This is how we roll

My mother and I have spent the last few days with her cousin helping her to prepare for her mother's passing. My Great-Auntie turned 99 years old on Sept 13th, and promptly started a series of strokes that have had her hospitalized for maybe the 4th time in her life. She will likely not leave the hospital this time. Our cousin also broke her foot (which we think stressed auntie out and might have caused one of the strokes), so while my mom was helping our cousin with her mom, i raked leaves, dug up the gladioli, put the winter tires in her car, and looked after the banana brain dog (i also saved a salamander caught in the snowstorm). I am not good at comforting people, so I do stuff instead. If you are also this type of person, here are a few things you might take note of if ever in this situation:

1. Inform the extended family of Auntie's condition. Make sure to save on typing in all the email addresses by replying to one email and adding all the addresses to that. Don't bother erasing a second cousin's original email message which contains his political opinion. Watch the replys flood in and cousin get very confused over strong counter political opinions. Huzzah! Instant family controversy!

2. Hel0p cousin go to funeral home and pre-plan the funeral. Come away with instructions to mark Uncle's grave so they don't dig him up by mistake.
(Step 0 - Mom drove back to Guelph to get her insulin pump fixed and took cousin's car keys with her, so we located the extra set and headed out)
Step 1- Must be done in the middle of the first snowstorm of the year.
Step 2 - Remember where we put the graveyard. Seriously, this is backwoods Muskoka. This is the "old" cemetary. ok, so cousin knew where it was, but we drove down three dirt roads and through a field. Though I must say it is a really pretty spot.
Step 3- Locate stones that mark edge of plot. Did I mention that it was a snowstorm? After a day of rain? Found them in the 3 inch high grass under 2 inches of water and guestimated where Uncle ends.
Step 4 - Drive away wondering how the digger will maneuver around the 19th Century headstones.

3. Drive cousin 1 1/2 hours through the pouring rain for her eye test and exam only to discover that the testing lady didn't bother to show up that day and someone had shot a nail into their eye, so the doctor, the ONLY eye surgeon for the region, had to go give him stitches. In his eye. Ewww! Get rebooked for Wednesday, receptionist refuses to tell if there will be debilitating eyedrops used or not, so I stay on an extra day just in case. Drive 1 1/2 hours again on Wed, this time in freezing temperatures, but the roads were clear and dry (yay) and we got gas for the best price ever! 98.5! high fives to us! then they made us wait just long enough for the eye test that cousin thought it wasn't going to happen, again. Then we drove another 25 min to meet my mom and exchange me for the set of car keys. I am not sure who came out ahead in that deal.

4. Go for lunch at Moxies, proclaim my anti-tomato stance. Apparently allergies are a big thing at Moxies. The manager had to come over and get the specifics on my alergy (of course, my mom answered for me, thanks mom) The manager came over a few more times. Very attentive, he was tall, so he went down on his knees to talk to us. Mom thinks this is wonderful and follows (with her eyes) manager around the restaurant for the rest of the meal to see if he kneels for anyone else. Nope. Just us. Or more specifically, according to mother and cousin, just me. Because as cousin says "Well, he wouldn't be interested in us!" So I get a lecture on how I need to "flirt more" and how I am "afraid of my own power" all the way home. joy! At least this time manager was actually cute. My mother has given me the same lecture over guys who weren't even remotely attractive.

So, basically, we made life interesting and silly for a few days. Cousin called when we got home and auntie now has a private room. Mom thinks this must have something to do with them freaking out the other lady when they were telling auntie it was ok for her to leave us.

Things I am Thankful For

Wha??

Ok, so, I am applying for an archivist job with the fed govt.  You have to take a Situational Judgment test and a Written Proficiency Test.  This is the explanation of the Written Proficiency Test: 

" assess the candidate's ability to communicate in writing; these tests are multiple-choice questions."

ha ha ha ha ha!  

baby snatching!

My mother loves to steal babies. She is that woman who takes the squealing baby from the frazzled mother at church and bounces him around until he falls asleep. She is also the woman who held onto my cousin Eric's baby son Ethan for a really long time because "she didn't know when she might get to do this again" with a very pointed look at me and my brother, but mostly at me. And of course the fact that Baby E and Co. live in Tennessee, and therefore we only see them at Christmas and once in the summer.

Now my cousin Steph, who lives just over in the next city, has had a beautiful baby boy, Andrew Taylor, who was born September 17, 2008. She has had a very long recovery from the delivery, so today was the first time she felt up to really going anywhere other thatn doctors, so she brought Andrew over to have a visit with me and my mom. I have warned her all through her pregnancy that mom is a baby stealer, and she was actually a little worried when mom kept on saying she "couldn't wait to squeeze him", so when she was getting out of her car at our place i ran out and said, "let the baby stealing commence!"

And it did, I don't think she held him again until right before she left and he needed to be breastfed. 4 hours of baby snatching! of course, it wasn't all mom. I got him right after the first bottle and diaper change was done, and he promptly spewed all down my front. I had to change my shirt and my bra, and try really hard not to puke myself. After a quick change for both of us, we settled in for a long nap and the rest of the bottle. Which is where my mom got this picture. Isn't he sweet? he still has a bit of that new baby alien look, but he is only 3 weeks old, so its allowed. his grandpa thinks he is the most beautiful baby ever.

It was a great afternoon, I will have to go over and visit them again soon. I am so glad I am back in Ontario to see him. I would miss so much just comming in at christmas and then not seeing him again till the summer. I was happy to find that all my babysitting baby skills came back and I was able to feed him and change him (yup, I got the poopy diaper, but they used really cool cloth ones from a diaper service, so it was kinda fun to change him)

anyway, this is a long post, like all of mine seem to be, so I will finish by saying she loved the diaper bag I made her, and couldn't wait to get home to put everything away in it. she of course took one look at the bag and said, again, "are you sure you are going into the right field?"

Update from Baz

my life has been all over the place for the last little while, which is no fun for rabbits.  i have my own room in the basement, (which more than my mom has!), but i am all alone most of the day unless mom is there writing her thesis.  I get dragged upstairs whenever someone comes for a visit (everyone thinks I wonderful tho, so that makes up for it, except my uncle adam, who likes me only on the floor).  

Then, when I was just settling in, they shoved me, cage and all into the car for a 3 1/2 hour drive up to the cottage.  cottage by the way, awesome!  my cage was right in front of the fireplace, so i was nice and toasty, and i was the centre of attention and got to be out of my cage most of the time.  I even got to go outside, and almost made friends with a chipmunk, until it started to scratch its fleas and mom decided it was time for me to go inside.  I even got to check out the beach and play on the rocks.  Then they shoved me back in the car for another 3 1/2 hour car ride back to guelph and the basement.  I have made my displeasure known, I assure you.  Mom was not please with the mess I made of my cage in one night.  

Then this morning, they woke me up, shoved me in the dreaded carrier, and took me to church! Blessing of the animals sunday, so there I was, with a huge old retriever in the pew in front and a corn snake, lizard, and shitzoo in the pew behind me!  there were about 15 other dogs in the church and three cats, plus a large contingent of babies and kids who wanted to pet me!  and grandma wanted to show me off, so I was out of my safe little carrier and on the lead in mom's lap.  but i survived and was blessed and we made it home again, and they let me out of my carrier to play upstairs for awhile, so I guess it was ok.

anyway, that is all for now, there are magazines to nibble upon, and fringey carpet to chew.