well yesterday was actually very productive... I made the beds and opened up the windows (gorgeous day yesterday wasn't it?), got some work done on the one contract I have right now, did my physio stretches *and* my physio strengthening exercises (1st time for that 2nd set), hung out at the park a bit, and made dinner.

however, I didn't get as much rest as I'd been planning. and really paid for it. I don't know if it was the physio strengthening exercises that were mainly at fault or what, but after dinner I got one of those "hatchet headaches" that just wouldn't quit. even an hour later, in bed in the dark, 1 percocet and 1 hydromorphone in my system, the splitting headache raged on. Paul got a cold cloth which helped a little and then I took a 2nd hydromorphone. Then I was able to finally fall asleep.

this morning, still in a lot of pain. :( I really hope it goes away because I would like to continue working on the contract and I really want to be able to go out with the Tuesday group tonight (we might be going to Mexi's for drinks for my birthday).

"pain pain, go away..."

**fingers crossed**

back tracking from today to Friday...

"short" day:  so we talked to our childcare provider on Friday @ pickup time and she agreed to the new plan with pulling Harmony out of daycare. She had been thinking along the same lines too, as Harmony does have a more difficult time there getting her homework done. And, best of all, she said we didn't need to give 2 weeks notice or anything, so we are starting our new arrangement today!! So Harmony will be arriving home from the bus in about 4.5 hours, which gives me a pretty short day (as my first "official" day as a WAHM again). not going to worry about getting too too much accomplished today.

massage / pain: had massage this morning, a good way to start off my week since it often helps me feel a little better pain-wise for at least a few days. her work confirmed the update I'd given her- my neck is feeling a lot better but in-between my shoulder blades is still really bothering me a lot. She worked hard on those trouble-spots, pressing down to get the knots loosened up. Ouch! but it's usually worth it and helpful.

Mother's Day: happy Mother's Day!!!, hope everyone had a good time yesterday! I think I'm looking forward to Mother's Days when the kids are older, because at this age, they just can't give you a day off of things like whining and crying and tantrums. :S Yes, the kids were actually pretty badly behaved yesterday, so it did not go down in the books as one of the best Mother's Days. Also it started off with Harmony throwing up and having diarrhea in the night - I was up with her from 4:30 to about 5:30. Poor kidlet. but also very much sucks for me too of course. Paul was amazing though, it might as well have been "wife's day" because he was the one doing everything and trying to make up for the kids' behaviour. I got homemade apple pancakes for breakfast, yum! :) We did do cake at the park with Paul's mother - all the cakes were birthday cakes though, which I hadn't known before. So I feel bad we didn't do a mother's day cake (or something else!) for her. We did keep things fairly simple this year though, as we were not up for much.

Jo-Ann: It just wouldn't be a holiday without Jo-Ann trying to twist things around and also try to make things all about her. She called me Sat night to say she was just too *exhausted* to do anything Sun night. And gave a bunch of reasons why it wouldn't work out - my brother already came Sat so wouldn't come again, my grandmother's stuff was all over her house so it wouldn't be safe for the kids there, her wrists were too sore to drive so she couldn't come here, etc. So ok, fine, I said we'd resched and we'd try to call Sunday, but if not, we'd just plan something else for another time. So then on Mother's Day, we did find the time to call, and I had both kids chat with her for minute. But instead of focusing on that, she got all angry that we weren't coming for dinner!!! And was all like "well, in *my* day you would've brought the mother a take-out meal or something". So how does that solve the problem of you being exhausted and the house not being safe for the kids?! And why didn't you mention this idea at all on Sat night instead of making it sound like you wanted to completely cancel??? She also did not say anything to me like "hope you're having a good mother's day" or ask me how it was (therefore didn't find out about Harmony being sick!). Also, maybe it's just me but I'm of the opinion that Mother's Day should be *mostly* about mothers who have young kids at home demanding lots of their time and attention. Once your children are adults and have families of their own, yes you may still get taken out for dinner or have presents or whatever, but it's kind of not just your day all about you anymore, kwim?

Sat night / scrapbooking: Sat night was fun, I got a bunch of cards done and managed to spill glitter all over myself, whoops! Glitter-girl, literally. :P None of my "scrappers" were there but Karen and Alicia were there and brought Kelly along. We tested out my vodka-and-juice combo that I'll be bringing cottaging. I think we found the right ratio so we're all set. I'll save the other Sat night details for my web novel. ;) I really should get back to scrapbooking though, as I'm falling behind on my layout. Mostly lately all I've been doing is card-making. The only thing I've scrapbooked this year was Christmas '07 stuff  and then a Valentine's day layout. Maybe I will invite more people to my monthly crop for June and really try to get back into things a little!

That's all the news from the weekend, I'm hoping to have a really quiet and somewhat low-key day today to recover from everything!! I woke up in a *lot* of pain and also seem to be coming down with a cold. :(

.

TGIF!

physio/pain: had physio today with a "substitute" physiotherapist. It was OK, doesn't seem to have helped much but oh well. Pain has been OK lately, almost tolerable. Then again, when I accidentally miss taking a painkiller on time, boy do I ever feel it!! :( I have a massage next week and then physio again on Wednesday.

night terror: so tonight Avery started crying about an hour or so after he went to bed, so I went up to see what was wrong... no response at all!! I wish I'd remembered about the few times Harmony had had night terrors when she was about the same age. We tried to comfort him, tried to ask him to tell us what was wrong, etc. but no luck. Eventually he accepted a cuddle from Paul and then came right over into my arms. I cuddled him and rocked him and sang to him, and he started to relax. He finally stopped crying and relaxed some more. Then he apparently really relaxed because I felt a warm and wet sensation on my lap!! Yep, he'd soaked his already-full Pull-up, either that or the way I was holding him didn't allow the Pull-up to fit properly. ew. but by the time I'd changed out of my wet jeans, Paul had him back to sleep.

WAHM!! : this morning we talked about the situation with the kids and daycare (again) and finally made a big decision about what step to take next... we are pulling Harmony out of daycare. For starters, this will save us about $300/month. Since she's in school most of the day, it still gives me time to be able to go to all of my appointments, do my physio exercises, and also to work on my "WAHM" projects. At the same time, it should also benefit her a lot too. It will hopefully help her with the problems she's been having with homework... She use to do really well when I was a SAHM when Avery was younger and I was home - she would come home off the bus and do her homework right away with me helping. and then in grade 3 when she was in the "after school" program she didn't do too badly either. This year though she has had a really difficult time organizing herself and being prepared for class. So hopefully now she should have an even easier time of it as she will get home at 2:50pm and then we don't have to pick up Paul or Avery until 4/4:30pm!!

announcing.... my new web novel: so the "secret" creative project I've been working on is a new web novel! I haven't written in a long time but it's been very interesting getting back to it... I started writing when I was Harmony's age and wrote a lot during my early teens!!! but this is really my first time being an *adult* author. So far, the first 3 chapters of the novel are up and I'm hoping to add the 4th very soon. It's "true-to-life"/based on reality but will be officially fiction (that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!). It'll be about the life of a queer and poly mom of 2. I'm slowwwwwwly adding readers (I have just 4 to start), so if you'd like the link please e-mail me (krismom@gmail.com is a good one to use for this) or comment with your current e-mail addy or PM me if you're on the YMBoards or whatever works for you. Right now I'm keeping it separate from my other projects (no links back and forth or anything) and also don't want the people who are the main characters to read it (for now) as I don't want to be overly conscious of writing with the "what will they think?" shadow hanging over me. As soon as I get $10 in donations for the project though I can move it to it's own .com! yay, can't wait! :)

Mother's Day: so @ breakfast, Avery started talking about wanting to bring home his "hand". lol! I was like "hmmm, is this a Mother's Day thing? maybe you should keep it a surprise". He started giving me a few details but we managed to get him onto another topic. After daycare today Paul did some stuff with the kids and right now he is working mysteriously in the basement borrowing my computer/printer. Plans for the actual day involve meeting Paul's mom at her church's park for cake around 1pm, and possibly a dinner at my mother's on Sunday evening.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Good morning! :)

KStar Design: The new site is ready! KStarDesign.com. If you know anyone who needs graphic design solutions, please send them along my way! :) A friend of mine has started me off with a new project and also may have another one, so it's great to be able to have something I can do to earn a little extra but also plan around the times of day I'm unable to work due to family, pain, or illness.

Prozac: Started on Prozac yesterday and have been feeling nauseous ever since, has anyone else had this reaction? It says to take it with food which I've been doing but still getting an upset tummy. When I picked it up from the pharmacist she was asking if I was sure we were *adding* the Prozac to my (already very high) dose of Luvox and seemed concerned, so of course now*I'm* concerned. :( It does seem a little strange to be doubling up on the same class (SSRI). But if it it something that finally helps me, I think it would be worth it!

Time @ the mall yesterday:  Paul suggested we go out to lunch and it was a great cheer-up. We also went into the pet store to look @ puppies and I fell completely in love with a little Yorkie / terrier mix named Leo!! I was begging Paul to let me have a puppy, but no go. I guess he's right. :(  We did some shopping and I got some new clothes for summer and a new bathing suit too! The swim suit is gorgeous, I just love it, it's  a 2 piece in Mediterranean blue with little highlights of gold and brown. I'd love to wear it on the beaches of Hawaii but will be happy with wearing it camping and to Tremblant and/or Quebec City (and maybe at a cottage party, see below...)!

GHS Gang plans: We're going to a cottage party on the May long weekend, and I'm really looking forward to it. I think I'll try to "behave" but knowing me I probably won't get very far. ;) Especially with the size of Vodka bottle I'm bringing ... I know, I know, I'm absolutely stupid and awful, mixing painkillers and anti-psychotics and alcohol, but spare me the lecture please :(. I think we'll try to leave the kids in Ottawa for the weekend. Karen and Kelly will be there, and hopefully Alicia, Nadia, Alex, and Adrienne can join us. Cynthia and Josh are a little far, but maybe they can drive up! and Isabella is really far so she won't be able to make it.

On the agenda: Still jumping full-force into my creative plans and projects... I have quite the little list started of things I'd like to do, although I'm not feeling super today (pain-wise and other-wise) so I will be happy if I can accomplish just a little. I'm thinking of creating a "Project Work-at-home-Kris" page on one of my websites (or linked to from all of my websites!) asking for help getting me started working from home. I don't know when my car insurance "paycheque" will stop but I'm terrified that it will before I'm fully recovered and I'll be left unable to work, unable to stay home with the kids, unable to contribute financially to the family as much as I'd like. :( My dream would be to make the equivalent of a full salary by being @ home working on my sites and designing and writing/blogging!!!!

Yikes, lots of ups and downs but I'm getting through it as best I can for now...

Vent alert!

I hate people who can't read...

We have a nice little sign on our mailbox. Very cute. (I did it, so of course it's all smiley and graphics-design-y! :P).

The top part says: "Save our tress, no flyers please". It works pretty well, although we do get a few advertisements.

The bottom part is a nice little poem:

"We've chosen our faith, our charities, and what we'd like to buy...
so there's no need for solicitors to give the bell a try"

So when our bell rings, I expect a friend or family member or someone I know.

Which unfortunately is not always the case!! You'd think people would take the hint, but no. We get those natural-gas people, people selling things, etc.

My bell rang this afternoon, so I get up to get the door. I'm thinking "Ok, maybe someone is stopping by with something."

Nope. Strange man in a black shirt.

He starts with "I like your sign...".

"Okay..."

"...but have you ever thought about security?" he says, pulling out his badge.

"Okay, that's soliciting." I say, pointing to the sign.

"Well, no, your sign doesn't say anything about security!!!", feigning complete innocence (or perhaps just revealing he's a complete idiot)

"Are you selling something? Are you soliciting for my business??? That's soliciting!!"

"Well have you thought about getting security?"

"No, I'm sorry, that's really rude."

And I get a mean face and an "awwww...".

Apparently I need a less nice sign. ((((sigh))))

Maybe first I'll try one that says "NO Soliciting" and if that doesn't work, that's it, I'm cross-stitching one of Kat's "go away or someone who lives here will twist your nipples off" signs!!!!!

Sheesh!!!

Ok, back to work!!