There is outrage in Canada over a dog that died because the owner couldn't cough up the $1600 deposit required for treatment.

It is nice to see outraged Canadians over a dog.  In the US, this happens all the time to PEOPLE- like chemo treatments have to be prepaid and the insurance is supposed to reimburse you later. When my husband had cancer in Idaho, the oncologist wanted all the money up front for his chemo.  We were only able to negotiate a pay half now and 4 month payment plan for the rest because hubby's dad was a family doc and they had met, so it was a favor. 

The hospital kept asking for money up front and I kept giving them the 15% copayment saying you'll have to bill insurance.  We were still trying to settle with insurance for the surgeries and hospital costs more than two years later as they kept trying to get out of everything.  And even still, there was an $38.38 charge that slipped through cracks between us and insurance at the hospital that showed up on our credit report 5 years later when we went to buy a house! 

Here in Canada, I just went through a major health crisis with kidney stones.  All the lab tests, ultrasounds, ER visits, prescriptions, doctor visits... that would have cost about $15,000 in US health system.

Canadians are constantly complaining about their health system.  They don't seem to have a clue how good they have it!  And apparently they are so civilized up here, that even health coverage for dogs is an issue!

In the US media, with many of the discussions on the recent healthcare law, Canada keeps getting mentioned as a socialist country.  We moved to Canada in February 2007 and I experienced a big shock about how more privatized it was than the US.  Below is a repost from a blog entry I made in November 2008 on this topic.

Is Canada socialist other than its universal health care system?
QUESTION left on one of my blog entries:

ANSWER @UFFda_oyVEY - Many Canadians would say they have some socialist programs, but have mostly a capitalistic economy. There is a lot of variation from province to province on this.  In Alberta, we pay $44/mo per person for our health card and there are residency requirements, whereas you see in the movie Sicko people in Ontario not having any cost. [update: since this post, Alberta no longer requires a monthly payment per person. And I also didn't mention Albertans still pay for dental, prescription drugs and eyecare.]

Think about what things in the US are "socialized" (or some people call it "Federalized.) The post office, the schools, social security, welfare, etc. 

For our experience, we have found Alberta to be VASTLY WAY MORE PRIVATIZED than the US.  In Alberta there are many instances where the funds still come from the government, but the service has been contracted out to private companies to provide.  Many of these work just fine like your post office is in convenience stores, drug stores, etc.  You go to various private companies called registries to get your drivers license, business incorporation, license plates, etc.  Public & Private schools compete for the same pool of government funds so there are specialty schools for religions, athletics, dance, science and immersion in many different languages.

Segments of regulation are even privatized here. To set up my dayhome, I had to go through a "Family Dayhome Agency" which is a private company that has been contracted by the government to approve me and monitor me monthly. There are 6 different companies that do this in Edmonton. I could offer my service privately, but it would be considered babysitting and one of my moms who is poor and single would not be able to access subsidy for her childcare.

Another example of the government contracting with a private company that affects us directly  here Edmonton is the whole recruitment and signup process for fosterparenting and adoption of foster children. I'm not sure that making money off of providing social services to children is ever a good idea.

And then there is pure de-regulation. The Gas company we randomly picked when we moved here has terrible marketing practices. They run two businesses with the same logo & similar names & through their website we accidently signed up for their unregulated bad 5 year contract. We come from Idaho where a 5 year contract for your utility is unimaginable. And this company has marketers that knock on your door at 9pm at night trying to get you to sign up for additional services.

The 2008 Canadian listeriosis outbreak can heavily be blamed on the Conservative Harper government's policy that food companies should regulate themselves.  And you can see that Maple Leaf did a very poor job of self-regulation!

As I've said many times, Canada is no Utopia. There are still major issues up here.  We moved here in 2007 for many reasons like the political differences, the cultural focus on family and to avoid the pending US Economic explosion.  I want to say, if anyone is looking to move, its a great place to live. Here in Edmonton, the unemployment recently fell to 3.4% while in the US, joblessness has hit 10 million people.  The US unemployment rate is now at Clinton era levels - 6.1% and is expected to continue growing to 8 - 8.5% next year.  This article even mentions 10 - 11% unemployment if an auto company fails.   If you are looking for work and think Canada might be for you, here is the place to find out if you are eligible for Canadian Immigration.

Just when I started feeling better from the kidney stones... Yesterday I was trying to make up for lost time & was going too fast, doing too much, & I fell down the stairs. I'm hobbling around today like an old granny. **groan**

My little Wonder Woman isn't feeling good today.  She's got a fever & only wants to lay around on the couch while her brothers are ripping around the house, tearing it to pieces.  I keep trying to direct them into quiet activity and everything keeps turning into one big boy party.  Argh!

Right now, we have the kids' bedrooms, livingroom and kitchen upstairs.  Daddy works from home in the rec room downstairs.   And while Daddy can tolerate a lot of noise from kids playing upstairs, when I know he has an especially important phone call, we make sure that we tone it down.  The kids were busy riding big cars across the wooden floor of the living room and I noticed what time it was.  Uhoh... time for that important phone call today.

So, I stopped the kids and carefully explained that Daddy was going to be on the phone.  It is not like this is an uncommon event.  I often direct them into reading books or watching a quiet movie during these kinds of moments. I explained that his desk was immediately below them and when they did riding cars right there it was REALLY loud downstairs.  And since we want to be respectful of Daddy being on the phone, let's take the big cars to the carpet of the boys' playroom.  All three kids seemed to listen seriously and say ok.  They started relocating their toys to the boys bedroom.

Then my daughter, aka Wonder Woman, put her hands on her three year old hips and says to her big brother, aka Batman, and says, "Why do we have to come to the bedrooms?  Why can't we play in the livingroom?"

Mommy's head promptly exploded.

This has been happening since they moved in.  While Wonder Woman shows affection to me and seems to like spending time with me, she still doesn't actually consider me her parent.  She only seems to listen to her big brother.

Potty training her was like trying to make a puppet in someone else's hands do the Melbourne Shuffle. Wonder Woman was convinced she had a penis because her brother Batman did.  It took a month and a video clip from Kindergarten Cop for her to finally start believing me that she needed to sit down on the potty.   She still goes to Batman if she doesn't understand what is going on.  She goes to Batman if she gets an owie.  And Batman is only four years old and barely knows his own head from a rock, so he doesn't answer her appropriately or send her to her Mommy when she's bleeding or knocked herself silly. 

Batman has an ego the size of Australia and so getting him to step down from his parenting role has been immensely difficult. He even tries to put Wonder Woman in timeout when she simply doesn't want to play the same kind of toy as he does or she won't give up the toy he wants to play with. 

Sometimes I just want to scream, "I AM YOUR MOMMA!" 
I know that its just going to take time for everyone to adjust to their new life. 

March has been a real mind & body bender for me.

DAYHOME
Early on in March, I gave notice that I'd be closing my family daycare at the end of June.  One of my children in particular really needs the parent/child bonding time without having stranger's kids coming and going.  I want to swap the kids bedrooms downstairs to the basement & since the playroom down there doesn't have a window, I can no longer be an official "Approved Alberta Dayhome." 

I'm kind of in a boggle because I had planned on running my family daycare for an income until our youngest went to school, so now I'm scrambling a bit, trying to figure out how to make up for the income.  The tax benefits of running my own business were great.  I'm not any kind of a saleswoman though, so I'm just not sure if I want to do more entrepreneurial work or what.  I also want to do some home remodeling and I want to go back to school eventually.  And I want to dedicate some life to writing.  So I'm in a bit of an identity crisis. 

PARENTING
This month, I got the oldest, "Batman", enrolled in a french immersion school for kindergarten in the fall.  I'm totally thrilled with it.  The principal seems to truly understand our situation.  In the States, the cut off to turn 5 years for kindergarten is usually in September.  Here it is March 1st.  So our younger two, "Wonder Woman & Spiderman" will be entering the school system a year earlier here than they would in the States. 

One thing I've learned with being a new parent is how differently people view you after you have kids.  It is like suddenly I became eligible for this secret social club.  You've walked through the same test of fire and so being a parent comes with a whole different status. I've been a manager and leader quite often in the past, but I notice there is fundamentally a new level of respect that people give to parents.  This is definitely something people going into politics or other leadership positions really should consider. 

HEALTHY LIFE
Also, this month, I totally got knocked on my ass by a kidney stone.  Thought it was just a simple bladder infection at the start and then it got worse and worse until I ended up in the hospital.  Thank you Canada for free health care.  Yes I had to wait and there were some real frustrations with the bureaucracy, but overall, I definitely have a true appreciation and feel on a health care level, I've made the right choice to be in Canada.

Not only did this health crisis bring to my attention just how emotionally fragile the kids are due to their past, but just how important my time is to them. It also highlighted how isolated we are here from our extended family and who is a true friend and who is not.   I'd like to stay put for about 5 years, but we'll see how this transition of kids into school goes and just how our friendships here develop.  I really like Edmonton, but I also need to feel that I'm part of a community.  And mostly that means I need to get active & figure out what community in Edmonton I want to be a part of.

and that pit is called Kidney stones.

It is Ebook Week and I just won one of Trina M Lee's Books!  She let me choose which one I wanted and I chose Lyric's Gift. The main character is a burlesque psychic, so you know I'm just not going to get anything else done until I've read it!  I'll let you know what it is like!

So... This is the Diesel Black Gold Fall 2010 collection... doesn't it totally feel like Bill & Ted's excellent adventure?

Find more photos like this on ENVY. THE FASHION NETWORK

To compare... here is a dance party from January 1991.

Getting my kid immunized for kindergarten turned into two hours of referrals and hyperventilating strangers.  Their crisis: He's being adopted, is  2 pounds underweight and he cried when he got poked by needles!  OMG  PANIC! Confer with 3 other adults. Stare and point.  Break out the  referrals!  There must be something wrong with him! We'll help you find  it!   Then an hour after we get home I got a followup call with even more  referrals. 

Sigh.  The kid has grown FOUR inches in the past six months. He now sleeps through the night with out waking up screaming.  He kisses his brother or his sister if he crashes into them  which is a sharp contrast to six months ago where he would hairpull, bite or wipe them out with out a second thought.  He plays appropriately with other kids. He passes all the kindergarten readiness checklists.  Yes, he's still small for his age.  Yes, he is still emotionally immature in my opinion, but he's made tremendous progress and I'm damned proud of him.And you know what? There was another kid his age in the waiting room and he was sucking his thumb and babytalking.  Will you guys flip out over that?  Oh no, because he's not adopted.

I  look forward to when this process is over, he's got my  same last name and no one will need to know he wasn't born to me.