Monday

Looking at my pantry (trying to figure out what's for dinner) I realized that Mondays are grocery shopping days for us out of necessity. We've eaten all of last week's food, ate out on Saturday & now are in desperate need. I do think I can make some cheesy potato corn chowder. Mmmmmm...

Today was good though.
I figured out how to finish that layout (now it's completely done & I like it. Whew)
I played a bit of WoW & helped LV build a cool train track with his geo trax (It has 3 stories & covers the toy room floor. Coolness.)
And now I'm off to make soup & send Vern a list of groceries to pick up on his way home.

Happy Monday!

Last...

This one's easy enough. I'm tagging anyone who reads this, just please post & let me know so I can see your answers too!

The last thing you bought: Um, diapers yesterday. Exciting, I know.

The last crush you had: Um, besides Toby & Will? Well, I guess I still have a crush on Vern. lol. :)

The last restaurant you ate at: Um, does yesterdays big fruit & walnut salad count? If so, McD's.

The last movie you saw: Mr. Deeds.

The last time you cried: Yesterday.

The last song you sang out loud: You're Beautiful by James Blunt. Love it.

The last person you kissed: Elijah.

The last layout you scrapped (or any craft/creation):
This is for a friend's *Guilty Pleasures* CJ. But it's missing something so I don't know if it counts since I haven't declared it absolutely finito. Hmmmm... And I like it much better irl.


The last picture you took: See above. And it's crappy icky light in here tonight that I'm too tired to fix so BW it went. Besides, that leaves a little bit of a surprise if she sees this. :-P

The last thing you ate: An omelette that Brandon made me for dinner. Yum.

The last person you spoke with on the phone: Vern.

The last thing you want to do before today is over: Brush my teeth.

Silly Babes & Spoons

Oh my goodness, I finally thought to take some pictures of the cute face Elijah makes when we feed him. He bites his spoon so that it tilts up & squishes his little nose. Every bite. Even when he plays with his spoon after eating, he'll hold it in his mouth & jabber away. Of course, when I decided to grab my camera he was more interested in the buttons than he was in his spoon or eating, but I think I we sort of got some pics of the face we love.

Elijah & the spoon...

I think this little guy is going to rival his big brothers in the silly department. lol That's a face that'd make Uncle Brian proud. :)

Today

Today Little Vern showed me his secret money stash (37 pennies) and told me he wanted to take me on a date to McDonalds. I'm hoping Vern will help us out when I tell him about it tonight so I can take him up on it at lunchtime tomorrow.

Today was a PJ day. Including my pink fuzzy slippers that kept my feet warm.

Today I thought of Vivian and that Chinese restaurant her & I used to go to on Finch Ave. in TO that had those amazing rice noodles with beef. I'd give anything for a lunch out with Vivian, and even more if we could have those noodles. Mmmmmmm...

Today I'm making lasagna for dinner. And garlic bread. Yum.

Today Brandon came home from school and started working on his chores right away, without being asked.

Today this baby smiled at me and fell asleep all snuggled in my arms.

I swear, I'm the luckiest mommy in the world.

Today I feel a little better than I did yesterday.

I'd say today was a good sort of day.

A nap, a grape float & lentil soup.

A nap, followed by my yummy lunch has me in a better mood. Physically I feel about the same, but a better frame of mind will do a person wonders.

Besides, Brandon & kirsten will be home from school soon and Vern said he'd bring home some ginger ale and cough drops. Now all I need is a new book (ooooh, I have one in mind & should call Vern) and a bubble bath.

The day is looking up indeed. :)

Dang It. Dagnabbit. Darn.

So I was up all last night. I was trying to sleep, but couldn't. Why you ask? because my throat hurt soooooo dang much. Can you believe it? I had just barely declared myself un-sick. Looks like I did so just in time to be sick again. Unbelievable.

So, I chugged some Nyquil (don't have the daytime version) and am waiting for Elijah to be ready for his nap so we can sleep & try to get better together. At least I hope I can sleep - it still hurts.

I think I'm ready for Spring now. Bring on the Easter chocolate and flowy flowered dresses. Anything but the cold & the sickies.

Some days...

Some days adulthood really just feels like high school all over again.

Some days my smiles come from the most unexpected sources.

Some days I see more of myself in my kids then I care to admit.

Some days I will admit that I have the energy & time to do it, but just don't want to.

Some days I have my priorities right.

Some days are good days because we decided they would be.

This is one of those days.

Random (late-night) Schtuff

Okay, so I saw a blog thing where you're supposed to have your music player play a random list of your mp3s to see what it says about you. My problem is that both Vern & I have varied taste in music, so it could really pull just about anything up. And we have hundreds, maybe thousands of mp3s. For what it's worth, here's what played. And I listened to every song. :)

Doesn’t Remind Me ~Audioslave
Something’s Broken ~Tim McGraw
Say It Ain’t So ~Weezer
Angel ~Aerosmith
Lonely ~Akon
How Do You Like Me Now? ~Toby Keith
I Am~ Bon Jovi
Superman ~Five for Fighting
Bad Day ~Fuel
Wonderful World ~Louis Armstrong
Linger ~Cranberries
Stairway to Heaven ~Led Zeppelin
Homeward Bound ~Paul Simon
Butterfly Kisses ~Collin Raye
Fallen ~Sarah McLaughlan
This Love ~Maroon Five
Good Riddance(Time of Your Life) ~Green Day
Grow Old With You ~Adam Sandler
Why Can't I be You ~The Cure
Walking in Memphis ~Marc Cohn
Breathe ~Faith Hill
Eleanor ~Low Millions
Swing Swing ~All American Rejects
Everybody Loves Me ~Don McLean
Girlfriend in a Coma ~the Smiths

So, well, yeah. Not sure what to make of the playlist. A bit of this a bit of that? Um, yeah.

lol Not sure what to make of this either. So what kind are you?

You Are Phish Food Ice Cream

You've been described as gooey and fudgey. Sorry.

What Flavor Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Are You?

New Dress

So, Kirsten wore a new dress to school the other day. A beautiful Grandma Nadine find. She looked so pretty that after school I asked if I could take her picture.
I took a couple. Here's my fave...

So where's the dress? Ha! I got distracted by her pretty face and took my usual close-ups. She'll wear the dress again.

Oh, and a question...
Brandon prefers this toned version & I think I like the straight BW one above. Any preferences?

Baby teeth & the baby snowman

So I've been trying to get a shot of Elijah's little chompers for weeks. Finally this morning I thought to grab the camera as he chatted away in the bouncer by my desk.
With the four that came in on top, those things are lethal. Oh, and you can see that he's still goopy, and this was not an entirely happy story he was telling me.

There was enough snow in the yard yesterday for Kirsten & LV to make a baby snowman. Enough has fallen since to make the guy some parents. I 'm sure when Kirsten gets home from school they'll head right out there.

I'm so smart.

Elijah has had a stuffy little nose for days.
My reaction? Kiss him, hug him, squish him, love him.

The result?
Yep, I'm sick too now.
Smart me.

His kisses are worth it though. :)

Weirdness...

Tagged again. This time by Julie. :) So, um, how weird am I? I know I can come up with 5 things like I'm supposed to. Lets see...

First...
Ooooh, I have one. :) I like jalepeno chips and chocolate. Together. Chocolate is the best heat-cooling chaser. And the hotter the chips, the better. Oh, and a Pepsi is always a handy thing to have close by.

Second...
I have to sleep at the edge of the bed. If I can't hang half a leg over the side I'm not not going to fall asleep.

Third...
Speaking of sleep, I have an odd attachment to my pillow. I've had the same down pillow for as long as I can remember. (I'm 33, that's a long time.) I have a hard time falling asleep without it. We've tried to replace it, but a new pillow is just too full. I'm thinking it'd take a good 20 years to break one in enough to finally replace it. Of course, my kids all love my pillow too, and when I even talk about replacing it they start arguing over who gets it.

Fourth...
I'm obsessive about cupboard doors & such being closed. Drives me nutso when my kids leave them hanging open. (Prabably stems from my tendancy to bonk my head on said doors.)

Fifth...
Uh-oh, it's getting late & I'm starting to blank here. Um, I actually like listerine? I shred my Thanksgiving turkey to make sandwiches? I'd rather throw out a dish with leftovers-turned science project than have to clean it? I like black licorice better than red?
Something there has gotta pass for a fifth.

And I'm going to pick on Robin again, because I'm trying to get that big sis of mine to blog more. And I know she's weird. :) (mostly kidding...)

Great...

Little Vern has learned to make the fart noise with his armpit. Now my silly, energetic, half-naked four year old is making fun noises all day long to boot.
Nice.

Good thing he's so cute.

Tagged

I've been tagged by my sweet friends Erica , Helena and Kristi.
Here are my answers:

4 jobs I've had in my life:

Animal handler at a vet clinic

A Library technician at the North York Board of Education

Cashier/takeout at Swiss Chalet

Cashier/customer service at a dry cleaners & at a hallmark store

4 movies I'd watch over and over:

The Princess Bride

The Fifth Element

Notting Hill

Ocean's Eleven

Knight's Tale

okay, so that was 5.

4 places I've lived:

North York, Ont. Canada

Toronto, Ont. Canada

Riverton, UT

West Valley, UT

4 tv shows I love to watch:

I don't watch tv much anymore, but do often catch
Everybody Loves Raymond while at my computer at night.
If I still had cable I'd still be watching 30 minute meals (Love Rachael Ray) and various home-type shows on TLC. (Clean Sweep, While You were Out etc.)

4 places I've been on vacation:

Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

Raleigh, North Carolina

Niagra Falls (a lot as a kid)

San Francisco, CA

4 websites I visit daily:

Um, here?

Squirrely boards

friends blogs

blanking for a fourth

4 favorite foods:

Pepsi!

Fresh, warm bread

Perogies

Almost anything involving melted cheese

4 places I'd rather be right now:

Visiting family in Toronto

Visiting Viv & Wil in NC

Visiting Julie & Kyle in TX

At a SGU anywhere

4 Bloggers I'm tagging:
This has been going around enough that I don't know who I know that hasn't done it yet. So, if you are a squirrely sort of girl who hasn't been tagged yet, consider yourself tagged! And my big sis Robin. I'd like to see her answers. :)

My other world

...looks something like this:




Pretty little glimpse, huh? I could share a million screenshots, but you get the idea.

When I'm not playing with my kids (or any other sahm type activity) working on photos or taking care of whatever responsibilties come my way, I'm probably playing WoW. (World of Warcraft.) It's been other online games at different times, but mostly this one.

Me? A video game? Yep. A mmorpg to be exact.
So much fun. With the right people.

When Vern bought himself this game over a year ago I hated it at first. The fact that he'd be teamed up with other players online & couldn't just stop playing when I needed him for something bugged me. And he played it every chance he got. I didn't like it one bit.

That changed.

I wasn't there when he met Kyle & Julie in-game, but when the 3 of them started playing together it became fun to watch. While running around questing they had some good fun. The banter between them made me want to play. I am so not a gamer, never had been - but they made me want to try. I'm so glad that I did. Who knew how much fun it would be? I mean, come on - we get to kill bad guys and loot 'em for treasure (twill vest ftw! lol)
We play well together. We've faced difficult challenges & have accomplished some cool things. (We've 4 manned just about every 5 man instance.) And have I mentioned that we have fun? :)

After more than a year of us playing together almost every day we've become good friends. I look forward to logging into whatever game we're playing (like I said, there have been others - the following is my favorite shot of us, and is actually a Guild Wars screenshot) and talking to them over teamspeak.

I've never met them in person. I have no idea what they look like. We've played so many characters together that my brain no longer tries to tell me that they look like their toons. I can say that they are awesome people who make me laugh on a regular basis.

I've met many of my friends online (hello squirrels!) and talk to most of them in some form almost daily. I love that Vern & I share our experiences & friendship with Julie & Kyle though. It's *us* time for Vern & I too. The third and fourth shots up there are of the two of us (well, of our characters) playing together. I so like having another thing in common with him. (Kids, photography & mmorpgs. Woohoo! We're finding things.)

Anyhow, I thought I'd share a glimpse.
Fun game. Great friends. Something I share with Vern.
My other world.
Love it.

Boo Update

My Boo, also known as CuteStuff & sometimes known as Elijah is almost 10 months old. I can't believe I haven't posted a pic of him since Christmas. I've been slacking.

He now has 6 cute little teeth but still doesn't have much hair. He loves Kix, naps & giving kisses. He's been practicing his balance by letting go of the couch but hasn't taken any steps un-aided yet. He's got better balance than he seems to realize, and one of these days is just going to let go & start walking. Should make for a fun Spring & Summer.

Good news - his hand is getting better. If you don't like seeing owies close your eyes, but honestly this is a pic of the most attractive stage of healing. It looks much less owie here than it did some days, believe me.
And now when I use the hose attachment on the vaccuum & tilt the base up I double check for little hands underneath before putting it back down. He'll have scars. As those scabs have been falling off we've seen how deep this was. Poor baby.

Oh man, how I love Elijah. He's such a sweetie.

As is our custom, he's asleep on my lap as I type this.
Lucky me, I have my Pepsi, my Boo & a free moment to blog.

Monday

Back to school, un-Christmas-ing our home, fun long distance phone calls, some sickies & some sleeping in. Those are the sorts of things taking up my time as it flies speedily by.

The thoughts & goings on of today in particular are something like this...

Elijah's hand is doing better.

Little Vern is watching Hidalgo.

Vern is home from work (but working from home) with flu symptoms. I like having him here. Hopefully he'll get feeling better though.

Elijah's top four front teeth are through. All at once. Fun. With the bottom two he already had that's a lethal little chomp he has there.

We need groceries, and Vern & Brandon need haircuts. I do too, but am not sure what to do with mine yet.

I wonder if Hires for lunch is a possibilty. Had some last week. Need some again soon. Love their burgers. And fry sauce.

Um yeah. Exciting day, huh? I should be folding laundry, but enjoy sitting here with Elijah on my lap. A quiet Monday sounds just about perfect to me.

The worst mom award.

Yep. It goes to me today. I was vaccuming the front room knowing perfectly well that Elijah was crawling around, but obviously not paying enough attention to exactly where he was.
The vaccuum ate his hand.
He somehow got his little hand under the vaccuum and the spinning brushes got him. I'm not sure whether to call it a scrape or a burn, maybe a little of both. It looks owie.
He seems to have forgiven me. A good thing.

Oh, and tonight is parent night at the school. I'm not a huge fan of these. I know that I signed a form at the beginning of the year saying I'd attend the monthly parent meetings, but I really don't want to go. I'm hoping Vern will go alone. Or that we can both get out of it. Or something.

Hopefully I can redeem myself as a good mommy before the day is out. I can cheat and make cookies or something. Then maybe nobody will notice my injured baby & my absence at parent night. You think maybe it'll work? Probably not. But I'm going to make some anyway.

2006

This is going to be a good year. I can feel it. Maybe not an easy one. Certainly not a perfect one. But good. The next 365 days may hold their fair share of trials and hardships, but there will also be an abundance of blessings & joyous occasions. I'm looking forward to all of it. Especially the moments with my family. I plan to make the most of the next 365 days with them.
I wish my friends & anyone reading a safe evening of celebration & a fabulous year ahead.