More Adventure Shopping and Why My Parents Aren't Allowed To Pick Movies Anymore

I've had a very harrowing day.

This morning, my mother, who hates to shop and hates crowds says to me "I guess we'd better go to Costco". What? Are you serious? It's the Sunday before New Year's and it's almost noon. And you voluntarily want to go to Costco? Turns out my dad needed his pills, which happen to be at the Costco pharmacy. I get it.

Since I'm almost always up for an adventure, off we go. The parking lot was a zoo. Several people took it upon themselves to "invent" parking spots, despite the fact that there were lots of available parking spaces at the far end of the lot. I guess lazy wins out over legal and safe. Inside the store wasn't much better. People were going every which way and there were little mobs of people all over the store wherever there was a free sample stand. But we were on a mission. I was looking for a very specific desk calendar and we needed dad's pills. And we pulled it off. Not only did we manage to get out alive and without any issues of cart rage, I also passed up a poutine and hot dog and we were home in an hour. We also got my calendar, dad's pills, some sinus medication for me, a case of Bush's beans for my parents and a bag of Cashew Clusters. After our adventure, I made lunch for my parents and myself. My dad took two bites of his egg, ran upstairs and threw up again. He then thanked me for the egg, because he felt monumentally better. Wish I could say the same thing for the bath mats. They got washed this afternoon :) You know the saying "It's not over until the fat lady sings"? In this house it's "The flu's not over until the bath mats get puked on". Good going dad.

Mom and I baked a ham for dinner and I made cheesy crescent rolls to go along with it. My dad managed to eat something that resembled dinner and kept it down, so that's a good sign.

My parents then decided to torture me as only they can. It started out innocently enough. Mom said "Let's watch a movie". Dad said "sure". So mom starts reading off the movie titles that they own (which is about 15 movies in total). I keep saying "no". I passed on one called "Superhero Movie". You guesses it. It's a spoof on Super Hero movies. Next thing I know, my dad's asking to read the back of it. Crap. Mom decided it would be good because it has Leslie Neilson and Pamela Anderson in it. I tried to explain to her that that wasn't a good sign but she didn't listen. So they decide to watch it. Those are 75 minutes that I'm never getting back. It spoofed Spiderman, Batman, X-Men, Fantastic Four....etc. It was brutal. Which means that my parents loved it. During one scene, which involved the two main characters, trying to have a romantic love scene, during which a lot of farting is coming from the main character's aunt, I thought my mom was literally going to fall out of her chair, she was laughing that hard. I think I had more fun watching my parents than I did watching the movie. I think I'm going to have to walk my ass to the store tomorrow and pick out some movies for the evening. If I leave it up to the other two, more brains cells might be killed needlessly. I'm also pretty sure that the end of the movie stole a scene from the movie Airplane too. Anything that references Airplane isn't good. And it had horrible, horrible sexual references through out the entire thing as well. And seeing as I was watching it with my parents, it was just that much worse. I think I'm scarred for life.

On that note, it's time to pop some sinus medication and head to bed. The damn snow plow woke me up at 2 something this morning after it decided to go down our street 5 times. Seriously! It's a small street. WTF??

Good Night!

Sarah

My mom took this very pretty photo today - it's her Christmas cactus and icicles in our front window.

Shopping Queen

Not much to report in my universe tonight. It was an ok day. All 3 of us had a rough night's sleep, with various things waking us up through out the night/early morning. As a result, it was a slow start to the day. I got out first and started to shovel since the white stuff just keep coming (not as bad as what Ottawa/Montreal got though). Afterwards, I pouted enough to get the 'rents to take me shopping. My poor dad still isn't feeling well. I figure mom should be good to go tomorrow and dad will be another 2 days. This is the first day that I've felt normal all day so I'm thrilled about that.

I did get to hit up one store and I got my shop on. I did very well too. 5 new pieces of clothing: 2 dresses, 2 tops, 1 skirt and a 2 pack of slipper socks for $100. I think that was pretty well done. I'm a fan of the words "50% off the lowest marked price". Seriously. I got a dress (work style) for $14.99. How awesome is that?

I'm currently contemplating going to church in the morning with my grandparents and my great aunt and uncle. While it would be great to see them and spend time with them, it still involves going to church and sitting through a sermon. It's not that I have issues with God, it's more like I have issues with religion in general and I really don't like being preached at. We'll see how I feel in the morning. I'm having some sinus problems at the moment and I don't want to be blowing my noise all through a church service.

It's kind of ironic about the church thing. When my brother and I were little, my parents dragged us to church every Sunday. I even have Sunday School Perfect Attendance Awards to prove it. Yet my grandparents never went. Fast forward to now and it's my grandparents that go and not us. And trust me, they try the guilt thing to get us to go too. I think that's a little hypocritical.

It's too late at night to really get into that one though, so I'll end it here. I should get to bed soon. I'm hoping my sinus thing isn't going to turn into a sinus cold. Knowing me, it probably will and that will royally suck.

Good Night!

Sarah

Thankfully, it's not quite this snowy here.

3 for 3!

Karma made an appearance in our household a little after 6 this morning. That's when I was woken up to the sound of my father throwing up. Yes indeed. Mr. "I feel fine" caught the stomach flu that my mom and I had earlier in the week. By all accounts, he's had the most mild case. He was like "I wonder why I didn't get it sooner?". I know why. Because he's a man. His immune system was just waiting for mom and I to be feeling better so that we could take care of him when he got sick. Figures. Men are such babies when they're sick.

Take this evening for instance. Our neighbours keep bees, and as a result, always have lots and lots of yummy honey on hand. Mom ran out of honey. One of my favourite things to eat when I'm sick is toast with honey. When I was sick, no one would walk down the block and get honey for me, but when dad is sick....he pouted at me until I got my boots on and stomped down the street to get the damn honey.

I'm feeling much better today. I was a little on the queasy side this morning and didn't feel the best while out grocery shopping with mom, but by the time we got home, I was starting to perk up. I cooked a decent dinner for myself (mom and dad both had toast with honey for dinner) and I've eaten 3 of the Truffles that my buddy Cam sent me, so that's a good sign. I still have some queasy moments, but I think that's mostly just gas. LOL.

We were fortunate here this evening. The skies cleared and I was able to see the beautiful full moon. The last full moon of 2012 to be exact. As 2012 draws to a close, I do find myself thinking back upon the year and looking at what I have and have not accomplished. I'm trying to decide what resolutions to make for the new year as well. I've got a couple more days to think about it and reflect before I need to make any decisions.

I'm hoping everyone, myself included, are feeling back to normal tomorrow. I really would like to get out and about for a while and do a little shopping.

But for now, it's bedtime.

Good Night!

Sarah

Solid Foods and Turkey Farts

Well this is a new one. Usually your parents tell you get to bed. My mother told me that I'm not allowed to go to bed until I've blogged, so that she has something to read in the morning. Easy for her to say. She's the one that had the 2+ hour nap this afternoon.

Yes, that means that we're both feeling better and by some bizarre miracle, my dad didn't catch the flu. I guess that's a good thing seeing as he's a big baby when he's sick. I guess most men are really.

Today was a better day. I've eaten solids today and even some gummy candies so I'm doing much better. I also disinfected the bathroom and scrubbed the toilet while mom and dad shovelled. We got 13cms of snow overnight so it actually looks like winter now. I was too sore to shovel so I opted to scrub the toilet instead, seeing as I helped in it's violation. It was the least I could do. I'm still on the sore side. It really hurts to sneeze, blow my nose or laugh though. Seeing as I'm allergic to half this house, it's been a painful day. My parents keep laughing at me when I sneeze.

Oh dear. My dad has turkey farts. My mom is in for a smelly night. LOL. Better her than me! And thank god dad's in another room right now.

Mom and I watched the movie "Brave" tonight. It's a very cute movie. I quite liked it, except when I laughed, which just plain hurt, and that made my mom laugh so she deserves to be stuck in a bed with a man who has turkey farts. I suppose that's the one upside to having had the flu - no turkey farts.

I think I'm actually going to attempt getting up and going outside tomorrow. It's grocery shopping day for my parents and I know my mom hates doing it. I don't mind it so I'll gladly tag along and help her out. I'm sure the fresh air will do me good as well.

Oh! And my brother is even more shit. Not only did he give us the flu, but he stole my mom's lighter on the way out of the house on boxing day. He's pretty high on mom's shit list right now. LOL.

Alright, I think it's time to log off. I didn't have a nap today so I'm on the tired side. Here's hoping tomorrow is less painful than today.

Good Night,

Sarah

Dad making things go "Boom"

Christmas Day and Why My Brother Is In Big Trouble

Merry Christmas everyone! As you may have noticed, this blog is a day late. That's because I was too busy throwing up last night to blog. But more on that later.

I had a very wonderful Christmas with my family. After we opened our stockings,  my dad made us cinnamon buns, which really, really sucked but Mom and I ate them anyways. They were frozen ones that you bake yourself. Not good. So much so that dad threw out the 2nd package of them. LOL.

After that, we moved on the gifts. My parents did something very mean to me. Last Christmas I asked my dad for an Ottawa Senator's Heritage hockey jersey. He being a Leaf's fan told me where to shove that idea.  Needless to say, I didn't get one for Christmas. So I asked for it again for my birthday. Same response, no jersey. So around Thanksgiving, I started to harass my dad for the damn jersey again. This time I got somewhere as he asked me what size and what the Heritage one looked like. I'd pretty much forgotten about it after than. So on Christmas morning, my parents gave me a beautifully wrapped box that clearly contained clothing. I opened the lid and the contents were lovingly wrapped up in pink tissue paper. As the excitement mounted, I slowly pulled back the tissue paper to reveal....a fucking Toronto Maple Leaf's jersey. Apparently the look on my face was priceless. Mom and dad were killing themselves laughing. My exact words where "This isn't even remotely funny". They got me to hold up the jersey and took a picture. My father then handed me a gift bag. Inside, in a plastic bag, was my Ottawa Senator's Hockey jersey. I was much happier to see that :) The Leaf's jersey was my dad's. They thought it would be funny to wrap it up and give it to me. I am not amused. Well, actually I am. That was pretty damn sneaky of those two. I did get some revenge though. My dad had put his jersey on their bed. When he wasn't around, I threw it in their garbage can....twice.

I also got a beautiful pair of sterling silver hoop earrings that I've been looking for for over a year. Mom did a great job on finding those. Mom was the one who got the bling this Christmas. It's a very lovely sterling silver and blue diamond pendant on a silver chain. I helped dad out with that one and he came through with flying colours, which was awesome.

We spent part of the afternoon at my Grandparents' house where we visited with them as well as both sets of  aunts and uncles and I got to see 2 cousins that I haven't seen since last Christmas. After than we came home. Mom and dad visited the neighbours while I prepped the potatoes and broccoli for dinner. We then sat down and relaxed. My tummy was starting to feel a bit "off" at that point. I thought it might have just been left over anxiety from being at my grandparents and all the noise and hoopla that went on their. It was a wonderful dinner and it tasted great. I was pretty full after dinner but didn't feel too bad. We called my Aunt in New Brunswick at 8pm and talked to her for awhile. I was feeling ok then.

At 9 I went upstairs to change into my jammies and shortly there after, I started to feel not so good. My tummy was rolling. It felt like I wanted to burp, but couldn't. Around 10pm the pain started. I knew I was in trouble.

You see, my brother and family were here on Christmas Eve. My brother was sick. He had a stomach virus that had been through everyone in his family and now him. Instead of staying home, he came here and violated our bathroom and slept in my parent's bed.

I fought it for as long as I could last night. I kept willing myself: "You're not going to throw up." But I lost the battle around 10:45. Sadly, it did not make me feel better. In fact, I felt worse. I texted my brother and told him that he's dead meat. He laughed and told me to "walk it off". Jerk. By the time I threw up the second time, I had to find a bucket because I now had stuff coming out both ends. I have to admit that I've got pretty good aim. Puking in a bucket while sitting on the can takes talent. Problem was, I was so incredibly tired and so friggin' cold! All in all, by 1:30am I had thrown up 5 times. The last time was mostly dry heaves which are the worst! I finally fell asleep and slept until 4:30am when I had to use the bathroom again. I was able to get back to sleep and slept until 8am when jerkface called and woke us up. He was calling because he was supposed to bring my nephew over to open his gifts (he was at his dad's place on Christmas Eve).  Dad told them to come over at 10. It was at this point that I learnt that my mom had been up at 6:30am, throwing up as well. I went back to bed and didn't wake up again until 9:30 when typhoid Mary (aka my brother) came into my room to see me. I had some choice words for him. Turns out, he'd also given the flu to his in-laws. His mother in law was sick yesterday (like me) and his father in law got sick overnight.

I know that my parents taught us to share, but this is a bit insane. My brother and sister-in-law left all 3 kids here and went off Boxing Day shopping. Thankfully, my dad hasn't caught it (yet) and he was able to mostly manage all 3 kids. Mom gave up and went back to bed around 11. I stayed up until everyone left at 12:30 and then I left my dad to his own devices and went back to bed. Mom and I finally got up at 4:30.  I've had a good deal of water and some flat diet ginger ale. At 5:30 I ate 8 un-salted soda crackers. I'm happy to report that they've stayed down and nothing new has come out. Mom seems to be doing better too. My brother is still in major shit with us, especially if my dad comes down with it.

I need to log off and do some laundry. My aim might not have been 100% off the get go and I think my sleep pants bore the ill effects of that. Oh well.

I hope everyone had a less eventful night than we did.

Good Evening,

Sarah

A photo of my brother *grin*

Christmas Eve Crazy!

There's a reason why "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation" is my favourite movie. I have had several Christmases that resemble that movie. Tonight kind of took a page from that book.

My brother and his family arrived here at 12:45pm. Shortly there after, my brother made a run for the bathroom, citing a "code brown". He was up there quite some time. He eventually re-joined us. We all visited for a bit and then started to hand out gifts. My brother disappeared again. This pattern kept going and my brother was fading fast. Turns out the whole family has had a stomach bug over the last week or so and it appears that it was my brother's turn. He ended up crawling into my parents' bed and napping for a bit. My niece was asleep in the playpen in one room and my brother was sound asleep in the next room. LOL.

Once they both woke up, my brother tried taking some medication to make him feel better. It kind of worked. He threw up, which made him feel better. He decided that he was feeling well enough to go out to dinner.

It's tradition in our family to go out for Chinese Food on Christmas Eve and then drive around town looking at all the pretty Christmas lights.

So off we all go to the restaurant, with our neighbours joining us along the way. The place we go to is always busy on Christmas Eve, so there's a little bit of a wait for food. My brother and his crew had beat us to the restaurant so they already had a table for us. My brother had apparently already made a trip or two to the bathroom. After getting drinks, he asked me if there were any spare napkins around as there wasn't any toilet paper in the men's room and he'd been wiping his ass with paper towels and "it's starting to hurt". Sigh. I did the good big sister thing and went into the women's washroom and stole him some tp from there. The poor kid really wasn't looking good. So they decided to leave as the food wasn't going to be ready for a bit. Somewhere in the middle of all of this, my grandparents and great Aunt and Uncle arrived. They always stop for Chinese Food too before heading to church.

To add to all the chaos already happening, a woman with a 6 month old baby approached our table and asked if anyone could give her husband a boost as their battery had died. My dad and one of our neighbours jumped up and hurried off to help the guy out. My mother then went over to where the lady and baby were to talk to the lady and help keep their baby calm. While all of that was going on, our food arrived. This left my neighbour and I alone at the table with 5 plates of food. I looked at her and said "Well this has been an interesting evening". She laughed and we dug in. Everyone else returned shortly and the 5 of us had a very nice dinner. After I was done, I moved over to the table where my grandparents and aunt and uncle were and I visited with them for a bit. Then something else happened that really made me smile. The man who my dad and neighbour helped had driven his wife and child home once the car was running again.  He came back to the restaurant to pick up their order. At the same time, he brought my dad and the neighbour each a ziplock bag with home made shortbread cookies in them as a thank you for their help. How sweet is that?

After dinner, mom, dad and I piled into the car, cranked the heat and drove around town looking at the lights. We oohed and ahhed and laughed and pointed out things that were the same as last year and the things that had changed. When we got home, I made a nice cup of hot chocolate and we sat down to watch a Duck Dynasty mini-marathon. LOL. Not exactly a typical Christmas Eve show but it was highly entertaining and they did show a Christmas episode.

As I sit here and write this, waiting for Santa to come, I can't help but chuckle at the afternoon/evening we've had. It makes me smile. I've learnt that there really is no such thing as a perfect Christmas. Something is always going to go wrong. But just because things don't go as planned doesn't mean that things can't be awesome. Because they still were. I got to spend time with both of my nieces. And a nice couple with a baby got to see how kind strangers can be. I got to spend an evening laughing and smiling with family and friends and got reminded of what awesome people they all are. And I got a pretty good fortune in my cookie too.

I really hope my poor brother is feeling better tomorrow and I really, really, REALLY hope that mom, dad and I don't catch it!!

One last thing before I sign off: Before I started writing tonight's blog, I checked my stats. I have published 155 blogs and now have over 5000 page views. Wow. That still blows my mind. Thank you very much for reading.

I need to get to bed now or else Santa won't bring me anything.

Whoever you are and where ever you are, I hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas!

Good Night,

Sarah

Oh, Tannenbaum!

I had another good fun day with my parents. My dad and I ran 2 last errands this morning, then we came home and had lunch with my mom and this afternoon the 3 of us went out visiting.

Our first stop was to visit my favourite centenarian (some who's 100 years old), Mr. B. For the first time since I arrived home, I was actually nice and toasty warm while inside someone's house. LOL. We had a nice visit and listened to him complain about not being able to have any coffee because his family bought him a new coffee maker, but he'd run out of coffee for it. It's a Keurig. Apparently he didn't have any K-cups left for it. So he's had to resort to drinking tea. I quite like tea so I didn't see what the problem was. LOL. He then went on to explain that someone threw his kettle out so to make tea, he has to microwave a cup of water until it's hot and then add in the tea bag. LOL. He really wasn't happy about not having any coffee. It was a very nice visit and it was great to see him again. He's pretty feisty for someone who's 100 years old.

Next we visited with my great Aunt and Uncle and I was gifted with a new supply of Duct Tape. White, Silver and Red rolls this time (it's a long story). Steph will be happy to hear this as it means I have a new source of insulation for my air conditioner next summer.

Dad BBQ'd some steaks for dinner and I made broccoli, mashed potatoes and fried onions and mushrooms to go with it. We had fruitcake for dessert. Yes, I like fruitcake. I got all my gifts wrapped this evening so tomorrow should be a very relaxing day.

While we were at Mr. B's, he mentioned that he didn't have to put up the Christmas tree this year and was rather happy about that. It kind of reminded me of my parents and our tree. If they could avoid putting it up, they would. I pouted and up went the tree and that was before I got here. But all of this reminded me of a funny story about how we got the tree we have now.

Over the years, we've had both artificial and real trees. The real trees used to kill mom's plant in the living room. The damn thing would get jealous and up and die. As soon as the tree was gone, it came back to life. Stupid plant. Anyhow, we used to have 2 rather old artificial trees. They were identical. The both had a broom stick like rod with holes drilled in it for the trunk and then what looked like giant pipe cleaners for branches. The ends of the branches were painted so that you know which level of the tree to stick them into. We had one of them up in the basement and I took it out one year - I don't remember how exactly, I just remember falling and landing on the tree. I'm sure it was my brother's fault. Anyhow, the one upstairs was always put up in the middle of the french doors that separate the living room and dinning room.

The side of the tree that faced the living room was my parents' side and they decorated it. The side facing the dining room belonged to my brother and I  and we decorated it. Mom and dad's side had delicate straw stars and pretty angels while our side had every ornament we'd made since kindergarten plus a mish-mash of tacky ones picked up from other people over the years. The handmade ornaments included two gingerbread men that had to weigh about 5lbs each.

One year, after decorating the tree, my mom and I were sitting in the living room, reading. It was nice and quiet as the boys where downstairs. I heard a funny "creeek" sound. I looked around the room and saw nothing so I kept reading. Then all of a sudden, there was a very loud snapping sound. Mom and I both looked up at the same time and looked at the tree, just and the entire top 1/3 of the tree snapped off and fell backward into the dinning room. Neither of us moved for a few beats. I'm sure we were both stunned. I don't entirely recall our reaction at the time, but looking back on it, I'm pretty much laughing my ass off. Seriously? Who else has ever snapped an artificial tree in half? Needless to say, most of the "kid's" ornaments got thrown out that year, including the 5lb gingerbread men.

Mom and dad have already warned me that next year, there will be no tree, just mom's little 2 ft fibre optic tree, as next year is our year to host my grandparent's for dinner. My dad seems to be worried about my grandmother taking out the tree. Can't say I blame him :)

Here's hoping everyone's trees remain vertical this year.

Good Night!

Sarah

A slightly fuzzy version of the tree at Mom and Dad's from 2008