PhotoFunia Fun

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

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

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...

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.

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).

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"

"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...

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.

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...

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.

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....

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!

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.

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

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.

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"...

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

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!

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.

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...

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!).