Crop n'Howl at Clipper Street Scrapbooking Store

I am a medical mystery. Doesn't Dunja look cute with her Dorothy costume on!

Isn't pregancy fun?

Hormones are running through my body making me I N S A N E and teary eyed at commercials, children's books and all the beauty and kindness surrounding me. I have been very meticulous at work lately feeling easily irritated if I get to 'my' desk in the morning and the pens and the maps aren't in the right places or the books aren't standing up instead of laying down. I must have been driving my co-workers crazy with my little reminder notes about where to put this and how to leave that until I realized what I was doing. Lately my husband is buying all kinds of brown bread from a Celtic bakery in Whiterock and eating toast like crazy which is good if i feel sick or tired and nauseated or there's no leftovers. He just eats toast which normally he never eats. Usually we can't finish a loaf of bread before it goes stale or moldy to save our lives. Tea and toast, tea and toast, tea and toast and then there's crumbs everywhere and gooey knives left out, lids off j am jars, peanut butter on the counter instead of back in the cupboard where it belongs.Several mornings last week I was going to wrap up the toaster and take it to the donation bin! We didn't even have one a few months ago and just used the oven because we made toast so rarely. I left the whole mess out the previous day and refused to clean it up and it just got worse. Every afternoon I come home to it and just deal with it but with the way I've been feeling lately after doing that I feel too tired, frustrated or overwhelmed to start dinner right away. I even found peanut butter on the sock monkey I'm making which was across the kitchen on my counter, nowhere near the toaster I might add. I was feeling sorry for my cat Lucky who has a bladder infection but that is a whole other post. I decided to feed him some wet food that morning because I felt so sorry for him and had a bit of extra time before I left for work, although not enough time to clean up the mess from the day before that I had nothing to do with only to have it magically reappear the very same afternoon when I arrive home at 1pm. Lucky usually gets dry food and is fortunate if I have the time to feed him before I leave. Anyway, I used the ooey gooey knife and then put it back on the cutting board near all the crumbs and toast paraphernalia. THEN just before 6am when i was about to put my coat on my husband springs (literally) out of bed and asks me if i had time to prepare my lunch or eat/bring some breakfast. I said, "No, and i don't have time to wait." with panic in my voice. He INSISTS on making me a peanut butter sandwich which I like to eat at 8:30 with milk. By the time i got my coat and shoes on he was chasing me with the cat food and peanut butter sandwich! that he made practically in the dark because it IS still dark at the time I leave. I was wincing as i heard him scrapping the sides of the peanut butter jar with the contaminated knife as I scrambled to get dressed for the outdoors. Right now even thinking about this can drive me to kneel in the bathroom to puke. The other morning I almost puked because I stepped on a bug and saw the remnants. I use that jar too, what was i thinking! Why did i do something so petty and immature? Now i think it is so funny! and i think I may have learned a lesson. I think the toaster may be hidden sometime soon, or put in the cupboard right beside the box of Cream of Wheat that says in giant letters written across the box, 'PLEASE COOK ME IN THE MICROWAVE ONLY' from 2 years ago when I was pregnant with the little girl and cleaning the burnt pots was driving me nuts, which was just recently found with a big, 'What's this all about?' said to me. Now you know exactly how neurotic i am being lately.

Remembering Bumbershoot

costumes

Since my son was a toddler I wanted to dress him up like a little bird for halloween but I thought the boas might be a little too hot and I just couldn't seem to find the appropriate headgear or find the time to make one myself. Well when I went to Portland, Oregon a few weekends ago I popped into the Old Navy store at Lloyd Center and even though I wasn't really looking the 50 % off sign near the Halloween costumes caught my eye and I took a second look. Last year I picked up a cute little orange bat covered jumpsuit for $5 at Kiss a Frog with a big moon and a smiley faced vampire. After Halloween we realized if you push on the dracula image it laughs a spooky laugh. Well this year it seems to be too scary and she won't even go near the thing. Also I am not sure it still fits. I am pretty sure she will want to be a chicken since that's my son's favorite name to call anyone who does anything to displease him. I figure he could be using a lot worse names to be calling people so I let him get away with it and we all cluck like hens if he uses it on us. She adores chickens! Here's some photos of other children in the aforementioned costumes and I will post when I have some of my own little ones in their costumes.

Bumbershoot

Patrick bought the 3 day passes months ago and we were a bit unsure about bringing the little ones with us. We accepted the fact that we would not be staying into the night or seeing any of the big name bands appearing in the various stadiums around the site. We thought we were all set, mentally to enjoy ourselves. In previous years I always noticed children and different activities there for them. We brought bathing suits for the different fountains on the site and plenty of snacks too. We certainly weren't prepared for chasing our little ones through the crowds and I didn't anticipate how difficult and exhausting it might be to keep track of them in this kind of situation. Overall we were able to enjoy ourselves but mostly they did the enjoying. We did see some bands in the outdoor venues that were good and I still was able to enjoy the art displays but was not able to meander and luxuriously take my time wandering and gazing at all there was to see. I felt distracted the entire time by the children and meeting there needs.





I finally am getting around to posting these photos from Labour Day weekend. We took the children with us down to Seattle Centre to Bumbershoot.

Cravings: Real or Imagined

Being about three months pregnant lots of my co-workers have been asking me if I have any cravings. I keep answering, "None, that I noticed, so far." Well I think I notice something and I think it's mint! Yesterday one of my kind co-workers brought in some Girl Guide Cookies, the chocolate covered mint ones. I had a hard time keeping my hands off them even though I didn't want to start eating cookies at 6:30 in the morning. Between then and 1pm I admit I did gobble down 5 of them and then it occurred to me that lately I was chewing gum and enjoying a lot of mint tea. I don't usually go out of my way to have breath mints or gum but right now I have been. Last week I even shared an After Eight chocolate bar with my husband. Last time when I was pregant it was plain yogurt balkin style and before that it was lemons and limes. These certainly are not as strange as the stereotypical pickles and ice cream but nevertheless they are odd things for me to suddenly prefer. Our bodies want the craziest things! Real or Imagined? Is it all in our heads? Our tongues are in our heads.

Chris Cornell at the Center for Performing Arts in Vancouver

What a venue!
What a show!
What energy!
You know when you're listening to the pros play live on stage in such an intimate setting I could see Chris Cornell's navel. You know how you usually go to a concert and the stage seems so far away. Well not here, mind you our seats were pretty good but we were still half way to the back of the room. The band was practically sitting or rather dancing in our laps. Well, maybe I am exaggerating a little but it seemed really cozy in there and my 37 year old eyes didn't even have to squint. The venue was much too civilized for the crowd really. There were ushers showing us to our seats, comfortable seats, young ladies cleaning the washrooms and no line ups in the ladies room, how amazing is that. I will go there again anytime. The opening act Earl Greyhound was a bit heavy for my liking and just a bit too strange too but the main event was something else.
I met a Fox head!
Take a listen here.