Monday and annoying web sites

Good morning! Well at least for another 45 minutes. The commute in was a breeze today, and this week I get "short hours" which means I'm done at 3:30 - sweet! More time with my little boy. I just met Ronnie for a coffee - it's so much more reasonable weatherwise out there today. Warm (pleasantly so) and a bit muggy, but no where near as hot.

Weekend was generally a just get stuff done weekend. Car was in for servicing, went to Costco (kept it reasonable), brunch at Denny's (disgusting). In the afternoon we wandered around in Maple Ridge for a bit and then went to the meat shop and farm market. We rented 10,000 BC which wasn't bad but I was hoping for more prehistoric stuff. The plot has been done a million times over, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Sunday after church (and after a nice long nap) we went out to Mom and Dad's to water the vegetable garden for them. Duncan got soaked to the skin and thought it was the funniest thing in the world.

I'm trying to access the Canadian Tire web site (yep, busy at work - actually I am) and it just won't load proper!! You know I feel in today's age where so many people depend on the intraweb for information you should have a reliable website. I want to know if they sell sheds. Okay, I know they do, but the kind I'm looking for. But even if it loads past the 1st page (where you have to give your postal code) and get to the main page, none of the links are working beyond that. Stupid heads :P

But really, back to work. I'm getting take out for lunch (don't normally). Shall I get Subway, Greek, or something else? I don't want salad, soup, or a sandwich. No sushi. I had Thai last week with Theresa (but it was good).

Raising your children...

I’ve signed up (why not) for this email on tips to raise children to be, well, well balanced. The emails are kind of cheesy and this lady has written an e-book they want you to pay $20 for, but since I could get these lessons in 6 free emails, I said why not. So most of it is kind of blah blah blah, but today I really liked how it summed up what it is we want to see in our children.

From the email:

We want you to . .

-- Be Honest
-- Have Integrity
-- Be Unselfish
-- Be Kind and Caring
-- Anticipate another's needs and jump up to help
-- Be Industrious
-- Be a good and willing worker
-- Carry a job to completion and do it well
-- Be a Self Starter
-- Don't need pushing or prodding
-- Have Courage
-- And much more

Isn’t that the truth? Now, if I could just tie it up in a neat little package for Duncan…

The email is from http://www.raiseyourkidsright.com/

Capris

I've been noticing a lot of people at work wearing capris during the week - not just on casual Friday. So last weekend I picked up a nicer pair at Lane Bryant (since I was there, and seeing as they were on sale) and decided to wear them in today. I pulled it off! I was concerned that I didn't have a nice enough work shirt to go with it, but went with a simple green T and it looks just fine! So now I'm thinking I just need to get a few more pairs and that's what I'll wear all summer.

Bill is home today! Once again I didn't want to blog that he was out of town, while he was out of town, but since he's back I can say he was gone :) We missed him and Duncan is going to be very excited to have Daddy home tonight. And Bill has a flex tomorrow so that's going to be some awesome Duncan/Daddy time right there.

There is nothing on!

I'm channel surfing and there is nothing on! Okay, Antiques Roadshow is on, and I like this show, but I wasn't really in a roadshow mood. But when the other options are things like the Bachelorette... Roadshow wins!

Rocks

Duncan is such a boy - I love it! I think half of Sunday was him being entertained by using some of my Tupperware measuring cups to gather rocks from my garden and move them around the yard and house. Until bed time last night he was still clutching his cup of rocks and carrying them with him everywhere. I love that he loves to play in the dirt and sit in my garden and just be a boy. We had a good Sunday!

Shop Hop Weekend

I got back from the shop hop this weekend - lots of fun! What a great little get away. It was wonderful to see my college friends again, and also fun to visit all the quilt shops and get stuff :)

I left early Friday morning and made good time down to Mt. Vernon. I parked the car at Tia's in law's home, which worked as a good meeting point. We (we being Lisa, my old college room mate who now lives in New Mexico, Tia, another college friend and Lisa's sister in law, Bev, Lisa's aunt, and Rhonda, Lisa's best friend from high school) went to a few of the quilt shops and then we stopped in Deception Pass State Park by Cranberry Lake for a picnic. Tia, bless her, packed an awesome picnic lunch for us and it was kid friendly for Rhonda's kids.

We parted way with Rhonda and her children then and made our way down Whidbey Island. We had Tia's Ford Explorer and I was doing most of the driving, but I didn't mind that at all. We ended up back on Camano Island where Tia lives. What a gorgeous home. Tia thank you so much again for having us over. I loved visiting with you and seeing Henry - what a sweet little man! You have a beautiful home and are a wonderful hostess.

We grabbed my car this morning and made our way up to Bellingham (where I also did some shopping) and then Lynden and I was home by 2:00 PM. I missed my boys and oh boy was Duncan happy to see me! He and Daddy had a wonderful time together and certainly were not suffering for me having been gone!

So that's my 5th Shop hop... it's fun each year. Now we can add it to the pile of other unfinished shop hop projects...

Do you know who this is a problem for? Future Carole

Bill and I have been watching the tv show "How I Met Your Mother" and we love it! I just thought I'd share. It's clever, the script is really well written, and the characters are believable - not the typical sit com trap where people are always getting themselves into stupid situations due to stupid actions. One of the reason I don't watch many sit coms.

Anyhow. I encourage you to watch this show. It's good.

Saturday Musings

Duncan slept way better last night. In fact he slept in until 8:30. Threw even us off. But we all felt a million times better today. He is still fighting this thing off, and he's lost his voice, but you could tell he felt better today than before.

Went to Mom and Dad's for brunch (thanks again!). We used to meet at White Spot on Saturday mornings, but Duncan is getting to the age where he's not too content to sit in a high chair at the restaurant for a while, so we decided to bow out of that fot a bit.

Back home - Duncan napped for a few hours and we got some stuff done, although I did not get to the weeding I thought of doing. Oh well. Then we popped out for Alexandra's birthday party for a bit- before Duncan was tired again. I dropped the boys off and went grocery shopping (exciting I know) and Duncan went to bed around 7:30. No milk tonight, so he was really unimpressed but considering it makes him more phlegmy we thought we'd stick with water. He still fell asleep so obviously it is not going to kill him. We've been wanting to make the move towards water at bed anyhow, so maybe this is a good time to start? I was going to wait until after the cruise so he'd go down well at night, but we'll see how it goes.

So Duncan doesn't watch tv - well so far he doesn't. We're kidding ourselves if we think he won't but so far we've just not been watching stuff he's interested in, and quite frankly, he's doing just fine. However reading up on cruising with kids it's been suggested that if there is a show he really likes bring some dvds and a portable dvd player and he can watch it at dinner time so you can still have your nice meal without him getting too antsy. So I'm trying some shows that I don't mind on for size for him. Backyardigans etc... if he finds one or two particularly compelling then maybe we'll let him start watching those and bring some along on the ship. If it doesn't work no problem we'll eat in the casual diner most night and Mom and Dad will be eating in the 2nd seating and have said they will watch him while we got to our meal - like on formal night.

I have an awesome family. I don't talk about my family much. I have 3 older brothers and while they are all just great guys I'm not particularly close to them. This is fine with me it's nothing "contentious" - we're just not all best friend like. But they are still awesome people. Like my brother Tim (1 of 4). On purpose he won a Chicago Bears Jersey so that he could give it to Bill as a birthday gift (Bill loved it!). My brother Sean (3 of 4) lives in Kelowna (which he loves) but housing prices there are just as stupid as they are here, so brother Jeff (2 of 4) is trying to work it out to help Sean buy a place. How awesome is that?! Jeff is just an amazingly generous soul to begin with, but still, he keeps proving it.

And on to Dad. It's Father's Day tomorrow. Happy Father's Day Dads! Let's just say Jeff comes by it honestly as Dad too is a really, really generous soul. I've always been a Daddy's girl - even when I was little I'd ride along with him for the day for work and all and I just loved it. Duncan adores his Opa ("Vah vah") and it is so cute to see the two of them together.

But since we're at it, I can't forget my Mom. Most of you know who know me know Mom and I are pretty darned close. I like this. I like my Mom! (Yes Mom, I know you're reading this, you don't need to blush). I think Mom and I'd be friends even if we weren't related. I love that God has blessed me with the family he has and although I haven't always appreciated them (Mom! Sean's hitting me!) I realize now what a blessing they are.

Good night.

Rough Night

I don't write this looking for sympathy. Goodness knows I'm not the only Mom to have a sleepless night and have to go to work the next day, but I will declare I'M TIRED!

Duncan has this cold in his chest. We took him to the walk in clinic and had him checked out and it's just a cold (which is what we thought, but we wanted to make sure). But last night was such a rough night for him. He was having a hard time breathing (not so bad that he couldn't breathe mind you, we're not stupid) and it just made him so unhappy and fussy. He was so tired and wanted to sleep and just couldn't stay asleep. Our stupid humidified wasn't working either. So basically when he was sleeping I couldn't sleep because all I could do was listen to his congested breathing, and then he'd wake up a lot really unhappy. He was also running a fever. The Motrin took care of that pretty quick. Finally we brought him into our bed around 2:30 until 5 (1st time we've ever had him sleep in bed with us) so at least he got some sleep, but we didn't!

Bill has a flex day today, so that's good. He tried to talk me into calling in sick, but I don't think being sleepy is a legitimate reason to call in sick, so here I am. Ronnie, bless her, already bought me another coffee.

Day care solutions

So Nikki might not be able to take Duncan through until August now. I don't blame her, frankly I thought she was brave saying she could. But this pregnancy has been harder on her and so the doctor is telling her to put her feet up as much as she can. So we need to see if we can find care for Roo for July.

Our 1st option is to see if Jen (who is taking him in August and September) might be available a month earlier.

But a 2nd option presented itself this afternoon when I was walking by my coworker who lives in our neck of the woods and whose older daughters baby sit. I asked him if one of his girls might be interested in having a month long baby sitting stint. We'd have her come to our house, and we'd pay a bit more b/c she'd be coming to our place. He thought it was a great idea and thinks she might go for it too. We'll see how it pans out, but I think it's a great idea!

Hopefully by July the weather will be more summer like. I loved what my coworker called it today - June-uary. It's so cold out there! For June that is. And here it's about 40 out on the US Eastern Seaboard and Southern Ontario area. Ok, give me this any day! I hate it when it's that hot.

Garage sale-ing

Duncan after a hard day of garage sale-ing.

Sick again

I’m sick again! Uhg. I have some chest congestion/infection thing. Random bouts of coughing and sputtering – very unflattering I can assure you. I’m here though! I need my next flex day for the quilt shop hop, which is June 20-21 and if I don’t go to work I don’t get the day off! Nice motivation ‘eh?

Had a fantastic weekend celebrating Bill’s 33^rd birthday with friends and family. I’m glad we’re given excuses to get together with people because sometimes life gets so busy you forget to schedule stuff. Saturday night, a bit later, Chris and Ronnie and Bill and me played Wii Mario Kart. It’s a hoot of course. I’m still trying to get my hands on a Wii Fit.

Congratulations to our friends Gina and Scott who delivered a beautiful baby girl on June 7. I love all the babies people are having! I think we have a month break and then it’s Nikki’s turn next.

Tired and Grumpy

Yes I admit it, Little Miss Sunshine over here gets grumpy. I actually find it amusing that none of you ever seem to get grumpy, or perhaps you just don't blog about it. Today I will.

Duncan had a bad night. That doesn't make me grumpy actually. I feel bad for Roo when the teething is going on and he's so tired but they are bugging him so much he can't sleep. He was up at 12:30 and again at 4 AM. He fell asleep on me at 4, but he was kind of choking me the way he was laying so we had to move him and then he woke up again. A bit of Motrin and a new bottle and he was out. Bill has a doctor's appointment this morning so they can both sleep in a bit, which is good.

I on the other hand decided to stay up and catch the early train in (the 5:50). It was a nice walk actually, and not raining yet (it's raining downtown right now, 7:10 AM or so), so that was good.

So that's the tired part.

I didn't get grumpy until I got into work. There was a sticky sitting on a file of mine and it just irked me. So I'm going to whine to Sheryll (my boss) about it and I did the thing myself. So there! Good thing is I was in so early, I got it done quick. So that's the grumpy part.

But I have my Venti dark (what was the math again... 4AM+teething toddler=eT (early train) and Vd (Venti dark).

Have a good day!

Welcome Siena!

Well that went quick, and we are just thrilled for John and Amy at Siena's quick arrival. Amy called me at 2:30 PM to say she was on her way to the hospital, dialated 5 cm. John called around 5:30 to say she started pushing at 3:15 and Siena was born at 3:55 PM - so fast! That's awesome. I'm sure it was quite painful, but at least not drawn out. We hope to stop over on the way home tonight and say hello quick. But John and Amy we're really, really happy for you and welcome you in to the amazingly awarding world of parenting.

In other news - I'm a quitter. I QUIT WEIGHT WATCHERS. Okay. I said it. This is not necessarily a good thing, but you know my heart was not into it and although I was mostly following the plan and what not I was not doing everything I should and therefore have not been as successful as I would like. It's my own fault and I don't blame WW for not working, but I figure why pay them when I'm not doing it anyhow. Of course I'll continue to try and eat proper and exercise and drink my water and all. I do still want to lose weight, but I was starting to feel this constant guilt and anxiety over everything I was eating - good for me or not - and that's not cool. So there you go. Oh, and I had 4 coupons left so they are going to mail me a cheque for those, which is good. If I can get my hands on one, that money is going towards a Wii Fit.

It's Bill's birthday on Friday. We'll be going out to the Baron's in the afternoon so Bill can finally meet Warren. That's going to be awesome. Oh, Tanya, Bill, it turns out, also has the day off, so I'll make the dessert at home before we head out. Is there anything else we can bring? I think we'll probably leave around 3:00 before counterflow goes in at the Pitt Bridge.