How can I be it again??

~3 Names you answer to

Blondie
Auntie M
Mom

~3 Parts of your heritage

German
Canadian
??


~3 Things that scare me
(just 3???)

Phone calls that start with “are you sitting down”
Needing my epi-pen
Falling when I skate

~3 Of your everyday essentials

Contact Lenses
Hugs from my kids
Chocolate

~3 Things you are wearing right now

My amethyst pendant
Turtleneck
Hush Puppies (they are so comfy)

~3 Of your favourite songs

All these things that I have done (Killers)
Paradise by the Dashboard Light (Meatloaf)
Halleluiah Chorus (Handel)

~3 Things you want in a relationship (other than real love)

Laughter
Truth
Companionship

~2 Truths and 1 Lie (In any order)

I love my job
I love my family
I hate peanut butter

~3 Things about the opposite sex that appeal to you

Someone who keeps themselves healthy (fit)
When they make me laugh
A good conversationalist


~3 Of your favorite hobbies

Running/Skating
Playing board games (Ramoli anyone)
Cooking (not the cleaning up part though)

~3 Places you want to go

Anywhere hot
Europe
Australia

~3 Things you want to do before you die

Watch my grandchildren get married
Run a marathon (all 26 miles!)
Travel

~3 Ways that you are stereotypically a female/male

Love to dress up and feel “pretty”
Obsess about weight/food issues
Cry at every wedding…

I've been tagged

Alright breaking my cardinal "no chain letter rule" just 4 Huma... this post is the comment to his blog - anyone else want to play?????

4 jobs I've had
1. data entry in a hospital
2. assistant at a chiropractor
3. assistant for an accountant
4. assistant at a chamber of commerce

Mom did always insist that typing would stand me in good stead - becuase you never know where you'll end up.

4 movies I could watch over & over
1. Top Gun (before TC went bad)
2. Tarzan (yes the cartoon, love trash'n the camp)
3. Annie (do you have to ask?)
4. Moulan Rouge/Chicago - oh the passion...

4 places I've lived
1. Gretna, Manitoba
2. Altona, Manitoba
3. Winnipeg, MB
Is there a theme here? Moving gradually north...
4. Richmond, BC

4 places I've vacationed
1. "The Lake"
2. Disney World (what a honeymoon!! - big kid at heart)
3. Reno
4. Banff

My favorite dishes
1. Steak!
2. Nachos
3. #170 at my favourite Chinese restaurant!!!
4. Greek Salad

Non blogging sites I visit
1. CNN
2. People.Com
3. The Sun (Newspaper)
4. Weather...

Places I'd like to visit
1. Atlanta
2. Europe
3. Canadian East coast
4. anywhere hot!

Now, I'll gut (or make that cut) and paste this to my blog, although I'm sure there is a more efficient way of linking - but alas (though I am excellent at what "I" have to do on a computer) I have not discovered the finer things in blogging just yet.

The Story of Zoe

Do you know who Zoe is? Do you know who Elmo is? When was the last time you watched Sesame Street??? Zoe is the female equivalent to Elmo - the little red dude on Sesame Street. (As background - my youngest ("Y") sucked her thumb almost from the get go. Usually the left one. She also had a huge silk fetish. I would leave my closet door open only to find Y sitting in it, thumb in mouth, one of my silk shirts in hand rubbing it between the thumb & fingers of her other hand. I couldn't even walk through a lingere department without finding her hiding in the racks fondling the silk pj's!!!)

When Y was 11 months old it was Christmas time. In her stocking was a soft, orange Zoe doll with little silk ribbons in her hair. This doll quickly became the sleeping toy of choice. It was everything she needed: a stuffy, cute and had silk. To suplement the silk she had also taken to carrying around one of hubby's silk "poofs" you remember the things a guy stuck in suit pocket. Hubby had a turqoise one, purple and red I think (swears he never actually bought them). These all found their way to Y's room. Soon Zoe and silk were inspearable. At daycare one of the older kids tied the "silk" around Zoe's neck and "Super Zoe" was born. Great thing, silks no longer went missing... All the kids at daycare knew just how special Zoe was to Y. If Zoe went missing, the entire place went into lockdown till Zoe was found.

By the time Y had reached her 2nd birthday Zoe was starting to look pretty worn. A replacement was found, but it was a little bigger, had stiffer legs and just wasn't the same. Hubby put Y down for her nap on the day of her 2 year old birthday party. Gave her "new" Zoe and told her old Zoe would just sit on the shelf now, kissed her and closed the door. All was quiet for a few moments and then suddenly the pitter patter of little feet - Y's door flew open and new Zoe landed in the hallway. Door closed again and pitter patter went the feet back to bed. Needless to say new Zoe went on the shelf and old Zoe hung around for another 11 months.

Just by shear luck I happened upon another Zoe exactly the same as the original in the mall one day. I managed to sneak it past the watching eyes of the kids, with the clerk as an accomplice. On Christmas Y was very excited and said old Zoe could go on the shelf with what was now known as "big" Zoe.

All this time Y was still sucking her thumb. As she appraoched her 3rd birthday hubby would talk to her about "no more thumb" once she was 3. They talked about it almost every night for about 2 months. Her 3rd birthday came and went, every night she would go downstairs to say good night to daddy and ask if she could still suck her thumb. Every night he said yes. One day, he said no. Resolutley she came to me and told me - no thumb tonight. So I tucked her and Zoe in. Looked into those big doe eyes and wished her luck. I wasn't sure what she would do. But - when I went to check on her about an hour later I found she had worked it out for herself. Picture this: Y on the bed, Zoe - discarded on the floor. Y is on her stomach facing toward the right, left hand with offending thumb is pushed to the left no where near her mouth. She went cold turkey - no more thumb sucking... what a kid. All three Zoe's stayed on the shelf for a long time, till the association between thumb sucking, silk rubbing and Zoe hugging were just a distant memory.

Y is now 11, still sleeps with a stuffy, though she picks her own now, the old ones graduate to the shelf.

A Gift...

I received a gift in the mail on Thursday. It made me shed a few... My western friend sent me a CD. She is a runner, I like to run too. The CD she sent has all the songs on it that motivate her. They are some of her favorites and I enjoyed them immensely yesterday as I got on my treadmill. When I got to the last one, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" I had to shed a few again. The warning label on the CD said I might think of her, but I didn't realize how over powering the feeling would be. I miss my friend.

Ask Questions Later

I learnt something very important the other night. At least I really appreciate this point of view. My girlfriend and I were talking about the dangers of being a teenager with drinking, drugs etc. The one thing she made abundantly clear was "ask questions later". No matter how many times, or what time of day or night one of her sons phones to say come get me, or my friend - her or her husband drop everything and go. They even choose who will stay dry on Friday/Saturday "in case" one of their sons needs them. They live outside of town and have done the 2 in the morning trip to the city, or a nearby town. No matter what they "ask questions later". A drunk or high teenager will never be able to give coherent answers as to why they are in this predicament, they will not be able to make rational choices and any fear they have of their parents reaction could cause them to make worse choices. If you tell your child to "GET HOME RIGHT NOW" when they phone you in trouble - what have you said? Maybe they'll get in a vehicle with someone just slightly less drunk then they. What then? Maybe they'll hitch a ride, or drive themselves. Ask questions later, just go. You might save their life, their friends and the innocent kid down the street.

I have never thought of that. There is plenty of time to discipline in the morning or whenever - at least you'll have the chance. I like to hope I won't be faced with picking them up drunk in the wee hours (or anytime for that matter). They'll be smarter than that right? Who knows, but I plan on remembering to ask questions later.

Girlfriends!

I went out with one of my girl friends last night. What a blast! We met right after work, had supper at Moxie's and then shopped the mall a bit. I haven't laughed that hard in SO long. We had the waiter going, the host that brought our food and the waitress that was just walking by. How fun is that!

I must say that I have about 4 or 5 really good girl friends. The kind that you can pick up a conversation with where you left off last time with no pauses, or the kind you can phone at a moments notice and just YACK. I love those times. The friends I have are each special. They each bring something unique into my life that cannot be replaced. I like to think that I am honest to a fault with each of them. They will always tell me like it is and give me view points that no one else has the right to even mention. I like to think that I do the same for them.

To my girl friends near, far and as yet undiscovered - I thank you.

Its got a Hemi

Was checking my favourite blogs this am. Noticed not many have been updated - then oh wait, mine isn't either LOL. My van was in the shop yesterday. Its at a new service shop cause I'm sick of the old one never finding anything wrong, so took it to the new one and they are replacing the steering pump and the steering rack, whatever that is. Together these two repairs should get rid of the incessent whine i've been hearing for months (yeah its just me in the vehicle, so I know its the van LOL). Dealership called me at 3 to say I couldn't have it back today - I paused and said, no, sorry, that won't work. I live in the boonies, can't even get there by city transit, so, no... well they rented me a car - wow, ok, they're forgiven. Get to the rental place and they are running short, would I mind driving a truck? What the heck, so I get the full size Dodge Ram 4door, 4wheel drive AND... you guessed it, its got a hemi. Question: how do you make hubby go grocery shopping? Answer: bring him a hemi.

I made it into my parkade. Lets hope I make out!

Couple of Things

First off, thanks for the comments!! As it was I waited for Friday to have the glass of vino. And then I had a few. Ended up late to hubby's wine & cheese party at the new shop. What a great place. Amazing show room! You have to check it out! Was late for work related reasons and stress from the day finally bled off. AND, one of my worst fears reared its ugly head on Friday. (BTW, you are getting a few days worth of stuff here). Y came home from school on Friday and there was a truck (with guys in it) sitting in front of the house. It left when it saw her, but jeez, anticipatory disorder was in full gear. Next time she sees a vehicle in front of the house she's to go back to the neighbors and have them walk (or at least watch) her home. Great thing the house alarm is if she can't make it there... **sigh**. At least I can say nothing happened and we have a plan if it happens again. So, vino Friday night was quite medicinal. Had a nice time at the party!! Lots of good people to talk to and no pressures, gotta like it.

Saturday I twisted my back. Trying to save one of those freeking kittens. Hubby was about to step down off the mud room shelf with his snowmobile boots on and suddenly kitten was there. I reached twisted and pushed him in the right direction. Good thing, kitten escaped and I went OUCH. Its not bad, I can walk, move and generally am fine, except for sleep without drugs. Hurts right between the shoulder blades. So, I will take Tylenol and advil, it will feel better and then I will twist, stretch and crack it until its better. I plan on finding a new chiro. I can't keep driving across town when this happens, there's one five minutes away and she will hear from me tomorrow!! We're going for supper to mom & dad's today I guess the only nephew I will p/u is the littlest one, that makes me sad.

I'm in a good mood today, don't get me wrong. You'd think I'm a whining little thing lately. But lucky you, you just get to hear the honest thoughts in my head that don't usually get shared out loud. The ones I find very therapeutic when I put them down. So thank you for being here.

Jan 18, can I have a do over? This day wasn’t my favorite…

I set my alarm for 5:08. Normally I’d be on my treadmill by 5:25 or so and able to get in a good 30/40 minutes before starting the rest of my day. That would have been ideal. As it was I woke up at 5:08, remembered I had to pee in a little bottle to take for my physical at 9:45.

That worked out alright, didn’t make a mess and went to get my running gear. Then I remembered – oh yeah, physical – Dr. also didn’t want me to have anything to eat or drink – not even water, so I caved and went back to bed. I cannot run indoors and not drink at least one bottle of water, or even walk and not drink – just too dry in the house.

E knocks on the door right before the 2nd time my alarm was to go off. I thought she was (as she usually she does) checking to see if the house alarm was deactivated, it usually is by the time she goes down stairs. I told her to deactivate and let me sleep a few more minutes. “But, ummm, mom” Yah? Says I. “well, ummm, mom, Maple (4 month old kitten) jumped in the toilet before I could close it” GROAN “and then she jumped all over the bathroom and back into my room”. So I drag myself out of bed to play catch a kitty. Maple needed a bath. Have you ever given a kitten a bath? Me neither. I locked her and I in the laundry room, cleaned the sink, got out a clean towel and rolled up my sleeves. Best part was when kitten decided to try and escape by climbing up a shirt hanging over the sink. I managed to get the offending wet paws into the clean water – thankfully it was just the back ones. I gave up on the soap idea, would have needed way more hands and finally wrapped her in a towel (she immediately began to purr) and threw her under the covers with hubby LOL. Didn’t want a wet cat streaking through the house!!

Now onto the physical – no this paragraph is not R rated. Weight was up from last year, whatever. I’m dealing with that. Everything else seems fine, except I have to go back next week to complete the “lab” work as today wasn’t a “good” time. Good news is I don’t have to have a mammogram till I’m 40. Excellent, that is ages from now – oh wait it’s getting closer. Won’t THAT be worth blogging about!!

This aft had a phone call from one of my best friends out west. Her daughter has blood poisoning, well, that just sucks. Not to mention these are some of my favourite people in the world and would want NOTHING to happen to them. It started out with a cut on her toe and spread from there. By the time my friend found out, the infection was pretty bad. The girl will be alright, but wake up call to all of us! Keep clean, wash your hands and clean out wounds, no matter how much it might sting, hurt or whatever.

Kind of put the rest of my day in a new light. I stopped the pity party, said a little prayer for all those I love and went on with my day.

Craving Blockers

Ok, so I've been taking 4 horse pills 2x a day for 5 days now. Today I left them at home by mistake. I figured ok, how bad can it be. Well the desire to eat all afternoon was so strong. Good thing I had tastey rice cakes in my desk. At supper time I took the vitamins again, not only do I have cravings, but they are HUGE. Now how much of the whole vitamin thing is mental??? (like duh). Do I want to eat to sabotage myself? or to prove a point that the vitamins are hokey? Or am I really hungry - shouldn't be, I ate enough for supper. Or is it the PMS symptoms I'm having that NOTHING can thwart. I mean there are certain times when only chocolate will do, that is undeniable. I'm pretty sure the scientific community would agree with me. Chocolate can fix just about anything (except that iddy biddy matter of the scale!).

I think what I really need is more of a craving wall, or craving cement door, something like that. You might think that I'm completely obsessed with all this, well that's not true, its just on my mind all the time, so I have to say something - then I feel better!!

I think the vitamins do have some kind of effect. I feel full when I take them, yet they don't seem to bloat, my mouth is dry so I drink more water (which can only help) and at the very least I feel a positive mental crutch from them. Of course you are only to use these for 2 weeks, so no permanent solution there. In the mean time I have a couple of books I need to read that should help me get that mental edge. I usually have the edge in the mornings, its the afternoon and evenings I teeter, totter way over the edge.

As it relates to food - Just for something new and to get a way from some of the alternatives, I tried turkey bacon for the first time - its actually pretty good. I'll have to check Costco to see if there is a cheaper way to enjoy it. Just don't under cook it - I like it best well done!

So enough about my obsession for tonight. You can count on the fact that I'll revisit - LOL.

The Great Equalizer

I think I figured it out. The thing that makes us all equals. Yes you guessed it - the bathing suit. I'm not talking about sitting at one at one of the 10 greatest beaches in North America where beach babes/bums can sit on the beach for hours with no thought of going in the water to mess with make up or hair or walking up and down the boardwalk just to see and be seen. I'm talking about swimming at the pool. The great equalizer - if you're at the pool, you're there for a reason, especially in winter. I mean who in their right mind goes swimming in the winter? US. Yesterday the girls and I scrounged for suits, both of them ended up in last years top and a pair of board shorts as the bottoms just didn't fit any more. I found a $30 suit at Costco that is purely functional - no sex appeal there, let me tell you! After convincing E that no one can tell whether or not you shaved your legs today and sewing the last of the swim badges on her bag (in case anyone was looking) it was time to go (can anyone see the hair on my legs??) Who's idea was this anyway??

So off we went. Cocky enough to think that for whatever reason my make up wouldn't run in the pool - yah right. Back I trudged to scrape off the paint with pink frothy bathroom soap & clean water. Better than raccoon eyes!! Shivering violently before becoming acclimatized was fun too - the mandatory hot shower before plunging into the pool begs the question - why isn't the shower hot after swimming?? All that done the girls begged to do their laps so they could go in the deep end - as an adult I didn't have to do laps, apparently I can save myself - LOL. Wow those girls can swim. I tried to do a few laps - just to say I could do it too. IT WAS HARD - E was laughing, its not that hard mom!!

We had a lot of fun. I barely had time to people watch, but did you know string bikinis are back? Apparently so, especially on young teenage girls - why?? And why do parents put out the money for that? Ok, that's another blog topic. For now - I'll say we had a ton of fun. Monkey in the middle, hand stands and seeing who can stay under the longest. Next time you should all come too...

On the way home E called home and convinced the dad man that we should watch Charlie & the Chocolate Factory with supper - fun. I love Johnny Depp...

www.truestar.com

Interesting evening. Last night I spent 2 hours with a coach at Truestar for Women. It is a gym that combines Herbal Magic, Weight Watchers, Curves, Body for Life, what else??? She had me hooked on all the machines, work out style, even the vitamins. The Website was amazing, fill in forms, tell them what food you like, don't like, can't have - then it figures out meal plans. Comes up with a grocery list so you can determine what you have at home, then it deletes things you already have and you go buy what you don't, print the menu plans and you're done. You do the exercise, take the vitamins, they give you a personal trainer, coach every week to talk, weigh you, measure you and keep you motivated. To bad the whole thing was going to cost me well over $1000 plus the vitamins.

Apparently Dr. Phil mentioned them on his show - they've had 28,000 new members in 3 weeks. I like the system, I'm actually trying some of the vitamins to jump start my weight loss (craving blocker - all natural, no chemicals). I can do the exercise, I'm not afraid of it. I just can't eat the healthy foods that would help me lose weight. I'm allergic to so many foods, nuts, most fruit, celery, carrots, shell fish and a few misc. other things. The worst part is if I have my allergins and then exercise, i have in the past had anaphylactic reations - its called exercise induced anaphylaxis. Its a bugger. I actually hit a wall last week where I almost cried in the produce department again, some days I just want to eat a freaking apple. Ok, enough of the pitty party.

I'm not horribly overweight, but in reality I'd like to lose 20lbs. Thought this might help. Their philosophy is to concentrate on vitamins, sleep, attitude, exercise and nutrition - pretty good things. They're 100% Canadian even. I don't think I need everything they offer, I don't need someone to tell me to change exercise machines or that nutrition is important. But I will take their craving blocker and see if it works, if so, then I will try their woman specific combination. Its a 2 week thing, I'll let you know how I do. Pat me on the back, I've been getting up at 5:10am to exercise cause I just can't find the time at night. My weight goes up and down. I need to find the combination of things that make me get and stay where I want to be. I can do it.

cute kid quips

I must admit, I wish I had this blogging thing when the kids were little. Now that they are 13 and 11 the “cute kid quips” are a little further and farther between. But, now and again I tell them a story or two about when they were little and how they responded. I think I’ll use this whole blogging thing once in a while as a way to record what I remember. I’m sure they’ll thank me for it one day LOL.

Eldest (“E” for short): When E was in Kindergarten a volunteer mom told me this story. E was sitting at a table with a 5 year old boy who was being rather rambunctious. Finally E told the boy to smarten up. He told her immediately “you’re not the boss of me”. She replied “no… but you’re misbehaving”. Good answer!!!

Youngest (“Y” for short): E & Y had been at Grandma’s (Omi’s) house for a few days having a sleepover. Pick up day was Friday. I was trying to bundle everyone out the door at the end of the visit and wanted Y to go “potty” before we left. I was having no luck convincing her that this was a good idea. As Omi had been the primary caregiver for the last few days she thought she would give it a go. “Y – when was the last time you went, don’t you think you should go again?” Utterly sure of herself Y said “Oh Omi… I went on Tuesday!”

E (at about 4 years of age) was lying on the floor in the hallway of our house. We were entertaining my brother & sister-in-law who are oh so close to the kids. Uncle thought perhaps something was wrong – he went and to lie on the floor beside her and asked her what was up – “nothing uncle, just thinking about all the people who love me…”

More to come as I think of them…

I like to call them life lessons…

Those things that stop me in the middle of something and make me say “I’ll never do that” or if I’m with my kids and say “life lesson” they both obligingly stop whatever they are doing to calmly listen to my latest pet peeve. I figure if I repeat myself often enough it will sink in and will stand them in good stead as they get older. So from me to you – LIFE LESSONS.

The Basics:

Treat others as you would like to be treated. Of course this one kind of back fired on me the day I caught my oldest talking back to her sister and pushing her around – when I asked her if she was treating her sister they way she like to be treated, her response was “no mom, I’m treating her the way she showed me she likes to be treated”. How do you argue with that??

Don’t use the words shut up, stupid, dumb or hate (or any swear words) around kids. They soak it up like sponges and it WILL come back to haunt you. If it isn’t part of their everyday vocabulary when they’re growing up, it is less likely to come out of their mouths when they’re older – I mean how much would it break your heart to hear your 3 year old tell you “Your stupid, I hate you”.

Stairways (in a mall, workplace, church etc):

Don’t stop in the middle of them.
Don’t stop at the bottom/top and talk to someone.
If you’re wondering whether or not you are going the right way – move over and figure it out – don’t ponder in the way.
If you’re walking 2 across and someone comes up the other way (who by the way is already single file!!) make room.

Shopping Mall or Grocery Store:

Hold doors for people.
Stay to the right so you don’t have to do “the dance”.
If you decide to go into a store – do it – don’t just stop walking so people behind you have veer around you.
If you are said person having to veer – be conscious of who’s around you – shoulder check.
When you stop to put something in your cart – pull over to the right – leave enough room for people to get around you. (its really not that hard). Before pulling back into traffic - shoulder check.
If you feel you have to argue with the check out clerk – don’t. Go to customer service and avoid ticking off the people behind you.

Well I guess that’s enough for now, I’ll have to come back another day to talk about driving and cell phones (not necessarily together).

Blogging...

You know, some things I really think way to much about. I love blogging, I think it is a fantastic way for people to communicate. Posting comments on other blogs is way too much fun. Yet, it scares me to death. I mean on one hand, what if I hurt someone's feelings. I'm usually honest to a fault. What if I say the wrong thing. I don't have any security features on my blog, so anyone can read it. What if I screw somebody up? Tell the whole world about something that is only someone else's business. On the other hand, this is my blog, all about me baby, not forcing anyone to read it right???

I decided I need some guidelines a policy statement if you will:

So - here is my disclaimer:
1. I will do my darndest not to hurt anyone's feelings with my words.
2. I will never mention specifics about home, family or work (for safety sake).
3. I will not knowingly betray any confidences.
4. I will not be malicious.
5. I will be honest with what I write.

Here are your rights and responsibilities:
1. If you don't like what I say - call me on it.
2. If I make a mistake (other than grammar or spelling!!!) - call me on it.
3. If you feel I'm walking a thin line - call me on it.
4. If you are hurt by something I've written - call me on it.

I can't correct or make amends if I don't know.

Let me be honest - there are days when I will take everything you say to heart, there are days when I will say Screw it... this is my blog... bugger off. There are days when I may open a flood gate and pour out my heart.

Your last responsibility is to take what I say here and keep it safe. So I guess if I live up to my rules and you live up to yours this should be fun for all of us.

Enough said. (of course I reserve the right to revisit this or any other topic in the future!!)