a NoVEl mUM

Has it really been a whole year?!

2011-12-23T14:41:00.000-08:00

Come visit me at A Novel Mum Gets A Puppy.

You can see our latest additions and witness the cuteness.

I'm being featured!

2010-11-28T16:13:00.000-08:00

I'm being featured on Remodelaholic! It's all terribly exciting! The kind and generous Cassity will be posting my house tour on her blog on Monday. If you haven't already been to her site, you must go check it out, and do it frequently because each day she features new and wonderful remodels... and you can never get enough of seeing the fruits of other peoples' hard labor!

If you're visiting my blog via Remodelaholic well, Hi! Thanks for coming over! Enjoy your visit!

Concrete Mold Walkway

2010-11-15T19:32:00.000-08:00

We needed a walkway for our house and instead of doing the easy thing and calling a concrete company we decided to ~~torture~~ do it ourselves. Last year we watched our finicky neighbours do a path of this type in their backyard and we really liked the effect. So off we went to our local hardware store and picked us up one of these. Well, actually two, because it comes in a set of two, and not actually these ones because ours are different. And not actually our LOCAL hardware store because they didn't carry it. But you get it, it took a lot of effort and then we had this.

Then we bought 10 bags of quick set concrete. Then we bought 20 more. Then we bought another 20 more. Then we... OH MY GOD... why did we DO this?!

No wait. I forgot to mention something. First. Even before the trip to buy forms was the 3 weekends it took to dig out all that dirt we PAID to have someone bring in and pack DIRECTLY on the spot we needed to put our walkway. I dug and dug and although it's therapeutic I'm glad it's over. Did I mention that the landscaper PACKED that soil, as in drove over and over until that dirt was like stone. Gah. Where is foresight when you need it?

Anyhow, the process is quick. Daryl mixed the cement in a wheelbarrow and dumped it in to the form for me to smooth out and fuss with. I mentioned that our previous neighbours were finicky because, um, we aren't. Or maybe we are, you know, at first, but after the first two three bags we just want to get it DONE. Are you like us? Once we had one filled we'd start the second and by the time we needed to move to the next one the first was set enough for us to take the form off. It was quick and fairly pleasant.

However, we've seriously worked on this one project for 3 weekends and we're a little burned out. Plus the kids want to help which you all know is NOT help. So I present to you our unfinished (will hopefully be finished next spring) walk.

Even unfinished I can't believe how much better the house looks than 4 months ago.

Then

Now

See?

Before (unloved)

After (loved)

It just screams "someone cares about me". Even the sky is bluer now.

Ok, so maybe we didn't have anything to do with the sky.

We did, however, have everything to do with putting our initials on our masterpiece of a walkway.

Immortalized in stone.

Light and Bright

2010-11-13T11:16:00.000-08:00

I've done a lot of little projects since moving in to the new place. Most have been in an attempt to reuse what we have rather than purchase new stuff. I have to say that furniture with history behind it, even inexpensive furniture, is in my mind more valuable than other stuff. I love looking at pieces and thinking that they once were something or somewhere else, and in some cases I enjoy thinking about who made them or gave them to me.

I've repainted two cabinets in the last 4 months. One black, one heirloom white. The black cabinet was made for me by my father and I have no pictures to post yet. It's still in need of some touch-ups as I've learned that black paint and a semi-dark garage can leave a few imperfections in the paint job.

This white cabinet, given to me by my Sister In Law (and given to her by my Mother In Law) I spray painted. I'm happy with the finish but I can see that it's just not as durable as the brushed on paint. It already has a few nicks in it. But hey! That's what gives furniture character right? It took about 8 cans of spray paint, but it was very quick to work on.

Here's the before:

And here's the after:

Lovely. It's in my office/family room. I'd just say office but currently there's no actual work going on in it which I think is the defining characteristic of an office.

If I can scramble up some before photos I'll post the black hutch shortly.

Another Year of Firsts.

2010-10-15T09:02:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to do a yearly video for both girls. It's a great keepsake and it's surprising how many times we watch these little movies on our various portable devices. Here's a look at Zoe's first year.

Enjoy

Doing It Myself- Board and Batten

2010-09-23T09:11:00.000-07:00

Admittedly when we did the master bedroom it was really a joint effort. My father and I cut and put up all the boards and Daryl caulked and sealed all the gaps behind us.

However, yesterday I wanted to surprise Daryl and decided to tackle our next trim work project on my own. Well, as 'on my own' as a mom with two young children can be.

It was setting up the radial arm saw when I realized that although I've used a lot of tools, I hadn't ever used them completely on my own (well, besides the screw driver, sander and various hand tools).

I was pretty proud of myself.

On to the project. This is our back entrance. It's flanked by another front door leading to our deck (not the main entrance) and the garage door. This being the most used entrance to the house it was definitely lacking in places to hang coats.

We hung this little coat rack, which I love, but not here, and it sufficed for a while.

Once I was all set up I cut the pieces to fit. Unlike our last project this one is attached with large screws (not finishing nails). I didn't want this pulling out of the wall.

Once the pieces were all cut and attached there was nothing left to do but fill in the gaps and paint.

It's amazing how simple this looks on here. I should have done a time lapse thing so you could see how many cuts and how many trips to the garage this involved! Oh and don't forget the snacks. Many snacks were consumed by toddlers in the course of this project.

By the way,

Shiny paint + large screw holes = frustrating

Add hooks (more will be added after our next shopping trip).

The finished product.

Loving it.

Daryl was pleasantly surprised when he came home!

Next Project...a pretty shelf for shoes.

Optic Fiber Star Ceiling - Hooray!

2010-09-14T08:34:00.000-07:00

First, as promised, here is a shot of the star fixture I made-over hanging in the girls' room.

Lovely.

I think it goes nicely.

Now, let's talk about Fiber Optics. Or optic fibers. I've been corrected so many times on the order I've completely forgotten. Both make sense to me.

AnyHOO... a little background. I purchased the kit online. It came with 175 fibers jacketed (bundled in black casing) of 7 or 14 strands. It also came with a light kit. "ALL" we had to do was climb in the ceiling, move the insulation, drill 175 holes with a tiny drill on our dremel, feed the big bundle through a hole in the closet, connect it to the light source and plug it in!

Easy peasey!

It took me 4 tries up the ladder before I was confident enough to actually stand on it and look around. It was then that I decided, Holy Shit, I don't want to go up there. It wasn't dirty or dark, it was big and spacious and...Holy Shit, I didn't want to go up there. Lucky for me, my wonderful husband who recognizes distress and dogged determination when he sees it, came to my rescue and volunteered to go up there. First he was just going to look around, then he decided to "just start", and later he "finished it". Hooray. My hero.

I had mapped out a bunch of constellations while we were in transit and staying at my parents. My mom threw them away. So...um...no constellations.

Once we started drilling, we discovered that the large gable (which takes up 1/3 of their room) does not have access to it from above. It has it's own little roof. This was pretty disappointing as it looks like we just forgot or ran out of stars for part of their room. However, in the end the rest looked so lovely we didn't care. And screw you if you have a problem with it.

I'm trying to come up with something creative to fill in the gap.

The insulation was a problem as there was just so damn much of it. Daryl spent more time trying to pile it up and out of his way then actually drilling holes. I shouted encouragement from below and cheered every time a new star poked through. It was like watching the big bang right in my girl's room. You know without the big gaping sucking black hole implosion stuff.

Fantastic.

And here it is (in daylight). In all it's random-y, star-y, my kid's are so freakin' lucky goodness.

The lights are on a timer that come on just before they normally wake up and shut off by the time we're headed downstairs to start our day. They come on at night and stay on until midnight or so. They twinkle too.

The girls LOVE them.

I eventually did make more constellations and there are several on the ceiling.

It will be fun to find them when the girls are a bit older.

I can't say how happy I am with them. I've always wanted a ceiling like this.

I hope the girls get as much enjoyment from them as us.

And because this is a blog and it's what I do...

The before(s)

The after

House Tour Part TWO

2010-08-24T08:07:00.000-07:00

I can hardly believe we've only been in this house two weeks. It's crazy how much has changed already. Oh and when I said that my list of troubles for the week had ended I spoke too soon. Right after I posted that my car battery went completely dead and had to be booked in for service. But things have a way of working out and yesterday we received news from our lawyer that our bank had made an error and where should they send the cheque! Bank error... in your favor, why that only happens in Monopoly.

I think that today may be the first day in three weeks that we don't have a contractor here. Our beloved cats were returned to us from their hiatus at my parents. We had a terrific weekend with friends and family and actually had people over. My best friend is coming down soon. Things are looking up.

On with the tour you say...

To save you a few clicks I'll post the before of the master bedroom for you.

Ugly.

Smelly.

Yuck.

This was also the room that we left off the painters list so that we could do the board and batten technique I kept seeing around the web. Later we tried to add the painting back on their agenda but NO luck. "We're busy" they said, snickering as they left. So although we did finish the main bedroom before we moved in, we were still painting the closet and the ensuite last week. Thank goodness it's all done and hopefully I can burn my painting supplies.

Here is the master bedroom now.

I think it's my favorite room.

A surprise hit.

Off to the right is our walk UP closet.

I didn't think it would be a big deal but can I just say,

I LOVE IT.

And yes, that's my wedding dress hanging there because,

well...

I unpacked it along with the plethora of other dresses I don't wear and it just looked so gorgeous

hanging there. I decided to leave it.

It was one of the best days of my life and I want to see it.

And that picture on the right,

it's also one of my favorite things.

It's a custom print of the night stars and sky over the place where Daryl proposed.

Underneath are the dates and the words

"Yes, yes, a thousand times yes".

I'm so glad it's in my room now. Who knew seeing it every morning would make me so

happy.

Through that glass door is a private balcony. My plan is to create a secret little garden.

But first my plan is to create a not-so-secret garden out of the rest of our

barren acreage.

My Dad made the rotating shelves/mirror on the right.

Still loving it.

Best. Dad. Ever.

The bathroom,

The hall. You've seen the view looking down from here before.

The foyer/hall and access to both the laundry room and another private balcony soon to become the girl's secret garden.

I still can't find the stuff to fill this shelving unit.

Where do these things go when you move?

Oh and I have a story about this glass door to the laundry room.

I sent in a request to a local vinyl decal maker to reproduce something I'd seen from a place in the states.

I want a sign that says Laundry Room with a cute little bird on it.

I didn't order because I didn't want the hassle of bringing it through customs and such.

Anyhow, I asked if she could do it, she said, sure but why not just order from where you saw it.

Hmm. I didn't write back but um...

if someone contacts your business to do work, wouldn't you just offer to do it unless you really didn't want the job.

So, OK, local vinyl person, I WILL use that other company now and for any future purchases.

And last but not least...

the girl's room.

I still haven't put in the optic fiber ceiling but I did crawl up there to look yesterday.

Hopefully this weekend will see the ceiling installed and the finishing touches on this room.

Yes, that's a tiger.

Veronica has slept the majority of nights on her old mattress underneath the house, but has slept up top as well. I think she loves the privacy of the top bunk.

It's all working out swimmingly.

Hope you enjoyed it. I'll do the final installment later this week.

House Tour Part One

2010-08-18T08:09:00.000-07:00

But first let me just list the highlights of the past week:

1. Failed septic pump and overflowing sewage

2. Emergency call to the furnace company after Zoe dropped the phone down the heat register. It had to be taken completely apart.

3. Found out our radiant heating can't be hooked up.

4. Um, I guess that's it, but hey...it's only WEDNESDAY!

Now the main floor tour.

I know you've seen versions of this area before so now I'll present you a slightly different angle. That's the dining room on the right. Not sure if that little black ladder shelf is staying yet.

This is looking back at the front door.

I made these just for this house.

They're the keys from our previous addresses. One each for Daryl and I when we met and two for the houses we've shared together.

This is the view from the couch in my new office.

I hadn't thought I'd like this room so much, but right now it's one of my favorites. I love my picture wall and although you can't see it, Daryl set up a TV on a swivel arm for me right above my desk. Now I can just plug my laptop in and either use it to watch movies through my computer or as an extra monitor while I "work". Cool.

This is the straight shot from the main floor potty, I mean bathroom, looking to the living room. On your left is a door to another spare bedroom. Also referred to as Veronica's room. She has one she shares and this one which is all her own.

And the dining room. My nemesis in the house. This should be such a feature but somehow I'm having a hard time bringing it all together. I'll post more on it later.

The kitchen. Although it has more cabinets than my last one, it is much smaller. It's very functional and I find cooking in it great, but I miss the old one. I guess you can't have everything.

This is the great room/living room. I'm buying some more art work for it today so perhaps I'll post some updates later. The photos don't really do it justice which means I should take some better ones. Maybe then I'll get the lighting right! The only problem with this room is that there is another entrance off to the right (you can see the garage door, but there's also another glass side door) and no storage to speak of. The bench is there to catch shoes and hopefully soon we'll be doing a little project to provide some hangers for coats.

There you have it. Part one. Upstairs coming soon.

More House Photos

2010-08-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

It's been crazy around here. We still had people laying carpet (on these stairs actually) while the movers were bringing in furniture. It took a while to get internet back too, and for a while we were pretty darn miserable in a hotel room. Yikes. I'd blog it, but I'm trying to block the memory.

Anyhow, I thought you'd all be more interested in seeing some of the changes.

Remember this? Not bad, but that color was putrid in person. That carpet gives me nightmares too.

And now... Brighter, fresher, cleaner.

The decal, if you're wondering, was custom-sized to fit our wall.

And here's another before. This is the view looking down.

This is now. New carpet. New paint. New accessories. New love.

Sorry for the quality of the pictures. I'm still working off my iphone. Once all the pictures, drapes and blinds are hung I'll do a full blown house tour with better photos.

Right now I'm busy unpacking and organizing and keeping Advil in business. Ouch my back hurts.

In transit

2010-08-03T10:49:00.000-07:00

Well, it's like this. We sold our house. The people who bought it wanted it like yesterday. We moved out. Last week. We're in a hotel. It's torture (besides the pool and hot tub). The new house is being painted and cleaned and refinished and wired and ... the list goes on and on.
But for those of you wanted a sneak peek. Here's a look at our master bedroom. This photo is so fresh the paint is still wet! Or at least it was when we took the photo.

We're loving Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage (seen above). Let's hope it looks this good in all the rooms.

YaHoo!

2010-07-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

Or is it YeeHaw?
Anyhow, the Calgary Stampede just ended and can you believe we made it another year without winning the dream home or pot of gold? Go figure.
We haven't been down to the grounds for a few years, thanks to these babies, but this year we braved it. All I can say is that once we left we all agreed that it'd do us for another couple of years. Good grief those crowds!

Of course Veronica didn't mind. She hated the crowds but thanks to Papa those precious feet never touched the ground and as for the people, what people? She only saw the tops of heads.

Zoe seemed to enjoy herself. Or maybe it was just the cotton candy. Mm mm. Cotton Candy. Did you know they use it to make martinis now?

Oh my. That looks good. Apparently once you add the alcohol it just adds a little sweetness and color. What a great drink to serve for a girl's night. Do they still have girl's nights? I could use 1 or 10 of those while I pack. Martinis that is. I don't want a girl's night unless it involves a spa. In which case yes, I could use 10 spa days.

And there's something I won't be having 1 or 10 of. Deep fried jelly beans. They were good. They tasted like corn fritters with berries in them. Not really like jelly beans. Either way they were a whole lot of empty calories and they were hot, with little molten bits of hot melted jelly bean.

Oh, and did I mention packing? Yes packing. Because uh... our house is SOLD (more later)! I've decided that the important thing about moving is to maintain a sense of humor. I've also been relentless about accurate labeling of all boxes.

That pretty much sums up what's in that box. Funny thing though, I hadn't noticed what was on all the boxes we purchased until I looked at the side view of the 30 some odd ones stacked neatly in our garage. Every one of them says TOILET PAPER. If you're driving by and happen to look in our garage you will notice that a family of TP hoarders lives there. Or maybe you might think we have potty issues. I'm not pointing any fingers but some (VERONICA) of us do.

Lucky Little Girls

2010-07-10T17:10:00.000-07:00

These two silly girls

and this

loft/bunk bed

equals happy

(and maybe a bit spoiled)!

Come On Downstairs.

2010-07-07T08:17:00.000-07:00

I'm finally reached the point where I'm so excited about the new house that I can't be bothered to think or worry about the current one. That's not to say that I haven't been cleaning and cleaning and weeding and organizing and weeding some more. We've had 4 or five showings in the last couple of weeks but with 30 + houses in our price range on the market and very few buyers it's been a tough sell. Apparently our current home is lacking in some architectural elements in a few rooms to compete against some of the others. A few of the other houses have vaulted bonus rooms (over the garage) and columns and such in their dining rooms and three car garages. Although our rooms are nice, they don't have those features and vaulting the bonus room or adding on to the garage just isn't in our budget or feasible. Anyhow it's a little heartbreaking as we love this house and while we don't have some of those features we have others that don't seem to be hitting any one's radar, like our new private deck, lovely landscaping, mountain and prairie views and a granite bar in the walkout. Ah well, I'm sure it'll happen and in the meantime I'll focus on the things I can control. The new house.

In the last week we've spent a significant sum of cash on new carpet, paint and appliances. I wasn't truly excited about any of this until we picked out appliances and for some reason at that point I could see it all come together. Once we get the putrid orangey brown color off all the walls and put some crisp fresh white paint on all the trim the place will be looking spiffy.

The one space that I've neglected to plan to the last detail is this walkout basement. It's over 1700 square feet and the only thing going down in the open area is a la-z-boy couch and 2 club chairs.

Let's have a look shall we?

Here we are on the main level heading down.

That staircase is lovely isn't it? It's my favorite feature and as a bonus the gap between the stairs isn't big enough to fit say, a small toddler. Regardless this little beauty will have gates marring the lovely view just to be sure there are no stair mishaps.

And this is what you see at the bottom.

Club chairs in front of the fireplace.

Couch in front of the large wall closest to you.

This space is begging for a pool table isn't it?

Here's the view looking back at the stairs. There's a bedroom through that door and a bathroom beside it that you can't see.

It's exciting to be planning the transformations for this home. I can hardly wait to post before and afters. In the meantime I'll be cleaning and weeding and weeding and cleaning and oh god,
SOMEBODY BUY THIS HOUSE. Please.

68 Tiny Little Pieces of Glass

2010-06-24T20:20:00.000-07:00

This little star fixture started its' life as an outdoor candle holder. My handy father was able to rewire it so I could use it inside. It stayed inside for a short bit of time in my office, but sadly, it wasn't bright enough and I didn't like the colors. Then when our house went up for sale my office became the dining room (again) and this little fixture ended up in the garage. I've had a decorating crush on a Moravian star fixture for quite a while but have been unwilling to fork over the cash for one. That's why I bought this one.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture before I started taking it apart, but you get the idea. It wasn't very pretty. It was sort of pretty. It was fugly.

I'm putting up an optic fiber star ceiling in the girl's room in the new house (which I'll blog about later) and I've been looking for a fixture that will stay with the space theme (but not be too over the top). Today I decided to buy a glass cutter, cut out 68 little triangles using the glass from an old picture frame, spray paint the frame white and create this little star light. Did you know that glass cutting is an art? It is. A glass cutter I am not. That was hard.

What do you think? Not bad for about $20 total investment, and it'll be lovely in their new room.

UPDATE:
Here it is in their room.

The Dream vs. The Reality

2010-06-21T16:11:00.000-07:00

My computer has been sick. Sick. Sick. Sick. $300 worth of sick. $300 worth of thanks for your useless advice now I have to wipe everything out and start from scratch, kind of sick. I wouldn't seem so hostile about it if I wasn't 2 months away from completing not one but TWO photo a day projects. The prospect of losing all that work makes me crazy. SO today when I finally opened my iMovie projects and used my magical time machine to bring them back and they F(*&ing worked I actually cried. Yes, cried because OH MY GOD 10 months worth of daily photos NOT for nothing.

AnyWHO, where were we. Oh yeah, a real reason to cry.

When I stand on my deck of the new house I sort-of own, this is what I see.

What's the problem you say?

Look closer.

Do you see it? That lake? That huge mosquito breeding, valuable real-estate eating slough?!

No? Not impressed?

Look again!

Ha! I told you!

It's bad and it's occupying our thoughts as to how to cope with it.

Luckily it's not as close to the house as it appears in this photo and we don't have any moisture issues in the house from it.

But still, that isn't what I want to see when I look out my window.

What I want is this (photo from www.houzz.com- which is awesome)

Hmmm.

This.

To this.

Achievable?

I hope so.

I've got just the spot for this....

2010-06-11T13:06:00.000-07:00

You'll need to excuse the drool all over this post because OH MY GOD!

It all started with this, a make over of this couch which the lucky woman from Less Than Perfect Life of Bliss (another blog) found on the side of the road. Click on the link to read more. Can I just say, BEAUTIFUL! I want to lay down on this soft velvety couch and rub my hands all over her.

Now this isn't normally my style, but after I saw this I thought, now that's my style, so maybe I have no clue what my style really is. Either way it's got me obsessed about putting a lovely velvet french provincial couch, or love seat, or chaise or even just a chair, OK, maybe a stool, but whatever it is I need one in my new office.

Look at this bit of lavender loveliness. Isn't there somewhere in your house for one?

Divine. My butt belongs on this couch.

Or maybe this one.

Gorgeous. And the best part.

My oh so sweet husband told me I could buy one of the little

beauties I saw on www.kijiji.ca (like craigslist) and

get it reupholstered when our house finally sells.

SELL HOUSE SELL!

I'll post a picture of the office once I get my computer repaired. There's something very wrong with my poor little macbook.

Kale Chips

2010-06-06T11:26:00.000-07:00

And now for something completely different, let's make chips out of Kale! They're surprisingly crunchy. They're super healthy. They taste better than raw or stewed Kale. They're easy to make! Hooray!

First take some fresh crisp Kale and wash it.

Pre-heat your oven to 350

Yep, organic is best.

Pull out those yucky hard stems. You don't want those in your chips.

Just tear them right away from the rest of the leaf.

Tear or cut the good parts in to bite size pieces. Toss them with olive oil then

put them on a baking sheet (I put mine on parchment paper).

Sprinkle with Sea Salt.

I used too much and they were too salty. Don't do that.

Bake them for 15-20 minutes.

Just until the edges look all brown and crunchy.

I turned them a bit while they were baking.

Enjoy!

I read about people dipping these in ketchup. I didn't try it. Sounds yucky.

I'd consider eating them with veggie dip, or serving them with dip at a party. It would have to be a runny kind of dip as these things are pretty light and tend to crumble.

What do you think?

A Glimpse

2010-06-05T08:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a little peek at our new place.

This paint color has GOT to go. I hate it. It doesn't look nearly as offensive in these photos as it seems to me in person. It's more orangey and it's everywhere. I'm hoping to brighten it up a bit but keep it neutral and warm.

Here are my color choices so far.

All colors are Benjamin Moore, but if you're in the US the names are different. Go figure that we Canucks would find paint names like Grizzly Bear Brown and Inukshuk more appealing then say, taupe. Oh the marketing genius! Anyhow, the plan so far is, Flagstone in the living room/kitchen area. creekside green in the dining room and bedrooms. Inukshuk in all other common areas (including the foyer). The trim will be bright white.

Here's the mock up.

The colors don't look quite right (thanks to the computer monitor differences) but I think it looks good. We've got the extra large swatches up (BM stores sell large poster size samples of all the colors in addition to the little paint sample pots which is a great idea), to make sure we like them.

Later I'll share with you the carpet samples and a few more pics. Enjoy!

Sell This House

2010-06-02T20:49:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow there's an agent caravan at our house. I'm not sure why we haven't had one before, but whatever the reason I'm hoping it stirs up more interest. I'm also trying to ensure that the agents who come by remember this house. I've made some punch and these cupcakes. I wanted to do something fancier but uh, HELLO, three-year-old and 10 month old! Hopefully they'll remember these. It's a picture of the sign in front of our house. If I did have more time I'd have done them with piped grass and a little floppy flower. I also had plans to do the signs so that they were hanging off a cross brace like the real ones but...see above.
In the meantime I've been trying to pick out paint colors for the new place. So far I'm looking at Benjamin Moore: Willow Tree, Creamy, Grey Wisp and Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage. I'm planning to do something very neutral in the difficult to paint areas (foyer), something darker in the dining room (maybe Benjamin Moore Stonington Grey), and the green in the other areas. For the girls' room I'm thinking grey with plum for an accent.
Tomorrow I'll try to post a few pics of the house and some color samples to let you all weigh in.

Happy selling.

Introducing...Our New House!

2010-05-31T13:24:00.000-07:00

There it is! It needs a LOT of landscaping and some minor touch-ups to the exterior, but all in all we're pretty excited. The sold sign went up today. In case you're wondering it's 2600 sq. ft (main and second floor) with the bulk of that (1700) on the main level. The basement is a walk-out with another 1700 sq. ft. completely finished. So it's BIG and it sits on 3 fenced acres. It was built in 2007 and although it needs new carpet and paint throughout, we think it's beautiful.
Now for any of you carpenter types...how much to take off that roof and develop over the garage?

Going Going GONE

2010-05-25T12:26:00.000-07:00

The stars are aligned. The bank, the lawyers, CMHC, everything came together and they gave us a great counter-offer. Completely catching us by surprise. We countered the counter and they...refused. But it was all good because we settled on a price and it was accepted. The house is ours. You know, if you can consider not being able to pay for it and the fact that it needs a full inspection, a done deal. Tomorrow is the inspection and we called in the BIG GUNS. The Mike Holmes Inspection Team. Did you know that he actually has a business that does inspections? Well they do and we opted for the full deal. We're hoping that everything will be revealed. The bank makes you sign a contract stating 'where is, as is' which means if the house falls down the day after possession it's your problem. Not that it's surprising because the bank reveals nothing about the house, which is odd as they make you jump through a million hoops when you're purchasing. Where did all that information go? We're dealing with two banks for the new mortgage and interim financing is very complicated. One of those bank is the same one that owns the house. Every time they ask me a question about it I want to yell at them...IT'S YOUR HOUSE, YOU TELL ME THAT INFORMATION!

We need our house to sell. It's what I'm thinking about as I'm falling asleep and it's my first thought when I wake up. We dropped our house price a whopping 30K over the last month and have been on a few 'short lists'. I think a sale is coming. I can feel it.

Oh and while all that was happening, Veronica turned THREE. Three years old. Amazing.

My Bum Sings

2010-05-17T19:40:00.000-07:00

Veronica, who I'll remind you is turning three this weekend, was being teased by my parents and her uncle on vacation about farting. She was running around when she tooted and they were playfully commenting and giggling about it.
She turned to them and said, "I don't fart. My bum sings."

Where does she get these things?

Breaking The Home Buyers Rules

2010-05-14T08:13:00.000-07:00

Things just got a whole lot more complicated around here. We promised ourselves that we would not go see any new houses until our current one was sold. My Mom says this is one of the key rules of selling your house. Normally I am all about rules. Seriously. Show me a rule and I'll keep it. No stealing. Check. No speeding. Check. No stabbing people. Check. No illegal reporting of emissions. Check check. It's like I'm a whole new person today. Today it's all rules schmools. We went to see an acreage last week. Yesterday we put an offer on it. You'd think that today I would be anxious and stressed out about the money, but for some reason I'm just not. Maybe it's because they won't accept the offer (it's complicated as it's bank owned) or maybe it's because I really like that house and know it's worth it. Whatever happens it'll be O.K. but be prepared to hear all about it because I intend to blog this whole thing. The house needs work and I think it'll be fun to document it here.
Write interesting and relevant stories on your blog. Nope. Write it well. Nope Nope. Look out world, a new rebel has entered your realm.

Above is a shot of Veronica on the main level deck. She loved the house too, which is really saying something.

Gadgets and Sloth are Cool

2010-05-10T16:04:00.000-07:00

Now before I get started let me just preface all of this. I just spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how to post this using my iPad which wasn't working instead of getting up and walking across the room (10 feet) to my other computer. Lazy I am.

Anyhow, while I was in Seattle one of the big 'TO DO' items on my list was to buy one of these toast and egg toasters (as shown on the left). I actually had a list on my iPhone I had e-mailed myself that had things like:
Buy a new bra that doesn't peel open to feed other humans
Go to the aquarium
Buy clothing that I'm not ashamed of
Buy crayola products
Buy egg and muffin toaster
Go to Archie McPhee's

I did all those things and many others. It turns out, in hindsight, that maybe I'm not so lazy because I went to 3 different stores to find this thing, and damn you Amazon but I paid much more than that over there for my toaster. So was this toaster worth dragging in my luggage across the border? Yep. It is. My daughter likes less than ten things; french fries, chicken nuggets, edamame beans, corn on the cob, broccoli, peas and scrambled eggs. Oh wait, she likes to eat the sausage out of the sausage and egg breakfast sandwiches too. Sometimes. And Candy. She's two, so I guess she's entitled to her limited palate. Anyhow, I hate making scrambled eggs every morning. I don't like frying, or poaching or hard boiling them. I just don't like eggs green or otherwise every single morning. I don't even like me enough to see me every morning. I don't like cleaning that weird papery egg residue that sticks to the pan and I have to struggle to get the phrase "liquid flesh" out of my mind most days. This toaster is the best solution beyond actually indulging her eating habits by eating out each morning. Does Tim Horton's deliver yet, because maybe then I would.
So this toaster. It's just simple. In goes the egg and two tablespoon of water, in goes the bread and just like magic...out pops a perfectly cooked egg and toast . Well, the egg doesn't actually pop out, but they do both finish at the same time. It's amazing.
Things are looking up at our place in the morning and there's no more egg paper blocking our drain which I'm sure is the reason our house isn't selling.

Buy Less Clothes Get an iPad

2010-05-05T13:13:00.001-07:00

So folks. It was a shopping frenzy in Seattle. After only one stop (and down $700) I phoned Daryl to tell him that the Apple store had ipads in it and if he agreed that I get one I'd stop shopping then, but if he said no (and to wait for the Canadian release) I was going to keep going until I couldn't walk anymore.

Now "why" you ask, would I say that? Well, mostly because I really didn't want to buy any more clothes and I really wanted an iPad so it was kind of an empty threat. Kind of. I didn't buy any more clothes (that day). Later, after a visit to the Seattle Aquarium where the most interesting part of our trip happened...yes, we found out that Albertans don't pay Washington State tax. OK, OK, that wasn't the most interesting part. The most interesting part was seeing what octopus eggs look like. Then the tax thing. Anyhow, after that we purchased our iPads, minus the tax. However, I'd already bought all those clothes and paid tax. Now normally I wouldn't bother because, well, I'm a wimp and I hate doing stuff like asking for my money back, but this time I had an ulterior motive. Once I got all my clothes neatly hanging in my temporary but gorgeously huge master closet, I realized I just DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH. So off I went, with my brother driving, to "get my tax refunded". Once there it turns out that some of the stuff I bought just days before had gone on sale. So instead of saving $60 I saved $100, plus the half off coupon the nice lady had given me, so I came out with $60 PLUS two more shirts! This is the example I will always give now about how my shopping actually saves us money.

Anyhow, back to the iPad. It won't surprise you if I tell you I love it. It might surprise you to hear that I'm not really sure why. I thought I would love surfing the web on it and I don't. I like it, but I don't LOVE it. Right now we're in the process of house shopping and mls has all those little slider bar navigators on it and guess what...they don't work on the iPad. I can't zoom or move around on their map either. I also can't type as comfortably as I'd like to be able to post this. That's a bit of a disappointment. Of course there's the flash thing that we all new about which is frustrating too. However, I like the size of it. It's comfortable, the picture thing is super cool. I like the mail program and how it opens. I like the digital frame option and I like the new movie menu and watching them on it. What is a surprise is that I like playing games on it. Just the size of it makes it great for things like word games (crosswords and sudoku). I even have a favorite app. Ifish (or Pocket Pond- I have both) although Harbor Master and Flight Control also ring in as new favorites (and I'm not really a game fan).
We downloaded some comics which are cool even though they're not my thing and my Kindle app is much better on the iPad than our iPhones (you can control the brightness on the iPad app- good for night reading). My feed reader, XFeed (that's it up top), is awesome in general but even better on the iPad. In one app I can see all my favorite news sources and blogs. If you're still surfing and using your bookmark bar to find your favorite web sites and blogs THIS IS THE APP FOR YOU. I can't say enough about it. We also purchased the iCamera app that connects our iPhones to our iPad and let's you take pictures with the iPhone but displays everything on the iPad instantaneously. That's pretty cool as the iPad is much nicer to view and play around with.

Daryl has ditched the netbook for the iPad (which was the whole point right?). I use it when I'm only surfing, reading, checking e-mail or playing games, which means it won't replace a computer unless that's all you're doing on it, but it'll do a lot. I'd buy one instead of an iPod touch, well, if I didn't have kids that loved the iPod touches, and if I also already had an iPhone, because you can't beat the size of them. I've recommended one for my parents as they don't do anything but surf the net and e-mail on their computer and as they're on a farm with nothing but dial-up or cellular Internet the 3G would work for them. Assuming of course it's reasonably priced when it comes out in Canada.

Should you buy one? Do you spend lots of time on the computer? If yes, yes. If no, maybe. It's a toy really. If an iPod touch or an iPhone doesn't appeal to you then the iPad probably won't. Chances are you'll use it and wonder why you didn't get one sooner. I'd fiddle with someone else's first. In the meantime, while you're deciding, I'm going to go fiddle with mine!

A Few Photos From Seattle

2010-05-04T20:13:00.001-07:00

King Street Station, where we caught the train to Vancouver.
A beautiful and very large octopus. I have become obsessed with them after watching her for 10 minutes. She was sleeping. Can you see how soft her mantle appears? These are amazing creatures.Pike Place. Need I say more?

A bike stand. Cool.
Of course there was much more but I'm too exhausted to post them. Somehow I missed getting a shot of the apple store where I purchased our IPAD! Hooray! I mean, hooray for the ipad, not for the fact that you're spared the retail tech orgy that is the interior of an apple store.

West Coast Dreaming

2010-04-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

We leave Friday for this place.Awesome hey? It's in Seattle overlooking Puget Sound. We're super excited to be getting away for a little vacation and we've never been to Seattle. The last three years have been about taking vacations either in Canada or with short flights.

This year, since one of our home options, (if this place ever sells grrr...), is to buy a vacation home on Vancouver Island we decided to not travel there until we're ready to buy. That's right. To make things more complicated we added a third option for new homes:

1) an acreage, except we haven't found one we liked that we could afford and either way most are at the limits of our budget to buy in this area. It's been rather depressing to look for these as they all require compromise in an unpleasant way or another. Like, nice house, not a stitch of landscaping and no money left over to do it. Or, beautiful location but yucky house and no money left over to fix it. Or, beautiful house but in an 'acreage community' which means, more land, more privacy but not really a true acreage and still at the end of our budget.

2) Big, beautiful and fancy house in a nice, although not really any more private than our current home, location.

3) Smaller home, maybe unfinished basement, maybe in an older section of town, with a good location AND a vacation home on Vancouver Island. This is where we're leaning right now. It's taken a surprising amount of soul searching to get to this place. It's hard to downgrade. It feels like a step backwards. Yet to know that we can be reaching some of our dreams by buying a home (albeit a small one) in a city we love at the same time is pretty rewarding. I'm thinking that when the new smaller house gets tiresome I can just hop on a plane, or train, and go to our vacation spot (which also has a milder climate than here). The other benefit to this option is that it still won't cost us as much as the other two options IF we stick to our budget and if we decide to rent the place out while we're not there. Oh, and if things go bad we could always sell one of the properties. That's a nice fall back option.

Big decisions and admittedly they're not bad ones to have. What would you do?

Mini Cupcake Ice Cream Cones

2010-04-15T10:30:00.000-07:00

First I wanted to make cake mix cookies, but I had no cake mix. Then I went to the store and somehow got distracted and bought chocolate cake mix when what I needed was white. Then I decided to make cupcake ice cream cones, but didn't have regular size cones. In the end, I made these:

Mini Cupcake Ice Cream Cones. Cute aren't they?

I couldn't figure out how to bake them as they weren't flat bottom. In the end I put about six of them in one spot in a muffin tin. That way they were holding each other up and sort of leaning but not too bad. As they cooked a bunch of batter dripped out, which turned out to be a good thing in the end, because...uh...more space for icing!

They came out looking like this, leaning to one side.
Being as handy as I am, I took them and squished the cake back in.

See...
Then I iced them, using the icing to even them out, sprinkled them with candy sprinkles and we ate them! Yummy.

Deep

2010-04-12T10:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Veronica came to her Dad and said, "Daddy, I don't know why I am."

Daryl didn't understand what she was asking and said, "What do you mean?"

She said, "I don't know why I'm Veronica".

She's not quite 3 and she's more introspective than most people.

Having taken some philosophy courses I should have responded with "You think, therefore you are", or in the original French, "Je pense donc je suis" (I think therefore I am), but Descartes seems to escape me at key moments.

So much for that education thing.

Make Your Own Goldfish Crackers

2010-04-01T13:13:00.001-07:00

I had a computer malfunction last week, or more accurately a CD-R malfunction, but I wouldn't know that until $300 later. As it turns out if you use CD's to back up your photos and those CD's have a manufacturer's defect, like say, the hubs are cracked, and you don't notice and use them anyhow, you get to replace your optical drive for NOT free. F-you-very-much Memorex (who doesn't have an e-mail address to send a complaint to).

Anyhow on a happier note, all that time not spent on the computer allowed me to find other, pointless, I mean wholesome ways to spend my time.

We made these graham crackers from scratch. Really. I even made my own oat flour to use. I made flour. How has my life become about these things? I guess I should take out my good camera too because this one doesn't show their crunchy yummy goodness and if you follow the link below it puts mine to shame. Shame shame.

Speaking of yummy goodness, how about these babies? They're not goldfish crackers, but they would be if they were shaped like, um, goldfish, or made by Pepperidge Farms. We've made a bunch of changes to our eating habits lately, like buying locally and buying free range meat products. I'm also just trying to limit the amount of crap I feed the girls. It's hard when your two year old only wants crap though. Anyhow, both these things were very easy to make and turned out very good. The graham crackers were excellent. The cheese crackers were very cheesy, I should have made them thinner and I will next time because I only used half the dough. So next time could be....RIGHT NOW. Well, it could be but it won't be because I'm tired.

If you're interested in the recipes here are the links I followed:

Homemade cheese crackers & Graham crackers

Ruby Gloom- They're Here!

2010-03-24T09:26:00.001-07:00

Is it ridiculous to be excited about t-shirts? Maybe, but look how cute they are. They, Wordans, did a fantastic job. The printing looks great my photos (taken with my old camera) don't do them justice. It took a lot of restraint to not show them to V and restraint isn't really my thing. She's going to be one excited 3 year old on her birthday.

This week has been a busy week for parcels around here. Some outgoing, most incoming. It has me thinking, what would I do on an acreage without courier service anymore? UPS, FedEx, DHL and Purolator are my friends and internet shopping is the 'mall' we hang out in. Well sure Daryl would be happy, but what about my needs? Back when I lived on an acreage internet shopping wasn't really that common. Has it changed your life too? I find that I seldom set foot in a mall or any stores beyond ones for groceries anymore. I suppose that means I don't have an excuse to get out much but it also means I don't often buy things I don't really, really want. It's a blessing for a mom with two small kids to have that option. And come to think of it, I'd have never gone somewhere to have t-shirts made for V. Technology is a wonderful thing.

Anyhow, all that might be a moot point as currently our plan is to buy two properties, one recreational and one in town (unless we can find an acreage in our price range). We just need to sell this house and it's been pretty quiet this past week.

Butt anyways.

2010-03-19T11:01:00.001-07:00

My poor Dad is having some issues with his posterior. Unfortunately it's pretty hard to remain dignified when dealing with these sorts of problems. The good news is that everyone around seems to have a sense of humor about it. This is the synopsis of the e-mails we've been exchanging this morning.

Dad: My Dr. this morning suggested we should 'nip this thing in the bud'. I don't want to complain but this is all a big pain in the ass.

Me: I know, it must be bumming you out.

Dad: Yes it is. I don't want to be anal about this but I want it fixed right.

Me: I don't blame you. You'll want to make sure you have a crack physician to make that happen.

Got any other good ones for me to share?

Ruby Gloom

2010-03-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of a t-shirt with Doom Kitty on it. Doom Kitty is Ruby Gloom's cat from the show of the same name and it's Veronica's favorite show. Veronica has a new favorite show every 6 months or so. We've been through The Backyardigans, Dora, Diego, Hello Kitty and now Ruby Gloom. I have to admit that Ruby Gloom would be my pick too because it has cool music and weird goth characters. It's just not offensive to have playing in the background all day, which it is...all day, every day and if we could download episodes it'd be on the itouch and playing all night too. So why am I talking about V's favorite show? Because it turns out that this show is no longer being made, which I believe to be an outrage, and because there is virtually NO merchandise for it. How can that be?! What travesty of commercialism has failed to provide me with over-priced branded crap to buy? I've scoured the Internet and the only stuff I can find is out of the U.K. which as it turns out isn't convenient. As birthday number three rapidly approaches and my daughter's interest in toys dwindles I've resorted to making my own stuff. That shirt up there, it doesn't exist. Or at least it didn't until today when I ordered it (and 4 others) custom made. I'm a little concerned about copyright, but I swear to you (and any affiliates of Nelvana) that if they'd made them I'd have bought them. But you didn't, you bastards, so I had to make my own and I got the pictures off the free 'fun stuff' you have on your Internet site. That's good isn't it?

Anyhow, once these pricey little babies arrive I'm going to create some sewing magic and pretty them up a bit. I'm thinking ruffles on the bottom, perhaps some striped sleeves. Any other ideas?

I wish Veronica hadn't forsaken her little Latin lover Diego. I can find that crap everywhere.

Breaking My Fast

2010-03-15T07:41:00.000-07:00

Lately even the thought of my computer leaves me feeling uneasy and anxious. I've been glancing at it sidelong and opening it up, checking things, closing it again only to find the same thing. I deleted my f*ing iphoto library. Now before you get all "You should always back up your photos" on me let me state that I do back up my photos and I have a time machine. For all you non-mac users that's an external drive, wirelessly connected with the main purpose of back up. But for all you people who haven't deleted your iphoto library, which may or may not have contained 6000 pictures, which you may or may NOT have backed up since August of last year (because well, shit. Who has time to back up their photos?)... it's not as simple as it seems. You see apparently going back in time requires, hmmm... a brain...and some sort of knowledge within it...or perhaps a "plan", all of which I neglected to partake of before I restored my iphoto library. Somehow I managed to restore my photos, only of much lesser quality than they should be and in the process I duplicated, triplicated and quintuplicated some photos leaving me with 14000 photos. Things weren't saved the same, unfinished photobooks and all my virtual albums...gone, and what's worse is that somehow I managed to restore the entire program which means I can't go back in time beyond the time I did this in my photo program anymore. Now wait, that's not what's worse, what's worse is that it restored snapshots of my movies and not the actual movies. Thank goodness for those CD backups and the fact that my camera holds 1400 pictures. It's going to be a long process getting back to good and I've learned my lesson. There are never enough back-ups and back-ups don't always work like you think, don't count on any one source for information and data, and the big one... print all those photos so you have something when all else fails.

I'd type more, you know, maybe about my birthday and my cute but deadly kids or many other more interesting things, but I'm busy lamenting my lost photos and movies and my computer and I aren't on archiving terms just yet.

Things Are Going To Change Around Here

2010-03-02T07:37:00.000-08:00

Zoe just turned 7 months last week and yesterday she finally got out of the rocking stage and started actually making some forward momentum progress.

All caught on video by her camera obsessed Mom and posted here for you internet friends (and her Grandma who couldn't open the e-mail I sent of it)!

I sure do love this sweet little baby.

House Choices

2010-02-26T08:53:00.001-08:00

I haven't posted about this because I didn't think I'd have to worry about it for a while. Last year we debated hard about whether or not to move. In the end we decided to stay because the housing market was shit and we couldn't afford an acreage we liked. Instead we built the deck-that-can-be-seen-from-space with the over-priced-slide-that-our-daughter-hates and put up high frosted glass panels to avoid the-neighbors-who-will-not-mind-their-own-business.

The deck worked and all was right in the world. Until I couldn't go on the deck anymore because, hey, this is Alberta and it's COLD. So in September...just kidding...so in October (see this is Alberta and it's COLD) when it was too cold to sit on the deck I started lamenting about damn acreages again. I guess you can take the girl off the acreage but you can't take the acreage out of the girl. Wait. That doesn't sound right. Anyhow, I want an acreage. No matter how often I hear myself say how lucky we are to live in a neighbourhood where everyone knows your name (like Cheers only less booze and less privacy and, oh let's face it, less fun), I want more space. I want to wander around outside in the early morning drinking coffee wearing pajamas and rubber boots. I want to sit on my deck and watch birds. I want to have a big garden, I want to wander my property aimlessly, I want to cross-country ski out my backdoor, I want to play with my children outside in my HUGE yard. I may even want a chicken coop. But most of all I want to be left the fuck alone. Oops. That was harsh. I mean, most of all I want to wander around poorly dressed and unkempt where no one but my family who loves me will see me. Am I the only one who feels this way?

So, in an effort to get to the point. Point? We listed the house. It's been a week and tomorrow we have a second viewing from someone who sounds serious about purchasing our house. We haven't gone to look at other homes because we thought it would take a long time to sell ours. Now I'm thinking, oh, what if he buys our house, where will we live? And therein lies the problem. The question becomes one of standards. Do we want this...

A lovely view, an average house, space, privacy, rubber boots and running naked through the fields.

Or this...
A beautiful fully finished home with all the extras.

You see, land (for us) comes at the expense of lovely kitchens (and other little extras) like this. We can't afford both. The houses we see on acreages in our price range are nice, but not spectacular. It would mean a downgrade from the house we have, which saddens me because I love this house. I even love some of the stuff about living in town. Well, not this town, which is why we're willing to risk moving even if it's not to an acreage. I would like to move to a community with actual services.

I just can't decide. In the end, if this house does sell, I guess it will become a matter of what's available at the time.

What would you do?

Seriously.

2010-02-25T11:34:00.000-08:00

This ad. It makes me crazy. I see it all over the place.

Is it not just the same guy/teenager flexing?

Could they pick someone any less in need of "getting ripped"?

Well hello self, I see your 6 pack abs are looking only moderately defined. Why self, I believe you're right. I should start some program to make them more defined. Good idea self. Either that or you could...hmmm...flex.

I'd like to know what he was doing before.

Baby Needs New Shoes

2010-02-22T15:33:00.001-08:00

Gawd these shoes are cute. Little DC shoes in toddler sizes. Veronica's got some funky clothes right now. Unfortunately I can't show you any because she's mostly naked today. Potty training seems to be going very well but clothing optional has become the norm here. Admittedly this policy is not for the feint of heart because along with naked bottoms we also have a penchant for impromptu somersaults. We even have the odd little naked toddler bum pride display, accompanied with, "Have you seen my cute little bum?". Anyhow, it's all good for us but I'm not sure how our visitors feel about it (like the real estate lady). I think our delivery people are going to start avoiding our house during daylight hours.

So anywhoo...have you heard of www.babysteals.com or www.kidsteals.com? Each day they have a steal, usually 50% off or more of name brand type stuff (like these shoes). They're only available for the one day and until they sell out, which is frequently. They have another site too, www.scrapbooksteals.com, but I don't scrapbook. They've had some pretty great deals on their site but you have to check them out early in the morning or you'll miss out.

Oops, my bad, again.

2010-02-18T08:27:00.000-08:00

Hey! Can you guess what this is?Why it's one of those illegal (in Canada) even to think about owning, walkers! And what's that on it? Oh, well, that's DIRT. Hmmm. I wonder where all the dirt came from? Oh! Maybe that plant? Yeah, that's right. But where's the baby? The walker seems empty. Hmmm. Oh I know! The baby used that illegal walker to walk right over to that plant, while the negligent (shush, not so loud, child protective services might hear you) mom was busy sewing away, and ate a handful of dirt. Well, I can't be sure it was a handful. It might have been two! Ha! Just kidding (child protective services) I think I managed to swipe most of it out.

So let's recap. Mom feeds children cheerios, chocolate cake and DIRT for breakfast. At least it was sterilized dirt. Damn those walkers. Someone aught to make those illegal or something.

Anyhow, why was that mom so busy? Well, that's because she realized that her standards have dipped dangerously low these past three parenting years. Before she had kids she had rules about clothes, stringent fashion rules like: do not wear clothes with holes, only wear things that LOOK good, never wear short sleeve shirts on your unattractive (even when slim) arms. Now the only criteria for clothing is, does it fit and is it comfortable? How did I get here? So anyhow after cleaning out my wardrobe I realized a couple of things. I only have comfortable clothes and for the most part all of it has short sleeves (and holes and maybe doesn't look that good). I also remembered that I have a very nice sewing machine. And voila...all that brought me to this...brand new sleeves on my clothes to cover those un-Michelle Obama arms! Hooray!

Only problem is...now I have a bunch of shirts with no sleeves! I think that might be less flattering than short sleeves. Oops, there might have been a flaw in this plan.

The Etsy Crowd

2010-02-16T08:42:00.000-08:00

It seems to me that most bloggers have heard of Etsy, and I know I've talked about it before. If you don't know what it is allow me to tell you, it's a web based handmaid marketplace. Sellers have virtual shops that you order from and they ship the stuff to you. Now I'm a fan of Tiffany, nothing says love like a little blue box, but I've taken to buying my jewelry from Etsy. Well, you know, my non gold or precious metal jewelry. I've ordered rings and necklaces and they've all exceeded my expectations. I've also bought clothes for Veronica from there and I can't say enough about the quality. Last week I bought this shirt from seller Dead Dolls Clothing (from Montreal) and once it came we (V too!) loved it so much we ordered another and some pants too. I sew, I shop and I have to say that the quality of these clothes is as good if not better than store bought. Last week I bought a jacket for myself but it hasn't come yet. I can hardly wait.

The other advantage to Etsy, besides being able to get one-of-a-kind and creative clothing is that you can create favorites and if people know who you are (your username) they can see what you like...and if they loved you they could just go there and buy all that stuff for you.

One note, it's buyer beware with Etsy. I tend to shy away from anything that doesn't have numerous past purchasers and 100% positive feedback. I have yet to have a bad experience.

Here's some other shops I've purchased from

You Should Read This

2010-02-11T08:54:00.000-08:00

I added a new link today. It's a blog I follow daily and I've written about before. The Spohrs Are Multiplying . There isn't much I can say to do it justice. It's heart-wrenching and ofttimes painful but it's also uplifting and inspiring and a mighty reminder that life is precious and to hold your loves ones tight and cherish all those moments. I'm posting the link again because today there is a guest post and her story is staggering. Go, read it, find some tissues and spread the word.

And now... Jalapeno Jelly

2010-02-08T08:41:00.000-08:00

The other day when I made the red pepper jelly I had bought enough jalapenos to make another batch but I got lazy and didn't. In truth it wasn't that I got overwhelmingly lazy, it was just that the red pepper jelly had to be re-cooked because it didn't set enough and by the time I finished sterilizing jars and reworking the same jam TWICE I didn't f'ing feel like making anymore. Back off. Oh wait, you didn't say anything. Anyhow, I finally made the jalapeno jelly and I'm glad I did. It's better than the red. Unfortunately I had the same problem and had to re-cook and add another box of certo, but it worked out great. The jam is sweet and not hot at all (I used jalapenos and green peppers). It's delicious as shown above with cream cheese on crackers. Making jam is surprisingly easy too, I mean, once you get the recipe right.

On a side note, a long time ago my best friend went to a wedding and they gave out home made jam as a wedding favor. Isn't that a great idea?

Movie cuts, or how come I'm not painting.

2010-02-07T13:52:00.000-08:00

Today we're watching a movie together because I'm a moron and can't do anymore housework due to this self-inflicted injury I have. I was going to do some touch-up painting and decided that grabbing the first available tool, a rusty pair of tin snips, to open the can of paint was a great idea. It wasn't. I ripped off a layer of skin when the snip slipped off the rim then tore a hole, an actual hole, through the skin between my index finger and thumb, right through all the layers of skin. You know, that tender piece of loose flesh, right there. That's the one. Anyhow, since I can't be convinced to go to the E.R. I'm taking the rest of the day off those kind of chores.

So now we're watching a movie and V likes to give us play by plays of what's going on in the show, focusing heavily on the emotions of the actors.

This is what happened in a 5 minute time period of the movie "The Reader" according to V:

"She's happy"

"Oh no, she's grumpy"

"She's really grumpy"

"She's grumpy"

"He's sad"

"He's sad because she's grumpy"

"She's having a bath because she's grumpy"

"She's not mad anymore"

"They love together"

Then later,

"Look at the lady. She was mad again."

"That wasn't good"

"Oh that lady. She gets mad again and again."

Veronica makes everything fun.

Because this is what we do all day. Repost.

2010-02-03T16:13:00.000-08:00

Why repost? Because this just makes me laugh. I love these girls. They're so damn crazy. Today Veronica asked me for her "slobbery crayons"- she wanted her felt markers. Too funny. Also, I just finished Zoe's one year video and none of these clips make an appearance. The originals were lost in the great computer crash. Thank goodness I had made a few in to movies like this.
My advice...go create some movies out of all those photos and video and store them in a million places (virtual and otherwise). Even if they're not editing masterpieces you'll be glad you have them later.

A Big Day!

2010-01-27T17:32:00.001-08:00

Whew! What a day. All the hype. All the excitement. All the anticipation. All the speculation and planning, and finally...it's here.

Veronica is potty trained.

Oh. You thought I was talking about the ipad? Well, yeah, that too is super cool. I mean, it's a really big itouch and I love me some itouch but...Veronica can pee and poop on the potty consistently. Today is like day three with both pants and panties on and a trip outside the house and not a single accident. Does the ipad change diapers? No. Does the ipad clean up pee? No. Does the ipad pay for diapers and wipes? No. Well then. Potty training is better than an ipad.

Of course I've likely jinxed myself and tomorrow will be a shit storm, but for today I'm feeling pretty good about this new leap into independence.

Don't get me wrong though. We're buying an ipad the minute they're available. I might consider trading in my potty-trained 2 year old for one, except I like her more now.

Red Pepper Jelly

2010-01-21T07:21:00.000-08:00

It's been pretty quiet around here lately with all the reading and fiddling with electronics going on. Fortunately I was able to do something for the benefit of others in the house, you know, beyond cleaning and cooking and raising these children with love and integrity and blah, blah, blah. I made up a batch of Red Pepper Jelly. I've never made jam or jelly before and it turns out there are a lot of little things you should know. Like what pectin is and that there are about, oh I don't know, 50 different types and some of them will RUIN your jam. Or that the length of time you cook it and the amount of sugar/pectin you use can also RUIN your jelly, or turn it in to goo. Then who knew you had to make sure you only boiled the snap lids for 5 minutes and throwing them in the boiling water so they're ready half an hour before your jelly is maybe isn't a good idea. And who would have thought that the lids should only be finger tight when you put them in the water bath. Ah. Bah. At least it worked. I feel like a pioneer woman (but not the talented one with all the cooking and ranching and stuff), more like one with no time to shower, too many pairs of sweatpants and 9 jars of jelly.

Vocabulary

2010-01-15T13:59:00.000-08:00

I asked Veronica if she wanted to play her piano today while I played mine, she said, "That would be great.". Then she said, "you are a piano-er and I am a piano-er". Pretty soon she'll be telling me what a good cooker I am too!

Technology and Me.

2010-01-10T17:01:00.000-08:00

Once when I was a single 30 year old living in her own house on her parent's acreage, a big storm came through. It knocked out power to my house and all the other farms/acreages within 5 miles for 4 days and left me stranded alone. It was then, while melting snow to get enough water to flush the toilets, reading books by flickering candle light, and fixating on the hundreds of dollars worth of food defrosting in my freezer that I realized I require the low frequency hum of electricity to be mentally stable. That's not to say that electricity is a guarantee of my lucidity, it's just one of the required parts. Over the years I have developed a deep and abiding affection for technology. Every year I acquire and embrace a new piece of technology, shunning the 'old' way and running headlong in to the arms of 'the way of the future'.

This year, for Christmas, my brother bought me a Kindle. Love it? Yep. Need it? No, not really, but love it nonetheless. I bought him Apple T.V. I've been coveting it since I bought it. Several times I talked myself out of keeping it and giving him something else instead, you know, like a mug, or toast. I didn't, because I love my brother and he always gets me something wonderful. So imagine my disappointment when he unwrapped it, set it aside and DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO SET IT UP. It was all I could think about. I kept dropping little hints like, "Hey, when are you going to set it up?" and "Hey! Set that fucking thing up so I can see if it works!". He finally did and it worked and I wanted it. I also want a plasma T.V. now because he has one and oh my god, have you seen a big screen plasma T.V. in action in someones living room? Awesome.

Today, my latest venture in pimping my macbook/T.V./ipod touch crashed. My parents were here watching curling so I was supposed to be quick about fiddling with my set up (running my itouch through a dock and in to my T.V.), but it quit working and seriously, screw curling, my fucking itouch isn't playing on the T.V. I fiddled, I grumbled and eventually I set it aside and resumed not watching curling and wishing I could finish reading my book on the Kindle or fix the damn problem with my gadgets. The longer I didn't fix it, the more irritated I got. I started to feel twitchy and just generally malcontent. A lot like my two-year-old. Then I realized that not only do I need electricity to be sane, I actually need it all to be functioning. It's that same near panic that you get when you have something new that needs batteries and YOU HAVE NO BATTERIES. Only worse, because damn it, why isn't it working?! It should be.

Tomorrow I'm heading to the Apple store to either fix or replace the defective (might I add BRAND NEW BUT PASSED THE RETURN PERIOD DATE) components. I'm hoping that it improves my overall mental state without leading me down a slippery slope of temptation with all the gadgetry goodness there's bound to be present. Daryl's worried too, but just between me and you, he shouldn't be worried about the apple store, he should be worried about Future Shop, because baby needs a new plasma T.V.

What I'm Liking

2009-12-30T12:27:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of the season I thought I'd reflect on my abject materialism and point out some expensive and indulgent items that tickle my fancy.

My number one: my itouch. Love love love LOVE it. Can't do without it anymore. It entertains V when nothing else will do. We've propped it up in restaurants, she's played games waiting in line or riding in the grocery cart and many nights she's had it in bed when we gave up and couldn't find another way to get her to sleep. It's loaded with tv shows and games and almost all of them were free. But that's not all, lately I've been downloading books and reading them using the ereader application and I love it. It's light it's easy and it's convenient. And... if that wasn't enough, for Christmas I bought Daryl the dock and the cables to hook it up to the tv, so now we can listen to music, rent and watch videos and look at photos all through our itouch (es- we have two). Awesome. Well done apple. My next purchase will likely be an iphone, although I'd have to say that the phone doesn't hold much appeal for me, but I'd rather have another itouch/iphone than just another cell phone.

If you have any money left and you're a girl, or a metro-sexual male, these are my next favorites.

Posie-Tint by Benefit. Love it. If you're inept in your selection and subsequent application of blush, this products for you. It adds just enough color to look like you have color and not makeup.

This is another one from Benefit. It's a kit and has a number of wonderful products to make your skin look fantastic.
And another one, because I'm always for kits that give you everything you need to look nice. In general you can't go wrong with any of the Benefit line. It's good stuff.
If over-priced but oh-so-lovely bath products are your thing then consider getting yourself some of this $35 a bottle bath/shower gel. It's light and fresh and lovely and if I hadn't spent $200 on cosmetics already I'd have bought the perfume in this scent too. Feel free to send me some if you'd like.
Usually a fragrance will last me about a year before I'm tired of it. Last year was Fleur Du Matin by Miller Harris and this year is this one...
I was given a sample and liked it so much I bought myself a bottle. It's new and I believe they consider it floral, but it's not overpowering.

So there you have it, if you want to be techie like me, look like me, or smell like me these are the things you're going to need. Of course there's lots of other things you'll need, like two gorgeous little girls and a fabulous husband, but I don't know where you can buy those. Oh wait, you can order your husband on eharmony like I did... but I don't think my husband's model is still available. At least it had damn well better not be!

Diaper Explosion

2009-12-15T07:27:00.000-08:00

Let's just start this by saying that I learned a very valuable lesson today that I'd like to share. 7:15 is not the time to get all self-righteous and start taking a stand against your spouse. Like let's say that said spouse neglected to empty the diaper genie in the nursery (which fills much slower than the more used diaper genie on the main floor) and that now the nursery in question has several diapers sitting on top of the genie instead of inside. And then let's say that even though he implied he knew the situation by stating "I take it the diaper genie is full", he still chose not to empty it. And then this morning both your children are up early because you decided to stay up late and that's how that shit works, and now it's 7:00 and you've already changed two poopy diapers and one wet to bursting one. At this point thinking that emptying that diaper genie yourself is probably a good idea, but let's not throw caution to the wind. Like, say... by emptying out that huge blue rotten, festering diaper sausage and deciding that it's too much trouble to haul down the stairs...and just chucking it, or shall I say DEPLOYING it over the railing to the oh-so-hard hardwood floor below. That, my friends, is a bad choice. And by bad I mean once that over-burdened, uric acid weakened, blue sausage casing hits the floor it decides that it's purpose has been fulfilled and it joyfully EXPELS all those rotten diapers in a hamburger hill type explosion of staggering proportions. In it's wake, nose-assaulting, stomach content up heaving, should be wearing gloves for this, reconnaissance mission. And let me tell you that once you've cleaned up those diapers (with several visits to the bathroom to heave) and several wet swiffers later, you'll be sorry that you didn't haul your ass down the fucking stairs in the first place. And I'm not ashamed to say that, said husband, who knowingly or not contributed to the above situation, should read his wife's blog before he even thinks of coming home without some sort of conciliatory gift. Just saying.

Day Eight of Isagenix

2009-12-14T09:16:00.000-08:00

Today is day eight and the first day of my second cleanse. Is that complicated? In other words, I start another two day cleanse today, which equals no food. I feel a little more resigned about it this time. That probably has more to do with the 2 hot dogs I ate yesterday and the guilt over that.

I've been good about sticking to the program all week with only minimal cheating. Which isn't, I suppose, really cheating if it's self-imposed and doesn't involve chocolate or candy. Since when did hard-boiled eggs and salad become a cheat? Yesterday was the company kids' Christmas party for Daryl's work. This was the third year we attended which is pretty amazing for me since BOY do I hate that kind of thing. There are two reasons to attend this party: I don't know anyone and Veronica (and now Zoe) get a present. I could lie and tell you that it's fun for Veronica to get out but in reality after 3 years of failed "FUN" it's really not about that. It's just not unpleasant which is more than some can say about their company functions.

When we got to the party we got settled and I immediately went to the little hot dog buffet and snagged 2 hot dogs, under the pretense that they were for Veronica and her Dad, and proceeded to dress them the way I like them. Then I ate them. One minute there, the next minute gone. Daryl wisely concealed the shock I'm sure he was feeling and chose to smile lovingly instead. Clever man because I'm not sure if I'd have cried or ate him if he'd said anything. They weren't even good though. I mean, oh they were good...to me, but you probably wouldn't have enjoyed them. They were salty and undercooked and definitely not health food. And now today I should purge. I've got a body riddled with nitrates and yummy preservatives and I feel great. Except for that stomach ache I developed about, say, twenty minutes after I ate those hot dogs. I didn't feel good then. Or later when I realized I couldn't/shouldn't eat anything else because I blew it with those hot dogs.

So besides all that, I'm feeling pretty good and as skeptical as I was about this I'm surprised by the difference. I actually told Daryl that my head felt clearer. It was like some of my memories were less cloudy than before. I think I might be able to remember the names of all those people I slept with now. Ha ha! Just kidding Dad. I also have a bit more energy. I'm not running around the block or anything (it's freaking -34 out there today!) but I don't feel wiped out anymore. I've also lost 5 pounds according to the scale this morning. All in all I'm feeling very encouraged and very motivated to keep going. Maybe all this clarity will improve my writing. You can always hope.

Let's try us some Isagenix

2009-12-08T09:46:00.000-08:00

Isagenix.

My good friend Tracy recommended I try a product a while ago and last week I finally signed on. I should always listen to Tracy because she recommended I try eharmony which was how I met Daryl, whom I should also always listen to because he's how I met Veronica, and Zoe... oh wait...he's the reason I have these kids...and the reason I need more energy...and the reason I need Tracy to recommend this product. Ah well. Whatever. I'm listening to Tracy.

So 4 days ago I started day one of a 30-day cleanse. Yep. 30 days. Because hey, when you've never done a cleanse before you should start with something short, and easy, something say...30 DAYS LONG. No one ever called me faint of heart.

Anyhow, day one was PAINFUL. I was supposed to eat one healthy meal and two meal replacement shakes. No problem I had thought... the night before. Except when I woke up my family wanted eggs benedict for breakfast and so in order not to completely blow it with an over-the-top meal I didn't eat much. Or maybe it would have been enough except that you get that thing going in your head where you know you can't eat so all you can think about is food.

And that's what I did. Obsessed about food all day. And the next day. And the day after that. Until finally today, day four, I woke up feeling great. No kidding. Great. I even danced with V for half an hour. In fact at one point she had stopped dancing and there I was waggling my bottom in her face like some ho in a rap video. Ah come on, it made her laugh. This is not typical behavior for me. Not the putting my butt in people's faces part, I do that all the time, but the dancing spontaneously with my daughter at 7:30 in the morning. I pretty much always have a reason why that shouldn't happen.

Today is a true cleanse day which means no food. No food today or yesterday. Yesterday I barely managed. I'm drinking the drinks and taking the supplements and wishing like hell I had bought some unsalted almonds or something or that the package I bought had more snack type items in it. Does peanut butter count? However, despite the lack of food I feel good and even though yesterday I gave myself permission to only do one day without food I felt good enough to go today too. That's saying something.

In the days to come I'll elaborate about Isagenix, if anyone is interested, and maybe even if you're not. I'll also let you know the real deal about it and how it does or doesn't work for me and so far it's good.

Hmmm. The only thing that inspires me is me

2009-12-07T10:17:00.001-08:00

This weeks' photography assignment was a self portrait with creative lighting. Why is it that for the last two weeks I haven't submitted anything but this week I was all over the photos of me? Ask me to take pictures of scenery or my kids and I'm all meh, but ask me to take a photo of me and my eyes light up. Anyhoo...enough about me, let's talk about...me.

A Little Something Cute

2009-12-02T13:01:00.000-08:00

Milk, the other fluid that ruins mattresses

2009-11-30T07:20:00.003-08:00

Argh. I know I've started posts before about how some days are shit and other days are um, not as shitty. Today started out as shit and doesn't hold much hope for improvement. Zoe woke up the second that the alarm beeped to let us know that Daddy had left the house (sans the dirty diapers in the garbage that he didn't bother to empty today...which is garbage day), and she's been making me crazy every moment since then. She's not a baby who cries much but when she's bored or uncomfortable she voices her displeasure in a loud and "I don't have words yet to tell you how pissed off I am so I'm going to make this noise. Grrrr" kind of way. As soon as she started her malcontent racket (and did I mention Mommy didn't get much sleep last night because she was up reading?), Veronica woke up and climbed in to Daddy's spot on the bed. Which is fine. Normally. She stopped at the mini-fridge in our room (a wondrous thing that eliminates unsteady midnight trips down the stairs) for a cup of milk (that her mom prepares for her before bed). All fine, all routine, until she spilled that entire cup of milk on the bed...and didn't tell me until it had thoroughly soaked in. Great. So as I stare at this relatively new mattress that I didn't bother to purchase a cover for I'm thinking.... milk. check. blood. check. urine. check. miscellaneous other fluids not related to sex or fun in any way. check. WTF was I thinking not purchasing a mattress cover? Beware parents. A toddler can ruin your bed faster than a year's worth of questionable patrons in a cheap hotel.

Thank god for oxyclean and elbow grease. Oh and the internet because this morning, while the washing machine hums gently in the background and Zoe grunts and squeals in the foreground, I'm shopping at www.sears.ca to find me a mattress cover. Enough is enough.

Lost In Words

2009-11-25T20:56:00.001-08:00

I've had a bit of a strange month. My brother in law recommended a series of books to me and once I started reading I got lost. I've read over 20 books this month. I'm finding it hard to deal with reality. Not just because I've been drifting in a universe of someone else's making but because it's had a strange effect on my own desires. I love to read. I'll read anything. If you say it's good, I'll give it a shot. I can read prize winning novels full of insightful and evocative prose or romance full of weak plot and provocative characters. As long as I'm not feeling manipulated by the author it's all good. It doesn't matter. It all has worth and when you're looking at it through the eyes of a wanna be writer, it's all enviable. I've been dabbling with writing since I quit work. I've had little success. I can't find the time. I can't write the subject matter I want to in bits and pieces through the day. I blamed most of it on parenting and resolved to try harder or wait until the demands lessened. But reading these books made me realize that I'm never going to be that kind of a writer. This woman (Laurell Hamilton) writes two books a year. Who, besides Steven King, is that prolific? So for the last couple weeks I've felt a little disheartened that I would never be able to write like some of the authors that have given me so much pleasure and I decided to stop trying. Then something funny happened. I laid awake thinking about what I wanted to write and realized that even if it wasn't main stream or award worthy or even publishable, it had value too... because it would be mine. This morning I started yet another story.

Who knows if I'll finish it, who knows what will become of it. All I know is that somewhere inside me lurks a voice and a story that longs to be out and understood and all I can do is follow that purpose.

Is Facebook Holding You Back

2009-11-10T10:49:00.000-08:00

I'm wondering if today's young adults will be changed thanks to social networks like Facebook. Once upon a time you graduated and were able to leave high school behind, you know, if you wanted to. And who among us didn't? Very few. Most of us wanted to go away and meet new people and become someone different, if only slightly, from the person we were in high school. Or perhaps that was just me? I always felt like there was some standard I had set for myself based on past deeds and actions that everyone from my home town expected me to uphold. For years after graduation I still judged my life through those eyes. What would they think of my boyfriends and friends. My career choices. My weight and appearance. It was a long time before I could let that go and just be the person I was. It's surprising considering how little connection I had with former classmates. It makes me wonder how things would have been different had we had something like Facebook back then. Now you're tethered to your classmates thanks to modern technology. You can go to college, meet new friends, become something new and wonderful and some jackass from your high school can decide to post something on your wall, or comment on a photo and all of a sudden you haven't come as far as you thought.

I'm all for getting in touch with long lost friends, I'm even in favor of a little cyber-stalking of former lovers, enemies and all manners of friends in between, but sometimes you need to just move on. Let it go. Get the hell out of Dodge. I learned at my ten year reunion that my opinion of people didn't change much. The people I thought were idiots in high school turned out to be idiots later too. Not nice? No, you're right but it's truth. I'm just glad that I didn't bother to stay in touch with them, it may have made it even harder to leave their opinions behind. I wonder if it'll be harder for kids today to sever those ties seeing as how easy it is to maintain them.

Something Quick

2009-11-07T12:06:00.001-08:00

I created a book for Zoe using Blurb (a photobook printing site). They're having a contest for best book and if you'd like here's the link so you can vote for me.

Creative Outlet

2009-11-05T12:45:00.000-08:00

I could do a whole series on these dinosaurs. They show up everywhere.
This was a picture I wanted to include in Zoe's photobook, but didn't get around to taking in time. Daryl did something similar with our wedding rings.
I've been having a tough time tearing myself out of books long enough to write anything. I've also started another photography course. For some reason I'm on creative overdrive lately. Everything I look at I want to do... photography, writing and music. Since I've had kids I've felt like I'm being held back from the things I really want to do. It's not that I can't do them, it's just that I don't have an opportunity to do things to the best of my ability because there's always something else that needs to be done. I hate doing things half-assed. I feel like an addict who can't indulge in my addiction so it's spilling out on to everything else in my life. I want to write but I don't like to write in the evening. I want to enjoy my time with my husband in the evening and lately I just want to shut down (thank you frustrating two year old). Photography seems to be just another vessel for expression to me and thankfully it's one of the things that can be done with an active toddler and baby. However, because I can't find time to write I'm going to fill this void with music. Sounds like a good plan right? I'm hoping to spark some interest in the girls too. I used sit and play for hours, I think it soothed my soul. I could use some soothing right now so I'm off to find myself a new teacher.

A Mastercard Type Thanksgiving

2009-10-21T09:21:00.000-07:00

Just look at that sweet face. Who would think she turns in to a little screaming, vomiting banshee when placed at a gentle 45 degree angle and hurled in metal bucket at high velocity.

Time spent preparing to go to Grandma's house: 2 hours

Time to drive to Grandma's house for thanksgiving: 1 hr 20 minutes

Time spent visiting at Grandma's house: 6 hours

Time spent driving home from Grandma's house: 2 hours

Number of stops to clean and calm puking baby: 3

Memories: Priceless.

Not the usual e-cards

2009-10-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

Need to send an e-card or invite? Try something different.

Cake. The Saga.

2009-10-10T19:05:00.000-07:00

Ooh I see Cake. I want some.

Wait, what's this? She wants my cake.

No. You can't have it.

It worked. She sees the cake, but she's not getting any.

I'm a genius.

Oh God she wants that cake bad.

Hold on. I can't have the cake either? WHAT?

The end.

Italian Cream Cake brought to you by Mom.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We drive a hard bargain. Sort of.

2009-10-03T20:14:00.000-07:00

Today we enlisted the grandparents to babysit (a first with two kids for them) and we headed to the car dealership to get me a new car. I can't say new car without using the "Price Is Right" announcer voice. It's a NEEWWW CARRRR (imagine me using that voice now if you will). Oh how I love a NEW CAR. Doesn't everyone? The smell of dangerous off-gassing, the gleam off the new wood replica trim, the supple touch of new leather. Mmmmm. Anyhow, we headed to the car dealership after a lengthy Internet search that started, oh...I don't know...two weeks after we picked up the last NEW CAR three years ago. In lieu of whining about the various issues we had with our 'luxury car' because seriously who gives a shit what kind of issues you have with your expensive car (you pompous assholes- it's a recession), I'll just talk about the new, NEW CAR experience. So as I said, we headed off to the dealership. There was some discussion about what we needed versus what we wanted. There was talk about options and add-ons and protection plans and on and on... Most importantly was the discussion about the COST, as in, the COST should be LESS than the old one. Being the level-headed, responsible, some might say anal-retentive couple that we are, we agreed on all these points and walked resolutely in to the dealership. We want a NEW CAR, we would say. We want to pay THIS MUCH. We don't want any extras. We want your BEST deal. We won't take NO CRAP from you. The rest of this fantasy plays out like this; we find exactly what we want, no scratch that- we find what we NEED, we negotiate a fair deal, we LOWER our monthly payments, we all skip off into the sunset singing and holding hands.

The reality was more like this. We go in, we don't see the car we want. Wrong color. We agree to test drive a DIFFERENT car. We agree that this car has everything we NEED, everything we AGREED we should have. It has NO extras. We DON'T like it. Nope, we hate it. Can't see ourselves driving it or liking it. We have a new agreement. We NEED extras. We find the car we WANT. We start a painful negotiation process. They give us the price. We don't want to pay THAT much, we want to pay LESS. They can't go THAT low, but they'll throw in a pen if we agree to this HIGH price. Back and forth we go until finally we all feel bad. We AGREE that feeling bad is good for all of us. The car is ours.

We have just bought the most expensive model they offer with all the extras, even the things we don't need or want. But hey, it's not all bad...we did lower our monthly payments. This NEW CAR costs us exactly $15 less a month than the last one. We'll be living large now.

Here's some advice. Don't send us to barter for you.

Photography Assignment #2

2009-09-27T09:29:00.000-07:00

This week's objective was to take another portrait and to control the lighting in it. I think I took 200 pictures only to scrap all of them and change my concept later. I ended up shooting pictures in the dark with candlelight. We were also told to take pictures of our daily lives using some different composition elements (lines, symmetry, balance). Here are my submissions. I'm feeling a little insecure as I can see improvements that could be made and am anticipating some of the criticism I'll receive when he puts these up. We'll see what he thinks tonight.

Let's play outside, it's fun

2009-09-23T12:53:00.000-07:00

Some days are UP and some days are not so much. Today will go down as a low point in parenting for me.

Veronica, Zoe and I were outside this afternoon in the backyard. Veronica was wandering the yard picking flowers and whatever else she could find and I was messing with the sprinkler after laying Zoe on a blanket. I notice Veronica off in the back corner of the yard (moving off to a secluded corner is a classic sign of pooping), so I ask her "are you pooping?", she says "no". I go about my business and several minutes later she comes over to me with some tomatoes in her hand. I ask her "did you poop?", she says "Yes, I pooped on the matos". That's her adorable way of saying tomatoes. Time stood still. I look at the matos. They're fine. I assume she means she pooped BY the tomatoes. We go inside, she kicks off her shoes, goes up the stairs and it's then I notice her feet and legs are covered in... guess what?!... that's right.... POOP! I get all panicky and twitchy immediately. I tell her to STOP and STAND RIGHT THERE, in my 'I mean business and am about to lose control voice'. She stops, thank goodness.... an hour later, both of us have pruned up fingers and toes and we are finally cleaned up.

The whole time I'm trying to use this as a lesson for why we MUST poop on the potty. Then I realize I'm probably giving her too much guilt and she's going to end up anal retentive as a result. So then I'm saying things like, "It's not your fault, but these diapers aren't made for pooping" and "Next time let's poop on the potty so this never happens again.". It really wasn't her fault. I had her in pull-ups which aren't as good as regular diapers and she's never pooped on the potty before so why would this have been any different. However, all that is fine in HINDSIGHT. When you're cleaning poop off someones legs and feet it's hard to have much perspective. Anyhow, we finally get settled in the living room, I hand her some juice and just to check I say, "So where are you going to poop next time?". She says, (no word of a lie) "On the floor" and points at the kitchen floor.

I'm a failure.

Photography Assignment #1

2009-09-19T15:31:00.000-07:00

A portrait of someone else: A self portrait. I spent hours setting up a different shot with mediocre results. Later I shot this one in the mirror and preferred it even though it was less 'technically perfect' than my other choice.
I wanted to send this one but thought that as far as self portraits go this one wasn't showing enough face.
What do you think?

The Little Moments

2009-09-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

This week was week number one of my photography course and as you can see my photos haven't gotten that much better, but the subject matter keeps getting cuter! Look at those chubby arms! And those cheeks! Gawd those cheeks. I could spend all day planting kisses on them.

I have had this new camera for 7 weeks and I have taken 900 pictures. That's right 900. For some reason, this time around, I can't take enough photos of everything. Not just the baby but all of us. I don't want to forget a single moment of our lives. If I could I put us on our own version of the Truman show I would, only without the other actors, and the deception, just the 24 hour cameras so I could never forget a moment. Is my life so much fun that every moment should be recorded you ask? No. I probably don't need to be reminded of the fact that I'm sitting on the couch while my daughter poops in her diaper in the corner. Or the terrible stomach ache that might have been more kidney stones, that kept me up all night and Daryl home from work this morning. The problem is...what if I miss an important moment? I've got the 'this is the last time I'll do this' blues. These kids are growing so fast I just want to put things on pause and catch up.

Well, in truth, I want to put some of the things on pause and some I want to fast forward. Pause the cute, chubby baby, fast forward the fussy, gassy baby. Pause the adorable and hilarious toddler, fast forward her testing the limits.

In the meantime I'll be taking more and more photos and keeping the photo processing companies in new shoes.

This Week's Craft.

2009-09-15T15:01:00.000-07:00

I haven't received these yet but I've ordered them in poster size for Veronica's room. Can't wait. To make them I stamped her hand and foot on a blank sheet of paper. I scanned them in to the computer and uploaded them to www.picnik.com. Love that program. Can't say enough about it. Then I used the duo-tone and set the colors, put them in a collage, added a frame and some text...and voila. They won't be to size but that wasn't really the point for this one. I was looking for an art project that matched her colors to put in her room.

Going with the flow

2009-09-09T09:52:00.001-07:00

It's evening and we're having tea. Veronica wants some. We are loath to say "No" one more time this day. Result: a two year old drinking the 'real deal' tea (loaded with sugar) before bed (I mean, what should have been bedtime, instead bed happened many hours later- go figure). Next we'll be swilling whiskey and bullshitting about the neighbours.

Cute.

2009-09-09T09:42:00.001-07:00

Zoe seems to love her Spa Baby tub. This is a photo of her in it for the second time. It's difficult to get in at the folds of her chubby little legs, but it's worth it for the fact that she can keep her head up and she seems to almost want to stand.

God this little girl is so cute. She has an infectious little smile that she seems eager to share and best of all, she laughs. How can it be that my 6 week old little girl can laugh already? That's got to be a good sign. I'm going to need some massage therapy though after I spend all day hunched over with the video camera trying to capture that laugh.

Create your own font

2009-09-04T11:45:00.001-07:00

The site is http://www.fontcapture.com/. I thought I should add that this would also be a cool way to capture your child's handwriting. I'd do it...if either of my kids could write.

Moravian Star

2009-09-03T08:05:00.001-07:00

I've debated over purchasing a Moravian star fixture on eBay for about, um, 3 years. I love them. I don't like the $300 and up price tag though. So I've waited and looked and looked some more but I still hadn't found one until this. London Drugs had these stained glass candle lanterns for about $30. I bought it, brought it home and gave it to my Dad. Now who said that having a master electrician for a father was only handy for basement developments? Not me- that's who because several weeks later these lovely fixture is hanging in my office. Isn't it lovely and only a fraction of the cost of the ones I was looking at. Granted I'd have preferred clear glass, but this one has character.

And Zoe's poor skin is as bad as ever, still.

Blemishes

2009-09-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

I've been rather reclusive lately and I'm a little ashamed of the reason. Sweet little Zoe has come down with a raging case of baby acne. What a horrible condition this is. It showed up last week and within two days her cheeks and chin were completely covered in red bumps and zits. I know it likely doesn't bother her and I know that I shouldn't be bothered by it, but when I see her ruined skin on her otherwise gorgeous face it bugs me. I don't want it to be the impression people have of her. I've had two people look in her stroller at her and exclaim, "Oh! How old is she?". Which you just know is the substitute for "Oh how cute!" or "Isn't she gorgeous!", you know... the things people said before she got baby acne. Next time I'm going to just punch whoever it is in the face and when they're dragging themselves up saying "Why? Why?", I'm going to calmly say, "She's gorgeous you stupid motherfucker. No piss off and stop being so damn nosey". You might think that's a little aggressive and frankly so do I, which explains why I'm being reclusive. It's the best thing for the children.

Anyhow here's a clip of her gorgeous face zits and all, and sohelpmegod if you don't go bananas over how cute she is I'll come find you so I can punch you square in your judgemental nose.

Mixed Blessings

2009-08-26T18:20:00.001-07:00

I want to complain about these kids (as it's been a tough week) but I know that I shouldn't because well, god damn things could be so. much. worse. Like for example these people, the Spohrs who lost their baby girl only 4 months ago and she has blogged all along both before and after Maddie . It's heart wrenching and sobering, and for me it makes me thankful for every minute I have with these little girls. Or if that wasn't enough of a reminder about the frailty of life and overcoming loss, there's fatcyclist who blogged about his wife's struggle with cancer that she recently lost. Or Nie Nie who is rebuilding herself and her life (and just recently published the first pictures of herself) after a tragic plane crash that has left her recovering from extensive burns.

Some people are very critical of bloggers and I imagine a lot of it is deserved. A lot of us (me included?) have little to say but insist on saying it. Some of us (me included?) aren't very good writers or have a terrible sense of humor. Fortunately for us, me included, there are some really good blogs out there who inspire us to do or be better. And that's the point. To connect with people you otherwise wouldn't have. To discover like-minded people through this vast planet who you feel a kinship with. To share your own experiences and ideas to likewise inspire others and most of all to just not be alone. If you didn't know that was true you just need to read the comments on some of these blogs. People can be truly kind and wonderful. It restores my faith in mankind when I see it and the internet seems to be the best place to find it.

From the mouths of babes (or at least this one)

2009-08-20T14:35:00.000-07:00

I'm going to put a new entry in wikipedia for precocious and in it I'm posting a picture of Veronica. Oh my we're in for some trouble with this one. When I was pregnant with her and obviously not as sage as I am now, I made a total ass of myself in front of a group of female coworkers. Wait, I have a point, I'm not just randomly bringing up instances in which I look like a schmuck, although I could. I really could create a blog just about the times I was an asshole. In public. Anyhow I'm not going to. So there I was sitting around with a bunch of intelligent, working women who were kind enough to express interest in my opinions about my unborn baby. In hindsight, I'm not sure if they expressed interest or were politely listening while I gave my opinions to them. I guess it doesn't matter now, I'm only speaking to two of them now. Hmmm, I wonder. Perhaps I should have been a better listener.

Ok, the point. At some point I said that I didn't care if my baby was smart, I said something to the effect of, "I hope she's dumb, but happy". Yep, I said that. Which would be fine if I hadn't said it to the mother of a child with a learning disability, who then pointed that fact out to me therefore making me feel like a total ass. See now that I'm wiser I should have said, "I don't care how smart she is as long as she's happy", or maybe "I just hope she's happy". That's the correct thing to say. However, regardless of the fact that I'm wiser about what I should say, I'm also wise now to the realities of the truth in my first statement. Oh how I wish sometimes that my child were not quite as clever as she is. And at this point an extra dose or twenty of happy wouldn't be bad either. I'm also pretty sure it would serve her well later in life to be a little bit oblivious and so contented that she only sees the positive in everything. Don't we all know someone like that? Sadly, I'm pretty sure that V is going to see things for how they are, become obsessed with cruelty and injustice and have a hard time accepting stupidity...just like her mom. I think she may also have a hard time making friends if she doesn't lose her condescending attitude too.

So in the spirit of sharing I'm going to list some of Veronica's favorite sayings (or things most commonly heard around our house).

Ok, Ok, just calm down.

Everybody just relax.

No, you be good.

You be happy.

I have to tell you something.

Shhh.

Be quiet (oh how I hate this one).

I love you too much or I love you so much.

Mommy, this is terrible.

Take care of me. (meaning anything from feed me to play with me)

Oh the fun.

Argh.

2009-08-18T18:33:00.000-07:00

Dooce might not want to talk about but I sure do. Breastfeeding sucks. There I've said it. Did you hear me you droves of lactation consultants? It sucks. Now that I'm three weeks in to it and have experience with all forms of feeding; pumping, formula and straight from the boob, I can offer you my two cents.

I feel like I'm tethered to this couch and it's not helping my resolve to get rid of this baby weight. This sweet baby eats less when it's straight from the boob, it takes her longer to feed and therefore I spend much more time nursing then I'd ever have done either pumping or formula feeding. Someone told me that nursing was easier because you don't have to fuss around with sterilizing bottles. Yes, that's right. Instead of batch sterilizing several (or thirty if you want) bottles you spend an hour *each time* getting your sleepy or fussy or frantic baby to latch on and get a good drink.

Thanks to a weekend filled with company I over-indulged in Halloween chocolates (why oh why do they bring it out so early?) and diet coke WITH caffeine. The result, one miserable baby with a tummy ache and two very tired parents. Poor thing. So no more Halloween chocolates (not that I needed more incentive than my pant size to figure that out) and no more caffeine. I'm pretty sure that formula feeding was easier. I'm also pretty sure that the voracious first sucks on the formula bottle didn't make my toes curl from the pain, nor did the sight of the bottle nipple stretching leave me wondering if my body would ever return to normal. I've read the literature, I get it, but is this baby's life going to be better if she's two IQ points smarter? Is my crappy diet, which right now is decidedly lacking in fruit and veggies, making nutrient dense milk? Where does DHA come from? Formula costs what, $20 a week maybe... my breast pump, that I'm renting because my boob's desire to feed and my baby's need to be fed are not the same, costs $30 a week.

Don't get me wrong, I'm going to keep doing it as long as it's what Zoe prefers (which it is), but I'm also going to feed her formula when we're out (because I can't gracefully feed her in public without exposing myself or ducking completely under a blanket) and pumped milk sometimes when we're home (just because I can and Daryl likes to feed her too).

It's going to take a multi-faceted approach but somehow I'm going to get this baby the best nutrition I have to offer. Hopefully my boobs don't fall off in the process.

A Little Late

2009-08-13T08:41:00.000-07:00

New camera, new baby, new photos

2009-08-08T09:05:00.001-07:00

A Sad Farewell

2009-08-04T18:01:00.000-07:00

It was a tough weekend. On Thursday night we noticed that Polly, my cat of 8 years, was acting strangely. Having been diagnosed with a rare disease last year, we assumed that the illness had something to do with that. We were wrong. At 4:30 AM when I finished feeding Zoe for what felt like the billionth time I watched Polly walk down the stairs to the walkout level and said to Daryl "We should check on her". Then I rolled over and fell in to the equal and opposite state to Zoe's milk coma she goes in to every time I breastfeed her. I woke up somewhere around 9:30, fed the milk monster, went downstairs and sat on the couch. While sitting there I heard a mournful cry from the basement. Daryl and V went down to find Polly laying on her side crying on the floor. I got dressed and rushed her in to the vet. She was cold and calm and several times I checked to see if she was breathing, but when I touched her she still purred. She still purred my sweet Polly. When we got to the vet I couldn't speak anymore, it was painfully obvious that she wasn't in a good state. The lady took Polly and I could hear the rush of activity in the back. It was eventually revealed that Polly had been poisoned thanks to someone in our neighborhood poisoning mice. Mice poison acts as an anti-coagulant and as a result Polly had pretty much bled to death on her litter box. We decided not to pursue any further life saving measures as there was no pulse in her back end and she had already been revived twice. It was painful and heart breaking. Is there anything sadder than a woman alone in a vet office crying uncontrollably while her cat lies dying in the next room? I don't think so. I chose not to be there when they let her go and I'm still regretting that decision. She had purred when I talked to her, would she have been comforted by my presence? I feel like I let her down; first by not taking her in sooner and second by not being there in the end. Later at home, while I held our beautiful Zoe and cried I imagined myself going door to door all teary eyed and miserable asking which neighbor was poisoning mice because they had just killed my sweet cat. I'm not going to do that though.

So farewell my sweet, sweet Polly. I will miss you as my constant companion at night. I will miss you pushing your head in to my hand to get me to pet you and I will miss sharing tender moments staring in to your green eyes while I rubbed your belly. I will always wonder why you showed so much fascination for Zoe when she arrived and why you seemed so attached to her already. I will forever regret every time I ever pushed you away or admonished you for being irritating. You were never an irritant, I was just a jerk. You were a good cat and I was lucky to have you. You are and will be dearly missed.

Zoe

2009-07-28T20:24:00.000-07:00

She's been part of our lives now for 3 days and I can't imagine another moment in my life without her. I ache to hold her when I see her laying down or when Daryl is holding her. It's truly staggering how much I long for her. I've been lucky that Daryl has been able to keep Veronica occupied while I spend time just adoring this new little creature. Although keeping V occupied has been no small task. She's definitely feeling some jealousy so we've been going out of our way to pay attention to her and lavish her with love too, even though she's pushing her limits. Tonight she sat and held Zoe, which was good for all of us to see. She doesn't know what to think of her and she won't quickly tell you that she likes her sister anymore if you ask. Hopefully we will settle in to a routine soon, one that involves V relaxing and being sweet again.

At Long Last

2009-07-26T16:51:00.001-07:00

Zoe Lynn

8 lbs 1 oz

July 25, 2009

Two Things...

2009-07-24T21:39:00.001-07:00

1. This is sitting beside me thanks to my wonderful husband. Maybe, just maybe, you can look forward to better quality photos now. This thing is awesome.

2. I'm having a baby tomorrow. That's right...a baby. Baby Zoe will finally make her arrival thanks to a scheduled induction (or I suppose more accurately, thanks to high blood pressure complications). Whatever, it's tomorrow and I'm at a loss as to what else to say. We're excited and overwhelmed and I feel like I should be doing something more auspicious for this occasion than blogging and laundry.

I'm looking forward to posting some lovely pictures of our new little lady soon.

Operation Huge Deck- part nine

2009-07-23T12:28:00.000-07:00

Nine stands for NOTHING in this case. Last week when we handed our contractor a cheque for half the job (he is about 75% complete at this stage) I said, "I just want to make sure you come back to finish". He laughed and then he skipped merrily away with our money never to be seen again. Well, that's not exactly true. He came back yesterday, WEDNESDAY, which is in no way like the MONDAY he promised, but he didn't actually do any work. Something about picking up an order, then needing to look around to find where to order stuff he said he'd already ordered (yes, he contradicted himself twice within 1 hour yesterday). Then as he pranced off to his truck he said he'd be back this morning (THURSDAY) after he picked up more supplies, but that his worker would be here. It's much like Santa I think. Not in the magical way though, it's really more in the 'make-believe' sense. I'm sure I can here him chuckling as he drifts out of sight each time. Anyhow, he's not here, his worker is not here. No work has been done. I even warned him that he would not be able to work banging on the house once the baby arrives thinking that would hurry him up. He's obviously death-defyingly fearless or incredibly stupid, screwing with a woman about to give birth. I'm trying so hard to be patient but I didn't want to spend my whole summer with a construction zone in the backyard just because this man can't get his shit together. I think I've reached the stage where I'm going to bring in the heavy artillery, my husband.

Oh, and yeah, no baby yet. It's a conspiracy I think.

Update: They showed up sometime after 3 and worked for about an hour. Nice.

Operation Huge Deck- part eight

2009-07-19T12:05:00.000-07:00

Progress is being made. The railings are done, the slide is up and the inspection was A-OK. Now we just need everything cleaned up and all the soffit and fascia put back up on the columns and sides etc. The slide is a hit with everyone except Veronica who is now afraid of it. Go figure. At least it'll be around for a while for her to 'grow in to'. No progress is being made on the baby front. We're anxiously and impatiently awaiting labor to begin and I've reached such a state of discomfort that we're pretty much sequestered at home now. At my last appointment they told me I was measuring over 42 weeks thanks to all the extra amniotic fluid. No one should be this big.

39 weeks and holding, holding, holding....

2009-07-15T19:56:00.000-07:00

Nice view hey?

The woe is me edition/I'm a terrible human

2009-07-14T11:10:00.000-07:00

I just got off the phone with my best friend who just came home from a trip to Seattle. A trip she invited me on but I couldn't go on because of this whole baby-about-to-be-born thing. We talked about the trip, but unfortunately for her I'm in this woe is me period and what I really wanted to talk about where my numerous troubles. Which is to say, what troubles, are you kidding me? I complained about the tedious and irritating deck construction which is taking longer than expected, and irritating to me because you know surely people must care that we did this expensive renovation to a not quite 5 year old house, during a recession no less, for our pure enjoyment and not because we needed more room to grow vegetables to feed ourselves (or something equally altruistic). Try to hold back the wave of sympathy you're feeling for me because man, I know. It's rough. Then I proceeded to complain about how frustrated I am at still being pregnant (even though I'm a week from my due date) and what an inconvenience it is for me to be forced to sit on my couch all day in my pajamas. I mean, what a burden to be expecting a second child after never expecting to be able to have any at all, and to have to be waiting at home (where I have been for two years because I don't have to work), watching television, playing with my daughter and planning our next vacation. It's hard not to want to weep at my sorrows. I have other troubles too, like how the quality of my health care is too good and how it requires me to make all these trips to the doctor and other health care professionals just to make sure everything is OK. Or how my veterinarian is so kind and interested in the ongoing saga of my cat Polly's rare skin disorder that she calls me at inconvenient times (like during the day) just to find out how she is.

Sometimes what I'm missing in my life is a good healthy dose of perspective. I could just slap myself for being so obtuse. Thank goodness that somewhere in my psyche is a trigger that activates when I lose touch with reality. Today I will try to spend the rest of my day being thankful. Thankful that I have such a wonderful family, thankful that we are fortunate to be living the life we are- where we are, thankful for our health and this amazing and welcome addition about to come in to our lives and most of all thankful for the opportunity to realize how thankful we should be.

Operation Huge Deck- part seven

2009-07-12T10:18:00.003-07:00

This is a peek at part of the new deck (looking out from my new outdoor loveseat). We still have no railing on the stairs, no slide and a lot of finishing work to do, but for now this will do. This will do quite nicely.

Operation Huge Deck- part six

2009-07-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

With no pictures.

Why no pictures? Because I'm grumpy that's why. I get that this was a complicated deck addition. It doesn't seem like it would be though does it? I mean you've seen the pictures. Anyhow, it is. Apparently. And with rain delays and two guys who slow down to half speed (if that) when the boss leaves the site this deck is going to take forever. Yesterday I watched a fellow assemble what should have been a spiral tube slide in to a big U shape. No kidding. I get that the thing can be tricky to assemble but even Veronica could see that the entrance (which is up 7 feet) was only 1 foot away from the exit, and vertical. Oh my. So I'm trying to be understanding because this is week three and while I appreciate that he's completely finishing the top portion so that we can use it this weekend, what he doesn't understand is that the mess in my yard, the strangers crapping in my fancy toilet and people peering in my living room window is making me insane. And did I mention I'm about to give BIRTH?!

Perhaps I'm a little edgy?

My bladder holds 2 fluid ounces

2009-07-05T20:23:00.000-07:00

But how do you know this Jacqui, you might ask. Well the obvious answer is that I've been peeing in to a calibrated plastic 'hat' for the last 13 hours. Obvious right? The deal is that between my kidney stones and the fact that I've been passing a lot of protein for the last couple of months, my doctors have decided to punish me with their own version of water torture. In this case it's pee torture. I must place a plastic 'hat' under the toilet seat every time I pee and then carefully, and this is important, CAREFULLY transfer the contents to a pretty orange jug. If I spill I have to start ALL OVER AGAIN. I can't really tell you how vile this whole thing is. Asking a 37 week pregnant woman to collect her pee every time she goes, which is approximately once every hour, and then transfer it to a stinky orange container is cruel. I can hardly wait until I'm doing it in the middle of the night. The good news is that it'll all be over at 8:00 am tomorrow morning and then I can whisk the container of disgusting pee, laboriously accumulated in 2 ounce increments, to the lab for a quantitative protein analysis. The thought that makes this all tolerable is this, thank goodness I'm not the person measuring other peoples' stinky pee in a lab all day.

Operation Huge Deck- part five

2009-07-02T19:59:00.001-07:00

Damn it- I can't get a good photo of this. What you can see is the lovely vinyl covering that was installed on the deck today and you can see the reason for the six foot frosted privacy panels on this side. I tried to take a photo from upstairs looking down but it was through the screen and doesn't do it justice. Now just the stairs, railing and the slide to go... oh and all the trim and finishing underneath. I'm so close to realizing my dream of sitting out here with what will likely be a virgin cocktail, I can almost taste the sickly, sweet, non-alcoholic coolness now.

For the record...I hate being busy

2009-07-02T12:02:00.001-07:00

Today via twitter (yes- I follow a few people on twitter) one of the mommy bloggers I follow posted a link to this post. The post, in case you are too busy to follow the link, is about mom's who are always complaining about how busy they are. So often I have found myself complaining to close friends how tired I am of hearing how involved and busy my other friends are. It's not that I don't think it's great that they're all out taking care of their families and engaging in meaningful activities with their kids but... come on. Is it necessary? Are you trying to prove what a great parent you are? Is my child who rarely has play dates and spends most of her time at home, really missing out on some social grooming? I think the thing about hearing how busy everyone else is makes me feel inadequate. I think, why am I not in a mom's group? Why don't I have more friends? Is my child happy? Does she act appropriately with other kids? Would she be happier if we went out more? The reality is this, I'm busy. I have a lot of hobbies and my day is full and although it's true that yes, on occasion I nap (oh the shame), I am proud of the fact that my child can entertain herself. She is bright and intuitive and does not require me to keep her busy every minute of the day. I'm not afraid to spend days on end with nothing planned but hanging out just the two of us. I don't take her places so I can keep her quiet in a stroller and there are many popular kid places that we have never ventured. I could go on and on about the things we don't do whereas my list of things we do is relatively short (we garden, we read, we play games, we walk, we talk, we cook, we watch television). I guess the point isn't to slam all the moms out there who are keeping their kids busy with other activities, of course some moms actually like and want to be that busy. The point is to do what you need to do. Be busy if you have to be, but don't feel pressured to do it. Do what's in your heart and your personality and the kids will be fine in the end.

As an aside, while I was typing this up V came to me, got right in my face and said, "You happy Mom, you happy!". Guess what? She's right and I think she's happy too.

Operation Huge Deck- part four

2009-06-30T17:21:00.001-07:00

...and we have a stall. Today I was all excited to see the stairs go up, but no luck. They cleaned, attached the platform for the stair landing (bottom left), put up some lag bolts and blocking then left before noon. Someone is coming to put on the vinyl decking this week but the rest of the work (stairs and railings) won't happen until next week. Don't they know? Don't they realize how maddening this is for me? At least they cleaned. Oh, speaking of cleaning, I should be more specific...they 'mostly' cleaned. By mostly I mean, they left gobs of landscaping silicone lying around which Veronica thought was fascinating shit and proceeded to smear on her new shirt and her lovely little hands. Do you know what gets off landscaping goop? Nothing that's what. I kid. Not about the stuff on her hands and clothes, that was there, but it did come off with nail polish remover. Nail polish remover and lots of scrubbing. It's always fun here!

Operation Huge Deck- part three

2009-06-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

Here we go...there's been so much action on the deck I can post about it twice in one day. The reason that so much has been done is due to the fact that our little site supervisor (seen below) has been relentless about quality control.

She seems satisfied with those measurements.

Where did that tape measurer come from? I think these guys leave in such a hurry each day that they just drop their tools and run once 4:30 comes around. I'm just guessing though because normally I'm asleep then. Good thing I'm not in charge. However, if I were in charge they'd sure as hell be cleaning up their shit each day before they leave. Oops- that was the pregnant and impatient lady coming out again. Anyhow back to more pleasant stuff. Daryl has been taking these pictures and I'd have to say that he has a distinct issue with perspective. I asked him to take full shots of the house but for some reason each time a whole story gets lost or half the house. What's weird about this is that the new part of the deck looks like it's quite a bit higher than the rest. It's not. It is big though and eventually all the stuff will be covered with vinyl and railings and furniture and fascia and all kinds of wonderful things. Perhaps tomorrow I'll take the pictures. I think they're starting on the stairs. Ooh stairs.

Operation Huge Deck- part, umm... two?

2009-06-29T12:38:00.001-07:00

This is what our house looked like this weekend. Nice hey? For someone with a 'small' problem with organization and tidiness nothing can be more irritating than a yard full of crap. As I post this the workers are here and the deck already looks dramatically different... you know... with there being an actual deck up on the posts you see in the picture below. The 4 posts on the left of the picture are where a new landing is for the steps. The slide we wanted coming off the deck wouldn't be to code (apparently having a slide 11 feet off the ground requires some different engineering) so we had to revise our stairs a bit to include a new landing where the slide will be now. I think it'll work out OK. All this construction has had mixed emotions from our family. Veronica loves walking all over the stacks of wood. A gopher has taken up residence under the junk pile. My birds won't come anywhere close (and I see today that the workers knocked off my feeder, emptying an entire feeder of Niger seeds on the ground - can you say weeds?). I'm going crazy with the damage to my lawn, flower beds and the overall mess, not to mention the strange men needing to use the bathroom and the fact that we're sequestered in the house during the day.

And just look at Karl. Doesn't he look pissed off? I think if he could talk he'd be saying, "What the hell is this? Where's the railing? This isn't safe? Why did you let me out here? What's wrong with you?"
Oh how I love that sweet little angry face. I promise to give him a long cuddle when we're finally sitting comfortably on the new deck.

And then it was like this...

2009-06-24T19:18:00.001-07:00

We went to a parade. A parade with a distinct lack of candy. Candy that all the local children were really counting on. Like little beggar children they stood in the streets with sad and pathetic faces saying hopefully "Candy? Candy?" to all the parade participants, who with shame and sorrow would respond "sorry, no candy". Oh the tragedy. Thank goodness thinks picked up at the end and candy was had by all. It was a good parade too. Veronica seemed to really love it. Parades are apparently a hit in our books.

Here she is waiting for horses, candy, puppies or fire trucks (her favorite things that day).
As if parades weren't exciting enough... construction on our new deck started this week. By construction I of course mean destruction and then really a menial amount of that at best. Construction was slated to start Monday but now it's almost Thursday and very little has been done. See... the railing is gone. That's the only difference. Well that and the scaffolding they put up to make it look like there was stuff happening. See our eager faces in the window?

I'm just hoping that our contractor realizes that building a deck for an anxious 37 week pregnant (and woefully uncomfortable) woman who is EAGERLY anticipating sitting on said deck in her new deck furniture, under her new deck gazebo, listening to her new deck fountain and appreciating her deck art, all while holding her new deck baby... might be a big task. He'd better not let me down.

It's like that.

2009-06-16T19:51:00.001-07:00

First there was much fun had by all when Veronica got a sliver in her right index finger that became infected. The fix, and by fix I mean- painful and long involved process, is to soak the finger in warm water for 15 minutes and to take some antibiotics (under the guise of "candy medicine"- because candy is good- medicine is bad) three times a day. Thank you evil, evil garden for shooting that darn sliver in to our innocent baby's finger.Then there was a long, and by long I mean, we got lost, road trip to pick up this beautiful little baby piano. Later there was a lovely concert performed on the deck. The music was primarily aleatoric (because the main theme was random mixed with a healthy dose of chance and, hey, did I mention random already?).

...And because Veronica is a huge patron of the arts she later accompanied her musical composition with a modern art piece on a non-conventional medium...her face.

That's what we've been doing. Enough said?

Enjoying the view from here

2009-06-09T07:05:00.001-07:00

34 weeks now and this is all I see when I look down. In fact, this seems to look worse, but maybe I'm in denial about what I really see. I told Daryl it was a bit of trick photography because in reality I can't see my feet, I just know they're there by their constant throbbing.If you're taller than me this might be the view you get to enjoy.

Is this what they mean by belly shots?! I really can't imagine getting any bigger than this. Veronica was born at 36 weeks and although I shouldn't wish for a pre-term baby that's exactly what I'm doing. I was sure this time I wasn't going to gain as much weight as last time but here I am approaching 50 lbs. Yes- FIFTY pounds and I'm pretty sure only um...40... 30... 20.....ok...10 of that are baby related. I guess that's what my body wants me to carry when I'm pregnant, or perhaps my body wants me to spend most of my time on my ass because I can't haul that much weight around comfortably. Either way. It's gotta go and soon. I'm already starting to fantasize about the day I can actually start walking/running again with my neighbour. I'm so DONE with this heavy pregnant body. Gaining this much weight this quickly would scare anyone enough to start a diet program. Anyhow I'm counting down the weeks and soon I'll be begging for labor inducing ideas. Of course that's after I spend some time doing handstands in the pool, getting pins put in my little toes and having my body 'manipulated' to get this baby to flip. Nothing but fun being had here.

Sewing Block Letters

2009-06-04T17:41:00.001-07:00

Here is Veronica modeling today's sewing project in the new nursery: block letters. A while ago I asked my brother, who does wood work as a hobby, to make the new baby's name (ZOE) in large wooden letters. He said no. Something about me being able to buy them somewhere. Anyhow, today while shopping 'somewhere' else to find wooden letters I came across the idea to make my own letters in a medium I understood, fabric. Below is the result. I think they look great on the top shelf. I don't have much in the way of accessories for Zoe's room and I think this adds a great personal touch. I'm really very happy with how they turned out. They were surprisingly easy to make except the "O". OH that "O". I didn't realize until after- that once I'd sewn it inside out there was no way to turn it right side out. After much seam ripping I finally figured it out. Must have something to do with baby brain because man that required a lot of thought. This nursery is starting to come together. I actually have the material for the crib skirt sitting on the floor in front of me and last weekend we trekked around Calgary for the mirror above the change table (it's hard to make out but it has flowers on it). Maybe, just maybe I will get ambitious enough to make a new bumper too.

All that iron is working

2009-06-03T14:00:00.001-07:00

I felt so good yesterday that I almost managed to complete everything on my to-do list. Too bad that my list didn't include some of the things I ended up doing though, like writing a complaint e-mail to Fabricland and sewing 2 shirts and a dress. Yep, it was that kind of a day. At Fabricland I was informed that you are no longer allowed to let your child sit on the edge of the cutting table while your fabric is being cut. Isn't that great. So now you can shop holding your toddler and several bolts of fabric (because they don't have shopping carts- that would make too much sense), stand in line to wait holding those same things and continue to hold your child while they cut the fabric. Great. Not inconvenient at all. Then when I got to the till and my child was crying because some strange man mad a face at her in one of the isles, I stood in line again... holding her, but when it came my turn I couldn't hold her... and the fabric... and get stuff out of my purse to pay... AND BE 8 AND A HALF FREAKIN' MONTHS PREGNANT all at the same time... so I set her on the counter. That's when the bitch, I mean- woman at the till, informed me that I was already getting a lot of privileges today (because she had seen me put V on the counter while the other woman cut my fabric) and that my daughter could not be set on the counter while I paid. Gawd, did I mention that I frequently put up with unbelievably shitty service without ever mentioning it and always wearing a "I must be a moron to put up with your shit" smile? Well, that was perhaps other days because yesterday I was so pissed off, I looked at the woman and said, "If I put her down she'll cry again and I can't hold her anymore because as you can see I'm VERY pregnant." and then waited defiantly for her to argue so I could really snap. She actually looked totally pissed off and rang in the rest of my sale in silence. I was so mad I fumed the whole way home and then wrote a scathing e-mail criticizing their lack of understanding of the demographic they serve. I mean seriously how many women do you see in a fabric store that aren't moms? Stupid thing is, I came home swearing I wouldn't shop there anymore and then later after I'd finished sewing two shirts for myself and the dress below for Veronica I ran out of bias tape and my first thought was "Fuck, I have to go back there", because damn, where else is there to go? I'm going to have to do some research to find an alternative, but hey if you happen to go in a Fabricland why don't you ask if they could put chairs or benches or god-forbid- shopping carts (and not baskets) in their stores or at least make the damn isles wide enough to fit a stroller. Oh man... here I go ranting again.

On a happy note... man I love this fabric and I think the dress will look super cool on V. I also made myself a shirt (same style but with elastic under the bust and long enough to cover my HUGE belly) with the same fabric and another one in the same colors but different pattern. If I hadn't run out of bias tape I'd have likely made myself several more. I was on a role.
Today I got up first thing and started cutting and sewing baby blankets for the new baby. They went so well, did I mention that 90% of the job is taking the time to cut and pin them properly, so I made 4 of them. When I looked around at the total disaster all that minky fluff made I decided to pull out two more blanket disasters from earlier and add to the mess, because hey- I have a brand new Hoover. They were minky and black paisley charmeuse which is really hard to sew on my serger without pulling. Anyhow after much trimming and pinning I fixed them and am so happy to get them out of my hair. See look at that... 2 shirts, 1 dress, 6 blankets and one satisfied feeling mommy in 24 hours.

Oh and THE PERMIT CAME TODAY! Hooray! The deck construction can now begin.