CAUTION: Picture overload

Fun house downtown Niagara
Amy, Me and Jarret
Ripley's Museum
Jarret and Amy @ the Niagara whirlpool
Niagara Whirlpool

Water fountain outside of the casino @ Niagara Falls

View from Behind the Falls.. so cool
Again.. view from the tunnel behind the falls
Amy
Jarret

Our new car :)
Jarret and Amy @ The Casino water fountain
LOVE this picture.. Mike looking at Amy like she is very odd..
Canadian falls
US Falls

I have more pictures but I think that is enough for today. Love the way these pictures turned out.

Lata Skata

Birhtday wishes

Happy Birthday to my George!

Have an awesome day.. I love you! .

Don't be to mad because i put your picture on here.. I like this one of us. We don't have many pictures together and this is a nice one. Plus look... I made sure I put one with beer in hand!!

Lata Skata

My cute, beautiful, smart niece Kelsey got braces on Friday. You need to take a look at her here! Love her to death.!! She is probably the nicest 12 year old I have EVER known! I just had to start my day off by saying that.

The pictures I took at Niagara Falls on Sunday are still sitting in the camera. We used Georges work camera and I am waiting for him to please upload them soon.

Not too much to report. Its Tuesday.. which means I have 4 more days of work until the weekend.. but who's counting??

Jarret has a field trip today. His class is going to Roy Thompson Hall to see/hear the orchestra. I am a bit nervous because about 2 weeks or so ago there was a fatal school bus crash on one of the freeways going on a field trip. Lots of injured kids and one child dead. Scary! I am not sitting here fretting but it crossed my mind a few times today. They really need to implement a law where seat belts have to be installed on school buses.

There are so many times that the bus driver who brings Jarret home tells the parents how some of the kids jump around and misbehave on the way home and she has to pull over cause she cant concentrate. Of course Jarret gets the lecture from me every once in a while on why sitting nice and quiet is so IMPORTANT when he is being transported to and from school.

Anyway..

I am posting some old pictures just because I like pictures. I really need to start taking more.

The first two pictures are of Jarret when he was about 4 or 5 running bases at the Goldeyes game.

The second is Jarret and Amy at the Virgin Festival on a Harley Love it!

Then Amy when she was about 7 months old. Love love that picture

The last one of Amy she was 2. We were at the zoo.

Our first road trip with the car is going to Niagara Falls today.

So excited!

We have been there so many times and it never gets dull. It is so beautiful. If you have never been.. it is definitely something you need to put on your "to do list". Its not just the falls that is something to see.. but the entire town of Niagara is pretty cool. We have never ventured to the US side yet.. but that is something we are going to be doing this year.

Well.. I am off to get the kids ready and dust off the camera. And we are off.. be prepared for pictures.

Have a great day

Lata Skata

She's so pretty!

George picked me up from work last night in our new car. Picked the kids up.. burned a cd and went for a drive. We drove for about an hour and a half last night! There was no homework done.. no bedtime ritual.. just family time in our car.

Amy sang her little heart out to some Gwen Stefani, Eminem, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Justin Timberlake!

What did we do in our car that we haven't been able to do in such a long time????

Went through Burger King Drive through baby!!!! Yes that new car smell is no longer.. lol

Burger King at 11:30 at night.. what more can one ask for???

Look what we get today! So so excited. We have been without a car since the beginning of December. Going to work and back isn't a big deal.. but trying to grocery shop or just do basic errands on the weekend with kids... not too fun!

Its a 2007 Ford Focus SE! Its burgundy or maroon (whatever you want to call it) with grey interior. The insurance out here is kicking our asses ... but we gotta do what we gotta do! George's job requires a car so he can go to venues. He gets mileage and since he hasn't been able to drive anywhere so we have been missing part of his income.

So.. needless to say.. this is a good day for us!


Update on the job.. its still there and its getting better. I am becoming more and more comfortable with it.

Kids are good. Amy was sick with asthma on the weekend but getting better. Jarret has been actually handing in his homework and assignments at school so he is getting better marks.. well I should say getting marks period which is a huge improvement.

One of George's friends is coming in for a visit on Thursday for a few days. This will be his second visit.. he was here in October. He's in to see a concert on Saturday.

That's it.. I will post pictures of our car this week. I don't think we will be home all that much for a while.. we will be driving our little hearts out! Cant wait!

Lata Skata

For the OC

Found this today.. Thought I would post it. Your reactions??

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18040485/

Anyone... Anyone???

I keep checking my blog but there isn't a new post..??

Oh I guess I actually have to have something interesting to say?? Or anything to say at all??

Anyone want to guest post for me? I am open to guest bloggers!

George and I went to the theater to see Edward Scissorhands last night. It was at the Hummingbird Theater. It was really good. I had no idea until George told me that there are no words in it.

It was all dancing and music, but honestly you don't really notice there are no words.

It was our first night out without the kids since moving to TO in August. It was nice to be alone(with hundreds of people around us) for a night.

I am cooking my first turkey tomorrow night. Its our Easter supper. We are having H and her kids over (our sitter). I am kinda excited to have company and cook for someone other then George and the kids.

Not much to report here. I wanted to say more but my mind is blank. I am reading every ones blog usually from work. I may not always comment but just know I am lurking around.

Have a wonderful Easter everyone!

Lata Skata

I just weighed myself and it looks like I am only 16 pounds away from my goal weight! That is really exciting! When I originally started on my program on Sparkpeople my goal was to lose 40 pounds by March 23rd. Well March 23rd has come and gone but I am not disappointed that I didn't make my goal. I am so happy with what I did lose in these last few months.

Last week Jarret's teacher sent home a note saying that his marks have dropped from last term because she has higher standards? Apparently he needs to practise his writing. So I will be getting Jarret a journal so he can write in it before bed every night. I am not too sure why she informed us of him still having trouble a week before he got his report card.. ??

We got his report card yesterday. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It wasn't great he did drop in a lot of the areas but its not what I thought.

So we talked about what he needs to do in school to pull up his marks. And also what George and I have to do to get him focused at home. We didn't yell.. we were calm. He is a smart boy and we told him that. It was more encouragement then discipline.

The thing that really sucks is my shift at work will be 12-8 probably right until school is out for the summer, and that means most of the time the kids will be coming home at 9 and Jarret will have to do his homework so late. Nothing we can do about that for now.. we will all have to adjust.

Amy received her first report card this week. She is progressing really well. We were all happy about that.

Have a good one!

Lata Skata

Joe Joe

Chris called me last night and told me he had some news. I was of course waiting for him to give me some good news.. like I will be a new Auntie again!!! No.. that wasn't the news he had for me.

He told me that Joe died.

Joe Joe was my best friend when I was 3 years old. We played together all the time. He only came over 1 time to my house and my parents told me that he wasn't allowed to come over anymore. I couldn't understand. He was Joe.. my best friend.

For years we would play together and he always came and called on me and we would hang out all the time. He wasn't just my friend he was friends with every kid on our block.

As I got older I knew he was different. Not too sure what it was but something. As the other kids on my block got older they started to make fun of him all the time. They would call him names and were just mean. I use to stick up for him and I remember one day telling him if anyone bugs you Joe.. come and tell me.

You see.. Joe was a 45 year old mentally challenged man. His mentality was about 5 or 6 I believe.

His mother looked after him the best she could.. but she was very old and I can imagine how hard it was for her to look after him.

He use to carry around this silver walk man all the time. If you were to ask him who gave it to him he would say so proudly "my brother"

And if you asked him when he got it he would again answer so proud "last week". Even though he had that walk man for as long as I knew him.

Joe taught me to ride a two wheeler. My mom use to get upset because he would run as fast as he could holding the back of my seat and wouldn't let go cause he didn't want me to get hurt and his heart wasn't very strong. But he did it.

I know me and my family have had a lot of Joe stories and I know we would laugh at them.. but for us it wasn't mean or malicious.. it was all out of love for him

I haven't seen him in many years. At least 4, but I am sad today I will truly miss my first friend.

Char wrote about Joe sometime last year. She writes a lot better then I do.. so to get an idea of our life with Joe in it take a look at her post.


Lata Skata

Come out come out where ever you are!!!

Who is 'I didn't do it'?

He or she seems to live in my house.. but they are invisible?

They sure get into a lot of trouble. But I cant do anything about it because they are no where to be found!!

Anyone else have 'I didn't do it' in their house??

Dear Gramma Buddy,

Its been 2 years since you have been gone. We miss you. A lot has happened in those 2 years but one thing that hasn't is how much everyone misses you.

George and the kids and I moved to Toronto to make a better life for all of us. Jarret is in grade 2 now and has lots of friends. His school work is hard but we will get him through. He still talks about you. He remembers things of what you use to do with him.. or say to him or he would say "Gramma buddy had that movie" or " Gramma buddy use to tell me that" he has an amazing memory and I am so thankful he does so he will always have special memories of you!

Amy is in Junior Kindergarten (that's what they call nursery school out here). She has quite the personality. She makes George and I laugh all the time. Unfortunately because she was only 2 when you passed away her memories are from what we tell her. Don't worry we tell her a lot of things about you.

George is awesome! I know you would be so proud of him. He is so good at his job and as far as I know he is enjoying it. He misses you a lot though. I know sometimes more then he lets on.. you remember how stubborn he is??

Shannon and Christian and Jaden.... they moved to a different city a few moths back.. and now they are moving home. I know Shannon is excited but it just wont be the same cause she cant share her amazing Jaden with you. She looks just like you by the way. Although I don't know her all that well.. Shannon emails me tons of pictures and we talk on the phone quite a bit so we get caught up with whats going on with our kids. Not the same but we do ok.

Just wanted you to know we think about you all the time like I know everyone does. We miss you especially today.

Lots of love

TGIF

This week has whizzed by! I cant believe its already Friday. Let me tell you I welcome it. I am enjoying my training.. my trainer is super nice and we get along really well.. not just about training but talking about all kinds of stuff.. usually about cooking and food! Love it!! Today is Employee Day at work and they are having a pot luck. I made a Taco Dip to bring. Char makes it a lot for her pot lucks at work and it goes over really well.. so I thought I would steal the idea from her.. THANKS CHAR!

I get to set up my desk today.. and MAYBE hop on the phones for a few calls. I really want to just to get the feel of it before I am thrown on all day next week but a little nervous. I know A (trainer) will be listening in and sitting right there.. so that should be cool.

My throat has been soar the last few days.. and my chest has been feeling tight. Not liking that so much.. there is NO WAY I can call in sick so if anything does come about this I will have to suffer through going to work.. I HATE going to work sick. Grr...

The kids are good.. I guess Amy had a bit of a rough day yesterday with the boys. I think 'H' is looking forward to school starting up next week.. so she doesn't have 4 kids tearing her house apart.

I am off to make my coffee.. need it desperately today.

Lata Skata

Day one down..

So my first day was good. As I was getting ready to leave to take the kid to the sitters my nerves started in pretty bad. But I honestly think it was just cause I was anxious to get the kids downstairs and onto the bus. It didn't help that NONE of our 4 elevators worked yesterday. We had to walk down 18 flights of stairs. I was getting more and more irritated just because I didn't want to be late. I wasn't.. in fact I was 30 minutes early lol. I didn't go into the office until about 10 to 12. My trainer wasn't there but the guy sitting next to her got me a chair and chit chatted with me until she arrived. That was nice. My trainer got there and man is she nice! Really sweet and very helpful. So we did out thing. The first part of the day zoomed by.. but by my lunch I hit a wall. I got so f'in tired. I had my lunch.. and refueled with some food.. and I felt a bit better. I need to bring food with tons of energy.. any suggestions out there. I can eat snacks at my desk so if anyone knows of a healthy energy filled snack.. please I am all ears.

We went through some material.. and honestly its almost the same as FedEx was. So I understood a lot of what she was saying. She had to go on the phones cause there was only one other agent on the phone from 7-8 which was cool.. cause I got to listen in on her calls..

All in all it was a good day at work!!

The kids

They were up when I got home.. and they said they had a really good day. The sitter (I'll call her H for now until I get her permission to put her name on here) took them for a walk to get a donut in the afternoon. Apparently when George picked the kids up Amy didn't want to come home.. she wanted to live there. OK.. cute but.. kinda hurt my feelings.. lol.

Jarret said everything was good.. I talked to H when I got home and she said Jarret and one of her boys had to be separated for a bit cause they were getting on each others nerves. Jarret can be a bit of a stick in the mud and I guess he wasn't liking some stuff her boy was doing.. but she said they were fine after.

So just about to hop in the shower for day 2.. I am excited to get going!!

Have a wonderful day.. maybe I will be able to blog in the mornings before I go to work.. who knows!!

Lata Skata

Ever since I found out I got the job last week.. I have been having some pangs of guilt every once in a while. I have been worrying about the kids. I have always been home with Amy. And I have always been home when Jarret gets home from school.Then I would go to work in the evening and George would be with them at night. This week they are going to the babysitters. I am not worried about her at all.. she is great! I guess its the fact that I'm not in "control". Not saying that I control them.. but you know what I mean right?? I hope so cause I can't explain it. My shift this week is 12-8 so it feels like I will be away from them for such a long time. Am I being silly? I know it will all work out .. I'm sure by the end of the week our routine will be set and everyone (me) will be fine. I just hate the unknown!

Not only am I stressing a little about this week.. I also woke up with the left side of my throat feeling like there was a golf ball stuck in it.. and it is really soar. I don't know what more I could have done to prevent this.. I eat an orange a day sometimes two. I haven't been sick for such a long time. I have been off work since July and nothing! Oh well.. I will just take some meds and drink plenty of fluids! Hopefully that will work.

This will probably be my last post for this week. I don't think I will have much time to post anything. I will check my regular blogs and try to comment if I can. Hope everyone has a good week.

Went to the mall today to see about getting myself a few new clothes for work next week. Well.. it started with excitement.. but quickly turned into a sad feeling sorry for me shopping trip. I don't know what it is.. is it just me or are a lot of the stores in the mall made for "girls" with no curves?? As you all know I have recently lost about 20 pounds so I thought this will be fun to try on clothes. Nope! Wrong. The biggest size in one of the stores we went into was a 9! Sorry.. I am not a 9 yet. I had 3 pairs of pants that were on sale and when I put the first pair on.. hahahaha... camel toe people!! Sorry to gross you out by that but I have to tell it like it is! Then I put my leg into the next pair.. and before I got them over my thigh I laughed and said "nope" to Amy (who insisted on coming in the changing room with me). I honestly don't remember the 3rd pair but they did not fit. I hit a few stores with the same problem. I was fed up. Feeling sorry for myself.. wanting to cry. So what did we do next? Went to get something to eat!! Lol. We were all starving.. had to.

Anyway, I pretty much gave up when we walked past Suzy Shier. Hesitantly walked in and I found a pair of grey dress pants.. and 2 button down dressy shirts. Bought them with no crying.. actually quite happy with my purchase. It helped that the pants were $18 and the tops were $15!! Not bad. I will be going back next weekend on Georges payday.. and it will be Suzy Shier!!

That was my day.. hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Oh yes before I go

Chris I tried to call you this morning but there was no answer. If I don't talk to you before you go good luck this week!! We will talk on the weekend when you get back!!

Lata Skata

I start my new job on March 13th. This has happened so fast. I emailed my resume on Monday at around 1pm. They called me back the same day at around 3pm. I was out so I called back and left a message. They called me the next morning at about 9:30am to do a phone interview (which I decided suck!!) then the woman who did the interview said she would call me back in the afternoon if they wanted to proceed to the next level of interviews. I received a call from her that afternoon at around 2pm. She asked me to come in for the first phase interview process the next day at 9:30am. Went and met with her.. then met with the CS Manager for the second part of the interview. He told me he would let me know by Friday or sooner. He called me today at around 2pm to offer me the position!! I go in tomorrow to do the paper work and I apparently start on Tuesday!! This is the same type of job I did in Winnipeg but it sounds so much better!! I am actually excited. There are no weekends involved and the latest I would work would be 8pm! And I don't think that would be for very long. I have a babysitter all lined up.. she is going to be great!!

In other news.. Amy and I headed to the ER last night at around midnight. She woke up with a high fever of 39.9C (104F) and wheezing and coughing. Her X-Ray showed that she had the start of Pneumonia and the doctor said she has Bronchitis. Poor girl. She really wasn't doing that great today.. but get some meds in her she should bounce back in no time.

The kids have their March break next week.

Phew... I'm exhausted from all of this! Sorry if I bored you.. but had to tell you about my job! Wish me luck!!

Lata Skata

Its been a while since I have blogged. Haven't had the "urge" to lately.. not sure why. Hmmm... hopefully that will change.

George and I have been talking about me going back to work soon. When I say soon.. I mean like doing my resume this weekend and have a few places I am applying for. When we moved to Toronto I qualified for EI. Well.. my EI ran out last week.. so now we are panicking a bit. I don't care about going back to work.. its the stress of finding daycare for the kids that I was not looking forward to. But... there is a woman in our building whose 2 boys go to Amy's school in another Kindergarten class who said she would be willing to watch the kids for us. She wouldn't have Jarret for long.. just after school for about 2 hours or so. She would have Amy but that isn't an issue.. her boys LOVE Amy.. and I mean they LOVE her. So that is taken care of. Thank God!! Now its to get a job. I cant wait to interact with other adults.. and make some money. I will keep you all posted..

On another note.. George came home from work on Friday and had some really exciting news. He has a very very good chance to to to either Beijing or Australia soon. Australia would be in about 3 weeks.. Beijing in April or May. He would be gone for about 4 weeks. This is so awesome for him. We will miss him.. but 100% for it! He needs to get his passport. He needs to get on that this week cause it takes a while now to get one. Again.. I will keep you all posted..

That's about it for now..

Lata Skata

Just a shout out to Chris and Denise today on their anniversary! Have a great day guys.