Take *that* Santa!

We are DONE the Christmas shopping for the kids. :)

We only got them a few small toys like blocks and balls and more "advanced" rattles along with one bigger toy, an activity block like the ones at the Dr's office. :)

They are still too little to understand Christmas but we still wanted to get them some stuff we would end up getting them anyway.

We don't really have that many toys for them and didn't buy any in advance because there was so much more useful stuff we actually needed right away "times two".

Truth be told, we also want to wait until Boxing Day and once we've opened all the gifts from family.

Next year, there will be less room for error and they will need more expensive toys so we are keeping it low key this year and making our first Christmas with them more about the memories we are making for ourselves.

Last Christmas I made a huge traditional meat pie dish that contained dear and beef and porc and chicken, gagging the whole way through because of my aversion to meat and watched Love Actually on a loop with a cold cloth on my forehead. It was grand. I felt so blessed, nausea and all, and I tried to imagine what this Christmas would be like... I still haven't the faintest clue but I'm pretty excited. :)

Blogger app? Whaaat?!

I finally dug my head out of my ass and download the Blogger app onto my phone. Hurray!

Meaning I should be able to blog more even if there is a small child playing/vomiting/sleeping on me.

Yay!!

Mother's Day musings

Mother's day has become for me a day I really wish stopped existing when my mother stopped existing. I mean, yes I still recognize that she was my mom and she loved me with every ounce of her being and she will never ever be replaced or forgotten. But having a whole day dedicated to this special and unique bond to have with one individual is very difficult when it's a constant reminder that this person isn't there anymore.

The last two years have been especially hard since becoming a mother myself was all I really wanted out of life but for some reason it just wouldn't happen. No one could explain to me why and reassure me with certainty that it would actually ever be.

So I stuck my head as deep in the sand as it would possibly go and counted down the hours for the day to be over. I woke up late, went to bed early, and tried to stay away from any sort of Hallmark store.

This year, my emotions are conflicted and I'm having a really hard time dealing with them... or at least understanding what I'm feeling.

I can feel the same dread creep on when people talk about their plans for Mother's day. I wish it wasn't there to remind me that my mother is not. It's a kind of loneliness that really doesn't get any resolve of any kind.

On the other hand, I'm happy to finally have been blessed with becoming a mom-to-be. An event I never thought I would get to celebrate... yet, I can't seem to because of this gray cloud hanging over my head. And that makes me feel so guilty.

Why can't I leave it aside and embrace the fact that my little ones are on their way? Why can't I truly appreciate their existence (and the fact that they are tap-dancing on my bladder has nothing to do with it)? I am so grateful to be where I'm at today and sit here as I get my innards punched and kicked and squeezed - why can't it be just that simple?

Mother's day is still a few weeks away and I hope I get some better grasp and understanding of my feelings by then. That I can enjoy the day for what it's worth to me now and maybe these babies will help me redefine this day into something new. Something magical I can't even being to understand right now... I have to give myself some time.

Wash ALL the dishes!

I hate doing the dishes. Hate it. Somehow I always end up with dirty dish water on my boob, the mushy shit at the bottom of the sink makes me gag and I just generally do not like it. I don't like the smell of dish soap. I don't like the noise of a knife scraping the bottom of the sink. I don't like the smell of the dish rag or sponges. I hate drying the pasta strainer.

Solution?

Meet Bertha!

My friend bought a house and it comes with appliances so I bought her dish washer for 75$. Ours is it's third home on the Base as it's been passed around from PMQ to PMQ but it's in top shape! Comes with extra counter space. It's kind of bulky where we have it now but I'm more than willing to put up with a bit of bulk if it means I don't have to do the dishes.

Like right now... I could be washing dishes. But I'm not. Thanks Bertha!

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours! 

It's not perfect, but it's as good as we could manage with a timer and two very confused pets.

I has a happy!

These last few weeks have been INSANE with crazyness. Happy crazy - but crazy nonetheless.

To top it ALL, I got a wonderful phone call this morning from Maggie to announce the birth of her first child! I'M AN AUNTIE! Yes, ladies and gents, I'm an aunty to the most amazing little bundle of joy that ever lived.

So blessed.

I know I've got it good. In life, I mean. Nutshell, I'm happily married, we have a good life, our pets enrich our lives daily with their nonsense and many things make my life complete like my work, my hobbies and my friends. Bigger-picture wise, I'm also very grateful for everything life has thrown my way. Sure, some parts suck but I've learned to live with it, move on and learn. I've always had a wonderful relationship with my parents and a great and supportive family. It hasn't always been roses, don't get me wrong but overall, we always had food on the table and brought happiness to each other.

Today, I feel especially blessed to have these two men in my life. My Dad and my husband. I love my dad with every ounce of my heart. He's a courageous man who knows exactly when hugs are needed. He's always guided me through life when I didn't quite know where to turn and picked me up when I fell down. All this, of course, with the dedication and love of my mother. Now that she's gone, we've grown a lot closer - right when I didn't think it would be possible. He's my rock.

Js is the most wonderful husband ever. We've come a long way since we decided we'd give this relationship a try over one-too-many shots and wine glassesbottles. We've grown together and learned to love even more.

It just makes my heart melt when I see them two together. I know my Dad is really proud of Js for everything he's done to make me happy and I know Js respects my Dad immensely for everything he's over come and the man that he is today.

Js called me earlier today to say that my Dad was able to go visit him in Ottawa and see him doing the Ceremonial Guard at the War Monument. I know this probably made my Dad's daymonth and the joy in Js' voice warmed my heart.

I know this post is super sappy... but I'm in a super sappy mood. I miss them both SO much, I can't really explain. So I turn my "miss" into "sap" and you'll have to deal with that for just a bit.

*sap essplosion*

Camping

 

Js, Nova and I headed out Saturday morning for Riverhurst, SK to attempt our first camping trip. We were expecting a nice relaxing time and we got just that. It was great to not worry about the time or when what needs to get done. We just walked around, played in the lake with the Noves and just shot the shit until time to go home came around. We would have liked to stay longer but the weather was getting kinda shitty so we packed up after just one night. Definitely will be better prepared for SK weather next time and hopefully get to stay a bit longer.

We didn't even fight setting up the tent. YAY for us!

Smores were enjoyed by all.

New tattoo

The countdown starts until my next tattoo! :)

On May 11th, I'm getting my third tattoo and I'm super pumped about it.

You'll have to tune in to find out what it's all about... ;o)

Us : 1 - Wine Cabinet : 0

Over the last week and a bit, people keep asking me "How's married life treatin' ya?" or something to that effect and to be quite honest, I don't really know what to answer. Sure, there's some added romance in the air and all but aside from that, it's pretty much business as usual. We've been living together for so long, we have joint back accounts and all that grown up stuff. Doesn't leave much for some special treatin' from good old married life.

Tonight, tonight was different. Tonight, we build some Walmart furniture without screaming, throwing screws, breaking things or having to dismantle and start over because if misread instructions. Yes, ladies and gents - we have evolved as a couple! I felt like cheering, holding the teeny wine cabinet unit thing on top of my head like the Stanley cup and running laps around the Base.

It doesn't seem like much but it's EFFING huge for us. Me having control issues, OCDness and some pretty off the wall anxiety fits and him having pretty much the opposite of all of those - you'd think we just complete each other. That's now how it works at all. I want to organize my hair clips in order of size and color and he doesn't get why I need little storage components for each category. When we decided to start assembling, I'm going to be honest, I went looking for the paper bags. Not for my head - to breathe in. By the time I figured we were out (yeah - it's kinda bad) I turned around and there it was, our little wine cabinet thing. Mocking me.

Js' Dad said during his speech at the wedding :

...It's been great seeing them navigate the intricate process of planning a wedding, especially from a distance and to be quite honest, I have no idea how they managed it but they did. That says a lot about a couple and how they can work together through anything. At this point, they are almost ready to attempt putting up wallpaper together. That's when you know you have something solid.

That wine cabinet is our wallpaper.

Wedding Day!

Today, I'm getting married to the most wonderful man I know!

We both never could have imagined what we got ourselves into when we decided to go out for drinks after loosing touch for 4 years.

Now, here we are - getting married! Eeek! Have a special thought for us at 3pm EST and I promise to post pics as soon as I have them! :)


Obviously this entry was written days prior and scheduled to be posted today. I am not blogging on my wedding day... ... ... yet.

Denial Grass FTW!

I win. I win. I win.

My Denial Grass has grown some little buds of some kind. That's right, it's not grass. It's a plant. FACE!

Not the clearest picture ever.
Not the most useful caption ever either.

As you can see in the small picture (you can click on it to see it bigger) there's a stem with a couple buds of something just waiting for a couple more sunny days to enlighten us with their floral blooms.

I can't friggen wait. I let out a very loud "SNAH!" when I discovered them and Js followed with a whisper "Well, would you look at that..." of disbelief. Yes, would you look at that indeed! And there's not just the one stem mocking him, there's like two or three. Oh the happy dances that ensued.

When our friends came for a visit, it was the very first thing I told them when they stepped outside "Lookit! Lookit! It's not grass! It's not just damn grass!" and I almost forgot to post a blog update but Whitney was nice enough to remind me. ;)

Happy Birthday DP!

Just wanted to wish a great day to a great friend, Danielle!

I can't believe how long we've known each other. I'm excited beyond words to see you in just two weeks!

I wish you all the best and I sincerely hope this next year brings you everything your little heart desires!

Don't settle for anything, be fabulous!

Love,

M

Happy 5th Anniversary!

I know the picture is super old but I love it. :)

Happy anniversary to Nickykins and his Pookie!

Together, you are the cutest thing that ever existed.

Cheers to tequila indeed! ;)

Click here for a more recent and classy-pantsy picture.

Reason #2256 why our dog is damaged - The Oven Monster

A bit ago, I posted a link to a blog post from Hyperbole and a Half's Dog entry claiming that it was a perfect depiction of Nova. Case in point :

Side note : Since we've had her, Nova's been introduced to crate training. We are firm believers in crate training a dog, especially a high energy dog like Nova. It allows her to have a "safe place" where she can relax and sort of "shut down" to fall asleep. If she weren't crate trained, she'd spend the entire night roaming around the house, investigating every little smell or sound - not good. Same as when we're at work - she's safe in there, not running around building on anxiety for being left alone. She just zones out and falls asleep, knowing we'll be back soon to let her out again. Basics of crate training but I always feel like I should explain because we often get weird looks when we say she's crated at night. Given her past, she's prone to anxiety so it's best for her to be contained - kinda like my messed-up self.

One random evening late after dinner, Js and I decided to go out to the movies. We looked up the show times online and saw that the last showing was in about half an hour. I had baked something for desert and it was just about ready so we stuffed a couple in my purse and away we went. Nova safely resting in her crate for the night, we left the house.

We came back, nearly 2 hours later and Nova was unusually quiet. Normally, the minute the car pulls up we can hear her whining her misery - how dare we leave her for such a long, unbearable time? This time, there was nothing - no cries, no weeping. As we walk up to the house we hear a faint beeeeep-beeeeeep.

"Where the hell is that coming from?"
"I don't know... sounds like it's from inside the house." The call is coming from inside the house!
"Huh... sounds a lot like our oven timer."
"Huh..."


We turned off the oven but in our rush to catch the movie, we forgot to turn off the timer. That timer is one of the most annoying inventions known to mankind. It's very pushy and insistent.


Beeeee-beeeep. I'm done. Beeeeep-beeeeeep. Com'on guys, I'm done! Beeeeeep-beeeeep. Hey, look alive! You ask me to tell you in 10 minutes, I tell you in 10 minutes and what do you do? You ignore me? I think not! Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep-BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

Our poor, poor Nova had to put up with nearly 2 hours of incessant beeping. Now, every time timer goes off or the oven beeps because it's done pre-heating (wouldn't it be nice if men had that function?) she goes into a frenzy! She runs in circles around whatever piece of furniture is closest and lets out weird little barks - not loud enough to get into trouble or to interrupt the Beep-BEEEEEEP Monster.


And that, ladies and gents, is one of the many ways our dog is damaged.

Congrats Natasha and Curtis! :)

Our very dear friends are getting married today, we wish them all the best and we are thrilled to be part of their special day!

Technical Support - Update

Judging from the reaction received from my last post about a service call I placed with our cable company, I thought I'd share a quick update on the status of our affairs.

The Tech dude did call both of us before showing up so Js was able to run home and let him in but it doesn't stop there. He changed our cable box, all the cables that are inside the house and checked those outside. The problem still isn't resolved. We're the only people in our area with this problem so the guy wasn't quite sure what else to do aside from ripping out all the cable from the walls and digging outside to see if a wire was damaged or something.

Cherry on the cake? He gave us his cell phone number - yes, his personal cell phone. He told us to give him a call on Friday if it still does it by then. He's not really working on Friday but he said he could still swing by in the afternoon if we wanted to and he'll just write a work order for the weekend or something. This way, we'll have cable for the weekend.

Yeah, that's right.

Of all things this province lacks, technical support is not one of them.

I am near tears after calling the cable company for some tech support.

Having been a Bell client most of my life, I have to say that I dreaded calling Shaw Cable because our cable had been messy for the last couple days. I never had cable living in Ottawa because I just felt it was a waste of time and money - why stay cooped up at home watching TV when there's a city to enjoy... moving to Saskatchewan suddenly made cable mandatory. I digress...

I called the local number, didn't have to enter my phone number/client number or speak with Robot-Emily - a simple greeting then a click and miraculously, Dylan was there to help me right away. That's right folks, no wait time, no 90s music and I didn't have to be reminded that my call was important and would be answered as soon as possible by an associate eager to assist me. Dylan, an actual human being - we're tight now.

All this easy-ness made the conversation quite awkward. I have to admit, I was ready with my "no, I don't know what my customer number is - I don't have a bill handy and I want to speak to your supervisor" routine.

"Good afternoon and thanks for calling Shaw, my name is Dylan, how may I assist you?"
"... huh... my cable's being wonky."
"Alright! What's it doing?"
"... ... huh, it's lagging kinda and the image gets all pixelated."
"Does the sound cut off at the same time as the image gets weird?"
"Yes, it-sou-li-thi-all-t'e-ti- ..."

What's this I hear, real human laughter on the other end?!

"Alright we'll do a couple tests and if that doesn't work, we'll send someone out there to have a look. Can you confirm your name and phone number please?"
"I don't have my customer information or anything and I'm not sure if the account is under my name or my boyfriend's name... *gives phone numbers*... is that enough?"
"Sure is. Alright, you'll see your cable shut down for a couple seconds and then I'll ask you to turn it back on."

*waits-turns cable back on*

"It's back... and still doing it."
"Then it must be something with the cable that runs to your house or something. We'll schedule a tech to go see what's up."

At this point I'm rolling my eyes because well, it's Canada Day in a couple days, they will be all booked at it will be weeks until we can watch cable TV again... sigh!

"How does tomorrow morning sound?"
"Pardon?"
"We can have someone there tomorrow morning or between 2 and 4pm or if the evening works best, there's some availability there too!"
"Sure! Tomorrow afternoon sounds fine!"
"It's done then. I'll ask the tech to give you a cell when he's on his way to make sure you're home."

Words cannot express... That's when I really wanted to cry. I couldn't believe how easy, friendly and speedy that was. Dylan had such a "not a huge deal" attitude, he kinda reminded me of Jim and I kinda swooned - not at his rugged good looks which I'm sure he's got - but at his Hero of the Day customer service.

To anyone who's ever dealt with Bell or even Rogers, you know where I'm coming from and no, this isn't a strange fairy tale or a lovely dream. It's all true - you can't make that shit up!

It's the little things...

- This morning, I woke up to a bleeding boyfriend. He totally face planted during his morning run and came back with a bleeding knee, scraped palms and a sprained ankle. All that happened at like 5am and I was still half asleep as he tried to wake me up to show me his booboo (on his KNEE, Nick!) - a couple hours after I got to work so probably around 11am-ish, I realized what had happened and laughed to myself for a good half hour.


- I can drive stick.

- A good friend from Regina will be attending our wedding in Ottawa - I'm so happy about this, there are no words... We met her because she was dating a CF member who was on OJT out here. He VR'd and moved back to Toronto so we haven't hung out together in ages. We invited him to the wedding because he goes to Ottawa quite often - we actually lived a couple streets away from each other a couple years ago, who knew?! So yeah, he asked her to be his date and we are SUPER excited and glad she'll be able to be there!

- Old episodes of Friends *cla-cla-cla-clap*.

- The little bulbs I planted out front are actually growing. Probably not as well as they normally should because of the recent crap weather but I have never gardened before and I'm quite proud of my accomplishments. They make me smile every time I walk in or out of the house.

- I think I've found a way to control my allergies - total bliss. To anyone who's having a hard time - night time sinus medication is a god send.

- Hunting for good songs to use for the wedding.

Deposit Down

I've put down a deposit and finally decided on my next tattoo. Squee!

I can't even show you a photo of what it's going to look like. The artist is going to draw it directly on my skin which fits my whole unique criteria. I'm so excited about this, it's impossible.

It's going to hurt like a bitch though but I'll be worth the pain and it's simple and small enough that it won't be that long. Suck it up, princess!

I'm getting it in June *far* because I wanted to get it around the same time Js is getting his. His will take the whole day so that was the soonest we could book the guy for a sitting that long.

It's totally worth the wait and I'm really comfortable with the artist and the parlor.

Stay tuned...