blog-o-licious

And the other side shows these angels.

Here's Ry in his new pirate doo rag:
And Avery in his:
(Yes, I know my kids' faces are dirty. Story of their lives... And, yes, Ry with the giant teeth... We are hoping he'll grow into them, like he did with his ears...)

How lucky am I that I had two girlie nights in a row? Very lucky, indeed. Especially since my husband was battling treacherous driving conditions at the very same time. And probably continually cursing me during that long long drive (which the gods must have heard, because karma certainly sent me a blizzard to drive through just two nights later). (And now, as I type this, I’m starting to think that I am not a very lucky girl at all, because my girly night ended up causing that blizzard I drove through on Sunday night. Stupid karma.)

ANYWAY… back to Girlie Night #2. This one consisted of many girlies from my community. I was invited by the old friend I had recently re-found.

We went to a cooking class / demonstration. It was held in a brand-new kitchen area that was fashioned after the set of a fancy cooking show – even with TV screens to show the action on the cook top as well as captioning to an over-flow reception area (with couches and a beautiful fireplace). Top of the line everything. Very impressive.

Our instructor was Rob Fuller of Zest. He had us prepare eight dishes in total. We worked in groups of four, so each group made two dishes. And then we got to eat them. Amazing amazing food. I especially loved the satay chicken with cranberry relish. Oh, and the baked brie with brown sugar and walnuts.

All in all, it was great fun. It was nice to meet other ladies and learn some new recipes. This was the first demonstration this company had done, and I predict that they are going to have a hard time keeping up with demand since there are now 16 girlies talking about what a wonderful time we had.

What a weekend. I almost don't know where to start. Maybe with the call I got on Friday during work from my husband telling me that our laptop was completely dead. Not only did he think we'd need to buy a new one, but I was worried that everything on there would be lost forever - like our pictures. Long story short, Scott got the computer working again and effectively backed-up all our files on the external hard drive. Phew. BUT we are going to have to think about replacing that computer - because I cannot bear to live another weekend without Internet access.

Friday Night Girlie Night - deserves its own post.

Scott and Ry went to Moose Jaw for a hockey tournament that night - the weather was terrible and drive home was treacherous.

Saturday: The whole family drove out to Moose Jaw for more hockey. Ry played the games of his life, scoring a goal in the last game. It was fun fun fun to watch. But a long day – we didn’t get home until 10:30 pm.

Sunday: Rise and shine for swimming lessons. Avery can float – HUGE break-through. That kid is the least buoyant person I’ve ever known. Rylan if swimming full laps and making progress in his strokes.

Then we split up to go in two different directions: Scott and Ry to Moose Jaw for the last game of the tournament. And Avery and me to Montmarte for his tournament. Rylan continued to play awesome awesome hockey and got another two goals. They won the C side and got a huge trophy. Rylan was very impressed with himself and asked me “How did I suddenly get GOOD at playing hockey?”

Avery also played a couple great games. He got at least 5 goals between to two but both of us are not sure how many exactly. And that was with him TRYING to pass and not just dump in goals.

And then… the drive home. Blizzard. Oh.My.God. I have never been so afraid in my life. And not for myself, because I’ve had a good long life, but for my precious cargo. Avery busied himself playing DS for awhile and then when he looked up he said, “Mom, aren’t you scared??? I’m scared.” So I put on a brave-face and plowed through. And some points, I couldn’t see ANYTHING. And there wasn’t really an option to pull off, because not only could I not see where to pull off, but there was no end in sight for the blizzard, so I would have been sitting there all night long. Each time I’d hit a complete white-out, my heart would drop. What do you do? It feels so impossible. But with a lot of patience and slow driving we eventually made it home. What should have taken me 40 minutes, took about two hours. I received no sympathy when we got into the house because Scott had driven under the same conditions on Friday night. So I just had a hot bath and went to bed.

Yes, Girlie Group last night. Survivor theme. Kim assured me that stretchy pants was not a requirement, but it sure would have come in handy for some of us on the balloon-between-the-knees challenge. Alas, I cannot even blame my attire for my team losing this game - but we sure had fun. Kim did a TERRIFIC job planning the whole thing. It was such a fun evening that I couldn't believe when I looked at my watch and realized it was ten-freaking-thirty. So we hussled it home.

Tonight is another Girlie-Night of sorts for me. Different Girlie group. Different activity. Should be great, as well. Good thing I'm not sick with a cold or anything.... gawd.

Two songs of the day: I Don't Feel Like Dancing and Filthy and Gorgeous by the Scissor Sisters. Love love love the Scissor Sisters.

1. Ry’s piano teacher told Scott that Ry is quite good and it’s time for us to buy a real piano (currently, Ry has an electronic keyboard). Two issues with this: $$$ and space.

2. Thanks for all the information about converting video to dvd. I will be looking into those leads. I would like to buy some equipment so that I could do it myself – I’m too afraid to hand over these tapes to anyone (I have lots and lots, including 10 years of my kids). But if equipment is too expensive, I will have to look at other options (maybe, I will just hover over the technician the whole time so that I can be sure my tapes are safe).

I found some good information here.

3. Also, thanks for the positive feedback on my Baba story. I will definitely share more. I probably should watch the tape again so that I get the details correct. And, yes, that was a fantastic idea my mom had to tape my Baba. If you still have living grandparents (or other older family members) make it a priority.

4. I lost 2.4 lbs this past week on Weight Watchers. Damn that program works. If you follow it. So I only have a bit more than 4 lbs to go. I can actually see the light at the end of the title. It’s only taken me a year to get there…

5. Best invention EVER: Otrivin with Moisturisers. I actually slept last night. And breathed. It was so awesome.

6. I know everyone in the world is watching American Idol. But I can’t. I haven’t watched it since Reuban/Clay won. I know you all love it, but I just can’t… I want to slap Simon’s face. And Paula’s. It’s better for my blood pressure if I don’t watch.

7. I’ve wanted to consolidate random pictures in my house onto a “picture wall” – a grouping of frames on a blank wall in my house. But I was overwhelmed with that project – getting frames, organizing them, etc. But then I was at Costco this past weekend and woolaahhhhh – the answer to my problems was staring me in the face. A collection of coordinated picture frames with many many picture hanging opportunities. Can’t wait til I get them up.

I have a cold. Or allergies. It's hard to tell. But it's probably a cold because there really isn't anything I could be allergic to right now - everything is dead dead dead (in the winter). Last night before bed I could not breath at all. So I took a couple of night-time Tylenol Cold pills. With a Gravol chaser. Because, I knew that although it's labelled "Night-time" - it really doesn't help me sleep. And sure enough at 1:00 am my eyes popped open (even though I had taken the Gravol). Wide awake. "Do not operate heavy machinery" my ass. That would have been the BEST time for me to operate heavy machinery. I've never been more alert.

Whatever happened to the days of Nyquil-induced sleeps? Those were the best sleeps ever. But now, like Tylenol Cold, Nyquil is more of a stimulant. I've heard other people complain about this as well.

I think Chrissie is a pharmacist (???). Help me with this mystery, have they changed the ingredients in these cold medications? Were too many people operating heavy machinery while on cold medication? I need to know.

Surprisingly, I feel okay today. Well, of course, I still have the stupid cold (all the antibacterial wiping in th world didn't save me from this cold) but I am not completely exhausted. Like I should be on a mere 3 hours of sleep.

Off to get coffee now.

In keeping with the "Grandma" theme, I have to post this Ellen video that Tracey originally posted (Tracey - can I link to you? I'm worried...).

A couple years before my Grandmother died, I videotaped her being interviewing by me. It was something my mom always wanted me to do… Baba knew so much about her family history and we didn’t want it to be lost once she past away.

The day we called to tell Baba we were doing this, she got pretty upset. She was worried about the questions (and perhaps she thought we were convinced she was going to die soon). We briefly thought about cancelling the interview. Because the last thing we wanted to do was cause Baba anxiety. However, it was something we really really wanted to do so we went ahead.

And we were so glad we did it. Once we got started, Baba was comfortable. There was no more stress. And she told us things that my mom didn’t even know.

(I have the interview on video tape, but I really would like it on DVD. Can anyone tell me the easiest way to do this? My mom thought there was a computer peripheral we could buy to convert video into digital format. Yes???)

Here’s one of the stories:

When Baba’s youngest brother, Sam, was born – he had terrible colic. The worst colic anyone around had ever experienced. He just cried and cried and cried. My great-grandmother was at her whit’s end to try and console this baby and engaged the community’s assembly of elder women for advice. The women performed a ritual where they “re-birthed” Sam. They placed him on a huge wooden paddle and put him into the wood-burning stove (without any burning wood, of course) and when they pulled him out they called him “Bill.” Bill was a perfect baby after that – the colic had miraculously disappeared. And Sam was forevermore known as Bill.

Let me know if you enjoy these types of stories and I will post more.

This picture of the boys and me with Baba was taken about a year before she died.

In the Regina Leader-Post this morning, there is an article about what a cheap place Regina is to live. Very coincidental, considering my post from last week. Another coincidence??? - Tracey, Austin is mentioned as another affordable place to live... in the same breath as Regina. Love it.

Repeat last weekend and add a bit more hockey and you have this weekend. I won't bore you with the details... except to say that Avery is up to 19 goals (and about as many assists) for this season which really is amazing if you recall that he only started playing games at Christmas time.

This week is going to fly right by - lots to look forward to - girlie night on Thursday (Survivor Theme - it's gonna be so awesome) and another outing on Friday which sounds like so much fun. I'm going to keep you in suspense on that one, but I will do a whole post on it, hopefully with pictures. And this outing might have some work implications for me - so I'm doublely excited.

A few random items:

1. I'm officially allergic to perfumes. I always knew they bothered me, but now, as soon as I smell it, I get an instant headache. Luckily we have a "no-scents" policy at work.

2. On the way to work this morning, I noticed the Sandman Hotel is missing its "N" - so it's poor, old SADMAN. Sad sad Sadman. (Thanks for the "D" catch, everyone!)

3. Sunday night TV used to be something to look forward to. But now that I hate Desparate Housewives and have grown bored of Without a Trace, it's just a big old disappointment. I wish Grey's was still on Sundays. At least I have House Hunters.

4. Today is the four month anniversary of my last haircut.

1. What is the highest degree I hold?

I have a Masters of Science in Market Research. Most people assume it is an MBA because of the field I work in. But those people just aren’t listening to me – or aren’t reading my business cards.

2. What are my children’s middle names?

We gave the boys traditional middle names to go with their more contemporary first names. Rylan Alexander – after Scott’s all time favourite TV character, Alex P. Keaton. And Avery James – after my step-dad. (BTW – I wanted to give either of the kids “Scott” as a middle name, but Scott wouldn’t even entertain the idea.)

3. What is my favourite sport to watch on TV?

If you know anything about me, you know I LOVE watching curling. Love love love. I also enjoy other sports on TV, but curling is my most favourite.

4. How many times have I been to Florida?

Six. Twice as a child (1983 and 1987), twice without kids (1999 and 2001) and twice with kids (2002 and 2005). And I will go back again.

5. What is my ancestral nationality?

I am ½ Russian (on my Mom’s side) and ¼ English and a ¼ Irish (on my Dad’s side). My kids are mutts (once you add Scott’s mixed pedigree).

6. What instrument(s) did I play growing up?

I played Flute and Piccolo in the band (even in University) and Organ. Shut up. You played the organ in the 80s, too.

7. A little known talent of mine…

Clapping with one hand. It’s a site to be seen, I tell you. Maybe someday I’ll feel like humiliating myself and put it on YouTube. Ha!

8. How many piercings do I have?

OK – I have six piercings – two in each ear and one in my navel. My sister would count that as three.

Update: Apparently I can't add either - I only have 5 piercings. This was the correct answer on the survey. I just mistakenly wrote "six" on this post... no one gets extra points.

9. Which of these statements is NOT true.

I screwed this one up. So you all get an extra point. Sorry.

The answer I was looking for was “I don’t like to talk before 8:30 am.” Ask my husband.

The other choices:

“I need very little sleep.” - I need about 8 ½ hours every night. So “I need very little sleep” is NOT true. I should have wrote “I need A LOT of sleep.” Again, sorry. (Although, Carmen did point out that I function well on very little sleep.)

(Once I found out that I screwed this one up, I didn’t change it because it would have made it unfair for the people who took the quiz before I fixed it. Thanks to Carmen for pointing this out.)

“I am an excellent shopper.” Yeah, we all know that is true.

“I love being outside.” I do. Although I hate the cold, as long as I’m dressed for the weather, I love going for walks. I even walked this past Sunday when it was damn near 30 below.

10. Which of these fruits do I hate?

I hate hate hate cantaloupe. I would never eat it. And I would never eat anything that even touched it.

Carmen thinks the answer should have been bananas… but I actually enjoy ripe bananas. Only if they are washed to remove the monkey poop, of course.

The moral of the story: I should get Carmen to proof-read my stuff. And my sister doesn’t pay enough attention to me. Story of my life.

Interesting how PJ knows me better than my sister! I totally thought Kelly would get 100%... but she had an issue with one of my questions - and brought up a valid point - when you count piercings - do you count a pair as "one"? - Because that wasn't how I was doing it... that's a hint for any of you who haven't taken the Jodi Quiz yet.

Anyway, I will post all the answers at a later date. Just in case you were dying to know what my real hidden talent is or how many piercings I really do have.

But I have to comment PJ on knowing me so well. She must be very good at retaining information!

When I did the quiz, I thought it was totally easy. But maybe it wasn't so easy... What question totally baffled you?

Got this quiz idea from Tracey. So much fun. Just do it. (I think I've blogged all the correct answers over the last year or so.)

Create your own Friend Quiz here

1. Weather has warmed up. You can see it displayed on the right. This is the kind of winter weather I can handle.

2. Shout out to some additional no-longer-lurkers:

-Megan S! Hello, how is it going? Do you like it over at the new place?
- Allie - one of my northern bloggy friends.
- W - with the beautiful, beautiful baby.
- Tracy - an Albertan bloggy friend.
- Kim - a long-time, irl friend! And yes, you should do the de-lurking thing on your blog, too.

Sorry for no active links, there is no time today.

3. My work email is full again. I HAVE to get better on my email / document management.

4. We have another holy hockey weekend coming up. Avery has a tournament. Ry has a game. Ry has a practice. And completely unrelated, both have swimming again. Wow, another weekend is going to fly right by.

5. I'm back on the Weight Watchers wagon again. Surprisingly, I lost 2 lbs since I last weighed in (in Sept.). Pretty good considering I had a vacation in there AND Christmas. Only 6 more lbs. to go. Losing weight is hard (whiniest voice possible). Cross your fingers for me.

6. I'm excited for The Office tonight. It's my new favourite show (new to me, anyway). Did we ever laugh at the episode last week. The sales calls. Dwight pumping himself up for the sales call. The ladies going to the beauty salon and getting back-combed do's to impress the client. But the best was the robot that Michael made. And Jim and Pam's reaction. Totally pissed Michael right off. Loved it!

Beth asked me why I live where I do – a very good question considering the intolerable cold we’ve been experiencing… And lord knows I complain A LOT about the weather. We all do here in the tundra. Yet we live here (and in increasing numbers*, btw!).

*…departures from Alberta have benefited Saskatchewan the most. Saskatchewan's net migration loss to Alberta in the third quarter this year was down by an estimated 1,300 people compared with the third quarter in 2005. That is because Saskatchewan received 3,700 migrants from Alberta between July and September.” StatsCan.

We made the decision a long time ago to remain in Saskatchewan. We could have moved to Alberta with everyone else. In fact, I think I always thought we would eventually end up in Alberta. But initially, we decided to stay in Saskatchewan. We wanted to be close to family. We didn’t want our children to be far from their grandparents. And aunts, uncles and cousins. This was something that we placed high on the list of “things that are important to us.” And we were so fortunate that job offers facilitated our stay here. (Otherwise, we would most certainly be in that very rich province to the west.)

Scott finished university in April of 1995. He had a job waiting for him in Regina so on April 30, with the help of our parents, we packed up all our worldly possessions (all that crappy, hand-me-down stuff – heh) and busted it down to the Queen City from Saskatoon. (I was not finished with my degree but I had made arrangements to finish it remotely.)

(On May 20 of that year we were married. Luckily that weekend included a Stat holiday so Scott didn’t have to go back to his job until the Tuesday after (3 days). How’s THAT for a honeymoon?)

Moving to Regina from Saskatoon was an interesting endeavour. People in Saskatoon felt sorry for us: “Oh, poor you, leaving this beautiful-alive-city for that ugly-stagnant-sorry-excuse-for-a-city.” But we didn’t listen – after all we were grown-ups! Scott had a job! We were getting married! It was going to be so awesome!

You know what is coming, don’t you? This is where I admit that the Saskatoon people were right. Regina did suck. We hated it. We couldn’t wait to move “home” to Saskatoon. Wrong! We settled in easily in Regina. And eight months later we bought our first home.

I’d say we were really fortunate to move to Regina when we did. Because we saw the benefits that came with the commercial (shopping!) and residential development boom as well as the launch of the “I Love Regina” campaign.

We made lots of friends. And Scott’s family even moved to Regina. That was an extra bonus that we weren’t expecting. After that, we realized that we weren’t going anywhere.

Well, I guess that isn’t completely true. Because we did end up leaving the city. But we are only 10 minutes away. And we still work in the city and our kids go to school in the city.

And believe me, we’ve had our opportunities to leave. And very recently. To places that people would LOVE to live. Places that don’t experience 40 below weather. But we haven’t seriously considered those offers. And here are some reasons why:

1. Cost of Living. OMG – the cost of living here is AMAZING. Amazingly cheap, I should say. We may have higher taxes than neighbouring provinces but the price of real estate is way lower. (The most expensive house in the Regina area on MLS is $499,000! Amazing.) And we don’t pay health care premiums. Or outrageous amounts for auto insurance. We are the birthplace of socialism as we know it, after all.

2. Commuting. I don’t even live in the city and it takes me half an hour to get to work. That includes dropping my kids off, parking and walking about a block in. AND I work downtown!

3. I know ALL my neighbours. By name.

4. My kids can go outside and play and I don’t have to watch them. And they don’t have to stay in my yard.

5. This province (and even nation) is very liberal in nature. Gay marriages are legal. We stand for peace-keeping. And then that whole socialism thing again.

6. We generally have hot, dry summers.

7. Even when it gets really cold, we still have sunshine. (Saskatchewan is the "sunniest" province.)

8. Wascana Park. It’s one of the largest urban parks in North America (more than twice the size of Central Park.)

9. It’s not too big (in population). Regina has about 200,000. Makes it just big enough. Of course, now that you are all reading this and packing your things to move here, that number might change…

10. My hair behaves much better in the cold cold weather. It’s bone straight, which I love.

According to United Nations criteria, the province of Saskatchewan is the "best place in the world to live."

What do you love about the place you live?

Honestly, I was worried about getting invested in another season of 24. I hate that I can only watch one hour and then have to wait a week to watch the next hour. But then I don’t have the patience to wait until the entire season is out on DVD so that I can watch each episode without interruption. (Scott and I did that with the first two seasons, and although it is immensely satisfying to watch episode after episode, there were weeks where we didn’t go to sleep until 3:00 am. “Just one more episode. We can do it…”)

Also, 24 is EXHAUSTING, mentally. Non-stop action for an hour. I worry for my poor heart when I am watching that show.

So, yeah. I was actually contemplating NOT watching this new season. Only seriously for about half a second. Because I LOVE Jack Bauer. Who doesn’t? He’s saved the world like 5 times now. He’s like the Energizer Bunny.

Now we are four episodes into the new season. Here are some of my observations:

1. I’m a bit torn about the premise – another Arab nuclear threat. It’s been done in 24-land before. But, DAMN, they do it so well.

2. Kumar! Is Dead!

3. Curtis! Is Dead!

4. That dad totally beat that computer-build-it-guy to death!

5. Interesting that so many 24 seasons begin with “teenager boy in peril” storylines.

6. When the one Bad Guy who escaped from all the prisoners to meet up with Fayed, Fayed said to him something to the effect of, “What took you so long?” Bad Guy said something like, “I had to be careful getting across the city.” Reeeeaaaaalllly… you crossed the entire city of Los Angeles in 10 minutes flat??? AND changed out of your orange jump suit. Heh.

7. Love love love Sondra.

8. Wayne is a weenie.

9. Chloe! New hair colour and style. No ugly sweater that she will have to wear for the entire season. Please never kill Chloe.

10. Still missing Tony and Michelle. RIP.

11. Poor poor Jack. He needs a hug.

Teams Revealed.

Blah, blah, blah. Too many white dresses.

Patricia Arquette - always a fashion disaster. Case in point:

Another disaster, Nicolette Sheridan. No, no, no, no. Just no.
Not a disaster. But still another white dress. However, Jennifer Garner can do no wrong in my books.
Drew Barrymore. White, again. And very similar to another gown at the awards...

Kate Winslett. Gown look familiar???
Gah! a MULLET DRESS. At the Golden Globes. Brutal. (Cate Blanchett).
Cameron Diaz. Another white fashion disaster.
Hark! Some colour! Bless your heart, America Ferrera.
Yet another! white dress. But Ali Larter totally pulls it off. Stunning.

Somebody got a Bedazzler for Christmas!

Besides the blah fashion, the awards were blah too. I couldn't even count on Eddie Murphy for some laughs. Sad. At least Sacha Baron Cohen brought some humour to the night, albeit in the last few minutes.

Did you watch? What did you think?

It’s still freaking cold here. But the weatherman says it’s gonna warm up soon. Love that weatherman. (It’s probably totally NOT going to warm up, but that’s how they keep us sane up here – promise us warmer weather.)

Ry’s hockey team hosted a tournament this weekend. When I say “hockey team” I should say “hockey team parents” because we are the ones who do all the work. The kids just spend the day playing hockey and DS. Fun for them. For spending a week of evenings working on the program, spending three hours selling raffle tickets and spending unmentionable hours sitting in a FREEZING rink, I think my son must become a plastic surgeon when he grows up so he can fix me up for free. That is his penance.

The day actually was fine. They played some good hockey. And Ry and three of his team mates won the relay competition during the skills event. He won a one-on-one session with some hockey experts for that. And then he won “star of the game” for their last game. Yes, there were tears.

Yesterday, the boys began swimming lessons. We went to the U of R for this session because it was impossible for us to get into the City ones. Michelle has taken her kids to the U of R and highly recommended them. Their lessons went well – I think they are going to progress a lot. Avery’s class only has 3 kids! So lots of attention for each. Very cool.

Avery had a school friend over for five hours yesterday. They played very well. I didn’t know how it was going to go because I had never met that friend before. After he left, Avery said “I wish Tristian could have stayed longer.” Heh. I also heard him tell Tristian, on the way to our house, that we had the most “beautiful-ist house.” He was so into impressing this boy.

Any my beloved 24 began last night. Oh, how I missed you, Jack Bauer. And you will be even so much better once you find another “hoodie of doom” to wear!

I’ll leave you with the “song of the day” - Paralyzer by Finger Eleven. Thanks to my sister, for that new gem.

Clowngirl has posted her most awesome Sticky Toffee Pudding recipe. If you've ever gone to Zest, you know what I'm talking about!

Kim says it all in her post. Terrible terrible terrible weather. People are dying. Very sad.

Every year we get this weather, but every year I forget how bad it is. Stupid winter.

What's worse is that we can't just hunker down because the boys have hockey all weekend. And how's this for irony - they begin swimming lessons on Sunday.

I want to tell you all how we sold Rylan’s bedroom furniture because he outgrew it. And how it actually made me sad. And how he is now sleeping in a queen bed, which is too big for him…

I want to tell you how they are enjoying the Before and After School Program and how they played poker there yesterday… and how thrilled we are that someone is actually playing games with them so we.don’t.have.to.

I want to tell you how I ended up playing a game with them last night ANYWAYS because I am a sucker.

I want to tell you that Whoonu is actually a really fun game.

I want to tell you how we went shopping for new furniture for Ry’s room. And found some great stuff. That I would have actually loved for MY room. And was a great price. But then we found out it was “Final Sale” and got all turned off and decided to ditch that place (Ashley Furniture – seriously, “final sale” – what is THAT all about? I never buy ANYTHING on final sale, never mind something worth hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Brutal).

But mostly I want to tell you how much I loved see you “de-lurk” – that was so.much.fun. Hello to: Beth, clowngirl, graciefacemom, Jennie, Dixie, MOMKISS2U, minijonb, Jodi, Trace, Bon, Crazy Lady, H, Karen, Dawn, ali, Rebecca, Des and ChaCha (links can be found in the comments of this post).

And “hello” to my sister who emailed me to ask what “de-lurking” was (I guess I should have put in a definition – delurking: letting me know you read via a comment.)

Now, only one of my work people confessed to reading but I know there are so many more of you. Do I sit in meetings with you? Do I regurgitate everything I write on here? That must drive you crazy!

Nicked from ClownGirl. It’s amazing how many of her answers could have been my answers.

Available/Single? Unavailable for the past 13 years.

Best Friend? Yep. She lives in Florida.

Cake or Pie? Yes. I love mostly anything with sugar. Texas Sheet Cake and key lime pie are two of my favourites.

Drink Of Choice? Water (only distilled for this princess) lemon drop martinis, red wine – Australian

Essential Item You Use Everyday? toothbrush, face cream, make-up

Favourite Colour? RED. Any variation of red. Red red red.

Gummy Bears Or Worms? sour ones

Hometown? Born in Calgary, raised in Kamsack.

Where exactly? Central Eastern SK.

Indulgence? Paraffin waxing, scrapbooking, red wine

January Or February? February. It’s closer to summer.

Kids & Their Names? You know.

Life Is Incomplete Without? My life is incomplete without my kids, family and friends.

Number Of Siblings? 1 sista

Oranges Or Apples? Granny Smith Apples (sour!). Oranges – if they are sweet.

Phobias/Fears? Geese. Shut up.

Quote, Favorite? Living well is the best revenge.

Reason to Smile? Reading a good blog post. My fireplace. My boys.

Tag Three People? Just do it.

Unknown Fact About Me? I’m obsessed with my fear of getting cancer.

Vegetable you don’t like? Tomatoes. I know, I know, you think tomatoes are a fruit. But they are just nasty nasty vegetables to me.

Worst Habit? Not finishing what I started.

X-rays You’ve Had? Most recently: my arm when I fractured it and dislocated my elbow.

Your Favourite Food? Sticky Toffee Pudding. Anything Mexican. See Cake or Pie question…

Zodiac Sign? Taurus. The Bull. Can you say “stubborn?”

Ali reminded me that it is "National Delurking Week." Well, I am calling it "International Delurking Week" since that's what it really is. So you MUST delurk. Tell me who you are and how you found me (if you can remember). It's okay... really... it's okay. I know you read anyway... I just don't know all of your names.

... dipping our hands in hot wax. Good times.

The boys faired well their first day at the Before and After School program. Ry said, "They have tons of board games. Well, not as many as us, but lots and lots." We were so worried that they would accidently take the bus and end up at Grandma and Grandpas (they are in Mexico) but they remembered to go to the program.

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What Avery said about the Christmas holiday: "That was the BEST weekend ever!" hahahaha - it was a little longer than the average weekend - by about 14 days.

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Anyone watch How I Met Your Mother last night? That scene with Barney as Johnny from Dirty Dancing totally made me laugh out loud.

My husband, being unhappy with my mood swings, bought me a mood ring the other day so he would be able to monitor my moods. We've discovered that when I'm in a good mood, it turns green. When I'm in a bad mood, it leaves a big f***ing red mark on his forehead. Maybe next time he'll buy me a diamond.

The highway was a skating rink this morning. Cars in the ditch left and right. Took FOREVER. Then we had to drop the boys off for the first time and the Before and After School program since Mom and Dad are in Mexico. That was fine but took time to pay and stuff.

Saturday:

• Rylan had a hockey game at 10:30. They won - 4 to 2. We had our goalie back (she had been in Mexico) and she made a couple awesome awesome saves. At least one freakish glove save that was jaw-dropping.
• After that I booted it to Cheryl's to do some scrapbooking. I thought I was only missing Avery's hockey practice, but that turned out to be a game. He scored a couple goals. I'm so sad I missed it.
• Scrapbooking: I got 21 pages of New-York-o-licious-fun completed. And had lots of laughs in the process. Here is one picture that evoked many of the laughs:
  

Sunday: Avery had another hockey game. Of course, the one game I attended this weekend and he did not score a goal. The other team steam-rolled them.

Nickie's grandfather died right before Christmas. She's off to his funeral this weekend. Check out the obit. He is famous. This is him on his mural in Winnipeg:

Remember when the sitcom used to be everything? I grew up with The Cosby Show. And Roseanne*. Cheers will always have a warm place in my heart, if, for nothing else, Woody’s “KellyKellyKellyKellyKellyKelly” song. Then there were the “90s Sitcoms” like Friends and Seinfeld. It’s still mind-boggling to me how much those two shows in particular influenced our culture (Could it BE anymore obvious???). But then… it was the ascent of the procedural drama and reality television. Sure there was Sex and the City (thank gawd!)… and more recently Weeds and Entourage… but that was thanks to the liberties that comes with cable television… What we were left with for comedy on network television included crap like According to Jim (who the hell is watching this show?).

And then! And then! Some decent network sitcoms! It took me awhile to figure it out but The Office is one of the smartest, funniest shows EVER! And How I Met Your Mother is hilarious (Robin Sparkles! Slap Bets! The Grinch!). So for the first time in years and years I find network sitcoms making my “must see TV” list. Funny Back.

*One of my all-time-favourite TV show scenes is when Jackie is on the phone trying to tell their hard-of-hearing aunt that her father died.

Holidays are over. Which isn’t a terrible thing. I guess it would be terrible if I hated my job – but I don’t, so coming back to work is fine.

But now I find myself struggling to blog again – it’s much easier to stick a few pictures up and call it a post. Now I have to actually think…

I guess I’ll continue with random – because that’s the easiest way to get it all down – otherwise I think I would acquire an aneurysm trying to segue properly…

1. The best AND worst part of the holidays being over is un-decorating the house. It’s a pain in the ass to do it, but it also makes me feel so good about an un-cluttered house.

2. Today is my first day this year at the gym. I hate January at the gym. All those New Years resolutionists (yes, a totally made-up word). I wish I had my own treadmill like my mom. Having said that, I was actually pretty good about exercising during the holidays. There was that one day on my mom’s treadmill, and then several walks outside. There’s nothing like ski-pants to let you know that you need to lay off the Turtles – so tight around my ribs – I don’t think the zipper could have survived a sneeze. However, I’m pretty impressed that I am still wearing the same ski-pants that I owned in high school.

3. Avery played in his first hockey tournament over the holidays. Three games. He got 8 goals and 6 assists. And that was with Scott telling him to stop getting goals. BTW he still hates hockey practices.

4. I took the boys to the dermatologist on Tuesday. You see, Avery has had this weird skin thing for nearly a year now, and our family doctor became concerned when we noticed that the skin thing had been spread to Ry. Turns out they have a very common viral skin thing called Molluscum Contagiosum. It’s not serious and the treatment is “far worse” than the affliction. So we are choosing to just “ride it out”. Luckily the virus only lives in the body for about a year so Avery should be cleared up soon. And they won’t pass it onto anyone else as long as they aren’t sharing towels or anything (you can’t catch it from chlorinated pools.)

5. I’m ready to get back to good TV. Besides House Hunters, I haven’t really watched anything over the holidays. Well, we did watch two movies on Movie Central – The Family Stone (it was okay) and Rumor Has It (don’t waste your time). I tried to watch all the episodes of Friday Night Lights that I’ve missed – all the episodes are up on NBC.com – but I was denied! I’m assuming it’s because I have a Canadian IP address. Brutal. I keep hearing how great this show is, I can’t even watch it. Errr.

6. Lots of great comments on Avery's Videos. Thanks everyone. I deserve an Emmy for my camera work, no? Couple things - I had no idea what the "big finish" was going to be - he had never done that before. Perhaps he had found a few Michael Jackson videos in the archives? And Scott and Ry being totally non-chalant: well, that is totally normal - we mostly ignore Avery's antics in our house.

That is all.

One of my fondest holiday memories is of my sister and I waking up at the wee hours in the morning. But this wasn't on Christmas Day to see what Santa had brought us, no... it was to watch World Junior Hockey. We'd sometimes wake up at 3:00 am and crawl into bed with my mom to watch crucial games. We had a friend playing in the tournament - so that was extra incentive to watch. And who could forget this World Junior Hockey moment.

Well, the tradition continues - because now, as mother of boys, and one boy in particular who is hockey-crazy, we watch the World Juniors. Today was a semi-final game - sudden death to continue for the gold medal. And it came down to a shoot-out. Which Canada eventually won. It was a coronary-inducing-good-time. Ahhhh - just like the old days....

Canada won versus the U.S. So sorry to my U.S. friends. [It was sad to see those poor boys (yes, they are just boys) lose out on their dream. ] But you have to understand, hockey is to Canada what football is to the U.S. We are hockey. It's what we hang our hats on.

One final comment - love love love the TSN commercial about the World Juniors now available on broadband.

Avery busts a move and busts a gut. Make sure you watch for the "big finish" - a Mommy's proud moment.


Then we have Avery's reaction to watching his video.


Please please watch these because it took me a ridiculous amount of time to figure out how to post them (not because YouTube isn't totally user-friendly, but because my files were HUGE - and editing video files is new to me).

We had a great little party last night. Four families - with all boys! But I know boys so it was easy to keep them entertained.

Boys!

Things I've learned since last year (a few short hours ago):

1. Never believe Bonnie when she says she hates games because she sucks at them. And when she says she's never played poker before. Liar!

Bonnie, with the SpongeBob Holy Grail of Poker Hands (as written by Scott) - which I really don't think she needed at all to win all those chips:

2. Boys have stamina! Only a few of them starting falling asleep around 3:00 am.

3. Never wash dishes by hand at 3:30 am - you'll just have to re-do them in the morning.

4. Avery can definitely sleep into the afternoon - I had to wake him up at 1:00 pm to send him to Carter's birthday party!

This is Avery at exactly 1:00 pm today - NOT wanting to wake up:
5. Oprah's Lemon Drop Martinis are just. so. awesome. (Well, I guess I already knew that.)

6. If you drink enough water during the evening, you can completely avoid a hang-over the next day.

7. Carter and Ry have a freakish ability to dress alike.

8. Everyone must have had a good time because the party ended 8 1/2 hours after it began.

9. Holy Crap, it's 2007.