Andrea tagged me to do a 7 things about me, and hey, since it's been 2 months since I've written in this blog, why not?
Seven things you may or may not know about me....
1. When I was a child my two favourite shows were He-Man and Transformers. Now that I reflect, upon seeing Star Wars in the theater when I was 4, this all put me on a course to my current Geekiness. On a side note, that's awesome is that Cordie is already showing geeky traits - and I'm thrilled :)
2. I competed in my first taekwondo tournament yesterday! Placed second in one step sparring. I went in to do my best and hey if I placed, cool, so I'm quite tickled.
3. I have a degree in Theology.
4. The kids have been watching Power Rangers Samurai lately, and I begrudgingly admit it's not that bad of a show. Yes, written for kids, but it's not as painful as I thought it would be.
5. I met my husband on a Tad Williams email discussion group.
6. Purple is my favourite colour.
7. I like wine :) (don't worry, not too much)
Time to get the kids to bed!
Oh wait I need to nominate 7 other people...
I might need to get back to that...
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Weekend report
Hi everyone!
I just figured it was time for another check in and saying hello. I am not always on top of my own blog roll, and sometimes have to hit "mark all as read" and so it is possible I am missing out on any updates from friends. If so, I'm sorry!
We're doing well here. Duncan has settled into the new school year really well. He has been placed in a 1-2 split, and his teachers who job share (have been doing so for 18 years) have a fantastic reputation among the other parents. Duncan likes both of them, and initial feed back says he is fitting in just fine. Not that I was worried. I was really hoping he'd get in the 1 or 1-2 split as I heard through the grapevine that there is a K-1 split, and we both really feel Duncan needed more challenge than that. He can be a super lazy learner, but totally rises to challenges when he needs to. So I am hoping this will challenge him. He also was placed in class with his best friend, so he is very happy about that.
Cordie continues to be very happy in daycare, even asking to go on weekends. We have placed her in dance this year. She wants to join taekwondo but just doesn't have the attention span yet. So we figured we'd do dance for one year and then we can shift into taekwondo when she is 4.
Bill and I are both working very hard on our weight loss, and are seeing success! I quit Weight Watchers when I wanted to join taekwondo due to financial reasons - couldn't afford both. And frankly, I hadn't seen any movement on WW for months upon months. A few people at work suggested MyFitnessPal.com as something they'd had success with. I signed up for it, and then Bill did, and it's working really well for us. Bill is working a lot harder than I am (he works out a lot more) and has lost 21 lbs in 5 weeks. I have lost 6 lbs in the same time. I am happy with that though! I am sticking with my walking every day at work, and taekwondo 2x/week which is a great work out too.
Taekwondo continues to be a blast. I just love it. I actually look forward to class and if you know me you know I don't look forward to any exercise. Bill is planning on joining this week too now that we have babysitting set up. Thanks Mom and Dad! He also is looking forward to it. Duncan continues to do well. Tiger Cubs typically move up through white belts with colour stripes (white with orange, white with yellow), well Duncan actually completed what's called his "pluses" and moved up to a full orange belt. He is one of 4 kids in his age group who did this and we are so proud of him. He is working so hard at this and loving it. I also graduated to orange belt. We've both joined what's called Masters Club which gives us extra lessons and we do weapons training (right now nun chuks), sparring, and board breaking. Board breaking is AWESOME! How amazingly satisfying it is to break a board. LOL. These are not wooden boards but kind of hard plastic ones that give in the middle, but are increasingly difficult depending on how you do. We have been board breaking with our feet. Love it! Next week we start sparring. I am also looking forward to that.
Tournament end of September Duncan will be in. Tournament south of Seattle end of October than Bill, Duncan and I might all be in. Jumping right into it.
And that's the basics here!
Quilting some.
Reading, not enough.
Work - insane.
I just figured it was time for another check in and saying hello. I am not always on top of my own blog roll, and sometimes have to hit "mark all as read" and so it is possible I am missing out on any updates from friends. If so, I'm sorry!
We're doing well here. Duncan has settled into the new school year really well. He has been placed in a 1-2 split, and his teachers who job share (have been doing so for 18 years) have a fantastic reputation among the other parents. Duncan likes both of them, and initial feed back says he is fitting in just fine. Not that I was worried. I was really hoping he'd get in the 1 or 1-2 split as I heard through the grapevine that there is a K-1 split, and we both really feel Duncan needed more challenge than that. He can be a super lazy learner, but totally rises to challenges when he needs to. So I am hoping this will challenge him. He also was placed in class with his best friend, so he is very happy about that.
Cordie continues to be very happy in daycare, even asking to go on weekends. We have placed her in dance this year. She wants to join taekwondo but just doesn't have the attention span yet. So we figured we'd do dance for one year and then we can shift into taekwondo when she is 4.
Bill and I are both working very hard on our weight loss, and are seeing success! I quit Weight Watchers when I wanted to join taekwondo due to financial reasons - couldn't afford both. And frankly, I hadn't seen any movement on WW for months upon months. A few people at work suggested MyFitnessPal.com as something they'd had success with. I signed up for it, and then Bill did, and it's working really well for us. Bill is working a lot harder than I am (he works out a lot more) and has lost 21 lbs in 5 weeks. I have lost 6 lbs in the same time. I am happy with that though! I am sticking with my walking every day at work, and taekwondo 2x/week which is a great work out too.
Taekwondo continues to be a blast. I just love it. I actually look forward to class and if you know me you know I don't look forward to any exercise. Bill is planning on joining this week too now that we have babysitting set up. Thanks Mom and Dad! He also is looking forward to it. Duncan continues to do well. Tiger Cubs typically move up through white belts with colour stripes (white with orange, white with yellow), well Duncan actually completed what's called his "pluses" and moved up to a full orange belt. He is one of 4 kids in his age group who did this and we are so proud of him. He is working so hard at this and loving it. I also graduated to orange belt. We've both joined what's called Masters Club which gives us extra lessons and we do weapons training (right now nun chuks), sparring, and board breaking. Board breaking is AWESOME! How amazingly satisfying it is to break a board. LOL. These are not wooden boards but kind of hard plastic ones that give in the middle, but are increasingly difficult depending on how you do. We have been board breaking with our feet. Love it! Next week we start sparring. I am also looking forward to that.
Tournament end of September Duncan will be in. Tournament south of Seattle end of October than Bill, Duncan and I might all be in. Jumping right into it.
And that's the basics here!
Quilting some.
Reading, not enough.
Work - insane.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Last post April 7 - what?
I guess I have been rather lax in the whole blogging thing. Not too much to say really. We're all doing well, keeping busy, and life rolls on quite well.
But it's summer vacation now. I have the next two weeks off. Yay! Bill is off to Newfoundland tomorrow for 9 days. We'll miss him.
So what's going on...
Well Duncan joined tae kwan do a few months ago and is just loving it. I was just reading Nancy's post on sports, and you really gotta find what your kid is interested in. We tried soccer - he couldn't care less. But he is LOVING karate (as they call it for the smaller kids). He is doing really well and his instructors let me know as such. They've been doing this a while and have a good feel for when kids are really into it, and the ones who are just in it for a bit of fun.
About karate. The school is part of the WTTU, which is part of the ATA. From what I understand it's kind of the biggest school of tae kwan do in the world. Master Hallie Fraser is a 6th degree black belt, and is just awesome. Anyhow, my best friend Rhonda's kids had joined, and then b/c it wasn't too much more, she joined. Well she had so much fun, she started trying to entice me to join. We got Duncan to join, and recently, I also joined now.
I love it! Oh my goodness it is so much fun. It's a good work out let me tell you, and I am only a white belt (joined 3 weeks ago). But I love it. Quite funny, I am like 25 years older than anyone else in the class, but the young people there are all great about it. So here I am. 38 and starting tae kwan do. Rhonda and I look forward to being in the same class because it would be fun to spar together.
Summer vacation. Going to be fun. I have a bunch of crafts lined up for the kids and am trying to arrange some play dates. I plan on getting some quilting done too. We'll miss daddy though! It was just too expensive for all of us to go out there.
And that's about it really. How are you?
But it's summer vacation now. I have the next two weeks off. Yay! Bill is off to Newfoundland tomorrow for 9 days. We'll miss him.
So what's going on...
Well Duncan joined tae kwan do a few months ago and is just loving it. I was just reading Nancy's post on sports, and you really gotta find what your kid is interested in. We tried soccer - he couldn't care less. But he is LOVING karate (as they call it for the smaller kids). He is doing really well and his instructors let me know as such. They've been doing this a while and have a good feel for when kids are really into it, and the ones who are just in it for a bit of fun.
About karate. The school is part of the WTTU, which is part of the ATA. From what I understand it's kind of the biggest school of tae kwan do in the world. Master Hallie Fraser is a 6th degree black belt, and is just awesome. Anyhow, my best friend Rhonda's kids had joined, and then b/c it wasn't too much more, she joined. Well she had so much fun, she started trying to entice me to join. We got Duncan to join, and recently, I also joined now.
I love it! Oh my goodness it is so much fun. It's a good work out let me tell you, and I am only a white belt (joined 3 weeks ago). But I love it. Quite funny, I am like 25 years older than anyone else in the class, but the young people there are all great about it. So here I am. 38 and starting tae kwan do. Rhonda and I look forward to being in the same class because it would be fun to spar together.
Summer vacation. Going to be fun. I have a bunch of crafts lined up for the kids and am trying to arrange some play dates. I plan on getting some quilting done too. We'll miss daddy though! It was just too expensive for all of us to go out there.
And that's about it really. How are you?
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Hey hey hey
Hello anyone who is still reading this!
Been a while. I always write blog posts in my mind, but never get around to actually sitting down to write something.
But really, there is nothing new to report. We're all doing well here.
Let's see... a gorgeous day here. Finally got the front yard cleaned up while Bill in the kids booted around in the back yard. The kids were outside almost all day except for meals and when Cordie was napping. We finally chatted with the neighbours about fixing the fence and they are totally up for it, so that's good. Nice people.
We also plan on doing our deck this year. It's getting a little soft, and the stairs are shaky, so we're going to tear it down and build a bigger one. Yay! We need to get off our butts and get on that. We need quotes and stuff.
Bill is good. He'll be having foot surgery soon - they wanted to do it this Friday, but that was a little too soon for his tastes, so it will likely be in May. He'll be off for 2 months then.
Duncan is loving Kindergarten. He has ongoing encounters with the bully in his class, but we're keeping an eye on it, as is the teacher. We're thinking of putting Duncan in martial arts to give him a bit of self confidence, but it's a bit expensive! We will see. He is now a Star Wars addict. I know my boy is growing up, but he's lost all interest in Thomas, and it makes me sad because it does make me realize that he's getting bigger and interests are changing. It's hard to let go of my little boy. However, this age/stage is lots of fun too, so I won't lament too much.
Cordie is also good. She turns 3 next months and mentions her pending birthday party daily. She is loving the daycare she is going to, and we're really happy with the decision we made last fall. I'm actually on the board of directors now for the daycare, but have yet to make a meeting.
Bill and I went to Las Vegas in March. It was fun and we wish we could go more often. Mom and Dad, bless them, moved in and watched the kids for us. We almost missed our flight going down due to a silly border line up, but b/c we had done online check in and only had carry on bags, we did okay. It was quite cold there so I did not get as much pool time as I had wanted, but it was still good. Coming back the President of the USA flew in just as we were about to leave, so we were a bit late taking off. We got to see Air Force One though and that was cool.
Not other big plans for the year. I'm still on weight watchers but have not really changed in weight in months now. I need to exercise more. I've got the eating right now pat, but now I need to increase the movement. I'm just lazy.
And that's about it! I hope everyone else is good.
Been a while. I always write blog posts in my mind, but never get around to actually sitting down to write something.
But really, there is nothing new to report. We're all doing well here.
Let's see... a gorgeous day here. Finally got the front yard cleaned up while Bill in the kids booted around in the back yard. The kids were outside almost all day except for meals and when Cordie was napping. We finally chatted with the neighbours about fixing the fence and they are totally up for it, so that's good. Nice people.
We also plan on doing our deck this year. It's getting a little soft, and the stairs are shaky, so we're going to tear it down and build a bigger one. Yay! We need to get off our butts and get on that. We need quotes and stuff.
Bill is good. He'll be having foot surgery soon - they wanted to do it this Friday, but that was a little too soon for his tastes, so it will likely be in May. He'll be off for 2 months then.
Duncan is loving Kindergarten. He has ongoing encounters with the bully in his class, but we're keeping an eye on it, as is the teacher. We're thinking of putting Duncan in martial arts to give him a bit of self confidence, but it's a bit expensive! We will see. He is now a Star Wars addict. I know my boy is growing up, but he's lost all interest in Thomas, and it makes me sad because it does make me realize that he's getting bigger and interests are changing. It's hard to let go of my little boy. However, this age/stage is lots of fun too, so I won't lament too much.
Cordie is also good. She turns 3 next months and mentions her pending birthday party daily. She is loving the daycare she is going to, and we're really happy with the decision we made last fall. I'm actually on the board of directors now for the daycare, but have yet to make a meeting.
Bill and I went to Las Vegas in March. It was fun and we wish we could go more often. Mom and Dad, bless them, moved in and watched the kids for us. We almost missed our flight going down due to a silly border line up, but b/c we had done online check in and only had carry on bags, we did okay. It was quite cold there so I did not get as much pool time as I had wanted, but it was still good. Coming back the President of the USA flew in just as we were about to leave, so we were a bit late taking off. We got to see Air Force One though and that was cool.
Not other big plans for the year. I'm still on weight watchers but have not really changed in weight in months now. I need to exercise more. I've got the eating right now pat, but now I need to increase the movement. I'm just lazy.
And that's about it! I hope everyone else is good.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Farewell Mom Blogs
Many of you who read this (all 3 of you) know that I've been a bit of a blog addict for a few years now. I kind of fell into the world of Mom blogs when I was on mat leave. I saw Nancy had a link to 5 Minutes For Mom on her blog, followed it, followed more links... went from bookmarking everything to discovering Google Reader... and so became an addict.
And it's been fun. Some blogs I just really enjoy how they are written. Some I found were like bad car accidents - I just couldn't look away. I started to drop blogs that I couldn't handle the whining any more (some people tend to always blame other people for all their problems). And heck, it is fun to win stuff online. I average about 1 thing a month or so - everything from shoes (favourite win ever from My Organized Chaos), fabric, books, baby clothes, make up, and more.
There are still a few Canadian Based blogs I follow, as I actually find the information I get from them is useful or interesting in my daily life - Natural Mommie, Feisty Frugal and Fabulous, Glimpse, and My Organized Chaos.
But other than that, I'm done. I've found a lot of Mom blogs have just turned into these big social media machines and all they are interested in is building readers without providing any actual useful content. It's all "follow these 150 blogs on twitter and you can win a Kindle", or "follow all these people on facebook and wine an amazon.com gift card". But they don't actually do proper reviews any more, and frankly I'm tired of them mucking up my inbox, and Reader feed.
And then Pinterest came along. Ahhh... Pinterest. Do you Pinterest? If no, well... it is a time suck, but a beautiful one. Find me at http://pinterest.com/carolejm/ . And if you need an invite, just let me know. Side note... how beautiful Pinterest is. Yesterday Duncan and I were hanging out and he wanted to do something. I asked if he wanted to bake something. Yep, I said let's see what I have pinned. While going to my "Sweets" board, he sees the "For my Son" board, and asks to see what's inside. One of the things I have pinned inside is a home made Angry Birds game made with birds and pigs made out of yarn pom poms. Well then he asked if we could make that instead. It's a weak spot. I love it when the kids want to do crafty stuff. Cordie loves crafts, but is too young yet to ask for specific stuff. But Duncan and I often will put our heads together and make up stuff on our own, or by following something we've found in a magazine or online. Anyhow, so off to Michael's for yarn (yay Michael's iphone app... 25% off purchase!), and back home. We've now made 4 birds, and 5 pigs, and make buildings out of plastic ups... we glued googly eyes and beaks and eyebrows on to all the characters... A happy kid, a home made game... never would have thought of it on my own. So anyhow, yay pinterest. Find the craft idea at http://www.makeandtakes.com/crafting-with-angry-birds and hers look much better than mine.
Anyhow back to Mom blogs. I'm tired of it, find it boring, and I have unsubscribed from the majority of the Mom blogs I used to follow. So I thank you for a few years of entertainment, and time killing, but I don't feel a loss there.
However, I have replaced Mom blogs with what I have termed "Quilty Crafty" blogs. This year I am really trying to up my quilting, learning more, trying more, producing more - out of love for quilting. And there is so much inspiration out there!! I can't always be downstairs quilting. Since the new year in the evening Bill and I have been heading to our respective rooms (the Man Cave and Sewrenity) for creative endeavours (Bill is doing some writing), and I'm actually almost done the top of my 1st started in 2012 quilting project. I won't go into it too much here. I've started a quilting blog at mysewrenity.blogspot.com if you're interested. But it is all about quilting, and not much else.
Well I hope everyone is well. We are. Busy with life, but happy. Thanks for dropping by.
And it's been fun. Some blogs I just really enjoy how they are written. Some I found were like bad car accidents - I just couldn't look away. I started to drop blogs that I couldn't handle the whining any more (some people tend to always blame other people for all their problems). And heck, it is fun to win stuff online. I average about 1 thing a month or so - everything from shoes (favourite win ever from My Organized Chaos), fabric, books, baby clothes, make up, and more.
There are still a few Canadian Based blogs I follow, as I actually find the information I get from them is useful or interesting in my daily life - Natural Mommie, Feisty Frugal and Fabulous, Glimpse, and My Organized Chaos.
But other than that, I'm done. I've found a lot of Mom blogs have just turned into these big social media machines and all they are interested in is building readers without providing any actual useful content. It's all "follow these 150 blogs on twitter and you can win a Kindle", or "follow all these people on facebook and wine an amazon.com gift card". But they don't actually do proper reviews any more, and frankly I'm tired of them mucking up my inbox, and Reader feed.
And then Pinterest came along. Ahhh... Pinterest. Do you Pinterest? If no, well... it is a time suck, but a beautiful one. Find me at http://pinterest.com/carolejm/ . And if you need an invite, just let me know. Side note... how beautiful Pinterest is. Yesterday Duncan and I were hanging out and he wanted to do something. I asked if he wanted to bake something. Yep, I said let's see what I have pinned. While going to my "Sweets" board, he sees the "For my Son" board, and asks to see what's inside. One of the things I have pinned inside is a home made Angry Birds game made with birds and pigs made out of yarn pom poms. Well then he asked if we could make that instead. It's a weak spot. I love it when the kids want to do crafty stuff. Cordie loves crafts, but is too young yet to ask for specific stuff. But Duncan and I often will put our heads together and make up stuff on our own, or by following something we've found in a magazine or online. Anyhow, so off to Michael's for yarn (yay Michael's iphone app... 25% off purchase!), and back home. We've now made 4 birds, and 5 pigs, and make buildings out of plastic ups... we glued googly eyes and beaks and eyebrows on to all the characters... A happy kid, a home made game... never would have thought of it on my own. So anyhow, yay pinterest. Find the craft idea at http://www.makeandtakes.com/crafting-with-angry-birds and hers look much better than mine.
Anyhow back to Mom blogs. I'm tired of it, find it boring, and I have unsubscribed from the majority of the Mom blogs I used to follow. So I thank you for a few years of entertainment, and time killing, but I don't feel a loss there.
However, I have replaced Mom blogs with what I have termed "Quilty Crafty" blogs. This year I am really trying to up my quilting, learning more, trying more, producing more - out of love for quilting. And there is so much inspiration out there!! I can't always be downstairs quilting. Since the new year in the evening Bill and I have been heading to our respective rooms (the Man Cave and Sewrenity) for creative endeavours (Bill is doing some writing), and I'm actually almost done the top of my 1st started in 2012 quilting project. I won't go into it too much here. I've started a quilting blog at mysewrenity.blogspot.com if you're interested. But it is all about quilting, and not much else.
Well I hope everyone is well. We are. Busy with life, but happy. Thanks for dropping by.
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