Don’t worry, I’ll post another video later today for Friday Flashback, but in the meantime, please take a second to enjoy the best moment in parade history.

Courtesy of Will Wheaton.

So when you’re a Canadian and you confess (see yesterday) to being jealous of all your American friends who are celebrating Thanksgiving even though you already had your own Thanksgiving last month (and thus making you greedy), there’s really only one thing to do – especially when all those American friends are yammering on about their turkeys and stuffing and sides.

You have a “Yanksgiving” dinner!

(God you have no idea how much I wish I could claim that term as my own, but alas, I got it from Andrea who got it from someone else.)

Hence, the reason we had roast chicken, steamed carrots and broccoli, baked potatoes, and fresh dinner rolls (lightly toasted and warmed) for supper tonight on an otherwise ordinary Thursday.

Sure, it’s not quite what I’d have for Thanksgiving and there was no pumpkin pie (sob!) but it was good enough for me.

besides, there’s always Christmas for turkey with all that goes with it!

Jealousy is an ugly trait. It’s usually pointless and only serves to make you feel worse about yourself and it’s something I don’t like to indulge in, but I am only human and sometimes I just can’t help myself.

So I confess. I am a jealous bitch tonight, and unreasonably so to boot.

I am jealous that tomorrow is Thanksgiving for Americans. Because I want turkey and stuffing and casseroles and pumpkin pies and family dinners too!

This is highly unreasonable because hello? I just celebrated Thanksgiving last month with all the other Canadians. We had ours, I stuffed myself happily and was quite pleased so I have no reason to be all green-eyed that tomorrow is just a regular Thursday for me.

Still, when you’re carving your turkey or serving a delicious plate of pumpkin pie, please think of me. And know that I’m salivating.

It’s not the first time it snowed since Summer ended, but the snow we got overnight was the first snow of substance. I didn’t even see it start, I just went to take the dog out for a quick bladder break around 10 pm, and it was a total shock to find a thick blanket of snow on the ground with more falling from the sky.

The only thing that made it even remotely entertaining was seeing Pearl’s reaction. She freaked out and started running through it all, jumping and playing. It was very cute but I don’t think it’s enough to last me the whole season.

This morning I woke up to snow plows on the street and a sick kid yet again, so at least I got to go back to bed for a couple of hours.

I’m just not really ready. There’s been a lot more snow this time in other years – I still remember the day we brought Breanna home from the hospital when she was a whole two days old. It was a total blizzard and the roads were slippery and by the time we got home I could barely uncurl the fingers that had been gripping my door handle until the knuckles turned bone-white. It was a bit nerve-wracking.

So really, so far the snow hasn’t been bad at all. But I still remember the ridiculous amount of snow we got last year and how it just stretches on endlessly. I’m not ready for Winter yet. At all.

Hayley stayed home from school today, which was a shame since she had a Ped day on Thursday and Friday. She had a really sore throat and a low fever so it was pointless to force her to go. And I could tell she really was sick because she never got dressed and she was really Cranky with a capital C all day long. She was trying to make Wall-E eyes out of styrofoam cups and while she eventually succeeded, I thought she would split the earth in half with her rage for awhile when it WASN’T working.

I figured she’d be okay tomorrow but this evening she was sobbing about a sore stomach and that she felt sick. The fact that she refused to eat her snack proves she isn’t exaggerating. Blah. ‘Tis the season for sickness. How much longer until summer when germs aren’t so rampant?

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I am on book four of the Twilight series. I haven’t seen the movie, though I would like to. I would prefer to see it with another female since I don’t think it’s George’s kind of movie at all, despite the vampire theme.

I loved the book Twilight. I also really liked New Moon. I then LOVED Eclipse like whoa. And now I’m on Breaking Dawn. Oh good lord. What an awful book. So far I have hated most of it and I’m about halfway through. The only reason I’m continuing is because I’m emotionally invested in it, three books’ worth. I have to know what happens next. But it is BAD. Really bad. A friend of mine told me that the author was really rushed by the publishers to put it out there. I still think she may have been drunk, high, or both at the time of writing. It’s that awful.

I’m on section three now, and I really hope it picks up now that it’s back to Bella’s point of view. Please.

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I bought a Halti for Pearl because that dog is unbelievably bad about walking on leash no matter what I try. I heard good things about the Halti so when I saw it was on sale at a local pet store I went and got one yesterday. We didn’t bring Pearl because while she is cute, she is also an imbecile who acts up around people.

They said the sizing chart is usually right but it’s a good idea to bring the dog in to try it on, especially since it was non-refundable being a sale. It was close to closing time on the last sale day so I went with the size two which said that was appropriate for Beagles.

I brought it home and tried it on. Too big. On the INSIDE of the package, which can only be seen after you purchase and open it, it says that female dogs generally need one size smaller than the breed in question. THANKS. That was helpful.

Thank goodness it was cheap.

In the meantime, walking Pearl still makes me want to a) strangle her, b) stab myself, c) all of the above.

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Off to read Breaking Dawn now, where I will continue to try to avoid stabbing myself.

If you ask Breanna about her birthday party, the title of this post is what she says – “It a good party!” At one point on Saturday night she turned to me and said, “It so nice people come to my party!” She loves a good party with her friends and family.

She got some very nice gifts, including some clothes (and a really nice parka with a “fur”-lined hood), a dinosaur kit, a Mickey Mouse art set, and some gift cards to go buy stuff she wants (I foresee more dinosaurs and some more Wall-E stuff).

After the presents, Breanna kept asking about her cake. She had accidentally seen it in the fridge that morning so at one point she kept asking if she could have her “dinosaur cake”. I had asked George’s mom to make the cake for me since our oven is still dead, and I requested she use the bundt pan. Then on Friday night I frosted it with thick chocolate icing to make it look like a mountain. Afterwards, I took red fruit roll-up strips and twisted them down the sides to turn it into a volcano. As a finishing touch, I washed some of her small dinosaurs and put them around the top of the volcano. She loved it.

My favorite moment of the night came when we brought the cake out to her. We all started singing as I carried it to her in the living room. Breanna had such a huge fear (and not totally unfounded to be honest) that Hayley would blow her candles out on her, so we had gotten as far as the third line in the song when Breanna leaned over and blew out all the candles in one fell swoop. Take THAT, big sister!

After she cut the cake, she sat very quietly at the side table in the living room and ignored everything but the plate sitting in front of her.

She’s pretty intent when it comes time to eat something.

By the time everyone left I managed to get the kids into bed by a little after midnight (they were amazed that it was “already Sunday”) and they fell asleep in no time at all.

It was a great party with a lot of fun for the kids and the parents alike. Even though we started it after supper, we had gotten a lot of snack stuff, including swedish meatballs and Tandoori wings and a giant vegetable platter. My biggest fear is running out of food. I think it comes from the time, so many years ago, when my family had my aunt, uncle, cousins, and the boyfriend of one of my cousins. My dad had made an enormous feast with soup and salad and veal oregano. We were all stuffed and my dad jokingly asked if anyone wanted seconds since we were all so full. The boyfriend, a thin guy to boot with a super metabolism, shyly said he’d love some more. My poor dad had to confess there was none left. Oops! Since then I do overkill on party food and as a result we have so much stuff left over, but that’s okay, we’ll certainly eat it!

Breanna was a little disappointed that everyone wasn’t coming back today (today was good – clean-up was pretty minimal and took little time to accomplish, whew!) but she’s already looking forward to her party next year so that must be a good sign!

More photos can be seen over here!

I’m just about to crawl into bed, somewhat exhausted, but I wanted to take 30 seconds to say that Breanna’s party was great, everyone had fun, there was more than enough food (my biggest party fear is always that we won’t have enough), and Breanna really enjoyed herself.

I’ll leave you with this picture of the birthday cake I made for her – a volcano with dinosaurs on top.

More party details tomorrow – for now, sleep!

I could pretty much do an entire segment of Madonna flashbacks because I was such a huge Madonna fan throughout my teen years (still am, but not quite as hardcore now). I still remember standing on a window ledge in my grandmother’s house, a ledge that was actually huge and very much like a stage, and I would sing loudly to “Like a Virgin”, dancing around and having no actual understanding of what I was singing. I never knew if my parents were appalled or amused.

I could also feature some of my other favorites like “La Isla Bonita” or “Material Girl” but I had to choose one and I went with “Like a Prayer”.

I think that was my first real experience with controversy and it immediately sparked a life-long curiosity for anything deemed “unacceptable” by a specific group of people. And between Madonna gyrating around a church in lingerie, accidentally cutting her hands to create the same cuts as Jesus had when he was crucified, a statue crying and later crying blood tears, bringing a statue to life, and dancing in front of burning crosses, well there was a lot for people to get up in arms I suppose.

And oh my God, I loved that video. I loved the video, loved the song, hated when the video was pulled from video stations, and loved when they brought it back – usually for some kind of “controversial videos” special.

So yay for the Internet, because then you don’t have to wait for MTV to feature it on one of their lame shows.

(I also think I may be one of the few people who loves Madonna as a natural brunette – I still think she looks amazing in this video!)

Poor Breanna caught a cold which mostly peaked yesterday, but she was still stuffed up and a bit run down today. That sure didn’t slow her down when it came time to celebrate that it was her birthday though. She was very excited to tell us that it was her birthday and she was three.

She didn’t even ask about presents when she got up so I was able to inhale some coffee and get her to eat a bowl of cereal. She was seriously just happy to go about her day, playing and enjoying herself. But as soon as I asked her if she’d like her presents, her eyes lit up and she clapped while saying, “ooh presents!”

The first present she opened was from Hayley. It was as much of a surprise for Hayley as it was for Breanna – big sisters have big mouths so we hadn’t told her what her present was. 🙂 Breanna is “mildly” obsessed with the movie Wall-E and by mildly I mean that there have been hours where she has insisted that we only address her as “Wall-E” while she walks around on her knees beeping and humming. So when she opened the bag and saw Hayley had given her a little stuffed Wall-E and a little plush Eve, she nearly exploded.

To be honest, the Wall-E is so cute that I really want one that I can have sit on my desk. Ahem.

Next, she opened up the package that had arrived from my sister. Amanda had found this cute little ice cream set to go with Breanna’s kitchen toys. It comes with a plastic cone, scoop, dish, and parfait glass. However, the banana and three scoops of ice cream are fabric with velcro that allow you to stack and attach them together. Breanna loved it and she served us ice cream cones regularly throughout the day.

Finally she got to the gift from us. She opened the bag and just about squealed when she saw it was the V-Tech Tote & Go Laptop (I was amazed to find the English version on the shelves right away!). I got the idea because she had said she wanted a computer like mine. When I saw that this was reasonably priced I figured it would be perfect. It’s for ages 3-6 so there are a few games she can already do now and a lot that she can grow into so it’s something she can enjoy for some time.

She looks like just as much of a nerd as me.

We also believe in doing a sister gift where the non-birthday girl gets a little something too, so Hayley got a nice little beading set and she’s already made herself a nice necklace. I’m filing bead/jewelry kits away for future reference for Christmas.

I had asked Breanna the other day if she wanted a pizza for her birthday or some spaghetti. It was no surprise to me that she immediately asked for “suppa-ghetti” since it’s her favorite. She was very happy to have her favorite meal for dinner and then she was ready for cake. Since we’re having her birthday party on Saturday we didn’t want to do a big, fancy cake tonight because it would just go to waste. Instead we decided to save the big cake for the party and tonight we just got one of those frozen Deep & Delicious chocolate cakes. She seriously didn’t care – all she wanted to do was blow out the candles and eat the cake.

Overall, I think she had a really great birthday. I still can’t believe she’s three!

Wow has she ever changed.

(A few additional photos over here)

This time three years ago Breanna wasn’t here yet. She was almost here. It’s just past 11 pm now and I think at this time I had just gotten Hayley to bed after attending a birthday party and I was reading birth stories while contracting. I was in utter denial that the contracting meant anything since every pregnant woman can tell you that if you get your hopes up about labor, it’s probably not real. Labor generally only becomes real when you stop saying, “ooh, maybe!” and start saying, “oh, shit!”

Or in my case, having your water break in bed at 7 am. Your mileage may vary.

It was weird to me today to think of time. On the one hand I can’t believe she’ll be three tomorrow, on the 20th. How is it possible? Surely she’s only about 6 months! On the other hand, I couldn’t believe that three years ago today she was still hidden away and I had no idea what she looked like, how big she would be, or what her personality might be like.

Time somehow manages to be both slow and far too fast at the same time.

I can’t wait to get up with her tomorrow and give her the birthday presents we got her! But for tonight I’m going to snuggle beside her for a bit and hold on to the one last day that she will get to be two years old.

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Thank you so much for the feedback on yesterday’s entry. It was probably the most incredibly personal thing I have ever written for public consumption and I felt a little naked and exposed after the fact, but the comments I’ve gotten have made me feel better about sharing something I don’t normally talk about too often and I’m grateful for the response.