit of general tidying and figuring out the supper problem. What to make and when to eat it?

Super Kane

The NaBloPoMo theme for June is 'Heroes', with the challenge to find 30 to blog about. That is quite the challenge! I don't know that I would even want to blog solely on the topic of heroes; however, I know I can think of a few.

My husband is my hero. It might be sappy and may not always accurately reflect my feelings, but he is most definitely a person that I respect and admire.

Kane is my bestest friend. He is a great dad, who loves his kids and enjoys spending time with them, even at their level. He's a good husband, even though I might find occasion to grumble. He loves me! He cares about me and tries, in his way, to be romantic. He works hard to provide for our family and has worked hard to get the training to be a journeyman plumber. He makes people feel comfortable and welcomed. He isn't afraid to step in and help wherever hands are needed. Basically, he completes me!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike2.5 Canada License.

With Casey's team out of the finals, I was able to go watch Abby's team play their final tournament game this morning. It was a good game, and the icing on the cake was a victory! I had contemplated staying home, because I don't feel so great, but I'm glad that I went.

Abby really struggled with her batting all of last season, only getting a hit in the last game of the season, and she started this season with the same struggle. The last few games though have seen a bit of a turn around for her. She has finally managed to get a few hits under her belt, including two in today's game. In fact, she got on base for each of her three turns at bat!

Apparently she played well in yesterday's games, but hearing about it just isn't the same as seeing it. I'm glad I saw her play today, and I know that she's glad I was there to watch her, too!

Tomorrow is almost an off day for us. The only action going on is Casey umpiring a game.

Mighty Casey

Casey's baseball team is hosting a tournament this weekend, and we've dug ourselves into a deep hole. After 3 of 4 round robin games, we are sitting at 0 wins, 1 loss and 1 tie. It looks unlikely that we will make it into tomorrow's final.

The first game was a blow out. The second game started out poorly for us, but we managed to rally and hold on for the tie. This morning's game was very close and likely our best game of the three. We even managed to take a 3 run lead, but we couldn't hold on and lost by one run. Our bats failed us in the last few innings.

Casey wasn't very successful at the plate today in terms of getting on base, but he made contact and had a great sacrifice bunt to score our first run of the game. I don't think Casey has ever really been much of a bunter, but he's laid down 3 really good bunts over the last two games! He might not be getting the big hits, but he's doing his job at the plate!

He's also been pitching rather well. He came in as relief in the 6th inning today with bases loaded and our team down by one run. Not only did he get us out of that inning without any further damage, but he also shut down the opposition in the 7th and final inning. He kept us in the game and gave us the chance to come back and take the win. Obviously we didn't, but Casey has repeatedly shown us that he is a valuable member of the team. He even won the MVP award for his outstanding pitching in our first game loss.

There might not be any joy down in Mudville today, but mighty Casey is doing his thing!

Crazy Days Ahead

The weather widget on my desktop tells me that it is 28 C outside right now, and I've heard rumours that the weekend temps could reach as high as 32 C. My back is kind of sore and achy from work today. I've been home for little more than an hour, and a headache has begun to blossom. (See! There's that achy back=headache thing I mentioned a while back.) In an hour, I will need to trudge myself to Casey's baseball game...on foot!

Life during baseball season is rarely simple and straight-forward. If one child is in a weekend tournament, we are virtually guaranteed to be simultaneously pulled in another direction. This weekend is no exception. Casey's team is hosting a tournament. Abby's team is playing in a tournament in a neighbouring association. Since we only have one reliable vehicle, I've graciously given that up for Kane and Abby, which leaves Casey and I to walk the 15-20 minutes to the ball park (and then back home again after). As much as this might sound like whining on my part, it isn't! I would much rather walk than drive the unreliable van!

My body may not feel like walking tonight, but I think tomorrow will be even worse. We won't have to walk home after tonight's game, because Abby's game will end by the time Casey's game starts. We won't be so fortunate tomorrow though, and I fear that the heat will make the journey that much more uncomfortable. Casey has two games tomorrow: one at 10:30am and the other at 6:00pm. That is far too much time in between games to simply hang out at the ball park! The glimmer of good news is that we won't have to walk home after the 6pm game.

Sunday's game schedules have yet to be determined, but I wouldn't be surprised if we're walking yet again. If I keep telling myself that this is good exercise, will I forget how uncomfortable I'm going to be all weekend?

New York, New York!

Last night was a band trip meeting for parents and students. The school band is looking to take a big trip in May 2010, so this meeting was to disperse information and vote on a destination. The choices were Cuba and New York City. Sam was hoping for Cuba, but NYC was the ultimate winner.

It is exciting, regardless of destination, to think of Sam having the opportunity to make such a trip; however, I cannot help but feel overwhelmed by the costs. I walked into the meeting with realistic expectations of what the costs would look like, and my expectations were quite in line with what was projected. Still, $2100-$2300 is a lot of money to raise between now and next spring. Even more stressful is the $350 deposit which will be due by June 12, just a few weeks away! We certainly cannot afford to pay for Sam's trip, and even coming up with the deposit so quickly will likely be doable but tough. Then there are the extra expenses that will pop up along the way: passport, spending money, and any other non-included costs. Sam needs to find a job and soon! Hindsight is 20/20, of course, but I can't help but think that Sam could have earned close to half of his trip if he had decided to umpire this year!