Proud to Be Canadian...

Photo credit: Tim Van Horn (www.celebratecanada.wordpress.com)

Sort of.

I'm kidding!! Even I can look past the blow up beavers and flying moose to celebrate what all Canadians will remember forever - the day Sid the Kid made history by scoring the winning goal that led Canada to win the Gold for the first time evah, on Canadian soil. Eh.

(Photo Credit: Alex Livesey, Getty Images North America)

My heart just about gave out when Parise scored to tie the game at 2-2, with only 25 seconds left!  But what a rally, and subsequent win!

And a special thanks to the entire Canadian Men's Hockey team for topping up our Gold medals to a historic 14 - setting another record. 

My heart may just burst with patriotic pride.

Despite the blow-up beavers...

Spring Issue Has Arrived!!

On Thursday, the Spring 2010 issue of Canadian Scrapbooker arrived in our mailbox.  Don't you just LOVE the cover design?  The pink background really makes Debbie Visser's layout pop, doesn't it??

Lots of design goodness in this one, including a cover alternative by my dear friend, Jessi Lute and some greatness by the CS design team.  There were also layouts by former Just Cre8 design team members, Jill Sarginson, Jennifer Hottinger-Sloan, Cindy Stevens and Leica Forrest, along with former design teammates of mine, Denise Lynkowski, Rhonda Steed and Connie Nichols.  I even saw layouts from two of those crazy SK scrappers from the Just Cre8 table, Kate Kading and Sheryl Schmidt!  Congrats to everyone on the publications!!

Not only do I have Part 3a of the Hands On! photography column in there, but I even managed to get a layout published!  To date, this is one of my favourite layouts - I love the mix of pink, red and purple, not to mention the adorable "wings" sticking out from Aili's little pink ball cap!

Just a slight blip - the centre of the green flower must have shifted during shipping and it was stuck to the photograph instead of the flower!  Oh well!

And although I'm late, I'm going to have a RAK draw for February!!  I have a copy of the Spring 2010 issue up for grabs - just leave me a comment before or on March 5th, with YOUR favourite colour combination (3 colours or more, please!) and I'll randomly draw a winner!

Thanks for reading!

For better or worse...

Well, as with many illnesses, it looks like Aili had to get worse before she got better!

The hives continued to break out every five or six hours - we could almost time her medication to it!  As soon as she hit the five and half hour mark in between meds, she'd start to wheeze and get blotchy.  They would usually start on her face, under her eyes, and we could almost see them bloom right under our eyes!

Here's the photos from last night, around 6:30pm:

As you can see, they are much smaller welts, but more spread out.  It almost looked like chicken pox, or the measles!

Again, they weren't very itchy or uncomfortable so we are thanking our lucky stars for that!  We gave her a dose of Benedryl at 5am today so we're about 9.5 hours hive-free!  Three more to go and she'll be out of the woods!  Keep your fingers crossed!

Another first for the books!

I received a called from Aili's teacher on Friday, around 1:15pm.  She was concerned because Aili had been rubbing her eyes constantly.  I know that she is prone to rubbing them until they swell so since the day was already more than half over, I told Mme. Barcic that I would be right by to pick her up.

By the time I had shown up, which was only about 20 minutes later, I found Aili in the school office, coughing non-stop.  I knew at this time that she was having an asthma attack, triggered by some sort of allergen that she may have come in contact with.  I raced home, got her pyjamas on and popped her right into our bed and gave her a Ventolin treatment.  Thank goodness that the ER doctor had recommended that we get a nebulizer machine to keep at home to prevent further avoidable ER visits!  Her coughing stopped and her breathing returned to near-normal after just one treatment.  I decided to let her watch TV in my bedroom to rest, while I sat and read next to her, to keep an eye on her breathing.

After a few moments, I noticed that her hands had red, almost bruiselike marks on them.  Thinking that they were from rubbing her eyes, I didn't think anything of it.  Then I noticed a welt under her eye.  Again, perhaps resulting from the rubbing?

After a few more minutes, she started fidgeting.  Her pyjama shirt has risen up and I noticed a few red marks on her belly.  Thinking that her shirt was rubbing, I took it off.  

By now, I knew that something was up.  I called the Tele-Health line to see what they suggested.  As soon as I started to describe Aili's symptoms, the nurse said, "Sounds like she has hives."  Of course!  That made perfect sense, considering the asthma attack, itchy eyes, coughing...  By the time I got off of the phone, which was only about five minutes later, her hives had progressed to such a point that the marks were starting to blend into several big hives:

My poor peanut.  The Benedryl seemed to kick in after about 20 minutes and by the time Connor got home at 3:30pm, they were nearly gone!  The nurse had recommended that we keep giving her the Benedryl until the hives had been gone for at least 12 hours.  I was optimistic that we had licked this thing!

Wishful thinking.

By 8pm, when she was due for her next dose of it, the hives had come back and she needed another Ventolin treatment.  And she woke at 3:30am, wheezing and coughing.

It's now 12:30pm on Saturday.  We needed another treatment and more Benedryl this morning and I suspect that I will need more of it before the weekend is over.   Luckily, they haven't been overly itchy or uncomfortable for her, just the asthma-related symptoms.

Hopefully we'll get through the worst of it by Monday and she'll be none the worse for wear!  Have a great weekend!

Do you believe?

Sometimes, I come across a quote or passage that strikes a chord deep within me and gives me one of those A-Ha! moments.

This is one of them:

Happiness is not in our circumstances, but in ourselves.
It is not something that we see, like a rainbow
Or feel, like the heat of a fire.
Happiness is something we are.

~ John B. Sheerin ~

Do you believe this?

Monday Smile

 

Get out and REALLY play outside today!  Happy Family Day!

Movie Review

Sorry I didn't get this up yesterday - we had family movie night at home, after a full day of gymnastics and swimming!

Friday night, Connor and I went to see Percy Jackson and the Olympics: The Lightning Thief.

While they changed the movie a lot from the book (which I don't always like), they did a bang up job with this movie.  It was funny and entertaining, dramatic and action-packed at appropriate moments and well written.  Logan Lerman was surprisingly perfect for this role, although he looked much older than 12, as per the first book in the series.  Makes me wonder if they have plans to combine several of the books, since the culmination of the series is dependent on Percy's 16th birthday.  Percy seemed 16 to me in the movie, even though Lerman has recently turned 18.

He's a cutie, too!

In that barely-legal-make-me-feel-like-a-dirty-old-lady-for-looking sort of way...

I did like their choice for Grover, the satyr (pronounced sa-tear', not sa-tire like I originally thought) - Brandon T. Jackson was quite funny, even if he wasn't as fearful or clumsy as I had pictured Grover from the books.   You may remember him from Tropic Thunder with Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr.

Actually, I liked most of the casting decisions, with the exception of Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth.  Partly because Annabeth is blonde with grey eyes in the books (whereas Daddario has brown hair and blue eyes) and partly because she seemed so much older and bigger than I had pictured Annabeth.  This is my problem when I read the books first - I always get these preconceived ideas and images and then am disappointed when the movie comes out!

The theatre was packed with teeny boppers (do I sound like an old lady, yet??) whose hormones were racing in anticipation at seeing Lerman on the big screen.  Sadly, there were three such creatures in front of us, who screamed and nearly made my ears bleed every time they flickered the lights (which I think the ushers did on purpose to build the hype!)  Once the movie started and the opening credits were rolling, they were nattering to each other - reminded me of a hen house - until the poor older gentleman next to me had finally had enough and said, "Will you STOP talking already!?!"

I thanked him for that moment and offered to share my popcorn.

All in all, I would definitely recommend it.  Being an avid reader though, I would recommend the book first - you can then go into the movie with the back story and more insight into the characters.  Just check out the characters' bios on IMDb first so you won't get the wrong mental image! :)  Let me know what you think of the movie - and the series, if you read it!

Percy Jackson, here we come!

On the off chance that you've been hiding under a rock for the last few months, or maybe you don't a hubby who follows movie trailers with same intensity and passion as mine...

But tonight's the big night!!

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief opens tonight!  And Connor and I will be heading to the movie theatres for the early show, along with a classmate of his! 

When this movie was first announced, Connor was excited, as he had already been a big fan of the Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series.

And he talked about it.

Constantly.

After a while, I began to realize that unless I wanted to be completely out of the loop, I'd better get on board and at least read the first book in the series, The Lightning Thief.  And so I started the book.

And finished all five books in the series within 10 days. :)

Now, I know that it's not War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy or Ulysses by James Joyce.  And the first few books were obviously written for young readers in the same way that the Harry Potter series were.  But they were well written, humourous and actually reminded me of all of my Greek mythology!  I'd recommend them if you have young readers - it's a great thing to share!

Not to mention that you'd have an excuse to see the movie. :)

With a great cast that includes Uma Thurman as Medusa, Sean Bean as Zeus and Kevin McKidd as Poseidon (can anyone say McArmy? :)), not to mention that it was directed by Chris Columbus of the first two Harry Potter movies, it's sure to be a great movie!

Stay tuned for a review tomorrow!

Monday Smile

After a busy weekend in London for Regionals, I have a pile of emails and paperwork to catch up here at home so I will save my post with photos for tomorrow.

But I'll leave you with this video to make you smile today.  You may have already seen it at some point, but it never fails to amaze me... and wish that I could afford one of those!! :)

F.A.O. Schwartz Piano

Happy Monday!

Western Ontario Regional SC Championships: London (2010.02.05 - 2010.02.06)

I'm sitting in a hotel room, in the dark, blogging.

Kinda like a dark, dirty secret. ;)

We're in London for the Western Ontario Regional SC Championships today and tomorrow for Connor.  It was touch and go this week, as to whether or not we'd make it here, after he was diagnosed with rotator cuff tendonitis 2 weeks ago.  But after a week off, and plenty of icing, he was back in the pool today.

He had 3 swims today, and his coaches put him in as the starter for the 200m Medley relay.  Not what we were expecting, and I think it may have put some strain on him.  He was really hard on himself today, but Gary and I both think that after his absence from an injury that is still healing, he did pretty well!  His stamina needs to be built back up - I could see that he tired easily today - but we're still so proud of how far he's come in such a short time.  I think we forget sometimes that this is still really only his FIRST year of actual competitions!

I got to try out the Nikon D90 that Nikon sent me on loan while my D70 is in for repairs - as it turns out, I just needed to have the focusing sensor cleaned and adjusted.  Not as pricey as I had originally feared - although after playing with the D90 today, I think I want to upgrade!  I am too tired to dig through my camera bag for my card to upload but will share tomorrow or Monday!

Now that everyone around me is snoring, and I can't even read my new scrapbooking magazine (unless I resort to the bathroom!), I guess I'll turn in.  Maybe we can take advantage of the pool and hot tub early tomorrow morning, since we don't have to be back at the pool until noon tomorrow.

Have a happy February weekend!