Omi's birthday

Well its 1:30 am and I am up with Sebby. For some reason I don’t mind tonight. I’m not too tired right now. Maybe I’m still wound up from yesterday. It was my mum’s birthday. I still get excited over birthdays. Unfortunately Sebastian seems to be sick with something. He has a fever. He’s also had a few breathing issues over the last day, and now he’s complaining about a sore throat and tummy ache…. Wow, could be anything I guess. We’ll take him to see a doctor in the morning.

Okay, I’m off on a tangent. So yesterday was Omi’s birthday. I’d have to say it was a success. Andrea, Chris, Isaac and mum came over. The kids made my mum these handprint pictures in the morning. We framed them and the kids were super excited to give them. The kids played very well with each other.








Sebby seems to rally and did well during the party.



The adults had a good time too.



My mum seemed to relish having her family around her celebrating.



And of course Kenzie loved seeing her Drea again.



CJ made the most incredible dinner – teriyaki salmon, rice, veggies skewers, tomato salad. OMG it was soooo good. My mouth waters thinking about it.



I made the cake. It was a strawberry shortcake. Everyone made fun of it – I don’t know why?

the last 5 days

Wow, where to start? It’s been a busy week. Last week I left work early and picked up the kids from daycare. Then we drove to my mum’s house cause Omi was taking the kids for a couple days to give CJ and I a break. Since I was driving to buffalo the next morning I stayed overnight too. It just so happened that spring in Toronto started on Thursday afternoon. It was such a welcome change to the winter weather we’ve been having. The sun came out and it felt so good. So my mum put some lawn chairs out in her front yard (the backyard was already in shade). She and I sat out there and watched the kids play on the yard – with dolls, wheelbarrow, bubbles etc. As time went on several of her neighbours walked by. They all stopped to say hello and stay for a glass of wine. By 8:00 there were about 10 of her neighbours sitting out there with us… they all made a fuss over the kids too. Which I always love.

So, on Friday morning I got up early, kissed the kids goodbye and headed for the buffalo airport where picked up two friends – Jatana and Amy for our scrapbooking weekend. They arrived on-time and soon we were back in the car headed for home. I can still hear their southern accents. LOVE IT!

Anyhow, we arrived home around noon on Friday and the scrapbooking began. It was a lot of fun. I was very happy to get kenzie’s baby album done and was also able to make an album for our neighbours who are expecting a baby (girl) next month. Here are a few of the pages that I like.

Kenzie’s






The gift album








Okay so we basically scrapped, chatted, laughed and ate all weekend. On Saturday we were joined by Jennifer and Linda. Linda also brought Megan, which made Sebastian and Kenzie very happy. We all went out to wild wings for dinner on Saturday night. It was a lot of fun. Sebastian has a crush on Megan. Can you tell?


Okay, so fast-forward…. Yesterday I drove the ladies back to the airport and then picked up the kids from daycare on the way home. We had a great afternoon together. We watched a movie while there was a huge thunderstorm outside. We had ice cream cones, and after the sun came out again, we went for bike rides. We walked by Brian and Sue’s house and Rachel, Jenna and Sophie were playing outside. So they took charge of Kenzie and Sebastian and Sue and I just stood outside enjoying the weather and chatting. It was very nice. I am really looking forward to this summer. It seems that our neighbourhood is full of kids and people seem to be very social and friendly.





So there you have it. That was the last few days in review. I am looking forward to this week since it seems that the nice weather will continue for a while. Also, CJ is in training this week so he will be off work at 4:00 every day so we can spend our evenings together. That is good.

hi, its me again

I’m home! I am so happy to be back. My mum had the kids yesterday so I took a cab to her house after I arrived. The car pulled into her driveway and I saw Omi. Kenzie and seb standing in the window banging on the window, waving madly and blowing kisses. I was so tired but I couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear. Then when CJ came to pick us up there I felt so happy. Damn I missed my family so much. It was so good to sleep in our bed last night and to wake up and have our regular weekend morning cuddle-fest in our bed this morning! I am a happy lady today. Oh and this is what I saw when we walked in the house yesterday. How did I get to be so lucky?



So, going back a bit… I finished my last meeting on Thursday at about 4:30. Hadley and I were talking to each other on our cells trying to figure out where we were so we could meet up. I’m on my phone saying “where are you? I’m on the corner of Pine and 5th….” And she says “okay, I’m ummmm…. Let me see, right across from Nordstroms on Pine and 5th”. I look up and we are standing beside each other – I mean – like 2 feet apart!!!. Ha ha ha. There was a guy on the corner who looks at us and laughing says “HA! Thank you for letting me witness that… that was awesome!”

Anyhow, we ran into the Gap so I could buy myself some comfy clothes to change into (I didn’t want to wear my work clothes out). After that we got in Hadley’s new Tourag (COOL car!!!) and picked up Karen and headed to the Lucky Seven. I think the stress of the week got to me… the drinks were going down way too fast and I had a great time! Thanks Hadley, Karen, Dawn, Sam, Deb, Steve and Nabila for coming out. It was so awesome to see you again.







damn, I STILL had a double chin!


Karen - great shot!


I have to give a special shout-out to Sam! Thanks so much for driving me back to the hotel and for taking us to the old Fred G Meyer on the way so I could pick up the toys for the kids (Steve, we looked for the Xbox game for CJ but they were out of stock…. My mission today is to find it for him!). Sam, the toys were HUGE hits!



Anyhow, I’m glad to be home, and looking forward to our weekend. The kids have there first gymnastics classes tomorrow. I can’t wait to watch them. I think it’ll be super cute!

the view from my hotel room this morning

Thoughts from the plane…..

So I’m on the plane now between Minneapolis and Seattle. I have some pretty wide-ranging mixed feelings. On one hand I am nervous – I am going to Seattle to do some work that has could be somewhat contentious (or even hostile); and on the other hand I’m excited - I am looking forward to seeing my friends on Thursday night – but frustrated that that might be my only opportunity to see them and so sad that CJ can’t be with me; I am looking forward to having some me-time – even if it’s limited to getting ready for work in the morning in an un-frenzied environment; but mostly I am so sad being away from my family - I am such a homebody and family person. I often miss CJ and the kids when I am just at work for the day. We had a wonderful weekend which makes it even harder to go away.

To add to my mixed bag of emotions, a) I feel bad for leaving CJ at home with all the child responsibilities, b) since having kids I have become very anxious about flying, c) they just made an announcement asking if there was a doctor on-board and d) this flight was delayed for hour and a half because of a “potentially dangerous dent” which was then deemed to be “safe”. I am supposed to be picked up at the airport by a coworker who I’ve never met (no idea what he looks like or how I will know who to meet) who will then drive us to a meeting. Now I don’t know if he will wait for me and if he does will I cause us to be late for the meeting.

Anyhow… so there is my mind dump.

Back to the weekend. I don’t feel like writing about all the typical Easter stuff. Suffice it to say that the kids had fun, were well behaved and ate far too much chocolate. We had a really nice family dinner at my mum’s house and everyone seemed to get along. CJ and I also got to have a really fun time with some friends who came over on Friday.

BUT something that warms my heart every time I think about it was how my sister interacted with Kenzie and Sebastian. Andrea was is taken by Mackenzie. I can see it in her eyes. I truly believe that Andrea loves that little girl as much as she possibly could (as much as she would her own daughter?). It makes my mother’s heart smile so big. It’s also so nice to see Andrea developing a relationship with Sebastian. It was sweet when Sebby told Andrea that he wanted her to sit beside him on the floor and then when he went and drew flowers on her hand.

Anyhow.. those are my random thoughts for the day.

Mother's pride #2

wow, I cant believe this. I posted a couple days ago about how proud I am of Mackenzie. Well this post is about Sebastian. We were watching the hockey game tonight and Kenzie was on the computer. She got bored and wandered off to play with something else. Sebby went to the computer and a couple minutes later I heard music coming from the computer. I looked closer and found out that this little guy had figured out how to use the mouse, to select various games off the kids website and was playing games on the computer. I am still completely amazed.

Here he is


Note, this is the same child who wore his spiderman swimming diaper to the pool today (on his head)


and here are some videos (Steve, I tried Google Video first but YOUR site was "not accepting videos at this time")

a mother's pride

I took kenzie to her swimming lesson yesterday. She was very excited about it.

When we got to the pool her teacher, Monica, did a role-call. Kenzie stepped right up and said "here" when her name was called. There were 4 little girls in her class. One of which was very apprehensive and didn't go in the water at all. The other three did great. I stood in the viewing area, beaming like an idiot the whole half hour. I saw that she easily made friends with the other girls and they giggled and chatted in between excercises. Kenzie also volunteered to go first with everything from the starfish, to blowing bubbles, to head in the water. and... get this... she even jumped in without holding anyone's hands. She's never done that before. and she looked so scared before. But she did it. My little girl did it. I was so damn proud of her. And you should have seen how proud she looked afterwards.

She was tired last night but I imagine it was a good tired. I love being a mom!

a kid in a candy store

In 17 days some of my scrapbooking friends are traveling hundreds of miles to stay at Casa De Ingram for a 3-day Crop. I am so darn excited. Yesterday I went and bought my supplies. My aim is to make Mackenzie’s baby album that weekend. I keep looking at these pictures and drooling. I know I will probably start the album before the MH folks arrive.

This is the album – I can put a picture of Kenzie in the front.


The paper. I love scrapbooking paper. LOVE IT!


The embellishments.


okay.... can I play hookie and go home now?

another weekend flew by

Another weekend has past. This was a pretty good one. On Friday night CJ went bowling with his coworkers so the kids and I were on our own. We actually had a really nice evening. They were good, didn’t whine too much, went to bed without a fuss. In fact, it’s one of the best evenings we’ve had for a while.

Saturday I took Sebby for his first swim lesson. It was the first time we went to this pool. It’s an awesome pool with a whole section for toddlers.



The water is only about 2 and a half feet high at the deepest part. It also has a giant whale slide for the little ones. Sebastian was great and had so much fun. (Kenzie came to watch, but in retrospect that probably wasn’t a good idea since Kenzie wanted to swim so badly and was jealous). She gets to go to her lesson this Wednesday though.

While the kids were napping Andrea came over for a visit and CJ went for a run. I think th epoor guy overdid it. He ran about 6 miles which is awesome. But he hasn’t been running too much lately so his muscles were somewhat sore for the rest of the weekend (note… understatement)

On Saturday night we dropped the kids off at Omi’s and we went to dinner and Cathy and Dan’s house. The dinner was great and it was so nice to see Cathy again. We had a great evening with lots of good conversation, plenty of CC & coke and many laughs. We also kept track of the scores from the hockey and basketball games. Dan makes the best pecan pie ever and is a Habs fan. Cathy – you chose well!

Yesterday I spent most of the day at the office while CJ hung out with the kiddos. He also took them to buy new shoes since they are out of the snow boots now and have outgrown last year’s shoes. They were quite pleased with their selections.



Tonight after the kids are in bed CJ and I are looking forward to sitting down and watching the basketball game – GO Buckeyes!!!

don't ask me to do something...

... if you don't want me to think.

I was asked to pull a proposal together. I got input from about 20 different people. I read their input, processed it, used some, discarded some. One of those people didn't appreciate me editing any of his stuff. If all he wanted was an administrative assistant he could have got one for a lot cheaper than me.