How Long Is Yours?

December 24, 2007 Sugarpants Herself!

Oh Looky! Emily fixed my blog! I loves her.

Meanwhile, these are the Things I still have left to do:

Return leased car to Mother-in-law (this will hurt – I love that car)
Grocery shop for the last bit of stuff we need
Shop for 1 more gift for Thomas (books) (Daren’s job)
Shop for stocking stuffers (Daren’s job)
Bake Kaluha Cake (recipe here)
Make green bean casserole to take to dinner (tomorrow)
Clean the house for in-laws to come over tonight
Laundry
Packing to go to Granny’s on Boxing Day
Try to substitute sitter for dog (or she will have to come with us – anyone in London want a horse for the holiday?)
Putty and touch up paint Jessica’s room (Sarcastica is coming to live with us – w00T!)

I hope you have a lovely holiday filled with warm memories of your family and friends!

How long is your “I Wish Santa Helped Out More” list?

Posted by Karen Sugarpants @ 10:52 am | 10 Comments

Recipe: Kaluha Cake

December 23, 2007 SugarRecipes

1 Yellow Cake Mix

1 Vanilla Instant Pudding

4 eggs

1/2 cup cold coffee

1/2 cup oil

1/4 cup Kaluha

Mix all of the above together with electric beater.

Pour into Bundt Pan.

Bake 1 hour @ 325 degrees.

Let stand in pan for 1 hour.

In a small pot, boil 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup coffee on medium heat for about 8 minutes. Remove from heat. Add 1/4 cup Kaluha. Pour over cake and let stand in pan another hour.

This is a family recipe we inherited from really good friends. I will be making it December 24th so when I do, I’ll take a picture and post it here. I do not own a Bundt Pan, so I’m going to bake a square cake and reduce the bake time.

Posted by Karen Sugarpants @ 10:59 am | 6 Comments

Taking Care of Business

December 21, 2007 SugarSpawn

Dylan’s 9th Birthday was yesterday. Every year I marvel at the fact that he grew yet again, and think back to the days when he was a mere football in Daddy’s arms, fragile with heart problems and a sweet, happy baby.

This morning Daren text messaged me from work to tell me that Dylan’s cardiologist and the only other pediatric cardiologist here have both been recruited to Winnipeg and will be leaving London in June 2008. For 3 years, the Children’s Hospital has been trying to recruit a 3rd pediatric cardiologist with no luck and now we’re going down to zero?

Well shit.

I’m not complaining for us — Daren and I have the means to make an annual trip to Children’s in Toronto for Dylan’s workup. What bothers me is the children who need these doctors more frequently than us – some of which are in the intensive care units with Kawasaki’s or something equally scary, or awaiting operations, or whatever.

What bothers me is that there are parents who can’t afford to travel to and stay in Toronto for care. The one day I went to visit my cousin Jessica in the Toronto Children’s Hospital after her last surgery, it cost me around $50, between parking and gas (it was only a day trip). $50 bucks I can afford. But to families that need care for their babies and kids, $50 wouldn’t even begin to cover the expenditures of having a child in a hospital 2 hours away, not to mention the toll it would take on a family with other children, or in home where the parents aren’t together, or any number of things.

London is not a small town. There are 350,000 people in this city, and the hospitals here help people for miles around, so I’m sure if you added it all up, the staff at London’s hospitals care for a lot more than 350K. I know this is a financially driven decision – that health care is a business. But, A contingency plan will be put in place if they don’t hire new doctors in time they say? NOT. GOOD. ENOUGH.
I could talk about the health care system up here and brag and say that most of the time, it’s really good. To be honest, in the entire world, there really is no place I’d rather be.

BUT.

Canadians boast about their “free” health care but we need to own it — we pay taxes that pay for health care and ought to be our own best advocates for it. Getting brushed off by the doctor is unacceptable. Waiting weeks or months for specialists is horrible. We pay for these services and I’m sick and tired of hearing that we ‘can’t switch family doctors because there aren’t any.’ The government needs to put some real money into the system!

Our health care system is fair, most of the time – I’ve had good care over the course of my life. But I’ve never had a major problem — the biggest things were the births of the kids (both smooth and fine) and Dylan’s Kawasaki’s Disease almost 9 years ago. For us, it’s been okay.

Having said that, I waited 8 months to get a therapist. There’s a lot that could have happened in 8 months. I could have gone a completely different way and destroyed myself, my kids, my marriage, taken my life, any number of things. Thankfully I leaned on the husband and he helped me to get through this time. Heck, he still is helping.

My family and I are extremely healthy, with the exception of Dylan’s heart. I’m grateful to be in the situations we are in, in terms of money, health and opportunities. Unfortunately, it isn’t like that for many people. These aren’t the first doctors we’ve lost here. I’m sure they won’t be the last.

It just makes me so very sad to know there are families here that need these guys.

Dr. Buffo & Dr. Pepelassis? We will miss you — both of you have been so kind to Dylan. Winnipeg is very lucky. And Dr. P? Dylan says hi to your son — the boys played video games together last year while Dylan was confined to a bed awaiting tests after a chest pain scare. Best of luck to you and your families.

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Also, I designed some buttons for a very worthy cause. Friday December 21st, 2007 is officially Frozen Pea Friday at Photrade and for every Pea photo you upload, we’ll donate $1.00 to the Frozen Pea Fund created for Susan Reynolds. (I have 3 more invites!) will donate to The Frozen Pea Fund – more info if you click the button: