It's the end of December. Time to start thinking about resolutions. They never seem to go very well for me. Last year I vowed to start flossing more often. I did well for about 2 weeks. I'm better than I used to be, but I've let my dentist down.

I hope to actually be able to keep my resolution for 2009, which is to take a picture each day AND to blog about. I've started a new blog just for this resolution. It's called iampunch365, and can be found HERE. I hope to be able to stick to this plan, and I think it will be a lot of fun. I'm also hoping that my photography skills improve by doing this.

Now on to my Bucket List. If you've never heard of the term, it's basically a list of things you'd like to do before you "kick the bucket". Last year a movie called The Bucket List staring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson came out. It was good. My bucket list is now on the right-hand side.

Each year, around the start of a new year, I start debating on whether or not to shave my head (which is on my bucket list). It's something that has fascinated me for over a decade. It's not to make a statement against society. It's not because I'm a Neo-Nazi. It's just something that I've wanted to do. I'd like to know what it feels like to shave my head. It's as simple as that. And besides, hair grows back. It may be interesting to rediscover my natural hair colour. And January 1st just seems like the appropriate day to do this. As someone pointed out to me, January in Canada may not be the best time of the year to do it, as it gets pretty cold, however, if I do it now, I'd have some hair cover for the summer so that a sunburned head would no be as much of a problem!

I still have a few days to decide. The only thing I worry about is what my customers would think. It bothers me to think that people would chose another photographer over me just because of the state of my hair. But, people are fickle. Maybe this can be a test as to whether or not my talent will overcome peoples' attitudes about shaved heads? Perhaps if I'd done this as a fundraiser, it would be more acceptable? I'm not sure. Maybe I'll use that as an excuse if i don't go through with it this year.

I'd forgotten just how nice natural light could be.

Another Christmas has come and gone. It was a good one. You know those shoes I was coveting about a month ago? Greg got them for me!!!! I was more than surprised, and they are wonderful. I will be posting a picture of them soon. The boys had fun, and Finn was so excited about everything. This morning he looked at me and said "mommy, I'm sad" I asked him why, and he said "because it's not Christmastime anymore."



The pictures are in the wrong order but I don't feel like fixing them!

It snowed today. And snowed, and snowed and snowed. The boys loved it. I didn't, because I had to drive in it! However, I did snap a couple of pictures, and I just wanted to share! (click to enlarge).

Seriously, why do we need three different Yellowpages-style phone books?

I don't like having ice cubes in my beverages unless I have a straw. We were out of straws, and I forgot to pick up a box at Wal-Mart while I was there this morning. So, I grabbed some while I was at Costco. While I was driving home, I noticed that there I bought 2000 STRAWS. The plastic is going to break down before I have a change to use them all! What was I thinking?

Today, Finn was in a pretty good mood all day, and while Spencer was having his afternoon nap, I took a few pictures of Finn.

He will be 4 in March, so that makes him 3 years, 8 months and 21 days old (hence the title of this post). However, he just SEEMS so much older in this picture. Of course, maybe it's just me.

I guess I'm having a hard time believe that just a few years ago he was so SMALL. I guess it's true that time does fly. And that you should enjoy every minute with your children while they are still young.

Ealier this month, my wonderful dad flew here and stayed with us for almost 2 weeks. As per usual, we put him to work. He painted our living room, organized our garage, and refinished the stairs. Greg helped with the stairs when he could (when he was taking a break from his full-time job and his part-time job!)

During this time, Mika was relegated to either being in Greg's office while he was working, or he was locked up in his crate, which is located in the workshop (Mika, not Greg was in the crate).

Anyway, Mika, being the intelligent, stubborn, strong dog that he is, managed to escape his crate, buy using brute force. Since he knows that doorknobs are used to open doors, he proceeded to bite and claw at the doorknob of the workshop. And guess what? He OPENED it. Here is Mika, with said doorknob.
And here are a couple of close-ups of the doorknob. None of his teeth were damaged, and notice the other half of the doorknob...see how smooth and round it is?
Here are a few before and after shots of the stairs and living room. Here is the before shot of the front hallway. And the after shot. Please note the we WILL be painting the trim at some point, and the ugly ligt fixtures will be replaced with nice, sensible pot lights! I am still waiting for my canvas wrap to be ready, which will be hung between the two doorways on the right hand side. The living room before...don't you just love the nice orange/peach colour???
And after. Looks a little darker in this picture than it actually is. The next shot shows the colour more accurately. And as soon as we get some curtain rods, we will be hanging some drapes.

Greg and I went and saw the new James Bond movie last night. It was good, but Casino Royale was far superior in my books. In one of the last scenes, Olga Kurylenko's character is seen wearing these awesome shoes (she was actually wearing the gold colour, but I prefer the brown). As soon as the movie was over I mentioned to Greg that I loved the shoes, and he, of course had absolutely NO idea what shoes I was talking about.

I did some research this morning, and found them. Unfortunately they are expensive, and they're not availabe (as far as I can tell) outside of Great Britain. While I could easily have them sent to some people I know in England, and they could ship them to me, I am having a hard time trying to convince Greg that these are an absolute necessity to my wardrobe!

I received a call today from the receptionist at the dental office I used to go to.

Dr. C. is a nice guy, and a good dentist. He's gentle and never told me I had to get any work done that wasn't absolutely essential.

I had one problem though. He would ALWAYS reschedule my appointments. Say I'd have an appointment for Monday at 1:00. His receptionist would call me on the Saturday before my appointment to confirm. She'd then ask me if it would be ok if I came in at 1:30. Ok, fine. Not a big deal.

Then, on Monday morning, she'd call again and ask if I could come in at 12:15 instead. Um, ok.

The first time this happened, it didn't really bother me. But it happened each, and every time I had an appointment. So I found another dentist. He's great, and he was there for my scheduled time.

Now Greg still goes to see Dr. C. for all of his dental needs. He has never had a problem with his appointment times, so does not feel the need to change dentists.

Fast-forward to 10 minutes ago. The receptionist calls and says that I am WAY overdue for a cleaning. I told her that I'm extremely busy at this time of year and can't make an appointment. She says she'll call back in the new year.

So how do I break up with my dentist? I feel like I'm cheating on him!

I'm a Bzz Agent. This means I'm a word-of-mouth marketer. It's free, and it's fun. I heard about this website from some MM moms that were participating. It didn't seem possible that it would be open to Canadian residents, but lo and behold, it IS! So I signed up, and have had fun since.

Being a Bzz Agent isn't hard. You have to answer some questions about yourself, your likes, interests, members of your household, etc., and then the Bzz Agent people will contact you periodically to see if you would be interested in participating in a particular campaign. You'll then receive some free stuff in the mail (or coupons to get a product for free) and you try out it, talk it over with people (family, coworkers, etc.) and write a report about it.

I am Bzzing about eggs today. I've always been a fan of wonderful, delicious and versitile egg. Of course I always had some on hand for use in recipes and Sunday morning breakfast, but lately I've been eating a lot more of them. According to the literature that was supplied with this campaign, eggs are not a concern when it comes to managing cholesteral, and have NO trans fats and have only 70 calories. Not bad for something that it so simple, tasty and versitile.

I've been eating a lot more eggs recently. I've rediscovered my love for egg salad sandwiches, Karen (our nanny) has proven herself to be a pro at preparing perfect over-easy eggs, and both of the boys LOVE eggs.

The Bzz Agent people send me a handful of booklets with egg receipes (the pancake recipe is super yummy), so if anyone wants one, just let me know and I'll send it out to you.

The only thing don't recommend is eating a soft-boiled egg with toast while at your computer. I just tried it, and it got a little messy. Bits of shell have fallen between my keyboard keys! But it was certainly tasty!!

Spencer will be 2 in February. Last week, he decided that he wanted to go poop on the potty. He stood at my feet, pointed to his bum, and said "poo, poo" so I brought him upstairs, sat him on the potty, and voila...he did his business on there.

Then 2 days ago he asked again. And again, he did it. Last night he went on the potty before going to bed, and woke up dry this morning. He asked me to take his diaper off, I did, and he went pee.

After struggling with Finn for so long, it's quite a surprise the Spencer took the initiative himself.

It would be nice to have Spencer out of diapers by his second birthday. I'm not going to hold my breath, but here's to hoping!!

I don't usually take to GO train during the daytime, so it's
interesting to be inboard with the mix of people that I'm currently
riding with. I have the hoity-tooth woman across the way from me,
reading her free newspaper, the teenager a few seats down from me who
is sleeping with her mouth wide open, and the 30-something businessman
with the slick-backed hair listening to music on iPhone. I wonder
what's in his playlist?

So yesterday was Halloween. I was a bad mom this year...no pumpkin carving or crazy decorations. However, both of the boys did have costumes and each got a bucketful of treats.

I wasn't sure that Spencer was going to participate since he screamed bloody murder the first time we put on his costume. Fortunately, he was a trooper last night and absolutely LOVED trick-or-treating. His limited vocabulary prevented him from actually saying "trick or treat" so he'd just yell out "MORE" when someone answered the door and then he enthusiastically dug his hands into the candy dish and tried to help himself. He eventually got the hang of it and let people put candy into his bucket.

Finn was into it from the get-go. I thought he'd shy out but as soon has he got his first candy hand-out he loudly proclaimed "I LOVE THIS" and marched on to the next house. After about 20 houses he said that he'd had enough of this and wanted to go home to eat some of his treats.

Today was the day for our annual trip up to get some fall photos taken. It was Finn's 4th time up there, and Spencer's 2nd. The weather was wonderful, and the boys cooperated (for the most part).

No matter how many times I go there, it always takes my breath away. Unfortunately, I'm not a good enough photographer to convey just how absolutely BEAUTIFUL this place is. The leaves were on fire. My timing was impeccable this year!
Here is Finn by the stump. If you'll take a look at this blog entry from a year ago, you can see the shots from previous years (please exuse the horrible formatting of that post...what was I thinking?) This not the greatest photo, but you get the idea!I just love this shot. It would be perfect if only Spencer's face wasn't so squished!And here they are romping in the leaves. The had a blast, and it was fun to see them running around. Spencer could barely keep up, but he certainly tried!This picture cracks me up when I look at it. I'm not sure what it is about his look, but it makes me laugh.
Finn and his leaf.

It's been a while since I did one of these. Yesterday I remembered a photo that I'd taken of Finn two years ago. I dressed Spencer up in the same clothes that he was wearing, and drove on over to the house that we used to live in (thank goodness it's still in the family or else it would be been very strange to knock on the door and ask the new owners if I could borrow their steps!)

Finn was actually a month younger then Spencer currently is, but I think Spencer has much more of a baby look than Finn did, and he's much smaller too.

And here is Finn today. He INSISTED that I take his picture too! (And no, I did NOT instruct him to pose like that!

Today I learned a few important lessons.

1) always wear proper footwear when playing basketball. You WILL get hurt if you don't
2) never believe what a Fido employee tells you
3) be sure that your 3 1/2 year old goes pee BEFORE heading out to the stores, or he WILL pee his pants at the checkout counter and leave a huge pee puddle on the floor

So there I was this evening. Roaming the aisles of Value Vilage, when what do I see? A winter jacket, sized 2T. What struck me was not the bright yellow of its' material, but rather the image of the MACHINE GUN on the front of it. Seriously, WTH were they thinking when they picked this little gem of a drawing/caption and stuck it on the front of a toddler jacket?

Yesterday, the boys and I headed out to the fair. We had a grand time. It was a bit chilly, but fun. Spencer went on his first ride. He LOVED the merry-go-round, alth0ugh he was a little unsure if it until it actually started moving). I think we went on it 3 times. He had a huge smile on his face throughout the ride, and I actually had to break his grip from the rail after the last time around. The two carnies were laughing at the site of me trying to get my child to loosen his grip!Finn was old enough this year to go on a few rides by himself. He too loved the merry-go-round, but I think the car ride beat it out. He also won a stuffed Scooby-Doo at one of the games on the midway (I may have helped him out a bit).
And here is the photograph that inspired the title of this post. WTH??? In case you can't read the sign, it says "Our Goal Is To Have A Smoke Free Environment For Our Children's Well Being" And as you can see, she's pushing a stroller and taking a HUGE drag of a smoke. Sheesh!

I guess I didn't quite keep up with the updates like I was hoping for. However, I should be able to be a little more diligent about it now, because....our nanny starts tomorrow!!! I'm so excited. A bit nervous, but I'm sure it'll all be good.

Business is going well. I've had 2 sessions this week, with 2 more booked and possibly one more on the weekend. Next week is starting to fill up too, and I there are a few more bookings for later on in the month.

Greg got his new car today. He's pretty excited. It's nice, and it smells so nice. I love the new car smell.

Still no iPhone for me. I'm still crossing my fingers that UPS will show up at the door tomorrow before 5:00 pm. If they don't, I'm off to raise a little hell at the Fido store at the mall.

Mika got skunked last night. Lovely. He smells a bit better. 1/4 cup baking soda, tsp of dishsoap and 1 Litre of hydrogen peroxide. Works like a charm. You may need two applications, but it gets rid of a lot of the stench.

That's all for now. Spencer is crying, and the episode of the Wonder Pets that Finn is watching is almost over.

After a looooong day of driving, we're finally at our hotel in Pennsylvania for the night. The boys are ready for bed, and so am I!

Will post more tomorrow.

We didn't get as early a start as we'd hoped this morning. Greg's alarm went off at 6:00am, but he pressed the snooze button for 50 minutes, so that set us back a little bit. I wasn't going to complain too much though, because I thought it was too early to begin with!

We eventually got the house tidied, and the rest of the stuff put into the van (well, Greg did all of the packing). We stopped for lunch at Ruby Tuesday's. I had the most amazing shrimp dish, and the fries that the boys and Greg had were out of this world! I'm really sad that they don't have this chain in Canada. But, when we do cross the boarder and find one, it'll be a special treat!

We stopped at a Wawa gas station to fill up before continuing on our way. There is a tiny little town in Ontario called Wawa. It's in the middle of nowhere, but has fantastic chicken wings at one of the motels. It turns out there is also a Wawa, PA, which is where this gas station chain has its origins. I learned today that "wawa" is the Ojibwe word for Canada goose, which would explain the corporate logo.

We stopped at a Walmart in Charlottesville, VA, where are staying the night. We found the White Cloud toilet paper, and I couldn't resist taking a picture of Finn holding a package. I tried telling him that the baby on the packaging was him, but he didn't really seem to get it!
We also went to the Sam's Club next door to look around. We meant to get a membership before we left Toronto, but didn't get around to it. So, we got one today. The only problem is that they couldn't properly sign us up because there computer system wouldn't let them put in a postal code with letters. After about 30 minutes of trying to figure out what to do, they ended up using the store's address, and we got our cards. The people were friendly and very helpful.

Greg and I are very much in love with Virginia, and have come to the conclusion that if we ever decide to move to the U.S., Virginia will be at the top of our list.

Our motel room is cheap and clean, but unfortunately smells like cat urine. It's half of the price of the hotel we were going to stay at, and it has internet, so we're trying not to breathe too deeply in here!
Finn's hives have returned. To a lesser extent, but they're still around. He still hasn't complained about them being itchy, which is good, but they look horrible. Hopefully they will all dissapear for good soon.

Guess what? Greg found his bathing suit! LOL. He was walking to the beach, and there it was, with one clothes pin still attached. It was wedged in between a couple of bushes not too far from our place!

I went down to the beach for a few minutes. The water level is extremely high. Here are a few shots. Compare them to photo in the title banner at the top of the page.And how about this sky? It was the most amazing colour of blue. Finn took this one. Greg and I on our laptops. We loved having wifi access while on vacation. Life is good. I've been playing with textures in PS lately, so I messed around with this one a bit.

At 5:00 am this morning I woke up to a shaky bed. It finally dawned on me that the entire house was shaking due to the extremely strong winds! I could not believe how windy it was. I had some some stuff hanging on the clothes line, and went outside on the deck to take it down. Sadly, Greg's bathing suit did not survive the night, and is now probably in someone's pool or something a few houses down!

Finn woke up this morning with his legs covered in hives. They soon spread to his torso. He doesn't seem to be bothered by them, but I'm sending Greg to the pharmacy to get some Benadryl just in case.

I tried installing a different template while using Firefox instead of Chrome. And guess what? It worked. So, tomorrow, I'll be trying to make a new banner. Woo hoo!

Sunny, but VERY windy again.  Good for the mosquito situation, but bad for the beach.  We did go down to the water, unfortunately there was another mini wind storm going on, so the boys didn't get to play in the sand.  

...a new look. I've just moved my blog over to another email address (once I get my iPhone I hope to do a little mobile blogging). Unfortunately, in the process of moving it over, I lost all of the comments, and my banner, and poll. But, hopefully during the boys' nap time I'll be able make it look good again. Not much I can do about the comments though.

I can't believe our trip started a week ago. It's already Wednesday, and we leave on Saturday. Time does indeed fly when you're having fun.

I noticed on the fridge that there was an envelope, and on the front it said "your house was cleaned by Darlene and Sandy". I have no idea how much to tip them. I mean the place was nice and clean when we arrived, but I mean, isn't it their job?? Let me know what you think would be appropriate.


Not too much happening today. We attempted a visit to the beach, but it's really windy today and the it felt like there was a mini sand storm on the beach. The boys were really upset that they couldn't play outside. They were both crying and screaming on the beach as we were packing up their toys. I don't know what upset them more though...the sand that was being blown into their eyes, or the fact that they weren't allowed to play. Either way, it was quite the ordeal!


There was quite a nice sand wall/ledge near the water. Looks pretty cool, don't you think?

We saw a few people doing this board-kiting or what ever it's called. Looks fun as heck, and the next time we come down here Greg and I are both going to give it a go. Hopefully we'll have a nanny in tow so she can look after the boys!We haven't had much luck finding pretty seashells on the sea shore, however there is a big jar of them in the living room. I borrowed a few and took some pictures while the boys were napping.