Oh man, we had such a good time last night ;) Neil and I went to see The Tragically Hip at our local event centre. While The Hip were incredible I was really there to see the opening band... The Trews! It was amazing, they sang one of my favourite songs (Poor Ol' Broken Hearted Me), the cowbell kicked ASS, it was seriously one of the best concert experiences of my life!
I could tell you about dozens of Trews songs that are awesome but instead I suggest that you just check them out on youtube... you won't be disappointed and (if you don't already know who they are) you'll be surprised at how many of their songs you're already familiar with from the radio. Even better, they're Canadian, from Nova Scotia (man, NS puts out a lot of amazing bands). And, of course, The Hip are Canadian as well, it was a pure red & white night!
We sat in the stands (Neil prefers the stands to the floor) just to the side of the stage so we had a really good view. I was surprised that it wasn't a sold out concert, especially since Kiss was here last week and their tickets sold out within a couple of hours!! But it looked like everyone who was there enjoyed themselves immensely.
I have one friend in particular who is also a huge fan of The Trews and she was able to get a t-shirt signed by a couple of members of the band (I'm sooooo jealous). The guys from The Trews came down onto the floor to watch The Hip after their set and were talking with people from the audience. Unfortunately, I didn't have access to the floor (not for lack of trying, believe me) so I couldn't talk to them, I would have LOVED a picture with the lead singer!
Oh well, you can't win 'em all. If they're ever playing near here again I'll be sure to see that show and I'll leave Neil at home and get floor tickets!
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
Head Wounds & Hospitals
So the next big emergency that happened (as if dealing with a flooded basement wasn't enough) was Rowan's trip to the emergency room!
Liam and Rowan were outside playing in a trailer we've got parked in the driveway. It's a flatbed trailer with built up sides. It's empty except for the toys the boys have been loading in it. They've been pretending to fish with these heavy duty sand pails that have ropes attached to them (they've been made into stilts, you stand on the upside down bucket and hold the ropes to keep the buckets on your feet while you walk). Liam can climb in and out of the trailer easily enough but Rowan is too short and uncoordinated to get in and out on his own. Liam can boost him into the trailer but he can't get Rowan out again.
So after swimming lessons and a full day of work (for me) and daycare (for the boys) they were playing outside while I was in the kitchen making dinner (basically I told them to get outside and leave me alone so I could get dinner done faster). Neil wasn't home yet, he'd been working late the last couple of nights.
So I look out the window to check on the boys every few minutes and they're playing happily in the trailer (no doubt catching plenty of salmon). I had turned back to making dinner for less than a minute when I heard Rowan start to cry (I ignored it to begin with because one or the other of them is always crying, don't judge me, I know you do it with your kids too). Then Liam is at the door bawling and yelling for me to come help. I go to the door and ask him what's wrong and through sobs and tears he tells me Rowan is bleeding, but he wouldn't tell me where he was bleeding from or how badly.
So I calmly put my shoes on, telling Liam to calm down, and head outside to assess the damage. At this point I'm pretty sure the details are being exaggerated and it's nothing more than a scratch. However, once I get closer to Rowan I can see that it's not a scratch and there's blood everywhere! His neck and shirt are covered in blood and when I pull him out of the trailer I can see that the blood is seeping through his baseball cap and running down his head. At this point I figure I've got a serious head injury on my hands and both the boys are crying and upset so I know I've got to keep my cool and not freak out or it'll just scare them even more.
I carry Rowan into the house trying to decide if I should remove his cap to see just how bad it is, I immediately decide against this because I'm seeing visions of a chunk of his scalp peeling from his head and know I won't be able to deal with that. So I make the decision to take him to the hospital. I grab my purse and keys and load the kids into the car. I did remember to chain up the dog so she wouldn't run away or get hit on the highway, but I forgot to lock the house and turn off the oven (thankfully, it was just warming up and I hadn't actually put dinner in to cook yet)!
The whole 10 minute drive into the hospital Liam is asking if Rowan will need a needle or stitches or if he's going to die... I really just wanted to tell him to shut up because I was wondering all of that myself, but I remained calm and assured both of them that the doctors and nurses would take good care of Rowan. Surprisingly, Rowan did very well and only sniffled and whimpered a few times during the drive and when I asked him how he was feeling he said "Good" in this quiet, sweet little voice.
I had texted Neil and left him a voicemail message but I didn't know if he had his phone on him, he tends to leave it in the truck while he's working so that he doesn't get interrupted every 10 minutes. I just kept hoping that he'd get my messages soon and meet us at the hospital.
Once we arrived at the ER the nurse asked me how bad it was and I confessed that I wasn't sure because I hadn't removed the cap yet. She smiled at me and said she wouldn't have removed it either if he was her kid. But she sat him down on the gurney and had him take the cap of himself.
Once the cap was off you could see that it wasn't as bad as it looked, in fact, you couldn't even see the cut for all the hair covering it. The doctor came in almost immediately and did a cursory examination but Rowan wouldn't let anyone touch him but me and when the doctor mentioned trying to glue and bandage the cut Rowan freaked out and kept saying "I no want to Mommy, I no want to". It almost broke my heart :(
So the doctor asked the nurse to give him some kind of medication that would calm him down. It was in a syringe that she squirted up his nose (that was fight too, to keep him still and his hands away from his face so she could administer it). In less than 10 minutes he was dopey and glassy eyed and we proceeded to clean the blood from his hair and from around the cut.
It turned out that the cut was only a half and inch long and not very deep (it's true what they say, that head wounds bleed far worse than a similar cut on any other part of the body)! So in the end the doctor decided not to glue it, or even bandage it. He just instructed me to leave it for 24 hours before washing his hair so that it would have a chance to start healing itself. It was actually a pretty anticlimactic end to an otherwise terrifying situation!
Now, if Rowan ever decides to shave his head he'll have a badass scar to show off!
It turns out what happened was; Rowan wanted out of the trailer and Liam was trying to help him but they couldn't get him out. So Liam got angry and frustrated with the situation and used one of the pails I mentioned earlier to take his frustration out on his little brother. Now, we've been working with Liam to help him figure out a way to manage his anger better, but apparently all of the work we've done flew out the window and he started beating his little brother with this pail (believe me, my chest tightens and my throat chokes just thinking about it). So Rowan not only has a gash on his head but there's also 3 or 4 bruises on his back and shoulders from being hit with this heavy plastic pail.
None the less, Liam was pretty scared during that ride into the hospital. Hopefully he'll remember that next time he feels frustrated and angry, no matter what the situation. I've been talking with him daily since this happened and I've been trying to instill in him the difference between good and bad choices. He is only 4 years old and he's still dealing with his emotions in a reactionary way so I'm sure I've got a lot of work ahead of me, but he's starting school in 2 months and I don't want this kind of thing happening on the playground (obviously).
Sigh, I'm sure I'm not raising a serial killer or anything, but sometimes I wonder just what is going through that little red head!
Liam and Rowan were outside playing in a trailer we've got parked in the driveway. It's a flatbed trailer with built up sides. It's empty except for the toys the boys have been loading in it. They've been pretending to fish with these heavy duty sand pails that have ropes attached to them (they've been made into stilts, you stand on the upside down bucket and hold the ropes to keep the buckets on your feet while you walk). Liam can climb in and out of the trailer easily enough but Rowan is too short and uncoordinated to get in and out on his own. Liam can boost him into the trailer but he can't get Rowan out again.
So after swimming lessons and a full day of work (for me) and daycare (for the boys) they were playing outside while I was in the kitchen making dinner (basically I told them to get outside and leave me alone so I could get dinner done faster). Neil wasn't home yet, he'd been working late the last couple of nights.
So I look out the window to check on the boys every few minutes and they're playing happily in the trailer (no doubt catching plenty of salmon). I had turned back to making dinner for less than a minute when I heard Rowan start to cry (I ignored it to begin with because one or the other of them is always crying, don't judge me, I know you do it with your kids too). Then Liam is at the door bawling and yelling for me to come help. I go to the door and ask him what's wrong and through sobs and tears he tells me Rowan is bleeding, but he wouldn't tell me where he was bleeding from or how badly.
So I calmly put my shoes on, telling Liam to calm down, and head outside to assess the damage. At this point I'm pretty sure the details are being exaggerated and it's nothing more than a scratch. However, once I get closer to Rowan I can see that it's not a scratch and there's blood everywhere! His neck and shirt are covered in blood and when I pull him out of the trailer I can see that the blood is seeping through his baseball cap and running down his head. At this point I figure I've got a serious head injury on my hands and both the boys are crying and upset so I know I've got to keep my cool and not freak out or it'll just scare them even more.
I carry Rowan into the house trying to decide if I should remove his cap to see just how bad it is, I immediately decide against this because I'm seeing visions of a chunk of his scalp peeling from his head and know I won't be able to deal with that. So I make the decision to take him to the hospital. I grab my purse and keys and load the kids into the car. I did remember to chain up the dog so she wouldn't run away or get hit on the highway, but I forgot to lock the house and turn off the oven (thankfully, it was just warming up and I hadn't actually put dinner in to cook yet)!
The whole 10 minute drive into the hospital Liam is asking if Rowan will need a needle or stitches or if he's going to die... I really just wanted to tell him to shut up because I was wondering all of that myself, but I remained calm and assured both of them that the doctors and nurses would take good care of Rowan. Surprisingly, Rowan did very well and only sniffled and whimpered a few times during the drive and when I asked him how he was feeling he said "Good" in this quiet, sweet little voice.
I had texted Neil and left him a voicemail message but I didn't know if he had his phone on him, he tends to leave it in the truck while he's working so that he doesn't get interrupted every 10 minutes. I just kept hoping that he'd get my messages soon and meet us at the hospital.
Once we arrived at the ER the nurse asked me how bad it was and I confessed that I wasn't sure because I hadn't removed the cap yet. She smiled at me and said she wouldn't have removed it either if he was her kid. But she sat him down on the gurney and had him take the cap of himself.
Once the cap was off you could see that it wasn't as bad as it looked, in fact, you couldn't even see the cut for all the hair covering it. The doctor came in almost immediately and did a cursory examination but Rowan wouldn't let anyone touch him but me and when the doctor mentioned trying to glue and bandage the cut Rowan freaked out and kept saying "I no want to Mommy, I no want to". It almost broke my heart :(
So the doctor asked the nurse to give him some kind of medication that would calm him down. It was in a syringe that she squirted up his nose (that was fight too, to keep him still and his hands away from his face so she could administer it). In less than 10 minutes he was dopey and glassy eyed and we proceeded to clean the blood from his hair and from around the cut.
It turned out that the cut was only a half and inch long and not very deep (it's true what they say, that head wounds bleed far worse than a similar cut on any other part of the body)! So in the end the doctor decided not to glue it, or even bandage it. He just instructed me to leave it for 24 hours before washing his hair so that it would have a chance to start healing itself. It was actually a pretty anticlimactic end to an otherwise terrifying situation!
Now, if Rowan ever decides to shave his head he'll have a badass scar to show off!
It turns out what happened was; Rowan wanted out of the trailer and Liam was trying to help him but they couldn't get him out. So Liam got angry and frustrated with the situation and used one of the pails I mentioned earlier to take his frustration out on his little brother. Now, we've been working with Liam to help him figure out a way to manage his anger better, but apparently all of the work we've done flew out the window and he started beating his little brother with this pail (believe me, my chest tightens and my throat chokes just thinking about it). So Rowan not only has a gash on his head but there's also 3 or 4 bruises on his back and shoulders from being hit with this heavy plastic pail.
None the less, Liam was pretty scared during that ride into the hospital. Hopefully he'll remember that next time he feels frustrated and angry, no matter what the situation. I've been talking with him daily since this happened and I've been trying to instill in him the difference between good and bad choices. He is only 4 years old and he's still dealing with his emotions in a reactionary way so I'm sure I've got a lot of work ahead of me, but he's starting school in 2 months and I don't want this kind of thing happening on the playground (obviously).
Sigh, I'm sure I'm not raising a serial killer or anything, but sometimes I wonder just what is going through that little red head!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Ahh, the life of a Homeowner/Wife/Mother...
and not necessarily in that order!! It's absolutely amazing how life throws you those little curve balls that can totally fuck up your day...
A week and a half ago during the torrential downpour that flooded Dawson Creek and surrounding areas (hehe, I sound like a weather broadcaster) our sump pump jammed and our basement flooded!! It was pretty bad. There was anywhere from 2 to 6 inches of water throughout the whole basement. And to make matters worse, we're not the neatest or most organized of people. We had boxes (and boxes and boxes...) of stuff in the one room. Our computer room (which is also where the guns, hunting and camping gear is stored) had carpet in it which needed to be pulled up and disposed of. The laundry room and cold room got the worst of it. We lost a couple of bags of potatoes and I swear I've never done so much laundry in my life (which is probably why there was so much dirty laundry on the floor of the laundry room in the first place)!
All I can say is "Thank God for parents"!!! Mine and Neil's parents both came over to help with the initial clean up. It was a little crazy, especially with the kids running amuck. But we got plenty done that first day and we've been plugging away at it almost every day since. I tell you, it's a good thing it's summertime and all of my TV shows are in reruns or I'd have some tough choices to make!
We're still working on tearing out the walls and flooring. Everything that was in the basement has been sorted through and we've thrown out everything that was badly damaged. However, we can't move everything from the basement upstairs, we've got no room (which is why it was in the basement in the first place, I think I mentioned the storage factor). So now we're shuffling everything from one room to the next while tearing apart walls and ripping up flooring. It's a bit of a nightmare. But I suppose it needed to happen eventually and now's as good at time as any.
We've started the claim process and the insurance adjuster figures that the whole tear out and rebuild will cost approximately $25,000 - $30,000!?! So I guess that's a bonus since we'll be doing all the work ourselves, it's like cash in our pocket!
I've got other stories to tell, but I don't want to waste all of my good material on one post, so I'll wait and try to post again tomorrow!
A week and a half ago during the torrential downpour that flooded Dawson Creek and surrounding areas (hehe, I sound like a weather broadcaster) our sump pump jammed and our basement flooded!! It was pretty bad. There was anywhere from 2 to 6 inches of water throughout the whole basement. And to make matters worse, we're not the neatest or most organized of people. We had boxes (and boxes and boxes...) of stuff in the one room. Our computer room (which is also where the guns, hunting and camping gear is stored) had carpet in it which needed to be pulled up and disposed of. The laundry room and cold room got the worst of it. We lost a couple of bags of potatoes and I swear I've never done so much laundry in my life (which is probably why there was so much dirty laundry on the floor of the laundry room in the first place)!
All I can say is "Thank God for parents"!!! Mine and Neil's parents both came over to help with the initial clean up. It was a little crazy, especially with the kids running amuck. But we got plenty done that first day and we've been plugging away at it almost every day since. I tell you, it's a good thing it's summertime and all of my TV shows are in reruns or I'd have some tough choices to make!
We're still working on tearing out the walls and flooring. Everything that was in the basement has been sorted through and we've thrown out everything that was badly damaged. However, we can't move everything from the basement upstairs, we've got no room (which is why it was in the basement in the first place, I think I mentioned the storage factor). So now we're shuffling everything from one room to the next while tearing apart walls and ripping up flooring. It's a bit of a nightmare. But I suppose it needed to happen eventually and now's as good at time as any.
We've started the claim process and the insurance adjuster figures that the whole tear out and rebuild will cost approximately $25,000 - $30,000!?! So I guess that's a bonus since we'll be doing all the work ourselves, it's like cash in our pocket!
I've got other stories to tell, but I don't want to waste all of my good material on one post, so I'll wait and try to post again tomorrow!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)