Out of the groove

I've been in a bit of a funk lately. It's hard for me to post when I'm in a funk because I don't particularly like sharing my blahs. And even though the past month has contained many fabulous things, writing about them would doubtless be coloured by my mood.

However, the good weather is coming and while things aren't exactly settling down at work they are, at least momentarily, stable.

More updates coming soon but for now I'll leave with a picture from our annual girls' getaway in New Hampshire April 2-5.

Easter

Spent Easter at my parents' place, they always put on a grand spread and this was no exception, more food than 13 armies could eat, and more than 150 candy-filled plastic eggs for the kids (and my sister-in-law) to search for in the yard. A lovely weekend.

Today

It's been one year. One year ago today my dearest friend departed this mortal earth for places unknown.

In many ways it feels like it's been a very long year, but I feel like it was just yesterday we were chatting on the phone. Truth is I haven't stopped talking to her. Nearly every day there is something I want to tell her about, or ask for her advice, except now it's mostly in my head. I can hear her responses though, as clear as if she was across from me in the kitchen, or on the other end of the phone line, her laughter, her silliness, her sage advice (usually to 'smarten up') when I need a kick in the @$$.

Miss you...

Excuses

You know that feeling, when you try on a pair of pants, look at yourself in the mirror and think 'these pants make me look really fat'. I'm realizing (as this happens more and more frequently) that it's not the pants that are making me look fat.

I come from a slender family, my dad can (and does) eat anything, exercises never, and is skinny as a beanpole, my mom too is slender without any effort. I too was slender right up until my late 20s, at which point a switch to a sedentary desk job, two pregnancies fairly close together, and a baby who NEVER.SLEPT.EVER (with accompanying coffee addiction and exercise aversion) started the upward climb in my pants size.

The reality is I've been hiding behind these excuses for years now, while bit by bit the scales inch higher. I'll drop weight when Jonah starts sleeping, when we have more time to cook healthier fare, when I buy a treadmill, when I buy proper running shoes, when we move to a better neighbourhood, when I have more energy, when I'm not so busy, when the weather is better. So many excuses, and still the needle climbs.

I need to stop making excuses. I'm not certain where to start, it seems so overwhelming now, but I can't keep going this way. My kids don't need a mom who can't keep up with them, or who is dead before they hit highschool.

I'd like my hour back please.

I'm not a morning person.

Winter tends to be tough for me because it's dark when I get up in the morning (dark when I shower, brush my teeth, drink my tea, still dark when I leave for work). Just when the mornings were starting to brighten up... damned early daylight savings time again. It wasn't such a huge problem when it started in April, but now... just when mother nature was giving us a glorious taste of morning sunshine the powers that be who feel an inescapable urge to tinker with things push back the clock so that my morning routine and commute are, again, in the dark.

Forget that the sun goes down later, that it's bright now when I'm having dinner, I'm normally quite chipper in the evenings sun or not. It's the morning sunshine I need!

I have been ridiculously cranky this week. I know, there's probably more to it than just my stolen hour of sleep and my precious morning sunshine, the rain and cold don't help either, but DST is certainly a worthy target for my ire.

At least there are lovely sunsets over the lake.... oh, except this 'lake' is a farmer's field. Love that Spring flooding :)

The sleepover

This year for her birthday Katie wanted to have a couple of friends sleep over at our house. She's had friends sleep over before (1 at a time) so I didn't see any harm in it. Well holy cow, 4 friends (5 little girls in total, plus token J-man) is waaaaay different than 1 at a time. The noise level, the dramas, the cat fights, and that was all before dinner! We had 'make your own pizza' for dinner (flour flying everywhere, piles of cheese several inches high), and decorate your own cupcake for dessert (much more subdued than the cheese, but we lit and blew out the candles so many times they were nothing but stumps).

She had a blast, but the last of them didn't fall asleep until after 11:00pm and they were ALL up before 7:00 this morning. I don't think we'll be repeating this any time soon, not until she and her friends are a LOT older.

One last skate

The Rideau Canal Skateway officially closes tonight for the season (in about 15 minutes actually). Weatherman is calling for warm temperatures and rain, so it was inevitable. It was a pretty good stretch this year.

We couldn't resist one last skate (and, of course, a Beavertail.) Goodbye for another year skateway...

(and yes, I'm wearing Katie's hat. We forgot to bring along her thin hat for under her helmet, so she's wearing mine and I'm wearing hers. Might need to get me one of those actually, it's pretty cute on me ;) )

Griping about nothing

The daycare is taking the kids tubing on March Break (Jonah's age group Tuesday, Katie's Thursday), yay, that's fun. They say your kid MUST have a helmet to go along, OK, I like the idea of helmets if I'm not going to be there to supervise my own kids (and besides, we already have helmets) but then it says if your kid doesn't have a helmet not only can they not come on the trip but they can't come to the daycare at all that day.

Excuse me?

We pay to send our kids here and you'd deny someone (keeping in mind only half of the group is going each day so there'll still be kids and teachers at the centre) childcare that day because they can't afford to spend $100 on a snowboard helmet the kid would wear once??? (Again, we already have helmets, but there are a lot of kids in the centre who are there on subsidy whose parents are new to the country and likely couldn't afford a helmet, plus good luck FINDING a helmet in March, snowboarding/skating season is over dude). Did they also include any suggestions for rentals - heck no. I'm cheesed, not because I don't believe in helmets (I do) or because I don't have helmets (I do) but because that is so unfair to say pony up the cash or keep your kids at home. Grrrrrrr.

Sign sign

I seldom drive when C is in the car, I'm much happier to be a passenger. However I'm also one of those people who gets carsick if I try to read or craft in the car, so I spend a LOT of time looking out the window. Which is where I saw this funny window cling. In case your French is as poor as mine it reads "Warning: this car is like another man's wife, look, admire but don't touch". Hehehe, struck me as funny (though it was on a Hyundai, not exactly the kind of trophy wife I'd expect to garner a lot of attention anyway. Now if it was a Porche.... however no one in their right mind would put a sticker on a Porche)

Birthday Princess

I can't believe she's 8, I swear she was just born yesterday. She's just so grown up, she asked for (and got) an MP3 player for her birthday, and now it's loaded up with Jonas Brothers songs. She has tastes and preferences not just different than mine but for things I don't even know about. She's growing and changing so fast, becoming so independent. It's exciting, exhilarating and terrifying.

"Winter Carnival"

Today there was a little winter carnival in the bump on a donkey trail village we call home. It was actually pretty lame (a village so close to Ottawa, home of the world's best winter carnival, just can't hope to measure up) but we had fun anyway roasting hot dogs over the fire, throwing rubber chickens at hula hoops (I kid you not) and finishing with a spaghetti dinner.

Whimsy

Part of why I love this town - you never know what you're going to find. This is one of the many (many, many) statues around Parliament Hill. Why is he carrying a red balloon? Nooooo idea, but doesn't he make you smile?

(PS - the statue is of Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville)

Sledding

Sometimes it's the simplest of activities that create the fondest memories.

Plague

A week where every one of us got sick, but each in a different way. Tummy bug, upper respiratory bug, fever, exhaustion, we're tired of being sick and sick of being tired.

Obama Day in the Capital

Mr Obama, possibly the most popular American president of my time, descended on Ottawa today for perhaps the shortest state visit ever. I work 1 block from Parliament Hill (you can see both Parliament and my office building in this picture) and today's visit was sooooooo much different than when Dubya came by 4 years ago (that visit was horrid, tens of thousands of protesters, traffic nightmare!) Today was so much calmer, perhaps 1,000 people on the hill clamouring for a peek, however slight, of the new president. I heard the helicopters (I'm still not sure exactly what they were doing - following the motorcade? We don't do stuff like that for our elected leaders...) but could see neither the motorcade nor the president.


The picture shows the RCMP closing off Metcalfe St at Queen, part of the safety perimeter for Mr Obama.

Winterlude 2009

My dad comes up every year for Winterlude. I look forward to these visits immensely, I'm not a huge winter outdoor person myself, but skating on the canal with my dad is always fun (and I get on the blades a handful of times before he comes if I can because he's a WAY better skater than I am and I like to at least try to keep up!). This year all 3 kids skated with us, and the little ones did AMAZING, keeping up (and keeping UP) very well, and skating about 8km in total. Definitely a tradition I hope we continue for many more years to come.

Happy Birthday

My honey's birthday. A simple evening at home, with cake.

Handmade rules!

Katie decided she wanted to hand make all 24 valentines for her Brownie troop (that's my girl!) We lifted a cute design, simplified it a bit and assembly lined 24 of these cuties in an evening. Pretty proud of my girl!

Speed demons

I'm amazed by how quickly the bits have picked up skating. This is really Jonah's first year on skates (he had bobskates before, but those don't count) and only Katie's second, she didn't skate much last year, and this is only her 3rd time on the blades this year, but both are whizzing around the little rink at our community centre like speed demons!

C got them hockey sticks too, perhaps I have a little Alex Ovechkin and Hayley Wickenheiser in the making?

Winterlude set-up

Winterlude officially starts tonight, but it was such a gorgeous day a couple of coworkers and I went down to the canal at lunch, skated (the ice was wonderful) and checked out the ice sculpture preparations. A few more hours and they'll be perfect...

A new direction

I give up on the photo a day concept, it was getting tired, it was stressing me out and it was starting to feel like a job. So I give myself permission to quit.

I'll still blog, heaven knows I've blogged in one form or another for more than 5 years, I can't imagine stopping completely. But I'll blog about whatever strikes me, whenever I feel like it. No commitments, no pressure.

Stash building

Fabric is just as much fun to buy and hoard as scrapbooking paper :)

Sweet sister

Katie decided to make little J breakfast in bed. She's such a sweet little thing. He enjoyed it too.

Visiting

A wonderful dinner and a lovely evening visiting.

Still life with cranberry juice and antibiotics

My life today (and for the next 10 days)

And then there was snow

As if the never ending transit strike wasn't bad enough, today we got 20+cm of snow dumped on us too. Made for an, uhm, interesting drive home...

Waiting...

Spending a lot of time these days waiting in the van... waiting for C to cross the bridge, waiting for traffic, waiting for the kids, waiting, waiting, waiting.

My new watch

It's really heavy, but it's gorgeous. I finally had a jeweller make the wrist band smaller so I can wear it.