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.

The Chinese Rockers...

were live on stage last Saturday night at the Richmond Night Market! They performed well and had a lot of room to move around. According to Marvin the best part was when he went on stage. Him and his cousins were watching from 'backstage' mostly. He wanted to dance but was feeling too shy. They came on right after the dog show and as you can see Pat got a new hat. His head must have been cold before hand. Fayth stayed awake through the whole thing and waved her ice cream cone only in the air at the end.

on moving and ON CHOICES...

You rarely have time for everything you want to do in this life,
so you need to make choices.
Hopefully your choices can come
from a deep sense of who you are
and who you want to become.

Mr. Rogers

What do you do when you move? Go to Ikea of course to get the things you need to make your home more functional and more comfortable. In our case we needed a few things to make it more organized and to help us cram ourselves in with ease. We put the children in bunk beds in the big room and we are taking up the other room mostly by just inserting our queen size bed. We picked up a desk finally so Pat can keep all his business stuff neat and tidy or at least where he can find it when he needs it. We also needed shelves for the bathroom and a large shelving unit with cupboards underneath that Marvin calls, 'the thing that we don't know what to call it' because we were going to get a baker's rack but decided it would be too deep. It contains our phones, mail, keys, cook books, kitchen linens, miscellaneous items and we put some baskets on it too for receipts and coupons. I like to put my purse and anything I've carried upstairs on it as well and hopefully it will keep us from throwing up our pockets onto the counter. I have tried bulletin boards, desk organizers, hooks, little shelves and throwing tantrums and nothing else has worked but this is helping some. We still need shelves for some of the closets, a towel rack and a shower curtain but we are getting much closer to order over here in 216. It's a little bigger and full of carpet. Today I spent quite a bit of time organizing Asia's clothing and putting summer stuff up high and bringing the warmer stuff down where we and she can reach it. The label maker Pat got me for my birthday is really coming in handy! Marvin had a day off from school which didn't work out very good for him because I was too sick to help him really enjoy it. Also I wasn't thinking clearly and forgot and my mom was kind enough to bring him to school. I didn't make it to work and it was quite difficult to be taking care of two children with bundles of energy when I am feeling so rotten with some kind of cold or flu thing. I was naive to think I would only get sick like this once in 9 months I guess because this was the second time. We enjoyed watching The Wizard of Oz again. I really didn't get any rest and don't feel any better for staying home because those children had to keep being fed and stuff like that every time i turned around, or so it seemed.

Summer

This summer we really enjoyed the parks in New Westminster especially Queen's Park with it's playgrounds, water park and petting zoo. Anastasia was traumatized by Pumba the pig who bit a hole in her grocery bag and then took off her egg after slobbering on her stroller. The goats were a little nosy for her liking as well but she was fascinated by the bunnies and enjoyed the chickens and ducks quite a bit. Now she knows her animal sounds. Take a lookie....

The Chinese Rockers

a.k.a TCR will be performing on S E P T E M B E R 22ND at 7:30pm at the Night Market.
Pat is the lead singer along with his brother Phil and their buddy John on guitar and another brother Mark on the drums.
They have some originals now too. Come out and enjoy some classic rock and some surprises too.
Please come out and see them jam and dress warmly.
Click here to find out the directions how to get there.
If you've never been out to the Night Market here's the perfect excuse.
If you haven't been in a while isn't it about time.
Be prepared to pay for parking or walk a little ways.
This outdoor event takes place close to Ikea in Richmond behind Home Depot
and is filled with tons sweet deals on everything from
toys to handbags to MP3 players to jewelry to bonsai trees to wallets to car accessories
The food is quite unique and includes everything from dim sum to imitation shark fin soup to bubble teas to gyros and also takoyaki to Korean ricerolls. Yum, I know Phil will be going for the takoyaki a popular Japanese festival food containing octopus and loved by children.
The earlier the better to beat the crowds as far as shopping goes but since it's already getting cooler I don't expect the crowds will be quite so dense.

Jessica...

...was baptized on August 24th at the Burnaby chapel in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints! by Elder Fisher who has since been transferred to Surrey. She looked really cute with her pigtails all dressed in a white blouse and skirt before she went into the water. As usual I didn't get there early enough for photos of that. It was really nice and held in the Relief Society room. It was lovely to see her Mom AND Dad and also Teresa and Nana and Christopher and Aimee girl all there to show her their love and support. I know her family coming meant a lot to her and she was worried they may not. I guess I forgot that refreshments don't magically appear at baptisms so I missed a lot of it setting those up. Thank-you to everyone who brought some sweet snacks. I had promised Jessica I would bake a cheese cake and it was plain just like she likes. We were all very exited for her. She looked just beautiful, so happy and absolutely radiant before, during and after. It's really wonderful to see how much she is maturing and growing and learning and progressing. She was pretty fabulous to begin with but she has made some lifestyle changes and added some good habits to her routine and they have made her even happier and sweeter. It's nice to see someone so enthusiastic about the scriptures and commandments our Heavenly Father has provided for our guidance and help. It really helps me remember when I returned to my own faith and helps me retain my love for the gospel. It has been a good opportunity to see her testimony develop and kind of took me by surprise. We have been blessed with so many wonderful Elders and Sisters teaching and leading and helping answer her many many questions. I am very proud of her for setting such a good example to all those around her.

SUMMER WAS FUN!