On the hunt.

I was on a mission today to find some Christmas decorations. The plan was a traditional Christmas theme. When I think Traditional Christmas I think of red and gold. I thought of cranberries and bows and wreaths. I picture red ornaments with gold sparkles, gold ribbons and a big gold star on the top of the tree. The more I pictured this red and gold them the more I felt like I was falling into the trap of another regular Christmas. So I convinced myself that I needed to do a more sophisticated Christmas theme. How about white and gold?! I can do that can't I? White vases, gold ornaments, gold and white ribbons. Even clear glass would go very well with this theme. Am I over thinking this? I try to picture myself as Sarah Richardson and add elegance into the room, not gaudy cheap junk. So I started my search a while ago for white and gold. There is an abundance of decorations out there, the stores are very limited to white decor and loaded with gold. The stores seam to have mostly items I don't care for or they have splashes of other colours which I did not factor into my plan.
So I sit here and ask myself, can children enjoy a gold and white Christmas or am I taking the fun out of it? What am I going to do when the kids bring home Christmas decorations in every colour of the rainbow. Do I put up a mini tree special for the non coordinating ornaments? Should I just break down and go with gold and red? Am I trying to hard to be grown up and think I need to do a more sophisticated Christmas scheme? Do you know that they even have black Christmas decorations out there, really they do!
So far the best place for gold decorations is HomeSense. The problem there is that they usually only have 1 box of what I like and since I am starting from scratch I need a few boxes of each item. So I will continue my hunt for gold and white. Who knows maybe I will end up with blue and silver!

Paint and more paint

I seem to be focusing on painting everything I see. First I started with a night table and covered the 70's style melamine in a vibrant hot pink. Then I salvaged a dresser and slathered on a coat of Heirloom white ( The process was much more extensive than "slathering on a coat"). Next was a nursery, two tone pink. Now I am daring the kitchen cabinets...

Oh the kitchen cabinets, I continue to have this crazy notion that I have time during the day to accomplish something grand. By the time 6pm rolls around I am fizzled out and scrolling around on the internet until bed time. So, my kitchen is a 1970's style kitchen with your standard cheap old cupboards. They still have the original bronze hinges on which I do like. They also have the tarnished copper pulls that I assume are original as well. What wonders a gallon of paint can do. I started out priming the cabinets. I decided to take one door down at a time. For some reason I felt that having numerous doors laying around and being able to see everything I own with respect to the kitchen visible would drive me bonkers. Well I guess I will go bonkers anyway. I like to think that I have some sort of order and structure, therefor I decided that I can control what gets painted and when. You heard it, I am in control. Ha. So for a few weeks I have been slowly getting a door primed, painted and attached back into its place. And, for weeks I have been living with paint cans, paint brushes, rollers and plastic drop sheets made out of garbage bags in my dinning room. But today, I can honestly say I am 40% done. What a relief, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Let me tell you, the kitchen looks like a new kitchen.

Now, I started by listing the items I have decided to paint but I forgot to mention the quick and easy task of painting the fireplace (Oh I am funny). This fireplace is a giant floor to ceiling fireplace that sits in the middle of the dinning room and living room. 4 tall and dark sides to be painted. The bricks are all jagged so it has to be painted with a paint brush and not by way of brush strokes....more like a stabbing motion in order to get all the paint in the nooks and crannies. So what I thought would be a weekend long affair has turned into an long term affair. I spend more time thinking about finishing this project than I do painting it. It has taken me over 6 hours just to paint approx 15% of this structure.

Jiggle Butt

Today was a fantastic day with my girls. Big O (aka Lidia, 2 1/2 months old) slept a lot today. She is such a happy child, thankfully because I have my hands full with Courtney 1 1/2 years old. We came back from groceries, I loaded them up in the stroller. I realized that my plan to tire C out won't work if she is just sitting there while I push her so I took her out. She loves walking beside the stroller. Chasing the birds, picking the flowers and wandering into other peoples yards. I looked up ahead and noticed that it was almost blurry straight ahead. Drip Drip, one by one the rain drops came down and then a torrential down poor. C just stood there as she looked very confused as to why she was getting a shower outside. I grabbed her and sat her in the stroller, made sure the canopy was covering Lidia and started to run home. I wanted to make this fun for C as I don't want her to be afraid of the rain. So there I was like a maniac, laughing and giggling waving my arms in the air as I run down the street pushing my kids. I am sure people saw me, given it is fathers day it seams that everyone on my street is a father and had company over. So I am sure someone was peering out the window just at the moment of my 'run by'.
I know I just had a baby but my lord, someone should have warned me about jiggle butt. I had jeans on, so atleast it is a thicker material as to not show every ripple as my butt is jolted by the collision of my foot and pavement. I have been saying for a while now that I should really focus on some cardio. Now I am at a fork in the road, I want to start jogging .... I don't want my jiggle butt to be the show of the evening. What to do, what to do?

4 1/2 Months later.....

Last night was a challenge Courtney's belly was bothering her and it took a few tries to get her to stay in bed. She woke up at 3am and clearly her belly was bothering her. She was crying in pain and crunching her belly up and shaking her arms and hands. She would cry herself to sleep and wake up 5 minutes later to another belly pain. I sat up with her until 7am and got Daddy to stay up with her and he was able to get her back to sleep at 8am. She had a good hour sleep this morning and she is awake now. We have a Doctor's appointment today because she will go a few days like this and then one good day of smiles and laughs, then take a turn for the worse again for a few days. We really need to figure this out, she is not crying for no reason.... she moans and wimpers and doubles up in pain. I can't imagine what I will do if the doctor tells me this is normal for a baby. I have seen babies cry because that is what they do, but I haven't ever seen a baby cry like this (for months) because of a sore belly. Keeping my fingers crossed that this is just something that can be easily fixed... I can't bare to see her like this much longer.

Baby Girl

Let me introduce to you the most beautiful baby girl ever! Courtney was born December 11 2007 at 7lbs 9oz. Her sparkling eyes were wide open with excitement and curiosity. I held onto her like a child holding onto the prized Willy Wonka golden ticket. She was mine and nobody could pry her from my arms at that moment in time.

Its a BLIZZARD

Since this is our first Winter here, we felt you should have some pictures of the Blizzard. The winds were over 100 km and hour. We lost power for almost 24 hours. The power cut out while talking to grandma on the phone. Damn cordless phones. ( not to worry I called her back). The first picture is Rocky outside on one of many trips for a pee. After Allan almost lost me to the wind he volunteered to take them out during the blizzard. The second picture is the streets signs right across the street which were hard to make out with the blowing wind. One of the signs was ripped off in the wind. The next is the remainder of a roof that was torn off a building called "Eight Story". Situated right beside ..... you guessed it " Six Story". The roof crushed a handfull of vehicles parked nearby and caused damage to some houses near as well.
When we get a storm like this Most people stay home. If the taxi's decide to call it a night and take the drivers off the road. All stores and offices and restaurants close down until the storm passes. Many of the locals are frustrated as the storms usually hit on a sunday, making it a beautiful work day on monday. lol.
We did notice a few people are risk takers and jump on skidoos (without helmets) to tour arround in the Blizzard. I think they are crazy.

Our Kids

Meet our two babies, Bailey and Rocky. They keep us very entertained in our small 2 bedroom apartment. It has been a challenge to move to a place where you can't just get up and go "somewhere". Having the dogs keep us busy while we are at home. I dont think we have managed to watch a full movie without taking the husky out for a pee. We wish we had a place that we could leave the husky outside as he likes just to sit in the snow and people watch. He is constantly asking to go outside. Bailey on the other hand cant wait for the husky to go outside so he has peace and quiet and doesnt have to worry about Rocky chewing on his ears or arms or leg........... you get the hint. I managed to wake this morning to a paw in the face from Rocky which gave me a bleeding nose. He wasnt too concerned!!