Vaaaacaaationnnn!!!

Haha the travel bug has officially bitten this Mama's impressive behind for sure.

As you know, I took the boys on vacation to Jamaica in February/March. I haven't gotten around to blogging about it until now though.

It was amazing! I'm in love, with the place, the people, the food, the everything.

I've always had a soft spot for Jamaica (D-Man is 1/2 Jamaican lol so of course I would) and this vacation just went to show how amazing it was. It's soooooo beautiful there. The people are so nice, and even though there is poverty we never felt unsafe.

We flew into Montego Bay, and were bussed to our hotel in Negril (Beaches Sandy Bay) which as of Sept will no longer be a Beaches property. The boys were both amazing on the flight. Mister M got to watch TV, sit by the window, talk with the flight crew (Westjet is the best!) and D-Man slept 90% of the flight there lol.

It was beautiful. We had a ground floor room, with a patio, you could see the ocean and the gardens from our door.

We had a little gecko that hung outside on the patio that the boys made friends with, and there were lots of beautiful birds that flew around all the time.

The food was wonderful! We stayed at an all inclusive resort so there were buffet style meals pretty much all day. It was great for us because we could eat when the kids were hungry instead of at scheduled times, or when we could find a place.

We spend a lot of time on the beach, playing in the sand, soaking up the sun, swimming in the ocean. That was the main goal for this trip, to just relax as a family and have fun together. We didn't plan on doing a million things once we were there, just chilling.

We made some awesome friends too, E and K are both amazing men, who I still keep in contact with. They were great with the kids, showing us some neat things we wouldnt' have seen normally and spending time with us.

We did go on a few excursions though. We went into Negril and looked around, it was pretty neat, and we went on a tour through a couple Parishes to Black River. Once we were there we got to go on a boat cruise through the black river and see crocodiles, birds, mangroves, and a million other beautiful things. It was so different from everything we've seen at home. The captain was great, very good at what he does, and Mister M really enjoyed seeing the crocodiles.

After our boat cruise we went to this awful little place (with an amazing view) for lunch. Honestly the worst meal we had the entire time... the staff acted like we were causing them problems by existing. There were a bunch of people from the US with us as we all felt the same.

After the awful lunch, we went to the most beautiful place I've ever seen. Its a little known spot called YS Falls. Gorgeous waterfalls, and an amazing mineral pool to wade in after. I think it was my favourite part of the entire trip. And I got to meet a cute boy too lol.

On our way back we drove through other parts of the parishes to see how the people really lived, and we even stopped at a road side stand for fresh crawdads. I don't eat them but Mister M really loved it, I was so impressed lol.

The flight back was awful, it was full of crying babies, D-Man had developed a cold just a few days before and was miserable and not sleeping the entire time. But luckily it was only 4 hours, and we were back in the cold, cold, cold March air :(

We will be going back to Jamaica for sure.

Tootsie

We've had an eventful summer in regards to animals around our house.

Mister M has a new pet hamster, which seems to be thriving (all other ones we used to have in Toronto never lived longer than 3 months). D-Man has two goldfish that we can't kill no matter what we do to them, so they're a perfect first pet lol.

We've been babysitting on the odd weekend, my best friends dog. She's a 6 year old Pug named Vayda and the boys just love her to bits.

We've also got a 14 year old tabby cat named Goblin. She's a duchess, a grand dame of a lady who knows her stuff, and still tolerates the kids, but will hide when she's had enough. She's very awesome, and a good pet for boys to have (and easy for mama to take care of lol)

We used to have two cats. The big 14 year old, and Mister M's kitten Tootsie. She was 4 years old, and a dwarf. She's had health problems since she was born but it never seemed to bother her before. But just last month the landlord accidentally let her out of the house, and because of her dwarfism she wasn't fixed so she went into heat and ran around with some boy cats.... and we all know how that works. She got pregnant.

But, her body was too small to carry the kittens so they miscarried, but... there were complications. She got sick, very very very sick.

TMI ALERT!!!!

Her uterus didn't expell the aborted fetuses and they rotted. Her uterus was filled with puss and leaking all over the place. She was dehydrated and sick.

I took her into the emergency vet ($130 later) and was told they could do the surgery to remove the uterus for a price of $2000+ but there was less than a 30% chance of survival, and she woulnd't live much more than a year or two afterwords. Or we could do the humaine thing, and put her down.

Hardest thing I've had to do. I had to go to my oldest, and tell him that his kitty, that he's had since he was 2 was dying. And that we had to take her back to the vet and put her to sleep so she wouldn't hurt anymore.

He cried, I cried, the baby had no idea what was happening and thought we were all nuts.

We took her back to the vet, and I went into the room with her. She was so sick she didn't even fight when they laid her down on the table to administer the needle.

I held her head and she was looking right at me, and then just like that she was gone.

We brought her home and burried her in the backyard. Mister M even had a homemade paving stone to mark her grave.

We miss her.

Summer fun 2012!

So like I mentioned before, it's the middle of summer vacation and we've already done a lot of fun stuff! I bought and built my very first barbeque, so exciting lol. I've got a nice deck, and now I have patio furniture, a bbq and everything I need to entertain back there (other than the time lol). I'm very excited about it!

We've done lots and lots of fun beach trips, and trips to the wading pool near our house too, the boys are so tanned it's hillarous. They look like they're wearing skin coloured shorts when they're in the bath because of their tan lines.

We've managed to spend a lot of time with friends, going out for dinners, entertaining at our place, the usual. It's so nice to finally be able to have people over without any problems, when I lived in Toronto I hardly ever got to see my friends, and now that we all have places, cars and jobs it makes everything a lot more fun lol.

The boys and I have gone on some day trips too, the best one was the Toronto Zoo. They both loved it and we had a blast! D-Man is getting to the age where he knows his animals and likes to see them. We even got to see a lot of them up close which doesn't happen usually. They also got to touch sting rays and sharks, and play in the splash pad! I'm hoping to be able to get back there before it gets too cold, maybe for the Halloween experience, we'll see :)

I love having a car now! It's so nice to be able to decide at the last minute to just pack up and go to Toronto for fun things like the zoo and not worry about train and bus schedules. I don't know how I ever managed without one.

We've got to go to some local fairs too, we go to the Quaker Oats Picnic every year with my grandmother (she worked there for 35 years) which is always fun, the boys like it, although this year Mister M didn't have as much fun because he didn't have anyone to ride the rides with and D-Man was too small to be able to do a lot of them, but I'm hoping to take Mister M to Wonderland by the end of the month just the two of us, so he'll get to do everything. I haven't been in years and years so I'm quite excited too.

Ooops, worst blogger ever!

Argh so yet again I suck at blogging. I've got tons and tons to update everyone on so this post will just be playing catch up, then I'll do some more about specifics :) So, it's the middle of summer vacation. Mister M is adapting well to not being at school, although I wish I had a bit more money to send him to a camp or something, I think he'd really like that. D-Man is still in daycare so that isn't a change for him at all.

I've been working a variety of jobs, as a Field Guide at a berry farm, a private home care PSW and most recently as a technical support advisor for a computer company who shall remain nameless :) I always said I'd never go back to working at a call centre, but this isn't too bad, I like the people, the job actually doesn't suck and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I'll be finished school in a year and a half! So come September 2013 I'll be writing my provincial exams and should be a RPN by October!!!!! Sooooo excited lol, now just keep fingers crossed that I'll pass everything lol. We're now totally settled into our new place, and even know some of the neighbours. We really lucked out and the people who live behind/beside us (we're on the corner) are a single mom and her two sons, aged 8 and 6. Mister M is thrilled, he finally has friends his own age to play will all the time, and they always make sure to include D-Man too which I think is amazing of them.

Some exciting things are happening with me on a personal level too, I might have met someone that I can start a relationship with. He's taking it slow because of me (MAJOR COMITTMENT ISSUES HERE) but he's coming down this weekend to meet my kids, and see how that goes. I've never introduced anyone to the boys before so it's something pretty serious. Hopefully they all like eachother, if not, my kids come first. But I figure if I like him, then the boys will. Mister M is the important one, D-Man doesn't really care yet but since it effects them both this is a big step in our lives. The man, I'll call him R for now, is a bit older than me, I'm 24 and he's 36. He has three kids that he gets every other weekend (and during the week too if they want, he's got a decent relationship with their mother). The kids are all older 15,11 and 8. He has his own home, care and a good job which is important to me, I don't want to support someone else I've already got two men who depend on me for everything. I'm excited to see where this will go! I'll keep you posted. The next blog will be more about all of our summer fun so far, we've managed to cram a lot in there in a few short weeks for sure! Until then... take care :)

Psychology Assignment 7

It appears to be working! My idea of how to transfer my studied knowledge from short term to long term memory was to have a study partner quiz me, and since I don't want to appear dumb it'll spur me on.

I've noticed that I've been able to retain more information than before. I've also been able to retain it longer, and put it to practical use in real life. Which is another way of retaining knowledge that I didn't think of trying (at least consciously).

My friend is also a wonderful teacher, knows how to explain the things that I don't understand, and make it so that they make sense. Which I wasn't able to do on my own. I feel that understanding what I need to be studying also helps with the ability to retain the information. I'm still under a lot of stress (I'm a single mom I work and I'm a student so it's a given), so I know that I may not be able to recall as much as I would be able to under perfect conditions, but it's a start.

I've found that through doing these blogs I've developed a better understanding of the topics I chose, and I hope that you readers have also learned a thing or two (or at least that you've stuck around until the good stuff comes back).

This is my last post about the psychology assignment, next week I'll be posting all about our Jamaican vacation we took back in Feb-March. I've got a million pictures to share too! And some stories about ~very~ cute Jamaican boys you don't want to miss!

Psychology Assignment 6

One of the biggest problems I've been having this year as a nursing student is with my memory. Especially in anatomy and physiology. I can study all I want, but I do not retain the information that I need. My brain refuses to hold it in.

During class we talked about the stages of memory. Sensory memory, just needs to retain enough information to remember not to bump into walls, trip over our own feet, touch a hot pan simple things like that. Short term memory helps us remember if we locked the door, where we set that book we were just reading, the names of celebrities latest flings ect. Long term memory is what enables us to keep and retain information for use at some point in the future. It can be lost, but not as easily as short term memory.

Where I'm having the most difficulty is transfering the information that I study from short term to long term memory. There are different ways to do that, but what I've been trying so far is repetition and recall. It's not working though.

I study, study, study and then test myself, but it's just not sticking around enough. I try to give myself enough time to get it all together but with all the different amounts of information I need to know, for school, work and life it's hard finding room in my poor overworked brain.

I need a better way to transfer things from short term to long term, and I don't think I'm going to be able to do it on my own.

My idea is to get a friend, who is already a nurse, to help me study. The challenge of not wanting to appear stupid in front of him should give me that extra push I need to retain the knowledge. And I hope that it will help come exam time. We have our first study session planned for later this week, so we'll see how it goes.

Psychology Assignment 5

So it's been two weeks since I've started the official operant conditioning of D-Man's hitting habit. It's still a work in progress but it's slowing improving.

I know that my parenting technique involves a lot of psychology (no matter how much I claim to not like or pay attention to it). I use operant conditioning all the time to teach my kids, the same as my parents did with me. It's just way more official when I'm giving details out instead of just doing it instinctively.

So we're all almost healthy again, the boys are over their colds, and I'm getting better slowly. D-Man has improved over the last two weeks. He'll still swing out when he's mad, but he's stopped smacking his brother all the time. He's changed to yelling at everyone, but since I yell too, I know where he gets it from. Yelling I don't mind as much (I'll still try to stop it, but to me hitting is way worse).

Fortunatly I've only had to resort to time outs twice. Both times were after a long day of daycare/babysitter while I was busy with school/work. To make matters more difficult, we're weaning from nursing during the day too. So his main method of comfort and soothing isn't there anymore. So not only does he need to learn how to act when he's mad, he has to find a different way of making himself feel better.

This process isn't going to take two weeks and be finished. I have a feeling that it will take a while, and be a life long learning experience.