Sleepless...

It's 520am right now... EST that is.

But I woke up at 4am or so... stayed in bed as much as I could ... but I couldn't go back to sleep.   Mind as well get up and write a review (which I did).   Now, I am waiting.   Starving but I can't eat.... you see my surgery is today!

So I need to be at the hospital at 8am.    And make sure I am there on time because if not - I will beb bumped.   Kids are at the inlaws...  Weird to have a house without kids around....  sooooo quiet suddenly.

My surgery time is at 10am.   I learned yesterday that they will put a catheter behind my knee and I will have some sort of bottle with anesthetic in it for 48 hours...   Hubby will have to remove the catheter himself... and if there is problem when doing so on Friday - go to the hospital!   Great!    This thing is as big as a baby bottle (more larger though) and will contain anesthetic for the leg... bottom line is that I won't feel a thing with this for 48 hours.   Then another 24 hours to get back the sensation in the leg.   MmmmM!   Not sure I will enjoy this.   When I had the same kind of surgery on the left foot when I was 17 (or was it 18) I didn't had it.   I just endured the pain.   I guess there is a lot of people who don't want any pain.   Mind you that was 18/19 years ago.... and it was in Quebec so things have changed since then... but in my personal live (well I do live in Ontario now!) and in the medical world....

So I am having a forefront reconstruction and bone graft...   Below is my x-ray that was done earlier this year!   See my right foot?   That's the one who will get operated this morning.    Left one was done when I was a teenager but what a job it was... not so great.   So my right big toe is turning towards my left foot.   My doctor will correct that which explains the bone graft.   She will use part of the bone she will remove to fix the toe.  

I should be back at home sometime this afternoon.   Groogy more than likely but we shall see.   Than it's 6 weeks in a partial cast.   I bought a boot and my crutches yesterday.   I had to wash my feet for 3 minutes last night and another time with something different today...  Boy!   Let me tell you that I never washed my feet for that long before.   3 minutes is a looooong time believe.  Try it just for fun!!!!   It's unbelievable.   3 minutes on 1 foot.   Geeez!    Make sure you time it... but doing this it's take quite some time... LOL

Counting down the days...

... only two more days and then it will be the surgery.   I admit that I am a bit stressed...  I wonder why?   I went through worse than that.   I guess it is just the fact that I am having yet another surgery and I am not looking forward to it...  Hubby says that I will be glad next summer that it is done.   Sometimes I wish that I wouldn't have to go through it. *sigh*

Here's the number of surgeries I had in the past...

5 year old - tonsils removed,
Teenager - left knee surgery because of a tored ligament
17 or 18 - removal of the bunion on the left foot - crappy job done... but hey it doesn't hurt
1997 - Gallbladder
June 2001 - c-section for Alexandre
Feb 2004 - c-section for Dominic (he was 10 days late so no induction because of previous c-section)
Nov 2005 - c-section for Jérémy (can't vbac anymore because of previous c-sections...)
Dec 2007 - c-section for Jasmine (three weeks earlier than due date because of previous c-sections)

and now this week - Nov 2008 - a forefoot reconstruction with bone graft.

2 days not walking on it... 6 six no driving...  and after 6 more weeks no impact sports or dancing.   But I will be ready for summer!  *grin*

I am thankful to have the best surgeon in the city to do it.   I trust her ... even if I met her only 2 times so far.   She knows what she is doing...   after all she has cases worse than mine.  It was a long wait but it was worth it.

French TV Show - Passe-Partout

Passe-Partout was a tv shows in the 70s in Quebec...   It was geared to young kids ages 3-6 years old...

Quebec decided to create their own preschool show after debating if they will translate Sesame Street or not.   And I think it was a good idea.    Oh don't take me wrong Sesame Street is great but Passe-Partout was wonderful and believe me when I say translating shows sometimes misses some of the quality.   Personally I think that the only company who does a great job at translating their movies would be Disney.

So back to Passe-Partout.   A few years ago, someone had the idea of bringing back the episodes on DVD.... and since then we have now 5 sets of DVDs on the market.    We actually own 4 of them.  The fifth one came out this week...   And I am going to do to Costco to see if they have it.

Passe-Partout is a must in our household.   Being French-Canadians we want our kids to be exposed as much as possible to French.   They pick up English pretty good thank you and some have the tendency to speak in English before French.  So now we try to have them speak in French first.   So if they speak in English, we ask them to say the same thing in French.   If they have trouble then we say the sentence and need to repeat behind us.   Voilà.

If you want to know more about Passe-Partout check this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passe-Partout  and read about it.   If you are interested in buying them... well I just checked and they are listen on Amazon.com...   Check it out!  It's a good show to introduce kids to french.  Worth the money believe me!  and this is coming from a French-Canadian...

Celebrating life...

Last night, pass 8pm but before 9pm (sorry I can't remember the exact time - oupsy!), our friends the Driegers had their fourth baby - a boy this time after three marvelous little girls...   His name is Kieran John Driedger.    I can't wait to see him.    Now I will have to go shopping - LOL... boy stuff obviously.   Seem like Julia had enough of boy clothes though so I am thinking hard of what to buy him...   Boy toy maybe? Mmmmm!  

Shopping yes... but before next week for sure.    In exactly a week I am going to have my forefoot reconstruction with bone graft?   What?    You read properly...  simply said I have a bunion on my right foot and it hurts a lot.   So here's what Dr. Gartke will do:  Open my foot and cut the bone from the bunion, the big toe is curving toward the outside so she will have to correct that with a bone graft which will be taken from the part remove earlier.   It's a day surgery and hopefully I shouldn't have complication...  

I had a bunion remove on the left foot when I was 17 or what this 18....?    But the job back then was bot done properly.  But this foot is not hurting so there is no need to go in and correct whatever has not being done properly.   Bottom line is if it doesn't hurt - don't touch it.   I like her philosophy...  

Do I look forward to it?  Partly yes, partly no.   Yes because the pain will be gone... No well I can't drive for 6 weeks.  Fortunately it will be Christmas time....  but still... cold winter.... can't wear a boot and the cast is only a half foot one...  Bummer.    So we bought BIG socks and see how I can wear these.  And I still have my grand-father moccasin which are quite large.  

I will survive...  I know... but still I am a bit stressed about it.  SO please keep me in your prayers until next Wednesday...  Remind me I need to call the doctor office to see when the hospital is supposed to call me for pre-op...

I have the best doctor in town...   I know because of her reputation.   I am in good hands.  Thank you Lord for bringing me to her.

Done

It took two days to put two coats of fresh paint in our school room.  The little room is located in the front of the house.  From the window we can see the porch and the street.   The wall are blue-grey kind of color.   Thanks to my in-laws I will be able to move some furniture soon....

For tonight, we are washing the carpet with our machine and then we will put the humidifier for the night to remove the humidity...

Hopefully, tomorrow morning I will be able to move the bookcases and the desks as well as starting to put the books at their proper place...

So exciting!   Can't wait to have it complete...

Oh!  And I need to bake a cake for Jérémy as his birthday party is on Sunday...

Painting...

... finally the time as come!!!

We emptied the rest of the school room on Sunday and left a message to my in-laws.  They showed up this morning with their painting gear.   Today, it was fixing the little holes, preparing the room and putting the white on the baseboards, around the door and window, the door itself (which I had to prepare with tape because it's a French door), the crown moulding and the ceiling.

Tomorrow - it's the walls that will be covered with a lighter blue than the one in my office.    I can't wait to be able to put the  furniture in and set it up....   I'm ALL excited about it.  Yeah!  Finally - the mess will disappear....

In the meantime, hubby still have to install a few things on the new school PC.    Can't wait to be all set-up.    I promise to post some pictures...

Educating through the status line in Facebook...

I am sort of fed-up with some status lines in Facebook....    I don't mind learning when a new baby is born and so on... but honestly I don't really care about whoever did clean their house or has a crappy day or is sick ... well you get the point!

So since I went back to Facebook, I am trying to keep my friendships low and I was wondering what to do with the status line.

While on our trip this summer, we went to some outlet stores in PA and in Maine.   In the Maine ones, there was an outlet from Reader Digest and I went in it.   We found christian books for the kids as well as a little treasure book for me.  The title is THe Teacher's Calendar (school year 2007-2008) a dayd-to-day Almanac to historic events, holidays, Famous Birthdays and more!  This book cost me 1$ !!!   And it has a lot of interesting facts.    I already had Every Day a Holiday by Silvana Clark but this one has something for every days of the year.    Mind you it's not the new edition (as they print a new one every year) and I have to be careful for certain things but the historic information is accurate.

So every day - from Monday to Friday - I change my status... I then remove it on Saturday as I don't touch it during the week-end....

For example:  Today is November 7th

Did you know that in 1885 at 9:30am (PT) the last spike was driven at Craigellachie, BC, completing the Canadian Pacific Railway's 2,980-mile transcontinental railroad track between Montreal (QC) (Hey I was born there!), in the east and Port Moody (BC), in the west?   HAPPY ANNIVERSARY CP!!!

Did you know that Marie Sklodowska Curie was born in 1867?   She was a polish chemist and physicist.  Born in Warsaw, Poland.   In 1903, she was awarded with her husband, Pierre, the Nobel Prize for physics for their discovery of the element radium.  She died in Sallanches, France, in July 4, 1934.

Did you know that today is the anniversary of the republican symbol (1874)? Thomas Nast used and elephant to represent the Republican Party in a satirical cartoon in Harper's Weekly.  Today the elephant is still a well-recognized symbol for the Republican Party in political cartoons.

Did you know that today is the anniversary of the first black governor elected?  In 1989, L. Doublas Wilder was elected governor of Virginia, becoming the first elected black governor in US history.   Now, Nov 4th 2008 will be the anniversary of the first african-american president....!

I love this little book and now I can change my status line and "educate" my friends at the same time... *Grin*

 

Pondering on what to write...

Geez!  I never thought I would have the writer's block...  But I am pondering on what to write...  You see I have to submit something on homeschooling.   And if my text is selected then I will be published in an e-book.   So I already have something in mind - I just need to take the time to put them on paper (or in this case in Word)....   It's just that there is no two days the same in this house... For example, today we had the annual family picture to get done at 10 am.   So I sent my 7 year old to do some Rosetta Stone while we prepare the rest of the crew....   No problem there.   But he didn't do his workbooks and it kind of bother me in a way.    I don't want to stress about it...

Honestly, I find it hard to be splitted in four.  Giving attention to Alexandre, Dominic, Jérémy and Jasmine and trying to teach.    Most days, I give Alexandre his assignments and then I try to work with Dominic with Jérémy following....   Mmmmm!   The school room is not done yet and I can't wait to have that finished.   Wish it would be done miraculously....   Hey I can dream...

So today is not quite lost after all...  Alexandre spent some time on the site of Time4Learning which I will write a review for in the weeks to come.   Alexandre can easily do some things there by himself.  Dominic and Jérémy ? that's another story.  Dominic is too fast and doesn't listen to the instructions... Jérémy is having trouble with the mouse...    So I do it for him but he gives me the answers.

Now back to my text I need to write...   How can I find the words to explain how homeschool is done in our house.   I think I will start with what I wrote for the newsletter of our association in town about reflections from a 1st year homeschooler and go from there.....  explain the differences between last year and this year - now if I can only find the time to sit down and write without disruptions....

Art with Vegetables and Fruits

Okay, I think this is well done... Not sure I would attempt it though.  

However, I wonder why thesong Brown Eye Girl is attached to it....   I would have picked something with vegetables on it like the song in French....Tous Les Légumes which I learned when I was in the girl guides - looooooog time ago!

Tous les légumes
Au clair de lune
Étaient en train de s'amuser HÉ !
(En faisant le HÉ!, on saute dans l'air en faisant un tour sur soi-même et en levant un bras)
Ils s'amusaient HÈ!
(En faisant le HÈ!, on saute dans l'air en faisant un tour sur soi-même et en levant un bras)
Tant qu'ils pouvaient HÈ !
(En faisant le HÉ!, on saute dans l'air en faisant un tour sur soi-même et en levant un bras)
 Et les passants les regardaient...
(S'arrêter et mettre la main en visière et regarder alternativement de gauche à droite)

Les cornichons tournaient en rond
(Tournoyer sur soi-même vers le centre du cercle)
Les artichauds sautaient à petits sauts
(Faire des petits sauts désordonnés)
Les céleris valsaient sans bruit
(attrapper la personne la plus près et valser avec elle)
Et les choux-fleurs se dandinaient avec ardeur
(Se plier légèrement vers l'avant et se dandiner à reculons pour reformer le cercle)

Check how to dance the French song from this video....