sun and nuts

Little surprise on our back deck this morning : peanuts, some chewed up, some whole. Half a dozen or so.

No big deal really, unless you have a son with peanut allergies!!!!! Those da*n chipmunks!! We must have a neighbor who feeds them, great. The war is on, they will have to vacate our premises!! The chipmunks that is.

I'm off to bed, exhausted after a day of packing. We are flying to Florida tomorrow and now they are calling for freezing rain , lovely!!

So tune back in 2 weeks time :)

head and toes

head and shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes, knees and toes...
(sorry, had that silly song in my head)

Yesterday I took care of some of my body parts: head and toes actually.

In view of my upcoming trip to warmer climes, I indulged myself by booking a pedicure in order to convert my toes from the dried up winter look to a softer well-manicured summer look including a smashing blood red color for the toesies.

Now, I'm a stickler for details when I go to spa-like places. I mean, its all in the atmosphere right. that's what you're paying for. So this place is beautiful. Beautiful chairs with a sunk-in foot bath complete with massaging jets. The place smells good, essential. The lighting is nice and soothing. The girl pleasant enough (although i ended up with Rebbecca instead of Nelly, wonder whatever happened to Nelly, but anyways whatever). So my feet are happily soaking away and I'd love to get a back massage from that fancy chair while I'm at it. Press all the buttons doesn't work. Tell the girl who replies: "oh I'll get someone to look at that". So I wait. And I wait. I'm one of the quiet non-complaining ones at places like this. A while later, I mention it again: "no problem, someone is on their way". Yeah right, no one ever came. So then she leaves me there with paraffin on my feet and no massaging chair, oh well, I'll just sit back and have a snooze. I'm the only one in the place. I close my eyes and try not to think of the million things I have to do. Relax, I coerce myself. But I'm sitting next to the employees lunchroom-restroom I take it. And I can hear them coming in and out, in and out, laughing and giggling, even as bold as slamming the door. I just wanted to yell: DOn't you know its a spa here!" Ok, sit back, relax, let's concentrate on that new agey music they always play in these places. So I'm listening to it, but I also hear a rock and rolly upbeat sounds emanating from just beyond another wall, where the hair salon is. Cripes.

Anyways, all in all it was still OK and my toes do look yummy.

So while there, I figured I'd get my roots looked after. Yes, those darn white hair where showing through and there's no way I was leaving looking like that. Part of me thought of doing it at home myself but I figured, what the heck, since I'm there already lets go for the total indulgence. So my usual hairdresser (well I've only really seen her 3 times) wasn't there so I got someone else. Nice enough girl it seemed. She looked up the notes of hairdresser #1 to determined the color to use (as I went much browner the last time there). She puts the goop on. I sit there sipping a tea and getting updated on celebrities lives. Rinse it off, she goes extra slow, gives me an non-ending scalp massage. Nice. But then my radar goes up. Something is wrong. I can feel it. She's stalling for time. I can be quite intuitive that way.

Back to the chair, yep, I can see why. I no longer have roots, I have RED roots. VIOLET-RED hair. I'm trying not to cry. She's mumbling away hairdresser jargon, whatever, just fix it. So she put on some toner, left that on, and pretty much rectified it. I was in there a whole lot longer than anticipated. And I had planned to do so many other things. Rats.

But man, I'm so unlucky with hairdressers. Like the time as a teenager in the 70's when perms where all the rage. Went and had one done and my hair got fried, really fried, had to cut it off. Or this other time my hair turned green. When I moved to Ottawa, found this nice girl Tracey, followed her from salon to salon (6 in all), man these hairdressers love to move around...lots of "office politics" I guess. She eventually gave me a phone call saying she was no longer working. Bummer. Then hooked up with this effeminate Lebanese guy. Stayed with him for a few years. But he stopped listening to me. I'd go in wanting something and always left with puffy hair with lots of hairspray. Would end up going home and washing my hair. For a while, I did the home thing. The fight with the grey hair became more vicious. I did my own color for years and even went as far as cutting it myself. While pregnant, I even resorted to natural hair products. All worked well but hair was dull. I was longing to have hair like the movie stars in magazines. Then found this nice Portuguese guy who had been at his salon for 20 years or so. Phew, a stable one. Haircuts were great, got bold, went for highlights. Then went for root touch-ups. Another nightmare appointment, was there for 4 hours, urghh.

What is it with me, do I have bad hair karma? Is it our well water that does weird things? Is it my hormones/body composition? I'm generally pretty easy going with my hair, like whatever, it grows back is my philosophy. But when I pay for a service (and service industry was my livelihood when working) I expect the best treatment all around. I just want to find someone who knows what they're doing and blindly going there and getting things done. Is that too much to ask?

that mouse thing

See that little ticker in the corner? 4 days till Florida, 4 days till we hit Disney, first time ever with the kids. Last time hubby and I were there was 20 years ago, on a sweltering August Day, waiting in line trying not to collapse from heat exhaustion.

I should be ecstatic, right? Actually its stressing me out. I'm not a big fan of theme parks, or big thrill rides or cutesy Disney characters. Neither is hubby. I'm not a big fan of huge crowds. I'm dreading long line-ups. I'm dreading whiny tired hungry kids. I'm dreading having to negotiate where to go and when, in order to satisfy everyone's needs and desires while in the park. The hotel room looks pathetic for what we are paying. But its the only one we could get for a family of five on the resort itself without dishing out tons of our savings. Family of five are considered abnormal in Disney world , a family of four is normal. I just bought our entrance tickets for the 5 of us for 3 days...its a total rip-off. 9 year olds and over are considered adults. No wonder people save forever to come here. We've already spent more on 4 days here than we usually do for a whole 2 weeks away. And we haven't even arrived yet! We usually stay places where we are in control of what we eat, as in having our own little kitchen. But not here. We will be trapped in the land of the outrageously overpriced and nutritiously questionable sustenance for 4 days. And then big sis asks: "what happens if it rains while we are there?" Well, we still have to go, its already payed for. Amazing how we have to pay for everything ahead of time. What a gimmick. There's something about the whole commercialism of this whole thing that's bothering me. Who knows, maybe I'll think otherwise afterwards. But for now, I'm quite skeptical. I'm waiting for that infamous Disney magic to do its thing.

Ah well, this IS for the kids. Hope they enjoy it. I will just have to take lots of deep breaths and hope we don't loose each other. I figure our true vacation, hubby and I, will start once we are out of the reach of that little mouse with the funny ears.

joe update

Session #5 with joe. Each one so far has had a "theme" along with questions to get thought processes going. Today's theme: life style health habits...didn't fare too bad there too...write down goals (done), keep a daily journal (guess this blog counts), eat frequent smaller meals (working on that), strength train 3x/wk (more often than not), plan meals ahead (as much as I can), create a workout schedule (most of the time), sleep 8 hours a day (most nights).

Last week wasn't that great, 3 days with NO exercise and it actually bothered me and going out and having pizza and beer one night didn't help either.

My workout session wasn't that great today either. Somehow, I wasn't as strong as I usually am. P*ssed me off a tad. One week of not doing as much was a step back. He said it happens to everyone, we'll have weaker days than others. What will 2 weeks of being away to Florida do? Of course I will try to walk and bike and swim and maybe go to a gym as much as I can and consciously eat healthy, but it is a holiday after all .

And the slow progress of this all. I'm seeing this long road ahead of me and feeling a little discouraged today. A whole month of working at it, exercising, eating healthy, reading health books, putting it all on the forefront of my consciousness and that da*n scale barely moved. Da*mit. I lost weight faster with WW. Combine that to the fact that I was aiming this whole fitness routine to our Florida departure and here I am a few days away and not that much further ahead as when I started it seems.

All right, snap out of it. At least I'm doing something. Its GOT to be better than not doing anything at all. There's got to be internal changes I'm not seeing.

And now, gotta get into the packing mode. I LOVE traveling but I HATE packing. How to pick which shoes to bring, which clothes, is it too much, is it not enough. AND I have to worry about myself and 3 other human beings...hubby only worries about himself ;) All right, off to try my bathing suits and shorts, urghhhh.

tgif

Fierce snowstorm outside, tons of boring income tax paperwork to do today, really bad menstrual cramps, just want to curl up in a ball with my favorite pj's and a good book...but I have to think about getting supper ready soon, gotta go pick up the twins at preschool, bring big sis to badminton later and buy two birthday presents from the twins for yet another b day party they are going to tomorrow. So I thought I'd take a break and do something fun thanks dani and loukia)...most probably my mood today made me into Bert! Thank God my hair doesn't look like that, but then again, not that much better today...a really bad hair day :(

You Are Bert




Extremely serious and a little eccentric, people find you lovable - even if you don't love them!

You are usually feeling: Logical - you rarely let your emotions rule you

You are famous for: Being smart, a total neat freak, and maybe just a little evil

How you life your life: With passion, even if your odd passions (like bottle caps and pigeons) are baffling to others

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

an old new game

Usually when hubby goes away, even for a week-end, he'll feel compelled to bring something back for the kids. After having exhausted all possibilities of trinkets from airports, I've had to tell him to stop this practice. The first few times, i even got stuff from the dollar store which he "gave" them. But on his last trip, he brought something back, kinda for me:

A book on Chinese Jump Rope, by Klutz.

He said it caught his eye as he was walking past a store in the airport and he knew how much I loved playing this as a child. I was so excited to get this! Leafing through teh pages, all those moves done a gazillion million times so many years ago, came flooding back. I played this game ALL THE TIME. I was neighborhood champ. And having a mom working in a clothing manufacture, I always had quite a few sets of elastics. I played till it got dark out,every day. If we didn't have enough players, we would improvise and use a chair or a reticent grown-up or a lamppost. Talk about being in shape, pure aerobics ;)

I am so glad someone thought of immortalizing this game in a book. And with spring now in the air, I can't wait to introduce this to my girls!

body and soul

Last night, after dropping off the twins at yet another Cosmic Adventures' birthday party, I headed with big sis to The Scotia bank Place for an evening of music. Her godmother got us two tickets. So we joined her and a few other people we know in a booth. We went to see Josh Groban. Now, I have to admit, I had never heard of him before. So what an awesome pleasant surprise it was. He's wonderful to look at and his voice is purely magical. Great songs in Spanish, Italian, English and even one in French. Great that I actually understand all those languages;) It was an evening great for the soul.

And now for the body. I just came back from the gym. Session #4 with Joe. Nutrition discussion today. I also asked him to remeasure me cause I wanted/needed some tangible results to keep me going. Sure I feel stronger, I'm lifting more and more wights and feel generally better.

So here is where I'm at, after 3.5 weeks of my new commitment to improved fitness: lost 3 pounds, lost 2% body fat and lost 5 inches overall. Small baby steps, but surely steps in the right direction.

Body and soul. Both in a good place today. And that's a good thing.

a perfect week-end, part 2

We just got back from skiing. I'm pooped. I asked big sis if she can look after her siblings for a bit while I take a nap. Look closely, that's me on the couch!! So she makes up this game. She always makes up games. She has tons of creative juices. And lately we've been fortunate to be in a really good place in the tween-nearly-teen roller coaster of emotions/moods. She grabbed my camera and after taking a picture of herself in the mirror, she proceeded to take close to 25 pictures of all sorts of little things around the condo. Then with a timer in hand, she would show her siblings a picture on the viewer and they had to walk around the condo to find what she took a picture of and report back to her and she would write down how long it took them to find it. Brilliant!!! They had a blast and I had a well deserved siesta. What a great big sis she is. I will always remember the day hubby and I told her that we were expecting. She responded with all the seriousness that a nearly seven year old can muster "well, its about time!" And when we told her it was twins, she exclaimed with utter joy "All right! We are finally going to be a real family!!"

Another funny thing happened last week-end. The twins, after some deliberation, came up to us and asked if they could sleep together. Usually the sisters sleep together in one bed, hubby and I and baby boy in the other (with me more often than not ending on the couch in the middle of the night due to constant kicking from baby boy, his legs never stop even when sleeping). So of course, we let them. SO CUTE. Them getting ready for bed, and cuddling together and talking till Hypnos came to get them. What a special bond they have.

All right, off to finish unpacking! Funny how a 2 day family getaway means 2 days of preparation and 2 days of unpacking for mom ;~/

a perfect week-end

We couldn't have picked a better week-end to go away. The weather was absolutely perfect. The snow conditions too. The lineups at the lifts nearly non-existent. All 3 kids were in a great mood. And we skied. And skied. Till my legs couldn't anymore. The first week-end ever that we skied both days, with all 3 kids, up and down the mountain. They had a blast. I will never forget the look of joy on their faces. The laughter emanating from us all. What a great sport to do as a family. And my heart was bursting with "proud-mommy" juice. The little ones did awesome. What great stamina and how quickly they learn. We even took them down an intermediate run!

What a workout walking around with ski boots, backback
and carrying two sets of skis and poles!!

Love taking that gondola up!

Snack time!

meet joe

The new man in my life. Not a chance encounter yet we were put together at random. I will be meeting him at least twice a week over the next few weeks. So far so good. We seem to get along and he seems to know what he's doing. He's already motivated me a whole extra level and made me consider new things.

Joe is my personal trainer. Yep. I finally have one. One of my life goals reached. Never too late to fulfill a dream! I've never been super athletic but generally strong. But at this point in my life, I want to get serious about getting as fit as I can. I met with trainers here and there over the years. But this is different. Hubby got me a 12 session package with him. Two down already.

So for the past two weeks, I've been going to my new gym and enjoying it. More than I thought. I was doing my own thing and already feeling stronger.

Session One with Joe:
Review of my goals, measurement of resting blood pressure and heart rate. Discussion of my training heart rate. And now that I have a heart rate monitor watch, I've come to realize that I don't always bring my heart rate high enough while exercising. Something to work on. This chit-chat followed by some weight training and a grueling session on the stair master (which I would have gotten off of if he wasn't right next to me!).

Session Two with Joe: After the usual cardio and weight training component, he had me step on a machine to analyze my body composition. Now THIS was a wake-up call. My %body fat is high (no surprise there) but when he quantified that by saying I was carrying 76, yes seventy-six, pouinds of fat, I was in total shock. Those values put me in the "obese" category. Yikes!!! Not enough muscle mass, too much fat mass. Got my work cut out here.

So one day at a time, that's all I can do.

The key to success is patience and persistence.

back to square one

So after months of pondering, I registered the twins for first grade next fall at big sis' old school. We visited, met with the teacher, filled all the forms. That was two weeks ago. I was in bliss. Happy and at peace with finally reaching a decision. All is well, right? NO. All is not well. I'm back to square one and the anxiety is driving me berserk.

You see, there's this other school. It finally opened four years ago. I say finally as for the last 10 years I was marginally involved with trying to get it set up in our neck of the woods. It operates under the catholic school board but follows Montessori principles which I really, really like. When it opened, I didn't end up transferring big sis to it as she was in fourth grade and her friends at that point where most important to her. When the twins were born, I said, Yeah, they'll be able to go! I even pre-registered them FOUR years ago! It's a small school, everyone knows each other, small classes and the kids wear uniforms (which I also like). But over the past few years there's been problems with the direction. The principal has been off on stress leave for the past 3 years and there's been one interim principal after another which creates a certain lack of leadership/direction/management. Some parents have been frustrated and pulled their kids out. There's also an issue that there is no busing provided for this school so kids need to be driven back and forth. Some parents have had issues with that and pulled them out. I had a major issue with that as I didn't want to commit being a chauffeur for the next 6 years.

So what changed my way of thinking?

Two things, no, three.

Last week-end there was an article in the newspaper which gave ratings of schools according to those ministry tests given to 3rd and 6th graders. This school came out FIRST...out of the whole province, out of over 3000 schools tested!!! It got an overall mark of 10/10, given to a handful of schools province-wide. Now that got me thinking, really thinking.

AND THEN, I learn that the school board has finally approved the school for busing! No need to drive them back and forth.

And there's also the fact that I'm really pleased with the high school that big sis is attending. This is the high school all the kids at this school would go to. And a very small part of me likes the fact that it is catholic, like to have that extra dimension thrown into their daily lives.

Called the school this morning. Turns out the secretary is a mom I know and she was all excited to hear baby girl and baby boy would be attending! So she'll be sending me all the official forms to fill out.

Shhh, don't tell anyone, but I'm registering them at two schools that way I have more time to ponder and agonize, lovely ;)

st valentines

We went the home-made route this year for the twins. An easy and inexpensive project for them. Got some paper doilies and stickers from the dollar store and they just went ahead and decorated and signed their names on the back. Easy shmeasy but still cute.

Big sis, first year where she didn't bother with making cards. But at the last minute this morning, she grabbed a few heart shaped lollipops we had to distribute to friends at school.

Tonight, our traditional chocolate fondue! Off to farm Boy to get lots of fruit!! Yum!!!

a week in retrospective

Kids are finally in bed. I survived yet another 4 days with hubby out of town. He should be arriving something around midnight later on tonight. He didn't really feel like going and said he won't be going again for a while. He was missing his family before he was even gone. And the kids were all missing him too, moreso than previous trips.

This was week #1 on my new road: seriously and powerfully committed in reaching a healthier level for myself. The new gym I joined finally opened its doors and I'm really loving it. I'm finally doing what I've been wanting to do since the twins started school. I think the group atmosphere is working for me now. Tired of doing things alone at home I guess. I'm patting myself on the back for actually making it there a total of 5 times this past week! Two sessions of Bodypump (a cardio-weight training group workout with great loud music), two sessions of weight training (one being an initial session with a trainer which was awesome, looking forward to the next ones and seeing my strength improve, been) and one hour of yoga which I really, really loved. Add to that 2 hours on the canal last Sunday and one hour toboganning and one hour skating in our backyard today and I've pretty much did some form of exercise daily. And it was actually fun! I am not doing this solely for weight loss (although I do hope all this effort will result in that eventually) but mostly in keeping my body strong, firm and flexible.

Of course, exercise is just one factor in the big equation. Diet is key too. And not diet in the context of a quick fix starve myself diet, but more of a mind-set where I make a conscious effort daily in eating healthy and in moderate amounts. And of course, the whole family benefits too. Not that we were ever that far from healthy eating so its really just some fine-tuning. This past week was pretty great in this area too. Strayed a bit off course when I went to Pizza Hut with the kids and another husband-out-of town mom and her 3 kids for supper one night and I had a beer but managed to have only one piece of pizza and loads of salad. And today I had a few Timbits when we went to a local arena to watch a friend's 8 year old play hockey ;)

On other news, my dad went to the hospital for a little dermatological procedure, again. He had this lesion on his ear and after tons of prompting and persuasion had it checked and it turned out to be squamous cell carcinoma. He had it excised two years ago and it came back. So off he went to get it removed again. He had the same thing on his leg a few years back. And this a man who has worked indoors all his life. Makes you think twice about the merit of sunscreen, which he hasn't used regularly, and more personally makes me wonder if I'll be predisposed to those types of lesions myself. For a 10 minute procedure done under local in a regular exam room, he was at the hospital for a total of 6 hours. He had been there waiting for 4 hours already when this other patient arrived: obviously a prisoner, with shackles and accompanied by 3 guards...he didn't have to wait, they brought him in right away...in and out in half an hour flat...and he didn't have to pay for parking either...my dad was ticked, especially since we had just finished talking about this story which I won't even comment on cause I don't have anything nice to say about it.

And big sis has simply been the best these past few days. No talking back, being responsible for herself and EVEN picking up her room with very little prompting. The twins went to a birthday party at the local YMCA last Saturday and she asked to go along with them. The birthday mom didn't mind the extra pair of hands with 10 5-6 year olds. And I got TWO full hours to myself (went shopping and got myself something for a change and went to the gym too). She did great there. She definitely has a natural knack to taking care of younger kids. She showed that ability again today when we babysat my godchild, the cutest 2 year old. She had all sorts of games and activities lined up for him and the twins. I was mostly relegated to the background preparing meals, cleaning up and managed to do all my laundry too!

Add to all that, mom's taxi service tos chool and back, dance lessons, badminton, greek school, gymnastics and a long overdue date with a friend for tea one evening (divorced, remarried, long story) and a parent teacher night another evening...so no wonder blogging took the back burner.

But I'm all set for another week :)

here we go again

Last week, I kept the kids from school one morning to bring them to an open house at the school they will be attending starting next September. First grade. Already. Big lump in mom's throat here.

Seven years ago I went through this common ordeal that parents face: selecting a school for their wee ones. Visited a few. Talked to hords of other parents. And for a mutitude of reasons, made a final selection. It turned out fine. Big sis went to that school for 6 years and she did well.

So seven years later, for the sake of being thorough and most probably anal, started looking at the options available for the twins. Visited a few schools. Talked to hords of parents.

So last week, the twins and I returned to big sis' former elementary school. It was like returning home. The principal, the secretaries, the teachers all came to say hello and "how's big sis doing in high school?" and "are those really the twins? starting already?" Most of them have lived through my pregnancy and saw them on several occasions over the years. The kindergarten teacher assured me that the group of kids my little ones would integrate with next year are great. The first grade teachers were there too and they got to meet them. We discussed how I would like them to be in the same class, for next year at least, just because they don't really know other kids for now. Maybe we'll separate them in the following years. Just another layer of decision-making specific to twin parents.

Bottom line: my mind is at ease now, well more at ease. I think it will be fine. I hope. They feel very comfortable with that school. They can't wait to finally get on a school bus (having watched big sis get on one all these years).

When I left, the secretary, a really sweet lady, tells me: "another 6 years for you!"

Yikes! Here we go again!

must be saturday night

There he is. Baby boy. Front row seat. On the edge of his seat. In the rocking chair that used to be mine as a child. Full concentration. Only gets up between periods. His beloved home team lost. Not a happy camper.

taking care of me

That's what the last 2 days have been about. And the guilt, the guilt, that darn mother's guilt. Why is it its so much easier to take care of others than of oneself.

Thursday:
Left the house while my cleaning ladies, my beloved cleaning ladies did their magic. I had one when the twins were little but then she retired when they were around 2 yrs old. And then I figured, no problem, I can do it now, all of it, I'm supermom. Not. A few months back, a friend told me that her cleaning crew had an opening. Didn't take long to jump on that offer.

So while the toilet bowls and floors were getting scrubbed, I went to get my pearly whites looked after. Even got a little bleaching kit to brighten up the smile :) Followed by a little solo shopping (ended up getting valentine's day stuff for the kids) and lunch with a great book. Then off to the hairdresser for 2 hours of pampering. New color and highlights. Then off to my new gym. Joined a while back but it officially opened now. Got the grand tour. And a first workout. And made an appointment with a trainer for my inital evaluation next week. Got the ball rolling, finally!

Friday:
A continuing education course. With hubby. Have to keep my hours up in order to maintain my provincial license. It turned out to be totally unexpectedly awesome. An invigorating, stimulating and motivating day taking about health and fitness. I acquired so many pearls of wisdom. A lot I knew already: eat healthy, drink water, exercise regularly,etc. But the speakers didn't address so much what we need to do to lead a healthier lifestyle, the intellectual side of us already knows all that stuff. It was more a search of our deep inner selves to find out what would motivate us to do those things. Find out our powerful reasons. Make a dream list of our future and visualize it. Very powerful stuff.

They spoke of the things people need to achieve these results: a log of what we eat and the exercises we do, drinking lots of water, eliminating junk food from our houses, having people around us who will support us, having people whose achievements are inspirational to us, getting a personal trainer or even better taking a personal training course, cutting down caffeine consumption, not eating 2 hours before bedtime, sleeping enough every night, taking time daily for ourselves (meditation, quiet reading), getting regular massages, yoga, and even journalling ! As in blogging! Apparently spending the time to write down our thoughts is part of the road to a better, happier and healthier lifestyle.

Cool!

So here's my top two powerful reasons to bring my health and wellness to the next level:

#1---be a role model to my children
#2--becoming an active older adult enjoying life and children

Let's just keep the momentum going!

I survived!

And actually had a blast! Being gone for 3 days, away from the usual routine, no meals to cook, spending 4-5 hours a day out of doors and being with 17 most incredible little souls was tiring, yes, but invigorating. It was non-stop. One activity after the next. Add to that the fresh air and we had kids who ate like wolves and slept like logs. And it was cold hovering around -20C. But we were all well dressed and the woods tend to be sheltered and less cold. We played broom ball, lots of tobogganing , cross-country skied to a little lodge and had hot chocolate, snowshoeing to a huge beaver dam, walked up a mountain (45 minute hike up), walkedthrough the forest at night with candle torches, singalongs and marshmallows around a camp fire after supper, loads of indoor games (parachute, dress-up, hot potato, duck duck goose, etc), putting snow boots and snow pants and hats and neck warmers and mitts on and off and on and off, wiping runny noses, story time before bedtime, pajama party with clowns and jugglers and getting loads of hugs and seeing happy faces on a great bunch of 4-5 year old. Their parents missed them lots more than they did. What an experience for them. True confidence and independence builder. An experience of a lifetime and I'm so glad I volunteered to go.

Enjoy the pics, in no particular order.
(the lady in the red coat would be me:)

winter fun

Here's a backyard scene from last week-end. They were on the ice in the morning, in the afternoon and again after supper. Baby girl loves to play "tag" chasing her dad around. Baby boy loves to line up his pucks and take rapid succesive slapshots against a board we installed for him or to be the "goalie" so we can try to score on him.

True winter outdoor lovers.

Which is a good thing because tomorrow, they are going to a winter camp with their preschool. Three days filled with outdoor winter activities (tobogganing, snowshoeing, tubing, ringette, cross-country skiing, etc.) and 2 nights in a huge dormitory for 26 people. Their school has been doing this camp for close to 10 years and its for the oldest kids 4.5 yrs and up. Its the highlight of their year. Even big sis who went some 8 years ago still talks about how much fun she had.

There will be 20 kids, 2 teachers, two camp counsellors and two volunteer parents, one being yours truly :~) But now I have a cold. Darn. I have to get better in a hurry cause no matter what, I'm going. I've been hacking and coughing for the past two weeks (and taking ColdFx,zinc, VitC, echinecea) and my sinuses started to hurt yesterday so off to the doctor for some antibiotics. Today, the pain is in my ears. A little Advil cleared it up though.

So wish me luck, I'll tell you all about it when I return, happy but exhausted ;)

dancing queen

For years, big sis wanted to partake in our church's school for traditional Greek
dancing. Unfortunately, it always took place on Monday nights when both hubby and I worked. Then the little ones came along, no question about dragging them there. Up until this year. She finally got to start this past September and both baby boy and baby girl get to go too now that they are 5 years old.

And sure enough, big sis loves it.

Last Saturday was her first performance. In front of over 250 people. The other girls in the group have been dancing for years but her teacher assured me she's a fast learner. So of course, I went to see her. To take pics and video for this momentous first.

And she did great! I was so impressed with her! You could tell she truly enjoyed herself. They performed 5 different dances. As a thank-you for the dancers, they got to eat all together at a table set aside for just them and they then got to join the party on hand. I've never seen her dance like this. Must bebecause she was with her friends and they all felt great for a job well done. She didn't want to go home. I eventually dragged her out of there at midnigth though.

Way to go sweetie!

interesting...many points are true here

You are The Hermit

Prudence, Caution, Deliberation.

The Hermit points to all things hidden, such as knowledge and inspiration,hidden enemies. The illumination is from within, and retirement from participation in current events.

The Hermit is a card of introspection, analysis and, well, virginity. You do not desire to socialize; the card indicates, instead, a desire for peace and solitude. You prefer to take the time to think, organize, ruminate, take stock. There may be feelings of frustration and discontent but these feelings eventually lead to enlightenment, illumination, clarity.

The Hermit represents a wise, inspirational person, friend, teacher, therapist. This a person who can shine a light on things that were previously mysterious and confusing.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.