50 Things

Shamelessly stolen from Sherry's weblog:


50 Things

1. What year was the best year of your life?
2000 was pretty darned good. Probably the best so far.

2. One animal or insect that Noah should have left off the ark?
Rats.

3. Do you make a wish before blowing out your birthday candles?
Of course.

4. Do you generally open your bills on the day that you receive them?
Nope, I leave them to DH, that's his chore.

5. How many pillows are on your bed?
2 plus 2 more on the floor beside the bed.

6. Favorite ice cream flavor?
Pralines and cream.

7. What is the most dominate color in your wardrobe?
Beige. How boring.

8. Have you ever seen a ghost?
No, but I've felt things that have made me wonder if someone else was there.

9. Would you rather go to a carnival or circus?
Carnival.

10. Favorite meal: breakfast, lunch, or dinner?
All of the above. And brunch too.

11. Your favorite fictional animal?
I have no idea. I've never ever thought about it.

12. Have you ever flown first-class?
No.

13. Would you go on a reality show?
Can I be the evil nasty judge? Certainly not as a contestant anyway.

14. Are you more optimistic or pessimistic about the future?
Optimistic, mostly.

15. Pancakes or waffles?
Waffles. The cheapo frozen 3ggos.

16. If you could own a home anywhere in the world, where would it be?
An island someplace warm with blue water. Like Richard Branson, perhaps he'll sell me his.

17. Your favorite Soup of the Day?
French onion.

18. What site is a must see for all visitors to your city?
I suppose Parliament Hill is the logical choice but I prefer taking people to Kingsmere.

19. Can you recommend a good restaurant in your city?
The Newport, which is the official home of the Elvis Sighting Society. It's crowded, decorated entirely in Elvis memorabilia and makes the best damned pizza anywhere!

20. You go to the zoo; What is the one animal that you want to see?
Lions.

21. Potatoes, rice, or pasta; Which is your favorite?
Potatoes (but not french fries).

22. What is the best movie that you've seen this year?
The only movie I've seen is The Matrix Reloaded, and I didn't really love it.

23. One of your favorite books when you were a child?
I loved The Secret of Nimh (I still love it now). Also The Chrysalids, forced to read it in school and yet loved it and still think about it often even this many years later.

24. What in your life are you most grateful for?
My husband and my beautiful babies.

25. You are home alone and use the bathroom; do you close the door?
Depends. Upstairs no, downstairs - if anyone came to the door theyd be able to see me in the mirror so I close that one.

26. What is your favorite small appliance?
Blender.

27. Salty snacks or sweet treats?
Both.

28. Are you usually a little early, a little late, or right on time?
I used to be horribly, chronically late but now I tend to run mostly on time. I have really bad time perception.

29. What is the most daring thing that you have ever done?
Uh, nothing really. I'm a pretty boring person.

30. Have you ever met someone famous?
I met Patrick Duffy back when people knew who he was.

31. What was one of your favorite games as a child?
The Game of Life.

32. At what age have you looked your best?
I was an adorable baby, and an attractive child but I'm more comfortable in my saggy, stretchmarked skin now than I ever have been.

33. One person that never fails to make you laugh?
Katie.

34. What was the first music that you ever bought?
It was a 45 of the song "Maniac" by Michael Sembelo. Does that date me?

35. If you could change one thing about your family life when you were a child, what would it be?
That's too big a can of worms to open here.

36. What is the one thing that you cook that always receives compliments?
Devilled eggs.

37. From what news source do you receive the bulk of your news?
CBC Radio One.

38. In the last calendar year, how many people have you told that you love them?
My parents, DH, the kids. That's about it.

39. Who recieved your first kiss?
I have no idea! I really can't remember!

40. The single most important quality in a mate?
Crap just one? Integrity. (also honesty, intelligence, patience, kindness)

41. What do you value most in a relationship?
That "click" that you feel when you just fit together right.

42. Do you believe that you have a soulmate? If yes, have you already met?
Yes, and yes.

43. Do you consider yourself well organized?
Not even remotely.

44. On average, how many times a day do you look at yourself in the mirror?
Wow, I don't know. Some days lots, some days only when I'm flossing.

45. Did you ever make a prank phone call?
A few when I was a kid.

46. What one quality do you seek in a friend?
A good sense of humour.

47. Have you ever killed an animal?
Nope.

48. When you were twelve years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A doctor.

49. Do you believe in an afterlife?
I think there must be something after this but I'm not sure what I believe that to be.

50. What would you like to accomplish with the remaining years of your life?
Raise children who are happy, healthy and well-adjusted, minimize my impact on the planet and find a few quiet minutes every so often to spend with my husband.

Beautiful Day

What an amazing day it was here today, warm (23C), mostly sunny and breezy. After a busy day of swimming and playing at the park we took the little ones to Mooney's Bay, where there's a nice playground on the beach. A wonderful evening.

Click on the thumbnails for full-sized.

Odd

Hmmm haloscan is down again. Rots. It's a sign that I should go to bed early for once.

A kitchen tragedy

My dishwasher broke down! Perhaps this isn't a tragedy to most but DH and I have spent 8 years referring to our dishwasher as a "marriage saver" and honestly that's the way we feel about doing dishes. I hate it, he hates it but the machine never complains... until now. Of course, these things can't happen when we're just sitting around counting our millions (HA!), nope, it has to happen days before my huge tax payment is due. *sigh* A-shopping we will go...

NCSS

I bought The no-cry sleep solution from Chapters yesterday. It comes highly recommended by people who have similar parenting philosophies to mine. I sure hope it helps. Jonah went to bed at 8:15 last night, then was up at 9:30, 10:45, 12:30, 1:30, 2:15, from 3:30 to 4:45, 6:00 then up for the day at 7:20. On top of that Katie was up perhaps 5 times last night. If it wasn't for caffeine and sugar I'd be comatose today.

Weeks Eats

Sunday – roast chicken, rice, salad
Monday – barbequed ribs, rice, carrots
Tuesday – eggs, sausages, home fries
Wednesday – hamburgers and fries
Thursday – wonton soup, beef and broccoli stir fry, chicken fried rice
Friday – grilled cheese and soup
Saturday – hamburgers, cheddar smokies, salad


Hmmm... cholesterol city this week

Feeling much better

My little pissy mood rant of yesterday is over. After sulking around awhile C and I started the barbeque and Rich and Claire, who had originally sent their regrets, showed up due to a change in their plans (Rich's exam was cancelled). So we enjoyed a wonderful barbeque dinner and played cards deep into the night.

Today was cold and rainy but the kids were just so precious. Some days they can be just spectacular, so cuddly and smart and sweet. Katie was a little whiny after lunch, I think she may be coming down with something, but after a nice nap she was just as sweet as pie again. I have great kids.

My "friends" suck

It's happened yet again. Yet again a bunch of people were supposed to come by for dinner tonight, C picked up tons of food and spent half the day preparing yummies to eat and EVERY F-ING ONE of our so-called friends flaked again on us. Gah. Screw them all.

Hey good lookin'

Whatcha got cookin'?

The Matrix Trilogy

I finally watched the third installment of the Matrix trilogy last night, and I think it's safe to say I'm not smart enough for the Matrix.

Dying for milk

This article has me upset on so many different levels. Babies dying always upsets me, obviously, but dying needlessly and essentially starving to death? Starving to death because of greed. If the link above doesn't work the gist of the article is that dozens of infants have died in Eastern China over the past year after being fed counterfeit formula which was ridiculously substandard in terms of protein and vitamin content. They're all from an impoverished, ill-educated section of the country where their parents (and store keepers) didn't know enough to question why this formula was so much cheaper than the others.

Initially when I read the article my first instinct was to shoot off my mouth about the benefits of breastfeeding and question why impoverished people are paying for artificial milk when the real stuff is free. But hey, that's been done and I don't know anything about the situation in Eastern China. So instead I'll question how anyone could be so low, so inhuman as to produce infant formula that's little more than tap water. These horrible greedy people had to know what the outcome would be. This is premeditated murder, it's preying on the most defenceless members of society. I'm sickened, I'm horrified, I'm disgusted. Until today I'd viewed counterfeiting as a white collar "victimless" crime but my eyes are open now.

Golfing with the Sens

Yup, season's over for us. That rots. Better luck next year.

Which famous feline are you?

Pilfered from Andrea




You're Hobbes. First of all, the makers of this
quiz would like to congratulate you. You have
our seal of approval. You are kind,
intelligent, loving, and good-humoredly
practical. You're proud of who you are. At the
same time, you're tolerant of those who lack
your clearsightedness. You're always playful,
but never annoying. For these traits, you are
well-loved, and with good cause.


Which famous feline are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

You know, Hobbes is my favourite comic book cat. I like this quiz.

Go Sens Go!

Woot! That's all I have to say about that... for now.

Behold my beautiful baby:

Week's Eats

Thanks to Dawn for this meme.

Sunday - Ham, scalloped potatoes, mixed veggies (at my mom's)
Monday - hamburgers and spiced fries (at the hockey game)
Tuesday - poached chicken in a savoury sauce (recipe later) over tri-colour rotini
Wednesday - hamburgers (again) and caesar salad
Thursday - barbequed pork chops, pasta and salad
Friday - Lorenzo's Pizza Mmmmmmm
Saturday - leftovers

Pretty boring.

Spring

Today was one of the first real Spring-like days this year, and it was glorious. Sunshine, warm, puts me in a wonderful frame of mind.

Yesterday Jonah took two steps. Not exactly walking (more lurching) but a definite precursor to the inevitable mobility. Frightening how fast he's growing. I'm down to just 3 weeks left of my maternity leave and am desperately trying to justify taking another year. *sigh* I know we can't afford for me to stay home but it's been so wonderful being home with Katie and Jonah, and being here when James gets home from school. Add to that the fact that I'll essentially be working to pay the sitter and I wonder why on Earth I'm going back at all. I know, benefits, intellectual stimulation, those fwe precious dollars that will be left after daycare gets paid. Still, I can't help but comtemplate if there's any other places we can trim back the fat?

Tomorrow I'm off bright and early with the two SILs to a humongeous used children's clothing and equipment sale - we went last year and it was fantastic! I hope it's good this year too, Katie's just had a major growth spurt and has frightfully little that fits anymore.

Sleep

My eldest has always been a sleeper. He started sleeping through the night at 5 weeks and was a long, deep sleeper his whole infancy/toddlerhood. He didn't give up his afternoon nap until he started school! All this is to say I was very spoiled and perhaps had some unrealistic expectations about baby sleep.

Katie, at just turned 3, hasn't regularly napped in nearly 6 months. She goes to bed around 8:30 and is up and chipper between 6 and 7. She then goes full-tilt until 8:30 again! She's mostly sleeping through the night now but from 18 months until just a couple of months ago she was up 4 or 5 nights a week.

Jonah still has never slept longer than a 5 hour stretch, and his average is somewhat less than 3. 10 months old and he's up 3 or 4 times each and every night. Yesterday he took a longish and lateish afternoon nap which resulted in him being WIDE awake from 1:30am until 5:30am. Oh my heavens I'm exhausted today. He just doesn't seen to need as much sleep as other 10 month old babies. With him cosleeping we're awake everytime he rolls around, and perhaps we're contributing to his frequent nighttime wakings with our own movements. I'm pretty sure that the cosleeping has to stop (not as sure as I was at 4am but still pretty sure). I just don't know how to get him into the crib. He generally sleeps the first leg of the night in there (which is from about 8:30 to 10:30) but then won't go back in there. He simply can't fall asleep by himself either, and his only lovey is me. Crying it out is not an option, not only does it go against my beliefs but it simply doesn't work with Jonah (the child who screamed for 40 minutes in the car because he didn't want to be in the carseat). I don't really know how to proceed but I have to start now, before it gets worse. Wish me luck.

My Floor!!

The kids and I came home yesterday to glorious new flooring! I'm so pleased! Despite all of the troubles C had the flooring looks spectacular, warm and almost glowing. So much better than our gross old carpeting and our worn out cushioned kitchen floor. Plus the livingroom is now a soft peachy-beige instead of that hideous pool green we've lived with far too long. There are still some finishing touches (a few places where the baseboards had to be replaced need to be painted white) and we haven't yet put all of the furniture back but I'm just so happy. Here's a shot of the diningroom floor, more later when I put the furnishings back.



We had a wonderful weekend at my parents' house, my mom invited a bunch of neighbourhood kids for an Easter egg hunt in her yard, it was really cute to see them running around with their pails searching for eggs. She respected my wishes about not giving the kids too much candy too, there was lots for everyone but this year I don't have several bunnies in my freezer. It could only have been better if I wasn't so worn out (I fell asleep at 9 on my last night there and totally missed out on a quiet evening of conversation).

Here's Katie hunting for eggs (while my mom snaps away):



Some of the kids on the bridge over the pond:



And Katie feeding the fish in the pond (those fish have never been so well fed, it was her favourite thing!):

The Long and Winding Road

4 hours. It doesn't seem that long but man it's a hard drive. So we're here at my parents' house, the drive wasn't as bad as it could have been, Jonah did a lot of sleeping and James kept Katie entertained for much of the journey. C on the other hand is encountering lots of unforeseen difficulties in his renovations. The kitchen floor is apparently several layers deeper than expected and is taking much time and effort to pry up. As a result he's quite behind on painting as well. Poor bé. Pictures to follow I hope! For me it's like one of those "While you were out" decorating shows. I just hope the majority is done when I get back, not because I don't want to help but because I can't imagine keeping the babies out of everything.

Boxes and paper and packing tape oh my!

Packing up my livingroom. Have to get everything out for the flooring and paint. In anyone elses house this would be a one, maybe two day job but not here in packrat central. Here I'm working on day 3 and have no more than 2/3rd done.

Snuck in a little dinner visit with the California family at the inlaws house Tuesday, I think Anne Marie adored her big cousin James, and I think James adored his big cousin Angela. It's a shame really that they're so far away, it would be nice for the kids to be closer to each other. They barely know each other at all.

I haven't the energy to rant or rave today and tomorrow is Good Friday so I'll wish all a Happy Easter and a lovely warm weekend.

Narrow Miss

Do you ever feel like you missed the boat, and then it turned out to be the Titanic?

Snow be gone!

Bah. There's 5cm of fresh snow on the ground and it's -22C with the windchill. Mother Nature is a tease (actually there's another word for her but I'll be nice and not use it). Happy frickin' April. It did make for some nice ambiance during our trip to the outlandishly expensive but beautiful Sucrerie de la Montagne where we spent a whopping $27.50 each adult, $16 for James and $8 for Katie to have far less than "all we could eat". Because of the size of our group we were split between two tables, and as is always the case in these sorts of situations the Montrealers ended up at one table and the Ottawaans at the other. Still, my children were wonderfully behaved and until she got tired Katie really enjoyed everything (especially the traditional French Canadian chansons a répondre and fiddle music). And, big group or not, it was really nice to see some of the cousins, aunts and uncles I haven't seen in a long while, most of whom hadn't even met Jonah.

Out of the fog

After a tough few days that saw 4 of the 5 of us get that nasty stomach virus I think we're finally on the road to recovery.

C's brother, sister-in-law and their 3 daughters are in town for a week. I haven't seen them since Kate was a newborn (I missed their last trip up north as I was in Turkey). We're going with them, the in-laws, one of the sisters and her husband to a sugar bush in Hudson, Quebec, where we'll meet up with several of the cousins and aunts. Should be a good time. I just hope I can keep all of that mapley goodness down. Then next week we'll go to a Stanley Cup Playoff game which should be a blast (though not if we're trounced as badly as we were tonight, yuck). Ah, maple syrup and hockey, could this be any more Canadian of an entry?

April Fools

That we are.

I'm beginning to feel like this should be my family health blog. Both Jonah and Katie are sick now, Jonah won't let me put him down for a second and he's puked over both of my slings. Katie wants to be carried around too but both together weigh over 50 pounds and I just can't manage. We took a quick trip to the pharmacy in the stroller to buy gravol and children's motrin and as soon as we were back in the house Katie vomitted all over the floor. Why can't they make children's gravol taste better? I had to dump the stuff down Katie's throat while she screamed. Plus I bought advil insetad of motrin and she doesn't care for the taste of that either.

There should be a calgon commercial here: "take me away", but alas, that doesn't happen in real life.