Surrogate Dad

I heard on the radio the other morning that there is a trend for older dads such as Larry King (CNN) to hire younger men to play with the kids and do the sports, etc that they can no longer keep up with. (Surrogate dad?)

The cashiers in the supermarket yesterday were already wearing Xmas T-shirts and we've started getting all the sale flyers full of seasonal goodies. I even bought a package of xmas rice krispie squares. A couple of good friends are going away for the holidays this year. Maybe that's a good idea to avoid all the stress? I've never wanted to plan a trip at Christmas unless it was to visit family.

We observe Remembrance Day in Canada on Nov 11th. Government employees get the day off. The schools usually have a special assembly. People wear poppies on their lapels.



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Puttering about

In the past few months, I've noticed K spends a lot of time combing his hair in the mornings. So I asked him if all his friends are doing that too. He said yes, they're always in the washroom at school fixing their hair, except for maybe one boy who doesn't care. It's interesting watching the kids as they go through various stages of life. For the latest Science project, the teacher told them to choose partners. No one chose K or his friend J. So K decided to choose him and problem solved, sort of. All the kids tried to grab the smartest kids to work with, for obvious reasons. He says they'll do just fine and I told him he did the right thing, as long as they check in for lots of guidance.

M and I are trying to put an Ikea TV stand together, darned if the screws will go in.

I'm puttering about the house today, choosing things that can start going down to the basement. A friend may drop by to have a peek at the basement. The fireplace guy is dropping by to check the gas lines and show us how to turn the pilot light on and the contractor is supposed to pop in later on as he forgot to nail one of the kickboards to the kitchen.

The driving instructor took L on a sort of main road last night. I don't know how I'm going to do that. He seems to have nerves of steel along with brakes on the other side of the car. Well, to do a job like that, you must be pretty adventurous. A friend also suggested we take her out when it's snowing too.


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Busy week so far

Another gorgeous 'near tshirt' day. It's hard to believe it'll be freezing again soon. We stayed up a bit late to watch Obama's moving, historic speech, what a decisive victory. The country wanted a change.

I'm going to fold 2 loads of laundry then head out to my step class. Afterward I have to run an errand, then pick L up as she only has a half day of school today. We're giving a friend of hers a ride home. We may do a sushi lunch then a driving lesson. She has an instructor lesson later this evening. When I pick K up, I'll try to take him for a blood test as he's due for his next hypothyroid checkup. Somewhere in there I'll make dinner and supervise any homework. It's been a busy week so far.

Yesterday M took K out of school a bit early to see the retinal specialist as he thought he saw a new floater in his eye. It turns out he was seeing the scarring from the laser as it heals. The doc says he's ready to go back to gym class and things are fine until the next follow up. Whew!

L just found out she won a junior tennis award at her local club for role model or something exemplary. So she gets her name engraved on a big trophy for the year and free tickets to the year end bash, so she can go with her dad. She's over the moon. K is motivated to do something like that now.

Have a great day everyone!


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Obamamania

It's near t-shirt weather today, wow. I went for my haircut and all the talk is about the U.S. elections and Obamamania. We recently had federal elections in Canada and there wasn't half this excitement. People think Obama is young and intelligent and they think McCain closely reflects the Bush policies. Obama wear is very popular up here as the 'in' thing. (dresses, scarves, t-shirts)

Our (M's) new big screen TV arrived today, all 50 inch screen of it. It's now on the basement wall. What is the lure of a big screen TV, why does it seem to be every male's dream and desire? And M usually isn't into all the electronic toys like a lot of guys.

Took L for a 5 minute driving lesson down a neighbourhood street. It's nerve-wracking, although she's cautious. The instructor thinks this is a good idea.

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Thoughts turn to Christmas

I saw this xmas palm tree in a local department store, something different. Yes, it's time to start thinking about Christmas.

It's raining today with a promise of a few days of sunny, summerlike weather tomorrow. Looking forward to that. My mom and I are going to get our flu shots later this morning and we have to renew some prescriptions. Hopefully I can go for a walk before that. Oops, it's raining...but that shouldn't be a problem.

I was reading The Bold Soul last night and came across a mean comment that someone left to her. She's recently been married and ecstatically happy and this lady said 'we get it, already' or something to that effect. So why even read it if you 'get it already', much less to be sarcastic in someone's comment box? I must admit, (knock on wood) that I don't see too much of this in the blogs I read.


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The Presidential Suite

L went to another fabulous Sweet 16 party last night. This was the one where about 20 girls loaded into a limo bus and were driven to a fancy hotel by the airport. The limo bus was all leather inside and you could stand, sleep, have drinks or whatever, like the buses the rock stars travel in apparently. They were presented with a lovely dinner menu in the hotel restaurant. L said she chose a beef barley soup with a crouton floating on top that was shaped in the number '16'. She then chose a pasta dish and remarked that her friend's gourmet burger also looked fabulous. There was also fish and chips. There was a 2-tier cake (chocolate and vanilla layers) in pink and black motif (to match the invitation). Then they headed up to the top of the hotel to 'The presidential suite'. It was a huge 2-story house really that Prime Ministers stay in when they visit. L said they didn't manage to see the whole suite, it was so big and she was really impressed at how luxurious it was. The guest of honour spent the night there with a couple of close friends. Her mom was there, but otherwise no adults.

We rolled our clocks back one hour last night. Do you notice this time change requires no adjustment? The extra hour seems to just get used up in no time.

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Halloween went well

Halloween went well this year. L had 3 friends over and at the last minute as usual, she got to work 'setting up the haunt'. She painted a scary poster, had some really scary music coming from the garage. Her dad picked up a scary facemask from Walmart. She and her friends acted really scary as the little kids came up to the door and I heard at least 4 of them ran away without getting candy. We have 4 year old triplets living in the house behind our house. They were very cute and brave and got their candy. So it seems we had about 20 kids which is a lot for us. The warm weather would've helped.

At my sister's house, K met up with his cousin and about 6 other teenage boys and ran around their neighbourhood for a couple of hours. They brought back heavy bags of candy. My sister had about 80 kids visit. My niece went out separately with her own friends, they were goth type characters.

I subscribe to this organizing newsletter and found some interesting tips today on organizing your life. For example,

'Catch them doing something right

It's easy to notice when people are doing things that annoy us or make us feel uncomfortable. But if that's what we are always focusing on, that's pretty much what we'll always get; people will behave the way we expect them to. Challenge yourself to catch those around you doing something right and praise them for it. Not only will this make you feel better, it will also encourage the other person to repeat the positive behavior. If you can find things to appreciate in others, you will dramatically shift the way you see the people in your life and your relationships will be transformed.'

© Copyright 2008 by Hellen Buttigieg, We Organize U. Reprinted with permission from the We Organize U Newsletter. Visit http://www.weorganizeu.com

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