Bird is the Word

How does a bag on a head, coloured and shaped like a bird, sell clothes? By being totally cute!

Love Language

Steve treated the kids and I to a wonderful dinner and then to the Lego Movie. I first want to say that the Lego movie is AWESOME! I am still singing the Everything is Awesome song! Totally recommend this movie! The next thing I have to say is a little eye opening about myself. I find it hard to accept "gifts" from people, be it treating me and my kids to dinner and a movie or 3 day Comic-Con ticket passes. My mind somehow takes the concepts of gifts and turns it into pity or charity. The odd thing about that is it's exactly how I show my love language. I am fully willing to spend my last $5 on something for my kids or a friend if I know it is something that will make them smile. But the thought that someone might do the same for me doesn't sit well on my mind. When I want to show someone I have been thinking about them, I buy them something or bake them something. I love watching someone eat and appreciate something I have taken time to bake. It is no word of a lie that I get a better feeling Christmas morning watching everyone opening their presents than I ever do opening mine (not that I don't appreciate what I get!!!). I don't know when I started to reject gifts, maybe from not having very much money for so long, but now it is almost instinctual. Before the kids and I met up with Steve I had a long chat with them about not asking for things, about Steve's giving nature, that I was to hear NO gimmies. And Steve was. Generous that is. Asking the kids what they wanted to eat, what treats they wanted, where they wanted to wander while waiting for the movie. My kids aren't used to that. Being given options that cost money. And with each interaction I silently scolded my kids (with the "mom eyes") about asking for things and I kept saying that everything was too expensive to him. Then Steve said something to me while we were finishing dinner. He had a sad look on his face and said to me that he didn't want our only memories of the night being about money. And it's true. That was how I was turning our entire evening. And with that realization, even though I was cringing on the inside, I let it go. I went with the flow. I bit my lip and smiled and said thank you. And you know what? Everyone was much happier. Even me :-)

Bike Riding Boy!

Well, it is official! My boy can ride a bike! He might steer into the curb and randomly fall off, but he is a bike rider none the less! Also, legs are totally out of shape. Twice around the blog and my thighs are burning! New goal is to bike with the kids every day!

Budding

The buds are just starting to come out on the trees outside. Now that it is almost May, spring has finally arrived! I get this awful sense of dread when I think about the fact that winter is only six months away.....

Fajitas!

Dad and Sue were in town this weekend for a visit and Dad treated us to some delicious Lone Star. There is something about their tortillas that are just amazing!

Random Selfie

Random selfie for no reason. Woot. Just playing around with filters. Need to get my eyebrows done again....

I Scream for Ice Cream!

Who needs real food when you have THIS?! Until I get bored of being excited about price matching, expect a weekly shout-out of my jubilation over finding an awesome deal. This is $46.13 worth of ice cream. I paid $14.

This? Really?

You can practically read his indignant expression. "You choose to play THIS instead of petting me? THIS? The Sims is just a shoddy representation of real life! Bah! Humans!"

Spring Showers

Spring showers bring April flowers? First flowers I have seen this year in bloom!

More Pippin!

And Jeff! Yeah, I know the kitten has gotten a lot of blog time but just look at him! He is beyond cute!

The Easter Bunny Came!

I feel like I cheaped out on Easter this year but I am okay with that. Their baskets were filled with jelly beans, rabbit marshmallows, malt eggs, peeps and Cadbury cream eggs. I think that is enough right? It was hard saying goodbye to them at noon but I also got to go have Easter dinner with the Biggs which was really lovely! Big Lebowski? Why yes!

Easter Flowers

Flowers for Easter dinner courtesy of my Mom. Dinner was pretty good, and I think I made the best sirloin tip roast I have ever done! It was medium on the ends and rare in the middle so everyone got the cut of meet they wanted!

P.S. Sirloin tip roast regularly $22.94 purchased for 11.97. Have I mentioned price matching?

Chalk Portrait

Rowan, bless her heart, has a wonderful idea on what I look like. Also blond.

Parenting Win!

After just ten minutes of holding onto the back of her jacket, she started biking alone! After another ten minutes she stopped needing a push to get her started. Now if she could remember to ride on the side of the road and not the middle, things would be totally awesome! She is completely stoked!

Qu'est que c'est?

I used this today. Why? Qu'est que c'est? These are all questions you are probably now asking yourself. Well tough! It is a secret! BAHAHAHAHA! Ssshhhhhhhhh.....

Melon

No fail, there is always some melon or fruit on sale in price matching. My kids are adoring the fact that there is a ton more variety with their food. Anyone who knows me, knows how ridiculously happy I am about price matching. Getting a good deal is awesome. What is even more awesome is the fact that I have increased our veggie and fruit intake by over 50%. I still spend the same amount of money on groceries, I just get a bunch more for my buck, and I get a lot more variety to what I get. Go price matching!

Liberty Spikes

This is my first attempt at doing a Liberty Spike Mohawk. It isn't at streamline as I would have liked, and the spikes aren't exactly all the same size but I managed to pull it off in twenty minutes. I am going to go through my flyers and see if I can find a good quality hair spray on sale cause Alberto non-aerosol is not cutting it! For a first time, I am rather proud of myself!

Could it be?

Some of the first buds are starting in gardens. Not MY garden, but gardens non the less!

Magic Bag Goodness

Oh Magic Bag,

How I love thou!

You taketh my swelling,

and make my ear brand new.

Swelling with Emotion

\

I woke up yesterday morning (pictured here) with my ear swollen, warm, throbbing and with a pain radiating down my neck into the spot my glands are located. Instead of going to the doctor like any sane person, I, of course, decide to just wait it out. Listening to my Bestie resulted in me wearing my magic bag about my head for hours. Which seemed to do the trick! Woke up this morning with no throbbing, visible reduction in swelling, no warmth and only slight tenderness in my glands.

But as I go about my day today, and realize my greatest obstacles are my ear and how to make it to Nicole's on time I can't help but think about one of my acquaintances. Today is the day that she mourns the murder of her family. Twenty years ago today, she was in Rwanda living through the mass genocide. We like to think we have come so far as a people, but really, we are still just taking baby steps out of our caves. To think that we, as a people, have lived through a genocide in our lifetime is horrifying. Equally horrifying is the fact that there are still mass genocides happening in our world right now this very moment. Today my thought are with all the people in the world who have suffered, are suffering, are continuing to suffer.

To sleep, perchance to Dream. Spring?

When daffodils begin to peer, 
With heigh! the doxy, over the dale,
Why, then comes in the sweet o’ the year;
For the red blood reigns in the winter’s pale. 
The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,
With heigh! the sweet birds, O, how they sing! 
Doth set my pugging tooth on edge; 
For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.

Cuteness Collage!

Erin's kitten with a slimmed down name! I think Pippin fits him perfectly! If you couldn't guess, this kitten adores Erin and I am sure that Erin returns the sentiment. Other than being his jungle gym, this adorable little guy refuses to fall asleep unless some part of his body is touching Erin. So cute you could die. No really. That cute.

Chocolate Lava Cake

Directions:

1. Open box.

2. Follow directions on box.

3. Drizzle with chocolate sauce

4. Eat.

Echoes

This monkey is currently sitting at my dining room table, holding a handful of messy Munchkin cards, left behind and forgotten by children who rushed out the door to see their father after a week away. Somehow I feel kinship with this monkey, not due to my stance on the theory of evolution, but I empathize with the feeling of abandonment, the feeling of expectant waiting. Echoes of children who once brought life to these empty rooms now held in stasis, breathlessly awaiting their return. I don't have the heart to pack up the game or the monkey, somehow feeling just a little less lonely to eat my lunch with my new friend here.

Sushi, Steve and Success!

Thank you to Steve who took the family out for sushi! It's been so long! I don't know how neither Steve nor I managed to make it into the pics... Afterwards it was homewards bound to conquer board games!

Thank you Wil Wheaton!

Today was International Table Top Day! We spent our entire day rolling dice, flipping cards and destroying Tokyo. We played our new games: King of Tokyo and Castle Panic along with all our old games. I think we may have the rules kinda off for Castle Panic... We stayed up quite late and much fun was had by all!

Introducing Micah Ezekiel Apollo!

Big name for such a little kitty! This six week old boy was adopted by Nicole and family two days ago. When taken to the vet, they found out that he tested positive for Feline Aids. Because of their other kitty (pictured in blog last month!) they cannot keep this sweet little guy because Feline Aids is transmitted through blood to other cats. So if Jonsey and MEA were to give a swat or two at each other (as kitties are wont to do), there is a risk of infection for their other cat. In stepped Erin and Jeff who have been thinking about getting a kitty for a while and they agreed to take the little guy in. Retest for Feline Aids is this fall to see if he really does have the virus or if it was a false positive due to drinking his mothers milk and possible infection.

Goals

If you don't change what you are doing, you won't change where you are headed.

Short Term Goal #1: A job. That simple.

Short Term Goal #2: Become more active in my community and broaden my horizons. Join the Doctor Who Society of Canada, Ottawa Chapter, check out Steampunk Ottawa that I have been eyeing forever, join the Vaginal Fantasies Ottawa Book Club. Meet new people.

Long Term Goal #1: Write. Finish a book. I have a dozen books outlined or concepts or partially written. Finish one already!

Long Term Goal #2: Get my drivers license. Learn how to drive!

Long Term Goal #3: Travel somewhere this year. Somewhere out of the county. Take my kids on a vacation.

Spring?

Although the first official day of Spring was two weeks ago, it hasn't been till the last few days that it looks like spring might actually be making its way here. Little strips of sodden grass are begin to appear along melting snowbanks and the puddles collecting in the sidewalks and roads are enough to soak through even my most waterproof boots. It really felt like warmth would never make its way back into my world. Welcome spring!

Snirt

New vocabulary word for the day! Snirt! It is that beautiful layer of dirt that is laying so nicely on all of the snow that is finally starting to melt. Snow + dirt = snirt. Isn't it beautiful?