Chaos Theory

Archive for the ‘Photos’ Category

When I walk the dog in the woods with no one but me, her, and whomever is singing on my iPod, the woods are a quiet place. When I walk in the woods with just Breanna, it’s mostly quiet with the silence peppered with questions here and there. Breanna is a little version of me in that sense, she loves to be in the woods.

When I walk in the woods with Breanna, Hayley, and George… well, then the woods aren’t very quiet at all. Still, it’s a nice way to pass a Sunday afternoon. The weather today was ridiculous. At one point I debated taking off my coat but decided against it since I didn’t want to have to carry it. It was sunny and warm and just beautiful. It’s November and I’m in Canada. I know very well that it’s not going to last so it was great to enjoy it.

I also got to prove to the kids that I wasn’t lying when I said I found an old rusted-out car in the woods last Spring.

The bonus of course, is that Breanna crashed at bedtime, taking no more than five minutes to fall asleep. Hayley… well, Hayley is still awake at just past 9 pm, but at least she’s reading quietly in bed. I’m hoping she’ll drift off soon since she has to be up early tomorrow.

I don’t think it will take me long to fall asleep either. I think I’ll kick back with a glass of wine and some television and call it a night. Let’s see if I can start my week off without being completely exhausted!

Our weekend really started yesterday. I finished my work up early and took Breanna and the dog for a long walk in the woods. That’s a pretty nice way to end the week - a little communing with nature and all that. We won’t be able to do it much longer so we made the most of it.

Then we had the movie night that I mentioned. Once the kids were in bed, George and I decided to unwind with some Shiraz and a movie together. I always equate movies with the weekend because during the week there’s always something on television that one of us (usually it’s me) wants to watch.

This morning I actually slept in until 10 which was awesome. I had spent the entire week in a state of Perpetual Tired ™ so I really needed that. Hayley ended up being invited over to visit with a friend for the entire day including lunch and supper so Breanna played with some toys and had a long bath all by herself (or well, almost all by herself if you don’t count the 16 dinosaurs that joined her) after I spent some time trying to tame the mess in the bedroom.

George was going to a friend’s birthday party for dinner and the evening; I was supposed to go too but it was adult-only and his parents were busy so I couldn’t make it. Breanna and I ended up ordering Chinese food which we ate by candlelight. She thought that was pretty fancy.

Usually Breanna is depressed when Hayley goes out without her (other than to school) but she had a lot of fun. Aside from her bath and candlelight dinner she also played Wii with me for awhile, then two rounds of Candyland. She didn’t mind too much, though she did mention missing Hayley.

By the time Hayley got home at 7:30 she was pretty tired, but she insisted she could stay up a bit longer to join Breanna for another movie. She managed, but she’s going to bed in 15 minutes and I think she’ll crash fast and hard.

Once they’re out for the night I can relax with some inappropriate-for-kids TV. I think tonight will be perfect for catching up on Vampire Diaries with some wine. The show rips off a lot of Twilight and it’s pretty cheesy so naturally I love it.

Hope you’re having a great weekend too - what are you up to?

I ended up having a fairly peaceful weekend, something that doesn’t happen often what with having two kids and all. George’s sister was in town after not being able to get out this way for awhile and the kids were both so excited. We went over to see George’s parents on Friday because his dad was celebrating his birthday. Although George had to go out I went with the girls and we had cake and tea, and Hayley got her belated birthday gifts from her aunt and uncle.

The crown that Breanna is wearing is from a craft kit that Hayley got as a gift. And isn’t it a shame that the kids obviously don’t like their uncle at all? I mean really. Can’t you just see how much they can’t stand him? (Yeah right. As you can see, they LOVE him.)

On Saturday they spent some time just doing the craft crowns and hanging around the apartment, followed by a quick trip to the Dollar Store with George. I had about an hour or so of peace and quiet during which I actually took a shower without having to worry about what anyone else was doing. Let me tell you, that’s a total luxury for me.

I was just about to start preparing supper when the phone rang and George’s sister invited the kids over to eat with them. That was fine with me! After they left I made supper for just the two of us (though Breanna requested that I save some stew for her - good thing I did, that’s what she ended up having for her snack!) and I actually ate an entire plate of food without having to get up to refill someone’s cup, break up an argument, or anything. Another fine luxury, eating a meal in peace.

George went to buy some red wine and to drop something off for a friend and I spent a couple of hours surrounded by practically no noise. There was no TV, no music, no computer games, no sibling bickering, nothing other than the usual neighborhood sounds of cars driving by and the occasional set of footsteps out in the hall.

After the kids came home and went to bed, George and I tried to watch Drag Me to Hell but we only got halfway through it before Breanna started coughing in her sleep so we stopped it there and finished it on Sunday night. (For the record, it’s seriously not worth the 90+ minutes of your life unless you enjoy horror movies that aren’t actually scary, are utterly predictable, and have cheap special effects. Seriously, I said that it looked like they only had a $1000 effects budget and George added that half of that must have been blown on pizza and beer. Really bad in this day and age.)

Sunday was another relaxing day and the kids went out with their aunt and uncle one more time for a couple of hours to wander around the mall and to get ice cream. I love my kids, but I must admit that it’s kind of nice to have occasional pockets of quiet time to myself here and there!

The weekend went by so fast. And unfortunately so far the week is dragging by. I could have sworn it was Wednesday today but it’s only Tuesday. Booooo.

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I’ve been suffering from a complete and total lack of creative inspiration. I had to force myself to sit down and write this just to try to break through it. I’ve also been neglecting my camera. I took a few photos while over at George’s parents’ house but I’ve been going days without taking a single picture, and even when I do they seem to sit on my card for days before I finally dump them to my computer and actually do something with them.

I don’t know what’s going on. I think I need to make myself carry my camera with me even if I don’t feel like taking any pictures, and just try to take a few shots a day until this block goes away.

A propos of nothing in particular, here’s at least one other photo that I took over the past week.

Breanna wanted to print out a blue superhero mask that she found online but I need a new ink cartridge so I couldn’t. She was disappointed so I drew one by hand, colored it in, cut it out, and gave it to her. She was thrilled! Other than the fact that it’s not green, she reminds me of Super Why.

It’s so incredibly frustrating to be a creative person by nature and to find myself completely unable to do anything. Let’s hope this passes quickly.

A propos of nothing, these are the two photo poses sent home from the school for us to choose from for our Grade Two photo of Hayley this year.

I love them both - I’m so glad she really smiled big this year! - but we eventually decided to order a package of the photo on the right.

I woke up feeling a little bit surprised that it was Friday this morning and that the weekend was just around the corner. I guess I was a little thrown off by a couple of things, one being that it had been a four-day weekend so the week started on Tuesday. The other thing is that Hayley came down with some sort of bug and missed school on Thursday and Friday, so the whole week was just a big mess, logistically speaking.

I wasn’t able to send her to school because not only was she feeling under the weather, she also had a fever. I would be mildly concerned about H1N1 but she isn’t exhibiting any of the other common symptoms of the flu - besides, my kids get a fever with every illness. Still, fevers are not tolerated in schools at all right now because of concerns so there was no point. They just would have sent her back home as soon as it came back. Breanna’s been sniffly the past couple of days as well, so it’s just that season again.

The bummer about it is that friends of ours are having a birthday party for their daughter and son on Saturday but it’s looking like we won’t be able to make it. I don’t want to make anyone else sick, I don’t want the kids to be out if they’re feeling icky, and I don’t want them to get worse - especially Hayley since she’s missed two days of school for it. It’s too bad, I was really looking forward to it because it’s always a lot of fun, but hopefully we’ll see them soon. We’ll see how the kids are tomorrow and make a decision then.

On the other hand, it’s also George’s birthday on Saturday (old man!) so if the kids are still too sick to go, we’ll put them to bed and watch a movie together instead. I’m a little bit ticked off because we ordered a mic for George for his birthday (it’s not much of a surprise, he found it and asked me to order it since I have a PayPal account, but hey at least he gets exactly what he wants that way!) on September 30th and it still isn’t here. That’s totally ridiculous. I know it’s shipping from California but come on. It’s not like it was being brought here on foot.

According to the tracking info it only left the U.S. on the 7th, I don’t know why that took so long. And now it’s sitting in Montreal since the 13th but for some strange reason it hasn’t budged any closer to us. I know George is a big boy, it’s not quite the same as ordering something for a kid but still, it sucks to not have your birthday present ON YOUR BIRTHDAY, you know? From now on I’m only shopping from online retailers that use couriers because this postal service from the U.S. to Canada sucks.

(I was interested to learn that the tracking number doesn’t change after crossing the border so I was able to easily find the package on the Canada Post site too. That’s at least helpful. Having it sit there for three days, not so much.)

He looks pretty good for a senior citizen old guy birthday boy, doesn’t he?

Hayley’s school was supposed to have a movie night tonight but it was postponed until another to-be-determined date and she couldn’t have gone anyway, what with missing two days of school and all. To make up for it, I offered to do a movie night at home. I made popcorn and put it in the little popcorn containers that we have (they’re so cute), spread out a blanket on the floor, and put on a movie. Hayley chose some Star Trek for the evening’s entertainment. Clearly the geek apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

It’s not quite the same as hanging out in the school gym with all your friends while only barely paying attention to a movie, but it went over well anyway.

In the meantime, here’s hoping I can keep the germs at bay. I have two meetings next week and no time for being sick! Please pass the Lysol!

Wow, remember when I used to update here daily or almost daily? With all the other blogging I do for work I often find myself comatose in front of the TV at night instead of being able to concentrate on anything else. Let’s see, what have I missed?

Last week I went to my first PPO meeting. I had a good laugh when it was over because I had told George that this year I was just going to be a member, volunteer for things at the school (stuff like movie night, carnival, etc), and that I was not going to run for any of the executive positions.

So naturally I came home having become the secretary. Of course. It’s not a problem though, all I have to do is take notes, then type up the minutes and email them to everyone else. I tend to take notes for my own purposes anyway so it’s really an easy and natural extension for me to do it for the others too.

Things got pretty busy on Friday straight through the rest of the weekend, but it was all the good kind of busy. On Friday morning George’s dad came by and Breanna and I went with him to the school’s Terry Fox Run. They do it at the high school because they have a seriously beautiful field, and they have a big sound system so they can play music to keep the kids motivated (though they still need occasional rests since the field is HUGE).

On the other hand, we were all pretty motivated to keep moving because it was so chilly that morning! Just like the last two times, Breanna was very eager to take part and she actually ended up running and walking more than Hayley did. As for Hayley, she had a fantastic sleep later that night because between walking to the high school, doing the run, walking back to her school, playing outside at lunch, and then having gym for final period (plus the exhaustion of school in general), she was completely wiped out.

Saturday found me packing up my camera bag with all my lenses and my flash for my very first professional photo session. That was exciting! The gospel singer that George worked with over the past couple of years needed pictures taken for his album cover, the back photo, and the CD face so I went to his church and shot a ton of different pictures. Although there were many to choose from, we immediately found the front and back cover photos and will use a black and white version of the back photo for the CD face.

The album is titled “Dear God” so we went with the concept of him writing a letter to God. He’s ecstatic with the results, which makes ME happy too. I can now officially add “photographer” to my resume… Yay!

On Sunday we went to the Shriner’s Circus which was a lot of fun even though it was completely insane trying to find seats inside the tent. We ended up with George and Hayley sitting on one side of the aisle and I sat on the other side with Breanna on my knee because there was no way we were going to find four seats together. Next time we’ll know to show up at least an hour early!

We had a good time though. I have mixed feelings about the circus because of the animals, but the elephants seem to be very well taken care of. I love watching the acrobatics as well, it’s so exciting to see people do all these wild flips and jumps when they make it look so easy.

(Do you see that guy in the second photo? He’s sitting on a thick rope and he freaked me out so badly that I thought I might throw up just from watching him. He swung around so high, right up to the top of the tent, and even hung by his knees and one time he dangled by one foot which was when I nearly passed out. Seriously, I’m freaking out just thinking about it. It was amazing but I’m glad it didn’t go on too long because I would have needed an EMT.)

Hayley seemed to enjoy it and I know that Breanna was very excited. She loved everything she saw, but I think the cutest moment was when three women were doing an act hanging from circles up near the top of the tent. At the end of their act, they all started spinning and glitter fell to the ground; Breanna looked at me with big eyes and an even bigger smile and shouted, “they’re fairies Mommy! They’re real fairies!”

And now it’s back to the grind. I’m sort of surprised to find out that it’s already Tuesday since it somehow still feels like it’s only Monday. That’s always a good thing, I love when the week goes by faster than normal.

Now if only I could make myself go to bed earlier, then I wouldn’t be so tired, plus the week would zoom by even more. I’ll have to work on that, but I don’t think I’ll hold my breath. It’s hard to win the fight against my night owl self - after all, it’s been winning for 35 years and counting!

Maybe I’ll just have another coffee instead.