Christmas Buzz

First off - Happy Bday to my cousins Jen & Kristi - they are sisters born exactly 2 yrs apart. "Irish Twins" Nov 22 and happy bday to my friend Louise in L.A. Nov 21!!

So, I'm suffering from my 3rd cold in 6 weeks. Argh. Today, I Lysol'd the entire office, vaccuumed it and bought an air purifyer. Hoping that all this helps, as I am sick and tired of getting sick and tired!! I know that E is bringing home all kinds of germs from daycare, but you would think after him being in daycare for almost 3 yrs, I would have built up some kind of immunity to it!

I've been getting to the gym 3-4 times a week - started my old routine from '97 back before annoying ex husband and before kid! Hoping that my body will remember what it used to look like and start transforming itself. E and I are going to Florida in Feb to meet up with my parents (they have rented a condo down there), so want to be in better shape for swimsuit weather!

Everybody has got the Christmas buzz! I'm working on getting my xmas cards ordered online. E and I are joining the Trimble family on Dec 9th for our now annual Christmas Tree Chopping day. We actually go to a farm and hunt down the perfect tree and "Uncle Ross" (tarryn's husband) chops it down for us. Instead of going to the Dairy Queen parking lot and buying one!!! We had fun with them last year, so hoping it won't be too cold this year! I bought garland for the post on our front porch and the cutest polar bear - its white and at night lights up with tonnes of lights - so cute! Been wanting to buy it for a couple of years! http://www.canadiantire.ca/browse/product_detail.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=1408474396673356&bmUID=1164315137890&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524443284344&assortment=primary&fromSearch=true

My builder called last week to advise that my move in date has been changed. It was supposed to be Feb 28th. I didn't think it would be done then - maybe March or April. She said it would be ready July 3rd. Rats! I was hoping that we would be in earlier. More time to save money for all the extra stuff like driveway, landscaping, patio in backyard etc. Still a bit disappointed tho.

E did not want to wear what I was putting on him this morning. (read MAJOR 3 yr old tantrum). Trying not to yell and be frustrated as we were already late, I said ok, you pick out what you want to wear and put it on. So, in he goes to his room, which he said I was not allowed into! Mommy, you stay out there, I'm getting dressed. Well, then, allright kid! He put on his undies (took off his pull ups that I put on him cause he hasn't mastered the pooping in the toilet yet!), socks his orange and black "bat halloween" shirt and jeans. He looked pretty good. He said, throwing his arms up in the air "All done mommy". Sigh. so cute.

pics from trip

Trip to North Dakota

E, Grammie and I left for our trip to North Dakota bright and early on Friday Oct 13th. Yes, Friday the 13th. AND this is not the first time I've flown on a Friday the 13th. Went to Ireland in Aug '04 for Julie P's wedding! Anyways, a bit of a bumpy ride landing in Winnipeg, but nothing major! We found out why it was so bumpy landing once we exited the terminal to get our rental car though! The WIND was incredible. and COLD!
We made it to Grand Forks in one piece and met Nanny Mitzi at her apartment. She has a very nice place and seems quite happy there! We then went over to Auntie Jeanne & Uncle Dick's house where we stayed the weekend. We enjoyed some great food, company and walks to the neighbourhood park! E even made a friend at the park "hey buddy, hey buddy, you wanna race cars?".
Auntie Bobbie met us at Jean's and Nanny Mitzi, Grammie, E and I headed to Bemidji, MN to see Bobbie & Jon's new cottage. It was beautiful! E especially enjoyed the toy room.
The next day back in the car to go to Fargo, ND. E and I stayed at Jennie & Jai's house. E had a great time playing with cuzzie Jacob. They raced cars, tortured poor Baxter (dog who weighs about 5lbs), told Michael he wasn't allowed playing with their stuff, watched Wonder Pets, read books, had lunch and games at Space Aliens, in general, had a great time together!! Jen and I had a shopping day together - no kids! the Grammie and Nana babysat for us while we checked out Target, the mall, and party store (see my next post for E's Halloween costume) and lunch at a really fab Italian restaurant! It was so nice to be able to shop in peace!
The last night there, Nanny Mitzi, Bobbie, Grammie, Jen and I went out for a deluxe, delish dinner in downtown Fargo! Yummy! Poor Jai was left at home with the children. But, he handled it well, they all seemed to go to bed without any major problems!
Thanks guys for having us ! Remember, next time it's your turn!!

Thanksgiving /Last Weekend at the cottage 2006

This past weekend was our (Canadian) Thanksgiving. The weather was gorgeous all weekend. 20c! E was with his dad from Tuesday till Sunday when he dropped him off at the cottage. So, had a bit of time to myself this week. E enjoyed rolling around in the leaves...Uncle Scott took us for the last boatride of the year. We did a bit of fishing off the boat and got a HUGE....................log. Scott is determined to catch a fish in our lake. Especially since our neighbours have caught many pretty big fish right off the end of their dock. I of course, got the hook stuck in my finger. Fisherman, I am not.
This friday E, Grammie and I are off to the motherland. Fly to Winnipeg and then drive down to ND to visit with my Grandma (Nanny Mitzi), Auntie Jeanne & Uncle Dick and then Auntie Bobbie (silver haired fox as my friend Rick calls her - Yes Rick, we will say a special hello to Auntie Bobbie for you!), Uncle Jon and my cousin Jennie, her husband Jai and their two boys J (4 days older than E) and baby M. We are very much looking forward to it - E will have fun with his cuzzies! and I will have fun at Target of course!! LOL.

Reunion

During my last 2 yrs of university, I had 3 housemates. Kerry, Liz and Margie. Since graduation in '94 (gulp), some of us stayed in touch and others not so much. But, in the last year or so we've all been in touch alot more. Kerry lived out in BC and moved back to ON I think 4 yrs ago...anyways, she got into the insurance biz (poor girl)and has moved closer to where the rest of us are located. We decided to have a reunion of sorts this past weekend at Kerry's townhouse she just bought last year in Waterloo. Margie, Liz and I drove up there on Saturday morning. We spent the afternoon shopping in St.Jacobs...its a quainty type/ mennonite type/cutesy shops kinda town. Highly enjoyable. OH, did I mention this was sans kids? Liz has 2 daughters 3 yr old and 2 yr old and is married to my ex's best friend. Margie is on the verge of being engaged (that is if Jones gets his act together, mans up and goes to Tiffany's soon!!), Kerry is single and of course I am the token divorcee with a son.

We had a fun time catching up, reliving the days at 196 Huron St in London. and of course the days at Brescia College (affiliate of Western - think we all transfered to main campus after 1st yr. Maybe Margie didn't?) Now, Brescia College is the ONLY college/uni of its type that is still in operation in North America. It is a girls only college (although some guys do take courses there - I think they like the odds of 10-1 female to male ratio). It is run by nuns. Each floor in the residence has a nun that lives there to "look after" the girls. Our nun was Sister Lorretta. She ran the whole residence, so therefore hand picked the girls she wanted to live on her floor > the quietest/most studious girls. Yes, I was on the nerd floor. Hard to believe given my vivacious/wild animal personality. I think Liz, Kerry, Margie,Jen Thrasher (Margie's roommate)& I were the wildest girls on the floor. Translation: we actually went out and had fun and didn't just study all the time! Oh and men/boys were not allowed in the residence AT ALL except for one sunday a month from 1:30pm-5:30pm. This included fathers, brothers, cousins etc. I KNOW!! It was a very odd place. Every Sunday morning at 9am poor Margie and Thrasher were awoken by the tolling of the church bells since their room was next to the bell tower. Wierdly, you did not have to be catholic to go to this school. Because I of course am a 'non religious' type. I'm sure enrollment has been down since the oh, I don't know 1960's! So they have to take all kinds to survive!! LOL. As you can imagine, many many funny stories to recall from living in the Nunnery. (as main campus people called us).

We had a great time shopping, then enjoyed a delish Thai meal at a local restaurant. Exhausted from shopping, we went back to Kerry's for a movie. Not a drop of alcohol was consumed. In bed by midnight. How things have changed since 1991!!

Thanks Kerry for being the hostess with the mostess!

Pink Eye strikes!

Phone call at 2pm on Monday : Hi Stephanie, it's Tanya from E's daycare, we need to you to come pick up E because we think he might have pink eye. Ugh. Then there was 1.5 hr of "waiting" (read of trying to keep a very active 3 yr old occupied in the waiting room without pissing off sick people waiting to see the dr.),at the clinic. When we finally got to the dr, he simply glanced at E and said, oh ya, thats pink eye allright. Then the 1/2 hr wait at Walmart for the prescription. E took off his shoes and socks and threw them out of the buggy. Good freakin God. Finally got home and after a time out in his bedroom for poor behaviour in Walmart that made mommy very upset, I put the drops in his eyes. 2 drops each eye 3 x a day for 7 days. The only way to get the eye drop job done is to lie him on the ground, put his head inbetween my legs, pin his arms under my legs and pry open his eyes which he has firmly closed. Of course he is screammmmming and kicking his legs around. Not even the promise of smarties can persuade this boy to let me put the drops in. Yeah, this is definitely going to mean 5 yrs of therapy for him as an adult!

His father picked him up at noon so I could go to work and tackle my 2 foot high paperwork. Insurance biz definitely is not paper friendly. Honestly, there is a tree worth of paper delievered to our office on a daily basis. I called E after work to see how he was> this was the conversation : "Hi E, Hi mommy, how are you baby, Good, mommy. What you doing mommy? I'm at work E, What you doing at work mommy? I'm processing policies. Why? Because people bought insurance from mommy. Coooool!!, mommy." Heh. if he only knew how uncool insurance was! But, at least I got a "cool" about my work. All I hear about is trains, trains, trains. His father is a conductor for CN Rail. And, to a little boy I guess that is the coolest job.

My eyes are itchy.....hope this is just 'sympathy' itch.

Bye Bye Summer?

E on the Labour Day weekend at the cottage. The weather was great on the friday, but was icky the rest of the weekend. :(
Went out last night for a friend of a friend's stagette. I didn't get picked up till 10:30pm! I almost didn't go out...I was so comfy in my jammies! Usually in bed by 10:30 , not going out at that time!! But, it was fun. As stagettes always are! We ended up at Joe Dog's on Brant St. They actually asked us for ID! We were all so happy. Most of the cliente were born in the 80's. GAWD. But, we were there kickn'er down till 1:30am!
E spend most of the afternoon throwing up. ick. Poor little guy...my poor couch. Yep, barfed ALL over it. I consulted a few people, then discovered the original invoice and ah ha! the "protection plan" for the couch! So, I called in a claim and they are going to send me a new cover for the one cushion in 8-12 weeks. After chatting with my neighbour Christiane, she advised she has a similar couch and had thrown the cushion cover in the wash on gentle after potty training incident years ago and it came out ok...Unable to stand the stench that was wafting in my family room from trying to "air out" the cushion, I threw the sucker in the wash. Looks ok now...just hang drying it. Fingers and toes crossed. Will see how it looks in the morning.
I have my bedroom and E's bedroom all rigged up with puke proofing. Towels on floors, mattresses covered with extra sheets. Hopefully, he sleeps thru the night without incident.
Oh, forgot to mention that I am 'babysitting' Jasper my parents black toy poodle. I think the babysitting is going to turn permanent tho as he doesn't seem to like his new digs at parents new highrise condo they just moved into downtown Burlington. soooo, after E threw up dirty Jazzy was in there eating it. GAWD. the smell was horrible I was near tears and almost threw up myself. Quite the scene.
I will leave you with that pleasant thought! Sweet dreams.

P.S E has said he wants to be a ghost for hallowe'en...any costume ideas? Besides the standard white sheet over kid.

5 months till xmas....

Fall was in the air at the cottage this weekend...cooler nights, spotted the first red leaf. Argh. There is still hope tho, cause it was 28degrees c today!

A couple of weekends ago E and I went over to Liz's house. E discovered Emma's 2 wheeler bike (with training wheels)... here are the cutest pics...guess we know what Santa is going to bring to E this year!! Santa should look now I suppose cause there could be sales on!

I have also started looking for a snowsuit for E. His second winter I was bad mom of the year > I didn't realize you had to look in August for a snowsuit. There I was looking in November and unable to find one! Gasp! I am prepared this year. I will get the snowsuit early and be done with it!

My baby comes home on Wednesday...I can't wait.

T.G.I.F

oh man, thank gawd it's friday! What a long week. E is with his father on vacation for a week (left Thursday to go to Sudbury). It's kinda nice to have time to myself, but kinda don't know what to do without him. Last night I mowed the lawn, weeded, tidy'd garage, went shopping, filled my car up with gas, and watched a movie.
I'm going up to the cottage tonight around 7pm... I'll be the one sitting in the sun doing absolutely nothing!! (oh, and sleeping in!) E comes back Wednesday night...can't wait to see him already!! Again, nice to have time alone, but I miss him!

Thomas the Tank Engine

Grammie, Bops and I took E to A Day Out With Thomas last week in St. Thomas, ON which apparently is the train capital of Ontario. Who knew? Well, you should have seen all the little boys running around with their Thomas shirts on! When E first saw Thomas it was a bit like seeing Santa...really excited to see him, but when you get up close and personal he's not too sure this is such a great idea. We boarded the train for a ride around the town about 20 min long...he loved that. Then stood in line to get his pic with Thomas. There was tonnes of other stuff to check out too. He had a great time and Boppie bought him 3 new Thomas trains for his track at home! Of course he HAD to bring them monday morning to school!! :)

My new house...

So, I bought a house November 05...its not supposed to be ready till March 07. Thought I would post the progress of the building for all to see. Right now the city is in there doing the gas lines, hydro, sewers, roads etc. The builder says that I should be able to go pick out my cabinets, flooring etc this August. Here is the link for the builder...my house is the Alton Village, Meadowlark model.
http://www.valeryhomes.com/ You can see the Niagara Escarpment in the background.

Little Otter Lake Weekend with Friends

'Chillax' - to chill and relax. It was the word of the weekend. And lots of chillaxing was done. Julie P, Kerry, Maria, Hermanator, Chumbie and I were up at the cottage a couple weeks ago.

It was Maria's first time north of Toronto -- she hails from Venezuela. She was introduced to the sounds& sights of the north. Frog sounds - Al does the best imitation, loon calls, lily pads and our gorgeous lake. Oh, and the sounds of Chumbie's new Sirus satellite radio were also heard. So many stations, so little time!

A few fruity cocktails were consumed (mostly by the guys), some tubing behind the boat was done, a little jumping off the boat and swimming was enjoyed. We did our best the first night to stay out and have a fire but unfortunatley, the bugs were horrible! And of course, certain city kids were unable to actually start the fire.

We discovered that Geoffwinder 'Bachelor Extrodinaire' has a new woman in his life. The question that left us all wondering was will our Geoffwinder miss his new love this weekend? Stay tuned.

Kerry and Julie have not changed one bit since our days at Brescia College @ Western. Still as chatty and friendly as ever! Too bad Jules' hubby the loverly Brit Nigel couldn't join us...next time Nige!

Thanks guys, I had a great time!

Where have I been??

Yes, I know, I haven't posted in a bit but, will do a quickie entry now. Summer has been fab thus far...
> Girls weekend at Sauble Beach with Barb, cousin Kym Hall and Sparkling Sue. It was fun, to just chillax and not have to worry about anyone but me! We had some yummy meals, perused the shops, read magazines, suntanned a bit (loved Sue's tan er, burn)...good times.

> I had a weeks vacation after the July 1 holiday. E and I went up to the cottage with mom. We went to Santa's Village one day. E just loved it. It is such a great place to take kids. His favourite was the train, of course. His love of trains is in his genes his father (CN) and his great grandpa mills (CP). We saw Santa in his "summer outfit" and E was amazed when we saw Mrs. Claus in the bathroom. "why she in there? well, even Mrs. Claus has to go tinkle". We had fun swimming, jumping off the dock, playing in the lake and sand, going on "adventures" etc.

> This coming weekend I have the cottage to myself and E is with his dad. My friends Al, Geoff, Kerry, Julie, Nigel and Maria are coming up to the cottage so I am really looking forward to enjoying the cottage without having to look after a 3 yr old! It'll just be different! I can sit out in the sun and not have to worry he is going to wonder off! I already miss my poopie tho! :( Yesterday, I was rushing to get him ready for school and he put his hands on his hips and said "mommy, be patient". er, ok. So, I waited a mintue and said , ok can we go now? and he said, yes. Wow. Unbelievable! too cute! but, wow.

I will report back Monday to tell all the funness of the weekend and try to get some pics up from the cottage!

Baby Wirkowski

Olivia arrived safely on June 8th...she was approx 9lbs. I went for a quick visit to OTMH on Friday morning...everyone was doing well! Livie was sleeping so I didn't pick her up - she was up all night crying. She is just a doll...looks like Kelly and a bit like Taylor! Here is a pic of her!

Motor mouth

This morning I was sitting on the floor with E while he was watching t.v ... I was playing with his toes/feet ( I love his feet!)... and then i started pushing back his cuticles on his toenails. He stops and looks at me "mommy, what you do to my toes?" then "what you do to my nails?"... I said I'm pushing back your cuticles. "oh". and continues watching his show!

During the car ride (5min) to daycare we listen to his cd's and he sings all the words to all the songs. or sometimes he breaks into "doe a deer a female deer, fa a long long way to run"... (he must have learned that one in music class at school).

Every night I read him 5 books. Grammie Girl just gave him a Miss. Spider book for his bday...he can already "read" it to me. If I stop reading he continues the sentence with all of the books. They really are little sponges aren't they?

E's birthday party at Springridge Farm

E had his bday party this past weekend...the weather was fantastic and the farm was so much fun for the kids!! They went on a tractor ride, pony rides, did crafts, went into the chicken coop and got eggs. E tried to pat the chicken! She flapped her wings and squalked! They got to feed the goats, play on the hay bales and drive mini tractors...and after all that was lunch and presents! On the way home he fell asleep and slept for 3 hrs that afternoon! It was so much fun and E loved seeing his friends!! Here are some pics of the kids at the farm!

E turns 3 yrs old!!

Hard to believe that it has been 3 years since May 23, 2003 when E was born at 6.17pm and weighed 7lb, 4 oz!! He was so sweet and cute! And had quite a set of lungs on him!




He is now about 35 lbs, 41 inches and almost out of diapers!! He still has quite the set of lungs... and can talk and talk and talk. Doesn't stop from sunup till sundown! He loves adventures and exploring at the cottage! This pic was taken today ... he was helping me carry some wood to the wood pile! He still makes my heart melt!!

"Taywer came for dinner"

E and T get soooo excited when they get together...its so cute. Here are some pics from tonight!

why?

Since the weekend, E says "why?" after EVERYTHING I say! Put your boots on E its raining...why? Its raining and wet outside, you need your boots...why? ARGH!!Cause mommy said so. Then sometimes I guess I give him a satisfying answer to his question he just says "oh". He def is quite the chatter box > must get that from the Bebonk (as he says it) side.

I had a nice lunch with Julie P, Kelly & Liz...then J & K and I went over to Winners and shopped a bit. Kelly is def in the "brutally uncomfortable" stage of her pregnancy...she has the baby in 23 days June 8th. I think she's only working for another week.

It is supposed to rain all week ... hopefully, it stops for the weekend and is nice and warm up north. We will be having E's bday celebration up north!

GAS PRICES

We get so many complaints from clients about the price of insurance... but how about gas??!! I heard that it's going up to 1.40$ / L this summer. I rec'd an email today with a good idea... boycotting Canada's 2 largest gas companies Esso and Petro Cda. Use other gas stations..ie: Pioneer . Thought that was a good idea. The vacation/cottage areas are going to feel the pain of the cost of gas this summer because noone will be able to afford to drive anywhere!