Few and Far Between
Unfortunately I am swamped with real life right now, so not much time for blogging. Or Facebook. Or Scrabulous! :-(
BUT, I had a lovely, if busy, January. My dh and some wonderful friends held a surprise party for me for my birthday. Which surprised me since my birthday was in December. It was a truly fun evening and now I have new jammies and jeans (although the jeans may go back, because I think they are too big) - thank you again, everyone!
#2 turned 6 and had a Fairy party that was magical for the kids and a crock for me as the parent who paid $140 + tax for a few stories, some dancing, Kool-Aid and wafer cookies that cost 2 cents each at the bulk bin at Save-On. However, the kids really had fun and that IS what counts. Right? Right? Here is a photo...
There is even more stuff happening next month and some very big plans. Can't wait for that. I will share more then.
Labels: Kids, Life
No time, but...
Lately I barely have a second to think. I have to keep going or I'll collapse. "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." Most of it is really good, unfortunately it all ended up being due or happening all in the same week. All of it. And that's this week. I was pushing to get my other stuff done last week, but it didn't happen. I don't seem to have enough hours in the day and where I used to steal them at night I have a toddler who thinks that's play time.
Ha! For who?
I think once this molar comes in for him it will be over. I'm praying anyway.
BUT, I have a new gadget and I'm thrilled. Not sure it will help me get more done, but I'm willing to use it to try.
My new cell phone is an HTC Touch.
I love my new phone. It is taking some getting used to, but I can do so many things with this. I love it. Not sure it's right to be in love with a phone, but I am. I can even read my eBooks on it. Now instead of dragging around my cell phone and an old Palm Vx and reading on a weird gray/green background, I can have both phone and book reader in one thing - in colour! And backlit! And I got a great deal, they even threw in a free music box and bluetooth thing. And, and... well, you probably don't care - go check it out if you do.
Meantime, I'm not really blogging much. If you need me - phone my new cell. If you want that # call my house or email me.
Labels: Life
Happy Anniversary Honey!
To my honey...
Like it says in our rings
you are mine
Sometimes I have wondered
how we made it to nine.
We've had bumps and rolls
and crazy tail spins
We lost it for a while, but
now we take it all in.
I look forward and see your face
I look back and the pain is erased
You are my future
You are my friend
I look foward to walking with you
on and on, to the end.
Corny, but true. Thank you for all you do and everything you are, thank you for #1,#2 and #3. I love you.
Labels: Life
PNE
This is what it looks like when you go to the PNE and forget your camera:
Your Spiderman looks more like Darth Mol, your princess has only half a face of makeup and your various paraphenalia and pop "bong" is all that is left of the day.
However, a good time was had by all. Although it certainly did not help us to overcome our various cold/flus. We felt great when we left for the PNE, but by 2 am this morning, the lack of any real nutritious food (I'm thinking garlic fries don't count! LOL), the long day walking in the sun and BAM, we are all down for the count again.
Oh well, it was our first time taking the kids and it was worth it to see the looks on the their faces. Perhaps next time we'll bring the camera and capture them in real time! :-)
Labels: Life
Watch out for those manholes
So this is what it looks like (partially) when you pull a cartoon trick and fall in to a manhole:
OUCH!
Labels: Life
Because Sara told me too
I'm updating. But I really got nothin' to say. It's been a crazy week. We went and saw houses, quite a few. We picked a house, we placed an offer on house, we negotiated, the offer was accepted, then our financing fell through 45 minutes later. We are approved for 95% financing and we still have a week to remove subjects, but the likelihood of us coming up with *cough* a LOT of money in a week is unlikely. Our mortgage broker is trying though so you never know. It brought a lot of weird issues to the forefront for me about family though. I'm not going to go into them here bcause I'm trying to suck it up and move on. :-)
In other news I had a great time at Sara and Nate's last week for her spa party, and I think I even made a new friend. We had so much fun and I didn't get home until very late. There are all sorts of other things I could say about that night but one of my best memories is of Sara and Becka doubled over and howling at something I said. THe sad thing is I don't really remember what witty thing I was saying. I'm sure it was great though! :-) I do remember the word plump. And yes, I'm sure I was describing myself. Good times, good times. I'd share pictures but then I'd have to kill you. :-D
Labels: Life
Days go by...
and I never seem to catch up. But that's ok. It's summer (or it will be soon, I'm sure. I see you, Sun, desperately trying to poke out from behind those clouds. You can do it!) and days go by randomly and fast. Our oldest is still in school, unlike most of our friends kids but that's ok too. That was a choice we made and for us, a good one. He loves his school and so do we. What a difference a year makes.
And--because I've shown a lot of #2 and #3 lately (let's face it, I'm home with them all day so they get more photo ops!)--here's #1
Happy Canada Day!
Labels: Life
I miss fresh air
and Starbucks :-( - it's now day 6 of the illness in our house and the third child went down today. I haven't been out of the house much since then ("then" being six days ago). I drove dd to school and picked her and
ds up from school on Monday, dashed to the store Tuesday night to pick up medicine, picked
ds up from school yesterday. There and back. No side trips.
No Starbucks lest someone get sick in the car, or worse, while we're waiting. Today a wonderful fellow blogger (thank you
LMR) was kind enough to pick up children's
tylenol for me (and some cute flowers - thanks again) as we ran out of that sometime in the middle of the night. The thought of dragging three sick kids in to the pharmacy did not thrill me. She was already going to the store so she offered.
So here I sit trying to eat my dinner and type my blog in peace. So far I've been interrupted twice in under five minutes. I have put them all to bed. Yes, it is early for one of them but this Mom is done. I made myself a nice salad and an interesting
quesedilla with salmon and brie and
sauted veggies. Could be weird but I needed to use up the salmon and the whole wheat tortillas so I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm sure I'll like it. I like anything salmon and cheesy.
Then later I'm going to have a glass of my favourite
shiraz cab. I tried a new one the other day and didn't like it. It was from South Africa and is called
Kumala or something - I'd get up to go look but I don't want to. I don't want to move - ever. I'm that tired. Last time
dh went to the Queen
Charlottes the kids (we only had two at that point but I owned my own retail store and worked more than full-time) got the chicken pox. I'm starting to think there is a reason they get sick when he goes away. I'm just not sure if it is telling me he shouldn't go away or that I need to be stronger or what.
I still have to clean the kitchen, put away dishes, and do laundry. Plus, I have some work to do. Wow, this post is pretty whiny sounding. I think I'll stop and just continue to eat my salad and look forward to my wine (to go with my whine!
LOL) and
quesedilla.
Labels: Life
Blogging, the bad blogger
I used to blog regularly and then it slipped away as I also blog on my writing blog. And then I just didn't feel the need to blog here. My personal stuff seems inconsequential, too personal or just plain boring. Maybe all of them.
Sometimes I want to say stuff and I'm not sure how. Sometimes I think I should just blog daily like 4ever29 since this is the year that I should remain 4ver39. How scary is that? When did I get to be this age? Maybe that's why I'm so tired.
My friend R wrote on her last blog about intentional relationships - living intentionally. That's really important and I try to do that. I'm not sure I manage it but I try. Lately dh and I have looked at our schedules and at each other and wonder where the we went in all of that. Yes, we had our date night, scheduled, but it was starting to become a time to discuss the kids, the house, and everything but just enjoying being us and being out, either alone or with friends. There was no we, family, we. Every single night was booked, every day too. Trying to fit anything in to that time on impulse very rarely happened. We are now going to intentionally back ourselves out of some comittments we made. They were good comittments and they were meant to lead us to where we are now but where we are now is a new place.
We need to spend more time together as a family (not just doing chores, running errands or sitting around watching tv). We need to spend time with each of our children (especially the older two) individually.
We also want to start spending time with our friends. Here, there and everywhere (sorry Dr. Seuss jumped into my post).
Anyway, this is starting to ramble and I now have two sick kids to care for so off I go. Dh leaves tomorrow to work in the Queen Charlottes so it'd be great if I could get them both better asap. Think it'll happen?
Labels: blog, Life
Book Release
My inspirational short story releases today. It is called
Love's Blessings and you can find it at
By Grace PublishingPrevious to this I have not promoted my writing here at all. I write mostly romance and for some reason felt the need to shy away from that. But you know what? It's what I write and I'm getting published and I'm happy about that. Everyone has pre-conceived ideas and, as such, that's why I was nervous to talk about it. I'm a sucker for a good romantic comedy, whether on the screen or on the page. Suspense? I love it...add some romance I love it even more. Did I expect to write an inspirational story about a couple who love each other but have lost sight of what they're doing together? Nope. But it happens. It happens in real life all the time. The only thing is you don't often get Happily Ever Afters. In my stories/books you do. I can't plan life. Only God can do that. But in my writing I get to assume that only the very best will follow the end of the book. And there's nothing wrong with that.
The story that released today received its first review the other day and got 4.5 hearts out of 5. I was scared to even look at the review but it wasn't so bad. I know there can still be some bad ones but in the meantime I feel good that my first review for my first story was good. You can read all about this at my writing blog
here. If you read this story you will see the ending is very similar to that of some people we all know. Strangely enough I wrote this story before I heard that news but nevertheless the similarities are there.
I intend to keep these two lives separate for the most part but since it is release day I thought I would let all of you know (all two of you that may still read this blog! LOL). I have another story under contract with
Wild Rose Press. I don't have a release date for this one yet but I should find out soon.
I have a longer book under conditional contract (which means they want to seem some suggested changes before I get to actually sign on the dotted line) with another publisher. This publisher emailed me last night to see if I would want to be an editor with them so it looks like I'll have another hat to wear.
All of the above publishers are epublishers. Which is not to say they don't publish "real" books but that the books are available as ebooks. Ebooks are becoming very popular as people can read on their pda's, specialised ebook readers, laptops and more. I read a lot of books on my palm pilot. Yes, there is still nothing as wonderful as a good book in your hand but, as with music, there are always new formats and generally ebooks are cheaper. At $10+ for a new book that is something (and hey my short story is only $1.49 USD in ebook format!).
I am at a writing conference next weekend where I will pitch a romantic suspense to Harlequin. Yes, Harlequin. That's the next step for me because the most I've been able to write and finish is 40,000 words and I need at least 60,000 for them. Can I do it? I sure hope so. Would I like to be published with someone else in NYC. Of course, but I can't see that happening for a while. Writing 80,000+ words is very daunting and with three small kids, at least for me, I just don't seem to have the attention span or time. Some day, maybe. But for now I am happy to be doing what I'm doing. I won't get rich (heck I might not even be able to buy pizza) from my short stories but if people enjoy reading what I write then I am happy.
Labels: Life, Writing
Welcome to Church
and "Faith the size of a mustard seed."
Two of my favourite quotes from the weekend and, surprisingly, not both from the same event.
Lastly, I would like to wish safe travels to my special singing sister (sorry for the corn, I was going for alliteration) and her friend. Don't forget the first bottle is on me!
Labels: Life
Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My
Or was that dragons and wolves and God, Oh my? In my house one never knows. Last week was interesting. I won't get into the dragons, wolves and God thing on here. Sufficed to say that #1 had a tough week last week.
#2 started watching Wizard of Oz and loves it. She's watched it several times. It goes well with her new McDonald's toys, which are probably the reason she now wants to watch the movie. #1 will not watch it. I think the flying monkeys scare him (and really who can blame him for that) and he has a vivid enough imagination anyway.
I went to a hotel on Friday night. Just me, myself and I. Yep, I discovered that I apparently have no idea how to relax. By the time I figured it out it was time to come home. Too bad, the bed in that hotel was awesome. Maybe next time I will take a tranquilizer and actually sleep.
My husband was baptised on Sunday and that made me happy. He's a good man.
Sold another short story to a different epub. Am very happy with that. My inspirational short is due out a week Friday and I am also looking forward to that.
Life is all sorts of things right now. Good thing I like Lions and Tigers and Bears.
Labels: Life
Then the whale blew up
It doesn't look like much from this angle...
but I guess trying to move a large plastic whale around a hot fireplace isn't the best idea...
Can you see the hole? Yes, you see that entire area is now located here:
Not sure if you can see the black blob above that is melted on the fireplace but that's the corner of the whale's tail.
This is how our day started with #1 child crying about his whale blowing up. We ended it with him crying about not getting ice cream because he and his sister didn't clean the play room like they were asked. Apparently "getting distracted" is a good excuse and they really should have been allowed to have the ice cream even though it took over two hours to actually clean the room and it was dinner time by then. He then decided he was moving out. Unfortunately the intended runaway place (Nana's) was unavailable since there was no one to drive him and Nana was out anyway. When he offered the option that Mommy or Daddy could baby sit Nana laughed for a very long time. :-D
Labels: Children, Life
Ink Stains
Especially when you suck it. Yeah, sucking ink is not usually a good idea. Of course babies don't know that so they do it anyway.
Talk about sucking...sigh...My back was turned for all of two seconds (max) yesterday and #3 got into my office garbage, grabbed the inkjet ink refill bottle and sucked on it. Somehow the lid cracked off and he was covered in black ink.
Normally he likes to get into my recycle bin and I let him play with the papers, that's what I thought he was doing as I stepped around my desk to see. Nope, he was in the garbage. I was like oh no, kleenex and what not, gross and leaped over to grab it away...and then he looked up. Covered in black ink around his mouth like something oozing...well oozing something. Oh, it reminded me of the the penguin from whichever Batman had Danny DeVito playing the penguin and he had that black stuff running down his face, only not as pretty! LOL
I should have taken a picture but all I could think of was to get him washed off as soon as possible. I wiped and rinsed and wiped and rinsed some more but his one hand was stained, as was his tongue. I managed to get a good bit of his face and lips clean. In the process of this I managed to get covered in ink. He was more mad that I took the ink away and was trying to get him clean.
I called Poison control and they assured me he would be fine, that it looked worse than it was and if I got the bulk of it washed off the stain would go away on its own. For having three kids that was my first call ever to poison control so I guess that's not too bad but sheesh. He obviously didn't swallow that much, if any at all, since his, er, movements were normal coloured.
All this happened right before I had to take #2 to preschool. It was lovely as #3 and I had matching blacky grey/green (it seemed to turn green as I scrubbed at it) hands.
Labels: Children, Life
Bad Blogger
I know I have been a neglectful blogger and I'm sorry. There was a while there that I felt my posts were all so depressing it ws better not to post. Since then life has been crazy busy with another round of illness for most of the family (dd was thankfully spared), a birthday for our youngest little man, a lot of unexpected work due to worship scheduling, and more. Our calendar was just very full.
I had to take a step back from bootcamp for a week because I was, and am, exhausted. I just didn't have the extra energy to expend and even though, this past weekend, I expended it doing something I love I now have a very weird voice that cracks and comes in and out and a chest cough that feels like I ran a million miles, as it really burns.
Now, although I have stated the above it is not to get anyone to feel sorry for me. I am in very good spirits despite this. I'm the only one who pushed myself to keep going seven days a week with all our duties and activities so I'm the only one to blame for being tired and getting a cold.
I have a full, rich life filled with people and activities I love (ok, well I don't love bootcamp exactly but I love what I hope it's doing for me! LOL). I'm a very lucky girl indeed.
Plus, I'm going on a cruise in September with my honey and a bunch of friends. Yeah, it's a long way away but I'm excited. Two days, count 'em, two days and two nights with my honey and no kids. That will be a first for us in almost eight years. We did get one night together last year but had the baby with us. The last time we had one night together without children was in September 2005 but even then I was pregnant so technically we still had a child with us! LOL
I'm going on a sea cruise, I'm going on a sea cruise....Sea cruise, baby, oh yeah... (ok, I can't remember the tune of that song I just know there is some corny song like that).
Labels: Life
Looking Forward
There are several things I am looking forward to this year:
- Cruising with my friends. Without my kids. It's a very good thing.
- #2 starts Kindergarten. That means 2.5 hrs EVERY day with just me and #3. Not that I don't love the other two. I do but maybe he will nap. Maybe there will be silence. Ahhhh, can you hear it? Yes, I will probably cry because it's gone so fast but still I will enjoy it too.
- Spending more time with new and old (not necessarily in years but that too - LOL) friends.
- Getting more physically fit. I have committed to doing a year of bootcamp. Not sure what I was thinking but I did it so...
- Seeing my inspirational short published. I even have a cover now even though it isn't out until April. It's an ebook but that's ok (although I think if it sells a certain number of copies it will go to print, although I'm not sure about that either since it's so short but now I'm just babbling so I will move on. Sorry, I'm excited).
- Celebrating the birth of #3. That's very soon. He'll be one. Where did the last year go?
- Starting the Girls for God ministry with the high school girls I lead at my youth group. We are starting with a pajama party and that will be fun.
- Watching my dh be baptised.
- Buying smaller clothes (hopefully).
- Watching #1 sing with Norman Foote at the ACT (if you are interested, and I KNOW you are, it is Wed, Mar 21st and you can buy tickets at the ACT).
- Watching #2 dance at the ACT (date TBA).
Labels: Life
I saw the signs
1. I had a resistance band snap back and bruise both hands. They've now healed mostly but my left forefinger has quite the lump.
2. I fell bruising and skinning my knee, getting rug burn on my hand and bruising another part of my body that obviously hit the ground first and that should not ever get bruised. I did this at a youth event. There's nothing like falling in front of teenagers.
3. Something that we were waiting on did not arrive leaving us in a bit of a predictament and forcing me to have to ask a favour of someone in order to finish something for someone else.
4. I got sick.
5. I had a disagreement with dh because we were both stressed out about #3.
6. A surprise I planned didn't turn out to be very surprising.
7. There was a weird thing with a friend.
8. I fell again. This time in the grocery store. I landed on my knees and pain shot up my back. I couldn't get up. I think falling in public is more embarassing than doing it in front of teenagers you know. Maybe not.
9. I haven't been able to sleep for several nights. Most of the above things swirl around my head with the addition of a few others.
What does it all mean? Just a few bad things in a small space of time. Not a big deal but sometimes I wonder why. I guess it all comes back to that faith thing. Every time I get going strong something comes back and knocks me down a few pegs. It's interesting. That's all.
Labels: Life
15 Things I learned (or possibly re-learned) this week
- It's fun to go out with friends, with no kids around to distract you.
- Waiting for food and/or service, even with fun friends, sucks.
- When waiting for said food or service, I get easily distracted because I am so impatient that I can't concentrate on anything other than the fact that I am waiting and should not be.
- Good food rocks!
- Sometimes boys you thought were really nice, sweet boys have a side you didn't expect to see and it makes you laugh so hard you are almost crying.
- When you don't drink very often a couple of glasses of wine make you silly.
- Trying to let your baby cry it out for his nap in his crib because he's really tired doesn't work so well when he has soiled himself and you don't realise it.
- Our babysitter is amazing and we love her.
- I miss my husband when we don't spend alone time together even though we're in the same house at the same time.
- I used to be a workaholic and still have those tendencies when other things are more important.
- I've got good kids.
- When I get something stuck in my head it is really hard to get it out even when I know I need to move on.
- I love singing with my kids.
- I kind of sort of like bootcamp (sshhh, don't tell my body cause it still hurts).
- I have a good life and I'm very blessed.
Labels: Life
Let me out
I need a break.
I got a call on Tuesday from school telling me #1 had thrown up all over himself and his desk and could I come get him. Wonder what they would have done if I said "No thank you." Ha. OK, yes, I felt bad for him. Poor little guy. He came home and didn't move off the couch and if you know my #1 child you'll know that is unusual. I even got him to take a nap. A NAP!
On Wednesday I thought he was better but I kept him home anyway, just to be sure. Oy (no, I'm not Jewish but that two letter sound completely works in this situation). I get #2 to preschool and decide we must go grocery shopping (which we didn't do on Tuesday because #1 was sick) or there wouldn't be a lot of dinner options. In addition, I needed to get party goodies and organise #2's party for Sunday. I spent a lot of time at the store reminding #1 that Christmas was just here, it was #2's birthday and to stay with me. Thankfully #3 fell asleep so that was something. By the time I got out of the store my nerves were almost shot. And, oh look, preschool was almost over and it was already time to pick up #2.
On Thursday the plan was to send #1 to school, he had been perfectly fine all day Wednesday. That is until I heard that wonderful sound (at 5:30am no less) that means we need to get a bucket (sorry). Great, another day home with all three (believe me when I tell you that I adore my children but they are very high needs in different ways so school is a good thing). And Thursday is my nice pj day since #1 normally has choir on Thursday and #2 doesn't have preschool so I don't have to go anywhere until 3. It is a nice thing. On Thursday night dh is a youth leader so he's not home and #2 chose yesterday to cry at every small infraction and sometimes at nothing. #3 is also cranky, I'm not sure whether due to teething or something else.
By the time dh got home last night I was craving me time. I don't even know what me time is anymore. Is it bootcamp? Well, not really, because while I'm doing that for myself and my health it is not necessarily something I love to do. I was needing a "Calgon take me away" moment. Unfortunately, while we have three bathrooms in the house only one of them has a bathtub and since #1 had just had a bath before bed it was full of toys. It defeats the purpose if you have to clean it before getting in.
So, I'm still waiting for my Calgon moment. I suspect I won't get it for a while. As usual we are very busy and dh has been working very hard the last few weeks and is very busy at work. I'm thinking a trip to a spa is in order very soon. Luckily my dh is also wonderful that way and I know he'll want to buy me that for Valentine's Day (once I suggest it to him! LOL).
Labels: Life
Sad
The news, that most of you know about by now (and should become common knowledge by today or tomorrow), that I heard on Sunday has left a lingering sadness in my heart. I know there are reasons for the decisions that have been made. I have talked to the people making the decisions and I know they are at peace. I am still sad. As much as I have joked about things always being done a precise way, I was used to that and I had become good with that.
To be welcomed when you first join a community is a good thing, and this person welcomed us with open arms. Was the first person to do so, and the reason, at first, we kept going back. To bring my dh into a world that he was stepping into tentatively was hard for me and for him, especially where we were in our marriage at that time. This person prayed for us, talked with me, helped us both through a pretty rough time even though he had only just met us.
Things change, life goes on and several years later, with small groups, children the same age, various admin tasks I do for church, handyman stuff dh does for the nursery, many other things and our lives often intersect. We consider them friends. To not have that presence there will change the face of our church, will change the way it operates. Change is not necessarily bad and only time will tell.
God will lead the way and I have also accepted that. That does not make me any less sad. I am an emotional person, have pretty much always been one but this last 18 months even more so (probably due to #3 but that's ok he's worth it). I'm not good at hiding the way I feel about things and perhaps even say the wrong thing at the wrong time, although I am trying to be better at this. I don't mean to. I just feel stuff very strongly. For those of you who aren't emotional, you might not understand.
I am emotional yet oddly practical. Life goes on. The changes in my own life in just a three year span are absolutely mind-boggling.
So now that I'm rambling I will end with this. I know this change will do some good for all involved but my heart still hurts and I think that's ok.
Labels: Life
