The coming of spring

I do realize that spring has already officially been here for 2 weeks. It's just that we had such a lovely winter and then at the end of February we were hit by snow and cold temperatures. There was a snowstorm the weekend before spring arrived, which made it very unspring like. However, the snow is almost all melted which has led to flooded sidewalks behind Taylor's school, which is the path I use to get most everywhere including the mall, work and my mum's house. That is the story every spring and I just can't get used to it. Nor do I enjoy the soaking wet shoes and socks.

There are a few other things about spring that I am not fond of including, but not limited too, the following:
-a messy entry way. No matter what, dead grass and dirt find their way in so that I am constanly sweeping and mopping. Thank God for the Swifter Wet Jet, which does a quick, if not very thorough, job.
-wet shoes. Due to the aforementioned flooded sidewalks plus kids that are drawn to every puddle they see, and are apparently too old and much too cool for rubber boots.
-dirty clothes. With wet sidewalks and patches of grass comes dirty cuffs on pants and along with my very uncoordinated daughter comes alot of wet arses. Does she sit in puddles? In the spring my budget for Spray'n'Wash increases threefold.
-dog shite. My most hated feature of spring. Due to the fact that people seem unwilling to walk in 3 feet of snow through the field they walk their dogs on the sidewalk, which I am quite alright with. What I am not alright with is not pooper- scoopering. Come spring that shite that has been long dry melts along with the snow into a diarrhea-like mess in the middle of the sidewalk. Yuck.

What I love about spring.
-Capris, capris, capris. What will I do when these pants go out of style? Taylor and I wear them all spring long. I wear them all summer too, because I hate my legs in shorts. Saoirse has a few pairs in Australia with her, and I bought her the cutest denim pair at Old Navy for when she gets home.
-the fact that the kids are outdoors. Although both Taylor and Liam are very slim, I do worry that one day they may not be. It is good to have them outside everyday rollerblading, riding bikes and playing road hockey. They hardly watch any T.V. come spring.
-shoes. Are the shoes not a thousand times better in the spring and summer than they are in the winter? I have a small shoe obsession and will be sure to buy a few pairs for the girls and myself. Liam could care less and William could care even less. I do however have an issue with men in sandals. It just does not work for me at all. Have I said before that I have a thing against feet. I really do. To the point that I can not buy a magazine if it has someone's bare feet on it. Exception to babies who have the cutest feet.

Although it looks as though there are more cons on my list, once we get past the first few wet weeks I absolutely love spring. I am even inspired to clean out my garage tomorrow because it is going to be a beautiful sunny day. Plus my friend Candy needs to use my freezer and I have to give her walking space. I can't expect her to jump over all the piles of crap I have thrown in there through the winter months can I? What sort of friend would I be? She could break her leg and sue me.

Two international bands play the Junos, both win record of the year...Conspiracy? I'm thinking so.

I missed the first hour of the Junos yesterday, and in doing so I missed the good hour of it. The second hour was pretty boring, with the exception of Michael Buble winning his fourth award of the weekend.

Yes, the weekend. I don't get that about the Junos...some of the biggest awards are given the night before. I understand having an event for stuff like best designed album cover, or sound engineering because what does your average fan care about those? But to give Group of the Year at a non-televised event makes absolutely no sense to me.

Things I Missed:
Bedouin Soundclash performing "When the Night Feels My Song", which I absolutely love.
Coldplay playing a Canadian awards show. Just what is this world coming to?
Nickelback. Not a big fan, but I do love "Photograph" and I bet that's what they played.

I did catch Hedley, with former Canadian Idol contestent Jakob making an absolute ass out of himself. And what did he do to his hand?
I also saw Michael Buble sing Home. He's a sexy wee bugger.
I had the misfortune of watching Black Eyed Peas, when I would have much prefered Coldplay.
Taylor was thrilled to see Simple Plan win the fans choice award but mighty disappointed that Pierre was not there to accept it. I would have loved Simple Plan when I was a teenager, I would have said that their lyrics pretty well described average teenage angst and parental misunderstanding.
If I were a man without a sex life I probably would have been quite thrilled at the sight of Pam Anderson's nipple. I am not a man, though, and I wasn't.

Coldplay and Black Eyed Peas both won for International Album of the Year. They say it's based on record sales and it very well may be but do you really think either band would have performed if they hadn't already known they were going to win an award? Maybe Black Eyed Peas would have, since they did play the Grey Cup but I doubt that Coldplay would have. They can go on about loving Canada all they want, but I don't buy it for a moment. If they loved Canada they would have played more than just three Canadian cities on their North American tour. Bitter? I am.

I also had a phone call immediately after Bryan Adams was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, asking me if he was gay. I only caught the tail end of his speech, so I don't know what made this person think that. And honestly, I have never thought about Bryan Adams sexuality. Maybe he is. Either way, he has managed to keep his personal life personal and I admire that.

This was also the first year that the Junos were broadcast around the world on MTV and VH1, so if you happened to catch it, you might be suprised to know that the lead singer from Heldley is straight. Never would have guessed it would ya have?

2 months down, less than one to go

2 months ago today Saoirse and William left for Australia. It has been the longest 2 months of my life. They will be home in a little under a month, on the 30th.

I worry that she will be shy with me. She won't talk to me on the phone, she always starts crying. Which breaks my heart, yet her father insists on giving it a go. I am prepared for the fact that she might not want me to hold her, and I know that once we have her home all will be fine. Well, back to normal anyway, where she cried if she was left with me. Oh yes, Saoirse is the ultimate Daddy's girl. The last picture of her and I together, taken the day she left, is one where she is sitting on my lap, but she is crying and has her arms held out to the picture taker, who just happens to be her dad.

Missing three months of a toddler's life means you have missed out on a lot. So many new things that she can do. She now says a host of new words, which will all be new to me. She walks backwards, and when her diaper is changed she flips over onto her tummy so William can give her bum a wee smack (!). She likes to be chased and at the park she climbs up the slide so she can slide down, by herself, she wants no help. Her fringe is now going into her eyes, and her hair curls over her ears. William asked me if I wanted him to take her for a haircut or wait until they are back. I asked him to wait for to reasons, one that I want to be there and two, that he will not take the right pictures of this momentous event. I have some lovely first haircut stickers for a scrapbooking page.

I look forward to having them home, to getting ready to move house, and having this new baby. It'll be a busy few months.

Good God, it was spotless for a moment

My daughter's bedroom is clean. Mummy clean. Because Mummy cleaned it. For 2 solid days. I cleaned and I threw away 3 of those big black garbage bags of, well, garbage plus a huge recycling bag of paper and cardboard and other junk that my daughter manages to squirrel away into corners. I moved her bed away from the wall as there was a tiny hole which is now gigantic due to her kicking it during her sleep. I moved her dresser into the corner and took out a desk with a bookcase on it.

And it's clean! At least it was. I went in there tonight and there were a few stuffed animals on the floor, plus a few more in the ceiling. Apparently she is decorating. So we'll see what happens tomorrow after school when she is due to give her room its daily 10 minute cleaning. If she can manage that, it might actually stay clean.

*I say the room is Mummy clean because that is a healthy spot right in the middle between Taylor clean (a demolition area) and Nanny clean (not only spotlessly clean, but with no personal effects either.)

I'm happy with it anyway. I may even take a few pictures to catch this moment in time.

Apparently I will never leave Canada

I have a slightly small problem. I have to renew my passport, as it well past expired but I cannot find my birth certificate. I am pretty sure it is somewhere in my garage, but finding it could take years as my garage is a catch all place for every piece of junk (and probably a few important documents) I own. I suppose I should just phone and order a new one, but you know what will happen then don't you? The moment that $22 or so is put on to the Visa, I will find the original.

Because I carry a British passport I also need to order a new Canadian citizenship card, which is highway robbery at $75. $75 for a piece of laminated paper. Insane. If I do not have this card, it is entirely possible that Immigration Canada may not let me back into the country. Which I said is fine with me, as long as they pay for my flight back to where ever I came from.

I had thought that maybe I would just order a Canadian passport instead, as it is slightly cheaper than ordering a British one, but it turns out that I still need that fecking card to prove I am actually a citizen.

So it looks like I will be staying put as actually doing anything to get a passport requires effort on my part. Here's hoping William and I don't have to move because I would really have to get my shit together.

I wonder what I would have been like had I not been late?

Your Birthdate: December 16

You're incredibly introverted and introspective. You live inside your head. You spend a lot of alone time meditating and thinking. People see you as withdrawn, and at times they are right. You are caring and deep, but it may be difficult for you to show this side of yourself. Your strength: Your original approach to thinking Your weakness: You tend to shy away from others Your power color: Pale blue Your power symbol: Wavy line Your power month: July

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Authentic? Somehow I doubt it

I suppose it's a good thing I am not native as my authentic Indian name is Eileen Quirky Buffalo. Now I am not opposed to the name Eileen, but it is not a name I would choose for myself. Quirky's quite alright, nothing against quirky whatsoever. No my problem is with the Buffalo. A great big, ungainly, ugly animal.

Thanks to Joe over at Assorted Nonsense for adding some amusement to my day, I had a great laugh at Taylor's name and the soon to be baby's.

9 Days and Counting

Is it just a tad pathetic to be excited about a weekend away? It might be, but I could care less at the moment because I AM GOING AWAY!!!!!!!!!! No children fighting, no housework for 3 solid days, no telephone that is contantly ringing.

A break, a complete and total break. I might even get some stuff done. I am trying to decide what I should do. Should I sort pictures, scrapbook Saoirse's holiday to Australia or make my birth announcement cards? I am probably leaning towards making cards, as I placed an order with Stampin'Up for all the things I need and it should arrive the day before we leave. If it fails to show, I will scrap Saoirse's holiday.

The last time I went to this place, Goldeye, was when I was 3 weeks pregnant with Saoirse. The next one was scheduled for the week before Saoirse's arrival, and I did not go to it because a)William had only just arrived and b) my friend Shelley said she could not handle it if I went into labour. Even though she is an ICN nurse and attends all deliveries. Wimp.

So it's been over 2 years and in that 2 years I have done very little, only a handful of scrapbook pages. Disgraceful really, judging by the amount of money I spend on materials. It will be nice to actually do something.

Or will I? The last time I managed to do a fair bit of organizing, with alot of chatting in between. There are 23 of us going, 2 of whom I know very well and about 6 or 7 I am aquainted with, mostly through Shelley. I invited my friend Nancy from school, who is worried she will know no one (except for Shelley, who she knows through hockey.) Nancy though could talk to a wall and get conversation from it, so she will do fine. It is me that always has a sense of dread, as I am not a talker and really am quite uncomfortable around people I don't know. It always works out though, and I always have a great time.

And I may actually get things done and be able to justify the thousand or so dollars spent on stamps and accessories in the last year.

VOTE FOR NATHALIE

I have been watching a show I vowed not to watch, Much Music's VJ Search. I got suckered in however, because I know one of the contestants. She is a mother of one Liam's classmates, a girl who was at his previous school from Grade 2 and is now in this Academic Support program with him. She was also one of my Brownies last year (the girl of course, not the mother.)

Nathalie is the same person on TV as she is in reality, very nice and friendly and always with a huge smile on her face.

She was however the second one of the final 10 to be voted off, and has since been hanging out in the Loser Loft. It was down to the final three yesterday, and not one was eliminated and they brought 6 of the 7 that had been kicked off back for one of them to be voted back on to the show.

So I am asking a bunch of people who will never ever have watched this show, not have a fig of an interest, to vote for Nathalie. (I mean, really, Toronto vs, Edmonton...where would you rather live?) You have until midnight Eastern Time on Thursday.

Get voting.

****Cannae believe I forgot to put in the link. Vote for Nathalie!***

The top 100 books for kids

Chapters has put out a list of the top books for kids as chosen by irewards members. In our house we have 79 of the top 100, some that belonged to me as a child and most that have been purchased since Taylor was a baby. Working in a book store definitely had its benefits, the shite pay not being one of them.

Included in this list are only 12 books by Canadian authors. At number 4 is Love You Forever by Robert Munsch. This book freaks me out, frankly. Rocking a teenage boy in your arms? Weird. Rocking your elderly mother in your arms, almost as weird. I suppose I should look past that and just appreciate the meaning of the book, but sorry I can't.

My all time favourite Canadian book is on this list, Pierre Berton's The Secret World of Og. I don't know why this book is not in this house, but it isn't. Who knows what ever happened to my childhood copy. Taylor took it out of the library yesterday, though I suppose she is probably a bit too old for it now. Did anyone ever watch the cartoon as a child? It used to be on as a Saturday morning special on ABC. I watched it everytime and never grew tired of it. It wasn't until years later that I found out that og meant young. Sneaky of old Pierre there, using Irish to trick all us North Americans.

What I don't like about this list is that some picks are given over to series, such as the number one choice, the Chronicles of Narnia and number 41 The Baby-sitters Club, which is probably over 100 books by now. Yet Laura Ingalls Wilder is on there for both Little House on the Prairie and Little House in the Big Woods, which is essentially a series. So why not do one or the other? Surely not everyone thinks Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls is in the top 100. I don't think a single Baby sitters club book should be in there, it's much like putting in Sweet Valley High, books that I read but certainly wouldn't consider worthwhile literature.

Anyway, it's an interesting list, there's a suprising amount of poetry on it. Take a gander at it, if you happen to be bored senseless. If you're smarter than I am you may be able to pull up the actual list, all I could get was what they have in stock so it looks as though Kristy's Great Idea is the number one book.Those babysitters would take over the world if they could.

How young is old enough?

Mums (and dads too, I suppose you must count also) I have a question. At what age do you let your daughter go to the mall with a group of friends?

My daughter is 11 now, and is hinting that she would like to be allowed to wander around the mall with a friend or two, with a month's worth of allowance (a whopping $20), and the free will to spend it on what she wants (New York Fries, a rootbeer and Spongebob stuff, I imagine.) Has she reached the right age?

My friend Janine and I used to go to the mall on our own every Saturday afternoon. We would spend our money (way less than $20) at Marks and Spencers on a 4 pack of sherbert with the black licorice straw and a package of crisps each, we'd each get a different flavour so that we could split it. I was partial to Spring Onion, in case you're interested. Sometimes if we were really flush we would go over to T-shirts and Things and buy some pins. Corey Hart for me, and I think she would get Bryan Adams. To my eternal shame, I was also rather fond of Michael Jackson buttons. Hey, it was 1984.

When I was 11, closer to 12, a group of us all used to meet at the mall on a Friday night, always a busy time, always lots of kids.

The difference between now and then was a good 20 years first off. The mall was smaller, our houses were closer. Were people kinder then? I don't know. I don't think people are much different really, I think we are just more paranoid. But still, I don't know. It seems like such a big step, like admitting that she is no longer a little girl, but is actually growing up.

There are a few girls in her class who are allowed to go to the mall on their own, who are even allowed to attend a monthly Rock'n'Ride at Galaxyland. That is pushing it for me. It is for kids aged 12-17 and there is no way I would allow my 11 year old daughter, a girl who is as tall as many 14 year olds, to be around 17 year olds. Nor would I allow her to be around the drugs that are Rock'n'Ride.

For that is the thing about the mall, it has always been a great place for kids to find drugs, and for pimps to find kids. I was a teenager at that mall once, and though I never came close to "mall rat" status, many of my friends did, including Janine. I can make Taylor as aware as I possibly can or I can ban her from it altogether, unless she is with an adult.

This is probably a moot point, as Taylor's friends all have very protective parents, I am probably the least protective of the bunch. Taylor was the first to be allowed to walk to school on her own, the first to be able to go to the shop up the road on her own. But I don't think I want her to be the first to go to the mall. Perhaps if all the other parents were to allow it. Her friend Connor's mum and I once joked about it, about how we would let them go to a movie, but we would sit in the lobby and wait, or how we would follow them through the mall 10 paces behind. It was a joke 2 or 3 years ago, now it looks like it might become reality.

How protective is to protective? At what point do we let them go and try these things out? That freedom was a part of my childhood, shouldn't it be a part of hers?

New Years Resolutions

Yes, yes, I know it is the end of March and New Years was almost 3 months ago. I just thought I'd wait a few months to see how I did before I posted about it.

I started early this year, or rather last year. I decided that since New Years Resolutions have never worked for me (aside from giving up sugar in my tea when I was 13- or did I give that up for Lent?) I would make my resolutions Boxing Day ones. So here's my resolutions and how I did:

1) to lose weight. A constant one, as I am constantly carrying around extra pounds from a)Liam, b) Saoirse, c)pop and d)a slight obsession with jalapeno and cheddar nachos.

I was to lose this weight by a)cutting out all junkfood...did OK, would have the odd chocolate craving, who knew I was up the duff?, b)drinking only diet pop...not to bad there either, but now I think regular pop and diet are both sort of gross, c)to drink 8 glasses of water a day...nice feckin' try, I'm lucky if I drink one bottle while at work, and hardly touch the stuff when I'm at home, and d)to get more exercise... well I already walk enough, I was to join a gym but managed to put it off by always being to busy, at work I was supposed to use the stairs when possible, did it a grand total of once.

2)to save money. Well, hey, it helps if you actually work. And if you don't eat out. Which I have done everyday this week (certainly not helping with the weight issues either.) It also helps not to go places in which money spending is required eg)the scrapbooking store, Old Navy, my monthly stamping club, Chapters. It would really, really help if my children were willing to starve. Unfortunately, unlike their mother, they have absolutely no fat stores on which they could live off for a few weeks. Ergo, I am forced to feed them, which requires spending money.

3) to stop being such a bitch. Yeah, didn't work. Such is life.

I'm done with resolutions, no matter what time of the year they are. My daughter asked what I was giving up for Lent and I said "The same as last year. I'm giving up yelling at you guys."
"You're supposed to give you something you like." she says.
"I do like yelling at you, that's why I'm giving it up."

I think that lasted all of about 73 minutes, when Liam pissed her off and got a thumping for it and they both got in trouble for doing in my head.

Choosing a Junior High

Taylor has spent the last three evenings attending events at two different schools in order to prepare for her for junior high. She's doing the open houses a year early, due to the fact that I want her to do IB (International Baccalaureate). She wasn't very keen on it as she had been told it included a few hours of homework per night. So I wanted her to go, just so she could be prepared for what she might be getting into.

And she loved it. She was thrilled to hear that the IB and non IB students are all in the same class, and that they will have no more homework than the other students. The only difference is that the ones in IB work toward certificaton, and have to take French and Music as two of their options. Which is fine, as she loves both subjects. She plans on studying the flute as her instrument of choice, shunning my suggestion of the saxaphone.

So in a year and a bit my daughter will be attending the same junior high that I was at all, all those many years ago. It wasn't IB then and it was heading into "bad reputation" territory. It seems to have done a turnaround though. If she follows through with the IB program she will automatically be accepted into the highschool I went to. It was an academic school then and still is, unfortunately I was not a student who excelled in academics. I was more the "why the hell did you choose this school?" sort of student.

If only I could go back in time. God, would I do things differently.

The curse of MSN and a preteen girl

I don't know how Taylor did it, but sometime ago she managed to link her MSN account to Outlook Express and now whenever I open my email, up in the corner pops up "You have 12 new messages!" or whatever. I usually turn it off but sometimes am not paying attention and it gets overlooked. In which case I suddenly find myself engaged in conversation with children who have a fantastic vocabulary that seems only to include the opening line of "who dis".

This comes from one particular girl in Taylor's class, a child she is not friends with, and usually I just turn it off. Sick of constantly seeing "who dis" yesterday I replied with "If you don't know how it is, why don't you just delete it?" There was no answer.

What do these kids do? Pass a list around the class saying who has hotmail, add your address to my list (but leave out your actual name) and I'll send you the same forwarded email you have already received 9 times and then I'll message you asking who you are? They must. And the names they use!

Here's a few choice one from Taylor's list: (yes, I realize I am interfering with the privacy my daughter is entitled to)

-Treauring Christ (if you're that religious at 10, I am slightly more than concerned)
-PIGGYSROCK
-Who ya callin nerd
-Head MUSLEM
-im goin to the waterpark tomorrow with my friends becca, mylene and jan. ohh yeah its going to be awsome (spelling error hers)
-zacks a retard who coppies people 24/7...vote for me (spelling mistake his, Zack is a long time friend of Taylor's and has recently started getting teased and I'm pretty sure Zack has this same kid on his MSN and is seeing that he is being made fun of in cyber space)

Some of these kids are as mean via email and messenger as they are in person, and although Taylor is not being bothered by them it could happen at any moment. She doesn't even chat with half these kids so I am not sure why she keeps them on her list. She's not allowed into the actual chat rooms and has not shown any interest in them yet. I suppose that will all come in a year or two, and they will be having a talk ourselves about chatting with strangers online.

Yikes. My mother must be so glad there was no world wide web when I was a kid.

Tell me a story

I was reading an article the other day on storytelling and on how this generation of parents has lost the knack to tell a story and that our children do not even know to ask. Sure, they'll ask to be a read a story and with the abundance of books most families have that is quite easy. This is true with me, I couldn't tell a story off the top of my head to save my life and I would be hard pushed to be able to even retell a story from something I had read or heard. "Um..so Goldilocks sat in Papa's chair..or was it Mama's...ah, maybe it was baby bears, hear, I bet it was all three..." There's no fluid motion with me, just like in my writing. Odd, since I loved to write as a child and won plenty of creative writing awards. Sometimes we lose the few talents we actually have.

My father is a storyteller and so is my son. At the age of three he told me two stories that I won't soon forget. One was that he had had a dream (and who knows maybe he did) that he was a grandfather and his grandaughter died in a car accident. He went into great detail, describing places and all sorts of things well above a three year olds understanding. Another time he told me that he had been on the Titanic and had died in the water and his wife survived. This was before he knew what the Titanic was, and how he ever came up with the name of that boat is beyond me. I had a friend who believed he actually was on the Titanic, I said he was just repeating something he must have heard somewhere. In playschool his teacher told me he was always telling tall tales, and at Easter she wrote him a note saying she loved his stories. I said "She means he's a great liar." Which he was. And still is, in fact. Today, his teachers most common comments about him are that he is a great storyteller and can dictate pages and pages of stories and that to get out of trouble, he will start telling her some long winded tale.

But this post was primarily supposed to be about my dad who as I said earlier is truly a great storyteller. When we asked to be read to as children he would tell us a story instead, often some Celtic myth, but more often about his childhood in Belfast. We heard stories about all the broken bones he had, about my granny sewing his toe back on with just a needle and thread. There were stories about stealing a gypsy's horse and about him setting fire to his younger brother's hair and his mother beating him with a hanger for his efforts, about how he would do the older kids homework for money, about his summers spent in Donegal speaking nothing but Irish and the trouble you would get in if they heard you using English. There were stories about his relatives and friends and every single house on every single street that he ever lived on.

There were stories he never told of course, stories I had to hear from other family members. Last summer my aunt told me that when he was 12 or 13 he tried out for a boys choir based out of London. They picked two boys from Northern Ireland, and one of them was my dad. When they arrived at the house to tell him, my granny said no, he wouldn't be allowed to go. I still don't know why she did this, when I asked my dad he said oh, she was just worried about me being in England and the travelling I would have to do. Odd, since at 15 he was travelling throughout Ireland working. Perhaps she just didn't want to lose the paycheque my dad equalled. He also never told me that he started drinking at 14, this I was told by a social worker when he was in hospital for a broken hip and attempted suicide. He always did say drink was the devil, and it definitely did ruin him.

Still, I would like these stories, the good and the bad, but he seems hesitant to record them or to write them out. My father is Taylor and Liam's only tie to Ireland and to that little bit of family history that will soon be gone. Of course, they can hear William's stories about growing up outside of Belfast, but his stories are much different than the ones my father has, different times and different areas.

My dad will be 64 this coming summer. I wonder how much longer there is for me to convince him that there are still stories to be told, still children to hear them. His father died at 66, his mother spent the last 10 years of her life with Alzheimer's. Memories of long ago events remained, but the interest to tell them in detail certainly wasn't there. I hope I can get him to do this. It would be much easier if he was like my mother's father who is huge on family history, and has actually created a family archive to be passed on one day (to which of the five grandchildren, I have no idea.)

One day, I might actually convince him. I should just go out and buy him a tape recorder. But would he use it?