Sigh

I realize I've been a bad blogger of late. I have a lot going on, and I hope some of the stressors and guilt inducing situations will pass soon.

Things are going well otherwise. Week 27 finds me tired, emotional, and overall blah somedays. The little guy is a good little mover, but seems calmer than his sister was, so that's a bright spot - maybe he won't be as insane as his sister!!

Gearing up for Halloween, so hopefully we'll have some pictures for next week.

Just wanted to post that we're all still here, and doing relatively well!

Chrissy

Army Run 2010

Sunday September 19th started bright and early for us all! My dad and step mom were in town and we were all getting up and gearing up for the 2010 Army run. I was participating in the 5k walk/run and Dad and Maria were doing the half marathon (crazy runners!)

We were out of the house shortly after 7, as the 5k started at 8am. Getting downtown doesn't typically take us that long, but when there are 14,000 runners, most of them doing the 5k, all looking for parking and spectator positions, it's a bit crazy! I jumped out of the car about a block from the starting line and walked over. I was a bit nervous and excited about the prospect of walking with 12,000 other people for such a great cause (supporting our wounded soldiers and their families), as well as the fact that this was my first race in 10 years! TEN YEARS! Even I can't believe that.... insane!

I found my way to the corrals and found a spot. Everyone was antsy and excited to start. I was all alone in a sea of people, but quickly a group of us started chatting. They couldn't believe I was walking the 5k and hoping to set a time at 22 weeks pregnant! GO ME!

The Cannon blows to start the race. All of ours hearts jump a beat as man, are those cannons LOUD!
Slowly we start creeping towards the start line and I'm looking around to see if anyone I know is around. As if I'm actually going to see anyone, but there are Dad and Maria waving wildly at me :) It brought tears to my eyes. We yelled over everyone else to arrange a meeting spot as they would be starting around the time I would be finishing. And then I was on my own again.

People kept passing me, but I kept to my solid fast walking pace. I'd tried a wee jog again the day before the race and was too winded after a few hundred metres to even think about running most of the 5k, so I opted to walk the whole way. I was managing to pass some other walkers and was feeling great about myself. Around the 2k mark, I hear someone say "I've caught up to the pregnant lady!" It was one of the joggers from the starting line. Her pace was on par with mine, so we continued on together until her 10 minutes of jogging was up and she fell back into a walk. "See you later" we called to each other.

Meanwhile, I pass a "rest" station. There was a table chock full of Tim Horton's (read: YUMMY) donuts! In the middle of the race. Let me tell you, baby wanted one, but I resisted!!! I had to laugh at that though. A couple hundred metres later there was a potty station and I saw one woman waiting who was a few weeks more pregnant than I was waiting. I opted not to stop (there will be bathrooms at the end!!) as I was Setting a Time here people!!

Around the 4k mark my jogging buddy caught up to me again. I was thrilled to have someone to finish with, and told her she couldn't stop running. She only had 1 kilometre left, she could do it! We chatted and finished together, triumphantly, hugged, then parted ways. We all received medals in the form of dog tags, had our timer chips removed and were herded towards the food tent. When I finally made it out of the food tent with yummy carbs for my belly, I heard the cannon go again. The half marathon was starting. I really wanted to try to cheer on Dad and Maria, so for the first time that day, I RAN over to the race start line! (Boy, did I ever have to pee by this point too!) I watched until almost everyone was out, but I didn't see them :( I headed over to the designated meeting spot in hope of finding the family, but to no avail. There were soooo many people! I wandered for 25-30 minutes before stopping some poor kid on the street to borrow his iPhone to call the hubby. Luckily, the kid heard the phone ringing and told him, so we were able to meet up, and I was finally able to hit the bathroom!

When I crossed the finish line it read something along the line of 50 minutes. I was disappointed as I didn't think I was that far behind the 45 minute pace bunny. When I got over to the results listings, there were too many people to bother looking and I still hadn't found the hubby and kid. Once I finally found them, we stopped for a snack break and I heard all about the horrible parking experience that was downtown (took him an hour of driving around and around one way, half blocked off streets to find a spot!) He made it to the finish line at 54 minutes, and figured he'd missed me so went to wait. After our snack, the crowd had diminished from the results postings, so over I headed. I discovered that the time I crossed at was the actual Cannon time, so my time was actually better than that. I was so happy and proud of myself when I discovered my actual time was 45.13! Pretty good if I do say so myself.

Next summer though, I'm going to break 30 minutes!

Back at home in our shirts and medals

Okkatots Giveaway!

I just entered the Okkatots giveaway at http://www.okkatots.com/
They are giving away one of their awesome child carriers, and (in my opinion) a really awesome looking diaper bag!!

Head on over to Okkatots to enter by September 14th!

Hurry!

Go Now!

Playing Catch Up

I'm going to try to make a real effot to play catch up on this blogging stuff. We had a pretty busy summer, and I hope to get a bunch of pictures posted with some explanations so you all can see how much fun we've had over the summer.

We spent a long weekend at the cottage, visiting with family and cousins who we haven't seen in quite a while. It was so great to swim in the lake, catch up on everyone's lives, and show off our little girl to some cousins who had only heard of her existence.

I finally got a really great shot of my grandmother with her Great-Grand daughter. I'm so pleased with how this one came out! Nan hates us taking pictures, but I got this one! She turned 84 this year, and Rebekah is 2.

And we finally have a four generations picture, of most of the girls in the family. My sister isn't here, but I'm still happy we have one, even if it's not the best, or completely complete yet.

This was the August long weekend. I will try to include more of the rest of the summer soon!

Thanks for the patience!
Chrissy

August Post

So since it's been summer and I've been away from the blog-o-sphere, I figure I should give you at least one post for the month of August.

Sad to say, but when I've been at home I've been really bad at getting on to read or edit blogs. I don't have a good reason except for the little parasite we've been growing. I've spent countless precious hours napping, and it was heavenly. I'm back to work now and don't know what I'll do without my naps!

Update on the Parasite!

It's a BOY!

We're going to have our million dollar family, or our Nuclear family as James likes to say.

That being said, Little Miss' Big Girl Room is slowly coming together (we have a bedspread and sheets, my grandmother is refinishing some of my old furniture, and I think we have paint colours picked out!), and I've thought of a new design for the nursery. I wasn't going to change much in the nursery, but I came across some really cute Monkey designs and decor and I was sold. Even James agrees that the brown will look great with the yellow, so now I'm looking for great peel and stick wall decals, accessories etc, so if you know of anything, let me know!

I will get to posting pictures from our vacations soon. It was a great summer, complete with a trip to the cottage and a week in New Hampshire. We had fun, but am sad to say it is now over!

Little Miss is excited to have a little brother, and I'm excited because she is getting close to being potty trained! Still have accidents, but we're getting there! Every trip to the potty is a small victory, celebrated in stickers and cookies!

Hope your summer has been fabulous, and I'll be sure to share more of mine soon enough!

Big News!

So I normally don't have a decent excuse for not blogging in what feels like forever... but this time I do!

I've been tired.

I've been napping in the afternoons.

I'm on summer vacation..

I'm chasing a two year old around most days.

and.....

I'm Pregnant!

So forgive me (us) for the lack of bloggy-ness lately. I hope that we'll get on top of the blog soon enough again!

Bad Blogger

I know. I've been a bad blogger. I have no excuse.

Last week I was off for two day for Pink Eye. It's all cleared up now. I should have had time then.

We get woken up everyday between 5am and 6am. Usually much closer to 5am than we'd both like. It might be time to buy black out curtains.

Work is drawing to an end. Woo Hoo. Unfortunately, that means all the kids are high strung as they are on a FIELD TRIP in the second to last week of school. CRAZY!

That, coupled with the early mornings, makes for a very tired Mommy, (and Daddy too of course).

Have I mentioned that we're in the Defiant Two's now? No one told me about this stage? She can talk all she wants but her favourite word still seem to be "no" with a little grunt added after for effect.

I'll try to be better soon.
Summer is coming.
Maybe I'll have more time.
Or will take more pictures.

I will try to post more often.
No promises.
But I'll try!

Forgetful me...

I completely forgot to grab the memory card this morning so that I could upload some awesome pictures from this weekend's birthday party. Sigh... my brain is mush these days. I think it might have something to do with the fact that I will NEVER get used to being woken up before 6am. Yesterday we were granted sleep until 6am and it was wonderful. I felt rested and great all day! Today, 3:33am, then 5:20am. I hate complaining, but she used to be such an awesome sleeper...

Any thoughts on how to Black Out her windows in the hopes she might sleep longer?

Funny Stories

Two funny munchkin stories from last night... well funny to me at least.

So James puts the munchkin down for bed almost every night. He asked me if I wanted to read her stories last night, but my tummy was still all rumbly so let him go ahead with it. About 10 minutes or so later he comes downstairs and we hear quiet. A few minutes later I hear a few sounds over the monitor, but figure she is just chatting with herself. A few minutes later she is calling/crying for daddy.

Off goes James in a slighty perturbed mood, only to get upstairs to have her say "Daddy, somefing in my bed".  Next thing I hear is slapping sounds across the monitor! I can only wonder what is going on up there. "More Daddy" then more slapping sounds!Turns out there were mosquitos in her room, buzzing in her ears and driving her mad (they drive me mad too!)

James comes down a few minutes later looking all victorious and giggling a bit. His first Heroic Daddy Deed complete. Soon it will be "somefing" under the bed, but for now, Daddy is the Mosquito Hero!

Fast forward about 6 hours. We hear cries at 3am that don't subside. Typically she cries out and settles herself back to sleep no problem. James has always been the best one to settle her back down in the night, so off he goes, only to have her want her blanket back on! Remember when I wrote the big Blanket issue? Well for the first time ever, she woke up as she wanted her blanket on her! Hooray!!

No to teach her to just kick off the blanket instead of toss it out of bed, so she can get it back when she wakes up in the middle of the night!!

Sickie

So it was my turn to be sick. Went to bed with a sour tummy and it all went south from there.... it's soooo hot that I only ventured outside to pick the little one up from daycare, then put our swimsuits on and sat in the kiddy pool with cold tap water for an hour. She was entertained and it was relaxing for me.

Still not feeling perfect, but should be able to venture to work tomorrow, seeing as it's an office day and I don't have to teach in the heat until Thursday afternoon.

Will try to post more tomorrow....

Blanket

I have a child who doesn't like blankets, or anything for that matter, in her bed. In the past week, we have finally convinced the stubborn two year old that blankets are for big girls, and maybe she should try it out. Her feet will be warm in the morning at least.

Night one she woke up crying and screaming saying she didn't want it. We took it off.

Night two went well. She woke in the morning with the blanket still around her. Same with a few naps.

We've told her that she can take it off anytime she wants, she doesn't have to keep it on.

Last night, 3:44am to be exact. I hear her cry. I run to the door way to hear her say "me no want that" and then it got quiet again. Off to bed I went.

This morning, like other mornings, the blanket was in a heap on the floor. Funny, yes. Annoying, sometimes. Adorable, absolutely! Baby steps with my stubborn two year old. But I'll take it for the cuteness factor!

Mothers Day

Well I know i'm sooo late with my Mother's Day bragging, but better late than never!!

Most of you already know that I have the best husband and child a mother and wife could ever ask for, but they clinched it this Mother's Day!

Last year around Mothers Day (it may have been a week or so later, but oh well) we went to a local nursery and outfitted my gardens for the year. It was sunny and beautiful and was going to be tradition.

This year it rained. We decided to run errands instead. Our laptop died the week before and it was time to look for a new one, and groceries needed buying.

I dropped James off at the Best Buy and went to do some groceries. I called him after we snuck to another store to pick up a Father's Day gift for him, to find out where he was. He said Future Shop, so off we went to find him. We get into the store and he waves to us, and strangely enough he is in the camera section talking to a guy. I really don't remember what was said, but the next thing I know I'm holding a body to a Sony a330 and they are staring at me. James looks at me and tells me that it comes with 2 lenses, and it's on sale, and Happy Mother's Day, Anniversary and Birthday!

WHAT?! WOAH! I start to tear right up as I have wanted a digital SLR for as long as I can remember! I start mumbling thank yous and crying and the guy in the store asks how long I've wanted one... "uh, forever" was my mature response.  I still can't believe it's happening!

James is the most awesome person I know. And not just because he listens when I think he's not, and he knows what I want, and he will do what he can to make it happen. I Love him so much and am so proud to be the Mother of his Daughter.

Here is a picture we took of the New Camera with the really old one (I couldn't remember where we'd put the newer pocket camera!!)  If only I could take pictures of the camera with the camera it would be a wicked awesome shot! (but check out the above link and you'll see it from the Sony page)

So expect a lot of really awesome pictures to be coming your way once I figure out all the funky features and fun stuff I'm going to have to learn!

In the meantime, here are a few "teaser pictures!"

Update

Well Phoebe was sick most of the day, and once overnight. This morning however she drankd some pedialyte and kept it down. She later ate some plain rice (she picked out the beef!!).

We've left her home today as it will be a short day alone and we feel she is on the mend. Here is hoping there are no surprises for me when I get home!

Big sigh of relief when she ate this morning. Her ears perked up and there was a spring back in her step. I get so worried about her as she is my fur baby.

For those of you that know her, a big sign of normalness for her this morning was that she licked me! She is a big time licker and she licked me and tried to protect me while rough housing this morning! Two big signs for me that she is on the mend.

Phew!

Sickie

Another Phoebe post.

She's been sick since sometime last night, and she's got me all worried.

She can't even keep down water. My poor puppy.

I have stayed home to be with her today, so hopefully this will pass and it will just be a stomach bug. Do dogs get stomach bugs?

On another note, blogger is being silly and isn't letting my enter button work very well. How annoying.

Here's hoping the day turns out as bright and sunny as it is outside!

Cheese Dog?

Does anybody else's dog Love Cheese?

I swear Phoebe can hear the package being taken out of the refrigerator.

She can hear me cutting slices from the block.

And then the whining begins. Oh the incessant whining.

"pleeeeasssse can I have some cheese? I'll be goooooood. I promise."

sigh.

She lost a pound and a half last year.

It could have been two if it weren't for the cheese!

Piggy Tails!

My little miss is finally letting me put Piggy Tails in her hair!

She asks me to do it.

And she will keep them in longer than 15 minutes!!

What a big girl... I mean Ham!

No Excuse

I have No Excuse.

I could try.

I've been busy.
Work is insane right now. Even today will be busy, but I found a few minutes to try to get out of the doghouse of not blogging in far too long.
The kiddie is teething .... again.
The dreaded eye teeth have been cutting and she's in so much pain.
She chews on her hands.
She asks for "somefing else" to make her "mouf" stop hurting
She cries out in the night and wakes up early.
We're all tired.

Yet, I have no excuse for not blogging.

So please Excuse me.

I'll try to come around more often

Thanks for understanding dear friends

Paint!!

It started a bit like this....

all the furniture moved out of the family room.

(see more over at Dragonflies and Dreams)

A little bit of the "woah" factor hit when I saw the first bit of paint on the walls...

But it ended up like this....Beautiful! (pardon the mess!)

The curtains still need to go back up...

And then we decided to do the small bathroom too!! Hard to get a good shot, but here is the colour at least!

Yeah for helpful parents! Thanks Mom!

Tick Off Tuesday - Signal Lights People!

We just got back from a road trip of about 1200km, and I've come to realize (even more so), how annoying it is when people don't Signal while driving!!

Toronto highway drivers have got to be the worst, but they were everywhere. Barrie, Mississauga and everywhere in between. I just wish people could be a bit more respectful of all the other drivers out there... Please!!

Wordless Wednesday - busy birthday weekend

Create Change

I think that we are all striving to create a better world, or at least a corner of the world, for us to feel safe and happy in.

Everyday I wish that I could create change in peoples lives. So often I see around me how little people care about the environment. If you know me, you know that I am passionate about the natural world, and trying to take care of it for the future. You may also know that everyday I try to reach at least one of the 30 students I see in my work by teaching them about the awesomeness of nature, and how little things that we do can make a big difference out in the natural world, for good or bad.

I would hope that we can all work together to create a healthier world for our children to live in, as well as create respect in their growing minds for the world that we are striving so hard to protect.

HP wants to know how individuals and technology are creating change in the world, and how I would use technology to change the world.

Each week I am going to try to post at least one picture that I have taken of the natural world. Along with this picture, I will post tips and tricks for living a greener life. I hope that through the use of the internet, and this great bundle, my passion for the natural world and teaching will come together for many more people to experience and learn some of the crazy things our natural world has in store!

So stay tuned, you never know what you might learn next!

________________________
This giveaway is courtesy of Jolly Mom and HP. Jolly Mom wants to know "What are you or will you be doing in 2010 to create change and how will winning this technology bundle help your efforts?"  Blog about it and you may have a chance to win this great bundle too!

So much to do...

So much to do, so little motivation.

I should have some time this afternoon, but I apologize for the silence. I've been super busy and tired lately.
Trying to be more organized and on top of things at home, so the blogging gets put to the back burner.

Priorities!!

I have a party to plan! Time goes so quickly and I almost have a two year old on my hands!!

Winterlude is almost over! I would love to get out one more time before it's over (we went out last weekend - more to come hopefully this afternoon!)

It's finally Friday! This has been a very LONG, short week!

Talk more soon.... I hope!

Tick Off Tuesday - Commentators

Tick off Tuesday comes to you complements of Hailey over at Be Serious.
Thanks for sharing the idea! Join in the fun and take a moment to vent without sounding too *itchy!

______________________________

Is anyone else watching the Olympics?
More specifically, is anyone watching the Olympics on CTV?

We've been trying to stick to TSN, although they are mostly CTV people anyways, but I must admit, I want CBC back. Someone called the Canadian Snowboarders "Posers" the other day.

REALLY??

Should our commentators really be reverting to slang just so they can seem cool enough to be commentating snowboarding.

I'm a little annoyed.

Lets give us the play by play without the attempt at being young and hip and cool. Because your attempts... they aren't young, hip, or cool.

Google

Have you ever tried to Google yourself?
Did you find anything worthwhile?

Have you ever tried to find an old friend via the internet? It's not easy. I've tried.

The other day I was cruising around Facebook and a thought hit me. I wanted to find an elementary school friend.

She was my BEST friend from the moment we met in Grade 6 at a brand new school. I remember it was raining. It always seemed to rain on the first day of school when I was growing up. Despite the fact that I practically lived across the street from the school (there were maybe 6 houses between mine and the school), my mom made me wear rubber boots because it was raining out.

Now, I was never the cool kid, but I figured starting out at a new school I could become the cool kid.
Rubber boots on the first day of school at a brand new school - strike one to cool kid-ness.
Sigh.

The first day of school we were all herded into the gymnasium and grouped together into our new classes. I really am not sure why they did this, but there I was, standing in the gym, in Grade 6, wearing rubber boots. I was soooo embarrassed.

And then she walked up and said Hi to me.

We started talking, and even though we were all "new" to the school, she had just moved from Burlington (about 30 minutes from where we lived in Mississauga), so she was even more new and didn't know anyone either.

We became instant friends!

Fast forward two and half years.

We've been inseparable! She has been such a rock in all my family turmoils for me, and her family is my family too! My family is breaking apart and she is the only one who understands, when her mom tells us that they are moving back to Burlington! Not only are my parents splitting up, but I'm losing my best friend just as we're about to start high school!

We both go on to see old friends at our new high schools (mine in 'sauga, her's in burlington) but we manage to keep in touch. We hang out from time to time but gradually lose touch.
University, marriage, baby, and here we are today, back to me searching out Facebook.

So I decide I want to try to find her, but how? I can't find anything on Google. I can't find her on facebook. So I get sneaky! I try searching out her brother (another common name!) and then her mom. Low and behold I find her mom and she is on her friend list!
Woo Hoo!
I sent a friend request and now I wait.... Will she remember me?
I want to send more information with my request, like the silly little song we used to sing together.

My worry is that she won't know who this "Christine Bull" is.

I was Chrissy Frohich for 21 years.
My facebook picture is my Little Miss (note to self, need to get a decent picture of myself soon!)
Maybe she won't look through my friend list to recognize my parents names.

But, I've done my part.

I've had other friends not respond to friend requests before.
I know I've burned bridges in the past (another post altogether) but I figure we've all grown up and should work past the childish mistakes of our past. Let's not hold grudges. Life is too short for grudges.

Let's reconnect.
Let's Catch up.
Let's be friends again, even if only online.

I miss you guys!

Tick off Tuesday

Hailey over on Be Serious started composing her own Tick Off Tuesdays and I just had to join in the fun! One day a week we can vent or complain without feeling guilty! Thanks Hailey for sharing in the fun!

-------------------------

My rant comes right out of my neighbourhood. And others around I'm sure. Maybe this is happening in your neighbourhood too.

People are STILL turning on their Christmas lights!!

It's FEBRUARY PEOPLE!

I don't really know why this bugs me so much, maybe it's the complete disregard for the enormous waste of energy in January and February when the holidays season is well over. Maybe I feel jealous that I still don't have pretty lights (Nope, that's not it). Maybe it's the fact that having lights still up makes me feel like it's December still when I really want it to be June.

I still don't really know why it bugs me so much, but it does.

Now I can appreciate those who celebrate Orthodox Christmas so they keep their trees and lights up to January 6th. I'm ok with that. But last week, January 26th I noticed lights still on. Last night, February 1st, people are STILL turning on their Christmas lights. Do they realize that Christmas is 11 months away still?

We put up our lights when it is still mild, but we don't turn them on until December 1st. Generally I will turn them on each night until January 1st, when they do not get turned on anymore. Granted, I still have my two little deer sitting on my lawn, but that's only because they are frozen into the ground. They do not get turned on! As it turned out, our lights were down by December 28th this year as they got knocked down during some icicle removal, and it was easier to take them down then try to put them back up.

I'm not saying you have to take your lights down (heck, some people keep them up all year round) but please people, don't turn them on in February. It's just depressing then, not festive.

Cooking Blunders...

What was the first thing that your mom taught you when teaching you about cooking and using recipes?

Well my mom always told me to pull out the recipe and all the ingredients before starting to cook.

I have FAILED at this lesson. Repeatedly. Sigh.

I don't know what it is lately but James has started to pointing out to me how I am always POSITIVE I have everything for a certain recipe I want to make. Be it on the shelves downstairs or somewhere in the fridge or cupboard, I know I have it. Only to find out, I don't.

I denied this fact. A few times to be honest. I claimed forgetfulness. I claimed that I can't remember everything in the cupboards. I claimed I forgot that was needed in the recipe. But honestly, I should have just listened to my mom and read the recipe before starting.

This weekend I did this TWICE.

The second time I was driving to the store I started to laugh. I can't believe how bad I'm getting! Someone tell me Baby Brain lasts for years, because this is my only viable excuse! I used to be so good at knowing what I had and where it was. It seems these days I'm forgetting more and more things, especially when it comes to cooking and ingredients.

James says this may be my new legacy.

So I tell you friends. Check your recipe BEFORE you start to cook. Days before if possible!! It will save you a trip or two to the grocery store!

I'm so Lucky!

'm so lucky and fortunate to be able to work where I do. The sun has finally started shining (I think we've had two and a half weeks of grey!) and the weather has been fairly warm (they are calling for 6°C and rain on Monday people... it's January!!)

While I love the spring like weather, the lack of snow has made for less than ideal skiing conditions, so I still hope for another good dumping of snow to finish out the ski season. Yes, I will shovel my driveway if it means good ski trails!

Yesterday I had a group of students who were absolutely amazing. They were ever so patient while trying to feed the Chickadees, and had great questions. I love it when I have a cooperative group, especially on a day where I've only had 3 hours sleep (another story alltogether!)

Here are a few wintery pictures for you to enjoy. It would have been better if the sun had been shining like it is right now, but c'est la vie!

Random Ramblings

I haven't felt very motivated to blog these past couple days.

Little Miss always wants "me turn" as soon as mommy grabs the computer, but never when daddy has it. SO FRUSTRATING!

Last night when I was volunteering at the gym I get a phone call from someone on speaker phone. Turns out it was James and the Little Miss. I didn't recognize his voice - cell phone speaker phone totally distorts voices :( but as soon as she started talking I knew who it was, because she was saying her name! Her full name! (well first and last so far!) It was sooooo cute and I had tears in my eyes! He teaches her so many little things like that and it always makes me cry happy tears!

I finally get to teach today. January is such a low time in Outdoor Ed and it will finally start to pick up next week. Hopefully the conditions won't be too icy after the thaw we had this past weekend. I'm just excited to not be in the office all week again. The only good things about office time is that I have time to update my blogs (ahem... on my breaks.... thats it), and read lots. I've been reading a book called Nature's Outcasts about living things we love to hate.

I worked out after the gym last night. Added another 3.7 miles to my total. I won't tell you what I'm at yet as I don't feel it's respectable enough to report for 2 weeks of the challenge! I will report back on the weekend when the results go up on the 500 in 2010 blog!

Have a great week. Hopefully I'll have more blogworthy news soon!

6 is not enough...

6 minutes snooze is not enough for me in the morning.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE the snooze button. Just not on my alarm clock. Don't get me wrong, I love my Panasonic RC-CD300. Hubby got it from a Panasonic Ideas for Life conference he went to (and I joined him) a few years ago. I was still in school but it was a great retreat for us as it was in Huntsville at Deerhurst Resort! So beautiful and a great time, and good timing as I needed a new clock radio.

It has great sound for it's size, it has two alarms which can be handy (but hey, why do I need two alarms? if you hit snooze long enough it stops bringing the radio on, it just beeps at you!!). I don't like it if I wake up before the alarm though. When you try to turn off the alarm, it beeps really loud and wakes up the hubby anyways. Otherwise it's a great little alarm clock and cd player.

Except for the snooze.

I've had radios that had 9 minutes of snooze. 9 minutes was so perfect. I could actually fall back to sleep and get 5 minutes more rest! With this one I barely get to sleep when I'm woken up again, so I push it about 4 times before I want to get up!

Hubby never used to snooze before he met me. Now, he snoozes as long or sometimes longer than me, like this morning when I was up first and got into the shower. He waits until I'm almost done to get up so he can have his shower.

I think it is just the luxury of snooze that I appreciate now. We finally get a solid 7-8 hours of sleep ourselves, and I want to get up gradually. Mostly gone (for now at least) are the days of being woken every 3 hours, or being up for the day at 5am (I Loathe 5am).

So all I'm saying is - let me sleep please! And let me have a longer snooze... I've earned it!

500 in 2010

Alright People, I've done it! I've signed up for the 500 in 2010 Challenge. That is 500 miles of physical activity. For those of us that don't think in Miles, that is about 804 Kilometres! Wow... now that number sounds a bit scary!! I hope that I will be able to meet my mark, and since I get to walk so much as work, I hope to be able to do it!

You can check out what is going on by clicking on their button, or the link above.




So there we have it... my two challenges for the year!

Now excuse me while I contemplate going for a ski :)

Challenging Myself

I think 2010 is going to be the year of challenging myself to do more for myself. The last two years have been all about the Little Miss, and it's time for some ME time! I just stumbled across a 500 in 2010 Challenge and am considering joining. It is to challenge yourself to complete 500 miles of exercise in 2010. I think I may look for a Canadian Kilometre challenge, but so far I'm loving the idea of something to keep me accountable!

So far for my reading challenge I have completed 2 books!! I am going to look for a way to easily keep track of my progress, but so far here it is:

1. Hell is Other Parents - Deborah C. Kogan
2. The Road - Cormac McCarthy

I have 3 books on the go right now (4 if you count the one I am reading for work, which does count!). I forgot how much I love to read and how relaxing it can be for me.

My last Goal (aka Challenge) for 2010 (so far!) is to become more Organized. ahem... yes I'll admit it, I'm not as organized as I appear to be! I want order in my life. Boxes from the move 2 years ago gone. Everything in A place. So far I've worked on Little Miss' closet, the two closets on the main level, and I've started on the spare room "storage" closet. Seems I've a theme going on here with closets, but that is where all the STUFF ends up! I also want to tackle my clothing (Ahhhhhhh!!!!) as well as my Kitchen (sigh). I have a lot to do, but so far I'm motivated to get things done and not just sit in front of the TV. If I am on the couch, at least I'm reading now!

Here is to a beautiful sunshiney winter day, and new ways to Challenge myself in 2010!

Blog Layout

Well since this is still a relatively new blog, and I'm still new-ish to blogging, I figure I would enter a contest to try to get a nice Blog Layout!!! Jamie over at The Kubeczka Family Blog is giving away a Blog Layout in a contest, so maybe I will have a new look.... maybe... just maybe :)

Head on over to check it out for your own chance to win!

100 Books in 2010?

Well I just stumbled across a site that has a 100+ book challenge. The Challenge? Read 100 or more books in 2010. Sooo... I decided to join. Am I crazy? Insane? Ambitious? All of the Above I would like to think! I really want to try to take more time for myself, and now that Little Miss is almost 2, I think this MIGHT be possible!

Check out the Challenge Here:
http://j-kaye-book-blog.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-2010-reading-challenge-100-reading.html

If only I could count all the times I read books over and over with the Little Miss, but somehow I think that would be cheating!!

Cheer me on people! Join in and have some fun and some YOU Time in 2010 (that would have rhymed if it was still 2009 - Oh well!!)