George and our friend Perry are always working on music together. Some of you who have been around for awhile have heard some of the songs George has done. To see if they could do it, they recently took a song they had worked on and made it a video. We’d love if you’d check it out – constructive criticism is always appreciated!

Even the song itself – “Sometimes” – is something pretty new because it’s a different style than the music they usually write together. This is more of a light rap in a similar style to that song that came out way back when, “Take a Walk on the Wild Side”.

I have to tell you, this camera is awesome. It’s so much fun to be able to take shots I couldn’t before. I always enjoyed just taking pictures of the kids but it’s been a blast experimenting with things, especially the macro feature. Above are two of my necklaces. I never could have gotten it that crisp and clear before.

I’ve also gotten to be a total dork and am now taking an obscene number of self-portraits because I joined the 365 Days group over on Flickr. The objective is to post a self-portrait a day for a year. I did miss a couple of days over the holidays but I’m up to 25 shots so far. I’m trying to avoid too many straight old “here’s my face tilted slightly and a half-smile” slef-portraits because that would get boring (though I do have a couple and haven’t written them off). The challenge, really, is to try to come up with new ideas. It helps that there are many mini-challenges on the discussion section of the group where you can get good inspiration for the self-portraits.

My own 365 Days set is right here if you have some sort of interest in seeing them. Right now a bunch of us are doing a week-long challenge to photograph an interpretation of each of the Seven Deadly Sins. Naturally I did Sloth first (hee) and today I did Greed. It’s entertaining me. And if you’re taking part in 365 Days too, let me know!

I actually started using Flickr just to share a few photos from time to time. Then I realized it was silly for me to overload my hosting account by continuing to upload images here and taking up all kinds of space when I could just post them on Flick and then put them on my blog. But now I’ve gotten really interested in a lot of the different groups over there, especially ones where you can get feedback from people.

If I had realized how much of a camera fanatic I would become, I would have taken Photography back in college!

The other day, I was doing my usual browsing for at-home writing jobs, particularly of the blog variety, when I found a really great one. It involves celebrity gossip in a major way. I don’t go too crazy here in my own blog since the focus is more on parenting/momblog stuff, but the truth of the matter is that I have an embarrassingly huge interest in celebrity lives. I read the online gossip. I watch eTalk Daily, a Canadian entertainment show and I watch pop culture stuff of MuchMoreMusic (similar to MTV). I am a bit of a junkie.

So I applied, and was ecstatic to get an email today stating that out of all the applicants, I’m one of five finalists. We get to post four times in the next week, showing off what we’ve got as far as celeb gossip is concerned, and then they’ll make a decision as to who they want to hire.

I’m really excited and hopeful. I think it would be a lot of fun and a good outlet for my Hollywood obsession. Also, it justifies the amount of otherwise useless celebrity information that I keep track of.

Please drop by Pop Crunch and check them out. My first post is already up and I’m a little giddy that it’s about everyone’s favorite trainwreck, Britney and K-Fed. Don’t be shy either, go ahead and comment if you’d like! And wish me luck!

Ordinarily, I’m not one to complain about a lack of cold or snow. I’m not a fan of winter in any way. However, the fact that Montreal currently looks the way it does is not even close to normal for the month of January. I could swear that it’s April. It’s currently 7C outside, and going up to 10C later today. Last night, George and I watched a movie and we actually opened the sliding doors because even though the heat has been off for days, it was too hot in our living room. I put Breanna in her lightest long-sleeved/footed pajamas because her fleece pajamas were making her sweat.

And when I took the kids for a walk the day before yesterday, it looked like this in our courtyard:

And I have never seen the streets of our neighborhood look this bare at this time of year:

It’s insane, really. And there are so many people who are all, “Oh wow, this weather is GREAT, yay!” I would be lying if I didn’t admit that it’s handy to be able to just put jackets on the kids instead of snowsuits; also, generally in January we turn into hermits because of wind chill factors that cause frostbite in ten minutes of exposure so yeah, hooray for getting out more often and more easily. Still, it’s hard to be excited about the weather when it’s completely unnatural and being caused by global warming. I’m sure Al Gore is freaking right the hell out, especially after the ice shelf BROKE OFF up north and went drifting merrily along. Ice shelves are not supposed to just snap off and float around like an ice cube in a fruity drink on a hot day.

At this point, as much as I dislike winter, I would be really relieved if temperatures dropped below freezing and nature dumped a few feet of snow on us.

I wonder when, if ever, I will stop freaking out every time I get pains in my right side. Seriously. Ever since one of my cousins had appendicitis when we were kids I’ve been incredibly paranoid about it. It’s weird because I’m not much of a hypochondriac about many things but with my appendix I am. I always said that if I ever needed surgery for something unrelated in that general area, I would bribe the surgeon to take my appendix out while in there anyway.

The worst part is that I can never actually remember where it is, so I always end up going, “Ow. Ow, oh my GOD, ow! Shit. Is that where my appendix is? I forget!” This is why the Internet is a wonderful thing, because I can now look it up thanks to Dr. Google and I can stop calling my mother and hysterically shrieking, “Is the appendix on the left or the right?!” Which is good because my mother’s response to my hysteria is usually, “Can you do jumping jacks? Yes? Then it’s not appendicitis.”

My right side hurts. A lot. I’ve looked at five different medical sites to memorize the symptoms. And yet I guarantee you that a week from now I’d still forget that it’s on the right.

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Breanna has seen me blow dry my hair enough that she knows exactly what to do with one. Hayley’s toy hair dryer for her vanity is battery operated with a very soft fan (even if you jam a finger in there, it doesn’t hurt, I tested) and Breanna loves when I turn it on and pretend to dry her hair. Then she grabbed it and started “drying” Hayley’s hair too. It’s like Beauty School in that room.

(And now I can’t for the life of me get “Beauty School Dropout” out of my head. What? You too? You’re welcome.)

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Today I remembered that I was supposed to have something published in December so I went to look. It’s there. And it was exciting to see my writing there with a byline and all. It would have been even more exciting if it hadn’t been edited so much, but eh. I used to be an editor once upon a lifetime in college, so I know how it goes. Still, phooey. The original one I wrote here was much better, in my really-not-so-humble opinion.

But published again! Yay!

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I’ve been having fun playing with the macro feature on my camera. Being able to do macro shots was something I always wanted to be able to do and never could. Aside from the fact that I clearly have no concept of what two inches means (I often end up being a little too close), I’m slowly getting better and learning.

The drawback is that when I see the pictures, I tend to have an overwhelming urge to lick my screen since food is great fun with the macro setting.

(Those are the strawberries on the cake we had at our friends’ house on New Year’s Eve. It was almost as good as the turkey.)

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Writing a post every single day in November AND December short circuited my brain. It took a lot of energy to think up this post. Good night.

I can’t believe that it’s the last day in 2006 already. Time just keeps going by faster and faster every year that I get a little older.

I’m currently having a little party with Hayley. Breanna is sleeping soundly, George is playing with his band* and so I’m having some chips with Hayley, she’s drinking “Coke” (the tiniest splash of Coke in a glass of water to make it bubbly and fizzy), and I’m having some red wine. We’re watching Dick Clark’s Rocking New Year celebration with Ryan Seacrest, and taking it easy.

I don’t remember what my resolutions for 2006 were, but I’m sure that I didn’t keep many – if any – of them. I have two resolutions for 2007. One is a resolution that I stole from a friend, to “make the effort” in all areas of my life. It’s such a perfect resolution and takes some of the pressure off of a list of rules that I won’t live up to in the end.

The other resolution is to read more. I’m still appalled at how few books I read this past year. Yes, I have a pre-schooler and a baby, but that’s no excuse, I can still read more than I did.

Now I’m off to apparently dance with Hayley to whoever is singing right now. I hope everyone’s 2007 starts off on the right foot. Happy New Year, and see you all next year**!

* For the fourth year in a row; I can’t believe he never had to play on the 31st back when I could easily go with him. Phooey! Murphy’s Law.
** No, I never get tired of that lame joke. I even told Hayley that if she’s not too tired, she doesn’t have to go to sleep until next year. Groan.

I am so tired and I am going to head off to bed momentarily. It’s a good tired though. Today George was helping his friend with fixing up his recording room in his basement and after lunch he came back and picked us up to take us over as well. I thought we were just going to take the kids out in the snow for a bit and then come home but we actually stayed for quite awhile. We didn’t make it outside but Hayley played with her friend, I kept an eye on Breanna, and I got to have some adult conversation over cheese, pate, crackers, and red wine. We ordered a couple of pizzas and just had a great day.

Breanna was exhausted because she woke up at 8 am and then took a 35-minute nap from noon until 12:35 so she fell asleep on my shoulder for about 20 minutes after supper but she still went to bed pretty easily when we got home at almost 9:30. Hayley was worn out after a full day of playing Barbie, dinosaurs, monsters, and dancing princesses so she was asleep in under ten minutes.

She woke George up early this morning (in the wee hours while it was still dark) and was really sad because she misses my grandmother, so it was really good for her to get out and have some fun with her friend. And it was totally good for me too!

Between today’s unexpected visiting and having dinner with other friends tomorrow, even though I have no big new year’s eve plans I think I’m ending 2006 on a pretty good note.

WordGoddess gave to me…

12 people who’ve made a difference in your life this last year

1. Hayley, of course
2. Breanna, of course
3. George, because otherwise there would be no Hayley or Breanna
4. My parents
5. My sister
6. My grandmother
7. The minister who did the funeral for my grandmother
8. The other minister who spoke at the funeral
9. George’s parents
10. George’s sister
11. Several friends offline
12. A whole bunch of my imaginary friends who live inside the computer

11 things you’d put into a time capsule from the last year

1. A copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on DVD (even though it was out in 2005 I didn’t see it until this year, what with giving birth and all)
2. A photo album of all my favorite pictures of the year
3. My favorite pair of sleepers that Breanna outgrew back in late winter
4. Some of my newer recipes
5. A mixed CD of my favorite songs from this year
6. A DVD of the videos I took of the girls
7. Some pictures and the write up from our camping trip this summer
8. A CD of the songs George has worked on
9. A printed copy of the past year of this website
10. A DVD of the past season of my new favorite show, Criminal Minds
11. Some of Hayley’s awesome artwork

10 things this past year has taught you

1. Life can change in a heartbeat
2. People in your family can surprise you – in good ways
3. Other people can be morons
4. Christmas is fun with kids
5. People are incredibly generous, even when they don’t know you face to face
6. Leaving your one-year-old with no milk at the grandparents’ for five hours so you can go to a party and relax is okay and she will be fine
7. Just because you did something one way with your first child doesn’t mean it has to be the same the second time around
8. The people who sucked last year still suck this year
9. Fart jokes and knock knock jokes are the epitome of entertainment for four-year-olds
10. Some cats really are stupid

9 things you could have done without

1. Losing my grandmother five days before Christmas
2. Losing my grandmother, period
3. The Plague cold that ripped through the entire family
4. Taking Breanna to the ER because she dislocated her elbow
5. My grandmother’s house being torn down
6. Assholes on parade with opinions
7. All those temper tantrums that four-year-olds are experts at throwing
8. All those temper tantrums I had too
9. Seeing Britney Spears’ coochie up close and personal in all the tabloids

8 of the best books you’ve read and/or movies you’ve seen

1. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Friend
2. Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince (again)
3. The Kite Runner (GOD that book was so good. So, so amazingly good.)
4. Can You Keep A Secret? (Chick lit at its finest.)
5. Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Post-Partum Depression by Brooke Shields (If you have even come close to PPD, this book was so helpful.)
6. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (the movie, I mean)
7. Hoodwinked (I know the movie off by heart I think)
8. Hostel (sick and demented yet terrifyingly good)

7 little (or not so little) things you’ve done to make the/your world a better place

1. Taught Hayley (reinforced) about please and thank you
2. Taught Hayley about graciously saying thanks even if a gift isn’t exactly her cup of tea
3. Teaching Breanna the concept of “gentle”
4. Turned the heat and air conditioners to more reasonable levels
5. Talked with Hayley about the environment
6. Brought home all kinds of crap in my pockets to avoid littering
7. Contacted city hall when our nearest park was covered in litter and had a broken slide

6 things you’d like the New Year to bring

1. More freelance opportunities, whether they’re web design or (preferably) writing
2. Prosperity?
3. Breanna’s freakin’ molars to come in already
4. Enjoyable work for George
5. A move?
6. An ability to fit some exercise in to my life

5 things you’re grateful for today

1. (Currently) sleeping children
2. The joy of watching the two kids playing happily together in the ball pit
3. Labbatt Bleue beer
4. Memories
5. A bunch of new clothes to wear, yay for passed along clothing

4 gifts you’d like to give

1. A teleporter to my family so we could all get together more easily
2. Peace to my mom
3. A profession in music full time to George
4. Self-confidence for the years to come to both girls

3 gifts you’d like to receive

1. That lottery ticket that our friends stuck in our Christmas card? I’d like that to be a winning ticket, thanks.
2. A house and jobs and easy re-location in Halifax
3. A laptop!

2 things you wish you’d done this last year

1. Exercised. I’m always going on about how I should try to do some yoga to ease my freaky aching legs but I never.do.it.
2. Read more. I can not believe how easily reading has fallen off my list of hobbies. My 14-year-old self would have been appalled.

1 thing that surprised you the most this year

1. Somehow everything works out okay.Corny but true.

This has been a WordGoddess Collaboration.

So I guess I should start the recap.

It started on the 24th when we gave the girls their traditional Christmas Eve pajamas to open. Then they had a quick bath, and Hayley set up the cookies and milk for Santa and some water and an apple for the reindeer. I got them into bed and it took Hayley until after 10:30 to finally fall asleep, sheesh.

George went to get the big gift for Hayley at his parents’ house and then we got ready for bed. Breanna ended up keeping me up from midnight to 3 am for no apparent reason, but even though it was so late when I went to sleep, I popped awake at 6 am. I was shocked that Hayley was still in bed. I just slept lightly for the next hour and a half and then we all got up (Breanna had to be woken up twice, that little stinker).

We checked out the table where we found that Santa is a big slop and had left chocolate chip cookie crumbs all over the placemat and in his milk, and the reindeer had sloshed water all over Hayley’s note and even deposited a chewed-up apple core in the water bowl. Next year I’m leaving a rag and a broom out for them.

We did the stockings and then moved on to the gifts. Hayley loved everything from us, and was definitely shocked by the train set. It was a good choice. Breanna was curious about the stuff we got her but was still a little confused and more interested in the wrapping paper.

Once we got to the Santa gifts, Hayley ran to the big box and said it was for her because she saw her name on the tag. She started ripping it open and was really happy to see her vanity set. Breanna was also pretty interested in the piano from Santa because there were already batteries in it and it started playing even in the box.

After we got everything shoved to one side, we set the vanity up and then the piano and let them explore the big gifts before George and I got dressed. Then we kept the kids in their Christmas eve pajamas, and whisked them off to George’s parents’ house for more gifting. Breanna fell asleep on her grandfather’s shoulder for an hour because she was tired and a little overwhelmed. The ball pit tent was from us but had accidentally been left over there so Hayley opened it up and she was pretty surprised by it. She also got an Aquadoodle that she had wanted and both girls got lots of nice clothes.

We came home for about two hours so they could play with the ball tent (BIG hit) and so we could all get changed. At first I had laughed at the warning on the box that said – and I quote – that the ball tent could “pop up vigorously without warning” while being set up, but I stopped laughing when I nearly lost the side of my head as the tent sprang up. Still, once it was done, the girls played long enough for me to get dressed up and get ready, so it was worth it.

We went back over and had a nice big supper. I actually skipped dessert. I didn’t eat enough during the day, so when I had supper I got really overly full quickly. Luckily I have half a pumpkin pie sitting in the fridge now, hooray for leftovers. We didn’t stay too late because Breanna was completely worn out and ready to melt down, and Hayley wanted to come home and play with her stuff.

Once the kids were in bed (Breanna was asleep in five minutes, by 8:30 and although Hayley tried to fight it, she was eventually out by about 10), George and I watched Mission Impossible 3. I can’t stand Tom Cruise anymore but it was on the movie channel and as much as he’s an asshole he also makes really exciting movies, so I enjoyed it despite myself.

We all had a good sleep and then on the 26th we did it all over again with my family. I did some tidying up in the morning and made my sauce after lunch for the lasagna. I had just gotten changed and stuck my contacts in when they arrived. I got to meet my sister’s boyfriend for the first time, and he is just as nice as she made him sound; he apparently has a good sense of humor because he was right in the middle of everything, cracking jokes.

We opened our gifts in the living room and we got spoiled some more. My new toys – all of which I had asked for – included a sandwich grill, a hand blender, a new hair dryer, and perhaps most useful and necessary of all, a new battery charger with four AA batteries so I can stop crying about how my new camera can only take ten pictures before the batteries die. My old ones were just too used to handle it anymore.

Breanna and Hayley got all kinds of cool stuff like a princess Mega Bloks castle with Cinderella and the Prince, Candyland, a xylophone, and Hayley was particularly thrilled to get a stuffed Pablo from the Backyardigans.

After all that chaos, I assembled, cooked, and served lasagna, George made garlic bread, and we ate, laughed, and hung out. We had forgotten to do stockings so we opened those after supper, and then I put Breanna to bed. My family stuck around talking until about 11:15. There was no way Hayley would have gone to sleep with them in the living room so she got into bed at 11:25 and was out by 11:30. She was so exhausted.

Although I had a bit of that post-holiday let-down on the 27th – the feeling you get when it’s all over and you’re thinking, “God I waited all month and now it’s over!” – it was also good to get back into a semblance of a routine. It was good to have meals at proper times and to get settled again. I actually woke up feeling like I had a hangover even though I had only had one small glass of wine at supper – it was because of not eating properly and neglecting my water intake.

I think that this was really the best Christmas since I was a kid. I had so much fun. If you’d like, there’s a whole Christmas photoset on Flickr. Enjoy!

When I wrote about my grandmother passing away, a lot of people referred to the fact that I had written so much about her before that they felt like they knew her too. It was an amazing feeling to know that she was someone who wouldn’t even have known on a computer, and yet so many people knew who she was through what I wrote here. Every so often I would like to tell some stories about my family members to help make sure that they live on.

Tonight while waiting for “Criminal Minds” to come on, I watched a bit of a show called “Men of the Deep” which was about a men’s choir made up of coal miners. They sang songs about various tragedies that have happened in mines over the course of history and they also showed some interviews with wives and mothers of people who had been lost in the mines.

When my grandmother was very young, she hopped on a bus and a train and headed to Val d’Or, which is north and West of Montreal. My grandfather had already gone out there and was working in the gold mines. They got married and lived in a one-room tiny home in the mining village. When my uncle was born, they had little heat so she had him sleep in a hat and layers and lots of blankets to swaddle him; they had no room (or money) for a crib, so he slept in a drawer from their dresser on the floor. My grandmother often talked about how the toilet seat in the outhouse would freeze solid in the winter so she cut a donut-shaped piece of fur to carry out with her to sit on when she would need to pee at night. It was a way of life I can’t even imagine.

And I can’t imagine living with the constant fear every time your husband or son or father or brother walked to work and got on that old elevator that sank so far into the ground. One of the most chilling stories I ever remember hearing was one where my grandmother was sound asleep in bed. Whenever anything bad happened, some sort of accident or explosion, they would turn on a siren that rang over the entire population so that everyone would know something had gone wrong and there were likely casualties. My grandmother was sleeping and the siren started blasting in the middle of the night. She got up and ran out her front door in her nightgown, racing towards the mine and fearing the worst. She was halfway there when she realized that my grandfather had been asleep beside her when she tore out the front door. He wasn’t even working that night but the sheer terror of something happening to your loved ones was so deep inside that it was an automatic flinching reaction.

She must have been so relieved when they packed up and came back to Montreal and my grandfather started working for Canadian Pacific, the train company. It was a whole lot safer and saner.

There are a whole lifetime of memories crammed into my head right now. I’m sure I’ll share some more soon.