How could I have forgotten?

I seem to have forgotten to post that our hamster, Blondie, died about a month ago. We are not getting a replacement small animal during the summer. If we do decide to get a new pet, it will most likely be a guinea pig(maybe 2), and won't happen until the fall. I guess I need to remove Blondies' picture from the sidebar now. :(

June Already

This year has gone by so fast. I cannot believe that it is June already, and that in a little over a month, Brynna will be turning 3. I have been so busy trying to get a bunch of stuff done before the end of June: shawl for my brother's fiance, shawlette for Mrs Dean(it's her last year as principal of St Daniel), planning a wedding gift for Bill and Jenn, and practising my spinning as much as possible(I've been silly enough to commit to participating in the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry, and on 3 teams no less!).

My father's cancer is responding well to treatment: it has shrunk, and there has been no progression in the bone, so now we watch and wait.

Our sole remaining cat has advanced heart disease and needs to be on blood pressure medication to try to relieve some retinal hemmorrhaging. He needs to be rechecked to see if it's working for him, and we have to face the fact that there is nothing we can do for him, and that some time in the future his heart will stop working. We're not going to subject him to an ultrasound or an ecg to find out what kind of heart muscle problem he has or how bad it is, as the amount of information we would get from the testing isn't worth the cost or the stress to him.

More being busy

Kevin has been away this week to Florida to install equipment in the Everglades for year-round data availability. It's been such a fun week already. We've had a death in the aquarium(the golden mystery snail), and now Aidan has some sort of infection going in his throat. It could be strep, as he's saying it feels like he's swallowing sharp, pointy things. Doctor took a swab this morning and will have the results tomorrow for us.

Tomorrow night can't come soon enough for me.

More pets and an appointment

Thankfully, these 2(possibly 3) new editions are pretty low-maintenance. We now have some mystery snails in the fish tank along with our lone goldfish. I say possibly 3 because we got 2 full-size snails plus a teeny-tiny one that I haven't seen in the tank for just over a week now. Just trying to keep an eye on the gold snail, as he/she is very sluggish, way more sluggish than the black/brown one. Apparently this is normal, though, so I'm not too worried, so long as the snail keeps moving periodically.

Brynna has an appointment for her speech evaluation next week, and we're going through the questionnaire Kevin was given at the info session a few weeks ago. It's a huge questionnaire, and we're going through it with Brynna, but it doesn't take long for her to get bored and want to go do something else. Hopefully if she needs some help, we'll get it figured out in plenty of time for her to get things sorted out before she starts school in 2013.

Busy, busy, busy

That's what life is like with 3 kids. Caleigh just turned 8 last weekend, and is now preparing for her First Communion. Brynna is just exploding with words, sentences, and imaginative play. Just the other week, she pretended to talk to Kevin on her toy cell phone to tell him that she found his sweater on her rocking horse and that I had to put it away for him. She may not know the words sister and brother, but she does refer to Caleigh and Aidan as "her Caleigh, yeah" and "her Aidan, yeah", lol.

The kids are doing well in school, except for some difficulty controlling/channelling emotional outbursts properly. I'm not sure how to help them figure this out, as I have trouble with the same issue myself.

Last fall, my father was diagnosed with cancer, and has, so far, received radiation and just started the 5th round of 6 chemo sessions. He's responding well as far as I know to the treatment. I hope that this continues.

I've recently joined the local weavers and spinners guild to try to get some time for myself to be out and around other adults. I'm hoping that I will also get a chance to learn how to properly use my spinning wheel and get at all of the fibre I have around the house.

School's Almost Here

The kids are set to start school on Tuesday!!! Usually, we've already gotten word from the school bus company about when/where the stop is(not that the kids are using the bus this year). I checked it out myself on the website, and looking at it, there's no way they can get to the school on time the way it's set up. We still don't have word on who Aidans' teacher will be this year either, which would be really nice to know, as there are going to be 2 JK/SK split classes this year. I'm going to assume that he will most likely have Mrs Young, but I could be wrong.

I've almost got everything the kids are going to need for the school year ready, I need to remember to have some $ on hand to pay for Caleighs' agenda the second day of school, and make sure to have a couple of cheques to pay for the milk program. In terms of buying things, I don't need to get them shoes this year, as their inside shoes from last year fit them for using to go to school, we got inside shoes while we were away in Vermont, but I do need to get page protectors for their new school-year control journals, which should hopefully make things go more smoothly during the school week, and get them clean, tidy rooms.

Surgery

So, I had my surgical consultation appointment this morning. I was nervous going in, and had a bit of trouble finding the place(although that's not much of a surprise, as I was looking for a completely incorrect street # that didn't exist, most likely my fault, as I heard 191, not 190). It went well. I asked the questions I wanted to(whether physio, chiro or RMT would help some), and he answered me honestly that, while it wouldn't hurt, it really won't give any relief. He based this on his research, my nerve conduction test results, and the fact that I don't have any chronic neck pain that would indicate a different cause for my hand problems. He also did a small test on my hand which resulted in mild numbness within a few seconds.

My surgery is scheduled for January 12th in the afternoon. I could have had it done sooner, but with the recovery time frame and the fact that Kevin is for sure going away for work in October/November, and then it's the holidays, January looked better.