Speech

Since we are posting speeches, here's my grad speech from today: It went well. I love a microphone.

I'd like to welcome the graduating class of 2007 to the MRT tea. I congratulate each of you, your parents, extended family, signifcant others and friends.

To the class of 2007 you knew what you had to do to get to this college and to graduate from it. Each year more the 300 people apply to the 24 seats in this program. It is an accomplishment to even get into the program.

I want all of you to know how proud all of your teachers are of your accomplishments. As instructors it is amazing to see students come in on the first day you don't know the difference between a mandible and a patella and by the end of the 21 months are accomplished technologists who can take 10 different x-rays of a mandibles and patellas. This program has not only taught you the language of x-ray but survival skills for the real world, stress management, multitasking and dealing with difficult people. We are so excited to see you join our profession.

I know the past 21 months have been difficult for you. In your interviews I'm sure most of you quoted the work load was going to be the most difficult thing, and I'm sure it was. In first two semesters there is so much new information and exams and projects. Do you remember the first time you touched an x-ray tube or in your first radiographic anatomy class trying to write down all the bones you could think of. In the second year it's how many competencies do I need? And will this go in my logbook. Do you remember the first time you took an x-ray on a real live person? This stress has even effected the most laid back students. In the last part of practicum I received this e-mail from Robert:


I'm Done I finished. I got my AC-Joints Hooray I won't be working now
this weekend. I Feel better I was stressed out for like 10 minutes
there.


You should all be so proud of what you have accomplished. You have been an outstanding class and as you go forward you are fortunate to have so many opportunities available to you. The unfortunate, yet truly exciting thing about your life, is that there is no core curriculum. The entire place is an elective. The paths are infinite and the results uncertain. So if there’s any real advice I can give you it’s this.

College is something you complete. Life is something you experience. So don’t worry about your grade, or the results or success. Success is defined in myriad ways, and you will find it, and people will no longer be grading you, but it will come from your own internal sense of decency. I encourage you to love what you do, Continue to learn, enjoy making your own descions on if you will accept and x-ray or repeat it.

Please join me in congraduationg the SAIT MRT class of 2007.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

On Bad Thing About Summer

So I'm sure there is more then one bad thing about summer, but at the moment I am watching a VERY lame show, so that is what I'm focusing on. Damn good winter TV is over, now it's just lame shows. So I thought I'd start some discussion on what everyone thought of some of the popular shows that I watch that ended.

Gilmore Girls: I was happy that Luke and Lorelai got together in the end. I thought the party for Rory was quite nice, although I didn't cry as much as I expected to.

Grey's Anatomy: Thought it sucked. My god it was so sad. I cried more in that show then Gilmore Girls. When Burke said his vows in the OR, was so great. Cristina did such a great job in her last scene. I love the relationship between Cristina and Meredith. Some parts of it remind me of Tammy and myself. I hope George is not gone from the show, although they did kind of leave it open. I also thought it was horrible how the Chief didn't give Bailey the head resident job.

Lost: I loved this ending. I really liked how it was a flash forward rather then a flash back. I personally have no "theories" on what's happening on the show, just as they explain it, a big science experiment. I loved how Hurley came racing down in the car and how Jack told Kate he loved her. The big question for me was who's funeral was it???? If any of you watch lost let me know what you think. I think it was John Locke's.

Office: Man it was funny. Yeah about Pam and Jim. Yeah yeah yeah. Thank god the Office is on the same night Grey's Anatomy. I needed something to cheer me up. Jan's boobs were so funny too.

I think those are all the big ones. Let me know what you thought of the season finales.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Tea Drinking Tuesday

I almost am always drinking tea when I write my blog. I love tea. My favorite is Earl Grey Vanilla from Tetley. Last time we went to the States for a vacation I realized they don't sell Tetley there, I learned a lesson and will always bring tea with me. For a while I was drinking Chocolate Orange tea, but have converted back to Earl Grey Vanilla.

Today my friend Claudine came over and "staged" our house for us. My play room is now a formal dining room. All the pictures that I love are in boxes and instead properly matching pictures are up that tie in all the rooms. Proper sized furniture is in all the rooms. Really the house looks great. It is still livable as well, which is nice. It may be harder if it was winter but from the moment Lucas wakes up to the moment he goes to bed he wants to be outside. I love it, although there is lots of sand in the house. Lucas's new favorite word is "Yeah", not yes or yes please but "yeah". I'll have to take a video of it post it.

A funny blog I read today. I totally agree with Uniqua, what is she?!? Although I love all the singing with the Backyardigans. Also where are Ruby and Max's parents and how come Ruby can take care of everything and Max can barely talk. But they are almost the same height.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

The Most Unsuccessful Garage Sale Ever

This weekend was the McKenzie Towne garage sale so I spent a couple hours getting ready on Friday and then got up early on Saturday to take it all outside. Guess how many people showed up.....

Guess.....

5, that's it five.

I sold 12 dollars worth of stuff. By noon I was so fed up, Darryl and I packed everything up and took it to value village. Next time I'm working at the hospital to make money rather then trying to sell stuff. I don't really blame people for not wanting to buy the stuff. Some of the dishes were from the 70's, the iron was from the 60's (although it still worked).

The rest of the weekend was quite good. Mom made lamb. The party on Friday night was fun.

Hope you all had a good weekend, and to my American readers hope you had a good long weekend.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Pat on the Back

Tonight I am going to a graduation party for the students. Today is there last day of being students, after 21 months straight. After today they get paid to be at the hospital. As a teacher I don't get the daily "thanks" that I got as a health care worker. There is a lot more complaining and a lot more putting out fires. But at the end of the year when they graduate they are grateful. You are so proud of them. You helped to take them from knowing nothing about x-rays and how to take them to knowing as much as the technologists around them. It's so amazing to help them become part of the "community". For them to know all the technologists, for them to have reputations. They all passed and even the pain is the butts made it. They all have jobs and are happy to be done.



Congratulations to the Class of 2007, you made it, I made it too. =)

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Some Photos From the Trip

Lucas playing in a field by the beach on our last day.


All of us standing by the mosaic whale in the Inner Harbour of Victoria



Here we are at the "Bug Zoo", which Lucas loved. I am holding a praying mantis. I was also holding a beetle and a millipede. Although Darryl was the daring one and held a tarantula. Lucas's funniest word from the bug zoo was Scorpion. Which he pronounces Scorpia. I'll post a video of it soon.


Darryl and Lucas hanging out in the rain. One of the cool things was that Lucas was quite happy to push around his stroller a lot of the time.


A classic family vacation photo out front of the parliament buildings.


A fountain out front of the parliment buildings. One day we sat in a lot of bird poop on this fountain. It taught us a lesson. Look before sitting. Lucas did love to throw all pennies we had into the fountains though.

Another family, photo, although I forget where. Darryl do you remember?

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Holiday!

Victoria Trip

This whole adventure started with my employer sending me a letter saying I need to take 16 days of vacation before June 30th. When you only work 3 days a week that’s more the 5 weeks. So I have been slowly taking it, but I have trouble taking too much vacation and just staying home. I like to go somewhere for it as well. So I worked some extra shifts and Darryl did some extra work and here we are in Victoria. It was originally Mexico or somewhere all-inclusive, but that didn’t really work out. So we found a great deal through WestJet to come to Victoria for 4 days. It is amazing to experience so many new things with Lucas. Even flying was more fun to see Lucas’s amazement at the whole thing. Plus he’s cute enough that people quite like him. and don’t mind sitting by us. The flights were good. Not to long, which was an advantage. The worst part was I was holding a coffee for Darryl and my hot chocolate. I accidentally took a big gulp of the coffee thinking it was hot chocolate and it was HORRIBLE! We had a layover in Edmonton for a couple of hours, and I think they need to add some more “stuff” to the secure area. There was no fast food, no “fun” things for kids to do.

Victoria is beautiful. We are staying at a great hotel. We got a suite with a separate bedroom and kitchen. It’s great because the kitchen if fully equipped and the bedroom has a door, so we can put Lucas to bed and come into the living room. The hotel is super close to everything. There are no views of the harbors, but it is within walking distance to everything. The service here has also been great. There is a shuttle bus to take us downtown when it has been raining and they are so accommodating with our car seat. Often we’ll take the shuttle bus into downtown and leave the car seat in the car and then walk home and they’ll bring up the car seat when we get home. They also watch our dishes, which makes a great vacation for me. We can still have milk for Lucas, but not have to clean up the mess.

The first day we went to Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner and then walked around downtown. The next day we went to an undersea garden. I wouldn’t do it again. It was okay, but not really worth the 9.50 it was. If you ever go make sure you stay for the show because that was the best part and the only part you see the octopus. After it was raining quite hard so we came back the hotel and took the shuttle bus to “Donald’s” for lunch. It was so busy there. One of the good/bad parts of coming to Victoria on Victoria day weekend it that it is quite busy. There has been a high school band wherever we go. This is nice when you want to hear a little music, but not so nice when the line at McDonalds is super long, or your kid is trying to have an afternoon nap.

On the second day there was a HUGE parade downtown Victoria. We were told it was 3 hours long. There were a lot of marching bands, which were great. I’ve never tried to play an instrument while walking but I’m sure it’s quite challenging. The highlight for Lucas was all the fire trucks. He watched most of it from my shoulders, while playing with my hair. Nevertheless it was a horrible day for my hair. After that we picked up some lunch and headed to the boat for our whale watching tour. As any of you who have been on a boat ( I seriously think that is probably all of you), they are very windy. So my hair quickly turned into an afro. After a lengthy boat ride we got to see the “J” pod of orcas. It was incredible to see. We have seen orcas at Sea World but to see them in their own habitat is great, plus they grow to be a lot larger. We learned lots about them; they need to eat 3000 pounds of salmon everyday. They live together in family, but the males, who are bigger need to eat more so they stay farther away from the group. It is a matriarchal society, so the females make all the decisions. We followed the male whale around for as long as our boat ride paid for and then headed home. After that we all came home for a late afternoon nap.

It has already become a bit of a routine to use the pool and hot tub here before we go to bed. Lucas loves both. He loves to scream “ready” before he jumps into our arms into the pool. And is quite good at kicking his feet and watching us go under water. He also loves the hot tub and trying to catch the bubbles, although we usually just sit him on the first step so that his feet and bum are in the water. Last night when we went from the pool to the hot tub I asked him if the water was too hot? No, he replied in a voice just above a whisper, “Nice and warm.” So cute. Hanging out as a family has defiantly been the highlight of the trip. I went to bed so content last night. We had such a fun day and it’s so great to create new experiences for Lucas and new experiences as our little family.

I'll post more and some pictures. Tomorrow

Jenn

One Of My New Favorite Things

Last fall, my best friend left me with her two kids so she could have a vacation. We are always happy to have the boys and Tammy always brings me home great gifts. This time she brought me home a comfy shirt and some Godiva chocolates. I put the chocolates in a special place for a special time. Which means I lost them. Until last week. When I found them in the freezer. I then had the chocolate raspberry chocolate bar and it was DIVINE! I devoured the whole thing and when I saw Darryl I told him about the greatest thing I just had. I'm sure I had a look of happiness on my face. Poor Darryl was upset that I didn't leave him any. Which I don't blame him. I found them again this week at Chapters and they are just as good. They are almost as good as the Earl's Chocolate Mousse cake with Raspberry Coulis......almost.

If you ever get a chance enjoy one. They are so delicious.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Favorite Song

Lucas's new thing is that whenever he hears a song that he remembers he tells my it's his favorite song. Today we were listening to "Where Does the Good Go" by Tegan and Sara. Fav-ri song, he tells me. It's amazing because he is playing with his toys and stops because it's a tune that he recognizes. We haven't listened to the song in quite a while, but I asked if he listened to at Lesley's house and he nodded.

A couple of nights ago a similar situation happened. We were listening to music and the Coldplay's song " Fix You" came on. When Lucas was a baby we use to play that song to put him to sleep. I remember many nights swaying with him in my arms while we listened to Fix you. My favorite line is " when you feel so tired but you can't sleep". Which always seemed so applicable. We haven't use this song to put Lucas to sleep in months. But even so he remember the song. "Fav-ri song". Amazing to see his memory.

Till Tuesday =)

Jenn

Monthly Newsletter- Month Twenty One

Dear Lucas,

This last month has been a blast. One of my your new favorite things is quiet and loud. You love it when Mommy whispers and is quiet. You also love to yell. I mean love to yell. Now when you are in another room then us and want us to come and see you. You yell, " Mommy come", wait a few seconds and yell is again " Mommy come". Your dad is trying to teach you to say "Mommy come here", trying to differentiate calling Emma from calling Mommy.




Speaking of calling Emma, you also like to call her. You are both learning from each other. You know that Emma likes cheese and meat. So when you call her to come you have chesse or meat or a ball. You have been doing it enough that she is coming when you call her. Especially when you are at the table.

My favorite time you are "loud" is when you call your dad. If you wnat him to come upstairs. You kind of bend over because you must think that helps to project your voice. And yell "Darryl come" at the top of the stairs. "Dar-ryl" Dad does always come and brings you milk.



You still love bugs. You know all different kinds of them now. Dragonflys, bumblebees, spiders and your favorite, ladybugs. We had to teach you the word die, when a fly died after you touched it too much. Now everytime we walk past the window you point out bug died.

You also love diggers and motorcycles. When you drive around you chatter away. All the time actually you chatter away. Anoddder digger, anodder momocycle. Although you have stopped calling fire trucks, wee wee and actually calling them fire trucks. Wee, wee was the word for all emergency vechiles, but now you are able to differeniate and call them all their proper names.




You have excellent speech. If there is a word or phrase we want you to learn, we just tell you the word and usually by the end of the day you have learned it. The other day you were wearing a Canada shirt. We asked you to say Canada, and you said "Mommy try it" everytime we asked you. But after an hour, you just came out with "Can-a-da". One of the funny parts of your speech is how you often take one word and break it into to. For example the word macaroni. You take such a pause between the mac sylable and the roni sylable, it seems like two words, mac........a.......roni.



This month you also spent alot of time with Grandma and Pop. One night Grandma put you to bed and in the morning when you woke up you called for her in bed. It's great that you are so comfortable with your grandparents. When ever Emma barks that someone is at the front door, you call Grandma and run towards the door to look for her. Pop brought over his motorcycle the other day and you talked about it all day the day after. Oma, Opa, Lexie and Karen were also here this month. You love playing with your aunts. It's great how aunts are so fun. Auntie Karen was always a fun aunt for me too.



Last thing I wanted to tell you about this month is how much you are enjoying hockey. Every time we turn it on you yell "Scored". Over and over again. You yell it with such enthusiasm. Once you yelled it and right after they did score. It was like you inspired them.

One of my favorite moments of this past month was you had fallen and hurt your hand. You started to cry and walk over to me. A scooped you up in my arms and snuggled. Mommy kiss it, you asked. I kissed your hand and almost instantly you felt better. One of the greatest things about being a mom is having incredibly healing powers, just from my kisses.

I love being your mom,thanks for giving my pride and super powers.

Love mommy

Sore Ischial Tuberosities

Earlier this week I filled up the tank of gas in the CRV, it was almost 60 dollars. Although I was perturbed that it was so much money, but the granola part of me was glad.

When I got home that night I got out my bike and bike trailer and got it all hooked up. Lucas and I biked around the neighboorhood to get groceries, rather then driving. Tonight we did the same thing. Rather then driving to get groceries I got the things we'll need for the next couple of days. Maybe this could be a summer trend. I also used re-usable shopping bags rather then plastic.

Go Green!

Jenn

Happy Mothers Day

I apologize again for not blogging on Monday. Something about Mondays make me feel very productive, or maybe I just have lots of work to do. Here I am on a lovely Tuesday afternoon, enjoying the day off with my boy.

Happy Mothers Day to all the mommies who read this blog. Of course a couple of days late. We all know that being a mother is the greatest and most challenging job ever. To my mom, I am so greatful you are such a big part of my life. I'm so glad that you have such a great relationship with Lucas and that he loves his Gramma so much. I had a good mothers day. We kind of hung out in the morning and then I had a little me time in the afternoon.

Today we were eating lunch a Lucas wanted more milk. I offered him mine and he got these sheepish grin on his face. I wasn't sure if it was pride that I trust him to drink out of a cup without a lid, or feel devilish like he could make a lot of mess with no lid. Luckily it was the first one. He didn't sell a drop.

The weather was great on Saturday and today. We've had to put on sunscreen. I love the way sun screen smells.

Lucas has been doing lots of new things too. But the monthly newsletter is in a couple of days so I don't want to spoil it.

I'm off to enjoy the last Gilmore Girls, a great show, that someday I may watch with my kids. No swearing or sexual innuendos, witty humor. Too bad it's done.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Disipline

As Lucas gets older there are so many fun things that happen. We can do fun stuff, he can tell us what he's sees. We get to see his likes and dislikes. He makes us laugh, he laughs. There are a ton of great things about him getting older. But.... (of course there had to be a but, the post is called disipline) he is starting to find us saying no or yelling to be funny.

Generally Lucas is a great listener. He has a certain degree of fear of "scary things". For example he will always hold my hand while crossing the street becuase "cars coming". He'll always ask me: Mommy ready, before he jumps off the couch in my arms. He is "careful" of the oven or bees. But now when he does something and he thinks it's funny even if we say no, he'll still laugh. For example, he'll throw water out of the tub, and we'll say no, he'll still laugh, thinking it's funny. Darn! Now I have to figure out how to disipline my kid. Does anyone have any advice? Is he too young for time outs?

Onto the next stage......

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Book Review

Last week Darryl and I went to Chapters and I read an EXCELLENT short story. I heard about the story a couple of weeks ago when I was on one of my many escapades around Alberta. It was on CBC radio and Sarah Polley was talking about making the book into a movie. It sounded like an excellent movie and I love Sarah Polley from Anne of Green Gables.



When I was at Chapters the other night I saw they had reprinted the book, it was originally called a Bear Came Over the mountain. I said down and spent the hour reading it. The story is both incredibly happy and incredibly sad. It touches close to home for me and Darryl's family. The story is about Grant and Fiona a couple who has been married for a lifetime. Fiona gets Alzheimer's and has to go into a home. The story is about what happens in the home and the process of losing someone you love. Alice Munro is an excellent writer. I have read most of her books. This one touched my heart. I hope it touches you too.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Enjoy the Laughing

Now Lex-i-sie will be recorded for ever. Soon he'll be able to say it properly.

Till Tommorrow

Jenn

Red Lips

On Saturday I went to have my hair done before we went out for our anniversary dinner. After having my hair straigtened they did a make up touch up and I asked them to put red lipstick on me to match with a red shirt I was wearing. Afterwards I came home and Lucas was up from his nap. He called Mommy when he first heard the door open and then came to the door a little bit shocked. Who was this lady and what did she do with my mommy?!? I bent down and gave him a kiss on his hand with my red lips. He screamed. He did not like that, so I rubbed it off his hand, but he did not want to get close to me after that. Grandma took him upstairs and again when he saw me he pointed at my lips and said "red". Even today (3 days later) looked at my lips and said "red".

Little did I know that he was sick and that probably had a lot to do with it. He is getting 2 of his four eye teeth right now. He has also developed a cold with this. Life has not been fun around our house (and I think I have part of the cold as well). Thank god for medicine.

He's crying again, I should go. Sorry about being a bad blogger.

Jenn

Dampness and Best Buddies

Not alot of people will understand this, but it is Ontario cold here. Not freezing, but so damp. I have the fire on, and am drinking tea. Green Jasmine tea in fact. I feel cold to the core. Ontario cold. Atleast the rain is good for the grass.

Today we had to take Emma to the vet for her yearly shots. I brought some extra toys to entertain Lucas as Emma HATES the vet. I don't use hate very often but that is how she feels. As soon as we walked in the door she was shaking. To keep Lucas happy I asked him to tell her that "It will be okay." So Lucas kept telling her it would be okay. Once we brought Emma in the room and Lucas could see how upset she was, Lucas gave dirty looks to the vet (although the vet still complemented Lucas on how well he could speak). Then when the vet gave the needles to Emma, Lucas started crying and wanted to come up. Although I was so glad that Lucas could feel Emma's pain, there I was trying to balance a dog and a child. The joys of motherhood.

Till Tomorrow (our anniversary)

Jenn

Snugglin'

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

The Youngest Barenaked Ladies Fan

Lucas and I listen to the Barenaked Ladies all the time in the car and on You Tube. I love listening to them, as does Lucas. Lucas is use to listening to the Ladies and has favorite dance moves to their songs.

Today we were driving home from dinner and I asked Lucas who was singing the song (it was Wrap Your Arms around my neck) he knew it was Ed. Bank Job, again he knew it was Ed. Next came Tonight is the night I fell Asleep at the Wheel, he knew it was Steve.

Lucas and I should definitly win some kind of award. Like our own personal concert.....

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Bitten Off More Then I Can Chew

There are days I feel very mature. As a 27 year old I am happy to be married (6 years on Saturday), have a son and be moving into my second house. In my career I have moved up from my original position and enjoy making a large contribution to my field. When I look at the list it seems that I have accomplished a lot and am quite mature.

I have recently received a promotion at work, but I am totally feeling like I have bit off more then I can chew. Like I have so much to learn and have so so many more things to accomplish. I have already made 3 mistakes today. I am trying to faciliate people working together who do not want to be working together. I would like to give up but quite a few other people are depending on me to get it done. Plus I am trying to figure out as a manager how much do you tell the people you are working with and how much do you make the descions your self. When should you filter information so people don't get upset and how much do you involve people. This probably doesn't make a lot of sense to people, but I don't want to say too much, as this is all public information. I have so, so much to learn and am feeling very immature.

We'll see how these next couple of months go...

Till Tomorrow

Jenn