My mudder

This is the lady I call mom. I call her mudder, mother, mom and a few other things too when I'm mad at her.

But thats not important.

Because TODAY, as luck would have it, I am NOT mad at her.

She's not happy with this picture and I have NO idea why. Last night I dragged her out of her comfy cozy warm heated house so that I could do a quick test with my reflector.

See, I have a reflector but have never used it. Didn't quite believe they did much. Boy was I wrong.

I had the sun behind her which would usually result in a very cool picture. Her face would be shadowed and I'd have issues with exposure and cool color casts. So I tipped the reflector until this very beautiful golden sun was on her face.

It was fun. She wasn't ready for the picture and not happy that its on here I'm sure.

She asked me to do some touch up work and I did but she wasn't happy with that either.

So I sent her one WAYY over done *not posted here* where she looks about ten and when she got it, I thought she'd say "HA HA, very funny" but instead she LOVED it.

I had to remind her that the face of a ten year old is NOT natural on a grandmother.

She told me to "shut up and let her have her moment".

So I did.

I think she looks real pretty in this picture, even though she thinks she doesn't.

Michelle

Can I gripe?

You're probably thinking...um, don't you always?

Thats why you come here isn't it.

Thats why you venture to this blog.

SO you can read my latest gripe.

There are plenty of gripes to go around my friends.

Plenty.

Justin had his bday party today. We had a small group. Nice, quiet. calm.

Pictured is Justin, Hali, Gage and Gillian.Missing from the picture is LiL Miss Abby. She was off getting a chip. Or cheesie. Or something.

SO just to catch you up to speed, everyone in all of Petawawa holds their bday party at this bowling alley. And although the staff was super nice and helpful, I was a little more than TICKED off that they slotted TWO birthday parties at the same time.

There is a small room to the side that has something like six lanes and two rows of tables. Last year we used one table for food and finger food and such and the second table was for the kids to eat at, put their coats, gifts.....SO today I get there and the lady says there are two bday parties at 11am. I'm looking at her thinking, "where?".

SO because we were only 8 kids and 4 adults and they were about 8 kids plus 18 wild and obnoxious adults we got tucked into a corner. Stuffing all our coats, boots, food and cake onto a small table in the corner. The other party pretty much took up the whole friggen area and even just walking to get the cake I had to "excuse me, excuse me, excuse me" until I got there.

Then they spilled into our little area while they opened their little boys gifts. Like the other 3/4 of the room wasn't enough for them.

I'm so irritated. Its not their fault. I'm sure they were less than thrilled to have us in their 1/4.

I'm calling the manager on Monday just to let him know what I think.

He probably won't care and thats ok. I just need to get it off my chest. Usually they schedule bdays hourly instead of at the same time. So its usually first hour is bowling, second hour is food, cake and gifts. This means that while my group would be eating, their group should have just arrived and started bowling, giving us enough space to have our birthday.

I thought I had gotten off free because when I booked the bday, they said they don't open until 1pm. But they'd schedule us in at 11 and open early for us. I was excited. Had no idea they'd put two parties together at the same time. And for the record, when I booked my party, no one else had booked that day yet.

So while i was happy to have a nice small quaint party, I had their obnoxious adults running around with a bunch of kids. I should have only paid 1/4 of the price because thats about all the room my party had.

Oh yes, I'll be calling on Monday.

Michelle

And one for my peeps

This is my friend Toby.

She let me take her hospital pictures.

They're plastered all over my website. But some of my friends and family only read this blog because its my personal blog :)

Toby's my friend so she can also be classified as "personal blog material".

Not that Toby is "material". She's just my friend.

So here is one for my peeps on my personal blog.

She's so pretty. They're such a blessed family.

Very good lookin' crew indeed.

Now the girls are finally gaining power in their house of BOYS. One more to even the playing field....how 'bout it Toby!

Michelle

You've GOT to be kidding me....

After all my complaining and whining about this hot water tank......you'll NEVER believe what happened last night.

So the nice man came to my door, as he always does. He came in and he said, "I made a decision before I even walked in your door. I've replaced every single thing there is to replace in this unit. If its NOT your ignitor, I'm just going to replace the da** thing.

I could have kissed his boots.

He walked downstairs, walked UP stairs almost three seconds later and said, "I'm going to run to the van, lets get this paperwork started".

I said... "YeeeHAWWWw, those are the best words I've heard all WEEK". I invited him to stay for dinner but he kindly declined. I think he thought i was nuts.

I was.

SO, there ya have it. I'm getting a new hot water tank. The only downfall is that its going to cost me $150 to have the work done and my rental price goes from 40$ per month to $62 per month. Yikes! For that price it better work better than this old piece of poop.

Although I will miss our monthly visits from Mr.B from Direct Energy....I will be happy to have peace of mind....

and heat :)

Frikken Frakk N F***

I truly have a love hate relationship with my water tank. My RENTAL water tank.

Let me tell you why.

See, my water tank has big shoes to fill in this house. He is not only responsible for the hot water in my house, he is also responsible for the heat in my home.

So when Good Ol' tank breaks down, we are left without hot water and more importantly WITHOUT HEAT.

Last year when it first happened I was dazed. Confused. Just totally 'out to lunch' with what to do. Then I realized it was a rental unit. I pay Direct Energy a monthly amount to RENT this unit from them!

They were MORE than happy to schedule me a repair appointment as soon as possible.

Only my idea and their idea of "as soon as possible" was very different.

My idea was immediately or within six hours. Their idea was approx 48 hrs away.

Um, HELLO people!!! Its -30* outside. I have two small children!

Their answer to all my problems in this situation was that they were going to drive over to my house and drop off electric heaters and blankets to keep us warm until our appointment.

That was last year.

Fast Forward to this year. My unit has broken down ONCE per month since October. I've had enough. ENOUGH. I'm grateful that they come over and fix it free of charge, I really am. But its starting to cause a great deal of STRESS around the issue of their four hour window.

I've had to stay home from work, cancel appointments and Peat has even had to alter his plans and work arrangements JUST so we can be home. On a monthly basis...I say this is enough.

So I've requested that they stop FIXING my friggen unit, face the fact that its NOT REPAIRABLE and put a new one in. But because its ten years old and NOT 15 years old, they'd rather pay the nice man who comes here to fix it.

I'm sick of this.

I just don't know what to do about it.

Do I call Consumer Affairs? Do they care? Probably not.

Do I write the paper about this?
Can I find another company?

This HAS to be wrong in SOME BODY'S Books.

I need heat and when I place a call at 3am, giving me an appointment two days away is UNACCEPTABLE.

I don't have alternate heating sources.

JUST replace the unit that isn't working.

God I'm frustrated. Anyone have any ideas for me?

He really does like to move it move it

Be sure to mute the music before playing the video

I had to share a small video of Luke. He loves the movie Madagascar and he likes to sing and dance with the funny animals. Then when its nap time he likes to sing and rock out to the tunes from the show.

Usually he has quite the hip thrust but obviously he was a little camera shy.

Anyways, here he is in all his glory.

NOTE TO VIEWER: This is my crappy wallpapery bedroom that we started peeling then decided 'heck with it' until we're ready to paint. So please ignore the wallpaper peeling and mess.

I just had to state the obvious. My mom is suppose to be getting on this project at her earliest convenience.

Michelle

Today is a new day....

Good Morning.
Yes today is a new day and other than the fact that it came in like a lion *at 3am with my furnace shutting off and house being freezing* I'm quite happy about today and what today has to offer :)

Ya ya, cut the BS .......

So I'm sitting here at home anxiously waiting the arrival of my friend T's little baby girl. T has two boys and is due TODAY for her third baby. And its a girl. I would not be so lucky. If I had a third, I'd be due for my third BOY. Thats just the way it would go.....

And that would be ok too ;)

Cuz boys are SO fun and SO cute and SO busy.

Anyways, I'm very excited because she's going to call me once she gets to the hospital and talks to the nurses. My bags are packed *ok, not yet but its on my list for today* and I'm ready to roll.

I've packed my camera, two lenses, my flash *just in case although I hope not to use it at all*, my light meter just for kicks and giggles and possibly going to toss in my Gary Fong Light Sphere *maybe*......and a few memory cards and I think I might bring my cocoon and hat too.
So many things, so little time. Thank GOD I don't have to do the pushing. I just get to be snap happy and i always love to be snap happy.

So I'll sit around and wait to hear from Toby, even though I can't remember if her name is with a Y or an I, even though I ask her every time and she tells me every time.

I have no picture to post today...just excitement. Hopefully she has this baby before Peat goes back to work on Wednesday.

Although I do have a dental appt on Monday morning so I'm also hoping she doesn't "go" then either.

Michelle