Unwanted Excitement

Sometimes I feel that my life is kind of boring. But yesterday morning was filled with more than enough unnecessary excitement for me! To make a long story short, Jason ended up being taken to the hospital by ambulance, treated, and then was brought home in an accessible taxi. He is okay, but hopefully that never happens again.

If you would like to read the extended version, Jason wrote all about it here.

Did you ever have one of those dreams, where you are late for work and of course it's on the day that you have to ride your bike to work in the snow AND you have to take your parents old stubborn dog Winston? Well maybe not that specific, but that was my dream last night. There I was trying to peddle through the deep snow all the while trying to keep a handle on Winston so he wouldn't pull me over. Then I got downtown and had to tie him up to a fence post and he was getting bitey. He was never a biting dog, you could have pulled him around the house by his tail and the worst he would have done was lick your hand. But in my dream he was biting me. Then the alarm went off and I woke up feeling all paranoid that I was late for work. *sigh* It's going to be a long day!

Kids at family gathering

Here are a couple of pictures from our family Christmas yesterday. The top picture is of my nephew James and the other is Karsten (my cousin's son). They sure enjoyed playing together. The other is of William. He is so chubby and cute and loves to smile and giggle. I just fall more and more in love with him every time I see him.

Different Christmas

So Christmas has come and gone for another year. It was very different this year. This was the first year that Jason and I have been married and stayed home for Christmas. Two years ago we were engaged and his parents joined my family on Christmas day for our festivities, then last year it was our turn to go to Swift Current. It was different for me being away from home, but we were surrounded by family and kept quite busy during our time there.

This year I was looking forward to spending our first Christmas morning together by ourselves. It was alright, but Jason barely slept during the night on Sunday because of a UTI that put him in quite a bit of pain and I was restless and also did not sleep all that well. We got up and opened gifts by ourselves and I was thrilled that Jason was so happy with his neon sign. I was also very happy to get a new 2GB MP3 player as well as The Little Mermaid DVD and a new duffel bag for traveling.

As the day went on Jason was not feeling any better so finally he decided it would probably be best for everyone if he could stay home and try to feel better. Our family Christmas was at my Aunt Margaret and Uncle Hans' place this year. They just moved into a new condo in September and wanted to host so everyone could see their new place. It was nice, but felt strange to have Christmas in an unfamiliar setting without my husband. I thoroughly enjoyed having Jason's parents up here last weekend, and I also really enjoyed the evening spent with my parents and sister and her family on Saturday (except for the fact that 20 min after Jason and I got there mom got really sick and was only able to join us for about 20 min before we had to leave).

So that puts Jason 3 for 3 being sick on his birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Here's hoping that 2007 will be healthier for both of us. (I woke up with a cold this morning :P)

James and Santa

My sister was apprehensive about taking James to visit Santa, as he has been somewhat uncertain the last 2 years she did it. But this year he got a big smile, went up to Santa and got on his knee and told him with authority "I want Pop Up Pirate." Hehe, and he's only 2 years and 9 months old. What a cutie!

Awww

What a nice looking couple :)

Christmas Light tour

Jason and I just got home from our 2nd Christmas light tour of the season. Much better results this time! I think that most people who are going to turn on Christmas lights would probably be turning them on by the 20th of December. Anyway, I was thinking about LED lights. There are new ones out this year that I don't mind too much. They are multicoloured but the prominent colours are blue, red and green. I like them quite a bit and I think next year we might invest in some for our new tree. Anyway, I don't care much for the plain blue lights. I find that they make my eyes feel all blurry and weird. They remind me of shirts that were in style when I was in about grade 9. It said 'sight for sore eyes' on the back in this super blurry looking writing. That's the way the blue LEDs make my eyes feel. We do have a string of the blue ones, but I would definitely not like them exclusively or I would feel like gouging out my eyes.

What are the chances?

That there is more than one 30-ish year old man in Saskatoon named Arlen who makes a living by making railings? For some reason, my mom was talking to my aunt about my friend Arleen, and mentioned that she had a new special man in her life named Arlen. My aunt asked what he did for a living, and they came to the realization that Arlen is a good friend of my cousin Gary. And he did the railings in my cousin Mark's house. It's a small world!

I have always been drawn to watching weird medical shows. Shows about rare genetic conditions, or shows about strange happenings in the ER. Last night on TLC there was a show about conjoined twins. There were these two girls, I have never seen conjoined twins like them. Basically they had one body and two heads. They had 2 legs, 2 arms, a slightly wider torso than normal, but two completely separate heads. There is a lot I wonder about....they talked about getting married, I don't even want to think about how that might work. And what about college, do they pay 2 tuitions even though they only take up one seat? But they do write separate exams in high school. It also showed them driving. A two headed person....made me think of some creepy Halloween movie. These girls seemed like very nice people, very open and willing to answer questions people asked....so weird. I need to stop watching these shows!

If you are looking for a silly little giggle this holiday season, check out this game:

Line Rider

I don't know if I have ever giggled so much...maybe I am just easy to entertain!

My poor jaw

I have had jaw problems for a few years now. I was told quite a few years ago by my dentist that I grind my teeth at night. For some reason I didn't believe him at that point, but finally once I got married and my teeth grinding was keeping Jason awake at night I gave in and had a mouth guard made. I am thankful that it is protecting my teeth from being ground down, but I chew on that thing. I chew and chew and chew. I have woken up a few times and been chewing on it. There are quite the bite marks on it, and I have even worn a small hole in it in one spot. I will probably see about having another one made next year, but I was hoping that this one might last me at least 2 years (it'll be 2 years in July '07). Anyway....last night I had a dream that I woke up with a mouth full of mouth guard pieces. I was spitting and spitting and couldn't get all the little pieces out! Yuck, I am surprised I didn't wake up to a pool of spit on my pillow from spitting in my dream. I wonder how a person might stop doing this? It is quite frustrating and I get many headaches from my super tight jaw muscles. My TMJ pops every time I open my mouth and sometimes it kind of locks up on me after I eat something really chewy. I'll bring it up with my GP when I go for my checkup after Christmas.

My Nephews

Yesterday was my sister's 30th birthday so I headed over to mom and dad's for family supper. I got to spend some good quality time with James and Will. James is grandma's little shadow and has to be where ever she is, but Will can't move on his own yet, so I got to hold him and feed him and kiss his little bald head. He is so sweet. James is funny, but there is something about when they are babies and can't do anything for themselves. He loves to be carried around and likes having his tummy, armpits and thighs tickled. James on the other hand, what a little clown! Last night mom gave him a bath and he came running out into the living room naked from the waist down. We laughed and dad said, "Hey James, I can see your doodle." (a line from the Simpsons when Homer goes running outside naked and Ned says the same to Homer). He laughed and ran back to the bathroom then a minute or two later came running back out fully naked this time and said, "Hey, stop looking at my noodle." haha....ooh one more James story. A week or so ago my parents were babysitting James and when it was bedtime mom went to read him a story. They were sitting on James' bed and James was cuddling up to mom and asked her where her boobs were. She laughed and said they were right there, but they weren't as big as his mom's. James thought about it for a second then looked at grandma and said, "You don't have big boobs like mom, you have small ones like me." Haha, man oh man, what a funny little guy.

Hair, Ugh!

Today I decided to try doing my hair a little differently. I have been able to style it curly in the past and it has looked quite nice. Well today when I put the mousse in it, then blow dried it with a diffuser it went all poofy and not so much curly. Because there was mousse in it, it was already kind of crunchy so I couldn't really just blow it straight and just do it normally so I thought I would just try to pin some down to tame it. So I did that and in the process made it crunchier yet with hairspray. When I was finished I was left with something that I am not too thrilled with, but I really don't feel like rewashing my hair to get all of the product out, so I suppose I will just go to work with somewhat bad hair :P I don't think I have any new clients seeing me at work today so hopefully my poofy hair won't scare them from coming back!

Frosted Mega Wheats

I named this one, hehe, I'm so clever :)

For more great pictures, visit Jay's Flickr site.

Upside down Christmas tree?

Last weekend I was reading the London Drugs flier and came across this picture. I thought that I was seeing things. An upside down Christmas tree? Why would someone want that? Trees don't grow that way.... I did a bit of research about it this morning and found a website that said it dates back to the middle ages when people hung their trees from the ceiling. Apparently the upside down tree represented the trinity. I don't get it, but whatever. People are interested in them now because they supposedly display ornaments better and can fit into tighter spaces. Also you can fit more presents under this tree, because you know people need more of an excuse to be greedy at this time of year. It just seems so bizarre to me. I somehow have a feeling that this fad might fade into history like it did in the middle ages.

I had a dream last night...and I don't remember a lot of details from it, but what I do remember is a creature. Now in my dream it seemed perfectly okay, not that it was normal to me, because I was questioning the ability of these two animals to cross breed...It was a frog crossed with a kitten. It was furry and fluffy like a little kitten even had a cute little kitten face, but it was green and hopped like a frog and said 'ribbit'. It was so realistic in the dream. Weird!

I wonder sometimes if cashiers at grocery stores pay attention to what people are buying. Today after work I stopped at Extra Foods to pick up a couple of things we missed when shopping last night. They included corn syrup, soy milk and preparation H....haha. Just thought it was an interesting combination of items.

The final day of my course was quite enjoyable :) I was quite excited today to try out my new found techniques on my unsuspecting guinea pigs at work. I quite enjoyed them, and I think my clients did too. I learned though, that it is much easier to have good body mechanics when someone is there constantly watching you and straightening out your back, or pushing your shoulders down when they start moving towards your ears, etc. I am going to keep using these techniques and I can't wait to try them out on one of those clients that just wants a ton of pressure.

Feel the burn...

This weekend (Sat-Mon) I am taking a continuing education course for massage. It is called Schweitzer's Deep Tissue Therapy and it has been really cool for the last two days. The main focus of the course is on teaching therapists proper body alignment so you don't hurt yourself while treating, and the other focus is teaching us some good proper techniques that won't cause our shoulders, wrists, fingers, thumbs or back to burn out. This was much needed by me. I have found that since graduating (can you believe it's been almost 2.5 years!) I have gotten lazy in my body mechanics as well as techniques. Other than my quads being INCREDIBLY sore (I can barely lower myself into a sitting position without wincing), it has been a super 2 days so far. I am really excited to incorporate these techniques into my practice and I hope that I can do so in a way that is accepted by my clients. I am sure that some people cringe at the thought of 'deep tissue' therapy, but I have lost clients in the past because I just couldn't give enough pressure. Now I feel like I have the tools to give all the pressure that anyone could possibly want, but also to vary that pressure to take into account those that don't want to 'feel the burn' ;) I am not sure that I will break out the independent elbow technique on my 85 year old client on Tuesday, however my partner at the course yesterday afternoon was a 79 year old nun. She has been practicing for 26 years, and treats 7-8 clients per day. She told me that she figured that she would probably let her MTAS membership go in a couple of years, and probably still do some treatments for friends....at age 81. Wow, and that woman had some power behind her techniques. She had me cringing and asking her to lighten up. Cool stuff :)