What I Learned Today

When bringing your toldder to a petting zoo, do not put her in the pretty green shirt with ruffles on the front. Unless of course you want the toddler to get eaten by goats. Enough said.

Andy Panda

My baby brother. He's turning 26 in two months, so I guess he's not such a baby anymore. He's also done very well for himself in Vancouver, and he's an excellent person to go to if you have a question about wine. In fact, if you're ever in "The Big Smoke" drop by Marquis Wine Cellars and say hello to him.

 
 
 

I decided to post this instead of commenting on the DRAMA! that is going on in our little social circle. Emmett and Anne R. Key are far more involved than I, but the whole thing makes me shake my head. That is all.

So, on Friday before Purgatory Mary and I ran to Safeway. I had comitted to making up some fake blood for the game, and needed supplies. My list was Cocoa powder, Grenadine, Corn Syrup and red and green food colouring. While paying, the girl at the till, being a friendly girl and wanting to make conversation, said "So, what are you making? Looks like it'll be something good!" I could feel myself turn bright red, and I muttered something about baking brownies before scuttling out of the store. I suppose I could have told her that I was making a few litres of fake blood, but I'm not sure that'd go over too well. 

The End of Summer Bash

Our friends V & I had their end of summer bbq today, and we had a lovely time. It was Marys second time enjoying the party, and she had an absolute blast.

Here's a picture of last year's party:

 

And here's a picture of this year:

 


It just never ceases to amaze me to see how quickly she changes.

Oh, and you might be interested to know that the pretty pink dress she was wearing today was actually made for me by my Grandmother, almost 30 years ago. 

Confirmation

I had my first dance class last night, and while it was not awful, it confirmed several things in my mind.

First - I am in terrible shape. Seriously. Though not as terrible as I expected myself to be.

Second - I despise physical activity of any time. Again, I didn't hate it as much as I thought I would, which is nice.

Third - I'm fat.

Fourth - I am not even moderately sexy. I spent a whole lot of time looking at my fat self in the mirrors which are on every wall last night and trying not to laugh at myself. I kept thinking "What is that fatso doing trying to be sexy...there's nothing sexy about all that flab." Also, I am so uncoordinated it's not even funny. While doing the "sexy walk" one is expected to run ones hands over ones body. I, however, am so busy concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other without falling down, any movement of my hands messes with that and I do fall down. Don't even get me started on the actual pole work. yeesh.

It was a good workout though, better than I had expected. Every muscle in my body, including my abs (which i thought that pregnancy had destroyed) aches. It's nbot a bad ache, really, I'm kind of enjoying it. And who knows, if I stick with these classes, maybe I'll loose a little weight and learn to put one foot in front of the other without falling down.

The Great Bra Hunt

Yeah yeah, I know. Lollyblogger. Is anyone surprised? To be honest, I've been having a tough time blogging at all for the last few months. Life has settled into a sort of routine that does not have room for any excitement.

Anyways, one bit of excitement is that I start a Pole Dancing class tonight. Yes, I did say pole dancing. I'm pretty excited about it, a few of the girls that I know have been taking the classes for a while, and they love them. So, I have decided to take the plunge and sign up. I really need to loose weight, and I hate physical activity, but I have been told that this is great fun, so I'm going to try. Aside from which, one friend of mine who is built in much the same way as I am has lost 2 dress sizes since she started. The added bonus is increased flexibility and confidence. I've never ever considered myself sexy at all...I'm about as limber as an 80 year old, but hopefully this class will change that a bit.

One problem with taking this class is that I needed to find a sports bra. Apparently the world has decreed that fat women with big boobs don't exercise, and never will, therefore they don't need to make sports bra's in larger sizes. I've always had very large boobs, and I always will...loosing weight likely will not change that. It's always a nightmare finding a bra that fits, but hunting for a sports bra was a step beyond...almost as painful as looking for a new bathing suit. After the third time I tried on an XL bra that barely covered my nipples let alone supported anything, I was close to tears. I finally found something that fits half decently, although the support is not what I would have liked...but I made do, I really don't think I would have found anything better.

On the Mary front...well...she is just funnier and funnier every day. She has taken to disciplining herself when she gets into trouble. If she climbs up onto the cat house or diningroom table, she starts to yell "Down! DOWN!" at herself, and if she gets into something she knows she shouldn't, she starts saying "No. No no no." even before she does it. She's also gone baby CRAZY. Everywhere we go she points out every baby she can see, and often a short person is considered a baby. At home she has a Cabbage Patch doll which she got for her 1st birthday. She never paid attention to the doll till this past weekend, but now she drags it everywhere. She shares her juice and cookies with Baby, pretends to change it's diaper, wacks it's face against the wall, brushes its hair, tosses it to the floor, and tucks it in under any sort of blanket/clothing that she can find. She still loves her cars and trucks, but she's definitely got the baby bug. Hopefully Moustapha and I can provide her with a real baby to take care of (minus the face bashing and tossing to the floor) in the not too distant future!

Oh! Did I mention that it is officially official, Moustapha has a new job? It's great to have him home every evening, and even better is that his new employer actually has health benefits! Which means that I will be able to get new glasses, which I desperately need. I can't do any of my embroidery right now, which is annoying because I'm getting better at it, and I've managed to teach myself to do more than just cross-stitch too. But if I do it for too long (more than about 10 minutes) right now I just give myself a splitting headache. I have a couple of big projects that I want to finish before Christmas, and I need to get to work now so I can finish them in time.

Anyways, Purgatory is tomorrow night, and I've had some big changes happen with my character. BIG changes. So, I must think on how I will play with it...no matter what, it'll be interesting. I waited up till 1am for my turn last night, and when I got it...well, it was fantastic as usual.

Good News

Well, it's only a step away from being officially official. Moustapha has accepted a job working in Alberta. He has been working with this company all week now, and found out yesterday how much they are willing to pay him. It's not quite as much as we had hoped, but it isn't bad, and it is much closer to home. In fact, he should be home pretty much every evening and weekend. Isn't that fabulous? It's certainly worth a dollar pay cut to start, in my mind. The last step is informing his other employers that he won't be traipsing all over the world with them anymore. It's going to be hard, not only because it's always an uncomfortable thing to quit a job, but because he is working all day it is hard to actually get ahold of the boss to let him know. I'm confident it'll all work out though.

Baby Blogging

 


I took this picture when we were walking home from a lovely afternoon tea with V &I the other day. Mary just can't get enough of her Daddy, and neither can I. 

Life or Something Like It

Once again I am finding myself slipping into lollybloggerdom. I keep trying to post here, I know I have stuff to say, but when I get at the computer, I just stare blankly at the monitor for a while before walking away.

Anyways, I'll start with a week update, if I can remember what has happened.

Moustapha is still working with the new company in Red Deer. Every morning he gets up at a God awful early hour, and drives to the south side of the city where he meets up with his co-workers. Then they all pile into a truck and drive the hour and a half to Red Deer. The best part is that he is usually home between 5:30 and 6 every night. We still (!!!) don't know how much they are paying him, but hopefully he will talk to the owner of the company (who hired him, and then went on vacation) soon. If they are willing to pay him what he was making working out of town, then he will be staying with these guys. It's wonderful to have him home, and equally wonderful to have him out of the house during the day.

We had a very busy weekend with lots of social interaction. On Friday evening we went over to Anne R. Key and the Dauntless Janets place to play Texas Hold'em. It was great fun, and I managed to consume an entire bottle of white wine all by myself. We tired of poker after a while and decided to try out Rumoli, and eventually moved on to a game called "Would You Rather?" By that time Emmett had come over and he joined in on the games. I think that he ended up winning Would You Rather, but the details are a little fuzzy.

Saturday a good friend of ours got married in an incredibly Catholic ceremony. As we were going to the Basillica downtown to attend the wedding, we saw that the main drag downtown on which the church resided was closed off. We had no idea what for, but there were people lined up on the sidewalk, so we asked. It turned out that the Carribian festival was starting that day with a parade. Half way through the ceremony the very loud (deafening) music started outside and echoed through the church. Mary and I headed outside to watch the parade, and she was extremely concerned by the brightly coloured wierdo's dancing down the street. Her brow was furrowed, and she refused to smile no matter how hard the scantily clad women gyrated in an attempt to please her.

We headed home for a nap after the ceremony and parade, and then went to the reception at around 6 that evening. Mary spent the entire two hours that we were there running around the hall. Running and running and running. Occasionally she would climb up into an empty chair, pound the table and babble at the people seated there, before climbing down and running some more. It was incredible, and exhausting. We left the reception when the speaches started and wandered over to Emmets for a birthday pie party. I was confident that Mary would pass out the minute we put her in her playpen, but I did not count on the fact that I had forgotten to bring her bottle. We put her down and she proceded to scream bloody murder and jump wildly up and down in her playpen for about an hour and a half. Finally I decided to let her out for a while. She spent the entire rest of the evening charming the pants off the resolutely childless that were gathered there. She organized the remote controls and cat toys, she picked stuff up off the floor and put it on the table, she babbled and coo'd at the kitten, and was all in all a delight to have around. I was pretty worried about setting her free in that crowd, I know that they are not baby people, and I didn't want to ruin their fun, but I think it went pretty well. We left at 11:30 and Mary had not slept a wink. I would have liked to stay later, but we all needed sleep, and I wanted to leave before Marys attitude went down the drain.

Sunday we did nothing. We wandered around a mall, rented a movie, and relaxed.

Monday Ian went back to work, and Mary and I hung out. I had grand plans to do stuff around the house, but I discovered that my keys were missing. I spent 3 hours searching high and low for the keys, and eventually had to call I & V and beg them for a ride to my babysitting gig. Last night I went over to Raven's place to roleplay. It was great fun as always, and I caused all sorts of problems between the characters, including moving in on one girls fiancee, and having a member of the crew lashed within an inch of his life for daring to slap me. Raven was exhausted, they had returned from Gen Con that day, and she didn't last very long, but it was nice to see her anyways. Oh! And she brought back the pinkest, girliest dice I've ever seen! Yay!

Tonight is D&D, and tomorrow I babysit late, though I should be home in time to watch the finale of So You Think You Can Dance.

Update

I've become a real lollyblogger again, unfortunately. I just haven't much to type about here, and when I do think of something, it's either at 3 in the morning, or I'm just too lazy to sit down and type.

Ian (sorry, that's Moustapha) has been home for a week and a half now. He just started working for a company that is not a front for a notorious biker gang yesterday. The bonus, aside from not working for that biker gang is that they are working in Red Deer right now. So, he gets up early in the morning and meets his ride on the south side of the city. They all drive to Red Deer, and he's home by 6ish in the evening. On monday they start working in Nisku, which is even closer. We will see after today if he is going to stay with them, depending on how much they offer to pay him, but all in all it looks positive. The company is local, they only work in Alberta. If he does have to go out of town they do 11 days out and 3 in. They have a benifit plan, and they are willing to give him tickets for the work he does so that he is officially qualified. If he sticks around long enough, they may even help him get his Journeyman ironworker ticket.

Mary is doing well, every day she has more words that I can understand. We ended up quitting the swimming lessons, the chlorine was doing horrible things to her poor skin. She was just one giant ball of eczema, and it was pretty awful. After one or two days with no swimming, it cleared right up, so I decided not to go back. No big loss for her really, as she hated it anyways.

Well, that's all for now. Maybe I will have something a bit more interesting to say later on.

Friday Baby Blogging

Or, why did we ever pay for a bed?

 

I don't know why we bothered. Mary NEVER sleeps in her bed. She drags her stuffed animals and her blankets off the bed, and curls up on the nice comfy hardwood floor. 

Swimming is fun

Mary and I started swimming lessons on Monday morning, and it's fun. Sort of.

This is a picture of Mary and I last year when we took the same class. Cute, eh?

 


Here are some pictures of our lesson today.


 
 
 



What you can't tell in these pictures is that from the moment we got into the water, Mary started saying "All Done!" quite seriously. And she didn't stop the entire time we were swimming. We started off in the deep pool, which is kind of cool, but not too bad. She clung to me like a little leach and shivered. She refuses to kick, splash or blow bubbles in the water at all. When we got into the warm toddler pool that she is tall enough to stand in, she will constantly attempt to get out. Again, she refuses to do anything but grin at the other kids, and try to leave.

I think next time we will do music or art lessons. I suspect she'll enjoy them a whole lot more. 

Three's a Crowd

Hello there!

I'm still alive. Ian is now home, he got home safe and sound on Friday early evening.

There's lots going on, but I don't have much time to blog.

Needless to say, things are going okay. It's a bit rocky this time around. I have a routine, and Ian messes that up. I'm trying to make him feel welcome, but it's tough. I'm so used to being alone, and he is used to me needing him a whole lot more than I do now. But we are working it out, slowly but surely.

He might have a job closer to home. More on that as the situation develops.

Love you all!