Thriller Chiller Tonight…ok maybe a week or so ago.

I have finally recovered from my sugar coma to bring you the word on the street in Wonderland.

We hallowed, we weend and we saw that it was good.

This year the boys were…. …”Rapping Paper”. Tweedle D decided to take his paper costume for another spin this year with anticipation that his friend would be scissors. Alas his friend changed his mind and so D took the paper to a whole new level. He is very punny that boy. “Yo”
…”The Grim Reaper”. Tweedle E likes to embrace the scarier side of Hallow’s Eve. For the past 3 years he was Anikan Skywalker but decided this year death was better. At least I know he will take this one fro a spin the next couple of years. Costume $9, Scyth $3, Makeup free. That is deal that can’t be beat. Mwahhahahahaha.
…”Horton the Elephant”. Tweedle 3 was not really on board with the whole dress-up thing, but when it came to his “speck”, it was true love. Upon first seeing his clover he yelled, “HELLOOOOOOOO”, to all the whos in whoville. He slept with it every night. It broke every night and I fixed it every morning. When it came to trick or treeting he was all about “casing the joint.” People would open their doors, he would walk right in and have a look see. Even better was we ended up on a block where most own dogs. So he would ask to see their “puppy” give them a pet and a kiss and almost forget about the candy altogether. Yep he is cute like that.

In my coolness I dressed in my White flowy cape as I do every year. I don’t really have time to get my costume ready. Anywho back to the coolness. I downloaded a halloween playlist to my 1st generation nano, hooked it up to my recently acquired mopar mini speaker and 2009 equivalent to Boom Boxing it down the street. I think this might just catch on and everyone will be doing it next year. I know you wish you could have trick or treated with us too.

Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun. Please shine down on me.

This winter has been long, this spring has been dismal and now its almost freaking June. I want a garden. I want my veggies to grow. I want to get warm. Maybe there is a purpose to you not shining your rays our way, but please reconsider. I’ll be more loyal. I’ll even do a sundance if necessary, silk scarves and all.

“Check your pockets please.”

It is inevitable. No matter how hard I try to be organized, when camping I always forget something. I plan. I make lists. Then I start early. Alas there is only so much a person can do ahead of time. Then like last year its crunch time, packing is interrupted and now I’m without toilet paper for the weekend. Really I don’t know how I survived.

I really should give myself more credit. It’s not every woman that enjoys camping and can get a family of five out to the mountains with minimal luxury. Some have tried and failed. My secret… bring another family with you. More times than not they have remembered what you haven’t and vice versa. (thats latin for “other way around”)

This year we were joined again by a family of Scottish decent, or so their name implies. For the purpose of the next few posts they will be referred to as the Scotts.

We had an awesome time partaking in the pleasures of one National Park called Waterton Lakes. Again, we stayed at the Crandall Mountain campground. No sooner had we put up the tent, the boys started asking, “Wheres this?”, ” I can’t find that.”, “Maaawwm. Where is my…?” This is to be expected as I packed most everything and checked and rechecked the clothing bags etc. (How I forgot the hot chocolate and smore stuff I’ll never know, but at least they were clothed.) It was later in the day when they had misplaced things after touching them that I was starting to get frustrated. Its harder than I thought raising “good lookers.”

After sometime I came to a realization. Boys like to put things in their pockets. “Check your pockets please.” became the new theme. Thanks to this little phrase my response time was reduced to 5 sec. So if you have boys about the age of 3 and older and they like to carry things small enough to fit in their hand, I suggest checking the pockets first.

Rush Hour to Crush Hour

I like to be busy. When I was working outside of the home I loved the big rush. To me it made the time go buy quicker and I had a sense of pride in my ability to hold up under the pressure. I liked the challenge of maintaining a quality of service while doing it fast. I was also competitive and liked being the best at it.

Now that I work at home I don’t like it as much. The busy times are usually because something has gone wrong or because I am spreading myself too thin. I think this is so because It feels like any work I have to do is infringing on my time. I have responsibilities to my family at home and when I am there I like to focus on them. Understandable.

These last two month have been hard on me because I don’t know how much is too much. I lose sleep, I eat horribly, I stress and my house and family suffers. My poor children wore the same pants to school everyday last week as I didn’t have time to do the laundry. Oh they didn’t mind. I minded, but something had to give and this week it was my sleep, house keeping and laundry. I like my sleep, but I can’t seem to get back to it if I wake up in the middle of the night.

I know this too shall pass and in 5 years I will be looking back on this as some sort of rosy coloured blessing, hopefully. I know right now I long for the days that were 5 years ago. D would be still at home, there would be park days and best of all the best neighbours in the world would be near us. But then (like the pepsi commercial) I remember my husband was in school, we lived in a two bedroom basement suite, and there was no Jesse. To bad you can’t pick and choose.

I guess I just need to learn balance because I hate that looming storm cloud of pressure that comes with overbooking myself it really is kind of soul crushing and makes me not be my best at anything.

Snip, Spit & Shine

I am so in need of a change. In October, or was it November, anyway a long time ago, I decided to go as close to my natural hair colour as possible. Dark Brown. Very dark brown. Not black. I thought it looked good and yea no touching up. Now that winter is over (cross fingers) I am pasty and the dark hair makes really brings out this feature. Its like I could star in my own vampire movie sans the gorgeousness. It is really hard when you are at extremes of the spectrum, pale and dark haired.

I got some new make-up (blush and gloss) to give my skin a lift but I’m not sure if that will be enough. So I am taking it to the street, the blog street that is. Dear interneters, should I continue with the dark with small amount of platinum highlights or should I go for a colour change? Leave your thought in the comments.

Oh and while you are at it, how about a hair cut too? I liked the last one but I kind of want to grow my hair out. The problem with growing my hair out is that I don’t always do it. You could call me pony girl. So also leave your thoughts to the length.

Here are some shots for you to consider.

baby boy 20 month

We ll we have hit the home stretch to the end of year #2. I can’t believe it. Time flies when your having fun. Tweedle 3 is a daily crackup. He is still signing and learning signs but had a bit of a word burst and says things like puppy, purple, book, ball, bo, go, moo, mom, dad, cup, raishin (raisin), sheese (cheese), apple, balala (banana), no, stop it, nice shot, oh cool as you can see he is quite talkative and the list could go on and on and on.

He likes to freak me out by going up and down the stairs standing. About 6 months ago he took a tumble from the top. He decided that the top was a good place to do a summersault and so he did. Tim says it looks like I pushed him but I was only trying, in vain, to get him away from the edge of the stairs.

This week he has discovered Finding Nemo and loves it. In the morning he grabs the DVD and says “Fishy” I am both excited and saddened by this as he is discovering new things, but it is more evidence of my marshmallowiness when it come to raising my child. “Mom can I do whatever I want?” “Of course.” says I, “Only because you are so cute.” Don’t get me wrong I like the movie Finding Nemo, I think it is quite cleaver. My comment is on the amount of TV watching.

The favorite part of tweedle 3’s day would have to be the morning or early evening as that is the time he gets to play with Eshin and Acokin his brothers. His favorite is chase or ball throwing, followed closely by dance party to the keyboards demo versions of the Nutcrackers “March of the Tin Soldiers” or Mr. Wonders “Superstitious”.

He is recognizing that there are symbols (letters and number) and yells randomly A or P or the #10 when he sees them.

He still loves books, yeah! He will will make you read each one at least 3 times ( sometimes 7 times) before he will move on to the next book. Right now he likes Sandra Boynton’s “But not the Hippopotamus”, “BarnYard Dance”, “The Going to Bed Book”, “Pajama Time”, and “Horns to Toes and In Between”. He also like Eric Carle’s “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and a book I got from the library “Ten Stinky Babies”.

And now for the down side… well there really isn’t one. Even though he hates going to nursery, tantrums are increasing, and he still isn’t completely weaned or sleeping through the night (cause effect maybe?), it is all worth it. He is a joy to be around and brings so much love to our home. We are so lucky to have him.

Linky Love

New Blog of the week

For all you environmentally minded people…check out here

Hopefully my mind has cleared enough so that this insomnia thing is over for this morning and I can catch a few zzz before teaching my lesson today in church.

Baby Boy 18 months

Oh how the time flies. Life has been so busy in Wonderland and now that school is out for a break, and I have a day or two before it really gets crazy, Its time to document Tweedle 3’s happenin’ self.

Things that I am loving:

I love how you run in boots and how you do somersaults. I love how you try to sign things. Just the other day you asked me for a drink. I love your laugh. I love that you like me to read (all day). I love your love of baths, stuffies (stuffed animals) and puppies. I like how you rock out to all music, including hymns but especially rapp. I love how you clap at the end of all music. I love how the whole school knows you and you greet your people. I love hoe you know where your eyes, ears, nose, mouth, belly, toes feet, and bum are, but when you are signing the individual words of “I love you” you start with your ears. I love how you fold your arms to pray and look very serious. I love how every time I am crouching to talk to you or pick something up you quickly run to my back and put your cold little hand on my skin, then laugh your head off. I love how you hold my finger when we go for a walk. I especially love how you say “Wow” every time I turn on the lights on the christmas tree.

I think my favorite is when you are just so tired and come to me with a blanket to snuggle.

Things I’m not Loving so much:

You have become a little picky in the food department. I know its normal but its a little frustrating. I’m not loving how you are miserable because you are still teething. I also don’t like waking up 2-5 times a night. You are definitely exerting your independence, which I am o.k. with, its just the tantrums I can do without.

As you can see the good definitely outweighs the bad. I am still having so much fun.

Words you are saying: Mom, Dad, up, all done, puppy, hi, bye and ball.
Words you are almost saying: Doda, Acoco (Dakota); Eeeoooh, Eeshin (Ethan); jesh (Yes); uh uh (thank you)
Words you sign: Book, please, all done, drink, bye, thank you, more, no.

Favorite toys: Stuffed animals, cars, balls, books, my cell phone and brothers.

Some Things That Rock

I thought I would follow up my pessimistic post with a more positive one. so here they are in no particular order…Some things that rock.

1. My Jeans although tight feel less tight than they did the last time I washed them and put them on. Notice that I said wash, because that is the key to awesomeness. Jeans , especially now days, are built with stretch for our ever-widening butts. Consequently said jeans will have a natural give and relaxation with multiple wearings, until you wash them, and they shrink or reset or whatever.

2. My New Hair cut. Thanks Trina.

3. Helping a lady at Zellers Chinook find Hulk Transformer toy. When I helped her there were only two left. After she had hers there was one. Good luck people. Now can you help me find any Bakugan Battle Brawlers , not the figurines.

4. Sleep and peace and quiet. It hasn’t happened yet but that would really rock

5. Kid

Chicken Run

Friday night was date night. Because all day was the great Cochran cookie bake I didn’t get home in time to feed my husband, my children had peanut but sandwiches. Then after dropping off the kids at our baby sitting co-op, We went to Mr. Wonderful’ s choir practice. Needless to say we didn’t get to eat till 9:30-10:00 pm and it wasn’t the best stuff for me. I wasn’t really all that hungry because of all the junk (cookie bake remember) I ate earlier that day but how bad could KFC really be? It tasted fine, but the next day I was running. I ran about the same distance and not only was I slower but I felt heavy. Chicken is not a good pre-run meal.