Octogenerian is such a great word... I'd like to use it to describe my old car. Since 8 is an Octo of sorts. That's how long I've had her. 8 looong death defying years.







O is for orgasmic. This car, pictured here.. is completely orgasmic. When I test drove it, I was offered a towel to keep the leather safe. She doesn't have bumpers, so the UK model is not importable to Canada and the US version blows goats for pennies.











O is for onomatopoeia. Another of my favourite words.

Main Entry: on·o·mato·poe·ia
Pronunciation: "ä-n&-"mä-t&-'pE-&, -"ma-
Function: noun
Etymology: Late Latin, from Greek onomatopoiia, from onomat-, onoma name + poiein to make
1 : the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it (as buzz, hiss)
2 : the use of words whose sound suggests the sense
- on·o·mato·poe·ic /-'pE-ik/ or on·o·mato·po·et·ic /-pO-'e-tik/ adjective
- on·o·mato·poe·i·cal·ly /-'pE-&-k(&-)lE/ or on·o·mato·po·et·i·cal·ly /-pO-'e-ti-k(&-)lE/ adverb

O is for ordinary - which I am not. Never have been, never will be.

O is for Octopus Garden - when I was growing up, this was the name of my parents' business. For several reasons... one from the Beatles song, second because their business was fairly diverse and there were multiple 'tentacles' in which you could hang their business card off of in terms of what they did and lastly, my mom is a gardener by hobby. We had almost an acre of garden growing up and all our veggies were fresh from the garden, and lots of canning and freezing for the winters. The business name evolved into Octopus Audio Visual as their operating name later on, and eventually shortened to OAV... I think my dad still answers his phone on occasion with "Octopus" which now sounds like an odd name to a business...but I guess it stands out.

O is for Owen, Clive I first saw him in Beyond Borders with Angelia Jolie and then in Gosford Park and by the time Derailed came out, I was smitten. However, he is rumoured to be a Liverpool fan, which is almost unforgivable. Arsenal!

O is for out of any more things O. So I am going to ramble about my new car... and if you haven't guessed, I'm quite excited about it.

As previously mentioned, its a Saturn L200. Its colour is called Silver Blue. Its a metallic silvery blue, just as the name suggests. 4 dr, 4 cyl 2.2 litre, power windows, locks and heated power mirrors, factory alarm and immobilizer, LATCH system for the car seat, neutral beige cloth interior, am/fm cd stereo, side curtain airbags, and according to the order sheet it has a steering wheel (always good!) and 1 15" steel wheel (yes it says it in the singular terms). It has 45,000 kms on it and with the 2.2 engine, it has some get up and go for a 4 banger. I was reading online last night some reviews of the car and it has a decent rating and the consu mer re ports thingie also says it has a decent safety rating too. Now the previously mentioned clunk was indeed something to do with the steering system. It could have potentially been a deal breaker. However.. it will get repaired.
So due to waiting for fundage, it will arrive home with me a week today. I'm hyped..can you tell?

...cars.

Yipee... Fingers crossed that all goes well with the inspection report at the dealership tomorrow and if so, next week this woman will have a new car. A 2003 Saturn L200 in a very light metallic blue with power everything. It has 45,000kms on it and the balance of most of the warranty (good until Oct 2008). Paid a little more than we wanted to, but there are a few positives about it. The one I liked was one step down from this (an L100) and it more kms and no warranty but was 1750 cheaper than this one. And would you believe they gave me $1100 as trade in for my car?? And thats only because of the aluminum alloy rims and I have 5 - 4 on the car and a full sized spare. Thats $750 worth of aluminum *laugh*.

I had my tires rotated today and they discovered that my tie rods are about to snap and that the springs in the front are also gone... total work needed to be done is in excess of $1500 and I really need a new car because I need 4 doors and it wasn't worth putting in the $1500 to a dead horse. So off Bessie will go to the graveyard. If all goes well tomorrow, Sadie will be here early next week.

One of the movies I can watch repetitively is Sweet November.

N is for Neil Gaiman - if you haven't read his works, do so...his blog is linked over there...

N is for Nov 14th.

N is for Newfoundland... my comfort food might be moving back to NFLD next year... I'm gonna miss him if he does.. but hey, that means a couch to crash on for the George St Festival...

N is for newt... he was my favourite Hercules character.

N is for Numb3rs - I like this show

N is for new day - can't wait for it...

N is for Now - like right now please.

On Mother's Day, we will be participating in the F o r z a n i's Mother's Day W a lk n R un. A fundraising will go to the NICU and Special Care Nurseries in Calgary. Without these special places, Presleigh wouldn't be here today.

I'm also happy to be a mom to my beautiful girls.
It is also for all the mommies out there.

Please if you can sponsor us, please email me at alloneword at shaw dot ca or call me. If you can join us, we would love to have you spend the morning with us.

M is for Money - which I seem to be lacking alot of these days.

M is for Madison - my beautiful angel.

M is for my mom - my hero.

M is for T - her real name starts with an M, so this is just to bug her.

M is for mold. Something grew in my fridge and I am not sure what it was in a past life or how it got so hidden, but when I opened the fridge yesterday, there it was screaming to be let out.

M is for milk - lactose free milk to be exact. Someone tell me why its 5 times the price of regular milk? I realize that there is an extra process that it has to go thru, but surely it can't be that much more.

M is for more sleep... I need a nap.

Over there on my blog roll is Erin's blog (Jesus was not a republican). Erin and her husband are in the process of adopting a baby from Guatamala and have run into the hugest snag with getting their bundle of joy permanently theirs.

So the losers in the whole mess have made it impossible for Erin and many other families to take their children home.

So, if you are in the process of, know someone that is or someone that has adopted from Guatamala and has used an agency, please go read Erin's lasted post.
I can't begin to explain everything, so it is best to read it from the horses mouth.

L is for Larry - I dunno where Larry went but maybe he is still in the van outside the hotel in Vancouver? Did someone check?

L is for love. That could be 40 posts long. It is good, its bad, its real and everything in between.

L is for leaving on a jet plane... ok, I wish I was, it will be another 2 months before Im on a plane.

Since my KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK key is buggered, I'm not going to post, I am going to recycle an old post.

So KKKK is for Kristin...

Justice will be done. I guess.

The court order for sole custody went to maintenance enforcement in order for the court costs awarded to me to be collected by them.

It has now gone to a federal garnishee, personal property registry (no more licence plates/drivers licence) and he has been notified.

I think I might change my phone number. Its his birthday on Sunday, I am bracing for an alcohol induced rant.

My car insurance has gone down...finally. Granted though, I am still paying the equiv to the value of my car a year in insurance rates which is retarded. Maybe one day they'll institute no fault insurance here and I can go back to having $400 a year insurance premiums.

I is for health Insurance. I recently got new glasses and I spent a little more than I normally would on them as $100 of them was covered off by someone else, plus I had a 50% off coupon for the lenses. So my total bill with eye exam was $346.45 minus $100 from elsewhere, and I figured that I was getting $150 back from insurance total to cover both the exam and the glasses.
I got a cheque in the mail today for the entire $346.45 from insurance. So now I not only have free glasses, I also got $100. I did the happy dance.

I is also for lack of insurance. As of March 2, I no longer have extra health insurance. I was covered under Scott but he no longer works for a big blob, he is self employed. And while I am on personal leave from work, I am not covered. And that means that the girls have minimal coverage until I go back to work. Lets just cross our fingers and toes that I don't need anything til June.

I is for idiots. Idiots that drive with their fog lamps on when it is not foggy. Tonight I was so pissed off that I pulled over, made them go around me, threw on my high beams and then tailgated them for 3 blocks. Not that it probably bothered them since it was a half tonne truck and the tailgate probably blocked the lights.
I is also for idiots that don't look when they merge and cut people off and cause accidents. Lori got cut off on Hwy 2 doing 120kms an hr yesterday and hit the edge of the pavement/gravel and it sent her spinning out of control and totalled the company car. She's ok, she's exceptionally lucky. The car is in a million pieces and sitting somewhere near Lacombe.

I is for ..well I. I will cover this under K cause I've run out of K words doing Presleigh's alphabet.

...that I really need. I am going to Ontario in May for my high school reunion...eek! And then the girls and I are going back to Ontario for 2 weeks of fun and frolic on a beach. Of course this all depends on money coming to fruition.

H is for the movie The Holiday. I watched it on Peekvid
I must say this is a cool website. And the movie wasn't half bad either for a girl movie. I do like Jude Law. I also watched The Queen on there as well. Which was .. an alright movie, and I can see that Helen Mirren did a great job portraying the Queen... but, I'm not sure it was Oscar worthy. I'll have to ponder it more.

H is for holy hell batman. Ok, not really, I just put that in there because it will up my G o O gL e search returns. *laugh*

Ok, so yeah it is for holy hell batman. I wish I could figure these people out. Devin's mother and sister have made plans with me several times since Feb 1 and they continually back out for one reason or another. Yes, one time was my undoing because I started getting sick, but I have made every freakin effort with them, yet its my fault that they haven't seen Presleigh in months. It will be nearly a year since they've held her. But I'm done now... I have only gone this far for my own personal ..gain? So that in 15 yrs when it gets thrown in my face I can say that I made every effort to ensure that they saw her and yet they chose not to. Apparently C anadian T ire and F uture S hop are more important than your granddaughter/niece.

H is for hot shower... which is where I am going now in a last ditch effort to let the steam clear my sinuses since I can't take any good sleeping drugs or I will be useless to anyone and everyone.

Germs are what are in this house. We are all sick. I can't breathe thru my nose, my sinuses feel like they are the size of watermelons and my neck and back and arms just ache.

G is for goodies. Scott's mom makes these goodies at Christmas called Hello Dolly's. OMG these things are to die for. I know they're made with evaporated milk, chocolate chips, graham cracker crumbs, coconut, and walnuts... but they're soooooooo good. Its been a long time since I had had some, and I asked Scott to bring me back a couple from Christmas... she made me a special batch just for me... sad to say I ate them all.

G is for grapes. I had a contract to do and I got the most gorgeous cream and sugar set that matches my kitchen perfectly. I had made a utensil jug last fall with grapes and grape leaves and vines and this matches it to a T.

G is for Baby Gap. I love these clothes. I wish they were more affordable. I've managed to get some second hand and some on sale, but unless they're significantly discounted/garage sale items, I can't afford them. But the bonus is, when they out grow them, I can put them at the consignment shop.

G is for growing. My babies are growing so much. Presleigh is now 22.8 lbs, 10x her birth weight!

G is for girth. Which I need to get rid of. I am hoping I hear this week that I got on to X Weighted, but I am not holding my breath.

G is for good night. Which is where I'm going now...since I can't take Nyquil and be sane to deal with sick children, wish me luck.

Today my big girl turns fourteen. It is very hard to believe. Puberty, PMS and all the other challenges of being fourteen are here, however I must say that I am grateful that we are sane and despite the normal stuff, its pretty sane around here. I'm sure it will get worse in the next couple of years, but I am pretty blessed in that my daughter is a 'good girl'.

Sure we have our arguements and I get to the point of wanting to pull out my hair, but overall, she has pulled her socks up the past 8 months or so. She is on the honour roll at school, she is saving her money for her saxophone (and I must say she has done exceptionally well at it too!), she has stopped lying, and she is so good about coming home from school and hitting the books immediately.

This is such a change from last year!

So to my baby... Happy Birthday. I love you <------------------------------------------this much --------------------------------------------------------------------------------->

I don't have alot of friends, those that are my friends are close and I hold dear. They are important to me and they are very similar to me. I am not that great at keeping in contact with people, so when I say I may call and I don't - thats just me. As it is with my friends...we all operate the same. I don't hate you, I'm ok and life is just busy. Or I'm being lazy. Or procrastinating...or..

F is for forty. Thats when Colin and I have to get married. We agreed years ago that if we're not with someone/married by the time we're forty (our birthdays are days apart), then we have to get married to each other. ;-)
Four is for four hundred days... Presleigh is four hundred days old tomorrow.
I'm sure F stands for many other things, but at the moment, these will have to do.

... which this keyboard is not, thankfully. However, I have discovered in recent weeks that perhaps I ought to get one. I am not typing nearly as much as I used to and I found that a couple of hours online and my wrists and forearms just ache. This desk probably doesn't help either, however it is pretty and wrought iron and I like it.

E is for your ego.

E is for Elmo. Presleigh has a toy cell phone that sings Elmo's World when you open the flip. If I hear that damn song once more this week, I might hide the phone ;-)

E is for Enough. I saw this movie once before, but really I'm not a huge J. L O fan, but it was on this past weekend and I realized I could relate. Granted, I've never been in a physically abusive relationship (aside from a previously mentioned moment), I have been in emotionally abusive relationships and I want to be able to find that inner strength that her character did to 'fight back' and not allow it to happen again...to finally say enough.

Dear Dad,

D is for duped. Once again, you've lied, manipulated and duped me into believing. However, guess what? This time, my heart isn't breaking, and I'm not crying a river. I feel pity for you.

"Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees" and you're living on your knees.

And in answer to your question... no.

My car... my poor car. The check engine light has gone off with a key reset, thankfully. However... she needs to be replaced. Sooner rather than later. Bessie has a hard 178,000 on her and has been across Canada and to the states, but she has failed me too many times for me to feel sorry for her.

C is for creativity. None of which I have lately. I have all these crochet projects on the go, half finished. I have no desire to finish my house as of late, despite having wonderful ideas. I think my creativity left with the Christmas spirit.

C is for Cricket. My soul sistah. She has vanished in a poof of reality but I still miss her terribly.

And lastly, C is for cookies. I have a terrible craving for English Bay white chocolate and macedamia nut cookies. Must. Find. Cookies.

My beautiful babies... they are growing up so fast. School, activities, now being healthy and safe, growing up right before my eyes.

Sometimes I resent being a single mom. I resent the fact that promises made are broken, I resent being treated with another b word, bad behaviour... and I resent those that don't want part of their children's lives. Financially its a struggle, but somehow I manage to make it work.

But on the other hand, I love it. It is up to me and only me.

B is also for as mentioned, bad behaviour. In recent months I have come to peace with my life and where I'm at in it. But I simply refuse to tolerate crap anymore from anyone. Don't make me promises you can't keep, don't tell me you're going to do x and not even make an effort.

B is also for boys... they suck :-)

My granny, whom I have posted about several times in the past, suffered from Alzheimer's. Even in her deluded state she was still an amazing woman with a wicked sense of humour and an insatiable desire for ice cream.

Her artwork, as seen here, was her life. She loved crafting with us as children and then with my daughter and niece. She did incredible pieces, some of which were housed at 24 S u s s e x as well as the N ational A rt G allery after being commissioned by some higher ups.






Her job until she retired was writing army contracts for the federal government and she taught rug h o o k i n g at nights. When she retired from the federal gov't, she taught night classes until she was well into her 80s and she even managed to get her driver's licence every year after 80 until we finally took it away when she got lost and ended up in Montreal and my father had to drive 5 hours to rescue her from the QPP.

When Alzheimer's started to ravage her body and mind, she knew it wasn't right or Ok and she at times seemed at peace with it, and others seemed to be genuinely afraid of it. She may not have known who we were as the end drew near, but even with that, she still blew kisses and her heart sent out love to whomever was near...all of which was genuine.

The last thing I said to her was the day I left when she returned from the hospital after her forgetting her keys was "Bye bye my sweet Granny, I'll see you in my dreams." and I am grateful that I got to say goodbye, albeit several months before she was gone, and at least she knew it.

Since Penny & Mossy and Steph and several others played, I decided that since my blog has been seriously lacking in posts in recent months, that I guess I need to jump on the bandwagon and play the Alphabet Game.

The gist is - a post a day (ish) and each post must be on the theme of the word that starts with the next letter in the alphabet...

So it shall begin.