Friday, June 27, 2008

Family Vacation

We leave tomorrow for a trip to Peachland, in the Okanagan. My far too wealthy uncle has a beautiful summer home (compound) there and has the family out every year for Canada Day. We are going to stay for a full week, and I can't wait. We have a small kink in our plans mind you, and that is that Frances is currently suffering from a low grade case of the measles due to her vaccination last week. Yesterday she had liquid (and boy, do I mean liquid) poop, and a frighteningly high fever. The bum problems and the fever seem to have gone, but she is still extremely spotty. The nurses all say that as long as the fever is gone she should be fine, and she's not contagious. I must admit, I'm not thrilled about a 16 hour drive (in 2 days) with a sick baby and a toddler who is extremely possessive of her own window. Wish me luck, and pray for me.

Anyways, I'm off to visit with my good buddy, Ogopogo. See y'all in a couple of weeks!


Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Enneagram Test

A bizarrely accurate enneagram test stolen from Miss Cori.



Your result for The Quick & Painless ENNEAGRAM Test...

4- the Individualist


you chose BY - your Enneagram type is FOUR (aka "The Romantic")


"I am unique"



Romantics have sensitive feelings and are warm and perceptive.



How to Get Along with Me



  • Give me plenty of compliments. They mean a lot to me.

  • Be a supportive friend or partner. Help me to learn to love and value myself.

  • Respect me for my special gifts of intuition and vision.

  • Though I don't always want to be cheered up when I'm feeling melancholy, I sometimes like to have someone lighten me up a little.

  • Don't tell me I'm too sensitive or that I'm overreacting!


What I Like About Being a FOUR


  • my ability to find meaning in life and to experience feeling at a deep level

  • my ability to establish warm connections with people

  • admiring what is noble, truthful, and beautiful in life

  • my creativity, intuition, and sense of humor

  • being unique and being seen as unique by others

  • having aesthetic sensibilities

  • being able to easily pick up the feelings of people around me




What's Hard About Being a FOUR


  • experiencing dark moods of emptiness and despair

  • feelings of self-hatred and shame; believing I don't deserve to be loved

  • feeling guilty when I disappoint people

  • feeling hurt or attacked when someone misundertands me

  • expecting too much from myself and life

  • fearing being abandoned


  • obsessing over resentments

  • longing for what I don't have



FOURs as Children Often



  • have active imaginations: play creatively alone or organize playmates in original games

  • are very sensitive

  • feel that they don't fit in

  • believe they are missing something that other people have


  • attach themselves to idealized teachers, heroes, artists, etc.

  • become antiauthoritarian or rebellious when criticized or not understood

  • feel lonely or abandoned (perhaps as a result of a death or their parents' divorce)



FOURs as Parents


  • help their children become who they really are

  • support their children's creativity and originality

  • are good at helping their children get in touch with their feelings


  • are sometimes overly critical or overly protective

  • are usually very good with children if not too self-absorbed



Renee Baron & Elizabeth Wagele

The Enneagram Made Easy

Discover the 9 Types of People

Harper
SanFrancisco, 1994, 161 pages




You liked the test?

so S P R E A D I T ! tell everyone!!!
(use Quick-Paste below)


you wanna know MORE?

so check out, what Wikipedia says about your type...



...even more you'll find in Google


or do you prefer to









You are not completely happy with the result?!

You chose BY


Would you rather have chosen:

  • AY (EIGHT)
  • CY (SIX)
  • BX (NINE)
  • BZ (FIVE)

    Take The Quick & Painless ENNEAGRAM Test at HelloQuizzy

  • Tuesday, June 24, 2008

    Good News

    We just saw the Ear doctor for Mary for the last time in a while, yay! He has finally removed the giant, rock hard plug of ear wax that has likely been in Mary's ear since she was a wee thing and he is confident that she can now hear as well as you or I. This is very good news for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being that I don't think I can handle pinning her down as she shrieks and sobs while the doctor pokes around in her ear anymore.

    One week from this moment I will be keeping my date with Ogopogo. I'm giddy with excitement.

    As promised, here are some pictures of my wee equestrian.



    Friday, June 20, 2008

    My Horse, Money

    Well, it's been a while. I've been lollyblogging yet again. It's not that I'm too busy, I just don't have much to talk about here anymore. I mean, there's only so many times I say the same thing without sounding like a broken record.

    I'm Lonely
    I'm Sad
    I hate my life sometimes
    I think we made a big mistake moving away from Edmonton
    My children drive me crazy but are occasionally cute.

    It's the pity parade, over and over and over again.

    Anyways, things have actually been better the last little while. We had some wonderful visits with Star when she was in town, driving through to and from Winnipeg. I got to go to Edmonton for a very short visit, but I got a whole pile of visiting and socializing done. It was fantabulous to see all my friends, I sure miss them. I miss everyone so stinking much...but that's not what this post is about, right?

    Anyways. The visit was wonderful. There was a Prairie Players meeting Wednesday night, which was aggravating in the extreme, but I was reminded that there are a few people in this town that I actually like. All I need to do is call them up and I will occasionally have people to chat with right here at home.

    The weather is fantastic right now, warm and sunny. We bought the girls a sprinkler thingie to play in on the lawn. I took a bunch of pictures yesterday and they are incredibly cute. Unfortunately, Ian doesn't think that The Mart will print them for me because the girls are nekked in pretty much all of them.

    Today I took the girls to a petting farm about 50 minutes north of here, in Lumsden. It was fabulous. Frances was mostly unimpressed, though she freaked out when the donkey sneezed. Apparently donkeys sneezing are incredibly frightening. Who knew? Mary loved every second of our time there. She kept telling me "Mummy, you love it here. I love it! I LOVE THE ANIMALS!!" She was very cute. Oh, and, Mary rode a horse for the first time in her life! It was very exciting as she is absolutely horse crazy these days, she even has an imaginary horse that she has named Money. She was an absolute natural. It was just a squat dwarven horse, but Mary had absolutely no fear. The gentleman who ran the place was as amazed as I was and he even asked if she had ever ridden a horse before this. He said that normally kids her age get frightened after a minute or two, but Mary stayed on the horse for about 5 minutes or so and could have kept going. Unfortunately my camera batteries died after only two pictures (which I will post here soon). Both Mary and Frances were amazingly well behaved all afternoon, and it was an all around Good Day. Yay!

    The next week will be spent organizing the house. We leave for our vacation to the Okanagan in a week. I can't wait! Hopefully the weather will be nice.

    Anyways, that's all for now, I guess. I shall leave you with a picture of Frannie enjoying the sun.

    Tuesday, June 03, 2008

    Negative Nellie No More

    So. I realize that I may have been a little negative the last several times I've posted here. Things really aren't that bad in spite of disgusting miserable babies and stupid small town assholes. Todays post will be about the good things that I have enjoyed over the last few weeks.

    1. Return of my libido after a very, VERY long hiatus. Enough said there, I think.

    2. Birds. The birds that have been attracted to my feeders are amazing and a delight to watch. The other day I had a whole flock of American Goldfinches, and they looked like giant yellow and black butterflies flitting from branch to branch in my trees. I've seen more different species in the last month than I have in my whole life, from a tiny Ruby Throated Hummingbird in my apple tree to a goofy looking Pileated Woodpecker. I also have an owl living in one of the big poplars in my back yard, at night I can sit on the deck and listen to him hoot - it's a wonderful relaxing way to end the day.

    3. Frances is finally better, hopefully for good this time. Friday morning and early afternoon was awful and I spent much of my time in tears. She woke up from her afternoon nap and was 100% better. It was really quite bizarre.

    4. I made new friends (I hope). I got out to Lumsden to see Alan, Jon and I was able to meet Cenobyte B, her adorable husband and her two gorgeous little boys. Mary got on famously with her three year old, and there was only one point during the several hours we spent in their back yard that we had to separate them for fear someone was going to clock the other. It was a fabulous afternoon, the girls had fun, I had fun, and I felt better afterwards than I have in a long time.

    5. I'm going to be playing in a Kingdom Come game! Yay! I'm eagerly obsessing about the game and I can't wait to get the evil show started.

    6. Mary is so cool. I know, it's kind of dorky to describe a three year old as cool, but she really is. She's sweet, loving, and gentle, and while she often drives me crazy not a day goes by that she doesn't make me smile. She adores Frances and loves to boss her around, and even when she's mad at her sister I can see her concentrating on not hurting her. Her imagination grows every day, and I am constantly amazed by the stories and games she comes up with. I really am blessed to have such a wonderful little person in my life.

    7. Ian. He works so hard, and I know he does it so that I can stay home with the girls, and to provide for us. He drives me bonkers (Mary must get that from him), but he is almost always patient with my moods and I know he loves me. It's nice to feel secure like that.

    8. Bread. I have found the best bread recipe yet. It makes two perfect loaves for sandwiches and toast, and home made bread is not only cheaper than the store bought stuff, it tastes better too. To top it off, this recipe is super easy to make, even if it's a little time consuming.

    9. We are going to Edmonton for the weekend in less than two weeks. Yay! We aren't going to have a lot of time to visit, unfortunately. We're driving up on Friday, home on Sunday.

    10. We are spending a week in the Okanogan at the end of the month. Double Yay! All my family will be there, including cousins I haven't seen in years and all their babies. I can't wait to see the gang and show off the girls.

    There, life isn't so bad, is it?