Eau de Scam

This is by far the weirdest junk mail I've ever gotten. Seriously. Weird. It's sort of 'free,' which is part of what I don't get. I think the idea is that when you get your new house (with pool and two-car garage, thank you), your new Maserati (steel grey, please), or a mystery box of gold bars delivered to your doorstep (yesssss!), you're supposed to send the "Ministry" a cut of your 'winnings' as a thank-you. O. K.

Here's the plan (and you can click on the pictures to read some of those things close-up): you open this envelope, you hold the 'prayer rug' (hereafter referred to as the "St. Matthew 18:19 Bible Faith, Anointed, Church, Biblical Faith Church, Holy Ghost Bible Prayer Rug of Faith," which is a combination of all the different names used for it in the letter) to your knees (or kneel on it) and pray for ABSOLUTELY WHATEVER YOUR LITTLE HEART DESIRETH. Then you put the St. Matthew 18:19 Bible Faith, Anointed, Church, Biblical Faith Church, Holy Ghost Bible Prayer Rug of Faith under your pillow for one night only. Then you mail it back to the ministry, wait a few days, and in the words of our friend Pedro, "Your wildest dreams will come true." Prayers, dreams, whatever.




















As you can also see from the date on the pictures, we have been horribly remiss and the opportunity to claim our prize is long since passed. We didn't use the St. Matthew 18:19 Bible Faith, Anointed, Church, Biblical Faith Church, Holy Ghost Bible Prayer Rug of Faith (come on, really, you didn't actually think we would, did you?) and failed to mail it back so now our dreams will never come true and nobody else will get to use our St. Matthew 18:19 Bible Faith, Anointed, Church, Biblical Faith Church, Holy Ghost Bible Prayer Rug of Faith (except for maybe somebody at the recycling depot). There goes our dream of $546,822.91! Dang!

Oh! Oh! We haven't even opened the prophecy yet. Let's do that together, shall we? Let's see what it says (and I am too lazy to grab the camera, so take my word for it, okay?). Oh, first I should tell you what it says on the outside of the paper:

Important - only break open this sealed prophecy after you have put this Church Prayer Rug and your prayer requests back in the mail to this 57-year-old church ministry.
If for any reason you are not going to return this Church Prayer Rug, then this sacred prophecy must be destroyed, unopened and unread, because this is a sacred, spiritual prophecy, sealed word, concerning you and your future....

Okay, here we go. Get ready!

Okay, well, sorry to disappoint, but it was a WHOLE PAGE LONG and I'm really not prepared to re-type it all. Suffice to say, it was wordy, vague, and not particularly 'enlightening.' After having used the St. Matthew 18:19 Bible Faith, Anointed, Church, Biblical Faith Church, Holy Ghost Bible Prayer Rug of Faith, we're supposed to feel empowered and emboldened, discovering new gifts and blessings; we should have an increased awareness of "which steps to take and which steps [you] should not take." It closes with a thank you to the "57-year-old church" who sent us the St. Matthew 18:19 Bible Faith, Anointed, Church, Biblical Faith Church, Holy Ghost Bible Prayer Rug of Faith in the first place and a reminder to send it back so they can pass it along to the next person. How anticlimactic.


Anyway, that's the jumbled post about our weirdo mail. Whew - our lives can resume! So tell me, what's the weirdest mail you've ever received?

Last of the Gummy Smiles

For two people who have been to the dentist only twice, nope wait, make that once, in the last 5 1/2 years*, we talk about teeth a lot around here. We try to take good care of our teeth, we brush twice a day, floss once a day, we even brush our tongues with these fancy tongue brushes we got from my cousin, The Dental Hygienist, a couple Christmases ago.

We also wonder a lot about the Little Goat's teeth, periodically quizzing her about the appearance of her first tooth/teeth. We tease her about taking after her Uncle, my brother, who was just over a year old when he got his first tooth (according to my Dad).

Well wonder no more! It would appear, as of this afternoon, that we now have one more soon-to-be-SET of teeth to look after. Yup, the wee Goat has a tooth! Bottom middle on the left (her left) to be exact. I suppose it's possible that it's been there for a day or two, but she was going down for a nap this afternoon and I was just wondering out loud when she would get a tooth when a lovely shiny glint caught my eye and there it was.

I don't know about you, but I'm all about the gummy smiles - I love 'em - but here's to a new era, my Little Goat. To grins that are shiny with teeth (not drool) and many visits from the Tooth Fairy!

*We'd maybe go more often if we had a good dental plan, but alas, we don't. Also, the last time we went and I had x-rays, the tech only gave me one bib! I'm referring to the lead vests/bibs they use to cover you with to help lessen your exposure to the x-rays. If you're a woman, they should, in particular, be covering up any areas related to reproduction as those organs are especially sensitive to radiation. They should also, be ye man or woman, cover up your thyroid!! I'm not sure why I didn't say anything at the time. Next time you have a dental x-ray, make sure they cover you up!

As Seen On Saturday, 26 January 2008

Catching a morning cat-nap.


Ooohhhhh.......freaky.

Tagged!

Jenn over at Loving Every Minute tagged me with this linkamadoo deal (or whatever it's technically called). As it turns out, Jenn and I spent some time GROWING UP ON THE SAME STREET. Seriously people, how random is THAT? Anyway, she writes about life with her family in some part of...Canada - check it out!

The link details are as follows:


“This link loving in 2008 came from Not Much More Than This.
I have randomly selected 5 of you below to be tagged and I hope that you will similarly publish this post in your blog. You will have to tag 5 other bloggers and just keep adding on to the list. (Do not replace, just keep on adding! Yes we hope it will be a long list!)

Now, add/tag 5 of your friends blogs…

The Strategist Notebook Link Addiction Ardour of the Heart When Life Becomes a Book The Malaysian Life Yogatta.com What goes under the sun Roshidan’s Cyber Station Sasha says Arts of Physics And the legend lives My View, My Life A Simple Life What Women REALLY Think Not Much More Than This Jayedee Jenn Beth Christie Marla Cailin Simone FlipFlopMom Katrina Gill’s Jottings Work of a Poet WakelaModern Day GoddessLivin With Me A Simple Life Verb Random Thoughts I’m Running to Win Two Regina’s Family Seasons Lifesong The Laughs Will Go On Military MomTheVasquez3Brik-See-UsAnd Then There Were Four Common Mom Kentucky Woman Sit With Me Awhile The World: Through The Eyes Of Me, The Tales of Mama D, Stranger in a Stranger Land, Forgetfulone, Life With All Boys, Superpaige's Pad, News from Whitekirk, The Ones With the Baby, No Mother Earth, On the Upside, Du Wax Loolu you're next...

The last five in italics are the ones I have tagged, and if you don't have five other bloggers to tag, or don't feel like it, I won't be offended....just enjoy the opportunity to check out some new blogs!

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You may have noticed that I've done some editing of the list of Places I Visit (it's over there, on the right). I've removed some of the blogs that I don't really read anymore (for one reason or another) or ones that haven't been updated in MONTHS; I've added a few new gems I've found. The newbies on my list are:

• Loving Every Minute, which I just told you about up top.
• Beck's Recipes, which is an online collection of recipes courtesy of Beck from Frog & Toad Are Still Friends. (My personal favourites are this salad and this french toast. Oh yum!)
• Confessions of a Pioneer Woman - Pioneer Woman regales you with tales of life on a ranch with her husband, Marlboro Man and their four kids. Oh yeah, and she's an amazing photographer! Also, she cooks; step-by-step photo instructions for some dang tasty looking food.
• Du Wax Loolu = Funny stories from Jess, a soon-to-be-Bride living in D.C.
• New England Mamas - Pretty much what the title implies.
• No Mother Earth - Broadway-loving Mom of a two-year-old and a brand-new-year-old, living in Toronto.
• On the Upside - Hah! Not that other blogs don't, but this one really makes me laugh. Kellan lives in Texas with her husband and four kids. Hilarity ensues.
• Tasty Palettes - If you like Indian food (or if you're feeling experimental) check out this site. Beautiful pictures of some splendid dishes!

So there you have it. Go! Go (leave a comment first, sheesh!) and check them out!

The Hours

Today is Tuesday. The Husband is working an almost-double today so won't be home until after eight o'clock. Luckily, one of his coworkers volunteered to come in and take the last three hours so he only has to do 13 instead of 16 hours. Of course, today is also the day the Little Goat has decided to be rather on the cranky side. Of late, she's taken to pulling off her socks and sucking on them. (Does this mean she's low on cotton?) I can't keep a pair of socks on her for more then 10 minutes before I look over to discover at least one saliva-saturated sock already on the floor, soon to be joined by its partner. I tried tying a pair of booties on her feet but of course, they come with shiny ribbony laces and what baby could resist such a thing? Then I put on a new pair of shoes. She got a pair of Robeez from two of her Aunties. One pair is blue and sandal-like so we're saving those for when the weather turns warmer, the other pair has giraffes on them. I take it from the struggle she had getting them off (to get to the socks, presumably) that this daughter of mine has no greater interest in wearing shoes than I do.

On Saturday, the Husband and I busily set about making marmalade. He's a marmalade fanatic and when the grocery store advertised a huge bag of oranges for five bucks, I knew it was time to knuckle down and try making our own. It was going quite well (we actually really enjoy doing those types of projects together) and we were all ready to start cooking up our fruits when I read the recipe again: "Boil for five minutes. Remove from heat and let rest in cool spot for 12-18 hours." Yes, that's HOURS. Shoot! Sunday ended up being too busy to finish it so I canned it yesterday afternoon. But of course, I didn't cook it long enough, so now it looks like really pretty orange SAUCE. As in, it's pert near juice. Boo! So the Husband has graciously agreed to re-can it tomorrow night and when it's re-canned, I'll post pictures so you can all be in awe of the beauty that is homemade marmalade.

Saturday night was also bittersweet. (No more reading for you men - go find something else to do....you've been warned!) Some strange notion must've overtaken the LG because she slept for seven hours straight! SEVEN HOURS! Except earlier in the evening I had discovered that I was getting a nicely plugged duct and any of you who've breastfed will know exactly how excruciating that is, so while it was great that she slept seven hours, I REALLY needed her to eat. Sunday morning, I was in so much pain that the LG and I stayed home from church. It was also the morning I discovered that my plugged duct was accompanied by a very lovely blister! GACK! A couple of phone calls to friends later, I decided to pop the blister. Ordinarily, I wouldn't do this. Okay, I would....but I would try to convince myself not to because it's a bad idea. This time, though, it worked! The Husband sterilized a pin for me and I made one tiny tiny poke (after numbing it with an ice cube...sheesh! I'm not completely daft!) and a feeling overtook me which I can only properly compare to the instantaneous feeling of well-being one experiences the minute after that baby leaves your womb - oh, the relief!

Today, I made some more Russian Black Bread. I usually don't take the bread out after the second proof while the oven is preheating but I did today and that was unwise. It still tastes fine, but it's a little on the flat side. Also, our post-holiday pictures arrived in the mail from snapfish this afternoon so I've got to get busy sending out the LG's Christmas thank you notes which I've been putting off now for almost three weeks. Why are we such sticklers for kids sending thank you notes? I don't send out thank you notes for MY Christmas presents, but if I don't for the Little Goat's, I know I will surely offend somebody. Do you make, er, encourage your kids to write thank you notes for gifts they receive? Do you write thank you notes for your gifts? When was the last time you wrote a thank you note and do you remember what it was for?

In Which I am *GASP* Well-Rested!

Okay, who did it? Who slipped something into the cereal at suppertime? Last night was a complete 180 from the night before. The Little Goat had her bath and was in bed at around 8:30. She woke up at 1, ate, then went back to sleep until 5:30. At 5:30, she ate and then went back to sleep AGAIN until almost 9:30. Oh the bliss, oh the wonder! I actually woke up with 'Oh What a Beautiful Morning' playing in my head.

As for today, we're right on schedule. I have so much energy I'm considering making Russian Black Bread this afternoon...we need something to fend off the chill outside. It is blizzarding - if that's a real word, or perhaps more accurately, Nor'Eastering today, snowing like mad, windy and cold. Expected accumulation by 4pm? Six to eight inches, which basically provides a summary of what we will be doing with our Saturday. Shoveling. (Oh, and hopefully writing a post about that silly junk mail.)

Worst. Night. Ever.

Oh it was AWFUL. For some strange reason, the Little Goat woke up halfway through her afternoon nap yesterday. I nursed her and put her back down and woke her up at around 4 - I try to wake her up when it's still reasonably light outside so she doesn't get the idea that waking up when it's dark out (i.e. NIGHTTIME) is cool.

At 7:30 we brought her upstairs to get ready for her bath. She seemed pretty wide awake, so we sat her on the floor in her room and played for a little while. Then she had her bath, got her jammies on, had a last feed and laid down in her crib. She was awake when I put her down which I try to do so that she's 'putting herself to sleep' or whatever term the 'experts' use. Everything was fine until we decided to head upstairs to bed. We got caught up watching the news and then an episode of the Simpsons online so we didn't get up there until 10:30. She woke up hungry. So far, this is all pretty normal. Until she wouldn't stop crying.

She WOULDN'T. STOP. CRYING.

Pretty much she cried from 11pm until 2am. We gave her a bit of medicine for gas relief, some gripe water for her belly and finally almost a full dose of that grapey yuckiness that is Children's Tylenol, but no dice. I nursed her some more, held her 'skin-to-skin,' rocked her in her chair and she just kept crying. By 1am I had totally had it. She was wailing, I was wailing, and the Husband was desperately trying to calm both of us down in his zombie-like state. He finally called the ER and talked to a nurse he knows who suggested maybe the LG had an ear infection and we should bring her in.

What? An ear infection? My child? SICK?

We checked. No temperature. We got dressed anyway and as soon as I stood up and rocked her, she calmed down a bit. Argh! Fine! But we were already dressed anyway. So we went downstairs and I decided to feed her some cereal because that was the one thing we hadn't tried yet. (She usually eats some when we're finished our dinner, but she was completely disinterested last night so we scrapped that.) Yeah, so as near as we can figure out, she was just damn hungry. After all that. Also, she probably was crying so much and breathing in so much air that she was making her little self a bit hysterical. Anyway, we took her upstairs and got her comfy in her car seat. I dangled my foot off the side of the bed and rocked her to sleep while I fell asleep too. It was 2am, so much for the ER. She woke up shortly after 5 and I fed her. Then fed her again at 6:30 and she slept till 9. Phew!

Now, she's down for her afternoon nap. I'm exhausted. The Husband called home, he also is exhausted. I've got things ready to go for dinner, moaned to all of you about my sleepless woes....now off for a shower and a much-needed nap! Here's to a better night tonight!

Yesterday, the Little Goat had her six month check-up. As you can probably see by the ticker up top there, she'll be seven months old tomorrow. We didn't wait intentionally, there were some scheduling mix-ups and such. So she's in the 45th percentile for her weight and in the 90th percentile for her height. Super! Maybe she got that sneaky tall gene....there's one on both sides...lucky girl!

She still doesn't have any teeth though if we'd been collecting drool we could fill at least one kiddie pool by now. She's putting EVERYTHING in her mouth (socks seem to be a favourite), AND she's sitting up on her own. In fact, it was rather random. It happened when we were visiting Erin K. and Co. at Whitekirk over our Christmas holiday. I had set the LG on a coffee table where I'd just changed her and she was all sitting on her own, and ever since then, she's all about sitting. She still won't roll over either direction, but she's got some crazy core muscles going on. Maybe it's all that pilates I did while I was pregnant.

A funny thing happened at the Husband's work the other day. He was having a particularly crappy day at work and his boss was concerned to see him looking down. So, having a fatherly moment we can only assume, he took the Husband down to the cafeteria....and bought him an ice cream! Hah! The Husband said is was weird but good and the perfect opportunity to remind his boss that he's supposed to be training in a different modality already...since he got hired for it, oh, in October.

As you can tell, not too much is going on around Casa J. these days. I've been spending my time changing MANY a poopy diaper, inventing recipes for biscotti, and experiencing a January funk. We had another dump of snow last night so it's possible that during the LG's nap this afternoon, I'll go and do some shoveling. That is of course, depending on whether the carpal-tunnel-like pain in my wrist lessens by then. Ahh, the perfect shoveling excuse.

Also, you'll notice I've been posting lots of links lately (all for your enjoyment really) and one of these days, I've got a doozy of absurdity for you. It's not a link but a junk letter we got in the mail the other day. I've never seen junk mail quite this stupid.

I Want to Ride My Bicycle

Well, okay, no, I don't really want to ride my bicycle. I don't actually own a bike anymore. I used to. But actually, it's okay, don't feel bad for me. I don't even like riding a bike anymore. When I finally find one with a seat that's comfortable enough, I might consider it again. This FROG on the other hand, likes his bike. Only it's a motorcycle. Check out these pics of a frog on his hog...in case you haven't seen them already.

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Last night I made these as a Get Well present for one of the Husband's coworkers and they are fabulous. We bought a darker cocoa than usual and the flavour was spot-on without being too sweet (I used about a 1/4 cup less sugar than it called for and no icing drizzled on top). Plus, you know, it's chocolate with all those flavanols and whatnot.

NOT Sawing Zzzzzs

Can I start today by saying, first thing, that one of the worst parts of breastfeeding a baby is baby farts. There's just NO ESCAPE! And they're AWFUL!

Moving on.

The other day when we were grocery shopping, I was on the hunt for my beloved Red Rose tea. One thing I love about visiting Manitoba is the tradition of tea. My parents take tea nearly every evening after supper and we were treated to the best of teas at our friends' place, complete with an antique, pink, two-tiered serving plate full of Christmas goodies (and full permission to sample at least one of each....or maybe two). So I decided that since I love tea and since we have a perfect traditional Brown Betty teapot begging for use, I would start my mornings with a pot of tea.

I figured if I'm going to make 'taking tea' a daily ritual, I should maybe go for some decaf. Alas, you pay almost double for half as much Red Rose decaf. So we bought regular....and I think I will be returning it.

When I was in college, I had a friend who lived in the city a half hour away from the school. Every Tuesday or Thursday we would meet for coffee at Perkins. We wouldn't meet until around 7 or 8pm, but I could drink an entire POT of coffee BY MYSELF and suffer no ill effects. My stomach was fine (this was obviously before the IBS developed full-on), I slept like death, and the need to pee was a good thing when I was driving home so late at night. But now, NOW....what was I thinking?!?! In my 'old' age, I'm discovering that I can't handle caffeine AT ALL. Just two cups of tea makes my stomach start to feel ill at ease and I laid awake half the night thinking about....laying awake half the night.

Now I suppose I will go back and buy the box of RR decaf and pay twice the price, possibly still keep the box we already bought (hey, that's TWO petshop figurines I'll get then, right?), and get...absolutely NO bargain.

In other news, I was chatting with a fellow blogger yesterday and we determined that the real reason women age faster than men is babies. Yup. It's getting up 4-5 times/night that's giving us early wrinkles, saggy skin, and those horrible trunks under our eyes. I guess that makes the Oil of Olays pretty useless unless they can invent some sort of sleeping lotion for babies.

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I don't know how many of you watch The Simpsons. I used to be quite the dedicated watcher in college. We had a TV lounge not far from the cafeteria and CBC aired two episodes back-to-back. So you would get your supper and either you were part of the Five O'Clock Simpsons Group or the 5:30 Simpsons Group. My participation varied from group to group and depending on what was for supper (on 'Heart Attack Nights' [read: "Appetizer Meal"], Tim, Shawna, and I would head to Steinbach for a Subway run), but I didn't miss many episodes. Then I graduated and got married and now we don't get Fox so I haven't watched in a while. Until about a week ago when we discovered we could watch new episodes online! ANYWAY, all this to say, that if you have a small child/baby at home and about 24 free minutes, you should watch this episode. It's ridiculous to admit this, but I actually almost shed a little tear at the end. It was mothering hormones or something......

The Perfect Christmas

Okay, so the traveling parts of our Christmas trip maybe didn't go so well, but I don't want you to get the impression that our whole Christmas holiday was the same. In fact, this Christmas holiday was so close to perfect I haven't got a clue how we'll ever top it! (Okay, well, our next Christmas holiday in Manitoba could be longer...that would maybe top it). As evidence, I offer the following pictorial diary of Christmas 2007: The Little Goat's First Christmas and a Christmas at Home...Ahhh....*

The LG with her newest (2nd) cousin, Tyson (she's 3 months older). This is the only picture we got of them where Tyson isn't trying to punch her in the eye. Not to worry, though, she was kicking him later. Ahh...such good cousins already!

With my cousins Shelley & Randy (Randy's new to the family too as of July 28th)!

Relaxing with Mrs. Kara.

Bedtime! But first a picture with Mrs. Erin.
(Blog friends, you'll know her as Erin K. from Whitekirk.)

Out for breakfast with "Auntie" Lindsay!

The Girls: Aletta, me, a very grumpy LG, "Auntie" Chandra, and Heather.**

Playing with her new shiny box.

Happy New Year!

*I don't want to brag too much, but yes, she met A LOT of people and no, she didn't 'make strange' with a single one of them! Our Little Goat, the social butterfly.
**We managed to get a picture of the Little Goat all her "Aunties" except Auntie Tamra who lives in Korea - but we love her just the same!

Um....

Just in case you haven't already seen anything completely ridiculous on the interwebs today....

My favourite line is "Silver makes your kitty feel sexy and smart, like a cougar on the prowl."

The Storm Before the Calm

Seeing as it’s my first post back after Christmas holidays and my first post of the year, allow me, if you will, to get all my woes poured out at once. Yup, I’ve got a case of the Negative Nancies, the Peeved Pats, the Irritated Iras.

We finally got back here yesterday morning at around 3:30am. We left Winnipeg at 1:15pmCST and flew through Minneapolis, then Detroit, then all the way back to “Airport City.” We found out at the airport first thing that the weight limit per piece of checked luggage was a full 20 pounds less than we thought it was so we had to pay an overage fee. We weren’t too upset because there wasn’t time to be and it would’ve been more expensive for my Mom to mail extra stuff. Going through customs worked out all right since the customs officer grew up in the city the Husband works in; we got talking about all kinds of improvements/changes in town and where he grew up eating the best ice cream.

On our first flight, they were also looking for Volunteers. You know, the travelers with flexible travel plans. We didn’t have a flexible schedule because the Husband had to work at 7am yesterday morning (yes, that’s exactly 4 ½ hours after we got back here). They were offering a $300 travel voucher or a free round trip ticket anywhere NWA flies in North America, in other words, for us, two free tickets back to Manitoba! Oh that would’ve been sweet! Alas.

Our first flight went fine, although the Little Goat had no real interest in sleeping. We had a decent layover in Minneapolis so we actually got to sit down and have lunch at Quiznos. Yum! Our second flight was also fine. It was a bigger plane and the LG slept for almost the entire flight except towards the end where the air pressure was getting to her. For our third flight, however, they had the nerve to announce that each person would only be allowed ONE carry-on item; “Ladies, this includes your purse.” We were thinking we would be fine since one of my carry-ons was the diaper bag and the website repeats in various spots that a diaper bag won’t count toward you carry-on allowance. That was a good thing because there was too much for the diaper bag and I ended up putting the LG’s medications, etc, in my bag. The check-in person would not budge on the issue, however and when I asked her what I should do, she’s all, ‘Well, I don’t know. Maybe pack it different.’ Argh! So we’re supposed to be pre-boarding and here I am, with all our stuff littering a large area close to the check-in counter….I wouldn’t let her put the valet tag on my carry-on and I seriously considered not valet-checking it. In future, I will NOT, since technically, I could fit both of my carry-ons under the seat together AND the flight wasn’t even full! That’s right. It wasn’t. even. full. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for having a carry-on limit, but I agree that a diaper bag shouldn’t count and I’m not just saying that because I’m a mom traveling with a sixth-month-old. What I think is ridiculous is when a passenger is WHEELING their SUITCASE down the center aisle of the plane and can barely lift it into the overhead bin - that’s not a carry-on - by definition of the word, right?

Anyway, we finally got back to Airport City. The Husband caught the hotel shuttle back to our car which given one more night, would very likely have been buried until Spring. He finally managed to dig it out enough to drive away and came and picked me up at the airport where the Little Goat and I rang in the New Year staring at a clock display, with only the night security guard for company. Woo. Exciting.

We drank a lot of coffee and ate a lot of horrible snacks on the way home (read: beef jerky at 3am) but we made it back mostly awake. Only to discover that yes, our NEIGHBOURS STILL SUCK. I don’t know about you, but where I was raised, if you notice that your neighbour has been gone for a while but you’re pretty sure they’re still coming back (since there’s no For Sale sign and the house isn’t empty), you might be so kind as to shovel their driveway. Or at least the part at the end leftover from the snowplow…..but no. Evidently, in Northern Maine, neighbours don’t DO neighbourly things like that. We had at least 15 inches of snow on the driveway. We ended up parking on the street and shoveled enough of a path to get us and the luggage into the house. Really! You’d think living on a street where no less than eight people own snowblowers and the across-the-street residents are OBSESSED with either lawn mowing or snowblowing (in season), SOMEBODY could’ve been nice enough to do our driveway at least once. The guy directly across the street was snowblowing parts of his BACKYARD a few weeks ago for crying out loud! His BACKYARD!!!

If all that wasn't annoying enough, the Husband got up to go to work at 6am. He was back by 7:30 because guess what? He wasn't on the schedule after all. So we could've been Volunteers and gotten free vouchers, not to mention a much better sleep the night we got home. I told him to punch his supervisor for me. (When he called this afternoon to inform me that he's scheduled to work on Saturday AND be on-call all weekend, I told him to punch his supervisor again - obviously, once is simply not enough.)

At any rate, we’re home. There’s laundry going and lots of mail to open and our Christmas Vacuum Cleaner is ready to go. Home. Sweet. Home. Arrrrh!