Worth It

Heart attack

2012-02-14T11:56:00.002-06:00

I’m one of those people who get sucked into the commercial hoopla of Valentines day. You can look down on me for the corporate puppet I turn into every February, but in my defence, we do absolutely nothing for Groundhog Day so it all evens out.

I’ve always loved Valentines day because it feels like a happy little red oasis in the middle of a cold, bleak winter month. The children love it too; so much so that they build it up in their heads all year until they remember it way better than it actually was. This year, I got a little stressed about pulling it all off and making it measure up to their expectations. Luckily they seemed happy, and even if they weren’t, it’s comforting to me to know that they are smart enough to pretend they were. My nieces have joined us the past two years, but since they weren’t able to make it today, we’re going to have Valentines Day: The Sequel sometime this weekend. Which is good because spreading it out like that makes putting up all those decorations more worthwhile and I’m pretty happy about having chocolate cake for breakfast twice in one week.

Tonight Dale and I are going out for dinner for the first time in many years. Well, we just went out for dinner on Sunday; I meant on Valentines Day. Usually we just order in and eat dinner once the kids are in bed. So this is a big step for us.

Happy Valentines Day, everyone! Spread the love…

(If you're not a fan of Valentines Day, the following comic is for you)

from xkcd.com

The boy

2012-02-09T22:41:00.003-06:00

Spencer generally doesn’t have many self esteem issues, but lately his confidence has been at an all-time high. I mentioned his fencing tournament a few weeks ago, but what I didn’t mention was that he won bronze in his age category. He didn’t want me to blog about it until he had told some people firsthand, but now he’s ready for it to be made public. This may not be as exciting for you as it is for him, but he is very proud of his bronze medal. I’m not totally sure how these tournaments work, but to my fencing-illiterate eyes, it was odd. There were two different age categories, yet the fencers were broken into two different groups based on something else (no idea what). They fenced everyone in their group, regardless of their age category. The person who won the silver medal in Spencer’s age group was in the other fencing group, so they never played each other. I’m pretty sure Spencer could have beat her, but on the other hand, there were kids that beat him that never got a medal. The bottom line is that he’s more excited about fencing than ever, and that makes me happy.

Another very exciting development in the boy’s life is that he recently bought an iPod Touch. He’d been saving for a long time and thinking about what he wanted, and he finally parted with his hard-earned money. Well, it wasn’t that hard-earned – it was mostly gift money. But still. I believe the iPod has lived up to his wildest expectations and he and it are inseparable. Once the initial novelty wears off a bit, I’m going to have to set some time limits or his eyes will start bleeding. Although if Dale’s eyes are still functioning after all the hours he’s spent on his iPhone, I think we’re okay.

On a final Spencer-related issue, I looked at the calendar last night and noticed Friday (tomorrow) was “dress as a book character” day. I hadn’t heard Spencer mention anything about it so I was pretty sure he wasn’t planning to dress up, but I asked him anyway. My heart sank when he answered without hesitation, “Yes! I’m going to be the guy from Renegade.”

Never heard of that book? Me neither. He described the character to me – big wide-brimmed black hat, black clothes and boots, and a cape. I was starting to feel better about it and thought we could probably pull something together with stuff from the dress up box. But no. Spencer was not so easily pleased. He said the cape was too long and vampire-like and the hat was not wide-brimmed and floppy enough. That’s when I lost it and began speaking in a very loud voice with dramatic hand gestures about unrealistic expectations and timelines and told him there was no way we would find a costume like that before Friday. I suggested he wear one of the three gender-neutral costumes we own: pirate, Bobba Fett (from Star Wars), or my personal favourite, the black cat.

It was bedtime shortly thereafter, and when he refused to give me a hug, I realized he was upset about the costume. I guess he had been dreaming about how awesome his costume was going to be (that fact that not one person will know who he’s supposed to be only elevates it to an even awesomer level in his mind). Unfortunately, he forgot to share those dreams with me and the dream turned into a nightmare. In a rare moment of motherly tenderness, I promised him we’d find him a costume. Right after we’d hugged it out and he was tucked into bed, I regretted those words. This morning, I told Spencer he’d have to come shopping with me because only he knows what this costume is supposed to look like. Knowing his aversion to second-hand stores, I thought he’d change his mind. But no such luck. This costume obviously was very important to him. So out we went tonight in the bitterly cold wind to Salvation Army and Value Village ... and found nothing. We talked about many different alternative options: Percy Jackson, Greg from Wimpy Kid, and Peeta or Gale from the Hunger Games. I’m not even sure who he decided to be in the end, but he’s going to wear a hoodie and jeans. That was a lot of stress for nothing. This is one of those things I’m going to file under “When the kids are grown up and I get all nostalgic about their childhood and remember only pleasant things like snuggling in blanket forts with freshly-bathed children while eating warm chocolatey homemade cookies, REMEMBER THIS.” Kind of long to fit on a file folder tab, but I’ll make it work.

Spencer and I ended off our evening at Dairy Queen where we enjoyed icy treats on an icy night, so that was a happy ending. He's a good conversationalist (when he wants to be) and is interested in a lot of things, so it's fun to hang out with him. Part of our conversation touched on how mothers aren't magical and can't come up with mind-blowing costumes with less than 48 hours notice. Well, some mothers probably can, but he doesn't need to know that.

A mid-winter night's dream

2012-02-05T22:09:00.005-06:00

Last night, we went to an impromptu bonfire at Jim & Sabrina's. We had hotdogs and smores and everything else that you normally associate with a summer campfire. It was a beautiful night and we had so much fun. We were outside for about five hours straight. The hot tub felt pretty sweet at the end of the night.

Yesterday afternoon, Chloe, Neve and I went to Beauty and the Beast at the concert hall with my friend Karen and her daughter. It was a great show - so fun and colourful and energetic - and we were all really glad we'd gone (even Neve, who had some anxiety issues beforehand). So it was an awesome day ... in fact, the whole weekend was pretty awesome. I was going to list all the good things about it but I didn't know how to do it without being one of those people who make their life sound better than it actually is. So I'll just leave it there.

February

2012-02-01T22:03:00.002-06:00

It’s always a relief to make it through January. Even though the weather has been better than any other Winnipeg winter I’ve lived through, the blahs are still setting in. I feel unmotivated, cranky, irritable, fat, lazy, and unfocused. And those are the good things. I’ve been trying to think of things that would brighten my life, but they all involve a lot of money and a new swimsuit. I read in a magazine that if you’re in a slump you should plan one thing each day to look forward to. They had examples like putting fresh sheets on your bed, trying a new recipe, or going for a walk. I would be dreading those things all day – laundry, cooking, and exercise?! My looking-forward-to things would involve chocolate fountains, sending the kids off to camp, and meeting Johnny Cash (I know he’s no longer with us - these are all equally realistic).

You always hear how exercise improves your energy and mood, but I’ve got to disagree. I’ve been working out regularly with Jillian, going to zumba, and walking Neve to school. Some days I walk back and forth four times (morning, lunch, back after lunch, and hometime), which adds up to over three miles. I don’t know if it counts as exercise when I’m standing there half the time waiting while Neve makes a snow angel or makes her stuffed dog make a snow angel or just plops down for no reason. However, I think I make up for it when I have to give her a piggy back ride because she just won’t budge or when I listen to her fussing for seven minutes straight about her ¾ length sleeves riding up in her coat sleeves and using all my self control not to freak out, or when I do freak out. That burns a lot of calories, but it doesn’t improve anyone’s mood. The children are all trying to avoid me these days. Chloe has never done so much studying up in her room before.

The guy who did our home energy evaluation (one of the hoops we must jump through to get our furnace rebate) a few weeks ago said our house was tighter “than an R2000 home built last week.” I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I felt proud until I saw his solemn expression. It turns out that’s not a good thing because we need more fresh air. I’m getting mixed signals – in one breath he tells us to put insulators under our plug covers and seal up the attic hatch, and in another, he tells us we need to buy a $1200 heat exchanger to bring in more outside air. I figure it will all even out if we do nothing. Maybe more fresh air would make me cheerful and energetic, but I can always open a window. I probably won’t though.

You know it’s bad when the only bright spot in my day so far has been my trip to the Brady Landfill. We’ve had an old broken TV sitting in the back lane since November 2010. Every week I’ve been hoping that THIS would be the week the garbage dudes would feel like throwing it in their truck. After sixty or so weeks, I started to accept that this would never happen. When our neighbours started making comments about it, I felt the time had come. I waited another month or two just in case the garbage guys would change their mind, but today was the day I finally took it to the dump. I’d never been there before. If I’d known all the things my eyes would see, I would have gone much sooner. That is some place. Mountains of trash, desks, couches, mattresses, bookshelves, tire piles, and so many bicycles I thought I was in Amsterdam. Except I hope Amsterdam smells prettier. But my favourite thing of all was a dead cow lying in the residential waste section. Maybe it was just sleeping. It looked peaceful and serene all covered in hoar frost. You’re lucky I didn’t have my camera with me because I would have gone crazy. I’m going to look for excuses to go to the dump from now on ... definitely one to add to my looking-forward-to list.

Sh*t six-year-olds say

2012-01-30T23:14:00.007-06:00

On our way home from school today, Neve said, “Guess what? There’s a girl in grade three who has a lisp and she didn’t even know she had one until I told her!”

I pray that the grade three girl thinks it’s as awesome as Neve does and that her evening has not been spent in tears with her mother saying, "That grade oner doesn't know what she was talking about."

Spencer the Fencer

2012-01-22T21:39:00.004-06:00

Spencer started fencing this fall and participated in his first tournament on Saturday. He had a great time and did really well for himself. We've tried quite a few sports in the past, but so far, this has definitely been the favourite. I wish I knew what was going on in the matches, though - I'm always asking Dale who got the point, what the lights on the scoring device mean, and who won the match. I need a 'Fencing for Dummies' book.

Spencer's the one on the right.

I finally started feeling better on Friday, which was good since I had my Leadership Winnipeg course all day at the Manitoba Museum. We got a behind-the-scenes tour of the museum, including the storage areas, which was very cool. We also heard from some speakers involved with the arts in Winnipeg. I'm all inspired to take my kids to the art gallery and the museum and the theatre now. Here's a one-stop-shop website that has information on all the main arts organizations in the city: www.cultureoneverycorner.ca. It has a combined calendar that shows what's going on in all the different venues, as well as some promotional offers. There's also a Facebook page, which for some reason doesn't link from the website, but you can search for it in FB.

I spent a large part of Saturday at Ten Spa with friends. I love it there so much I want to live there. We went to Bombolini for dinner after and then spent an hour trying to find my vehicle in the parkade. Long story. I wish I could have rather spent that hour in my robe at the spa eating pita bread. It was such a great day.

I don't know if I'm late to the party and everyone's already seen this, but it's pretty funny. Although if truth be told, in our household most of these things are more likely to come from Dale's mouth than mine. I shouldn't tease him; he's been sick this weekend.

Sick germs

2012-01-19T16:48:00.002-06:00

I had to take a picture of Neve this morning. She loves getting dressed for school and always plans her outfits in advance. It’s usually a dress, and hair accessories and jewellery are always involved. I thought the glasses were a nice touch today.

So Dale came home this Christmas with an automatic soap dispenser from his work gift exchange. The children were much more delighted about this than I was, so it wasn’t until last weekend that I finally put four (!) AA batteries in it and filled it with soap. Let me tell you, that was an exciting day around here. Never have our hands been so clean. We used every possible excuse to wash our hands, and sometimes we didn’t even bother with an excuse. Even though the soap dispenser doesn’t really fit on the sink ledge and even though it sort of looks like we have a mini coffee maker in our bathroom, I thought it was Worth It if it encourages us to keep our hands sparkling clean.

So I find it very odd that suddenly this week, four out of five of us have been sick with coughs, runny noses, and/or headaches. I am rarely sick and I have to swallow my pride to admit I am. For the most part, I’ve been carrying on as usual - I didn’t go into the office today, but I still worked from home. Last night I even dragged myself to my first zumba class at 8:00 p.m. That was not pretty. And not just because I wasn’t feeling great. But I think it will be lots of fun once I can keep up with the seniors in the class.

Anyway, I thought about getting Spencer to do his science fair project on the effect automatic soap dispensers have on germs, but my head hurts too much to fully think that through.

Home Day

2012-01-16T20:43:00.006-06:00

My Monday turned out differently than I thought. Neve woke up with a croupy cough and Spencer with dark circles under his eyes and a nose that wouldn’t stop running, so I kept them both home. Besides taking Chloe to school, we didn’t leave the house the rest of the day. I worked, so the TV and computer were put to good use. I also read to them, made them have a rest/nap, and then we baked cookies. It was a good day, but by 5:00, I was done. There’s something about 5:00 that sucks the energy out of me. I guess it’s when I realize I’m not going to finish everything I was hoping to and tiredness and disillusionment set in. Disillusionment might be too strong of a word; maybe that’s just on days when I’m stuck inside the entire day. Getting no fresh air rarely results in a good feeling at the end of the day. But when I tucked Spencer in, he said that he thought today was the best day of his life. Even though that was due mostly to playing Club Penguin all day, it cheered me up.

And it’s that time of year again. The dreaded science fair is upon us. The science fair doesn’t actually take place until sometime in spring, but we are already in the planning stages. Spencer thought of his project topic months ago – How much sugar is in a fast food meal? – but he discovered it didn’t qualify. Apparently there has to be an experiment involved, as opposed to just copying the nutritional information from the back of the McDonald’s tray liner. I guess the word “Science” Fair should have tipped us off.

I thought Google might help us, but it directed me towards this (warning: not entirely appropriate for children) which are definitely amazing but will probably not get past the proposal phase at his Christian school. I also came across an ad saying “Is your science fair project due tomorrow? Click here for complete projects you can do in 24 hours.” The $14.95 it cost would be worth every penny, but the teeny, tiny slice of over-achiever in me thinks we can do better. The rest of me knows that’s not true, but I’ll trick myself into thinking it is. It does make me feel better knowing there are people who really do leave it until the day before. Some of those kids in the link above definitely did.

I’m off to bed now with plans to spend lots of time outside tomorrow. First I’ll make snow angels for two hours, then I’ll go ice skating, and then ...

Trying to take pictures

2012-01-15T21:54:00.003-06:00

I managed to pick up my camera a few more times than normal this weekend. This photo was from Friday, when a friend whose son goes to school with Neve had some of us over for a little cooking lesson. She is one of those people who are good at everything, especially anything food related, so she taught us to make summer rolls (like spring rolls, but not deep fried). She had done all the chopping in advance, so it took no time at all to roll it all up. I have a feeling they won't quite turn out as good when I make them on my own.

And here is our new family pet. Chloe used to have a dog exactly like this until Neve lost it in Grand Forks a year or two ago. Neve still had fond memories of Jessie, so she was very pleased when she got Jessie 2 for Christmas. This dog goes everywhere Neve goes, it gets tucked into its special bed at night, and I have to take care of it when Neve's not around. Today it got a new leash and collar, made from a shoelace and a glow bracelet. In this photo, it - I mean she - is eating croissant crumbs. Naughty puppy. Neve doesn't like it when I say that to her. That thing is spoiled rotten.

It was a good weekend - lots of downtime at home, but we went out for dinner on Saturday and to my sister's tonight. We're all dreading Monday more than we usually do. But low expectations almost always work in our favour; it can't be as bad as we're expecting.

New Year's goals

2012-01-12T22:05:00.007-06:00

Until two days ago, I was feeling smug about two things: that I hadn’t bothered to get my Command Start fixed and that we weren’t going on a winter holiday. Then the real winter weather came along and now I want both of those things so bad it hurts. But I’m so thankful for every beautiful spring-like day we had before this that I’m going to keep the complaining to a minimum.

I’m sorry about the infrequent blogging and will try to get back to more regular posting (because I know how my blog is such an integral part of your life). I also want to take more pictures, especially now that my camera is paid off. I bought it last January on a “do not pay for a year” deal. Dale felt there were better ways to spend money at the time, so I told him I’d pay it off without him even noticing the money. I wasn’t sure how that was going to happen, but I wanted the camera so badly that I didn’t dwell on it. I started squirreling away money from side design jobs, rolling loose change, and expense reimbursement cheques. By the end of the year, I had more than enough to pay it off. So kids, the lesson here is that you don’t need to save for anything in advance. It will probably all work out.

I don't really make New Years resolutions; I just vow to try a little harder in certain areas of life (I know, it sounds a lot like a resolution). Every January I get the purging and organizing bug, but it hasn't hit me as hard as it usually does. The Energuy was in my house today for two hours (it’s a program where they assess our home efficiency so we can get a rebate for our furnace) and I saw everything through different eyes. Oh man, is this house a mess. Not a dirty or disgusting mess, just a messy mess. There are piles of things in every corner of every room. It’s so overwhelming I have to break it down into one-square-foot increments. So it should take me just over 1900 days to get through it all. That seems about right.

Another thing I’ve been working on is cutting down on Facebook time. I am limiting myself to one quick Facebook visit per day. I log on, read the updates since the day before, comment on one or two, and log out. I'm pretty sure that my spending less time on Facebook is not making a huge impact in the world, but it does make me feel more productive.

So those are some of my goals. I would also love to do more puzzles and read more books, however, that contradicts my goal of cleaning my house. I’ve been hearing them advertise a contest on radio – instead of all those noble resolutions that involve exercising, eating better, and being kind to people, they like us ‘Just the Way You Are.’ The prize is a new couch where you can park your lazy butt and watch TV and eat chips. I like that a lot.

Forgetful tooth fairies need not apply

2012-01-05T23:59:00.005-06:00

Each day sort of runs into the next these days. Luckily I checked the calendar and realized today was Thursday so I got up three hours earlier than I usually do, put on some lipstick and a skirt (and a few more things) and went to work. It was so nice to get out of the house and into civilization again. And now I’m ready for a few more days of nothing. I need to finish puzzle #3, do some more reading and watch a few more movies. Mine and Dale's goal was to watch a movie every night this week. We are succeeding. The trick is to set attainable goals.

With the unprecedented spring-like temperatures we've been having, I might even attempt an outdoor run tomorrow. It would be shame not to take advantage of it; however, in the morning I'll probably talk myself into believing that it would be shame not to take advantage of extra sleep, so we'll see who wins the fight between good and evil.

Neve lost two teeth over the holidays. One came out on Christmas Day and the other on New Years Eve. The first one had been wiggly for a long time and it finally got to the point where it was hanging by a thread - a bloody, vessely thread. I’ve learned the hard way not to try to pull out a tooth before it’s ready. That is fun for no one. Luckily this one was ready and came out easily. I didn’t even know the second tooth was loose until it came out when Neve was eating Toblerone. The good part was that she gave me the rest of her piece of chocolate. The bad part was that the tooth fairy forgot to visit that night. The next morning, she came downstairs sobbing with disappointment and didn’t get over it all day. That night she wrote two notes for the tooth fairy. One said, “You missed my house last night.” I told her that probably wasn’t necessary, but she felt the tooth fairy should know. This was the other one:

"Since you've done so much work, I want you to have a dime."

The tooth fairy felt so guilty about forgetting to come the first night that she paid Neve double the usual rate for her tooth. Luckily that dime helped recoup some of the extra cost.

I used the word 'luckily' three times in this post. Four now. If I had a special little symbol like Steve, I would have put that in the mouse-over. (Am I using 'mouse-over' correctly?)

The holidays

2012-01-04T01:35:00.000-06:00

I look forward all year to the week between Christmas and New Years. I love wearing sweats and doing puzzles and watching movies and reading and never looking at the clock. However, in the past, sometimes I’ve felt a little sloth-like (I know - hard to believe!) so I threw in a little decorating project this year. We’d been promising Chloe a new room since last Christmas, so we finally made it happen. Well, it hasn’t all happened yet, but we’re making progress. So far, we’ve painted, put up new curtains, put up a chandelier, and bought a new bookcase. It looks good and Chloe’s really happy with it.

Also this past week, we went to my brother-in-law Bob’s 50th birthday party, which was good fun. Especially because someone turning 50 makes me feel so young. On Friday, between going to Pine Ridge Hollow for breakfast with Blake and Kristin, and to Star Grill for dinner with Mike and Darla, we spent the afternoon spending our gift cards. We started out at W.K. Chan Jewellers, where Neve had a $50 gift card that she won from Hot 103. I had warned her that she wouldn’t be able to get much with $50, but I knew she was fully expecting to get something with diamonds. The unfriendly jewellery lady pointed us towards the sterling silver section and Neve very quickly and decisively chose a silver heart locket on a chain that was on sale. It went a lot better than I thought it might. Neve’s excitement and huge grin did nothing to soften the saleslady’s attitude. I’m trying not to judge; maybe she had a nerve disorder that prevented her from smiling.

Chloe wanted to buy something at Forever XXI with another gift card, but going into that store with our entire family seemed like nightmare material so we moved on to Starbucks, where we all got drinks courtesy of Santa. Then we browsed at Chapters for a while, but Chloe, Spencer and I all decided to save our gift cards for another day since nothing was jumping out at us.

I won a $50 gift card to Eliminator RC from Hot 103 last year, so that was our final stop. It’s an interesting store on Higgins that sells remote controlled vehicles. I never knew there was such a large remote control subculture out there. But there is. That store is insane. Plus they have two large parrots in cages that squawk and talk and wave at people. Dale chose a helicopter that we were aggressively assured was WAY above the quality of those sold at the mall kiosks. Sadly, our helicopter met its demise after an imperfect landing five minutes after the battery was charged. It wasn’t even that rough of a landing, just a minor bump. He took it back to the store but their customer service was very poor and we are dissatisfied customers who won’t be back. Even the mall helicopter Dale bought last year lasted 30 minutes. I hope we have learned our lesson (Dale) and will not be purchasing remote control helicopters in the future, no matter how shiny and fun they look.

But it was fun afternoon anyway, and we still have a stack of gift cards we’re saving for another day, including a Cabela’s one that Spencer won from Hot 103 this year as well. He wants to get a BB gun; I’m encouraging him to put it towards a sleeping bag. I wonder who will win.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-02T22:52:00.003-06:00

I’m always a little sad and directionless when Christmas is over. So much time and effort goes into putting it all together and it’s over so soon. But it was a great year. We went to a candlelight service Christmas Eve and Dale’s mom and Bob & Janet and the girls came over for a little while afterward. On Christmas morning, the kids played with their gifts and then we went to Dale’s mom’s for the day. On Boxing Day, we went to my parents’ and stayed until the next day. It was all a lot of fun and the kids had so much fun with their cousins.

Last year I tried really hard to scale back the kids’ gifts so we didn’t end up with a lot of useless junk. I did well, but it ended up a little too Little House on the Prairie. In fact, Neve would have probably been happier with a new tin cup than the things we got her. You may remember the playing-with-socks situation. I know Christmas isn’t all about the gifts, but it really is a large part of the magic for the kids. So this year, I went against my principles and spent more than I usually do. I did sneak in a few useful things like socks, toothbrushes and books, but most of it was fun and frivolous.

I had the hardest time with the Barbie bed & bath playset we bought for Neve. Like most Barbie stuff, the quality is not top notch. But the joy that sub-standard plastic – along with a few Barbies - has brought Neve has far exceeded my expectations. She also loved a microphone we gave her that you can download any songs to and sing along. I have “I Love You Like a Love Song” permanently stuck in my head. “And I keep hitting repeat peat peat peat peat peat peat.”

Spencer’s main gifts from us were Lego, a Nerf gun, and a Professor Layton DS game. When he’s gotten Lego in the past, he opens it right away and doesn’t stop working on it until it’s done. But this year, he still hasn’t finished his set and even has another unopened set he got from someone else. The DS game has been a huge hit, as has a Star Wars Wii game he got from his aunt and uncle. He’s been saving for an iPod Touch, so he asked for money as well and now has more than enough to buy one. Oddly enough, he isn’t in a huge hurry to get it, which I’m happy about since he has so many other new things to play with.

And we gave Chloe an iPod dock/alarm clock, a duffle bag and Justin Bieber perfume. If you count smelling pretty as a necessity, hers were the least impractical gifts.

We still have a basket in our living room full of miscellaneous stocking stuffers that have yet to find a home. That didn’t happen last year with my (and Santa’s) practical gift-giving. But I think I prefer it this way. It seems wrong that the joy of Christmas is tied into the gifts, but it was pretty fun seeing the kids’ happy faces. They’ve all been spending lots of time playing with their gifts, so it was well Worth It.

Hope your Christmas was happy too. Were there any gifts that you gave or received that were a big hit? Let me know because I’m going to start shopping for next year soon. Not. (do people still say that?)

The Furnace

2011-12-31T21:55:00.001-06:00

I’ve been taking a break from all my usual things: work, blogging, exercising, eating in moderation, cleaning, laundry, showering, personal grooming, and supervising my children. It’s been awesome. I know I have to re-enter civilization eventually, so I thought I’d start with blogging. I have a lot to catch up on, so I’ll aim for a few smaller posts rather than everything at once. By “a lot,” I don’t mean anything particularly exciting, just the usual Christmas festivities.

As I mentioned in the last post, we woke up to no heat last Thursday morning. After the professionals were unable to revive our 19-year-old furnace, it was removed from life support and laid to rest. We (Dale) freaked out at first, but it all worked out as smoothly as possible under the circumstances. We got a couple of quotes on Friday and went with a company who was not the cheapest, but who did all the paperwork for us regarding rebates and financing through Hydro, etc. Most importantly, they could install the furnace for us on Christmas Eve. Even though the weather was (and still is) very mild, it was nice to get it all done before the holidays.

Friday was a crazy day; it was the kids’ first day off school, and three families were coming over for dinner so I was trying to cook and clean between furnace quotes. Things were a little intense, especially when I stabbed Spencer’s balloon with a knife because it kept floating into the kitchen. He steered clear of me after that. As he should. Luckily my mother-in-law appeared in the midst of it all and drove the kids to a friend’s house for the afternoon.

It all worked out in the end and we had a great time that night. Because it was so mild and because there were so many bodies in the house, no one could even tell we had no heat. The next morning the furnace guys came to put in the furnace and by the time we got back from our annual Christmas Eve sleigh ride at Birds Hill, it was all done. Well, except for the payments which won’t be done for another five years. Ever since we did our reno, the second floor never heated properly so I was hoping that a new furnace would be more powerful and we’d notice a big difference. Unfortunately that hasn’t been the case and our lives haven’t improved at all. Oh well. I’m thankful we have a house and heat and everything we need and then some.

Birthday

2011-12-24T16:01:00.004-06:00

Thursday was the anniversary of my birth. Thank you to everyone for the birthday cards, texts, emails, and Facebook greetings. Don’t feel bad if you forgot; chances are good that I forgot your birthday too.

These are the good things about my birthday:

Dale and the kids made it a special day. The kids all made me cute cards and Chloe gave me a cute heart necklace. Dale gave me a book on Marilyn Monroe and a tripod, which I was very excited about.
Going for dim sum at lunch with friends from work
Gifts and birthday cards and birthday messages, as mentioned above, plus a little visit from Kristin
Picking up the kids from school on their last day before Christmas vacation
Going to Sushi Train for dinner. We sat at the counter by the train track and Neve and another girl down the track exchanged notes via train the whole time. The yam tempura was particularly delicious.
Lemon pie at home for dessert
Walked over to a friend’s house, where four of us girls (if I still qualify as a “girl” at 42) had a great time like we always do.

These are the things I could have done without:

Waking up to no heat in the house
Having the gas light go on in the van on the way to work. Our gas gauge is not accurate, so I have no trust it in and decided it would waste less time to get gas than to run out of it.
My bank card not working when I tried to pay for gas
Finding out my bank card was actually my Plum Rewards card
Having to leave work right after lunch to meet the Hydro guy, therefore missing our staff Christmas gift exchange
The Hydro guy not being able to fix our furnace
Having to call another furnace guy who spent three hours trying to fix our furnace. I suspect that was not the favourite part of his day either.
Calling more furnace companies to arrange for them to give us quotes the next day.

So to summarize, the pros outweighed the cons. I am thankful for another year of health, happiness, and more wonderful friends and family than I deserve. And my house is now warm - I'll blog about that another day!

Done

2011-12-20T22:51:00.004-06:00

Neve was so excited when she saw the sky today that she made me go outside and take a picture. It was quite beautiful and a nice start to the day. Neve gets excited about a lot of things. The other morning I woke up to her exclaiming, "WOW! That is SO beautiful! Where did it come from?" She was talking to Dale in the kitchen about a new Christmas Kleenex box I had bought the night before. She ran straight to my room and asked if she could keep the box when the Kleenexes were all gone. I said no. Just kidding, I said yes, now let me go back to sleep.

I am officially done my Christmas shopping. Well... I actually still have to get a Tim Horton's gift card, but that hardly counts. But no more stores for me, and not a moment to soon. It is a blessing to everyone that I don't have a smart phone to tweet or post facebook statuses with because the last week or so I would have been complaining non-stop about long line-ups, unfriendly and incompetent staff, or my latest pet peeve, poor signage about sales or prices. Today at Sears, some items were marked 30% off, but there were no prices on the items whatsoever. 30% off is great, but 30% off what? When I took it to the sales desk to ask what the price was, the grouchy lady said, "Well, whatever they're scanning at is the price they'll be." So helpful. I did try to be friendly and sympathetic to the sales people everywhere; I bet they don't look forward to work this time of year.

Several stores did make me happy though. I'm thinking particularly about Rocky Mountain Soap Company. I always buy their pumpkin soap in winter because it helps with the kids' dry skin. Since I'm registered in their system, I got an email telling me to come in for a free bar of soap during my birthday month. I thought it might be just a sample size, but since I was at the mall tonight, I went to check it out. Not only was it a full size bar, you could choose what kind you wanted. I know Sephora and Starbucks have free birthday gifts too - I love that. It makes me feel very warm and loving towards them.

So it was a good day - shopping done, volunteering in Spencer's class this morning, and a delicious lunch at Shannon's (check out her blog for some organizing inspiration - or better yet, hire her to help). I also helped Chloe make cake pops to give to her friends at school, and Neve hosted a Snowflake party in her room that involved dancing and halloween candy (WHY is that still around??) and spiralled into a candy-throwing fight. Good times.

Neve's new favourite past time - playing Webkinz with her friend Anna while talking on the phone to her. Usually she has the phone on speaker; yesterday Neve brought the phone to the table at mealtime and was planning to keep Anna on the line while she ate until I made her hang up. Today I overheard Anna say she had to go to the bathroom and then after several minutes, she came back. It was nice she didn't take the phone with her; she's a lot more considerate than the people you see in public washrooms talking on their cell phones.

I'm off to bed now and very much looking forward to waking up to a shopping-free day tomorrow. I wish the same for you.

Long rambling update

2011-12-18T21:49:00.002-06:00

I’ve gone from one blogging extreme to the other – from every day to hardly ever. Well, I guess it could be more extreme. It really hasn’t been that long.

With less than a week until Christmas, things have been busy. On Thursday, someone I work with had a connection to two Jets tickets (not free, but for substantially less than face value), so Dale & I went. We were supposed to go Christmas shopping since my sister picked the kids up right from school and went to my parents’ for the evening, but it was our first chance to go to a game so I couldn’t pass it up. Dale was delighted that he not only got to go to a game, but he was spared from going Christmas shopping. I think he felt like it was a bit of a Christmas miracle. Anyway, the game was fun but I was a bit disappointed that the Jets not only ended their 5 home game winning streak that game, they didn’t even score a goal. They won again yesterday, so apparently I’m not their good luck charm.

On Friday, I was at my Leadership Winnipeg class all day, so the kids went to Grandma’s (the other one) right from school again. Dale & I went to an awesome concert with our neighbours Friday night. A local band called Quinzy (who I’d never heard of before) puts on a Christmas show every year called Quinzmas. It was great fun – very high energy and festive and a good mix of music. We plan on making that an annual thing.

Continuing on with my weekend of arts and culture, I had tickets to the Messiah at the Concert Hall for Saturday night. However, Neve was falling apart because she was tired and she missed me. Between Wednesday night and Saturday morning, I saw her for a total of about one hour before school. Chloe put the kids to bed two nights in a row and she wasn’t feeling great, so I felt like we should stay home. My mother-in-law had tried to get tickets but it was sold out, so she was more than happy to take them. So it was a relaxed day. Dale worked all day, so I took the kids to their church concert practice and Neve’s gymnastics party. Spencer also had his fencing Christmas party, but we couldn’t fit it in. I also spent a fair amount of time helping Chloe with her Egyptian death mask homework, wrapping presents, baking and cleaning. My neighbour came over for happy hour, and then we went to the little Christmas train out near the park. It was a beautiful, mild evening and all the Christmas lights are amazing. I just wish the old guys working there didn’t make us feel like they hated us. I remembered their surliness from the last time we went three years ago, and it hasn’t gotten any better. I expect in a few years they’ll be blatantly swearing at people and forcefully pushing them to the ground if they don’t get out the train on the correct side. We met friends there and we all went to our house after for apple cider and Christmas goodies. I’m taking a break from counting carbs until mid-January.

Today was a relaxed day – more wrapping, some crocheting, and even a nap. Dale went to the mall, which I thought was insane. He said he just picked empty stores to shop in, so I’m guessing we’re all getting gifts from Hakim Optical this year. Oh well, they have nice things.

The kids had their concert at church tonight – Spencer had a speaking role and Neve was an angel. She chose her role based strictly on wardrobe. Yesterday her friend Anna told her she was wearing making and sparkly hair spray, so that’s what Neve was fixated on all day. I believe the tidings of great joy may have been less important to her than eye shadow and sparkly hair. Must work on that.

And the week ahead brings some shopping, cleaning, and hopefully some time to relax and read some Christmas books or watch some Christmas shows with the kids. It’s on the late side for online shopping, so I’ll have to strategically plan my shopping trips to keep the chaos to a minimum. I’m dreading some returns I have to do at Zellers and Toys R Us – if I ran those stores, I would do things differently. The problem with going to the stores the last week before Christmas is that everything is on sale, so I buy more and/or I see things I’ve already bought for a fraction of the cost I paid.

Sorry, this long update was far from riveting. I’m sorry for taking up prime December minutes. Have a great week; hope it’s calm and happy.

This is why I don't send family photo Christmas cards

2011-12-12T21:50:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I got a half decent picture of the whole family in front of the Christmas tree, so I suddenly thought maybe I should send out photo Christmas cards this year. I only send out cards every second or third year, so just when people have given up on us and taken us off their Christmas card list, we surprise them with a card. And then they frantically send us one that arrives on Dec. 27.

Anyway, my eye looked funny in the picture, so I did some photoshopping. Then I didn't like how my bangs were so short and wispy, so I worked on that. Then I thought, "Wouldn't people be impressed if I was thinner?" so I fixed that. One thing led to another and then suddenly I look like this:

My bangs are a little odd, but see how smooth and young my skin looks? Too bad my eye still looks funny. I really wanted to tidy up Spencer's hair and delete the wisps of hair on Neve's neck, but I still have a lot of work left on me. Next year, I'll get a family photo taken in March so I have the rest of the year to edit it. So no cards from us this year. But we love the ones trickling into our mailbox; please don't take us off your list.

Christmas is not even two full weeks away. That freaks me out a little; luckily I know it always comes together in the end. I still have several gifts to buy, but I'm caught up on my wrapping and I did some baking on Saturday. The evenings this week and next are not overly scheduled, so that makes everything less crazy. The kids are getting excited - it's nice their school concerts are done - we just have one more at church next weekend.

Speaking of church, Neve had her coat stolen from there yesterday. After the service, it wasn't where we hung it, so we were wandering around the foyer looking for it. Two other people were doing the same thing - it appears someone took three coats and a pair of boots from three different areas of the foyer. One coat and the boots (belonging to the same person) were found later in the elevator, but Neve's coat and a man's coat have not been seen since. The custodian usually sits in the foyer during the service, so it's all a bit of a mystery. Neve was pretty upset, but if someone needed a coat that badly for their kid, I guess it's all good. It was getting a little on the small side for Neve anyway, but I'm sad about the MEC mitts in the sleeve. Oh well, I guess that kid might need warm mitts too. Or maybe it was all just thrown into a dumpster. I sort of expect it to turn up yet, but in the meantime Neve needs a coat. I was thinking about sneaking into a hospital or women's shelter to steal one, but I bought one at Zellers instead.

On a happier note, 22 Words is my new favourite website - I believe I got the link from Corinna. Here are some picture of Amazon's headquarters - it's insane. It's amazing they can fill so many orders. I guess they must have a system. :)

Konflicting Kornelsen Khristmas Koncerts

2011-12-08T22:24:00.004-06:00

Have I ever mentioned how much I love when people spell "C" words with a "K" just to be cute? No? Oh right, because I hate it.

Last year, each of the three children were in separate Christmas concerts on separate nights. That meant three precious December evenings were spent in crowded school auditoriums/multi-purpose rooms. This year, fate was smiling down on us; all three kids had their concerts tonight. I went to Neve's concert at 6:00, Grandma took Spencer and Neve to their school for 6:30, and as soon as Neve's concert ended, I zipped over to watch them. Dale worked late and went to Neve's 7:00 concert (they have several performances). So it was a busy night, but very nice to have it all condensed into one night. Or should I say Kondensed?

The whole week's been busy ... Neve had a checkup at the doctor's on Monday, the kids all had dentist appointments on Tuesday, and I ended up taking Chloe to the doctor yesterday because she woke up with a big swollen eye (turned out to be nothing). Neve just woke up a few minutes ago crying that her ear hurt, so I am praying it will be better by morning so I don't have to go see the doctor three times in one week. The ironic part is before this week, I hadn't taken Neve to see the doctor since she was three, and Chloe hadn't been since 2008. The doctor was freaking. Neve hadn't even had her four-year-old needle. Oops.

I'm also hoping Neve will be better tomorrow so I can do some Christmas shopping. I have quite a few gifts left to buy, and they're the ones I've put off because I don't know what to buy. Maybe I'll get an epiphany in a dream tonight.

I didn't take any pictures of the big kids' concert; just a few of Neve's. It was a very relaxed and cute concert. It started off with three grade six boys getting the giggles while introducing the first song. The grade five boys accidentally (?) hit a button on the stereo during their song and it jumped to a totally different song and they had to start over. A baby from the crowd toddled over to the music teacher while she was directing the concert and wanted up. The music teacher held her for a while and the baby wasn't pleased when her mom came to retrieve her. The casual atmosphere is still a novelty for me after years of watching Chloe and Spencer's concerts. Their concerts are always very polished and professional, with no mistakes or glitches. It's lovely to watch, but sometimes (okay, often) I wish that someone's timing would be way off on their little Orff instruments, or that someone would sing the wrong words. Oh well, it's all good. All three children were quite pleased with their concerts and it was all very Christmasy and nice.

Okay, I'm off to receive my epiphany.

Neve's the one in the middle with her arm up.

Day 30 - The End

2011-12-03T23:49:00.003-06:00

I had one goal today: to decorate the tree and house for Christmas. The bad news is I didn't reach my goal. The good news is that despite that - or probably because of that - it was another stellar day. December's been a good month so far.

I went to Corinna's craft sale and sipped on hot apple cider while I browsed. I got some cute things - I'm particularly excited about the banner I bought - well, not exactly a banner; it's little triangular flags all strung together like a garland. I can't describe it properly - look at the picture on Facebook. I like to put up streamers on birthdays and other special days, but from now on, I'm going to use this.

My friend Kristin came to the sale with me, so when we got home, we sat and talked and crocheted while the kids played. My neighbour and her daughter joined us for a drink later, plus Bella hung out with this afternoon, so it was a fun, busy household. In the past, the half-opened boxes of Christmas decor all over my living room would have hindered my ability to relax and enjoy the afternoon, but it didn't today. I'm not sure if plummeting standards are a good thing or a very bad thing. But I like it.

For dinner tonight, we went to friends' house for a delicious steak BBQ. We had a great night and I fulfilled my goal of eating, relaxing and talking. The decorating can wait for another day.

And that concludes my 30 day challenge. It's been fun and I'll be back. But not tomorrow.

Day 29

2011-12-03T00:57:00.001-06:00

I feel like I’ve had a really good week. I felt productive and energetic, neither of which happens very often. I dedicated the day today to getting errands done, and I got almost everything on my list crossed off: Rona, drop-off at Salvation Army, Toys R Us, the LC, Zellers, Superstore, the bank, the store right beside the bank who’s name escapes me .. oh – Small Indulgence, and almost every store in the Polo Park Shopping Centre. Neve came home for lunch today, so I even worked around that.

All that being said, I actually only bought a couple of Christmas presents. In fact, I made more work for myself by re-buying the Barbies that I’d already bought Neve. I found them at Toys R Us for significantly less money, so now I have to return the other ones. I hate when that happens, but they were almost half the price. Oh well, since it’s still early in December, I didn’t feel too stressed or rushed so it’s all good. One cashier asked the customer in front of me, “So are you all ready for the holidays?” Hello?! It’s December 2! Is there any person in the world who’s ready for the holidays yet? Maybe she was talking about Thanksgiving. I got that one under control. I noticed Rona wasn’t quite ready for the holidays either – they had the song “Highway to Hell” playing in the store. I actually never realized that Rona played music over the intercom. But they do. And apparently a 45-year-old heavy metal fan is in charge of the music.

Dale & I just got home from my work Christmas party. We got picked up by a limo service, though unfortunately it was a mini-bus and not a stretch limousine. Chloe thought it was a Fed Ex truck but when it just stayed parked in front of our house, I realized it was our ride. The party was a lovely affair at the Delta. The main party was in a hospitality suite, with a delicious turkey dinner at the Blaze restaurant. It was a lot of fun; a little too much fun for some people. Thank goodness there was no photocopier.

While we were out, the Christmas tree fell down and all the water spilled everywhere. It leaked through the floor and was pouring down into the basement. Luckily our neighbour came over and helped Chloe deal with it all. You’re a star, Karen. We hadn’t started decorating it yet, which was also lucky. When we got home, Dale sawed off the bottom branches while I held up the tree so now it’s nice and solid and tied to a hook in the wall. Our good clothes are all covered in sap and pine needles. I know you artificial tree lovers are smirking right now. But does your house smell like you live in a forest?

Day 28

2011-12-01T22:45:00.002-06:00

Funny how I got a head start on this LMNNWM challenge and yet I'm the only one not finished. It's not fair. It was supposed to be just a November thing, so I could say I'm done, but I feel guilty about the few days I missed.

Today was fun for several reasons. It was the first day of the advent calendars, so the kids were all happy this morning. We have a few Playmobil advent calendars which I rotate each year, even though it's a bit anti-climactic when you already know that Santa is in Box #24. I bought a new one this year - the post office. Playmobil has gotten smart; this one is a different style so I can't re-use it like I do the others. I could put the pieces in the little boxes from one of the other sets, but it's tricky matching the box sizes up with the Playmobil pieces. Anyway, the kids take turns opening it. I wrote their names down on the kitchen calendar so no one forgets whose day it is. I also bought cheap chocolate advent calendars, so they each have a piece of chocolate for breakfast every day in December (don't tell Dale). Not every day - I know there are some calendars with "bonus days" that go right til the end of December, but I feel like that's cheating. I always feel kind of sad after Christmas, so you'd think I'd be happy about extra chocolate but instead, it seems depressing.

Wow. A whole long paragraph about advent calendars. I will continue with the other good things about today.

We got our Christmas tree today. This was actually not that much fun for anyone, because instead of the happy family outing where we walk to the tree lot and pull our tree home on the toboggan and have hot chocolate when we get home, I just stopped at the lot on my way home from work and threw a tree into my van. So when I cheerily announced I had gotten the Christmas tree, the children were not happy. I didn't realize this was such a significant tradition to them. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's not. In the past ten years, we've probably done the aforementioned scenario only two or three times. And even on those rare occasions, I can guarantee someone was complaining about being cold or having to walk so far. They just choose to remember it all Thomas Kinkade-like, which is awesome. I'm not going to set that record straight.

And lastly, Chloe and I went to my niece Tia's piano recital today. It was short and sweet and Christmasy and I had a nice visit with an old friend whose children played in the recital as well. My parents were there too, and we all went to my sister's after and ate cookies and watched home videos and talked. That's what I want to do more of this month - relaxing and talking and eating.

Happy December, everyone!

Day 27

2011-11-30T23:30:00.003-06:00

I want my head to be on my pillow with my covers all around me, but I really don't want to miss another day in this blog challenge, so I'll make this quick.

Just got back from a fabulous night out with three very good friends. We met six years ago when three of our boys were in nursery school together and have been getting together fairly regularly ever since. We laugh our heads off whenever we get together and I always come away feeling good about life. Tonight we went to someone's house for drinks and appetizers, then to Pizzeria Gusto for pizza and more drinks. Cheers, girls!!

Day 26 - Santa Claus

2011-11-29T21:58:00.003-06:00

It was a great day today. I went to school to watch Spencer in a class play, I felt productive at work, took Neve to a successful appointment, bought new mugs to go with my new white dishes, took the kids to see Santa and to Boston Pizza for supper. Santa was especially awesome. He spent lots of time with the kids, and even though Chloe said this might be her last visit to Santa (I told her she has to go until she's 18), they all had a lot of fun.

I always like to visit Santa early so we can coordinate our gifts with him. Spencer asked Santa for a lisp, a British accent, a snake, and Lego. Chloe asked for an elephant, Justin Bieber, and duct tape. Santa didn't quite know what to do with that information. Neve was too shy to talk to him at first, but she eventually told him what she wanted (Barbies).

The elves didn't ban my camera like they did last year, so that was nice. (I bought their picture too, which was actually better than most years).

The rest of the evening was good too - Chloe has taken a 24-hour vow of silence (a We Day thing), so it was nice and quiet. I got our front porch Christmas tree up and lit and hope to get the rest of the decorations out in the next few days. Yay, Christmas!

Day 25

2011-11-27T21:55:00.002-06:00

I had high hopes for today. It was supposed to be an unstructured, relaxing day to catch up on things I'd neglected during the week. Instead, a few things that should have taken minutes ended up taking hours. I get obsessed with stuff like that and it drives me crazy when I can't figure them out. One of those things is Lightroom. I thought since I knew Photoshop and other Adobe programs it would be easy, but I still have a sharp learning curve ahead of me. The importing and exporting and file management part of it isn't as easy as I had hoped. I love the photo-editing part of it though. I just found a Learn Lightroom in a Week website, so that's my new favourite link.

I set up our little Christmas tree that we put on the front porch, but didn't get the lights on yet. Christmas decorating is never as fun as it seems like it will be. We want to get our tree later this week and then I can start wrapping the presents that are taking over my closet. I need to make room for the rest of the gifts I need to buy.

Sunday nights are another thing that aren't that fun. Spencer was lamenting that tomorrow was Day 3, the worst day of the cycle, followed by swimming lessons, the activity he likes least. I was trying to encourage him, but I couldn't think of one nice thing to say about tomorrow either. Chloe overheard us and said Friday, the day they had no school, was Day 3. That brightened Spencer's mood, but mine is still blah. My goal for tomorrow is to come up with something positive to report.

Happy Monday, everyone!

(and yes, I did watch snippets of the Bomber game!)

Day 24

2011-11-26T23:18:00.002-06:00

I woke up this morning to a fresh blanket of snow. Even though I had been so happy that most of our snow had melted, I have to admit the new snow was a beautiful sight this morning. The kids played outside for a bit, and Spencer seized the opportunity to raise some money. He is raising money for a World Vision project for school, so he knocked on doors and told neighbours he'd shovel their walks for a $5 donation. He made $20, so he was pretty happy. He has never shovelled snow before today, but he appears to have done a good job. I hope that money makes it to his charity fund and not his iPod Touch fund.

The basketball net

Chloe and her volleyball team won their final volleyball game this morning, which means they finished 3rd in their division.

Neve and Spencer had gymnastics and fencing at the same time as the game; thankfully we have good neighbours who helped us get everyone where they needed to be. The kids had friends over in the afternoon and then all the friends' moms came for a little Happy Hour, and then we went to friends' in the evening. It was a good day. Tomorrow will be a relaxing day ... I hope to get some things done around the house and maybe even read a little while Dale watches a certain football game.

Day 23

2011-11-25T23:05:00.002-06:00

Have I mentioned how these 30 days seem to go on forever?

Today is supposed to be Food Friday, but the eating wasn't too exciting today. I was at a meeting all day for the Leadership Winnipeg course I'm taking, so they fed me breakfast and lunch. For supper we threw some tortilla chips on a plate and called it nachos. Then I had sour cream and onion chips and Coke Zero while we watched a movie, so my chip quota is full for a while.

My meeting today was at the U of M. There was much talk and panel discussions about innovation and technology and biochemistry, so I smiled and nodded and hoped no one would ask me to repeat what they just said. We toured several buildings and labs, so that was kind of interesting.

The kids had no school today, so the younger two went to Grandma's house after school yesterday already. For the first time ever, Chloe opted out of going to Grandma's and chose to hang around the neighbourhood with a friend. My day was so full and structured I only had time to text her once, but everything seemed to work out okay. I met up with Dale and all the kids at Chloe's volleyball game after my class. They play again tomorrow (fourth game this week) and then the season is over. It's been fun, but the running around and making driving arrangements will not be missed.

Tonight was one of only a few free weekend nights before Christmas, so I thought we should do something fun like to a movie or something. However, one of Neve's more recent anxieties include movies so there was no way we could convince her to go. Anyway, she was exhausted so I put her to bed at 7:00 and the rest of us watched Elf.* Last year was the first time we ever watched it, but Chloe wasn't home so this was her first year. It was every bit as awesome as I remembered. Smiling's my favourite.

*Thank goodness Neve didn't watch Elf with us - there was a scene where Buddy throws up after spinning around in the revolving door. That would have definitely resulted in tears and trauma.

Day 22 - Thursday Threads #4

2011-11-24T21:55:00.003-06:00

Also known as Pose With My Hand On My Hip Day. Today was dress day. And even though those boots look brown in the picture, they're actually black. I couldn't bear to post a picture of my head four weeks in a row.

Enough about me. Let's talk about you. How's that Christmas shopping coming? My parcel delivery took a sharp downturn after Monday. I think the only other good thing I got in the mail was some gift cards I redeemed with my Royal Bank points. Oh, we're back to talking about me again. For some great stocking stuffer and other gift ideas, I've got two good connections for you:

Teresa and her Epicure products...I just ordered some red pepper jelly to have on hand for an appetizer with cream cheese and crackers. The only problem is that they never last until company comes. They would also make a great teacher gift. There's a sale (it's still on, right Teresa?) on some holiday stuff and other little stocking stuffers - the mulling spice is a must... how many should I put you down for? She also has some great deals if you book a party for January - a delicious Epicure tasting party would be pretty cozy and delightful on a cold winter evening...
Corinna's been sewing up a storm for some upcoming craft sales, including one at her home on Saturday, Dec. 3. She (and/or her partner) use the best fabrics and make beautiful baby blankets, bibs, slings, bags, and my personal favourite: the roll-up shopping bag. They're strong and super cute and a great gift for anyone, especially the person who has everything. Click here to see her Etsy site.

So there. I just helped you with your shopping. You're welcome.

Day 21 - Dear Photograph #3

2011-11-23T19:54:00.005-06:00

Dear Photograph,

I remember when Dale turned 37 and put Chloe in a headlock.

Today he turned 45. We started the celebrations on the weekend - we had some of Dale's family over on Sunday for birthday cake. Tonight we celebrated with sushi and cinnamon buns (his request). Since they're both foods that you roll up, I was tempted to save time and just roll them all up together. Watch for my Cinashi concept in a food court near you.

The kids and I gave Dale a Garmin Forerunner (GPS for running), gloves, and a Joseph Prince book (Dale's hero). Chloe made him a card and a Suduko book, Neve gathered up miscellaneous objects from her room and put them in a gift bag for Dale, and Spencer scribbled Happy Birthday on a piece of scrap paper and called it a card. Good fun for all; thanks on Dale's behalf for the phone calls, cards, texts, and the 6-pack of Heineken on the doorstep this morning.

Day 20

2011-11-22T22:15:00.003-06:00

I just realized I forgot to do my Dear Photograph feature yesterday. Things are just falling apart here. Since I've given up on changing the world on Wednesdays, I'll do the Dear Photograph tomorrow.

I wasn't sure what to write about today, so I'm going to copy Steve and talk about my children. Well, he also goes on to talk about other things too, but he starts with his kids.

It was report card week, and all three kids came home with glowing report cards. I told them to give them back to the kids they stole them from. Turns out they were theirs - this Tiger Mom thing is really paying off. Hmm, that sounds like I'm taking all the credit. Is that wrong? All kidding aside, they did awesome and I'm very proud of them. But there's always room for improvement. Hear me roar.

Chloe's volleyball team had their first playoff game today. Chloe played a great game. She has improved ten thousand fold (don't even know what that is, but it's a LOT) since the beginning of the season and played a great game today. She's a solid, consistent player and most importantly, she's really enjoying it. I loved playing team sports and am happy that she has the chance to do the same. If they win their next game on Thursday, they play on Friday and Saturday and then the season is over.

Tomorrow is WE Day, a big rally for youth that's supposed to inspire global change or something like that. Chloe is one of twenty (I think?) students chosen to go from her school and she's been counting down the hours. Al Gore, Hedley, Mia Farrow, Paul Martin, Rick Hansen, and some other big names will be speaking or performing, so it should be a good time.

Not sure what I can say about the other two... Neve's still having anxiety issues, but we are working on it. She's getting good at telling her teacher when she is anxious about something and thank goodness she has an awesome teacher who handles it perfectly. I bet Miss H. is rolling her eyes on the inside, and I'm hoping she's not waiting until our parent teacher meeting on Thursday to tell me she doesn't want to deal with my kid anymore. I'm going to take a page from Darla's book and bring her a hot Starbucks drink and maybe a new car, just to be safe.

Okay, I think I've filled my writing quota for today. Just like that.

Day 19

2011-11-21T11:45:00.002-06:00

It seems I miss one day of blogging and it’s a slippery slope. Soon my 30 day challenge is going to stretch into a 30 week challenge.

Well, the snow and cold appear to be here to stay. Actually if the forecast is correct, we’re supposed to be getting some above zero temperatures the next few days. That’s a good thing because the other day I noticed the garden hose was still attached to the water tap and now it’s frozen and I can’t get it off. Maybe the milder weather will unfreeze it and then I can use it to water the flowers in the planter that I have yet to pull up. I’m still waiting for Indian summer.

Back to the snow, I’m going to say something nice about it. I like when the sun reflects off of it and it makes everything bright and white, especially in the study where I spend a lot of time. To clarify, there is no snow IN the study, but on the deck right outside that is reflected through the garden doors. It makes me happy. To continue my positive streak, let me tell you about my new leather fur-lined mitts. I’ve always heard when your head is warm, your whole body is warm. But I say when your hands are warm, you don’t even need a hat. With my new mitts, I am so warm that I don’t even have to zip up my coat. My hands sort of have that sweaty mitten smell afterwards, but I don’t care. Between my hot flashes and my mitts, I say BRING ON WINTER. I shouldn’t have shouted that; I don’t completely mean it.

My Christmas shopping is going great. I’ve ordered lots of gifts online, so every time I see a FedEx or Canada Post truck drive down my street, I go stand by the door already. Unfortunately, it seems I’m not the only one on my street who shops online. But so far this morning I’ve already received two separate parcels. It’s so exciting. The delivery guys must think I’m a little crazy because I answer the door with a huge giddy smile. I try to suppress the beaming and just look normal and pleasant, but I think it makes it worse.

Oh, I think I hear a post office truck outside! Gotta run!

Day 18 - Friday Food #3

2011-11-19T15:12:00.003-06:00

Oh man! I can't believe I missed a day. We got home after midnight and I was too tired to post, so now I have to extend my 30 days of posting until December 1st. So even though it's Saturday, we'll pretend it's Food Friday.

I ate nothing interesting all day, so I'll skip right to the awesome part. We had a Spanish tapas theme night at Rob & Gab's. I was looking forward to it for a long time and I was not disappointed. They always go all out when it comes to food (and drink) and it was amazing. Everyone brings something as well; I brought Bread with Mushrooms and Alioli, as found on The Google when I typed in "easy Spanish tapas recipe." I think the others googled "complicated impressive Spanish recipes with hard-to-find ingredients" because they were way out of my league. But it was all delicious, including the almond cake that even had a Spain-related story behind it.

PS: Our little Siobhan turned 40 yesterday. Welcome to the club. You know, the club where weight suddenly shows up in places it shouldn't, and wrinkles start appearing, and people start calling you M'am. But it's also the club where you can do whatever you want because you don't care what people think anymore. (or maybe that's just me?) HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Day 17 - Thursday Threads #3

2011-11-17T21:23:00.006-06:00

My pride and good judgement have officially lost out in favour of blog content. I can't believe I'm actually posting these. Chloe and I were being silly - we got the fan out from the back corner of the overcrowded storage room and had ourselves a little photo shoot. Except it looks like I was trying way too hard and taking it seriously in the hopes that a model scout may stumble upon my blog and offer me a job in Paris. I think he/she would be especially impressed with how my hair swings around my face so naturally and beautifully. While I was saucily tossing my head, I imagined my hair to be about two feet longer than it is in real. I was going to add some length in photoshop, but I believe I've wasted enough time already today.

Let's please take the focus off of me now. Chloe has been beside herself with excitement the past couple of days, because of tonight's opening of Breaking Dawn (of the Twilight series). The first showing is at 10:00 tonight, and she's going with her cousins. Tomorrow morning is not going to be pretty.

I have to go put the fan back in the storage room now.

Day 16

2011-11-16T22:34:00.004-06:00

I didn't change anyone's world this week either. I don't think it's in my skill set. I'm not exactly sure what my skill set does include. I get a lot of ideas, but they never turn out quite like I imagined, so I abandond most of them. Like the scarves I started crocheting this fall. I was so excited about them and had all kinds of thoughts about making one for every friend, teacher, and mailman. I finished two and partly finished two more. The one I'm working on now has a huge knot that I've spent hours trying to unravel. I'm losing interest and anyway, the scarves turned out really skinny and sort of look like a long string. I am making the latest one thicker, but I'm the kind of person that should always follow a pattern.

But now I have a new project. My neighbour sent this to me and it's the greatest thing ever. All males on my Christmas list will surely be receiving a pair of these from me. I think they'd look good on every body type.

Off I go to search the internet for verigated yellow yarn.

Day 15

2011-11-15T21:11:00.005-06:00

Happiness came to my house today in a white cardboard box.

My sister went to Minneapolis last weekend and brought me two sets of white dishes. I've been wanting plain white dishes for many years, but I couldn't justify it. My existing set of vibrant blue and purple dishes is apparently indestructible; in their 10+ years of service, not one dish has broken. It goes against all of my anti-stuff beliefs, but I finally got tired of wishing and waiting for breakage. I will donate the complete set to someone in need of blue and purple dishes, so it's not really a waste, right??

Day 14 - Dear Photograph #2

2011-11-14T21:43:00.004-06:00

Dear Photograph,

I remember how hard it was to sneak Spencer's geckie into the wash every once in a while. Oh wait, that happened yesterday too.

* Let's never speak of this to the boy. I don't think forgiveness would be easier than permission in this case.

Version 2:

Dear Photograph,

I remember when Dale used to have no upper body. It was so much easier wrestling the remote away from him then.

This is a poor imitation of the original www.dearphotograph.com. The photos on that site are lined up much better than mine. It's a lot harder than it looks.

Day 13

2011-11-13T20:34:00.002-06:00

How I love long weekends. We went to the Forks for lunch after church and were happy to find the crepe place open. The service there is never stellar and the prices are high, yet we continue to go. The Groupons I had purchased were the reason for this visit, but I think it will be a while before we go again. The crepes were delicious though.

Other than that, the kids had friends over and I worked on my photo book most of the day. I'm happy to report I am all caught up, and then some. Now I really need to stick to my page-a-day goal. I did some more online Christmas shopping this weekend, so I feel okay about that too.

That's all I have to report; if you're looking for something to do, check this out. I guessed 29 out of 50 movies correctly - see if you can do better (I'm sure you can). The images are not directly from the movies; they're just similar images. I didn't catch onto that until #20 or so.

Day 12 - Santa Claus is in town

2011-11-12T23:28:00.002-06:00

Tonight was the annual Santa Claus parade. We watched it from the boardroom at my office as usual. We miss out on some of the atmosphere of the street, but we were warm and cozy, had lots of good food, and access to a washroom. Best of all, people on the street often look up at us with envy. At least I think it's envy. Maybe it's pity.

Day 11 - Remembering

2011-11-11T22:35:00.003-06:00

Spencer is very fascinated with all things military these days, so I took him on a little field trip to Brookside Cemetery last weekend. I'd never been there, but I knew they had a Field of Honour that he'd find interesting. It was very sobering; the sight of all those headstones made an impact. We spent a while reading the names and ages and which wars they had fought in. We both would have liked to stay longer, but it was chilly and there was a suspicious lone male lingering right near us in the otherwise deserted cemetery.

Today we had a relaxing, yet productive day. We had a lazy morning, then went to the Forks for lunch. I had Groupons for the crepe place, but unfortunately for us it was the one place in the food court that wasn't open today. So the kids had breakfast food and Dale and I had Indian food and everyone was sort of happy. Then a flash mob situation occurred in which many Mennonites all broke into song about Jesus coming soon. I was hurt that they hadn't included me, so I didn't sing. Plus I didn't know the song. Then MCC handed out peace literature.

The Friday blog post is supposed to be my food feature; I'm not doing great with that but I did get a picture of lunch - chick pea curry with noodles. It was delicious. That's really the only interesting thing I ate today.

After that, Spencer went to a birthday party, Neve went to a friend's, and Chloe and I cleaned her room for three and a half hours straight. We went through all her clothes and got rid of two garbage bags worth. That felt so good. Tonight Dale and I went to the movies - we saw Tower Heist, which was good fun.

Day 10 - Thursday Threads #2

2011-11-10T21:58:00.003-06:00

I'm not loving posting a picture of myself every Thursday. I was trying to pose like the Already Pretty girl, but I (and my photographer) fell short. But there I am on my front porch. Maybe one day I will get up the nerve to stand in the middle of the street like her. It's unlikely.

I went shopping this week strictly so I'd have something new to wear for this. It made me realize how very, very long it's been since I bought clothes for myself. Just the skirt is new; everything else is many years old. I got the skirt at Mexx with a gift card I got from Darla this spring. I bought a couple of tops right when I got the card, but I still had enough to get this skirt (it was a generous gift card - thanks, Darla!). I like it - it's a heavier fabric with a good lining, so - weight allowing - there's a good chance you'll see me still wearing it in ten years (not ten years straight - I'll wear other things sometimes when it's in the laundry).

Day 9 - Changing the world a few words at a time

2011-11-09T22:47:00.005-06:00

Evolving from Carolyn’s suggestion, I’ve decided Wednesday will be my “change the world” day. I was thinking about nice things I could do for people, and the list is long and overwhelming. I know lots of people who are in tough situations and could use a meal or a ride or a visit or money. I struggle with how to do all, or even some, of that when I feel like I don’t even spend enough quality time with my own kids. Let me rephrase that: I feel like I spend LOTS of time with Neve, but not the older two. I’m going to keep trying to do some more substantial things for people, but in the meantime I’m going to start small.

I got two emails today in which people said nice things to me. And then on Facebook someone posted the following on their status:

"Appreciation can make a day, even change a life.

Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary."

- Margaret Cousins

It made me think of how getting a compliment can change your whole day. Even giving one can make you feel pretty good. I often think nice thoughts about people that I’m too shy to put into words. So that was my goal today. It was harder than I thought. I said a few nice things to people at school and stuff, but I didn’t want to give compliments just to fulfill my goal. No one loves a fake compliment. When I was out shopping and doing errands, I tried to say something nice to the clerks about the good service or something. I’m pretty sure I didn’t make anyone’s day though. Looks like I’m going to need some practice putting my appreciation into words.

And that's your motivational message for today. You're all awesome! I hope this changed your world :)

Day 8 - Can't put down my book

2011-11-08T21:52:00.003-06:00

My kids have been obsessed with The Hunger Games series. The books sounded morbid and violent to me, but when I heard their (Christian) school is discussing them at book club, I figured they couldn’t be that bad. I know that trusting the school to make judgements on what’s appropriate for my kids is lazy parenting, but I figure if they black out all the Pokeman and Harry Potter books on the Scholastic book orders with a Sharpie, we’re probably okay.

Anyway, I picked up the first book the other day and I’m hooked. When the kids were reading the second book, they were fighting over it and hiding it from each other and driving me crazy until my niece Tia saved the day and lent us her copy. But now I get it. I can hardly put it down long enough to post this entry. I’m going to make this short.

I’ve been doing okay on my page-a-day photobook, but rather poorly on my Christmas shopping. I bought a few stocking stuffers today though, so I’m counting that. The daily blogging is going better than I expected, thanks to some great suggestions from you. Cousin Carolyn suggested doing some pay-it-forward good deeds; I’ve been mulling it over and looking for opportunities. I did let a car in front of me in traffic today, but that’s not very dramatic. I didn’t yell at my kids today (yet), so I could tell them to pay it forward. I may need to aim a bit higher.

I'm off to read my book. I hope no one hid it on me.

Day 7 - Dear Photograph

2011-11-07T10:18:00.005-06:00

Dear Photograph,

I'm so thankful for every minute I spent on the deck this summer.

(I stole the idea from dearphotograph.com. Maybe my new Monday feature?)

Day 6 - Lion

2011-11-06T21:19:00.005-06:00

It was a cool, windy, rainy day and I somehow managed to spend a lot of it outside. I went for a run in the morning, to the zoo in the afternoon, and on an outdoor excursion with Spencer (I'll write about that another day).

I hadn't been to the zoo for a couple of years, but this week I went twice. My nephew's friend is doing a university research project and needed volunteers. He's doing research on how the lions react to strollers, and I would say they react pretty strongly. The moment the lion could hear the stroller come around the corner, he jumped up and ran towards it. When I stopped by the plexiglass windows, he stood on his hind legs and pawed at the glass the whole time. Sometimes Neve was in the stroller (she was a bit big, but we squeezed her in), sometimes I pushed an empty stroller, and sometimes we went without the stroller. The lion couldn't care less about me and Neve, but the seal-shaped stroller apparently looked delicious to him.

It was pretty fun; if you want to see more, here's a sort of blurry 10-second video I took.

Day 5

2011-11-05T23:19:00.002-05:00

We had friends over tonight so I got out the vacuum cleaner and the Norwex dusting cloth and threw all the stuff I didn't know what to do with into the storage room. The more I cleaned, the more I realize how disorganized my house is. So I'm going to make up a very detailed list of every room, closet, and drawer that I need to deal with and every day I will try to sort through one space. Even if it's just one shelf in one cupboard, it's better than nothing.

Besides my new cleaning/organizing resolution, these are the other things I've vowed to do daily:

- blog
- buy one Christmas gift
- complete one page of a photobook I'm making as a Christmas gift

So far the blog is the only vow I've stuck to. If I wasn't so busy blogging, I might actually have time to do the other things.

Siobhan has joined in the LM NNWM challenge; check it out here.

Day 4 - Friday Food

2011-11-04T22:59:00.005-05:00

Keep those suggestions coming! Both Darla and Teresa (in an email) suggested I blog about food, so I'll make Friday my Food day. Like yesterday, this is totally narcissistic, but this girl does it, so I will too. Unfortunately the only meal I remembered to photograph was breakfast, so it's a lame version. I have Cheerios almost every day. Sometimes I have Shreddies. Today I also had a Christmas orange.

The older two kids had no school today, so Neve skipped hers and we picked up Sabrina, Bella & Lexie and went to my parents' for the day. My mom made a delicious turkey casserole, except she called it a chicken casserole so we wouldn't know it was made with leftovers from Thanksgiving (we just had my family Thanksgiving last weekend, so it's not as bad as it sounds). She also made a salad, chicken noodle soup, and I think there was something else that I can't remember.

After lunch, we went to check out the local community sale at the arena; Teresa was there with her Epicure, as well as lots of other home businesses, crafters, bakers, etc. One woman was selling bags made from old jeans, and so my mom helped Chloe whip one up in short order when we got home. I guess the lady would have preferred we buy one from her rather than copy her idea, but that's how it goes. Chloe is very pleased with it.

Things got a bit dicey at supper - we were supposed to go out with friends, but due to various circumstances, we had appetizers at our house instead: taquitos, edamame beans, and Boursin cheese and crackers. Oh, and a few supersonic G & T's. Then us adults left all the kids with Chloe and we went to a concert at the West End Cultural Centre. The guy performing was called Mark Kozeluk and even though I'd never heard of him before, I really enjoyed it. He played guitar and had a great voice and it was a laid back, mellow, fun concert. There were a few people in the crowd that I would have liked to meet in a back alley later (oooh! I'm so tough!), but even that didn't put a damper on it.

And that was the end of my eating day. I may have left out a few afternoon snacks, but I bet that chick who blogs about her food every day does too.

I'll close with a picture of Lexie; she's definitely cute enough to eat. But I didn't.

Day 3 - Thursday threads

2011-11-03T20:57:00.003-05:00

Let me be clear: I would never show anyone the inside of my oven, never mind the whole World Wide Web. You would think for an appliance that gets such little use, it would be immaculate. Not so. Hmm, maybe I’ll add that to the kids’ chore charts unless they give me ten mini Kit-Kats each. I’m not great at a lot of things, but I am very fantastic at thinking of ways to use Halloween candy to my advantage.

Instead of disturbing oven pics, I will take a suggestion I got from Teresa and show you what I wore today. Oh man, this sounds seedy. But there are bloggers out there who take pictures of their outfits and post them every single day. Click here to see one girl who likes to stand awkwardly in the middle of the street and gaze upward as she shows off her clothes. Her clothes are unique and fun; mine not so much. I initially laughed at the idea because I’m the very opposite of a fashionista, but after yesterday, you will agree I need all the help I can to fill up thirty days of blogging. So I’m making this my Thursday feature for two reasons: I just got Teresa’s suggestion today and it happens to be Thursday; and secondly, since I go into the office on Thursdays, I put more effort into my looks than the other six days combined. I normally put zero effort into my appearance, so 0 x 6 is still zero, but we won’t dwell on that.

I was already dressed when I got Teresa’s email this morning, so if I knew my outfit would be scrutinized, I would have chosen something else.

My Thursday outfits usually revolve around the shoes I want to wear. I always wear heels, but some heels are more comfortable than others. I rarely stray from black, but I decided to be all crazy today and wear my brown boots. So, out came the brown pants from the back of the closet and the old brown corduroy jacket to (sort of) match. I threw on a white top, a bit of jewellery and topped it off with my brown coat. With my brown laptop bag, I looked like a big lump of melting chocolate walking down the street.

Lazy Man’s NaNoWriMo update: Daniel and Stephen have joined the challenge, so go see what they have to say.

Swimming - Day 2

2011-11-02T20:18:00.003-05:00

The kids just started a new session of swimming lessons last week. We've always done lessons at the U of M but for the first time ever, we are trying the Rady Centre. I'm not sure why we didn't think of this sooner: unlike the U of M, it's a three minute drive from our house, the water is warm, and there's a family change room. Unfortunately, the family change room was crowded and all the lockers were taken when we got there, so we ended up using the regular locker rooms. That was even better; they were clean and spacious and had a little spinner for wet swimsuits. It took a little persuading to get Spencer to go into an unfamiliar mens changeroom by himself, but it worked out well. Chloe is starting her lifeguarding classes, and it's such a treat that we can just drop her off and zip back home instead of hanging out somewhere for two and a half hours, waiting for her.

Chloe's having a very busy fall, but she seems to be keeping it together. She has two to three volleyball practices plus one game each week. That ends in a few weeks, and then she'll just have youth, swimming, and piano. Oh, and her daily 25-minute French horn practice and other homework. And babysitting. Oh well, it keeps her from hanging out at 7-11 and selling drugs.

Speaking of Chloe, a Facebook comment I saw today reminded me of her duct tape phase this summer. She and her cousin Sarah spent many an hour making duct tape everything: sunglasses, bags, flip flops and wallets.

This post-a-day thing is going to be harder than I thought. It's only Day 2 and I'm struggling. Come back tomorrow for riveting photos of the inside of our oven.

Bailey / November Challenge Day 1

2011-11-01T22:23:00.003-05:00

(Bailey in the middle)

We’re still recovering from the excitement of Halloween, but it was time for another party tonight. My niece Bailey turned 18 today. I clearly remember the day she was born. My sister had gone to be induced that morning and I waited for a phone call all day. How times have changed – in this day and age, we could have been texting all day. But with limited technology, I didn’t hear a word all day, so I zipped straight to the hospital after work. I met Bob coming off the elevator – there he was in his light blue denim shirt saying, “We had a girl!”

At the time, my sister and I lived only a few blocks apart, so I got to see baby Bailey a lot in her first two months of life. Then Dale & I went to Japan and didn’t move back to Winnipeg until she was about to start Kindergarten. I’ve always been sad I missed most of her first five years, but we wrote lots of letters and talked on the phone and visited a few times a year. The reason we moved back to Winnipeg was to be near family and I try not to take it for granted (but I do). My kids are so lucky that their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins play such a big part in their lives. I’m getting off topic, but to sum it up: Happy birthday, Bailey; you’re awesome and we love you to pieces!

Anyway – we all got to bed so late last night, and then I spent way too long in the shower trying to wash out the black hairspray. That stuff is horrific (I put an old pillowcase over my good one for night, but surprisingly it didn’t even get dirty). The kids were still asleep when I was done so I thought I’d do them a favour and let them sleep in, but Spencer was not pleased with me. He used to beg me almost every day to let him stay home from school; I don’t know if it’s because he loves his ex-babysitter teacher so much, but it’s very different this year. Anyway, it seems today was Day 4, which means he has gym first thing in the morning and for a kid who is not a big fan of sports or physical activity, MAN does he love gym. He was frantic as I quickly pulled clothes on a floppy Neve who would not wake up. I drove to school as fast as I could; Spencer had his face to the window the whole time so I wouldn’t see him blinking back tears (he’d love me for writing this), and we arrived about seven minutes late. I hope his gym class was worth the stress.

So here’s my goal for November … no, not a moustache … daily blog posts! I’ve been feeling blah lately and I thought maybe a challenge would help. November is National Novel Writing Month and since I’m not ambitious/crazy enough to do that at this point in my life, I’ll call this my Lazy Man’s NaNoWriMo. So if anyone wants to join the challenge, climb aboard the LMNNWM train. Until tomorrow …

Halloween

2011-10-31T22:26:00.007-05:00

Back: Ninja, Harry Potter

Front: Las Vegas cowgirl, Justin Bieber, generic princess, Selena Gomez

The excitement of Halloween is only a tiny step down from Christmas at our house. It was an awesome Halloween. The children look grim in this picture, but they were just keeping in character. They kept their excitement in check.

If my memory serves me correctly, the weather's been pretty mild the last couple of years, but this year topped them all. No snow pants, boots, or mitts required. Most of our gang didn't even wear jackets. The kids had a great time as always, and even us adults dressed up and had a blast. Well not Dale, he just stayed home and handed out candy.

Neve was a princess. I tried to convince her to be something more creative, but she would have none of it. The upside is that it only took one trip to the basement to get her whole outfit together. She said everyone at school asked her if she was Cinderella, so she always had to explain that she was "just a princess." She told me that eventually she got tired of answering, so she just stayed quiet and didn't say anything. Probably not the greatest way to deal with things, but I'm guessing she learned that from me.

Spencer went as Harry Potter. That only took one trip to our friends' house to borrow the costume.

And Chloe dressed up as her beloved Justin Bieber. That took at least five trips to Salvation Army and Value Village, as well as one to Rona for the purple spray paint (for the shoes). It wasn't that cheap either - I had to pay $6.99 for old no-name high tops that were so dirty and worn that I could hardly bear to touch them. I shook them out of the bag straight into the washing machine, which helped a lot. But if you're ever wondering if anyone would even want your old worn-out runners, apparently Value Village and I do.

We went with a feline theme for our pumpkin-carving this year. Neither of them turned out exactly like I imagined, but perfection is boring.

I spray-painted my hair black for my witch costume. It feels disgusting and I know I should wash it out before I go to bed, but I'm not going to.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Not your average Hallmark cards

2011-10-27T22:10:00.006-05:00

When I re-read my last blog post just now, it felt like it ended too abruptly. It seems the last paragraph got cut off when I copied from Word to Blogger. Just pretend this is part of the last post…

The only downside to the weekend was that while we were away, Justin Bieber was gallivanting all through Winnipeg, often just minutes away from our house. I told Chloe he probably even stopped by our house because my sister-in-law went to school with Justin’s best friend’s mother, so we’re practically family. If we had been home, I would have flipped up some pancakes on my new griddle (not to be confused with girdle) and we would have had a nice home-style dinner with Justin (I bet he misses that with being on the road all the time) and just laughed and laughed together.

Now I have closure.

Here’s a little Neve update for those of you considerate people who have asked (and for the rest of you). I might make this a regular feature. I’ll call it Neve Watch and come up with a fancy logo and everything. She is doing well. She is so in love with her teacher that she says she wishes she was her mom. I sometimes wish that too. So as long as Miss H doesn’t EVER take a sick day, we should be fine. For Christmas, I am putting together a pretty gift basket filled with Cold F/X, Advil, T3s, and for the really bad days, government-approved medicinal marijuana. I better throw in some powerful anti-nausea meds as well – I can’t even begin to imagine what would happen if the teacher threw up. Let’s change the subject.

Yes, let’s change it to the always amusing subject of wife-beating. A co-worker brought in some vintage birthday cards her father had given her mother many years ago. Many, many years ago, before anyone had heard the term “politically correct.”

Nothing says happy birthday like making fun of your wife's weight. But that's gentle and kind compared to this one:

I've always wondered how to make someone sweet and sunny. I'm going to see if the thrice-daily beating works on kids too. I like how the caveman put down his club - for now, at least - and gives his wife a flower (durn it). I'm relieved they didn't show any bleeding or bruises on the woman. She looks a little too young and child-like to be married; it's all a little sinister. But so awesome at the same time. I'm trying to tame some of my packrat ways, but after seeing these, I'll never throw out another card.

Grand Forks 2012

2011-10-24T22:04:00.006-05:00

This last weekend was the second weekend I was away this month, so between preparing to go and cleaning up after and making sure everything got done in between, this month has been a blur. Neve and Spencer started swimming lessons today and Chloe starts on Wednesdays, so right now Mondays & Wednesdays are triple booked until volleyball season ends. On the plus side, I realize I get restless if I’m not busy enough so that’s definitely not happening very often. I’ve started crocheting when I have nothing else to do; I’ve crocheted three scarves this month and am well into the fourth. The scarves are mediocre at best, but they go nice and fast, unlike this baby blanket that took me almost two years to finish:

We had a great time in Grand Forks this past weekend. It was our annual weekend with Teresa & Anthony and Doug & Lorie. I don’t know how many years we’ve been going, but it must be at least ten. I wasn’t as focused on shopping this time as I usually am, but I bought a few Christmas gifts, clothes, running shoes, etc. I am most excited about my new griddle. Not to be confused with girdle, although I might be excited about that too.

The kids swam and watched TV until their eyes bled. Us adults tried going out for a nice dinner on Saturday night, but apparently the UND homecoming is a big deal and everything was packed. We ended up at some pub-like place and had the worst dinner ever. I can still feel my heavy, doughy crab cakes lingering at the bottom of my stomach (serves me right for ordering crab cakes at a dingy pub). I would never tell Neve this, but I thought I might be sick in the night. Luckily that never happened, so it’s all good. Unluckily, the weekend flew by in the blink of an eye and life is back to normal for the foreseeable future. Luckily, normal is good. Unluckily, normal is boring. Okay, I’ll stop now. (Luckily.)

Spencer's dream come true - not only did the guys agree to play Risk with him, he won (luckily)

Of course the kids were looking at Teresa's camera on the only shot I got where all the kids had their eyes open (unluckily)

Anxiety

2011-10-13T22:50:00.002-05:00

We are still dealing with Neve’s extreme throw-up phobia over here. I was sure it would be a short-lived phase, but instead it’s getting worse.

When Neve's teacher told the class yesterday that she would be at a conference today and there would be a substitute teacher, Neve sunk to her lowest point yet. Not only was the next day (today) a Thursday (the day the first child threw up), it’s also the day I can’t pick her up for lunch because I go in to work. She was beside herself with worry; among other things, she was worried that the substitute teacher might throw up. The same teacher subbed one afternoon last week and the only reason Neve agreed to go back to school after lunch that day was because her regular teacher was also there, doing student testing. I had to talk to the sub and make sure she was aware of Neve’s issue. It makes her feel better if her teachers and lunch supervisors know about it; not really sure why - maybe so they can shield her from any vomit-related situations that arise. I believe I’ve spoken to every staff member in Winnipeg School Division #1 except for the superintendent himself.

Anyway, last night she could hardly eat dinner and nothing we did could get her mind off her anxiety about the next day. Reasoning with her was about as successful as me trying to convince Chloe that Justin Bieber isn’t awesome. I was pretty sure that once the school day was over (assuming the teacher kept down her lunch), she’d say it wasn’t that bad and would be proud of herself for facing her fears. But she was so distraught and bordering on hysterical last night that I finally gave up and asked Grandma if Neve could skip school and spend the day with her instead. I don’t know if that was the best parenting decision I’ve ever made, but the relief that came over her when I told her she could go to Grandma’s made me think it was the right thing.

I’ve wondered if there’s some deeper issue involved, but she seems to love everything else about school, her teacher, and her friends. It’s frustrating because her irrational fears are casting a shadow on all of the good things. Even though I think it’s ridiculous, I know it is very real to her and I’m not sure if we just wait it out and hope this phase passes, or if we need professional help. If anyone has any advice or insight you'd like to share, please do so!

Tofino - signs and wonders

2011-10-09T20:50:00.006-05:00

The Tofino blog series is becoming longer than the actual Tofino holiday. These are the last ones, I promise.

Sabrina makes friends with a parrot. I didn't.

While my mom and I were looking at some shops in town, we heard strange sounds coming from the bushes nearby. The girl from the quilting shop said, "Oh, my pig must be stuck." She disappeared into the bushes and came out with Winston, her pet pig. He had gotten his leash wrapped around the trees and wasn't happy about it.

Now for some other highlights of this week. On Wednesday, I went to Government House (home of the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba) for a reception for a leadership program I'm doing this year. It was a formal, fancy affair where each of us were personally announced to the Lieutenant Governor and his wife in a receiving line. There was a short program - speeches, etc., with entertainment by Keith from Keith & Renee, followed by a light dinner. It was pretty fun; when I was leaving, there happened to be only me, the aforementioned Keith, and the L.G. and his wife in the front foyer. I had my camera with me, but I was too shy to ask for a photo so I just took one of my Silhouette parked in the driveway instead.

And who'd have thunk we'd be swimming outside on the Thanksgiving long weekend. Mike & Darla had us over for a swim; it was a pleasant day outside, but even more pleasant in the warm pool. Marco Polo was a big hit - in fact quite literally for Dale who banged his head on the bottom of the waterslide while he was it. The kids went back in after supper and swam in the dark; we enjoyed every second and can't wait til the pool opens again next spring. I'm expecting it will be open by Easter. Right, Darla??

And of course I have to mention the big day we had in Winnipeg today with the first regular season NHL game. I'm not really into hockey, but it was hard not to feel the excitement. We watched the game at our neighbour's; Karen even made a Jets cake. Go Jets Go!!

I found a card in the Thanksgiving card section at the drugstore in Tofino that put me in the Thanksgiving spirit (Lexie was my Vanna White). The inset on the left is what it said inside - in case you can't read the small print, it says "You gotta love a holiday that centres around a large, flightless bird. Happy Thanksgiving from the Cat." I wonder if they sold many of those cards. I didn't get one thanksgiving card, never mind any from a cat. Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!

Tofino - the extended version

2011-10-06T21:20:00.009-05:00

I’ve been home since Monday night and it kind of feels like my holiday was just a dream. That’s the bad thing about holidays. Luckily I have my 1000 photos (most of which I’ve posted here) to prove I actually went.

First let’s get the birthday party fiasco out of the way. The invitation just said “Oct. 2” and I don’t know why I had it in my head that Oct. 2 was a Sunday. When you send invitations, write the day down too, people! Oh well, I guess I have to take the blame for that one. The Sunday party time conflicted with plans Dale had made, so when he called the birthday people to explain why Neve wouldn’t be there (I’m hoping he was able to hide his glee at my screw-up), the birthday boy’s dad seemed very disappointed that she wasn’t coming. In my experience, parents are not generally too disappointed when a fringe friend can’t make their child’s party, so maybe Dale mistook his disappointment for relief. At any rate, Neve cried too, so it was delightful all around and I felt awful.

There were a few other glitches while I was away – Neve cried for me every day, an unexpected volleyball game messed up some carefully-laid plans, and on Monday morning two out of three children forgot to take their lunches. It all worked out in the end, thanks to Grammy and a very good friend who took Neve under her wing. When I got home, the house was clean, the kids were sleeping, and the shelves were back up in the study. Nice work, Dale.

Moving on to the trip. As I mentioned, my cousin got married in Tofino, which is on Vancouver Island. I was originally not planning to go, but Jim and Sabrina convinced me to tag along with them and baby Lexie. I owe them for that (and for some other things). My parents also went, but they drove and made a longer trip out of it. Ours was a whirlwind, including a crazy long drive from Victoria to Tofino, but I still found the time away relaxing and refreshing. The wedding couple had reserved the entire lodge (Middle Beach Lodge) for their guests, so it was cool knowing everyone there. I met lots of new people and saw lots of old people (as in familiar, not aged). The best part was seeing my cousin and his fiancé who turned into his wife, his kids, and my uncle and aunt who all live in BC. Even though we grew up three provinces apart, we would usually see each other in summer so we were pretty close. Close enough so that when I was 12 or 13, he was pointed out my hairy legs and told me I should be shaving them. I obviously held his opinion in high esteem because I bought a bottle of Neet that day. Anyway, I’m so glad I went; his new wife is lovely and they seem to make a perfect couple.

The scenery out there is amazing: the ocean with its fluctuating tides, the mountains, the forests, and did I mention the ocean. My room overlooked the ocean and I fell asleep and woke up to the sounds of the waves. The view from the main part of the lodge was gorgeous too. I loved walking around the beach looking at the wild kelp/sea onions (?), purple and orange starfish, anemones, millions of mussels, and whatever else got washed up in the wavesSurfing is very popular out there; there were surf shops everywhere you looked and crazy surfers in the icy water.

The food was delicious – from the breakfast buffet with fresh croissants and cinnamon buns to clam chowder, salmon, and lots of fresh fish & chips. We looked forward to 8:00 p.m. when the lodge put out warm, fresh baked cookies. We ate at some cute restaurants in town, plus a not-so-cute restaurant on the way from Victoria. We were looking for eclectic seaside charm, but got a former Smitty’s-like place instead.

On Sunday, my parents, Jim & Sabrina, Lexie and I went on a whale watching expedition. We were indecisive about going, but knew we'd regret it if we didn't. Again - well, Worth It. The lesson we can learn here is that we should just do everything.

Sea lions

Seals

Baby's first whale-watching excursion. Lexie was so good the whole trip; she's a great traveller. Jim and Sabrina probably wouldn't have minded a few less diaper blow-outs, but her happy little head made up for the inconveniences at the other end.

Grey whale (also saw a humpback)

Cathedral Grove

The Mormon groom with his two wives. I hope the wedding couple doesn't mind me posting their pic. (Like the placement of the saw on the wall?)

This is getting excessively long. I have 980 more pictures so I might post a few more another day. Or not.

Tofino

2011-10-05T22:48:00.002-05:00

I started writing a blog post about the trip tonight, but I ran out of time and energy. I will try again tomorrow; just wanted to let you know I'm home safe and had an awesome time.

Leaving on a jet plane

2011-09-29T22:45:00.002-05:00

I've just finished the last of my work for the week, I'm all packed up, and off to Vancouver Island in the morning for a wedding. Dale is going to do his best at keeping things going at home; I have written him very detailed instructions on who needs to be where when. He doesn't seem as concerned about some of the little details as I think he should be. I have a feeling the boy whose birthday party Neve is invited to on Saturday will not be getting a card. I'll be happy if she even makes it to the party. It'll work out somehow and I'm sure when I get back, I will have love and appreciation and gratitude showered upon me for all the little things no one even knew I did. And then aliens will land in the back yard and bring me a giant cake, which Johnny Cash will leap out of and sing for me. It never hurts to dream.

My impending departure has raised Neve's anxiety to new heights. Today she said she thinks a boy threw up at school; she didn't actually see or hear that he had, but the teacher took him out of the room and when someone asked what was wrong, she said "Nothing." To Neve, that could only mean one thing.

It will be a lovely break from dealing with her anxiety and everything else. I am desperately in need of a holiday. It was a rough week. Yesterday I went to a funeral for a co-worker's wife who died very suddenly after having a fever for a few days. I've worked with her husband for over ten years, and have talked to her many times over the years. She had a great sense of humour and was a positive, vibrant person who obviously enjoyed life. The other Thursday when I went to work, there was a carrot cake in the kitchen that she had baked for us. A few days later she passed away. (Click here for her obituary.) Her husband and kids have been on my mind constantly; thankfully they have a very strong faith, but I'm so sad for them.

I am going to try to stay away from computers all weekend, so I'll meet you back here next week. Have a great weekend and hug your loved ones tight!!

Bullet update

2011-09-27T00:14:00.001-05:00

Lately it seems I’m not able to produce more than one blog post a week. September is always busy with the back-to-real-life stuff, and there’s been so much going on at work lately that it feels like I can hardly breathe. But everyone’s busy, so I won’t take up anyone’s time by whining about it.

In an effort to keep this short and concise, I’ll go with bullet points today.

Spencer started fencing and has had two classes so far. He seems to enjoy it and is happy that he has begun his path to the Olympics (luge is his first choice; fencing is Plan B).
Neve started gymnastics on Saturday. She allowed me to leave the gym after two minutes, which is a very clear sign that she was having fun.
Her fear of using the bathroom at school has been overcome, but we’ve moved on to an intense fear of throw-up. I won’t get into the whole situation, but a girl threw up during music class and now Neve hates: a) music class; b) Thursdays, because that’s the day the girl threw up; c) the girl that threw up. Just when she was starting to come to terms with it, a second girl threw up during gym class the following week (that one wasn’t as traumatic because Neve didn’t actually see it happening). Other than that major issue, she is enjoying school.
Chloe is very busy with volleyball, piano, French Horn, youth, and homework. She’s got a cold and hasn’t been feeling great, but she’s getting by.
I love my photography class. I’ve learned lots and am having fun taking hundreds of pictures. My family is growing weary of it and most of my models are very uncooperative, but I carry on.
The weather has been splendid the past few days. I’ve been spending far too much time at my computer, so I haven’t been able to enjoy it as much as I’d like, but we did go to the corn maze last weekend, and the park this weekend.
Two nights ago, a house-shaking crash jarred us all awake in the middle of the night. While Dale slumbered on, I got up to investigate and found the book shelves above the piano in the study had came crashing down. We haven’t had time to deal with the situation yet, so there are piles of books all over the room. And Shannon had arranged those shelves so nicely. Good thing there are photos to refer to.

I’ll leave it there for now. I hope to see the light at the end of the tunnel later this week and hope to get back to more consistent posting.

Pool Party

2011-09-20T10:16:00.004-05:00

It's a grey, wet day today, but we were lucky that Sunday was a pleasant, sunny one for our inaugural swim in Mike and Darla's new pool. I'm amazed at how quickly the process went. One day Darla said, "We're thinking of getting a swimming pool" and almost before the words were out of her mouth, there was a digger in her backyard. And then the next day, she called us to come for a swim. It was THAT fast. Mike and Darla (and their neighbour) may have a slightly different version than that, but those pool guys aren't lazy.

And it's beautiful. All of it - the shape of the pool, the concrete, the liner, the slide. Spencer made me promise that we'd get a slide just like theirs if we got a pool. That's one promise I'm pretty sure I can keep. As much as I wish this was the view of my backyard, I am happy to drive 10 minutes and share theirs.

Nice form, Maddie! We took a break for some delicious food (vegetarians - look away)...

... and kept swimming until dark.

I think we've found the perfect location for our mythical Bloggers Reunion.

Fall

2011-09-15T20:56:00.003-05:00

We’re starting to settle into our fall schedule. The kids all appear to be happy with school. Chloe goes to Tim Hortons almost every noon hour for hot chocolate, I’ve heard nothing from Spencer, which can only be interpreted as a very good sign, and Neve has gotten over her fear of going to the bathroom at school. She told me she went to the bathroom five times on Tuesday. It seems she has embraced Auntie Janet’s sketchy advice and has found the perfect way to skip class.

I’ve gone back to school too. Before you get too impressed, it’s just a photography course on Tuesday nights. But I am loving it! We have assignments (the apple picture at the top was the first one) and homework and everything. I’ve learned a lot in the first two classes already. My brain is not used to learning new things.

Speaking of getting used to new things, my body is not used to working out. I stopped doing my Jillian Michaels Shred workout DVDs for the summer, and went running most days instead. With the sudden drop in temperature this week, I just couldn’t convince myself to go for a run. I know that’s irrational because in January, two degrees would feel like tropical, but I am a slow acclimatizer. So I descended to the basement and allowed Jillian to torture me. Guess how many “real” push-ups I could do? Five (I eked out a few more once I dropped to my knees). Yes, five. Push-ups have always been a weak spot, but I believe I’ve sunk to a new low. And don’t ask me how sore I am. And don’t poke my pecs. Or my shoulders or my upper arms. Just to be on the safe side, don’t poke me anywhere.

I think it’s supposed to warm up a bit; hopefully I can get a few more weeks of fair-weather-running in. The cool fall feeling came in like a lion on Monday, after a scorching weekend. On Saturday we were at the beach and on Monday the kids were asking for mittens to wear to school. I resisted putting on socks and proper footwear until yesterday when I remembered there’s no prize for being the last one wearing flip flops. But I’m holding off on the toque, even though I secretly want to wear one.

In closing, let me share my new favourite website, Dear Photograph (today’s bareback dog-bathing one isn’t my favourite). With that description, I bet none of you can resist checking it out now (don’t worry, Mom & Dad, it’s all innocent). Corinna shared the link on Facebook and I can’t get enough of it. It’s sappy, but I love how it validates all the picture-taking I do. It’s all nostalgic and bittersweet and it makes me want to go hug my children and then take a picture of us hugging. I actually have a great idea of launching a spoof website using the same concept with pictures that no one wants to remember. Or better yet, Deer Photograph. Send your deer photos my way.

Ahhhhhh

2011-09-07T21:22:00.003-05:00

It took thirteen years, but as of today all of my children are in school full-time. For the last two years, Neve has been in school in the mornings and napped most afternoons, so it doesn't feel much different. She's attending the public school down the street (the other kids are still at their private one), so she'll come home for lunch most days. It makes for an easy transition; I really can't say I'm nostalgic about my "baby" going to school full time.

Neve was anxious this morning - about her teacher, about her new classroom, about the location of the bathrooms, as well as other miscellaneous concerns. The zipper on her new backpack broke before we even got to school. Piece of crap Tinkerbell backpack. It only took Neve about an hour at the store to decide which one to get; now we get to do it all over again. Actually I think I'll do that on my own and just surprise her. Anyway, she was a little more relaxed when I picked her up at lunch, and even more so at the end of the day. Tomorrow she stays for lunch, so now she's anxious about that. It will be nice to get all the firsts over with. She really likes her teacher and says she's funny (in a good way) so I know she'll be fine.

Spencer pretended to be the least excited about starting school . He came downstairs this morning in his rattiest T-shirt and faded jean shorts. I made him change. His teacher this year is Lisa, our ex-babysitter, which we are all ecstatic about. Before school started, we practiced calling her by her teacher name - Mrs. X (not really - just trying to be stealthy and privacy-conscious). I made muffins this morning for the kids to give to their teachers; first thing Spencer says to her, "Here's a muffin for you, Lisa." That reminds me of the relationship I had with my grade five teacher, Ed.

Then there's Chloe. She lay awake for hours last night; her grade eight mind buzzing with excitement. It goes without saying that her outfit was carefully planned in advance, and despite her short night, she got up nice and early to do her hair and makeup. She's especially excited that this is the year they're allowed to leave the school grounds at lunch time. Dale's excited that he can just send money instead of making her a lunch. Major renovations have just been completed at the school (last year she was in a portable classroom) so everything is new and fresh and exciting.

As for me, I won't lie: I was eagerly looking forward to this day. It was a great summer and I felt like I juggled work and the kids better than most years. We had lots of fun, but I'm ready to move on and get back to routine. And if the summer weather continues to stick around, all the better. I think we should plan a Parents Day at the beach on Friday. Or at Darla's new pool?!

No, we had more fun

2011-09-06T00:50:00.002-05:00

We split up the genders this weekend: the boys went camping and the girls had a Girls in the City weekend. It wasn't as wild as it sounds, except for the dance party.

We started off on Friday with pizza at my sister’s to welcome their new exchange student who just flew in from Germany. On the way home, we stopped at BDI to pick up milkshakes for our movie night. We watched Soul Surfer until Neve freaked out. Not from the shark attack – oh no, apparently a shark attack isn’t scary at all compared to the girl’s friend throwing up on the beach. As I’ve mentioned before, Neve has an intense fear of throwing up. “OHH! She’s throwing up!! Tell me when it’s over! Is it over? Is she going to throw up again? OH! I can’t watch! I think I’m going to throw up! Am I? I think I am! I look gray! Oh, this is bad! I want to go to bed! I’m probably going to throw up in my bed!” (she didn’t). Thankfully it made for a quick and easy bedtime, after which Chloe and I watched Legally Blonde while we drank Neve’s untouched milkshake.

On Saturday, we had a lazy morning, then headed to the mall. Neve got a pile of new clothes for school and all three of us got new shoes. I bought mine with the last of my gift card from work; I was sad to reach the end of my spending spree, but I’m happy with all my purchases.

We set up a little spa at home and did manicures and pedicures before dressing up (Chloe’s request) and going downtown to Moxie’s. We had a lovely grown-up dinner, complete with appetizers and Shirley Temples. For dessert, we came home and had a chocolate fondue, followed by a dance party (Neve’s request). I don’t remember the last time our curtains have been closed, but they were that night. When we grew weary of dancing, we convinced Neve there were no more disturbing scenes and watched the rest of Soul Surfer. There was a storm Friday night which interrupted all of our nights, but we made up for it Saturday night with the best sleeps ever. I woke up at 9:00 on Sunday morning and felt so good. I went for a run and had a shower, yet both girls slumbered on until I checked their pulses. That’s normal for Chloe, but Neve is almost always awake by 8:30. Once everyone finally got up and dressed, we went to Cora’s for brunch, followed by a little more shopping.

The boys came home Sunday afternoon. The weather hadn’t been great, but they swore they’d had a good time anyway. They tried to prove it by showing us photos on Dale’s iPhone of Spencer laughing and eating junk food. I think they were a bit disappointed we weren’t jealous of their staged photos, but how can they expect to compete with a fondue and new shoes? It just doesn’t get better than that.

Thinking of a title shouldn't be this hard

2011-08-30T22:09:00.000-05:00

I’m going to be honest: the last week of summer holidays isnot my favourite week of the year. Ifeel like I should be clinging onto these last precious few days of vacationand delighting the children with surprise picnics, a homemade piñata, andfingerpainting a giant mural of our favourite summer memories. Of course none of those things are going tohappen, and fortunately the children are happy playing at home, but I stillhave that nagging feeling that I am not living life to the fullest. I feel restless and unfocused and tired. I am trying to let go of my impossibleexpectations and just enjoy each day for what it is. Today we had plans to go swimming at theoutdoor pool, but even though it was warm out, it was a cloudy, sleepy kind ofday. No one really felt like going, sothe kids played with Playmobil for quite a while until they started fighting,and I eventually ordered them all outside. Both girls ended up having friends over and Spencer spent his time asking me every threeminutes if I’d play Stratego with him. It’s a new board game he just bought with a gift card, and it’s long andRisk-like. I want to want to, but I justcan’t bring myself to spend the two hours doing so. I am trying my best not to learn how to playso I can use that as an excuse. I knowthat sounds awful; if I outlive Spencer, it will probably be one of manyheart-wrenching regrets I will carry around forever. Anyway, my point is that even though the day veered off from the original plan, it turned out pretty well. Neve and I even got some indoor shoe-shopping done tonight, which was an unexpected bonus.

By the way, this is what Spencer drew on the sidewalk today during his outdoor exile. It's hard to tell from this photo, but it's two war planes (he would be able to tell you the exact name of each aircraft) in a dogfight. Somehow he has become a military buff and walks around all day sharing war trivia. It's all unfamiliar territory for us peace-loving mennonites, but I guess it's normal. It's just not your average sidewalk chalk drawing. We had a little downpour about an hour after he drew this. He was disappointed, but it's probably not the worst thing.

Setting up Playmobil "houses" which cover 90% of the surface of the playroom. I'm tempted to fire up the vacuum cleaner and reduce that percentage.

Yesterday I got all the kids up and onto a downtown-boundbus by 10:51 a.m. Bus fares seem to haverisen significantly, and Neve is no longer free. It cost us $8.10 each way, except I didn’thave change for a ten dollar bill on the way home, so the day’s transportationtotal came to $18.10. And we didn’t evenget to witness anything interesting or dangerous on the bus, so it wasn’t thebest $18.10 I’ve ever spent. I’m tryingto tell myself it’s an investment: if the children are familiar with taking thebus, I can spare myself from driving them everywhere when they are older.

We had a nice lunch at the Line Up, and enjoyed exploringthe Exchange District, especially the used bookstore and Toad Hall Toys. Despite advance warning, Neve was veryunhappy that I wouldn’t buy her anything at the toy store. It does seem a bit cruel to show her allthese awesome things and not let her have any of it, but normally she’s okay ifI tell her I’ll write the desired item on her list (which exists only in myhead). She was very grouchy but perkedup long enough to chase Chloe with a rubber snake, which resulted in Chloeknocking over a display stand. I heardthe crash from the far end of the store; an employee helped clean up the messand we left the store immediately thereafter.

Outside, I had a talk with Neve to encourage her to behavecivilly, but I was unsuccessful. I said,“Could you please stop talking mad?”

She said, “This is NOT my mad voice!” After a pause: “This is my angry voice!”

Much better.

We spent a significant part of the day at the library, whichmade even Neve happy. I got two ExpressBestsellers (which are due back in 7 days or you have to pay a steep overduefee) which is silly because there’s no way I can read two books in one week,plus I’m already in the middle of a different book. But somehow I’ve almost finished the first book,which will be less impressive when I tell you which book and how large the fontand line spacing are. It’s Tina Fey’sbook Bossypants, which I’m finding quite humourous. When I finish that, I have Miriam Toews’ Irma Voth toread; thank goodness there’s a long weekend ahead. So when I feel guilty about not taking thekids to the park to fly homemade kites or creating a cityscape with Plasticine,I’ll just tell myself the Winnipeg Public Library is forcing me to read. It’s out of my control.

One more week

2011-08-28T23:22:00.000-05:00

A day without sugar is like a day without sunshine. Usually it's in the form of ice cream or slurpees or both, but today it came it was decorate-your-own cupcakes in honour of Neve's half-birthday. I always feel embarrassed to admit we celebrate half-birthdays for fear of sounding like an over-organized supermom, but I will defend myself by saying the half-birthday child just gets to choose what's for dinner and dessert. There are no gifts involved, although every year the children secretly hope this year will be different. I'm scared to set that precident; maybe sometime I'll surprise them. But make no mistake: there is no over-organized supermom here. For example, a rare mood struck me this weekend and I decided to tidy my bedroom. On the dresser, I found a pile of things from our Florida trip in spring that I'd never got around to putting away. Not tucked away in a corner, not stuffed in a drawer or a closet, but sitting right in the middle of my dresser for five solid months. Shannon is probably getting all shaky and rashy just reading this. Or the opposite - all excited and giddy that there are people like me incapable of keeping their house organized on their own.

Chloe was at camp this past week. We missed her very much. Spencer and Neve mentioned a few times that "this isn't fun without Chloe." Dale and I missed her even more; our morning runs couldn't overlap and I had to be home before he left for work. Rough, I tell you. Plus I had to do her chore chart duties. We were a lot happier to see her on Saturday morning than she was to see us. I sort of prefer the after-camp reunion we had with Spencer last year - I will never forget the relief in his eyes when he saw us. Chloe spent a large part of the weekend pining about not being at camp. I know it's quite a letdown from non-stop fun, cool counsellors, and being surrounded by friends around the clock, but you'd think cupcakes should count for something.

After the camp pick-up, we went to my sister's cabin for the day. The kids tubed and skiied and gotten bitten by a dog, but I didn't get my camera out once. Oh, except when we stopped at the ice cream store where my niece Tia works. Sadly, Chloe was the only one who got ice cream because the rest of us were too stuffed from an amazing supper (slow-cooker pork on a bun, tomatos with mozzarella cheese and basil, corn on the cob, fresh salsa, and a variety of squares for dessert). We are not delicate people; we can usually squeeze in a cone no matter how full we are. I was scared there was something wrong with us, but maybe we've just reached our ice cream capacity for the summer. Ha ha, like that's possible.

This is Spencer trying to fry an egg on the back lane on a particularly scorching day last week. I don't think it worked out great; it was taking kind of long and we were too hot to check back later.

We're on the brink of the last full week of summer vacation. I'm hoping to get a few more activities crossed off our list this week, and then I will be very happy and ready to send the kids back to school. I have to practice looking wistful and forlorn on the first day of school, when really I'm giggling with elation on the inside. When I mentioned at bedtime that it was the last full week before school, Neve got teary and anxious. She wanted me to promise I would sit outside her classroom all morning on the first day of grade one. Bedtime turned into a long drawn out affair because of this, so eventually I just said yes. I sure hope she forgets about that, because keeping that promise is not plausible. The other parents and school staff would think I'm crazy. It's probably wrong to be more concerned about that then about keeping a promise, but life doesn't always make sense. Plus I know Neve will be fine after the first minute.

Wishing you all a carefree, relaxed, hot last full week of summer vacation!

Family Weekend 2011

2011-08-25T23:10:00.007-05:00

For those of you who have been lying awake at night wondering when I was going to blog about my family weekend, lie awake no more. I’m afraid it will be a bit of a let down since there’s really nothing crazy to report.

We had a great family weekend, which is an annual tradition when Dan comes to visit. Everyone except Jenn was there or at least made a brief appearance during the weekend. We did all the usual things (click here for last year’s recap), as well as some new things like fireworks, a beanbag toss game, kittens, a giant sprinkler and an outdoor movie night. The cousins had a lot of fun together; we were happy to have Bailey & Tia (and their parents) back safe from Europe, and the younger kids always love spending time with their older cousin Jordan. Spencer loves getting Jordan to spin him around in the hammock, but the last time we were at my parents’ house, Spencer wasn’t holding on tightly and fell face down to the floor. This resulted in a fat lip and a bloody nose, so when Spencer begged Jordan to spin him in the hammock this time, Jordan said, “Why don’t I just punch you in the face instead?” That was my favourite line of the whole weekend.

It was baby Lexie’s first family weekend, and judging by her lack of crying, she had a pretty sweet time. She’s such a content baby and only cries when her big sister demonstrates her love in a painful way. Her diaper overflowed at one point and caused a mustard-coloured geyser to spray all over Auntie Janet. That was a highlight for my kids, since nothing can ever be funnier than poop.

Some of you asked what rollkuche are - here's a nice closeup of the cooking process. Mmm - delicious, bubbling pot of fat, how we love you.

Sack race fun

Seed plant climbing fun... Spencer's second best highlight of the weekend.

Rocketing pop bottle fun

Beanbag fun - look how gracefully Jim throws a beanbag

Trampolining fun. Sabrina enjoyed this a lot.

And out came the mask again.

I have hundreds of pictures, but I will stop here. Looking forward to next year already...

Lake / I love my job

2011-08-23T10:18:00.001-05:00

As previously mentioned, Chloe, Neve and I went Lake of the Woods on Wednesday to visit friends from Wednesday toThursday. Their cottage is on an islandso it was pretty fun taking a boat from the mainland. Neve didn’t think so initially; there was avery strong wind, so the waves were huge and the boat was rocking vigourouslywhere it was docked. We were all gettinginto the boat when Neve suddenly leaped out and ran up the stairs leading downto the dock. My poor friend had partiallyuntied the boat already so she had to hold the rope with all her might while Itried to convince Neve to get back in. It turns out that she wasn’t scared of the boat capsizing, but that shemight get boat-sick and throw up. No onelikes throwing up, but she has an intense, passionate phobia of it. Finally she relented and after 10 seconds onthe boat, her fears dissipated.

We had an awesome time at the cottage, doing all the usuallake things like swimming and eating. Iwould weigh 500 lbs if I spent the whole summer at the lake. My neighbour Karenwas spending the week at her cottage nearby, so she boated over for cocktailhour on Wednesday and we boated over to visit her the next day. It was so beautiful out there and even thoughit was only one night, I felt like I had a real holiday. I fell asleep listening to the waves lappingup on shore outside my window and woke up to a beautiful view of the cove. It was hard to go home, so we dragged it outas long as we could and got stuck in a torrential downpour on the wayhome, but it was Worth It.

I usually work on Thursdays, but all staff was requested tobe at an all-day meeting on Friday, so I rearranged my schedule. There was some secrecy about the day, sowhile some people were optimistically curious, I was expecting astrategic planning session for the upcoming fiscal year. Not so. There were fresh croissants and pastries, a fruit tray and mimosas waitingfor us in the lobby when we got to work. Then Dave (the big boss) announced that there were limos waiting outsideto take us to Polo Park mall. The sceptic in me was still thinking it wassome kind of team-building scavenger hunt, until he started passing out giftcards for each person to spend. I feltlike we were on Oprah: we each got a $400 gift card that we were instructed tospend on ourselves, and then meet at Earl’s for a late lunch. When we got to the mall, customer servicepresented us all with shopping bags with a couple of goodies inside and an icedtea from David’s to sip on as we shopped. And shop we did. I bought jeans,two pairs of shoes, a skirt and some makeup. I couldn’t decide what to spend the rest on, so I’ve got another shoppingtrip in my future. It was such afantastic day; it was great fun talking about our purchases and seeing whobought what. A couple of people boughtiPads (topped up with their own money), someone bought a small flat screen TV,and one guy bought a wedding ring to finally replace the one he lost years ago. I’ve discovered that saying about money notbuying happiness is wrong. Some richperson probably just made it up to make the rest of us feel better. I feel pretty happy when I'm wearing my new shoes.

The limos had us back at the office around 3:00, and then weall went home to get ready for the evening festivities. Lovey’s catered a BBQ at Dave’s housefollowed by a campfire complete with smores and the most amazing fireworks I’veever seen in a private setting. The kidseach got a Best Buy gift certificate as a parting gift, so everyone was prettyhappy. Let’s just say there was noperusing the Careers section in the Free Press this weekend.

Right after the party, we headed to my parents’house for the weekend. I am going toleave you all hanging in suspense and save that for another day.

Uncle Dan

2011-08-16T22:46:00.002-05:00

My daily posting goal was obviously way too ambitious. I seem to be gradually making a shift from a relaxed, casual, breezy summer frame of mind to a full-out lazy, unmotivated and sloth-like state. It's not pretty.

Oh well, I will enjoy these last few weeks of summer and just pray that when I awake on September 7 (first day of school), I will be brimming with renewed energy and vigour and a strong, purposeful sense of direction.

Dan spent a couple of days with us and when I review what we did, it's actually pretty impressive. On Sunday, we biked to - and through - the park to have ice cream at Sargent Sundae. My parents and Jim & Sabrina came as well, so that was pleasant especially since my dad paid for all the ice cream. (Thanks, Dad.)

Yesterday Dan, the kids, and I went to the Quarry for the afternoon. My friend Jenn and her kids met us there for our 3rd annual beach day. It was yet another gorgious day and we had a great time catching up. When we got home, Dan ordered in pizza for us and then we went to the Forks. We walked all over the place; the highlights were watching Neve try to get out of the bowels of the skate park and enjoying the fireworks after the Goldeyes game.

Today we had a lazy morning - there was cloud cover and even a bit of rain! - but there were zhu-zhu pet activities and a 1000 piece puzzle to keep busy with. After lunch Dan, Spencer and I hung out in the Exchange District for a couple of hours. We went to Toad Hall Toys, got cupcakes, and checked out a used bookstore. Dan headed back to my parents' house later on; it was great to have him here and the kids love having him around.

Tomorrow morning, the girls and I are off to a friend's cabin and then we're spending the weekend at my parents' so chances are slim that I'll blog for a bit. Maybe I will be so re-energized after the break, I'll start posting twice a day.

Grand Forks and beyond

2011-08-14T00:07:00.001-05:00

Our little trip to Grand Forks came and went in the blink of an eye. It wasn't the best family time ever; the drive there was long and painful due to construction, I was cranky which I blamed on the hormones that were resulting in intense hot flashes every ten minutes, the kids were fighting and complaining a large portion of the time, and we stayed at a cheap hotel that time forgot. But I will dwell on the positives: walking across the river to Minnesota where we had dinner on the patio at Applebee's, getting most of the kids' school supply shopping done, watching a show about snakes on Animal Planet, a delicious breakfast at I-Hop, playing a family game of Grounders at the playground, and of course, a stop at Cold Stone Creamery. Funny how most of the positives involved food.

Three purple girls at the playground

My brother Dan arrived from Vancouver on Thursday, so we stopped at my parents' on the way home to see him. The kids played and we had a quick fire before heading home.

Today Dan, Jim & Sabrina and us went to the park for a BBQ. I was trying to be like the ethnic families I always see at the park with their rice cookers and crock pots and exotic food. All I could muster up was burgers, but we did fry up mushrooms and onions, which is about as fancy as I get. It was a beautiful night and the kids had fun running around the playground and we all walked around the duck pond. There was a full moon, and if we'd waited a bit longer, we could have seen the fireworks that were going to be set off a bit later. Not quite as good as pink unicorns, but not bad.