Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Vacation!

Welp, I suppose I'm back from vacation...*sigh*

It was pretty good.  Sean and I were absolutely sick (and trading our illnesses back and forth) for most of it.  He had a light stomach flu.  While he had stomach flu, I had this "Upper body infection" which is what I affectionately call this thing I get where my throat is infected/swolled/etc, then that infection moves into my chest, nose, ears and eyes.  Yes, my eyes.  Then, we traded.

Oh yeah, and we started potty training.

At least I got to play my video game lots?  heh.

It was 99% a good vacation though.  It was really nice to have Sean home everyday.  We didn't even get sick of each other!

Sean's mother did come down last week.

We did get some awful news though.  I think I've mentioned on here in the past that I'm now running a branch of our provincial Wiccan "Church".  The High Priestess of the province, who is a good friend, went into the hospital with eye problems last Friday to discover she had been having a series of small strokes over the course of the previous few weeks.  It's been kind of a crazy time.

We set up a chip in account for her, and we've been doing fundraising to try to help her stay on her feet once she gets out of the hospital.

So yeah.  That has pretty much been my vacation.  Now, I'm just trying to catch up with everything I missed! So much happens in a two week time period....

What has everyone been up to?

Goddess Bless,
Stacy

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The last day!

Technically, the last day was Thursday, but as I write this it is last Wednesday night and I've written a few posts in advance.

Last Thursday was Sean's last day of work before vacation - more than two weeks off!
Last Thursday was the last day I had to wait to play Skyrim! (OMG OMG OMG)

So I'll be absent for the next couple weeks.  I may make the odd post, but wooo!  Vacation!

Have fun, folks!  I will.

Goddess Bless,
Stacy

Monday, November 14, 2011

Family Pictures

We got our family pictures taken by a family friend, Steph Collins, who is a photographer here in town.  She did our pictures last year too.  She usually only does wedding and engagement and couples pictures and what not, but we are special, lol.  Here are some of my favorites.





Love 'em.
Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Goddess Bless,
Stacy

Friday, November 11, 2011

Remembrance Day in Canada

It struck me that, while both observing similar holidays on the same day, America's Veteran's Day is very different from our own Remembrance Day.  So here are some things included in just about every single Remembrance Day ceremony across the country.

First, our national anthem:  O Canada.



Them, we all sing the Royal anthem:  God Save The Queen.



At some point in the ceremony, the poem In Flanders Fields is recited.  I think almost every Canadian knows this poem well - a piece of it is even on our 10 dollar bill.  It was written in 1915, by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae on the fields of WWI.  It was apparently inspired by his participation in the 2nd battle of Ypres.



In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe,
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch, be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields

With Samhain not far behind us, honouring the dead is still on our minds.  I have many relatives and friends who served or do serve in the Canadian Armed Forces, and a year and a half in the future I will most likely see my brother join up as well.  

It doesn't sound right or respectful to say Happy Remembrance Day, but have a blessed one.  Thanks to all you veterans out there.  

Goddess Bless,
Stacy

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Brianna's Birthday

Today is day one of lots of pictures - today I'm sharing some photos from Brianna's 2nd Birthday party.  Hope you enjoy!

Eating Hotdogs and Salad!

Ohhh, Presents?

No, apparently it is a climbing apparatus...

Oh My!  
(That is what she says when she is surprised)

CUPCAKES!!!!!!!!!


Similar to last year's cupcake picture, what with the eyes.

See?  Last year's picture.



Love those eyes.

Goddess Bless,
Stacy

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

A day I could have done without: Part Three

Part One and Part Two here, if you missed them.

Fair warning:  Those with weak stomachs may not want to read further.

Yesterday, we ended with hearing choking sounds coming from the baby monitor at 2 AM.

I run out of the bathroom and into Brianna's room, luckily only a few steps down the hall.  She is laying on her back in her bed, her arms at her sides in fists.  Her whole body was shaking - near the point where I would almost call it convulsing.  Her face, chest, and hair are absolutely covered in vomit that actually managed to come out.  She was choking on half-digested grape husks.

So I picked her up and held her in sort of a horizontal upside down position.  It's sort of hard to describe.  She was laying across my arms with her face down toward her crib.  I held her like that while she continued throwing up for a few minutes.  Sean had been almost right behind me into her room.  He had been almost asleep when he heard her over the monitor, luckily - if he had been fully asleep he never would have heard anything.  So he ran around getting towels and washcloths and running a bath while I tried to "help" Brianna finish throwing up.

We cleaned her up, got her out of the now dead PJs, and set her in the bath.  She was fine for about 10 minutes.  Then she threw up again.  So we took her out of the bath, drained it, ran another one and put her in.  We were trying to clean the vomit out of her hair, sometimes she chews on it and I didn't want it getting back into her.  Regardless, again about 10 minutes later she threw up again.  So we gave up on the bath.

We brought her out to the living room and laid her down on a blanket to change her diaper and get new PJs on her.  In the middle of this, she started throwing up again.  This time I was in the other end of the house changing Brianna's bedding, and I came back into the living room to find Sean standing and holding Brianna facing away from him, leaning over so she could throw up.  That was the last time she threw up that night, thankfully, but everything came up.  Milk, grape husks, pizza pops and jelly beans.  Man, sounds like we feed her well, right?  lol.  Anyhow.

Sean and I got a pillow from her bedroom, and one of our big queen blankets.  We each sat on one end of the couch and Brianna lay in between us.  Her little body was so tired, she barely moved.  She was wide awake though, and that was the point of sitting up with her.  Around 4 AM we gave her some Tylenol and put her back to bed.  She fell asleep right away.

It was pretty awful - this was the first time that Brianna had ever been sick like that.  She spit up as a little baby, but never threw up like this.  It was pretty crazy.  It would have been nice if her first time could have been while we were all awake and could see what was happening, sans choking of course.

So that, finally, is the end of my Friday.  I could have done without it.  There was definitely some thankful prayers happening in this house, though.

Goddess Bless,
Stacy

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

A day I could have done without: Part Two

Part One Here, if you missed it.

I think, when we left off, M and I were sitting in in her car calling 911.  The operator said we didn't have to wait at the scene, but we decided to anyway.  Because drunk Jeep man was waiting for passengers, we thought that we could tell the cops which way they went if they left before the cops got there.  So we waited.  I'm sure it was only a few minutes, but it felt like 20.  You know how that is.  So after a few minutes, Jeep man's passengers come out of the store and get back in the vehicle.  M and I are just saying "Where are the cops?  Where are the cops?" like a mantra.  So the guy puts his car into gear, and drives.  Forward.  Into the curb.  At which point he begins to put it in reverse like a normal human and an unmarked cop car pulls up behind him and blocks him and the truck next to him in.  The cop gets out his car and starts talking to the guy, and another cop car - marked, this time - pulls up and another cop gets out.  She comes over to the car and makes sure we are fine with giving a statement, and that she will be right back with forms.  Not 2 minutes later she comes back, sans forms, and asks, "Where you calling about the truck, or the Jeep?"  "The Jeep," we told her, slightly confused but having played telephone before understanding how information can get mixed up.  So she asks us to drive around to the other side of her vehicle so we are blocked partially from the view of drunk Jeep man, who is now being given various drunk tests.  We pull around and start filling out the form, watching of course what is going on because we are so curious.

Just after we started filling out the forms, a third cop car shows up - this is one of those still fairly new Dodge Charger cop cars, again unmarked.  This one had 2 cops in it (we are at 3 cop cars, 4 cops all together) who got out of their vehicle wearing headlamps and proceeded to search drunk Jeep man's...Jeep.  About 10 minutes later, tow trucks show up.  That's right, two.  M and I figured that they both heard the call and both came, not realizing the other was on the way.

Nooooo.

It turns out that in the process of catching drunk Jeep man driving smashed, they also caught someone else - the driver of the truck that they inadvertently boxed in when they were blocked the Jeep!  Hence the cop's comment about whether we called about the Jeep or the truck.  So yeah.  We were pretty excited that we caught two drunks with one phone call.  We still haven't stopped talking about it.

But THAT, dear readers and friends, is not the end of my story.

So, I get home.  All of this has taken so long that it is now just before 1 am.  Sean is still up - I'd texted him during the whole thing - and luckily he had the next day off.  So I stay up a little bit later, telling Sean what happened and trying to wind down.  Did you know that lots of caffeine followed by lots of adrenaline makes you giddy?  So Sean went to bed, and I followed him about 20 minutes later.

At this point, some explanation is needed.  We live in a trailer.  It is long and skinny.  We have two speakers for the baby monitor, one in the living room and one in the bedroom.  Our walls are so thin that we can hear her in every corner of the house really well, because we keep the volume up so high.  Thank Gods.

So I'm in the bathroom, brushing my hair, getting ready for bed, all that fun stuff.  It's 2 am.

Which is when I hear choking sounds coming from the baby monitor.

Again, to be continued tomorrow.

Goddess Bless,
Stacy

Monday, November 7, 2011

A day I could have done without: Part One

Welp, let me tell you about my Friday.

The day was fine.  Normal.  In the evening a friend of mine, M, came over to pick me up, we were going to have dinner with another friend.  Sean had Saturday off, so I wasn't worried about staying out late or anything.  Said friends and I visited in the restaurant until a little after 10, when the friend we had met there had to go to work.  So my M and I stayed and chatted a bit longer, then decided to go to the 24 hour Shopper's in our city because our conversation had swung to makeup.  So we get there, go in, wander around for about 40 minutes maybe, and we come out.  The way the building is situated, the doors face east, the entrance to the parking lot is to the north, and there is a sidewalk outside the doors of the building where people park.  We were walking out beside a SUV that was parked there, and this guy comes screeching in to the parking lot, does a full 360 and slams into a parking space, dropping off some passengers.  At first we thought, "Okay, first snow of they year, it's icy, guy is from BC, he doesn't know how to drive in snow well."  So we walk to M's car, which was parked away from the building.  We are looking at his license plate, because it WAS a little reckless, but it's pretty automatic to look at license plates in that situation.

Well, I guess he saw us looking.

So he whips out of the parking spot, whips around the back end of M's car, seriously, only a few feet away from it, AIMS HIS JEEP AT US, and guns it.  He cranks the wheel right at the last minute, ending up missing us (literally, us - we were both on the passenger side of the vehicle because she was unlocking it for me) by all of 2 or 3 feet.  At which he continued spinning around and slammed back into his parking spot.

To which we got into M's car, locked the doors and called 911, and hoped he didn't do anything stupid until the police showed up.

Continued tomorrow.

Hope everyone had a good weekend.  ;)

Goddess Bless,
Stacy

Friday, November 4, 2011

Friday!

Today is my post over at the Pagan Household.  The topic at the Household this month is related to Thanksgiving.  Being that I know pretty much nothing about American Thanksgiving?  I admit, I kinda winged it. I had post on kitchen gadgets, and the realized we actually had a topic for this month. HA!  ANYway.  I think it is interesting anyway, but maybe that is because I wrote it.

Also, I'm a little...off today.  You should have heard my gasp echo through the house this morning as I looked out and saw snow.  Bleh.  The last few years we haven't had snow yet at this time of year.  Ah well.  At least we already bought Brianna her boots.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Goddess Bless,
Stacy

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Where we find the Gods

The Divine is something that can be found in the strangest of places.  My thought in this as of late was inspired by a conversation on Facebook.  An acquaintance of mine posted about finding reference to the Horned God in a God in one of her favorite video games.  The video game was Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which as some of you may know is my favorite game as well.  At least until vacation in 8 (OMG 8) days when Elder Scrolls V comes out and no one hears from me for two weeks.  Mmmmm, Elder Scrolls...

I digress.

I'd often thought that the religion in the Elder Scrolls universe was very well thought out and realistic.  They have nine main gods, which they call the Nine Divines.  It is easy to see correspondence in some of them to things in our own life.  Take Mara.  From the the Elder Scrolls Wiki:  "Mara, the Goddess of Love, is a member of the Nine Divines.  In the Empire, she is worshiped at the Benevolence of Mara (her temples) as the Mother-Goddess.  Her origins lead back to ancient times, where she was revered as a fertility goddess."  Sound familiar?

There is also Azura, Daedric Goddess of "Dusk, Dawn, and the magic that exists between the various realms of twilight."

What about in books?  Can the Gods in the literary world show hints of the divine?  The mythology of David Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean series bears some striking resemblance to the Greek mythos - despite the fact that there are no goddesses.

What do you think?  Can there be aspects - hints - of the Gods found in places we wouldn't expect?  Have you ever found the Divine somewhere you wouldn't have looked for it?

Goddess Bless,
Stacy