Mommy's Empty Head

happy new year

2012-01-01T14:11:00.002-08:00

With a new year come new changes and challenges - and I hope to really take more time this year and improve my photography. While I don't have the time, engery or equipment to dedicate to it fully, I do want to learn much more. I have stared a new blog over at http://surroundedbychaos.blogspot.com/ Over there I hope to just post a photo or two every few days or so. I'll still post here once in awhile, as this blog is more personal, and not too many people know about it. I want the other blog to be one that I can tell people about, and they can just have a look when they feel like it. There are no links over there that will bring you back here.

Lets hope I can keep this going!

Day 5, Day 6, and Day 7

2011-11-07T13:01:00.000-08:00

Slammin these all into one post - yesterday was a perfect day for pulling out the camera and I thought (for about a millisecond) that it was the perfect opportunity to get some family shots, however I was in no mood to make myself look presentable. Of course with today's rain and leaves falling off the trees I am kicking myself.

Day 5 - Windows/Doors
This photo is a bit of a cop out, I must admit. I didn't really see anything that caught my eye and so I took this shot. It's not bad, but I could have done so much better.

Day 6 - Three's

There are two sets of threes here - one are my rings, and the other is a very old china set that has been handed down through the family. I keep the china on my window ledge because it is pretty, and it is a convenient spot to put my rings when I am baking and I have to get my hands dirty. There are three rings, my engagement ring, my wedding band, and a ring that I picked up for $50 from Wal Mart. When i was pregnant with Nick, my wedding band slipped off my finger and fell into the couch. I couldn't find it for TWO YEARS. Since my engagement ring didn't fit, I wanted to have some sort of band, so I bought one for myself. My wedding band finally turned up one day when I lifted up one end of the couch to clean under it and I dropped it - the ring bounced out. At that point I had been wearing the Wal Mart special for almost two years, so I just put it with the other two rings. Since my fingers are quite long, the set actually looks pretty good together.

Day 7 - Mess

This isn't really a "mess" per se, but it is as close to one as Renee will ever get. My little helper wanted to bake today, so we made banana bread. The house smells like heaven!

Day 4 - Architecture

2011-11-04T12:32:00.001-07:00

ar·chi·tec·ture noun \ˈär-kə-ˌtek-chər\

Definition of ARCHITECTURE

1: the art or science of building; specifically : the art or practice of designing and building structures and especially habitable ones

When I first went out today (minus my camera) I noticed many many beautiful things and places that I wanted to capture. So I went home, got my camera and returned. Unfortunately the light was different, but still there were some good shots.

Today's challenge is architecture. I initially thought that I wanted to get a shot of a building, but none really caught my eye. And then I noticed all the colours of the trees around the lake. Beautiful. And then I had a thought. The lake, which is one of many in our community, is man-made. So I guess that could count as architecture, no?

Day 3 - Shadows

2011-11-03T20:41:00.000-07:00

Funny thing is, when you are photographing shadows, you typically need some sun. I am horrible at photographing with artificial light, I really like natural light - and as luck would have it, it was gross and overcast today. I usually love taking pictures on overcast days (clouds are like a giant soft-box), but having a touch of sun would have made this assignment much easier.

So I took my camera with me to Nick's soccer practice tonight. It was freezing cold, but thankfully it was dry. And then I had a thought. What if I take a photo of something in the light of the moon? Not quite a shadow, but it turned out pretty cool. Glad I had my tripod with me!

Day 2 - letters/numbers

2011-11-02T16:06:00.001-07:00

I had a good idea of what I wanted to shoot today, so I remembered to take my camera when I took the puppy out for a walk. I didn't remember to put in a memory card though....

Take two - Renee and I went to pick up the kids from school early and we looked for photo ideas. Here are three that we wound up with.

#1 - her shoes. I love her shoes, and they are just starting to get to a point where she can't wear them anymore (sigh). These shoes truly are all star.

#2 - my lens cap - I took this photo with coffee in one hand, camera in the other. I would love this photo so much more if it were not a bit fuzzy.

#3 - A busy Grade 2 Classroom - Nick's english teacher is so organized, and her class set up is spectacular. Such a nice, inviting place (especially on a cold day like today!)

here we go again...

2011-11-01T21:10:00.000-07:00

I've been invited to do another photo challenge, and since my camera has accumulated a fine layer of dust, I figured I had better get off my ass and take some photos. First up my favourite....self portrait (UGH). Out came the trusty tripod, and I invited a friend to join in on the fun so that the focus could be off of me. Best part was my face was totally covered (and that was a fluke). Stay tuned for tomorrow!

My go to in a pinch - quiche.

2011-09-26T10:45:00.001-07:00

This is by far Ethan's favourite - the other two, not so much. We are working on it. The great thing about quiche is that your few key ingredients (pastry, milk, flour, eggs, cheese) you will usually have on hand, and then you can add whatever to suit your needs or taste. This particular batch has onions and tomatoes (fresh from the farmer's market), and a bit of bacon. Sometimes I put spinach in as well. If you want to make it vegetarian, just take the meat out.

Another thing I add is mixed herbs. This too can vary depending on what you have in your pantry (or garden). I usually use Greggs, and unless you are in New Zealand, you'll have a tough time finding it. It is basically a mix of dried thyme and sage, with a small amount of marjoram. It is one of the things that any relative from NZ must bring me when they come here (and a bag of Pineapple Lumps thank you very much).

So here is what you will need for this recipe:

Mix the milk, flour and eggs and spices and whisk until combined. Set aside. The reason that these eggs look so yellow is that they are Omega 3 eggs - I forget how pale regular egg yolks can look!

Since I made this quiche for a potluck, I chose to use mini-tartlets. These are handy for lunches for the kids as well. Sometimes I'll make my own pastry, but often I just use pre-made.

Then I just fill them up with the ingredients. I usually put in onion, bacon, tomato, cheese and then pour in the liquid mixture. Some like to mix everything together and then pour it in - I haven't tried it but my guess is that it would work just as well.

I try to find "pockets" in the tartlet and fill very carefully. If I rush it the liquid goes on top of the cheese and spills over. I find that if I fill them from the side it works well. As the quiche cooks it will rise up, but after you take it out of the oven and let it sit I find that it does sink a bit.

Pop the tray in the oven and cook for about 30-40 minutes. Time will vary depending on what you use - a full pie shell (it will take longer, sometimes up to 50 minutes). Keep an eye on them and take them out when they have browned nicely. Admittedly, these ones were probably cooked a bit long, but they still tasted great. Of course, time does tend to go by slowly when you are waiting for them to come out....

Let the quiche sit for a bit to let them cool before eating. They can be enjoyed warm and heated up the next day for breakfast. Enjoy!

Quiche
1 cup of milk
3 eggs
2-3 Tbsp of whole wheat flour
1 onion, chopped.
6 slices of bacon
1 tomato
1.5-2 cups of grated cheese
1 frozen, prepared pie crust (9 inch, can be deep dish or not) or approximately 20 tartlet shells.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Saute chopped onion for a couple of minutes and remove from skillet. Chop bacon and cook in a skillet. Remove bacon from skillet and let rest on a paper towel.
Beat eggs, flour and milk in medium bowl with whisk until well blended. Stir in spice.
Place frozen tartlet shells on a baking sheet and fill with prepared ingredients (onion, tomato, bacon and cheese). Slowly pour liquid mixture in each shell, being careful not to over-fill.

Put baking sheet in the oven and lower temperature to 350 degrees after 10 minutes. Continue to cook quiche for approximately 20-30 more minutes (may be longer if you use a full pie shell). Quiche is done when the centre is set and top is golden brown. Let stand 10 min. before cutting to serve.

mmmm apple pie!

2011-09-24T14:52:00.002-07:00

Yesterday was the first official day of fall. In these parts it is like someone flipped a switch, and all of a sudden the smells and coolness of the season was upon us. One of my neighbours came by with an armload of apples from her tree (the ones that the bears didn't manage to eat). I decided that we would make pie - all from scratch.

I used to do this years ago, I always made my own crusts and used local apples. They are the best this time of year, and if you know someone with a tree, even better. Even the dented, bruised or partially worm (or bear) eaten apples can still be used. Not that I have ever used a bear eaten apple...

As I was cruising the Pioneer Woman's website awhile ago I bookmarked a pie tutorial that Pam did. This was a great step by step on how to make the perfect crust. There were some great tips that I had never tried before, and this pie was one of the best I have made.

Next up was the filling, so I peeled and sliced some apples, and made a cinnamon/sugar mix to go with it (recipe at the end of the post).

I followed the directions for the crust and baking the pie from the tutorial above. The tip about covering the whole pie in foil after it had browned was a great one, it worked beautifully.

I would suggest you follow the tutorial, and then when it comes time to do the filling, use the following recipe. It did turn out a bit sweet for me, but you could always alter the sugar. Another great tip from Pam was to add a couple of tablespoons of butter to the top of the filling before you put the top pie crust on. Not so great for the hips, but ohhhhh it tasted amazing.

Apple Pie Filling:

2 lbs of peeled and sliced apples (6-10 apples depending on size)

Sugar Mixture
1/4 cup of packed, light brown sugar
1/4 cup of granulated sugar
1 Tbsp flour
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1/4 tsp each cinnamon and nutmeg

Add the sugar mixture to the apples and stir until coated.

Another lag between posts....

2011-08-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I am happy to report that my black hair is much lighter, not the best choice I have made with regard to hair colour. Especially since my lovely white hair underneath began to grow in within a couple of weeks. So we (my hairdresser and I) have decided that my lid would benefit from some highlights, so we are back to dark and red. Oh the drama....

I was thinking about this blog the other day, and I don't think I have formally introduced the newest addition to our family to my readership (yeah, that's right - my massive readership. All five of you).

Awhile ago Ken and I decided that having a dog would be good for the family. I don't go back to my job for awhile yet (I took a leave of absence shortly after Renee was born, and I'll get back to work once she is in school), so by the time I do go back we figured the puppy would be well trained. We spent a bit of time looking online and at rescue agencies, and finally found some puppies that we were interested in. We filled out the application, and waited. And waited. Finally someone got back to us via e-mail and told us that because we were a young family, they wouldn't give us a dog. Never mind that we have a fully fenced yard, and that I would be home full time. Apparently (according to them) I don't know how much work having a dog is. Needless to say I wasn't impressed. YES I do know how much work a dog is, and I would make sure that he would be properly trained. So basically I told them the kiss MY ass.

We then found an interesting litter through another rescue. Eight puppies who looked like they each had a different dad. There were dogs that looked like shepards, some that looked like golden labs, and some that had rottie colouring. So again, we applied, and waited. The rescue got back to us and told us that they wanted to meet us at our house for an "inspection". Honestly, having kids was much easier than all this!

So two lovely ladies (and one lovely very large dog) came to our house. Everything went really well. The kids loved the big dog, and they all loved our yard. We were approved! They even had one of the dogs picked for us. When they told us that he was essentially a big dumb dog with not as much energy as the rest of the litter we were sold. They told us that he had a lovely personality and liked to sleep in his dog dish. Even better.

The next week we got our puppy. All 20 lbs of fuzz. The kids were in love.

The name he was given by the foster mom was "Bentley", and we decided to keep that name. Totally suits him. Overall, he has been a very easy dog. Nowhere near as hard as the kids.

He does have an easygoing personality, and loves almost everyone, except the mean old Russian lady who lives behind us - every time he hears her voice he runs to the fence and barks. He doesn't do that with her husband or her grown kids, just her. Weird.

Check out his paws. Like I said, he is now 90 lbs and just growing into them. In this photo he was still a mere 30ish lbs or so...

Bentley is very protective of Renee - I guess because he has spent so much time with her, as she is attached to me 24/7. It is a great relationship though, and Renee loves him to bits. And no, he hasn't finished growing....

Day 30 - black hair, OY.

2011-06-30T18:34:00.001-07:00

Day 30 - black hair, OY., originally uploaded by sassyanna.

today I went to the hairdresser. Brown is what I asked for. Black is what I got. Ken said it looked....well....nice. He thinks. Gonna take alot of getting used to.

Day 29 - Black and White

2011-06-29T14:23:00.001-07:00

Day 29 - Black and White, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

Today is the last day of school, and I hope that we have many more days like these over the summer - just relaxing and hanging out as a family. Too bad that I had to wear boots to school today to pick up the kids. It is still raining here, feels like early spring!

Day 28 - Flowers

2011-06-29T14:22:00.001-07:00

Day 28 - Flowers, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

an extreme close up for this one, almost done the challenge!

Day 27 - from a distance

2011-06-27T19:38:00.001-07:00

Day 27 - from a distance, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

Every year we go to Parksville on Vancouver Island. The kids love it there, and the best times are on the beach when the water is way out, and there are all kinds of interesting things left behind. Shells, jellyfish, crabs...so much to discover.

Day 26 - close up

2011-06-26T14:49:00.001-07:00

Day 26 - close up, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

This is Renee's headband, and it is also her favourite colour. She insisted that I take a photo because the sun is shining today and her hair "sparkles". Too cute.

Day 25 - Pink

2011-06-26T14:48:00.001-07:00

Day 25 - Pink, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

There is no shortage of pink in this house, and yet I found this one a hard one. Not too much motivation right now to pull out the camera, but I did think this wrapping paper was cute, and what do you know...pink!

Day 24 - animal

2011-06-24T22:05:00.001-07:00

Day 24 - animal, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

so I must admit, today's capture is one from the archives. My silly camera conked out, and the couple of shots I managed to get won't convert to jpeg files for some reason. I got a great shot of Bentley today too. Oh well. Just for the record, the Bernese in this photo is not ours, but they are pretty much my favourite breed. Bentley and his friend had a great time together when they met.

Day 23 - Sunflare...

2011-06-23T19:20:00.002-07:00

Day 22 - Sunflare..., originally uploaded by sassyanna.

I don't think we have really had a spring here, and now that it is officially summer, it would be nice to put my rain boots away for a few months and bring out the flip-flops. Today was especially wet and cold, except at about 2pm when the sun peeked out for a bit. Thank goodness it did, I don't know how I would have got today's shot otherwise!

Day 22 - Hands

2011-06-22T19:17:00.002-07:00

trying to get in the car..., originally uploaded by sassyanna.

Ahhh....they try to escape, but in this case it was futile. The car was locked. It is like those pedestrian "walk" buttons though, you keep pressing and pressing hoping it changes the light. They keep pulling and pulling on the handles hoping the door will unlock.

Day 21 - faceless self portrait.

2011-06-21T21:39:00.001-07:00

Day 21 - faceless self portrait., originally uploaded by sassyanna.

Tonight I was whipping up a semi stir fry - prawns and string beans with a peanut satay sauce. Simply divine. Too bad I didn't make enough....

Day 20 - Bokeh

2011-06-20T21:42:00.001-07:00

Day 20 - Bokeh, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

This was a tough one. When I think of Bokeh, I think of lots of little lights - none of which were to be found today. I was out in the garden and had a great day overall though. Even found a small bird's nest with eggs in one of our hanging baskets. That will be another post for another day!

Day 19 - Something Orange

2011-06-19T21:34:00.003-07:00

Father's day here consisted of just me and Renee. The boys were at their grandparents, and Ken was in Hong Kong paddling. We had a great day, except for the fact it was raining. We needed to get the dog out for a walk, and decided to go to the local waterpark. It was working, which is quite ironic as it was cold and raining. There were lots of bright colours though, and I just hope that the kids get a chance to run around in it when it is hot!

Day 18 - Your shoes

2011-06-18T11:45:00.001-07:00

Day 18 - Your shoes, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

These are my favourite shoes. And newly cleaned because my daughter hasn't quite mastered the whole "vomiting in the toilet" thing yet. She missed, and hit my chucks. The other feet in the photo belong to our five month old puppy Bentley. He hasn't quite grown into his paws yet.

Day 17 - technology

2011-06-18T11:44:00.001-07:00

Day 17 - technology, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

This is Ethan playing his DS. I really struggled with him getting one, and in the end, I told him if he wanted one he had to pay for it himself. So he saved for the better part of two years, and he did it. He doesn't play it that often (thank you swim club!), but he does enjoy some tech time now and then.

Day 16 - long exposure

2011-06-16T20:29:00.001-07:00

Day 16 - long exposure, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

What I would have loved to do for this one is go to a bridge, at night and do tail lights and headlights of cars. Alas, it wasn't to be. So the kids were my subject tonight. Kinda fun!

Day 15 - Silhouette

2011-06-15T18:18:00.001-07:00

Day 15 - Silhouette, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

Ok, I cheated a bit on this one....Stanley cup finals are on (Go Canucks Go!). This shot was taken on Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island. My kids had the BEST time. This freaked me out to watch, but the boys were amazing.

Day 14 - Eyes

2011-06-14T21:04:00.001-07:00

Day 14 - Eyes, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

So no camera time today, until the kids were all in bed. Last week I cleaned out the art cupboard so I knew we had lots of spare "eyes" on hand. Even found the coloured felts too. This is about the full extent of my artistic ability. I think my kids could do better!

Day 13 - Yourself with 13 things

2011-06-13T21:27:00.001-07:00

Day 13 - Yourself with 13 things, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

mmmmm.....banana bread. Here I am (late at night I might add) making a special treat for my kids. My aunt thought I was crazy breaking out the camera to capture this, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do to keep up with the photo challenge.

Day 11 - Sunset

2011-06-12T16:08:00.001-07:00

Day 11 - Sunset, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

I suspected that today's photo challenge would be a heck of a challenge. Right now I have a cloudy day to contend with, and a sick child (who thinks my shoes are the perfect place to vomit). So here you do - a beautiful sunset on Bowen Island, taken awhile ago (translation - not today!).

Day 11 - something blue - my flight suit!

2011-06-11T19:20:00.001-07:00

Day 11 - something blue - my flight suit!, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

mom and I went to the flyzone today (www.flyzone.ca). It was my mom's birthday present from my dad, and I was a somewhat reluctant participant. It was fun though, and it gives you the feeling of what it would be like skydiving, except that it is alot less freaky.

day ten - childhood memory

2011-06-10T21:42:00.001-07:00

day ten - childhood memory, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

This will be my daughter's childhood memory for sure - every time we pass a swing set, she HAS to go on. She would swing all day if I let her. The only thing stopping us is how tired I get giving her under-ducks. This little girl has got to learn to pump her legs!

Day 9 - something you love

2011-06-09T18:02:00.002-07:00

Day 8 - something you love, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

I LOVE the relationship that my daughter (on the right) has with her cousin. I hope it lasts a lifetime, and it will be even more special as Renee's cousin is like the sister she isn't going to have.

30 day photo challenge - Day 8 - a BAD habit

2011-06-08T10:54:00.001-07:00

30 day photo challenge - Day 8 - a BAD habit, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

I knew a bad habit would relate to chocolate somehow, but man these girl guide cookies are like crack to me. I just can't stop eating them. I have the box buried in the deep freeze so it is quite a challenge to get to them. It was far too much effort to put these ones back though, so I just had to eat them. I just hope the rest of the box stays intact.

Day 7 - Fruit!

2011-06-07T20:26:00.001-07:00

Well it has been a week and I am still with the 30 day photo challenge. Today's item du jour was fruit. I suppose I could have used yesterday's photo, but the whole point of this challenge is to pull out the camera and use it daily. So I figured I'd do a before and after of a mango salsa that I LOVE. This recipe was given to me by my sister-in-law when I practically beat it out of her after the first time I tasted it (she gave it willingly of course, but I hounded her to death because I wanted it right there and then).

It is oh so easy, and oh so tasty! This is what you need (and you can alter it to taste - I used orange peppers in this one, but red looks SO much better).

Three mangos
One red pepper
1/2 red onion

(chop all these up and put them in a bowl)

Juice from a lime (or two)
Cilantro (as much or as little as you want)
Hot sauce (again, as much or as little as you want)
Salt and pepper to taste.

This is a great summertime treat, and good for you too.....off to eat a bowl (or three).

Day Six - From a low angle

2011-06-06T14:09:00.000-07:00

Wow! SUN in these parts. What a treat. Strawberries (well, all two of them) are loving it. This year a put a couple of plants in a hanging basket, so I took the photo looking up from the bottom of the basket. Not too sure how long that red, almost ripe strawberry will last though. I think that I am entitled to the first one, no?

Day Five - from a high angle.

2011-06-05T15:15:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this isn't very high (3 stacked patio chairs high to be exact), but it will do in a pinch! Bentley now weighs twice as much as Renee, and is just about as tall when he is sitting. Oh, have I not mentioned Bentley before? That is the reason the blog was neglected for a couple of months. More on him later....

Day 4 - GREEN

2011-06-04T19:38:00.000-07:00

Day four of the photo challenge over at White Peach photography, and for those who are wild with anticipation of what is to come, the list is here.

So today has been a busy one, Ethan's birthday, family gathering and Canucks game. We managed to squeeze dinner in after the first period and dessert after the second period. I quickly took this shot while I was getting dinner ready. We are all watching the third period hoping for a Canucks victory...

Day 3 - Clouds

2011-06-03T21:55:00.000-07:00

Well, day 3 of the photo challenge just about did me in. Just posting under the wire. It has been a hectic day, and middle child threw a monkey wrench in the works by getting sick. You'd think they sit around feeling perfectly fine until the most jam packed stressful day arrived and BAM sickness hits. Thankfully he is doing better tonight.

The cloud challenge is a no brainer if you live in BC. The nice thing about today is that there was some sunshine (!!!!!), so it at least provided a contrast to the white fluffy things. I thought taking a photo in a puddle would give an interesting twist. So here you go - day three DONE.

Day Two - What I wore today...

2011-06-02T12:45:00.000-07:00

Only onto the second day of this challenge, and I must admit, the first two days haven't been my idea of a whole lotta fun because I had to be a part of the two photos. Mind you, if I just thought outside of the box once in awhile I am sure I would have figured out how to do the shots without actually being in them. June is a crazy busy month at our place, so it has been more of the "going through the motions" rather than thinking of new and fantastic ways to do things.

So day two of the 30 day photo challenge over at White Peach Photography has us taking photos of what we wore today. Well, today on the Wet Coast it is raining, so much so in fact that I had to pull out the rain boots. How depressing. No photos of that thank you very much. So I took a shot of my workout gear (on me just before I left for spin class at 5:30 am). I love my lululemon top, and the shorts were a find (on sale - yea!!!).

Ironically tomorrow's shot is of clouds, and according to the forecast, there aren't supposed to be any in these parts. I'll really have to do some thinking then!

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day One

2011-06-01T16:34:00.000-07:00

When I get the chance, I love to read photography blogs. There are some amazingly talented folks out there, and I love looking at new ways to capture the everyday things in life. I have been a bit lazy with taking photos in the past couple of months. I think it is due in part because I don't really lug around my DSLR as much as I used to, especially now that I have my Canon G11. It doesn't get the creativity going like the DSLR does (at least it doesn't for me).

Last week, I won a Nikon D3100. I must admit, it has given me the "kick" I have needed to get out there and take some photos. The downside is that my lenses (which are OLD) only work on a manual setting, but at least I can use them. This new camera is quite different than my Nikon D100, it has alot more bells and whistles.

I came across a challenge on one of the blogs I read. White Peach Photography is doing photo challenge for the month of June where you have to post a photo every day, each day a different theme. Today is Day One, and today's theme is "self portrait". ICK. There is a reason why I am BEHIND a camera, I just don't like being in front of one. At any rate, here is today, done and dusted. Tomorrow's should be interesting...

Finally DONE!

2011-03-04T15:23:00.000-08:00

About two years ago (give or take six months), the toilet in the main bathroom upstairs sprung a leak. It was one of those slow leaks that you know nothing about until you look up at the ceiling when you are in the room directly below the john, and notice black patches. A call to the plumber and about $150 later, we discover that the leak had likely been going on for months, and the floor underneath the gaudy lino was particle board and not plywood. Sigh.

The plumber was great. He told us what to do, and once we did it, to call him back and he'd get everything up and running. Basically we had to rip up the floor around the toilet, lay down some plywood, and he'd come back and get the toilet on. Ken and I chatted back and forth, trying to decide if we should just replace the whole floor, or just the damaged area. And then we thought about renovating the whole bathroom.

Exhibit One: Our ugly bathroom (notice I didn't bother to tidy before taking the photo)

Our house was built in the early 80's, and this bathroom is a good example of ICK. It was functional, although I prefer more drawers than the cupboards. Don't you just love the lights? And if you look to the far right you'll see about a foot of totally wasted space under the counter.

The toilet is disconnected, but what six year old would realize that when he was over for a playdate? After one of Nick's little friends used the toilet for what it SHOULD be used for, not realizing it wasn't functional, and us discovering the mistake a few days later (we walked around for awhile trying to figure out what was THAT SMELL upstairs) we taped the toilet closed. The lovely taped up toilet stayed like this for the better part of two years. Yes, we are a little slow.

Here is the bathtub. You can't really tell in this photo, but it is the colour of blech beige. The tile is quite dated too, but I have seen worse.

Quite honestly, the bathroom (before the toilet leak) was nowhere near the top of my list of "to do" items in the house. I'd have much rather done the kitchen. But to do the kitchen, we would have to knock down walls and rearrange lots of stuff, and the cost would be out of the stratosphere. So the bathroom it was. Too bad we decided AFTER we missed the deadline for renovation credits on our taxes and before the new sales tax was implemented in BC. OOPS.

I had an idea of what I wanted. And we had a budget. We had a contractor that we really liked who did work for friends and did a fantastic job. After I grilled him about safety, and recovered from my heart attack after seeing his quote, we decided to go ahead with using him. The only down side was that we couldn't get a designer, and that we'd have to do all the designing and choosing materials ourselves (which in the end I think worked out well, but I sure as heck won't do that when we renovate the kitchen in oh about 20 years).

I thought I knew what I wanted, until I went looking and was overwhelmed with choices. Thankfully Ken and I are very similar when it comes to what we like, so that part of choosing stuff was a breeze. For the most part I picked and he agreed. The only aspect that we clashed over (and I think that is even too strong a word) was the floor tile. In the end, I got my way, and he really liked the result (whew).

Once the contractor got in the house, the job was mostly done in about two weeks. Bits and pieces at the end took awhile to get done, but overall it was very smooth. The contractor and crew were excellent. They tore the bathroom to the studs, and for me, that was the worst part - I had huge fears that they would find something wrong, and our bank account would be drained (well, more so than it was already). Thankfully everything was great, no problems found at all.

The only hiccup with the whole process were the cabinets. We used a reputable company, and the cabinets themselves are great (and we got a good deal). But the installation - BRUTAL. I have never seen such a mess in my whole life, and honestly, I'll never use the company again based on that alone. They didn't even seem to care when I called to complain about the state of the house after the cabinets were in. In fact, our contractor said that if that had been one of his guys, he'd have fired him.

So, here are the after photos (and now that we have so much storage, there is no crap hanging out on the counter!):

We decided to go with a linen tower, which I LOVE. Lots of extra storage, which will come in handy when all the kids have to share a bathroom when they are older (because we are never moving.ever.again.)

Originally we were going to go with dark cabinets, but then I wasn't sure about tile with that, so we decided to go with white and then do a dark counter and floor. If I change my mind about colour, I can always paint the walls darker. Ken wasn't sure about the tile size, but after it was put in he really liked it.

The drawers make a big difference, I do prefer them over the cabinets we had before. And I love my square sink.

The only downside with going square was matching everything up. The only square fixture we could find for the shower was this one above, and while I love it, the colour (a gun metal grey) was tough to match with other fixtures (handles on the cupboards and the lights). And I love subway tile. I found some other tiles I loved, but I think they would have dated pretty quickly. Subway tile is one that will stand the test of time (I hope - and if it doesn't, too bad).

One thing I love about the shower/tub is the little nook the contractor built in. I originally wanted it on the longer wall, but he suggested putting it at the end, his reasoning was that you don't want people to see all your crap when they open the shower curtain. Good suggestion!

And finally, I wanted one of the curved shower rods that they have in many hotels. I love it!

I haven't done the final numbers yet, but we were really close to our original budget. Thankfully we had no surprises and a great contractor. YEA!!!

The big one.

2011-02-25T10:21:00.000-08:00

I am a safety girl. Safety, safety, safety. Drives my kids nuts. Now I am not one to want to wrap them up in bubble wrap, but I want them to think about what they can do to help prevent getting hurt. Even when they play fight each other they know the limits of rolling around without hurting each other. They look like a couple of bear cubs the way they cling onto each other and roll around the living room.

But as much as you can prepare and know the dangers, sometimes it just isn't enough.

We live in an earthquake zone. I have been in a few earthquakes, but none were very strong. I remember vividly being at work during one where the building swayed a bit, and by the time we figured out what was going on, it was over. I joke with my kids that one year when I was visiting New Zealand I was in the middle of another shaker, and the result was my dinner plate full of food sliding off the table.

When we were kids we had an earthquake kit in our home. Thankfully we never had to use it. Now that I am older and have a family to consider, there are so many things that come to mind that I never thought of before. As far as our house goes, it is wood construction and apparently will withstand an earthquake better than other buildings. Thankfully we are up on a hill and it is solid. Our kids go to a school that was built in the late 1980's, and it is only one level. We are lucky, but again, we can think we are prepared and mother nature throws a curve ball and you have to consider how to deal with the aftermath of a big one.

A few days ago there was another earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. This one had devastating results with hundreds dead and many, many more injured. I was in tears looking at the ruins online, remembering when I used to live and work there, and still not believing the damage that has been caused. I spent many a lunch hour in Cathedral Square or wandering the shops in the city. Many of the buildings were old and beautiful, now they are piles of brick and rubble. Christchurch is not unlike areas of Vancouver or Victoria. This earthquake is a huge wake up call.

Thankfully our relatives are all ok. Shaken, but ok. Now the concern is "where do we go from here". With the downtown area in rubble, how many have lost jobs? How do they get food and gas? What about clean water? A number of people I know have actually left the city - areas are just not livable.

So yes, we have an earthquake kit. But I don't think it is enough. I need to get my butt in gear and really figure out what I need to do to make sure my family is ok when the big one hits here. A great book that I did get awhile ago is Earthquake! Preparing for the Big One. It is an invaluable resource for those of us living on the coast of BC. I really need to dust it off and look at it again and try to make sure that we are prepared.

Soccer Mom? Not really....

2011-02-13T18:38:00.000-08:00

Apparently I am listed as a “soccer mom blogger” on a soccer web page. Now that is funny as all hell, because even though I ferry the boys to and from soccer practice and games every week, this is SO not my thing. I have never liked soccer. I played for one year when I was about 13, and I hated it. Not sure why, as I love other ball sports (basketball and volleyball in particular). The only thing I could come up with is that the latter two sports are generally played indoors, with the exception of beach volleyball, which I’ll play anytime anywhere.

Right now I am sitting in the minivan, Nick and Renee are playing on their DSi’s, and Ethan is practicing his soccer. Outside. In the pouring rain. I don’t think I’d have such an issue with soccer if it was played in the spring or summer. But playing in the fall and winter in the lower mainland of BC just doesn’t cut it. The poor kid is in so many layers that there is no possible way he could injure himself playing. I guess coming from a safety geek that is a bonus.

Soccer season here starts in late September. Weather is generally good until mid October, and that is when the monsoons start. October and November are generally wet wet wet, and December it is cooler, so the wet wet wet turns to ice ice ice. January rolls around, and playing conditions still suck. February the monsoons generally hit again, and keep going until March, when soccer season is over.

Vancouver is known for many things, one of them being the rainy weather. In fact, there are many ways to describe the rain here. Meteorologists don't just say "rain", they give us different terms to explain how long and how intense the rain will be. When talking about how long, they might say "brief", "intermittent", "occasional" or "frequent". And believe it or not, there is a difference between "showers" and "rain". Apparently when the forecaster says it is going to rain, it essentially means that we are going to get soaked. Showers on the other hand, have a shorter duration than rain (who knew?).

At any rate, wet is wet, and soccer pretty much sucks when we are standing on the sidelines freezing and holding our golf sized umbrellas trying to stay dry. The kids on the other hand love it. The more mud and dirt, the better. Sigh.

NOT the conversation I thought I have to have with my kids.

2011-02-03T15:50:00.000-08:00

In the past few years, I have had many a dreaded conversation with my kids. In my mind the "sex" talk would be the one that I thought I would dread most, but really, it was relatively easy. Back in early 2007, I had "THE TALK" with the boys, which stemmed from the fact that I was pregnant with Renee. Really, it was a great time to have the chat, as it was all very matter-of-fact, and to them we could very well have been talking about kneecaps instead of the applicable boy and girl parts needed to make a baby.

All the parenting books (at least the couple that I did actually read), said that you answer *just* enough to satisfy their curiosity. I just didn't really bank on Nick's curiosity. At three years old he could have given an anatomy lesson to the local high school kids and explained all the ins and outs (pardon the pun) of making a baby. Even now he'll randomly ask about babies being made, eggs, sperm...you name it, he's asked. In fact, when he started Kindergarten last year I had to take his teacher aside and explain to her that Nick just might bring up the topic of babies at circle time. "Oh, that's nice" she said. I then went on to tell her that it would be the baby making that would be the discussion item and I got an "OH". Didn't help that she was a constant reminder as she was eight months pregnant!

Overall, the sex talk has been easy. The death talk - not so much.

Up until a year ago, the only real direct exposure to death for the boys were the three successive goldfish we managed to kill one summer. We have had family members pass away, but the kids didn't really know them that well. They just knew that mommy and daddy were very sad, and that someone we loved very much had died. Then last year, one of Ethan's best friends dad had a stroke and suddenly died. He was in his mid 30's. That was one of the most difficult conversations to have with the kids. They just didn't understand why he would die because he wasn't old. He wasn't sick. He spent a day with the boys the week before and fed them full of donuts. The boys wondered what their friends would do without their dad. Luckily Ethan's friend got alot of counselling through the school, and some of those sessions Ethan was involved with as well. It was funny the way it worked - the counsellor at the school is a man, and he would have boys come in and they would all play ping pong and just talk. I don't think the boys realized it was "counselling" per se, which in some ways was a good thing.

Just a few days ago, one of Ethan's friend's mom died. She had been sick for awhile with cancer, but she was young. When I told the boys of her death they both asked if I was going to die. They asked if I am going to get cancer. They worried about who would look after her boys (she has three). That is alot for young kids to process, and I am willing to bet that there are many more questions they have that they just haven't asked. Every time they hear of someone having cancer, they assume they are going to die. That is another conversation that has been a hard one - because many family friends and relatives have died of cancer. I have really tried to think about the positive and explain to the kids that yes, some people die of cancer, but lots of people beat it.

I am truly thankful that I haven't had to deal with the trauma of losing a parent, a spouse or a child. Losing friends that are your age is hard enough. Losing very special loved ones is brutal. But having said that, I can't even imagine what the families of my boys friends have had to (and are still) going though.

We are doing it!

2011-01-31T09:23:00.000-08:00

Ethan asked me late last year if he could run in the annual Vancouver Sun Run. This is a pretty popular run that goes through downtown and is 10K long. There are about 50,000 people every year that take part. In fact, there are so many runners that it takes about a 10-15 minutes actually start running once you get past the start line.

The last time I trained for the Sun Run I did it to lose the baby weight from Nicholas. Apparently my body liked it so much that I got pregnant with Renee. At first I had no idea what was wrong with me, but soon after the run was done and I started training for the Royal Victoria Half Marathon, I found out the cause of my fatigue. So one can understand my reluctance to join Ethan in this venture.

However, I can’t let him run it alone. And Ken can’t do it because he has the knees of a 70 year old. So by default it is going to be me that will have to run it with him.

I am in much better shape now than I was five years ago when I ran the 10K race. But I don’t like to run. I have already told Ethan that we won’t be running the whole thing, but will do a combination of running and walking. I suspect that when he realizes just how long 10k is, he won’t have a problem with that. So far the weather has not been cooperating as far as training goes, so we haven’t had a chance to hit the pavement yet. I have run on the treadmill at the gym a few times, so I know at least that I won’t die in the process.

About a year ago I took up spinning. I needed some "me time", and the only time I could get it was at 6:00am! So I try to hit the gym most mornings, and get in at least a couple of spin classes a week. It has been a great base to work from as far as the running is concerned. I just hope that the impact from the running doesn't do a number on my shins.

This is the learn-to-run program we will be following. It should be an interesting few months!

How NOT to talk art with kids.

2011-01-24T11:41:00.001-08:00

I still remember many years ago a very good friend of mine telling me how we should ask kids about their artwork. NEVER EVER ask a child “oh is this a *insert name of something that the drawing totally looks like here*”? Apparently nine times out of ten the child will think you are smoking crack and wonder how the heck you couldn’t possibly see that what you thought was a shark was actually two dogs fighting over a lollipop?

Last week I spent some time with the son of one of my very dear friends. He is just about the cutest five year old you’ll ever meet, and he LOVES to draw. So while I was trying to compose a speech that I left until the absolute last minute, I gave him some paper and a pen and asked him to draw me something. He set right to work. After about 15 minutes he told me he was done. This is what he came up with:

When I first looked at this, the paper was folded and he showed me the first item circled below.

“oh honey, that is just awesome” I said. “that is a great Angler fish”. He looked up at me with his big huge brown eyes and said “uh Anna....it is NOT an angler fish. Can’t you see it is just a regular fish wearing a Santa hat?”. Oops. My bad. Never mind that Christmas has been over for a few weeks and my brain is totally out of holiday mode.

Ok, perhaps not totally out of holiday mode - it is the end of January and we still have our Christmas tree up. The tree decorations are put away, we just haven’t gotten around to taking the tree down yet. Ken thinks it looks kinda nice in the living room.

Then the little guy shows me this:

“Oh what a great birthday cake!” I said. Again, little beautiful brown eyes looks at me and says “It is NOT a birthday cake!!!”. Oh. I asked him what it was. He then told me that it was a jellyfish with gloves on. Sigh. Considering the theme of the art (sea life), I really should have known. Perhaps I should do some drawings and see what they think I have drawn. It really couldn't be much worse could it?

Rosy Posy Tea with attitude

2011-01-20T13:47:00.000-08:00

Over the past year, little miss Renee has turned into quite the little girl. Gone are the days of pants and t-shirts, now it is all about dresses, matching tights, sparkly shoes, princesses, and Hello Kitty. OMG. Hello Kitty. I am not a bit fan of Hello Kitty. In fact, many years ago when walking in downtown Vancouver, I saw someone wearing a shirt like this one:

Granted this is pretty horrible, and I would never ever wear something like this around Renee, but this pretty much sums up feelings about Hello Kitty. Don't even get me started about the kiosk in the mall that sells everything Hello Kitty, including $25 umbrellas.

So now that my three-year-old has gone all princess on me, she has started a bit of a tradition with her dad. Every night after dinner, Renee and Ken sit down and have "rosy posy tea". Renee graciously allows Ken to sit on the floor, she assumes her spot at the plastic little tykes picnic table in the playroom. She has the pink tea cup, Ken gets yellow. They chat, they snack and they drink "tea". The only little glitch that we'll have to iron out before she ever sits with royalty is the "tea finger". She tries to be dainty, but giving dear old dad the one finger salute just doesn't cut it (we haven't corrected her though, as it is just too darned cute, and the only time in her life that she'll get away with flippin' her dad the bird).

I sure was busy...

2011-01-17T12:36:00.001-08:00

Wow...all of NINE posts in 2010. Most of them done in the first six weeks of 2010. Shameful. I was busy, but I didn't think I was that busy. I guess facebook is responsible for eating up my internet time.

I am not one to make resolutions, however I will try harder to keep this up-to-date. I also need to dust off my camera, for some reason motivation is lacking in that department as well. Heck, I didn't take one photo at Christmas. Not one. I cooked two big family dinners, but didn't bother to capture the events. Again, shameful.

I did break out my camera yesterday though when this little fella decided to visit. Along with the odd bear, we do have an assortment of wildlife that tends to visit on occasion.

So here's to 2011, and hopefully *fingers crossed* a much better blogging year.

Winter Olympics are almost here!

2010-02-12T14:41:00.000-08:00

The Vancouver 2010 Olympics start in about four hours. Hard to believe they are almost here. We spent yesterday morning (and I mean early morning), standing in the rain waiting for the torch to go by. We were really fortunate that it came within blocks of our house. So the night before we got ready, and made torches. They were great - until the tissue paper got soaked in the rain. Oh well!

Random Acts of Kindness?

2010-01-23T21:13:00.000-08:00

In an article written by Douglas Todd of the Vancouver Sun in September 2009, he stated that in ancient Greece, Aristotle defined kindness as "helpfulness towards someone in need, not in return for anything."

In anticipation of the Dalai Lama’s visit to Vancouver this past September, the Vancouver Sun Newspaper asked readers to write in about random acts of kindness. Specifically, they asked readers to “Please send us a letter in 200 words or less describing what "act of kindness" you have performed or plan to do”.

What really stuck with me though, was that they wanted readers to tell about random acts of kindness that they performed. Honestly, I would have much rather heard about someone who was on the receiving end of a random act of kindness. In fact, one gentleman who wrote a letter to the editor asked the question “if one does a random act of kindness is it still a random act if they then tell everyone about it?” I couldn’t have agreed with him more.

Some of the letters telling of what people did were truly fantastic. Others would have fallen into the category of plain old using good manners. Honestly, is someone opening a door for someone else with an armload of books a random act of kindness? In my opinion, that is something that should be done as a common courtesy.

I love the idea of a random act of kindnesses. The best part of them is that it might be something that someone might do and not realize the impact it has on the recipient. A random act of kindness could be someone telling a stranger how beautiful she looks, without realizing that that same woman struggled that morning trying to figure out how to put on her wig because all her hair had fallen out due to chemotherapy. That one small comment has a profound effect on the receiver.

A random act of kindness could be something as small as bringing a bouquet of tulips to a busy and harried school secretary “just because”, or anonymously picking up the tab for a young family at the local diner. It is something that is done from the heart with no expectations of anything in return, including recognition.

Perhaps I am being a bit over the top in that I don’t really need to hear about the random acts from the people who have done them. I am all for doing random acts of kindness, just not telling everyone that you did it. I do however love to hear stories from the recipients of these random acts. It is then that you truly appreciate the effect.

The big change over the last six months.

2010-01-15T23:02:00.000-08:00

"it'll be fun" she said.

"no it won't" I told her....

My friend D was referring to boot camp. She wanted to try it, and to be honest, I had looked at a bunch of different companies doing boot camp, but the cost and time commitment was prohibitive. If you want to sign up for one month of hell, one camp in our area charged $200 for three days/week, and $270 for five days/week. In addition, they require that you to buy your own stuff too (weights, mats, balls....). Far to expensive for me.

D had done her research and the local community center had a beginners boot camp, twice a week at 6:00am. It wasn't nearly as expensive as the other camps, and they supplied the stuff that you needed. I reluctantly agreed to join. We started in July (too bad my 20 year high school reunion was at the end of June...).

The first week was really tough. After the first day I could hardly move. I was nearly in tears every time I went up and down the stairs. It did get easier though.

We stuck through it for July and August. And I lost a grand total of ZERO pounds. But I did feel better.

I then started to get more serious about my eating. I liked to think that I ate well, but I was snacking all day and when I wrote down everything that I put in my mouth and figured out how many calories I was actually eating I was shocked. My version of breakfast, lunch and dinner was basically finishing what the kids didn't eat. The food I ate was ok, I was just eating too much of it (with the odd chocolate treat).

Fast forward to today - D and I aren't doing bootcamp (it is outside, and the cold and wet just isn't appealing) however we have taken up spin classes, and work out at the gym. Each of us needs the other to stay motivated, as the only time we can go is 6:00am. That means we are getting up at 5:30 am most mornings. We have both lost weight, and I am hoping that we keep this up.

So what are the chances of having a 21 year grad reunion? Slim....

Brought to you by the letters O, M and G.

2010-01-12T20:15:00.000-08:00

I was in Starbucks the other day with the kids – it is a smaller one near us that has very limited seating, and when it is full, the idea of “personal space” goes out the window. We were lucky to squeeze into a small corner table with a couple of seats, I was a bit nervous though as it was next to a group of businessmen and Renee was dangerously close to full meltdown mode as it was pretty close to nap time.
The three men at the adjacent table were in their early to mid 50’s, and very distinguished looking. And when I say “distinguished” I mean they weren’t wearing the equivalent of my wardrobe of tee-shirts and jeans (on a good day) or yoga gear (did I mention I have never done yoga IN MY LIFE?). I think I may have had my funky rain boots on, so that at least is a bonus.

A youngish lady came up to the men and started chatting with them. I’d peg her in her late 20’s to mid 30’s (hard to judge because she was wearing a ton of makeup). She was an attractive lady though. They obviously knew her, not sure if she was a co-worker perhaps, or maybe a real-estate agent or insurance broker…at any rate, they bantered back and forth for a few minutes. Near the end of the conversation, she had mentioned her dogs – and one of the guys said “maybe we’ll just call you the dog lady” (and then they all chuckled). She laughed right along with them, and then told them she had to go. Just after she left and was out of earshot (but unfortunately, I wasn’t) one of the men said:

“I’d like to make her bark like a dog, OH BABY”. The other two quickly agreed with him and started to laugh.

I just about spit out my coffee. REALLY???? I’d expect that from a few drunken 20 year olds perhaps, but those words coming out of a guy’s mouth that was old enough to be her FATHER was just icky. So so glad that Nick didn’t hear it. Not too sure how I’d explain that one.

room with a view

2010-01-07T13:38:00.000-08:00

this is the view we had this morning from our small side window in the living room. One day, when we gut and reno the house I'll make this the view from the kitchen. That is Mt. Baker in WA in the shot.

My extremely talented friend...

2010-01-06T11:05:00.000-08:00

I have written before about an extremely talented friend of mine and her ability to make amazing cakes. She could give all those guys on TV a real good run for their money. I have written about her sushi cake she did for my birthday last year, the kiwi cake with the Canadian spin that she did for my mom, and the first cakes she ever did for me, a Venom cake for Nick and girly girl cake for Renee.

Also did a crab cake for my dad and sister-in-law (they are both born in July, so we figured using the astrological sign of cancer would be appropriate)

I haven't written about the pirate cake she did for Ethan this year (which was truly amazing - I loved the hanging skeletons)

And when Nick told me this year that he wanted a star wars cake for his birthday, complete with a couple of cops just to "keep everyone in line", she came up with this for him:

When she brought the cake over to the house, Nicholas took one look at it and said "but that isn't how you spell my name"! The cake lady told him that she didn't have enough room to print "Nicholas" so she did the shortened form instead. Nick's eyes lit up, and he asked if that was in fact his name. I told him it was. He almost NEVER writes Nicholas now...

So for Christmas this year, the cake lady surprised us with an amazing clay sculpture of our family. I love it. So freaking talented...

Weakness.

2010-01-03T10:49:00.000-08:00

One of my biggest weaknesses is cookbooks. In the last month I have bought three. Three BIG ones. And this is in addition to the seemingly endless amount of bookmarked online of recipes that I want to try. And the cupboard full of cookbooks I already have.

One website that I read frequently is The Pioneer Woman. I have tried a few of her recipes, most have worked really well. One of Ken's favourites is apple cake in an iron skillet (he calls it sex in a pan). In fact, I had to go out and buy a SMALLER skillet because when we used the big one we'd eat all the dessert in one sitting. Just the two of us. And I wondered why it was so hard to lose weight....

I must admit, the apple cake doesn't look pretty, but it smells and tastes AMAZING. And works equally well with pears. Caution - it is LOADED with butter - which I regularly stock up on when we travel to the US. Unsalted butter up here is insanely expensive, so picking up a few pounds (ok, more than a few) is a must when we go to south. In fact, on my last trip down with some girlfriends we were grilled at the border about the amount of butter we were bringing home. You'd think it was drugs or something. Never mind the wine we had, that guard was all focused on the 10lbs of butter each of us were trucking back to Canada....

The Pioneer Woman also has a cookbook (which of course, I bought). I have tried a couple of recipies and they turned out quite well.

Another weakness is Williams-Sanoma. I don't really buy stuff there, but I browse. And dream. And drool. I did see this cookbook in their store, but I didn't buy it. But then, as I was in Costco a few days later (buying aforementioned butter) I saw the cookbook, and it was almost half the price. I scooped it up.

I haven't tried anything in it yet, but I have found a bunch of recipies that I will try in the coming weeks. I love how it is laid out, and the photos are amazing.

Last but not least, I purchased Baking, by Martha Day. It too was in Costco, and it was CHEAP. I'd never heard of her, but a quick google shows that she has written numerous cookbooks. Again, the photos are amazing, and I can't wait to try some of the recipes. I am such a sucker for a good cover for a cookbook (I think mine is a newer edition, because I couldn't find it online, but here is an earlier version of her book):

Something went crash and left a mess.

2010-01-02T11:51:00.003-08:00

Red Breasted Sap Sucker, originally uploaded by SalteryLodge.com.

A couple of weeks ago we were eating lunch and Ethan asks why the window is "messy". I asked him to define "messy". He told me that there were feathers and other gunk on the window. He then looked down and told me that there was a big bird in the yard.

Years ago when I was studying at UVIC (oh how I miss Victoria...) I took a bird identification course. It was basically a filler third year level course that I needed to get enough credits for my Biology degree. The only textbook required was Peterson's Field Guide to North American Birds, which was a bargain compared to the $100+ textbooks required for other classes. I quite enjoyed the course (not as much as the statistics class where we had to chase grasshoppers in open fields attempting to catch and mark them, but that is a whole other post).

I never did think that I'd use that knowledge that cost many thousands of dollars, but I do, almost daily. After examining the dead bird, looking through the field guide, we came to a consensus that it was in fact a Red Breasted Sap Sucker. The kids were just fascinated, so much so that Nick asked if we could get a bird feeder. Normally we don't have them out as they are an attractant for the bears (which visited and played in our yard again this year), but most of them are hibernating at this point, so I figured why the hell not.

So the field guide is by the window, and almost every day one of the kids (even Renee) brings it over to see what type of bird is at the feeder. We have had a huge variety, even the big woodpeckers having a go at the birdseed. At least it is a break from the endless Star Wars and Lego!

This time last year...

2010-01-01T17:04:00.001-08:00

balancing act, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

We were covered with the white stuff. As I sit typing this now, it is pouring rain. I do really like the snow - as long as I don't have to go anywhere in it.

Post number one of 2010 done!

out with the old...in with a new resolution.

2009-12-31T21:13:00.000-08:00

So I have decided to revive the blog. I am even debating trying to post something every day, a fair whack of that will have to be photos though, because I am just not that talented to write something daily.

So to all two of you who read this blog, hold onto your hats!

Things to learn at soccer camp...

2009-07-25T11:13:00.002-07:00

Ethan just finished a week at soccer camp. He didn't love it, but he thought it was ok (I think being in the scorching sun had something to do with it). Funny how a few weeks ago he dreaded swimming, but in the last week when it has been stinking hot he can't wait to go...

At any rate, he did well. He learned a few new tricks:

He went after the ball (most of the time)

Most importantly he did have a smile on his face

Ethan's fondest memories of soccer camp though is what he learned from his peers. His much older peers...

He is now teaching Nick and Renee all about farting from the armpit. Oh joy.

Me thinks this wouldn't have worked in the Catholic church...

2009-07-22T09:47:00.001-07:00

My 20 year grad reunion - and a flashmob...

2009-07-05T23:39:00.001-07:00

I am working on a post for my 20 year grad reunion that I went to recently. In the meantime, here is a hammerpants flashmob to get you in the mood.

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Jon & Kate plus 8 trainwreck

2009-06-22T14:07:00.005-07:00

Honestly, I don't even know where to start with this family. I first blogged here about the reality show that everyone seems to be talking about.

I started watching Jon & Kate plus 8 when we finally got cable TV. I was fascinated with how a family could handle SIX babies. All at the same time. Oh, and twins thrown into the mix too. I remember when we had to deal with all night feedings, no sleep, sheer exhaustion, and that was with only three kids, and it was never all at the same time.

At first it was really interesting. I could see that they got alot of help and free stuff, and that is great. I couldn't even fathom the cost of six kids in diapers. Wow.

After it became more that just a two hour special, and turned into a weekly show, I still watched. The "little kids" as they call them are the same age as Nicholas, so I could relate somewhat. Ken and I are asked often (although not so much lately) if we watch Jon and Kate. Ken is Chinese (Jon is half Korean) and Kate is Caucasian, so maybe that is why people assume we watched the show. Either that or my three kids acted like there were eight of them sometimes...

I did get fed up with watching awhile ago - what bothered me most then was the way Kate treated Jon. I couldn't believe the way she yelled at him or sometimes treated him worse than the kids. Now what bothers me is the fact that they (and I think it is more her than him) seem to be pimping out their kids for money. Yes, the kids are cute, and yes, the lure of $$$ per episode must be tempting. But what happens when the kids get older? What happens when they google mommy and daddy and see all the crap that has been put all over the internet. Those kids have had no say in the matter of being on reality tv, and the fact that the cameras have almost been there since day one makes this way of life for those kids normal to them.

So tonight is the episode where they talk about "life altering decisions". Speculation is that divorce is on the horizon. I wonder if they will pull the plug on the show and try to repair what is left of the relationship? Likely not. But stranger things have happened.

toilet training officially delayed - probably forever.

2009-06-18T12:38:00.000-07:00

I thought toilet training the third time around was going to be a cakewalk. And since the first two human beings I had to toilet train were boys, I figured that with a girl it would be easy.

Renee showed signs of being ready quite early on. She was thrilled when I got her a princess toilet seat. Yes, I know I said I'd never cave to the boy/girl stereotypes, but she picked the toilet seat out, and if she was happy to pee on a princess, I was happy to oblige.

We took the family to Disneyland in April. We left Renee behind. And before you think I am the meanest mommy in the universe, I'll have you know that Renee was spoiled ROTTEN by grandparents while we were away. AND my mom had her almost potty trained. I was thrilled. I don't know what she was bribed with, but whatever it was it worked. Until a couple of weeks ago when I royally 'effed things up.

I was in the bathroom trying to fix my hair, and Renee wandered in telling me that she had to pee on her princess toilet. Just as those words escaped her tiny little mouth she discovered a spider lurking on the wall. She had a little two year old freak out and asked me to "put the 'pider outside NOW". Most days I have a thing about killing spiders, I just don't do it. I'll catch them and put them outside. But on this particular day, I was in a rush, and when a two year old has to pee, you'd better get to it right now. So I grabbed the spider and without thinking, put it IN THE TOILET. Renee freaked. And screamed. And freaked a little more. And refused to park her ass anywhere near a pink princess or a castle that was within 10 feet of a toilet.

I think she'll be in diapers until she is 10. Shit.

Is gray the new black?

2009-06-16T22:08:00.003-07:00

I met a woman the other day while watching Nicholas at his swimming lesson. I can honestly say that she is one of the most interesting people I have met in quite awhile. She was born and grew up in the Dominican Republic, spent her 20's living in New York where she met her husband. They moved to the state of Georgia, and now live here in the lower mainland. We chatted about anything and everything, and I find myself really looking forward to seeing her each week.

On Tuesday we had a really interesting conversation. I showed up to swim lessons in a ball cap. It is one of the coping mechanisms I use to hide my gray roots. D asked me where I got my hat, and mentioned that she needs to buy some. I wondered why the heck she'd want to cover her gorgeous locks (and they are beautiful) and she proceeds to take her hair clip out and show me her gray roots. She asked me to take my hat off so she could see my gray. It soon became a comparison of our re-growth - which was pretty much the same. The main difference between the two of us is that she is 10 years older than me. She then told me that she is going to stop colouring her hair and grow it out. She also told me about this website.

Now I must admit, the thought has crossed my mind. I am so anal about what I expose my kids to, and yet I put all this chemical crap in my hair to hide the plethora of gray. My gray hair stared to sprout when I was a teenager, but back then I could just pluck it out. In my 20's it got increasingly more plentiful, and that is when I started to colour my hair on a regular basis. After I get my hair coloured (or do it myself) I love it. For about a week. And then I can see the regrowth. By six weeks it is blatantly obvious that my true hair colour now is more gray than brown.

I started to look online for women with gray hair. Many were stunning. Look at this woman's before shot:

And now the after:

This lady is one of youngest I found online - she is only 45. And I am sure that she had alot of help to look this great, but still....she is gorgeous. The only problem with what I found online was that none of the woman who decided to go gray were in their 30's. Most were in their early 50's.

I have three main issues with going gray - the growing out process (UGH), looking like my kids grandma, and the reaction from Ken. I casually mentioned it last night, and he is not keen in the least. For now it is on the back burner. But who knows how long that will last.

2009-06-16T14:09:00.004-07:00

One of the first things mom said to me when I saw her today was "when are you going to start posting again?". I am assuming that she has been getting a bit of flack from the relatives in New Zealand. Oops.

Since the last post, the boys each had a birthday. The cakes that the amazing Mel did will be given their due attention in posts yet to come - suffice it to say that she is so talented that she could be a regular on Ace of Cakes.

Alot has happened around here - but none of it earth shattering. I have been making a bit more of an effort in the garden - beans, cukes, tomatoes, cabbage, leeks, lettuce and onions. I do have some strawberries, but with the plethora of hungry bears in these parts, the fruit is just a pipe dream. I have SO much to learn in the garden department, and I really regret not paying more attention when I lived with my grandma when I was in my 20's. She had everything imaginable in her yard, in fact the only stuff she bought at the store during growing season was meat. Everything else was out of the garden.

I have been working again at night - teaching a couple of courses online. It basically gives us a bit of extra cash so that I can stay home with the kidlets until they are older. I was so lucky that I was able to take a leave of absence from my "real job" until Renee is in school. It really was a no brainer making that decision once I started trying to find affordable, good daycare for three kids. It is hard though - most nights I am working until midnight, and all I want to do is just flake out and let my brains ooze out my ears. Hence the lack of updates.

No time for flickr mom, this will have to do.

2009-03-29T14:20:00.002-07:00

Once upon a time, in a land far away, my mom was an airline hostess.

She is not one of the ladies pictured above, but her uniform wasn't much different than these - I remember when I was 12 trying on her uniform and it didn't even cover my ass. My mom is shorter than me, but holy hell those uniforms were short.

I am sure that the flight attendants today do things vastly different than the "hostesses" back in the day. I have been on some flights where the service wasn't much better than crap, and other flights that were downright fantastic. Being a safety geek, I ALWAYS pay attention to the safety announcement, but I notice that most people don't. Well, this guy fixes that....

Crappy Customer Service

2009-03-20T17:05:00.002-07:00

One of my biggest pet peeves is really bad customer service. In the past week I have come across it more times than I can count, and it damned near drove me nuts.

Today, I phoned my old hairdresser to "try" (you'll see why that is in quotes a bit later) make an appointment to get my hair done. I haven't been to this hairdresser in over a year. She is fan-freaking-tastic, which is a problem because she books a couple of months in advance, and I usually have to cancel appointments I have made far in advance because something always comes up (usually a birthday party, or a practice of some sort for one of the kids that gets scheduled after the appointment is made). At any rate, I thought I'd try again to see if she can fix my lid.

So when I call, I ask the girl who answers the phone if Irene works on Tuesdays. I figure that she would have more availability during the week than on the weekend. The receptionist says "I don't know". So I ask her if she can find out. She goes to check, and then comes back to tell me "I don't think she works on Tuesdays". So I then ask her when Irene's next available appointment is. And she tells me "Oh, Irene is REALLY booked up, I'm so sorry". At this point I am not to impressed, and I really wish I had something witty and snarky to say like "Do you expect me to jump through the phone and check the appointment book myself"? But no, I just say "well that's been helpful" and I hang up.

Stuff like that just drives me nuts. I honestly am thinking of phoning my old hairdresser and telling her what happened (she is the owner of the salon). Of course, I might just phone again a bit later, hoping to get someone else and actually getting an appointment!

I blinked. And my baby turned two.

2009-03-11T12:28:00.005-07:00

It was at about this time two years ago that I was in a hospital BEGGING for drugs as I was in intense labour with Renee. I always thought that by the time kiddo number three came along that the whole delivery and birthing thing would be a breeze. How wrong I was. She was by far the hardest and most painful to deliver - but oh so worth it.

As I was leaving the hospital, the midwife mentioned that if she hadn't seen me actually give birth to Renee she'd swear I was leaving the hospital with the wrong baby. Those asian genes sure give the pool a good shake up.

The midwife came by the house a few days later to check up on us. If I had known how awesome having a midwife was, I would have done it with all three kids. The care was out of this world. Nick wanted to be weighed next - he thought that weighing Renee "old school" was about the coolest thing ever.

Of course, grandpa had other ways of measuring Renee - unconventional for sure, but effective.

With two big brothers, it sometimes was pretty tough work being the baby (and only girl).

And that hair! It was wild when it was dry, curly when wet, and RED.

Right from day one she has tried to keep up with her brothers

Even when it comes to eating, she will not be outdone. EVER. She is her mother's daughter.

I am slowly learning how to do her hair - when she lets me....

Often though, she'll just do her own thing.

Happy birthday sweet girl!!!

It's been a rough couple of weeks

2009-03-10T18:38:00.002-07:00

I've been a bit light on the posting, partly because I am up to my eyeballs in marking, and partly because I have got at least one of my kids glued to some part of me for most of the day.

The roughest part of the last couple of weeks though is that a good friend of mine lost her husband - he was only 39. She has two young kids and is still trying to comprehend how she is going to go on without him. They were an amazing couple - always together. He worked mostly at night, so during the day he was with the family. In fact on the day he had his stroke she told me that they had such nice day together and I think she is really happy to hold onto that special memory.

Today was his funeral. It was hard. So so hard. He was so young - he has two small kids. We are all still trying to comprehend why.

I knew it was too good to be true.

2009-02-26T15:43:00.002-08:00

As I was coming home from picking Nick up from preschool yesterday I was thinking how nice it was that the last patch of snow in our front yard (you know, the snow from the snowstorms from LAST YEAR) just melted. We just had a few really nice sunny (but chilly) days, and I thought that we had all the white crap behind us.

Well mother nature had other ideas. Big fat huge fluffy flakes fell yesterday afternoon, well into the night. My poor poor flowers. What makes this even harder is that we are supposed to be in New Zealand right now, sunning our butts on a beach, and attending the wedding of a very close family friend. Not too sure how Renee would have made out on a 15 hour flight though!

A little snippit from each of them.

2009-02-23T12:24:00.003-08:00

Ethan walks in the door from school and the smell of home baking just about knocks him over. He runs into the kitchen, and asked what I had baked.

"Banana bread" I told him.

Ethan: "Is it the healthy stuff?"

Me: "Yes"

Ethan: "It smells awesome, but if it is healthy, I don't want any."

(he did finish all his broccoli at dinner though)

__________________________________________________________

I was picking Nicholas up at preschool the other day and he saw a sign with a tow truck towing a car on it.

Nick: "Mom, what does that sign mean?"

Me: "If someone parks there for more than 10 minutes, the tow truck will come and tow them away."

Nick: "Do they tow you away to a better parking spot?"

Me: "No, they tow you to a special parking lot far away and then you give them money to get your car back."

Nick: "I want to be a tow truck driver when I am a big boy!"

___________________________________________________________________

Renee was chomping on a piece of celery when she bit her tongue. She screamed, but was upset at the fact that her mouth was still full pulverized celery. So I put my hand under her mouth and told her to "spit it out". And she did. All over my face, all over my shirt, and all over my pants. I wonder where she learned that from.

My Flowers

2009-02-19T15:55:00.002-08:00

Not your typical shot, but here is are a couple of the flowers from the bunch I got from Ken recently. The one below reminds me of a sea anemone. I almost expect Nemo to be coming out at any minute...

My present to myself

2009-02-03T16:58:00.003-08:00

necklace, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

A few months ago while cruising through my friend Erin's blog, I came across a post she did about a woman on ETSY that makes personalized necklaces. Even though I am not much of a jewelery person, I fell in love with the idea of this and went ahead and had one made for myself. I got it a few months ago, but in my usual lazy posting style, just haven't mentioned it yet.

The ETSY site (birthdesigns) is closed for awhile - she is busy having baby number four and I guess the necklace making has been put to the back burner for a bit. If you want to have a look at her other stuff though, she does have a webpage here. This particular necklace is the mother's circle, front toggle version. My photo doesn't do it much justice.

Super(toilet)Bowl Weekend

2009-01-31T20:52:00.005-08:00

I was in the other room when I heard a mad dash, a skidding stop, and a sound of a tidal wave hitting the lino in the kitchen. I ran across the house to find Nicholas dazed and a bit confused, and most of the kitchen covered in vomit. The first thing out of his mouth was:

"mommy, aren't you so proud of me for throwing up in the kitchen and not on the carpet?". Indeed I am.

We had a discussion a few months ago about good places to throw up, and not so good places. Toilet bowl? Best place. Kitchen floor? Next best place. Carpet? Terrible place. So my sweet wee middle child, while snuggled deep in the couch under a few blankets had the wherewithal to dash about 20 feet to spray my kitchen with vomit. He hit almost every surface (I am sure that had something to do with something I should be remembering from Physics 12), but at least they were non-porous, non-carpeted surfaces.

I didn't get off scott free though. About 15 minutes later I started. Thankfully I made it to the bathroom. That night was hell (compounded by the fact Ken was out with a few friends and had no idea of the mayhem he was missing out on at home).

The next day Ken spent the day looking after a sick wife and a sick kid. The two non-sick kids thought they had hit the jackpot because the tv was on ALL DAY. On Treehouse. Ken also found the time to install a brand new toilet in our bathroom. And that night, he spend the better part of the evening christening it. With puke.

So, what were you doing on January 20th?

2009-01-24T18:51:00.003-08:00

When my kids are older, and they ask me what I was doing on Obama's inaguaration day, I can tell them that I had a pretty amazing day. Highlights:

Went to the Canada passport office to get passports for the youngest two. Fully prepared to be there all morning waiting to get them processed. I was in and out of there in half an hour. Sweet.

Spent the next couple of hours in a coffee shop reading a book. Drinking far too much coffee. No kids. Heaven.

Since I was in downtown Vancouver (and it was a beautiful day) I decided to go to the only store that sells shoes big enough to fit me. I found a pair. ON SALE.

Met Ken for lunch. We had sushi. It was awesome.

Drove home - not alot of traffic.

Booked our trip that we are going on with the kids in April. Got a great deal through a great agent who gave us a few extra perks. The kids will love it - they don't know about it yet.

So that was the goings on on the big day in these parts. I would have LOVED to be a part of the crowd in DC, but through an online friend who told me about this link (thanks Jeannie!) I could have a look at what I was missing out on. It is amazing, and a bit scary all at the same time. Just imagine being about a mile back from the action and still being able to see someone up close and clearly online. The guy who captured the shot did it as follows (this is copied from his web page):

I made a panoramic image showing the nearly two million people who watched President Obama’s inaugural address. To do so, I clamped a Gigapan Imager to the railing on the north media platform about six feet from my photo position. The Gigapan is a robotic camera mount that allows me to take multiple images and stitch them together, creating a massive image file.

My final photo is made up of 220 Canon G10 images and the file is 59,783 X 24,658 pixels or 1,474 megapixels. It took more than six and a half hours for the Gigapan software to put together all of the images on my Macbook Pro and the completed TIF file is almost 2 gigabytes.

So here is the web page where you can find this amazing photo - enjoy!

If you have some time to spare

2009-01-19T15:09:00.002-08:00

Carrot Time
Originally uploaded by Back in the Pack

Check out this flickr site, especially her videos. I came across these as I was reading one of my favourite bloggers, Dooce.

The kids have been entertained, and now the "when are we going to get a dog" whining has started. I am so tempted to go to Youtube and download video of someone picking up dog crap (I am sure it won't be too hard to find). Maybe I should forward said dog crap video to my neigbour, who still doesn't get it.

Chocolate and sushi - what a combo.

2009-01-11T22:24:00.002-08:00

So the amazing Mel has done it again - here is the birthday cake she did for me this year. All edible and all delicious. I just might have to eat a piece of sushi with my coffee in the morning.

So if the car makers can get it, why not the porn stars?

2009-01-07T19:35:00.002-08:00

At first I thought this was a joke - but apparently not. As Nicholas would say "You have GOT to be kidding me".

All that white crap has to go somewhere.

2009-01-05T12:56:00.003-08:00

So now we wait for the big melt.

We had snow, then ice, then the ice melted with that wee bit of sun we got a few days ago. Then more snow. Now rain.

So all the snow on the roof is slowly starting to slide off (this chunk hasn't fallen yet)

Last night with a big BANG a huge chunk came off the roof and it broke our outdoor metal table. I didn't like the table much, but I sure am glad that there was no-one standng near it when it happened.

The REAL cost of a Wii.

2009-01-03T14:14:00.005-08:00

So Ken and I were chatting about getting a Wii (it sure would have come in handy while I was housebound and snowed in during 10 days over school holidays!). I am hesitant because I don't want to be playing video games all day. I am not too worried about the kids - as long as they get to play a bit every day they will be happy. Ken tells me that Wii fit will help me get into shape, and there is stuff on there that we both could do to improve our health...

As we were discussing the pros and cons (Ken is very pro, I am not quite there yet), Ken innocently says to me

"Anna, because the TV is so old, we'll need to get a new one so the Wii will work".

Hmm...anything for a new huge flat screen that we don't need (at least until the current old box craps out). And then he says

"If we spend all that money on a new TV, we'll have to get a stereo system as well".

Uh huh.

"And if we have HDTV, then we really should subscribe to HDTV through the cable company so we get full value".

"Oh, and what do you think about Blu Ray"?

So this new Wii, along with a Wii fit is really going to cost us almost $2000. Don't think we'll be getting a new Wii anytime soon.

PhotoFunia Fun

2008-12-30T13:49:00.003-08:00

Thanks to the wonderful Erin for the link to this site!

One day I will stop blogging about all the snow...

2008-12-26T23:26:00.001-08:00

Li in the backyard
Originally uploaded by sassyanna

Here is a video of my brother's dog who was hanging with us for a couple of days. Lionel just LOVES snowballs, but hasn't quite figured out how to retrieve them in one piece.

Oh, and pardon Ken's ass at the end - he wasn't too impressed either, and will be more unimpressed that this video is online.

On a side note - I am trying to get a nice picture of our Christmas tree and would really like to have the kids in their pj's in the photo as well. Ethan refuses because he doesn't want the world to see him in his jammies. Oh it is not like the 70's when all our pj's pics were just put in an album!

December 24th is not Christmas Eve in our house...

2008-12-24T14:10:00.003-08:00

It is my mom's birthday. And this year, the amazing cake lady "M" did a take on my mom's New Zealand heritage with a bit of a Canadian twist. I have talked about her previous creations here.

This little kiwi bird is all decked out in Canada gear, and knitting up a storm. Oh, and the cake tasted fantastic too.

This is what we woke up to this morning.

2008-12-22T10:51:00.002-08:00

Ah...lots of the white stuff. The stuff that makes it impossible to get up to our house without four-wheel-drive. The stuff that keeps you housebound for a bit. I don't think I have got out of my pj's for a couple of days now. If I don't have to go anywhere I love the stuff!

Nicholas-ism (Part two).

2008-12-18T22:28:00.004-08:00

Tonight I was sitting on the couch with Renee just having a cuddle. Our coffee table is the same height as the couch, and just far enough away that if I am sitting with my legs straight out my feet rest at the edge of the table. The kids of course think this is an open invitation to stand on my legs, (much like a gymnastics beam), swing over them, crawl under them, you get the idea.

So along comes Nick, and he proceeds to lie on top of my legs, and wrap his arms around my thighs, his legs around my calves, and then hangs himself upside down.

"Mom, I am going to just hang here like a sloth"

About five minutes later he tells me:

"Mom, it is such hard work being a sloth, isn't it?"

Oh, what I wouldn't give to have to do that kind of hard work for about half an hour....

Nicholas "ism"

2008-12-16T17:57:00.011-08:00

"Mommy, I want to go and play in the snow!"

"Ok honey, make sure that you get all your gear and I'll help you put it on"

(a few minutes later....)

"Mom, I can't find my fuvaglova"

"Your what???"

"My fuv-a-glova" (he actually said it to me as though I was deaf and didn't speak english).

"Nicholas, I have no idea what you are talking about".

"MY FUV-A-GLOV-A" (this is a four year old's way of explaining what he is talking about - just say it louder).

"Tell me what a fuvaglova is Nick".

"The thing that I put on my head and over my ears that keeps me toasty warm"

"OH....your Balaclava..."

A reminder to those in power in the Canadian Government...

2008-12-04T09:04:00.003-08:00

Play nice in the sandbox.

AND Re-read this below, by Robert Fulghum.

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.

These are the things I learned:
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

Soy beans and Ice cream....that's why I didn't blog.

2008-11-29T19:25:00.002-08:00

So the whole idea of the month of November in blog land is to post every day. And I did. Until the 24th. I was quite proud of myself, and I really wanted to keep going and not miss any days, but alas, the internets are not as accessible in Vegas as the slot machines (unless you are willing to pay $1.00 per minute - and now that I think about that, it is a relative bargain compared to the slots).

Ken and I had a little get away. No kids. No cold. And now, no money. But it was worth it (well, most of it - if you are in Vegas and are remotely inclined to see Criss Angel's "Believe" - run, don't walk away. Worst show EVER. Hell, you could even see people disappearing through the trap doors in the stage. Two hours of my life I will never get back).

We had cheap flights there and back. We stayed in a really nice hotel at a really cheap rate. It was heaven to nap in the afternoon. Our kids didn't miss us in the least (the grandparents were spoiling them rotten while we were away). It was nice to sit in a restaurant and not have to cut up someone else's food or tell the younger two to stop fighting. I did miss them, but it was a nice break.

We had a really nice dinner one night at a sushi place. Now we are totally spoiled here in Vancouver - cheap sushi and great prices. When we go out for sushi here I love just gorging myself on the good stuff. So for that reason, I had never tried edamame.

Why munch on soybeans when you can eat raw fish??? At this restaruant we went for the set menu and the edamame was one of the starters. OMG it was so good. I can't believe I have been passing it up all these years.

When we had worked ourselves through the other courses, we got to dessert. They brought out these small, colourful disks (I called them coloured hockey pucks eh).

They are called Mochi, and they were fantastic. I think we can get them up here at our local asian grocery store, however after my shopping experience in Vegas (I swear they have changed all the sizes of pants down there because my usual size doesn't fit) I should really stay away from the stuff!

Oh the minds of six year olds...

2008-11-28T19:54:00.003-08:00

Tonight Ethan was asking me about one of his friends at school. His friend has dark skin, and her mom is very fair. It is obvious that she is adopted, and tonight Ethan asked me why his friend's skin colour was so different from her mom's. It totally caught me off guard - and I really stumbled to explain the whole concept of adoption (it doesn't help that I have no idea about the situation behind their adoption). How do you explain to a six year old that a mom couldn't care for her baby, whatever the reason may be, and therefore gave it up? Now that I am a mom I can appreciate what a selfless act it is, and can't imagine ever having to make that decision.

To be perfectly honest, the sex talk was MUCH easier. I think Ethan really had trouble wrapping his head around the concept of someone giving away their baby. He even referred to the birth mother as the "real mom". I think I might just have to have a talk with the girl's mom about this whole situation - maybe she could give me some good ideas.

Not my smartest moment.

2008-11-27T17:24:00.003-08:00

I really should have known better. When I wrote this post awhile ago I should have figured that my e-mail would be innudated with spam. And it has been. ARGH. I am such a dumbass.

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends!

Ok, so I didn't do this posting stuff every day, but I have a great excuse....

2008-11-26T22:08:00.001-08:00

vancouver, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

And you'll hear it soon. It involves a plane, slots, warm weather and NO KIDS. Oh, and this is Vancouver....isn't she purdy?

Party at my house. Meet me in the play kitchen!

2008-11-22T09:52:00.003-08:00

One of my goals this year was to get most of my Christmas shopping done before December. I have done pretty well, but I know that by the time December hits, there will still be much more to do. But at least I got somewhat of a head start.

Renee's gift was easy. I wanted to get her a play kitchen. So I had a look online to get an idea of cost, and OMG they are much more expensive than I thought they were. Being kiddo number three doesn't have it's benefits when it comes to getting stuff (although she is doing much better than if she had been a boy!). When Ethan was a baby, I pretty much bought most of the stuff for him brand new. When Nick came along, he got hand me downs, and I got a bit more comfortable buying second hand. Now with Renee I am downright savvy. Craigslist is my friend.

The whole concept reminds me of buying books when I was at university. My first year I bought all the textbooks required by the professors for their courses. I got them all new, and spent a small fortune. My second year I got a bit smarter, waited until the second week of classes to buy books because as I found out in my first year, the profs might say you need a text for a class, but then they never use it. I still bought most of them new, but I did find a few second hand. By my third year I got my priorities straight. My hard earned cash was NOT going to all go to text books. So I scoured ads selling used texts, and for some classes I didn't bother with the texts at all - I'd go to the reserve reading room and sign them out for a couple of hours at a time when I needed them. Worked fine for me. And guess what? My grades were awesome in my last couple of years. And I had more money to spend on fun stuff and the "university experience" which I will not go into detail on here (sorry mom).

So began my hunt for a play kitchen for Renee. After looking at the prices, I decided there was no way that I was buying one new. So I started looking on Craigslist daily. Then one Saturday night I saw it. An ad for a play kitchen that would do her nicely

The guy writing the ad said don't e-mail but to call him. So I did. Right away. He told me that he was busy and to call back the next day. OMG. I thought for sure that it was going to be gone. So I called and talked to him and spilled my guts. And it worked. So two days later, I drove to his place, picked it up (along with this stuff)

And this stuff:

All for $50. All in almost new condition. Great deal. Then when I got home, I looked online to see how much all of this would go for. And I was floored. On Amazon (the US version, not the Canadian one, because the Canadian one just sucks) All three items together retail for about $300. The plastic food alone is $99 - for plastic food!!!

So, December 26th Renee will be hosting her first soiree at our place. And since her "new" kitchen is much nicer than mine, we'll all hang out there. And eat plastic pizza.

can't think of a good title for this one.

2008-11-21T17:30:00.002-08:00

I was out shopping for a gift for a six year old girl in Ethan's class yesterday. Her mom tells me she likes Barbie, so I went to go and have a look for one of those (skipped the Bratz isle completely OMG). As I was browsing, I got to chatting with another mom who had a girl with her who was about five years old. They too were shopping for Barbies. We got to talking, and she asked me if I noticed a difference between today's barbies and the ones we used to play with. Since I haven't seen one up close and personal in a few years, I said I had no idea.

Then she tells me it is all in the boobs and the waist. Apparently the barbies nowadays don't have the boobs that the barbies of old had. She went on to tell me that all her old Barbie clothes she saved for her daughter's dolls don't fit the doll because there are huge gaping spaces where the boobs should be filling out the tops. I had a look and sure enough, she's right. Then she tells me that she is thankful that her daughter won't have a distorted image of herself because Barbie is now closer to average. And sure enough, chatter about this very thing is all over the internet (google is my friend - although with the amount of times I have said "boob" in this post I am bound to get much more traffic than normal.).

I played with Barbie when I was a girl, but most of the time she was hanging out with GI Joe and his buddies in their army vehicles (I had brothers). I didn't really take notice of the boobs at all. I don't even know if I have all my old Barbies still - I guess a hunt around at my parent's place is in order....

Random picture blog

2008-11-20T21:12:00.001-08:00

boys, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

It is late and I haven't blogged today - If I didn't know any better I'd swear it was a full moon. The kids have been off the rails all day long.

So I went to my flickr, randomly picked a page and whammo - came up with this shot....oh so cute. I so need an infusion of cute right now.

My new best friend. Time out.

2008-11-19T16:53:00.002-08:00

Today while I was getting lunch ready for Nick and Renee I reached into our stupid fridge (yes, I said stupid - we bought it when we moved into this house, it is not a top of the line fridge, and certainly not designed for anyone over 5'5" tall....and I am much taller than that. ) and as I was standing up again smashed the top of my head into the freezer handle.

I am ashamed to admit that the streak of words that came out of my mouth after that mishap were strong enough to make Nicholas SILENT. Amazing how they really stand up and take notice right at the time that it would be so much better if they weren't. So Nicholas informs me that I said "a whole bunch of naughty words mommy". So we decided that I should sit in the corner for a time out. "Oh and don't worry mommy, I won't talk to you at all". So I figured that since the boys each have time out for a minute for each year of their age, I should be in time out for a whole bunch of minutes....more than half an hour.

So I marched myself over to time out, and sat for about 10 minutes all by myself, and the kids totally ignored me. Sheer bliss. Maybe I should just keep up the curse words.

Adventures on a "day off"...

2008-11-18T17:21:00.003-08:00

So today was my day off. A day off in these parts consists of my mom coming over to watch my two youngest rugrats (you know, the ones in the lovely post below...the ones who never fight? Yeah, well I got an earful from mom when I got home from my "day off" telling me that they fought like cats and dogs, and at one point Nicholas yelled at Renee to "get out of my sight"! Hmmm.... wonder where he heard that one before).

Once I got Ethan off to school it was off to the dentist for me. For over two hours I was jabbed, poked, prodded, had my mouth stretched, my jaw pried open, and that is only the beginning (yeah, like I am so going back for more of that torture). The dentist is very good, and I am really only feeling the awful pain now that the numbing has worn off. Good thing she is in the next town over....she mentioned it would "hurt a bit", but hell this is awful.

I squeaked out of there quick enough to pick Ethan up from school at lunch time. He had a doctor's appointment in the early afternoon, so I told him that we could have lunch together ("wow mom, just the two of us? No Nick? No Renee? woo hoo!!"). I let him choose any place he wanted...I was sure he was going to pick McD's, but no...he surprised me with this:

What's for dinner?, originally uploaded by hermanau.

mmmm.....sushi! And believe it or not, he used the chopsticks and all. His favourite is the salmon rolls (those little guys right in the middle of the pic). He eats all the cooked stuff too, but really enjoys the raw fish as well. That's my boy! We had a great lunch, even if I couldn't chew most of it (thank goodness he didn't go for steak!).

You'd never guess these two are like oil and water

2008-11-17T16:23:00.002-08:00

I took this pic the other day while Nick, Renee and I were out and about. They were rested, fed, the sun was shining and they were in fantastic spirits all round. Thankfully I had my camera to catch this moment - because with these two they are very few and far between.

I'm RICH RICH RICH!

2008-11-16T20:23:00.002-08:00

Wow, don't know what I am going to do with all this cash...any ideas? Do people actually still fall for this shit? And check out the ending - all I need to give him is all my personal info....yeah riiiiiight.....

BARRISTER ROBERT LIZAR (SOLICITOR & ADVOCATE)
OFFICE: # 159 PRINCESS ROAD, MANCHESTER
LONDON, ENGLAND M21 8HA
ID #: 53298

Attention my good friend,

I am Robert Lizar, solicitor at law. I am the personal attorney to Mr. Michael Brooks, a national of your country who used to work with Macon Associates Company here in England. On the 2nd of August 2006, my client, his wife and their three children were involved in a car accident along Manchester Express Road. All occupants of the vehicle unfortunately lost their lives. Since then I have made several enquiries to your embassy to locate any of my client's extended relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful.

After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to trace his relatives over the internet, to locate any member of his family but of no avail. I have contacted you to assist me in repatriating the money left behind by my client before they got confiscated or declared unserviceable by the Finance institution where this huge money were lodged.

Particularly, the bank where the deceased had an account valued at about US$20M has issued me a notice to provide the next-of-kin or have the account confiscated within the next ten official working days. That is why I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin to the deceased so that the proceeds of this account valued at US$20M can be paid to you and then you and I can share the money; 50% to me and 50% to you. All I need is your honest co-operation to enable us see this transaction through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of law.

I am waiting for your reply soonest WITH your full name, address and direct telephone number for faster and oral discussion if you are interested.

Sincerely,
Robert Lizar(Solicitor At Law)

Ahhh...fall.

2008-11-15T18:44:00.004-08:00

In this post I put up an old picture of my kids playing in the leaves. That was three years ago. This is what our backyard looked like today (minus the kids - they took a break and decided to excavate my garden about 10 feet away).

The toys are the same, the leaves are different (and much much more abundant!), and the kids still love it. I think it'll do for now, until the snow comes....

On the topic of hair...

2008-11-14T17:07:00.001-08:00

Little miss hair, originally uploaded by sassyanna.

My girlfriend was commenting today on how much hair Renee used to have when she was a baby. I had so totally forgot until I came across this shot quite by accident. And look at those rolls too. Almost makes me want another (but not quite!).

Survey finds that 20% would fish cellphone out of the toilet...

2008-11-13T09:44:00.002-08:00

A recent study has shown that one in five people would pluck their cell phone out of the toilet if it fell in. So what would the other 80% do? It isn't like you could flush the thing down...is it?