I promise I did some packing before I took this test. But seriously, this is the most accurate personality test I’ve done so far. The description of me is spot on. Here are my full results. If you run your mouse over the different colour blocks you will see what they represent.
Oct
31
Oct
31
Here are my two little animals before we went out trick-or-treating. Yes, my son kind of looks like Kermit the frog on drugs. But high or not, Kermit is always cute. For the record, carrying a one and a half year old for an hour while trick-or-treating is the most intense work out this mommy has had in a long time. He weighs about 80 pounds. Closer to 85 with the costume on.
It’s almost 8:30pm and it feels like this day has gone on FOREVER. So much to do before our trip (yay!!!) tomorrow. So naturally I’m sitting here at my computer, procrastimanating. Actually I’m waiting for laundry to finish because I have 94 loads to do before I can pack and I always leave packing for the last minute because I like stress. I’m quirky that way.
Think of me tomorrow as I will be in a metal tube, thousands of feet in the air, wrestling my little animal who will be tired from his big night of trick-or-treating and is still leaking green ooze from his nose. Should be fun. My dear friend Gravol will also be accompanying us on our journey.
Oct
30
My son learned a cool trick yesterday. If you stick your finger far enough down your throat you will make this wonderful gagging sound. I don’t know if you all were aware of this. The boy did this so many times I was starting to wonder if there were rehab programs for toddler bulimics. But it turns out he just thought it was a pretty fantastic form of entertainment. So long as there is no actual vomit I don’t have a problem with it.
Oct
30
We went to a pumpkin carving party this weekend and it was a lot of fun, despite the fact that we are being overrun by snot. The kids had a great time of course. Here Kieran is licking the little gourds we brought. I don’t know if he was hoping to get high or just wanted to sample the goods.
Their were cupcakes. Avery was thrilled. Who doesn’t love a party with cupcakes????
He’s cute, hey?
And here are the pumpkins we carved. I must say I had no idea that there were these cheap and fantastic stencils that you could be at Walmart so as to make your pumpkin look all professional-like. I will never go back to free-hand again, let me tell you! Aren’t they cute? Cuter than my son because they don’t have noses dripping with snot.
Oct
30
Just in case you were wondering…we’re all still sick. Or sick again. I don’t know which it is and at this point I’m too mad to nitpick over details. I’m so tired of runny noses and feeling like shit. It’s not fun to take care of sick kids. It’s not fun to take care of healthy kids when you are sick yourself. And everyone being sick is an even less desirable scenario. Just when I started to feel like I was on the mend I am all achy and my neck feels like I tried to swallow a skateboard (it’s sore) and my head feels like it’s stuffed full of kleenex. You would think that would make me more sympathetic to my son who is probably experiencing the same symptoms but I just can’t feel sorry for someone who refuses to sleep. Especially when that someone is so obviously exhausted. The nasty cranky child just makes me want to stick my finger in a wall socket! Today, all before 6:30am he had cried because he was being held, then because he was put down, then because I wouldn’t feed him Halloween candy for breakfast, then because I gave him the same food he eats every single day for breakfast, then because he was undressed, then because he was dressed, then because life is just such a miserable miserable existence, why must we all be forced to live???
I’m hoping for some kind of miraculous turn around because we leave for our trip to Saskatoon on the day after tomorrow and if we are all feeling the way we are today then it’s not going to be a very pleasant trip, if that’s even possible when you’re flying with a one year old! But I am still very excited about our trip and tomorrow is Halloween and that is fun, too. So I should just suck it up and stop complaining. I’m off to buy a big bag of candy. And it all myself.
Oct
27
Am I the only one who bawled when Meredith poured her mom’s ashes down the drain of the surgical sink in Grey’s Anatomy this week? Maybe it’s because I had a bad evening before I watched it and was emotionally unstable. Or maybe it’s because my two brothers-in-law who have passed away were both cremated and their ashes have still not been “laid to rest” (it’s been 6 and 2 years respectively) and I feel this is unhealthy and keeping the family from having closure. Not in a big way, but I think it would help to finally close the lid on that box. We’ll always grieve for them but something about putting your loved-one’s body to rest in the ground or sprinkling their ashes somewhere is healing. So I got that. And it made me cry.
Also, in case anyone cares about my opinion, I saw “Gone Baby Gone” this week and it was quite good. I was a bit skeptical at the beginning (it seemed like it was going to end at about the half way point – enough that I actually looked at my watch and thought This can’t actually be ending after one hour, can it???)but once I understood where the story was going I really enjoyed it. Not in the “happily ever after” sense because it definitely isn’t that kind of movie. But it made me think about right and wrong and the the fact that they are rarely as simple as some would have us believe. Yeah, I always like writing about the gray areas in life. I guess that’s just me. Ben Affleck did a phenomenal job writing the screenplay and Casey Affleck was great as the main character.
Oct
25
Every few days a cloud descends in my neighbourhood. It is best described as a sweet, sweet carbohydrate-based haze. It is reminiscent of cookies or muffins or cake baking in the oven. Or all three at the same time. Today is one of those days.
I can’t figure out where the smell is coming from. First I thought the Kellogg’s factory down the road but the smell that comes from there is a cornflakes smell. We have several Tim Horton’s in the vicinity but when I am standing right outside them I can’t smell anything. It just hangs in the air around my block, taunting me with its delicious carby smell.
Today I could have sworn the smell was coming from Avery’s school, just half a block away. It’s like some kind of psychological game to lure kids to school and I’m here to say that it would absolutely work. The strategy is genius! The only problem is that when I walk my daughter to school I want to lie down on the sidewalk and roll around, licking the glorious cake-taste off the grass. I thought that might reflect poorly on my daughter (or possibly my parenting skills) so I managed to restrain myself. But I’m not sure I’ll be strong enough next time. So until next time, the case of the mystery cookie dough smell lives on.
Oct
24
Not too long ago I was talking with a friend about the internet and we came upon the subject of blogging. My friend didn’t know that I have a blog and she made a comment that she didn’t understand why on earth people would want to read about the daily activities of people they don’t even know. The concept made no sense to her. It then occurred to her that I might have a blog myself, since I was talking about blogging so enthusiastically. “I hope you don’t have a blog!” she said apologetically, “I mean, no offense or anything. I just don’t get it!”
It got me thinking about why I love this whole blogging thing. Why I love writing a blog and why I love reading other people’s blogs. There is something about this community of people who love to write. I love reading a well written piece by a fellow mom describing experiences I’ve had myself and feelings that most moms have. I love reading posts by people who I would never know in “real” life and hearing about life experiences that I will never have right from the mouth of the person who is experiencing them. I love adding my own experiences to the mix and hoping that someone will be moved by reading what I have to say or simply nod their heads in solidarity. I know it’s not for everyone. I know many people don’t understand it and that’s ok. I don’t know how long this will last for me or if blogging will always be around the way it is now or in the same format. But I’m enjoying it the way it is right now. And I really appreciate all of you who come here to read what I have to say.
Oct
22
I’m sure you’re asking yourself why little girls dancing would get me in such a foul mood. It’s not the girls. It’s the parents. This is Avery’s community “ballet” class. And I use ballet in the loosest sense of the word because this is not anything resembling ballet. Last year she took ballet with an actual dance instructor at a real dance school. What she got there was great physical activity, increasing her coordination, flexibility and discipline. What she gets here? Two teenagers who have no control over a room full of little girls and a completely unprofessional environment with very little real curriculum.
Now I’m not a snob. I have no problem with inexpensive “dance classes” for little kids in a school gym. But I am really annoyed that they called it ballet and yet had no required footwear or clothing. You’d think they would expect the kids to wear real ballet shoes, at least. They were told to wear “non-slip” shoes or bare feet. Well it seems that every other mother interpreted that as “As long as your daughter looks cute, she’s good to go.” In the picture on the left you can see four pairs of feet (the second from the left is Avery, in real ballet slippers) and the other three are wear some sort of faux ballet shoe that are made of fabric and are slippery on the bottom! I know some parents would complain that it is too elitist and discriminatory to expect people to shell out the cash for a pair of real ballet slippers. And I might agree if every single kid in the freaking class wasn’t wearing a $20 princess/fairy costume. Many of them wear wings! To a dance class! I’m just so annoyed with the whole thing. I’m annoyed that the parents are treating it like a fashion show, rather than respecting the actual art and dressing their kids appropriately, even if it is a low-key community class. You’d think the class right after Avery’s would be dressed more appropriately because it is slightly older kids. But no. There are even more fairy wings and crowns. They might as well call it “Dress-up like a Fairy Princess Night”.
Oh and the other thing that is pissing me off? Parents who smoke while walking their kid to school. If you are walking your kid to school, presumably you are going to walk home alone. Couldn’t you char your lungs on the walk home instead of exposing your child to your cancer sticks on the way? Only slightly less repulsive are the parents who light up the second they walk out of the school doors after dropping off their kid at school. Apparently the 50 feet to the edge of the school grounds is way too far to wait to enjoy your nicotine fix. No point in trying to protect the young ‘uns from your habit. Start ‘em early. That’s what I always say.
Yeah. I’m feeling bitchy tonight. Sorry. 
Oct
22
Dear Saskatchewan,
I want to love you. I really, really do. But it was 24 degrees in London yesterday and today is going to be the same. Did you realize that some provinces get weather like this? At the end of October? I didn’t either. I also didn’t know that one could survive the month of October without scraping frost from one’s windshield or thinking about buying a winter jacket or turning on the furnace. I didn’t know I could have spent Thanksgiving at the beach.
I mean, really, you just whine and complain that no one loves you but is it really surprising when you make it so difficult? It’s time to get your act together baby.
(Tough) Love,
Shannon
