On Being Nicer

I have 5 minutes *give or take* to myself. Brian and Maizey just quickly went to get batteries. I feel like relaxing in a steaming hot bubble bath. Instead I will frantically type this post that says I have 5 minutes to myself and I wanted it and further more, needed it. Before someone is home and standing beside me whining over and over again for "Doa Doa Doa Doa Doa Doa" (her way of asking to watch Dora) and someone else is repeatedly asking me ridiculous questions like "have you seen my tape measure" and "Remember when I put the fan up in the living room and it came without all the screws? Well, the screws came in the mail, do you remember where I put all the tools that I used to put it together with? I need the little screw driver" - to which my response will be... silence.
I'm pissy today for no good reason. I wanted to go out of town for the night, but with Brians job unpredictability, we couldn't make it work. I know its not his fault, but still... I'm pissy about it, and I'm acting like a 6 year old. To my own demise, this has always been my problem... I get an idea in my head and then its as good as done. So when it falls through I am always disappointed and then, well, not very nice. Poor Brian. And poor me. I know I know, don't feel too sorry for yourself Amy, its your own fault. But for the record, I don't want to be miserable, or mean or whatever and I AM trying to be nice and not jerk-ish, I'm just not sure how good of a job I'm doing. Although, I did empty the dishwasher, which I loathe doing and always ask Brian to do, so that says something right?
In an attempt to snap out of this, I am taking action.. Its a beautiful (albeit, very very cold) day out, so while Maizey is down for a nap I am going out in search of something happy. Not sure what I will find or where I will find it, but it is my mission to come home with a smile.
Good luck to my family. I promise this won't last forever.

Home

WE ARE HOME!

Three and a half weeks... and its good to be home. Our stuff is still in piles at the front door, I'm okay with it. Our driveway is one big drift of snow and I'm okay with that too. The front door is in need of a body check to get it open, like a really hard body check, thanks to the shifting of the snow on the roof of the carport. So as to be able to actually, you know, open the door from the inside and not, say, need to call Ang to come and open it from the outside so you aren't, um, stuck inside, Brian took a hammer to the door frame, making a big mess all over the floor and making the door frame look ridiculous. It's alright, atleast we can get in and out now.
Which leads to my next thought. Uhhh Winter? You can go away any time now. We've had our snow angel, ski days, shoveling fun, it's time now for it to be over. Oh and also? We don't live on the prairies anymore, so minus twenty? This is no place for you. Blowing snow and drifts? Ya, you either.
Our house is substantially colder than Brians parents. Something to do with a more effective heating system that doesn't cost nearly as much to use (ahem - wood furnace - ahem)... I don't know, all I know is now I feel like a popsicle.
Maizey is going to miss staying at Nana and Papas the most, I think. She took a real liking to the 'meow meow' and felt it to be her life goal to get the 'meow meow' to like her back. The cat was having none of that and I think by the end preferred to stay outside rather than be tormented, er, loved on. She would have played outside all day if we had let her. She pulled her little sled all around, she watched us feed the chickens and tried to climb the snow banks. She threw sticks for the dog and wouldn't turn around at the end of the driveway to go back unless Leda was on her way too. She loved the freedom that being outside with so much space to venture out on her own allowed and we loved that she could do that. We didn't need to be right beside her all the time and we could watch her test her little boundaries with herself. Our little independent soul. She could tell when we were leaving this morning that it was different, she cried all the way out the driveway "puppy puppy puppy". Yes, it's different at our own house, but still, it is really nice to be home.

Snippets

These last two weeks... wow, where has the time gone?? In between the pancakes and wiener roasts and chickens and snow, we seem to have lost track of time. We are looking after Brians parents place while they are away and while we were picturing a snowy mountain vacation, there are definite moments where its more like holy hell this is a lot of work! with a little side of vacationing. We sip hot tea at night in front of the t.v (I forgot how great actual t.v is - oh how I've missed you sitcoms!), take the occasional afternoon nap, alright more than occasionally, we don't bother getting dressed underneath our snow pants, or even sometimes at all. There have been many days when we don't make it to town and that's ok. Because aside from the vacationy-like bits, there is plowing and shoveling and filling the wood burning furnace and feeding the chickens and collecting the eggs and cleaning the eggs and delivering the eggs. There's a horse and a dog and cat that all need to be fed and watered. When I was a kid, these would have been everyday, mundane tasks. Just things that had to be done. Now that we don't have to worry about livestock, and our driveway is a mere 2 cars long and our heat is maintained by the flip of a switch, these tasks have become... well... work. Weird, right? My how times change. But, it's good and we love being here and doing it, so that makes it easier. Plus, Maizey loves the getting outside a few times a day and can roam wherever she pleases and we don't even hardly have to keep an eye on her. She wanders towards the horse, until he looks at her, then she screams and comes running back. She wanders towards the chickens until she hears the squawking, then comes running back. She's fostering a little relationship with the dog, which is fantastic for us to see, since she has been deathly afraid of dogs since, oh, the beginning of time. She still gets frightened if she's startled by the dog, but other than that, she pets Leda and tries to hug her and runs after her. It's actually cute, even I, the non dog lover, can admit.

Snippets of our last two weeks:

GRANNIE
My mom came for the weekend and it was heaven. Maizey even got to eat cookies for breakfast while my mom let me sleep in. At first I was all WTF mom?? Then I remembered that some things are worth a few extra minutes of sleep. So I let it go.

She read stories and played games and watched Dora and went for walks. Drank coffee and cooked her little heart out. It was heaven.

SLEDDING AND HOT DOGS

We had an afternoon of tobogganing and a wiener roast last weekend. Most people ended up not showing up, but what we lacked in attendance we made up for in awesomeness when we did some sprint training pulling laughing kids on sleds and roasting hot dogs on a fire, which I haven't done in, I dunno, like 10 years. Well, maybe not that long, but it's been a looong time and I forgot how delicious they are. Maizey wasn't so into the hot dogs, but she did have fun roasting them!

VISIT WITH FRIENDS
Our friends Jordan and Carla made a surprise trip over on Saturday just in time for the wiener roast. They wound up spending the night, which meant we got some quality time with sweet baby Hayzel...oh and Jordan and Carla too!

 

PLOWING SNOW WITH DAD
With the insane amount of snow we've been getting, we've been spending a ton of time outside, getting rid of it, so we can, you know, drive and stuff. Maizey loves loves loves riding on the tractor with Daddy.

BREAKFAST
We have a big discussion every morning about what we should have for breakfast. And girlfriend knows what she wants.
Should we have poached eggs for breakfast?
No
Should we have toast for breakfast?
No
Should we have cereal for breakfast?
Yes!!
Ok, what kind?
Eerios!!

Should we have french toast today?
No
Should we have bagels?
No
Should we have pancakes?
Yes!!

We've suddenly become a pancake family. My mom made them when she was here, now we've had them three times in the last week!  Whip cream and berries and all!

WATCHING DORA
We can't seem to find any Dora on the satellite so we have to use Netflix, which means Maizey has to sit in the computer chair in the office to watch it. She's cool with it. But she did try to reach for the desk and the rolling chair shot out behind her and she came crashing down. It's ok, shes fine now!

SNOW
More photos just for good measure!

(see Jade, that's totally a priceless piece of art!!!)

Happy shoveling, or vacationing or whatever it is you are doing! Thanks for the blog birthday love! I loved it!