Students Of Life

I’m usually pretty good at forgiveness, I’m not one to hold a grudge. While this is true in my relations with other people, it is not so true with myself. Isaac and I were in a car accident yesterday, don’t worry everyone is fine, except for maybe the car. The accident was my fault, I was turning left across two lanes of traffic. The lane closest to me had four cars in it all turning left also, I didn’t see the car coming in the far lane and unfortunately we collided. I was pretty shook up by the accident, but thankful everyone was alright. Then I spent the rest of the day going over what if’s and I should haves….

Before the accident we were already parked right beside the restaurant I was suppose to join a friend at for lunch, I should have just stayed there and walked to her house.

On my way to her house I got turned around a lost, I was late and probably rushing. I know I checked to make sure it was safe to turn, I know I thought it was safe to turn; I was wrong, I should have slowed down and waited for the lane closest to me to clear so I had a better view.

What if it had been worse and some one had gotten hurt

What if Isaac had gotten hurt

so on and so forth. I know if it had been Jason in the accident I would say don’t worry about it, what’s done is done, we can’t change the past, it’s only a car, at least no one was hurt. But with myself I just keep going back to the what ifs and the I should haves. So today I’m going to work very hard at forgiving myself and rejoicing in my perfect baby boy who is fine without a mark on his precious pink skin. Today I will focus on the fact that no one was hurt.

Literally, but wait, we’ll get to that. I think this is what they call a comedy of errors (or at least I thought it was funny).

Lets start from the beginning. While I was pregnant I bought a used Fisher Price Aquarium swing for Isaac. I made the lady turn it on and it clicked and she gave it a push, the music played; I didn’t have a baby, what did I know I thought it worked. Well I was wrong and it didn’t work, I was rather disappointed when we tried Isaac in it. After a visit with the in-laws, who had borrowed a working swing, we decided we needed one for home (it really provides me with some hands free time and can almost guarantee Jason and I can eat dinner together, unless of course Isaac is  hungry too). I found a newer used swing on Kijiji and went to go pick it up the other day. I was running late (surprise, surprise) so I asked Jason for some cash to pay for it and said I’d hit the bank on the way home to get some more cash out. I’m pleased to say the new swing works fine; unfortunately the same could not be said about the cash machine at the gas station. It was one that belonged to my bank (I refuse to pay the extra charges to use another banks machines) but it took my card and didn’t recognize it, it kept asking me to insert my card. Needless to say I high-tailed it home to cancel my client card. All this happened yesterday.

Today I went down to the local branch to get a temporary card and thus access to my accounts. I got the card without any hassels, but when I tried to use it in the bank machine it said the card was invalid. I went back to the nice young man who gave me the card and told him it doesn’t work. ‘Curious’ he said, let me have a look. He ran the card and it told him I was deceased….hmmm well that is a problem. Anyhow it took only about ten minutes to bring me back from the dead, but unfortunetly the newly reborn are not entitled to bank cards on the same day of resurrection, so I can’t get my new card until tomorrow. Thankfully the nice man realized I was indeed alive and in need of cash so he accessed my accounts for me.

…but not so bad.

Lets pretend this was posted yesterday… thanks.

Today was definitely a Monday. I had an doctors appointment in the morning and miraculously  managed to shower and have  Isaac fed and asleep in his car seat before we arrived (thanks to Jason being home for an rare 30 min between early morning PT and the start of his class). I even managed to make it to MIR (the base hospital) on time (or at least only one minute late) only to find out my appointment had been cancelled…yeah thanks for the call…oh you rescheduled for tomorrow, perfect ’cause I’m sure I can pull this off two days in a row really.

Oh well, I had to go out anyways so really not too bad. I had to run downtown to return some movies to our awesome video store with shitty parking. I managed to find a spot only a few blocks away and even had change for parking…bonus. We returned the movies without incident, but since I was downtown and had parking I thought I’d run to the bank to deposit some cash before it slipped through my fingers. I got to the bank only to realize the while I had purse and the cash my wallet was in the car…along with my bank card. Since I couldn’t deposit the cash I thought I spend it and went to a great local bakery to grab  myself a lemon currant roll…except this was the one day they didn’t have any…and I’m sure the lemon poppy loaf was excellent, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I was getting desperate and hot so I stopped into the local Macs to grab a slurpee, you guessed it machine was broken. So I slunk back to the car, tail between my legs, beaten into submission by the events of the morning. I was destined not to spend my money…even if I couldn’t deposit it. Now if my biggest complaint is that my doctors apt was rescheduled without my knowledge, I forgot my bankcard, and I couldn’t get my favorite baked good or a slush… then I guess life is pretty good. Besides, it got us out of the house

It’s 27 + degrees outside and the blower motor on our furnace went last night…of course today is Saturday so to get anyone to even diagnose the problem would cost about $200. After two phone calls to companies from the yellow pages with no response Jason went next door to ask the neighbor if he could recommend anyone. Randy (our neighbor) is building a patio and another neighbor down from down the street is helping him. Said neighbor happens to work for a HVAC company…he offered to come take a look, it will cost us a case of beer. So know we know for sure it is the motor (we were only guessing before) and we can order the part. Neighbor down the street even offered to help Jason install it next week. And since we’re out AC for the foreseeable future Randy offered to open up his pool for us to take Isaac for a swim to cool off later this afternoon. These same neighbors have helped us out numerous times, letting us do laundry when the washer and dryer broke (at different times always RIGHT before company was about to arrive and it was there sheets that were dirty/wet) and other various neighborly assists. I love our neighbors…nothing beats sharing your neighborhood with good people

We’ve lived in Kingston for almost two years now and we still miss the Island and the Comox Valley something terrible. I’m sure a lot of it has to do with the family and friends we have out west, but there was something about valley life (and all the snowboarding, mountain biking, hiking, and camping right at our finger tips) that just got into us and stuck. I don’t know if it is normal or if it’s just me, but I tend to plan and visualize a trip downtown before I take it; for example if I want to buy thank-you cards, I think about where I can buy them, where that store is located and then where I want to park and what else I can get done in the area. To this day (after almost two years) I catch myself picturing downtown Courtenay instead of Kingston. In fact I did it again the other day when I was looking for some thank-you cards. There is a street here in Kingston that is similar to 5th street in Courtenay in that is is full of little specialty shops and fun for walking and browsing. Because it is much closer to home and school, I try to do most of our shopping on this end of the city. Anyhow, I was thinking of where to stop and inevitably thought of a Courtenay store. I always feel a little foolish when this happens, but I was downtown and it was a sunny day and I got to thinking…we’ve got a pretty good thing going here…maybe it’s time we start to acknowledge Kingston for what it has to offer us. After all this is where our first child will be born, and now that I’m taking a year off to stay at home with baby we’re going to be here for longer than originally planned. Kingston really is a nice city, especially in the spring, summer and fall. It’s huge tourist destination in the summer and it can get a little busy downtown, but we’re locals and know where to park (for free) in short walking distance to the water front and the great ice cream parlours. It’s not the north-east woods, but we’ve got a pretty great paved walking path just out the door that is great for walking with a stroller and for rollerblading and there is a huge group of soccer fields just down the street that we can take the dogs to for a good run and some ball play. I mean really… who are we to complain, this is a great city and a good posting; we’ve had more visitors in the less than two years we’ve been here than the five that we were in the valley. Besides we’ll eventually make our way back out west, until then I’ve decided to dwell on all the positives this city has to offer.

I love reading peoples 100 things posts and am so far from my 100th post that I’m stealing a page from my cousins blog and putting up 41 things for my 41st post.

1. I was born three months premature and weighed only 2 lb 10 oz at birth.

2. I looked like a drowned rat…seriously not a cute baby until I started to pile on the baby fat.

3. My mom was on holiday when I was born so eventually she had to leave me in the NICU in Saskatoon to go home and take care of my brother, my god-mother Sheri (who was attending U of S) came to visit me everyday and to this day we still have a special relationship, no matter where in the world she is living.

4. My family is freakishly normal and happy, same as my husbands…we hope to foster the same environment with our own kids.

5. I talk to my mom at least once a week, so does my husband (his mom).

6. I joined the military at age 17 and needed my parents signature.

7. I currently hold the rank of Captain in the Canadian airforce.

8. Through my military training I’ve earned two degrees with no student debt.

9. Instead I ‘paid’ (and will pay as I just finished this last degree) with time served.

10. I love my job.

11. My trade is Aerospace Controller, but what I did (when not in school) was Air Traffic Control in the terminal (so not control tower work, but talking to planes while monitoring them on a radar screen).

12. I’m not sure what my new job in Ottawa will entail, but I know it is related to any and everything the Canadian Forces is involved in in Space.

13. I met my husband in Comox BC, we had a mutual friend who was going away on course and he introduced us because we were both interested in rock climbing (a sport you cannot do alone).

14. We were friends for years before we started dating.

15. He proposed before we’d even been dating for a year; in the backyard while we were playing with our new puppy.

16. We had a long engagement and were married in Aug 2006.

17. Our wedding was PERFECT. Seriously I cannot think of one thing I would change.

18. The day after our wedding we packed up the pets and started our drive across country to Ontario, where I would be attending school.

19. We wanted to start a family right after we were married, but then I was accepted for a master’s program so I said we had to wait (there was no way we were going to have a kid with both of us studying).

20. We got pregnant right away and are expecting our first child in June

21. I’ve had a very easy pregnancy with no morning sickness or complications.

22. I’m convinced labour and delivery is going to be hell or the kid will be a hellian (it only seems fair since the pregnancy was so easy).

23. I own two dogs and two cats…I can blame all but one cat on my husband.

24. I don’t really like cats; but don’t worry, mine are well taken care of and pampered.

25. That being said, if I have my way (which I probably won’t see #23) we’ll never own cats again. These two are great, but come on how much luck can one family have.

26. I tend to be quite and reserved when meeting new people; at times I believe this leave a poor first impression and people think I’m a little stuck up.

27. I’m trying to work on this.

28. My husband is great with people and can talk to anyone, I admire this.

29. I want four kids, but Jason is more comfortable with the idea of three.

30. We’ve decided we’ll start with one and see how it goes.

31. I never want to own a minivan.

32. I’m a station wagon kind of lady.

33. I’m 33 wks pregnant and we have no idea what to call this kid.

34. I love to travel.

35. Last summer Jason and I fulfilled our dream of a Europe vacation (just in time before we got pregnant).

36. We both want to go back and share the experience with our growing family.

37. I love to snowboard and really miss living close to the moutians.

38. Same goes for hiking and camping.

39. I have a ridiculous number of fillings in my teeth, even though I brush and floss regularly.

40. I pierced my tongue during my last year of university; I kept the piercing until I lost one of the fasteners on vacation in the Dominican Republic, with no replacement I couldn’t keep the piercing in place and it grew over.

41. I pierced my eyebrow shortly after university and loved it; then one day (about three years later) I just stopped wearing it.