it's that time again

Another Friday night and here is the faithful Di, plugging away at her course and dreaming of a day, two and half weeks from now, when she will be be finished.

Of course, then I will have all this free time on my hands and not know what to do with it... but I'm sure I'll find something...

Seven items for seven days since I last wrote:

1) Terrace: M had to work in Terrace this week and even though I had a cold I went with him anyways. Either I could sit at home and infect Anneka or I sit in the comfy truck for the three hours there and back and spend time with my husband. Since I'm working on my course, we don't get to spend a lot of time during the week together, so this was a good chance. Anneka had fun with her Auntie Carrie, who took lots of cute pictures.

2) Sick: I paid for this on Wednesday. I spent most of the day in bed. Anneka has not caught my cold just yet for which I am thankful.

3) London: The new book I'm reading by Edward Rutherford. It's one of those epic historical novels, 829 pages, not for the faint-hearted or those who don't like to read. Delectable food my history-loving soul. It covers from about 54 AD to the present; sweeping yet satisfactorily detailed.

4)Snow: Yes, there was snow on the ground when I woke up this morning. In April. Spring needs a good swift kick to tell her to get moving. Enough already.

5) Chicago: Or should I say Schererville. Next month my brother-in-law is getting and the whole family is gathering down in Schererville, a suburb of the windy city. We're all getting excited. A fabulous new sister-in-law is joining the family. And we get to go shopping. Outlets here I come.

6) Typing test: I should have put this one first, since it happened the earliest. On Monday I finished the typing course I had been taking along with my transcription course. It was kind of a waste of time and money, but I need a 60 nwpm grade on my transcript. I did get faster at typing; I think my fastest was about a 79. However, it didn't seem like I made less mistakes. Oh well. I passed. Which is the main thing. Now I only have two more courses to go before the week of May.

7)Medical word of the week: Hilum, pl. hila: a depression or slit-like opening through which nerves, ducts, or blood vessels enter and leave in an organ or a gland.

fish and chips and vinegar

Question: How do you know test time is around the corner?
Answer: When Diana is working on her course on a Friday night!

Moving on... Anneka is 8 months old today and I know I say this frequently to the point of ad nauseum, but I cannot believe how fast time flies! Last year at this time I was still recovering from being deathly ill with a kidney infection and the resulting side effects, I was finally starting to gain weight like a pregnant woman is supposed to... and Baby Chickpea was starting to move around and make his/her presence known... who knew that 8 months later I would Mom to this adorable little girl and changing diapers and singing lullabies and trying to (re)learn all those kids songs.

This week it has been the "Fish and Chips and Vinegar" and "One bottle of pop, two bottle of pop" and "Don't throw your junk in my backyard" medley. It's supposed to be sung in a round, but it's only me, and let's face it, Anneka won't know what it's supposed to sound like for a couple of years. But we sure have fun dancing around the living together room. Right now she's a good follow. Her current favourite is "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie it's amore..." More's the pity that I never will sound anything Dean or Frank... sigh... (Martin and Sinatra, FYI)

The weather here has been rather uncooperative lately. With the coming of Spring I had been looking forward nice long walks on sunny, brisk days. Call me a wimp, but I sure don't feel like walking outside just after it has SNOWED, even if the sun does shine afterwards. Spring in the North is a big tease... tempting you with bright blue cloudless skies one day and then hitting you with 0 degree weather and snow the next.

One other big announcement: After months of waiting - Anneka has her first tooth! The white jagged edges are finally pushing through her little gums... and after two weeks of crankiness, our good little girl is back... (sigh of extreme relief) Now we only have a whole mouth left to go...

New medical word today:

acetabular:Pertaining to the acetabulum, the cup-shaped socket of the hip joint which is a key feature of the pelvis. The head (upper end) of the femur (the thighbone) fits into the acetabulum and articulates with it, forming a ball-and-socket joint. The acetabulum is not just cup-shaped. The word "acetabulum" in Latin means cup, a vinegar cup.

and the sun is shining (FINALLY)

Although I hear glowing reports of the balmy 15 degree down in the Fraser Valley, up here in another valley (the Bulkley Valley) the sun is shining down upon us, perhaps with the smile of early spring in its warmth (one can only hope).

But the pessimist within me (stemming from another night of constantly interrupted sleep - Anneka feels the need to try out her new motor skills, turning over and creeping forward, at 3 in the morning; one, of course, cannot sleep with her face-planted up against the headboard or with one arm stuck under the bumper pad...)... Anyways, the sleep-deprived pessimist within declares that the sunshine is more likely along the lines of an child dangling a candy just out of reach of a younger sibling, snatching it cruelly away from eagerly grasping fingers...

So, I am done the test for which I was frantically trying to cram the last few weeks. I just started another part of the course and am experiencing the information overload that always comes with it... Phrases like "maxillary antral regions" and "trivial aortic insufficiency" and others of which I am completely ignorant bounce around my brain and my only hope is that by the end of this painful process they will become as familiar to me as the alphabet.

In the short time it took to write this blog entry, the sun is now on its way behind a cloud... oh the mockery!

paying for it...

subtitle: it's Friday night, and again, I have no life...

So it's Friday night and I am working again on my course again... This time, though, I only have a week to go before my test...(actually I should have been writing it tomorrow, but my kind teachers gave me a week's extension)...

So though it may not seem like it, I definitely am paying for my procrastination as the stress level has significantly increased in the past two weeks... and unlike my university days I cannot stay up until the wee small hours of the morning because I cannot sleep the next day away... life has certainly changed since then in the form of a small daughter who needs to be fed at the too-early hour of 7 a.m.

So while my husband and my visiting brother-in-law play some shoot-em-up video game I am stuck here working on a Friday night...

procrastination makes it happen

I certainly should not be blogging on a Friday night (as if I don't have anything better to do on a Friday night -I'm turning into one of those parents who don't have a life :)

And I certainly should not be blogging on a Friday night WHILE I SHOULD BE WORKING ON MY COURSE (as I have a test in a mere two and half weeks), but here I am, proudly flaunting my procrastinator rights in the hopes that someone, somewhere out there, might be listening (and caring... a quarter, anyone?)

Having been lost in the vortex of new-mommyhood and trying to pass a course which will hopefully bring me gainful employment one day in the near future, I realised that friends old and new were being ignored. In fact, it was just around this time last year that "one old friend who is now a new friend again" and I got in touch again after almost 10 years and a flurry of blogging and emailing began that has now dwindled off to nothing... and now, alas (sigh), she has even taken me off her blog roll (if you're reading this, TB-N, it's NOT meant to make you feel guilty :) although it would be great to get in touch again!) And another friend whom I haven't seen for years has consistently been in touch through email... JD, if you're reading this, thanks for the perseverance!

I have been blessed by great friendships, some of which have been almost a decade long or more... and I realised that, no matter now busy life gets and now matter how stressed I am or how crappy I feel friendships are worth more than stress or busy-ness...

So, before this turns into a maudlin, Jeanette Oke-y type of spiel, I'll just take a moment to thank all the "kindred spirits" in my life...

checking out, checking in, checking out...again...

And just when I thought things had finally settled down after the trauma on babies that is called "Daylight Savings time" we have a day like today where GAS is the monster in my baby's bowels. We had been doing SO SPLENDIDLY for so many weeks, having a good nap in the morning, eating, playing up a storm (the energy and length of time she spends kicking and waving her little arms could light up our house), then having another good nap in the afternoon... to today. She only slept for 40 minutes before waking up wailing. I usually just go in there, pop the soother in, and we're good to go. I can have my coffee, fold some laundry, watch the cooking channel...

Not today.

Not that I don't like spending time cuddling with Anneka, but there's this little thing that I'm doing called school and I need to get it done a week earlier because of my parents' 40th anniversary.

Not that I'm crazy enough, being a new mom and working on a course at the same time... sometimes I feel like I need a trip to the spa for the mind...

Anyways, on top of that, we decided, in our infinite wisdom, to start Anneka sleeping through the night. I am enjoying the sleep deprivation that comes from getting up three times a night to comfort a wailing child...

So today, when I tried for an hour to comfort her and she refused to be comforted, peace was no more.

So when M comes home and heads for the computer to check who's winning his "Risk" game on Facebook and totally ignores my whines for understanding (IS ASKING FOR A HUG TOO MUCH?)... I lost it... I feel like I'm needing all those medications the doctors who I transcribe for talk about...

Well enough of the rant... I guess some days you just need more sleep to deal with the various adventures life hurls at you...


Did I mention that I have a bad cold?

I kick ass!

I just got the marks back from the first test that I wrote for my course... even though I was 3 weeks behind and couldn't get all the work done... I got 99.2%! I usually don't brag about this kind of thing, but I because I was so sick and I had to really work to catch up and I had to write the test with less time put in than the other students... I was really nervous about how I would do... Hence the good grade is a reason to celebrate!