Time changes are not kid-friendly

Posted on November 6, 2010 by Sherry

I will confess right now: I loathe time changes. It doesn’t matter which one it is. Spring ahead, Fall back, it’s all the same in the end. No matter which way you look at it, all it does is screw up your kids’ sleeping schedules royally.

Once upon a time the fall time change was something that I loved. In my teen years it meant another hour for my lazy self to sleep. Once I hit the early 20-something party years it meant an extra hour to hang out with friends.

As a mother it means that tomorrow my kids will wake up and their bodies will say that it’s 7:30 or 8 am but the clock will say otherwise. By the time bed time draws closer they will both be tired and cranky. It never fails.

I’m sure that the time change was once a useful feature, back when everyone farmed land to survive but in this day and age it’s just obnoxious. Next week I’ll appreciate not getting up and leaving home when it’s still pitch black at 6:15 am to go to Breakfast Club; on the other hand it’s depressing to have it dark by 4:30 in the afternoon.

Can’t we just leave the time alone?

Ah well. I guess I’ll just pretend to be younger and use the extra hour tonight to watch a movie or read more of my book and in the morning I’ll make a stronger-than-usual coffee and do my best zombie imitation!

Life with a dog

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Sherry

I’ve had dogs before, but having Winnie in particular is completely different. Back about 14 or 15 years ago (holy GOD, I now feel old) I had a dog named Balou when I lived with my ex. I knew absolutely nothing about dog training. All I knew was that I loved dogs and I loved my Balou. Somehow, with no formalities I had a dog who would come when called, didn’t jump all over everyone who came over, could be walked off leash, slept on the end of the bed (since I didn’t know about crate training), and was an all-around Good Dog ™.

Fast forward to a couple of years ago and I had Pearl. Being a Beagle I had expected a stubborn nature but a good family dog. Instead I ended up with a dog who didn’t listen, didn’t give a crap about commands, cared even less about things like her position in the “pack”, and most importantly (and the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back) was extremely aggressive. The last point was what made us find her a new home.

And now enter Winnie.

(In that photo she’s eagerly awaiting her favorite “toy” which is when I take an empty toilet paper tube, stuff it with dry food, fold the ends over, and toss it to her.)

Winnie is by no means a perfect dog. After a week of behavior that would have made her suitable for attending the Queen’s coronation, she settled in and discovered the joy of counter surfing. She was – I assume – frequently given scraps of food because she will beg two inches from someone’s face unless I step in and send her away. She is also back and forth in her ability to walk well on a leash. Some days she will trot happily along the sidewalk and other times she will try to remove my arm from its socket; tonight she nearly dragged me down when we were halfway through an intersection because she saw another dog. Clearly we still have some things to work on.

On the other hand, she’s amazing in so many ways. When we first got her, the girl warned me that she always barked for a minute or two after being put into her crate whether it was because she was being left at home alone or it was just time for bed. She did indeed do that but by the end of her first full week she had stopped and now she goes in easily. I showed her that her crate is a good place to be by making it a happy place; it’s full of cushions, no one bothers her when she wanders in on her own, and from time to time I throw a treat or a bit of kibble in there when she’s not looking so that she finds it later. It’s working because even if she’s not thrilled to go in, she’s content (she loves going in there at night; it’s when we go out to do errands that I get the “oh come on, really?!” stare).

She is happy when people come over but she doesn’t jump all over them. She’ll usually come up to say hello but all four paws remain on the ground. Sometimes she doesn’t even bother to get up from wherever she’s sprawled because she just doesn’t care. I love having a dog that doesn’t try to climb up a visitor’s leg and who doesn’t bark incessantly because someone is here. She’s so mellow.

(Mellow except in that photo; while walking in the woods she spotted this rather deep and large hole full of rain water and in true Lab fashion she lunged, belly-flopped, and then swam as much as a dog can while still leashed. I’m quite lucky I didn’t end up in there with her, sheesh.)

She loves to play with Breanna. An outsider might think that she’s about to eat Breanna sometimes because she’ll growl but it’s fun-filled growling, not anything malicious. They chase each other around and play with all of Winnie’s toys. She plays with Hayley too but since Breanna is home all day and Hayley is at school, Breanna and Winnie are best buddies.

She isn’t aggressive AT ALL. I very rarely feed Winnie myself. Instead Breanna feeds her in the morning and Hayley feeds her after supper most of the time unless they’re busy. I can let them do this because Winnie will not attack them for the food or start snarling if they’re within ten feet of her dish. Both kids make her sit quietly while they put the food in the bowl and she listens.

I mentioned above that she’s big on begging and that drives me NUTS. However, we have taught her to stay out of the kitchen while we’re cooking (any other time I don’t mind if she passes through but she has a lot of shaggy black hair that I would rather not find in the middle of my curried chicken) and when we sit down to eat she goes willingly to the living room or the hall. Well. Willingly but she does still stare at us like we’re terribly mean for not sharing our supper and every once in awhile she huffs like a ticked off teenager.

Like a lot of dogs, she’s happiest being near her people. This is especially true of me. If I get up and leave the room 95% of the time she’ll get up and follow me unless it’s late in the evening (she’s not a night dog; in fact she’s currently in her crate of her own volition, sleeping because it’s just time for her to turn in what with it being almost midnight). I don’t bring her in the bathroom with me because she’s one of those dogs who has that nasty habit of mistaking the cat’s litter box for a buffet (ewwwwwwww) and when I come back out she’s almost always lying directly in front of the door, waiting for me.

She tries our patience with the quirks that still need work (and good leash manners are most important for me because winter is coming and so are icy sidewalks and she’s strong enough to pull me down – HARD – if she puts her mind to it), but she’s honestly fitting in so well in our family that it’s amazing.

I am so lucky to have seen the ad on Kijiji when I did and I’m so happy to have a great dog once again.

Highland reading

Posted on November 4, 2010 by Sherry

Many years ago my sister read Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander book and if she was a singer she would have composed beautiful arias about how amazing it was to read.

Being a bit of a rabid reader myself, I thought “let me check out this incredible piece of literary gold!” and picked it up. I think I made it as far as page 10, maybe 15, and I gently closed it and declared that it sucked. So much for that.

Over the years a lot of people who love to read and also tend to read books that I enjoy have talked on and on about how much they love not only that one book, but her entire series thus far. I kept scratching my head and figuring, ah well, not everyone likes all the exact same books. I have an affinity for reading books about Middle Eastern women, teenagers in love with vampires, and boys who live under stairs and end up being incredible wizards but not all of my friends and family are going to read those same things with as much joy as I do (except my sister who has also read those same things).

One day I was at my parents’ house and I spotted Outlander lying about and my mother mentioned that while she had finished it she hadn’t liked it at all and wouldn’t be reading further into the series. For reasons that I don’t understand I asked if I could take it home and give it another shot at some point in the event that I found myself with absolutely nothing else to read besides the side of a cereal box. It sat there on my night table for months.

One day in between reading a non-fiction yoga book and a non-fiction dog training book I decided my life needed a little bit of non-reality and with a skeptical sigh I picked up the book I had loathed. And right now, almost 300 pages in, I am dying to know what was going on in my life that had me so distracted that I couldn’t get into this book because it is incredible.

I kind of resent the fact that life doesn’t allow for me to lounge about on the couch eating cookies and reading. I also apparently need to go buy all the other books in the series now. Alas, there are worse things.

Have you ever given a book a second try and discovered it was much better than you had previously anticipated?

Flying by

Posted on November 3, 2010 by Sherry

This week is just zipping right along. I’m a day behind because Hayley didn’t have school on Monday; staying out later for Halloween also made that day feel like a Saturday. Even though it’s Wednesday today I keep thinking it’s only Tuesday.

I’m just glad I remembered where we actually are in the week because for one thing I’d hate to miss Criminal Minds tonight (coming on in five minutes!) and even worse would be to forget to reset my alarm clock. I have Breakfast Club again tomorrow morning and that means getting up at 5:30 (or at least intending to do so, with a quick slap of the snooze button for good measure) instead of 6:30. It would be a little embarrassing to completely miss doing my volunteer work just because I don’t know what day it is.

I also have a meeting at the school after lunch tomorrow. There’s a health and wellness committee (called Ecole en Sante here in jolly old Quebec) and the principal would like to include parents from the PPO and the Governing Board. Since I do both I figure that’s good enough reason for me to participate. It’s basically a committee that works to find ways to increase the general good health among students. It’s not just for physical health, though that is covered as well via proper nutrition and fitness. However, there’s also a strong focus on emotional health, including building up self-esteem. I’m very interested in learning what we’ll be doing.

Other than being confused and being a day off in my week, it’s definitely nice to know that we’re almost back at the weekend again. I still stand by my long-held belief that society would be much more productive – and far happier – if we could all have four day weeks and three day weekends at all times.

How’s your week going? Fast or slow?

Ups and Downs

Posted on November 2, 2010 by Sherry

I should feel quite lucky that it took until late October for me – or well, all of us – to come down with something. Usually when Hayley starts back to school all it takes is one week for some sort of school-based disease to make its way through our family. We did get some minor cold germs after she started up but it was nothing major.

Last week I was up at the school serving breakfast and Hayley asked me if I could come and cut her waffle for her because she was tired and frustrated (getting up that early will do that to you). I had just finished when I realized that the room was starting to spin and tilt around me. Awesome.

I staggered to the bathroom and splashed a bit of cold water on my face and the back of my neck and that helped a bit but when I came back out one of the other moms said I really didn’t look well because I was whiter than normal. I sat for a bit since it was still quiet – the biggest rush is when the buses arrive – and we were well staffed with volunteers that morning. After things settled a bit I decided to let the others do the serving and I stayed out of the way, quietly washing the dishes.

I assumed it was a monthly dizziness that I get courtesy of being a woman with whacked out hormones. It was a bit later than I would normally expect such a thing but it wasn’t anything that I didn’t experience from one month to the next. The difference was that I then came back home and spent the rest of the day feeling horribly dizzy, weak, and nauseous. That’s when I realized the Breakfast Club supervisor was right when she suggested that I was coming down with a virus. Apparently there’s something going around that is hitting everyone in exactly the same way.

I went to bed very early that night, before 10 pm, which is unheard of for me. I knew I had to get up at 5:30 on Friday to do another round of Breakfast Club and I was also supposed to hand out candies to the kids in class for Halloween. Luckily I had a great sleep and felt quite a bit better.

Saturday was more or less a repeat of Thursday and I felt absolutely horrible, as though I had been hit by a truck. Alarmingly, George felt just as awful as I did and I worried about how on earth we would ever manage to do our trick-or-treating with the kids on Sunday. Again, I hit the hay early for me, getting to bed just before 11 pm on a Saturday night (party animal!).

That helped as I was a bit sluggish but ultimately felt much better by the time Halloween rolled around. I didn’t take any chances and went to bed at a decent hour both Sunday night and last night as well. Today is the first day that I felt more or less *well* in days. I don’t think it was a flu, I think it was just a really bad cold, but who knows?

In any case I’m hoping to carry on feeling better because honestly I just don’t have time to be sick. I know there’s never a good time and everyone says that but I’m busy! I have Breakfast Club two mornings a week, two meetings a month (one for PPO and one for Governing Board), I’m attending a meeting for a special health committee up at the school this week, Pizza Day is coming up, Breanna’s birthday and the party is on the 20th, a friend’s daughter is having an outing on the 21st and her party on the 28th, and… well, I just do not have time for more sickness. Come on Vitamin C, get to work!

*******

I’m doing NaBloPoMo again this year, which means you can expect to read a new post here every day throughout the month of November.

Trick or treat!

Posted on November 1, 2010 by Sherry

Another Halloween has come and gone but it was definitely a good one. We got SNOW on October 30th, which caused me to utter many words that are not fit for repeating. I know I may be a Canadian and we’re supposed to be used to winter and all that but winter should not come about in October, sorry.

Luckily it wasn’t too much and most of it had melted by the time we were ready for trick-or-treating. It was quite cold but kids don’t always notice things like cold anyway so it wasn’t until they were almost done that they started realizing their fingers were half frozen.

Hayley and Breanna both chose easy costumes this year. Hayley wanted to be a cowgirl, which surprised me a little bit but she looked very cute. All it took was a pair of jeans, a warm shirt and warm coat, and one of George’s plaid shirts over the top of that (yes, the jokes are true; all Canadian Halloween costumes should be designed to fit over a winter coat, possibly a full snow suit). She topped it off with pigtails, some freckles like Jessie in Toy Story, and a cow~~boy~~girl hat and she was done. She had brought a horse but wisely chose to leave it in the car.

As for Breanna, she wanted to be a fairy. I scratched my head trying to figure out how to make her pretty yet warm, and ended up pulling one of Hayley’s pink, flowery summer dresses over her warm coat. She wore fairy wings, a tiara, and carried a wand. I also put a bit of makeup on her and she was very happy. Both girls had a great time trick-or-treating with their friends and it was fun for me to watch Breanna keeping up with the big kids this year, not needing (or wanting!) my help to go up to each door.

And me? I don’t believe in trick-or-treating without some sort of costume even I’m not the one going up to get the candy. Halloween is one of my favorite days of the year and I love to get dressed up. I usually dress as Hermione from Harry Potter but this year I decided to go with one of the more evil characters. I always said that if I was an actress I would have wanted to play Bellatrix just because she was completely insane. The role went to Helena Bonham Carter but that doesn’t mean I can’t dress the part a bit!

The principal at Hayley’s school is a very wise woman. Knowing Halloween was a Sunday this year, she took one of the floating ped days and gave the kids Monday off. No one wanted a bunch of tired and strung out kids still coming down from a sugar high sitting in their classrooms, so it worked out well. It meant we didn’t have to rush home and after trick-or-treating was done we got to spend some time enjoying ourselves at a friend’s house. Much better than trying to herd them off to bed at a decent hour!

I have a few more Halloween pictures up over here if you’d like to see them.

*******

I’m doing NaBloPoMo again this year, which means you can expect to read a new post here every day throughout the month of November.

A day in the life

Posted on October 26, 2010 by Sherry

It had been ages since I had done a photo day in the life post so I thought I would do one on Sunday. I had intended to post them all on Monday but Hayley stayed home from school because she wasn’t feeling well (fever and sniffles, etc) so I put it off until today.

Here’s how my Sunday went.

As much as I’d like to say I slept in until this time on a Sunday, well, no. I had been awake for awhile but I managed to stay in bed by tossing some books to Breanna while I laid there and…

Checked my mail on my iPod Touch. It’s a bit of a compulsion, I have a habit of doing this first thing in the morning before getting out of bed.

Once I finally got up it was time to let Winnie out of her crate and take her out for a potty break, as well as a trot around the (big) block to stretch out her legs.

Reward for stumbling around the block with my eyes at half-mast? Coffee!

Breakfast time! I made waffles for the kids, and that’s my toast you see in the toaster. George took care of his own breakfast, he rarely eats first thing upon waking.

Once we’re all done eating, it’s Winnie’s turn. I rarely need to feed the dog since both kids love to do it, especially Breanna.

I made a quick call to my mom; we were going to see my parents in the early afternoon so I just wanted to let her know when to expect us.

Okie dokie, time for me to hop in the shower and get all cleaned up.

I am so low-maintenance with my hair. It’s a bit of a miracle that I use gel at all, and I almost never dry it all the way because my patience levels for fiddling with my hair are way down there. This is why I get the cut I normally do, because it’s very wash and wear.

Bed, all made. It was getting cold at night and I don’t like to leave the heat up overnight, so I threw this sleeping bag over the comforter and it keeps me toasty while I sleep.

Once I was done with everything else, it was time for some primping. This probably looks like a lot but in reality it takes me all of five minutes to put my contacts in, throw on some eye shadow and liner, curl my eyelashes, and slap on a coat of mascara. Again, pretty low-maintenance. More than five minutes of prep time requires a special occasion.

(Alas, the picture I took post-primping was SUPER blurry so I didn’t bother.)

The girl who gave me Winnie said that she loved driving around so we took her for her first drive with us when we went to see my parents. They were very excited to meet her and she was pretty good. She was a bit agitated on the way out but then I realized it was because she wanted to lie down more towards the back, so the drive home later on ended up being much better.

It wasn’t a particularly great day but at least it wasn’t raining. It was pretty chilly though!

One of the reasons we were going to visit my parents was because they still had Hayley’d birthday present waiting for her; it’s just gotten too hard for my dad to manage the four flights of stairs at our place so they weren’t able to come for her party. They got her some plush toys from Club Penguin – both the kids LOVE to play Club Penguin. Hayley was very excited and based on Breanna’s interest, my mom knows what to get her for her birthday next month!

We had a nice visit for a few hours. Then on the way home we stopped for some groceries.

George and Breanna went in the store while Hayley and I waited in the car with Winnie. Winnie was not pleased that two of “her people” went in the store, she seemed very nervous as to where they were. She was very happy when they finally came back out.

Putting stuff away.

Clearly visiting people is EXHAUSTING because as soon as Winnie got upstairs she did this for quite some time.

I threw some vegetables into a pot and got some water boiling to make rice so I could get supper going.

Nom nom nom! General Tao Chicken on basmati rice with some vegetables on the side.

After supper I took Winnie for a good walk and when I came back I found that Hayley had borrowed George’s guitar to practice what she had learned at her guitar lesson last week. I think she’s really going to enjoy this course.

Meanwhile, George and Breanna played with the new foosball game my parents gave us. They had bought it a couple of years ago and only played it once so my mom thought we’d enjoy it more. I love that Breanna’s right up on the table to play!

And while everyone else amused themselves I … well, I washed the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. Whoopee, talk about exciting!

Once the kitchen was cleaned up it was time for Hayley to hop in the bath and have her hair washed (they get a bath on alternating days because putting both of them in the tub at once usually means more water on the floor than in the actual tub). Then I dried her hair, gave them each a snack, and sent them off to use the bathroom and brush teeth. THEN it was time for them to get into bed.

George had gone to the store and if no one is around to supervise while I put the kids to bed I always put Winnie into her crate (just like I do when we go out or overnight). This saves our shoes, the garbage bag, and the kids’ toys. It’s just a better way to set her up for success – she can’t get into trouble this way. She doesn’t mind the crate and all, and I let her out as soon as I come back out to the living room. Where I get the Crazy Face.

I hate putting school lunches together in the morning so I do as much as I can the night before. I got her drink, snack, and dessert all ready and put them in one spot in the fridge. Her actual lunch was going to be leftovers in her thermos, so I left that for the morning (and then she ended up being sick on Monday so it didn’t matter anyway).

With everything tidied up, the kids in bed, and George back home working on some music down the hall, I decided it was time for me to relax with some refreshments, some television, and some blog reading.

Winnie snoozed a bit longer (still worn out from visiting!) but then she rolled around and gave me this face and she was too cute to resist so I played with her for awhile.

Fluff explosion! I went to the kitchen for a minute and in that time she managed to completely un-stuff her brand new toy that my parents gave her. What a goofball.

After one last trip outside to do her business, I put Winnie to bed for the night. Then I headed to the bathroom to take out my contacts, remove my makeup, wash my face, and brush my teeth. Sometimes I wait until I’m so tired that it feels like a huge chore.

I should have gone to bed a little earlier than this since it was a Sunday night but c’est la vie.

Good night!

Memories captured on video

Posted on October 22, 2010 by Sherry

As you’re probably already aware, I took a TON of photos in Halifax this summer. This is not surprising at all considering I can easily snap away without realizing it. Just the other day when I was at the nature park, it was just a three hour afternoon and yet I completely filled up my card, taking over 250 pictures – and that’s a place I go to semi-regularly!

Anyway, on top of the photos both George and I shot some video as well. We both have some up on YouTube and we had many just sitting on our hard drives.

While we were there George’s cousin had a deck party which ended up being a “hooray for surviving Hurricane Earl” party. There was a lot of music all night long courtesy of an iPod being set to shuffle but one song in particular stuck out. “I’m So Paid” by Akon came on and it sparked some dancing and singing and the video became a hit among our group over the next few days. Somehow that one song became associated with being in Halifax.

Earlier this week I was walking the dog and had my own iPod set to shuffle and that same song popped up. I stopped right there on the sidewalk, thought for a second, and immediately knew what I wanted to do as a little personal, fun project.

I’ve used Windows Live Movie Maker in the past to add some music and credits to my yoga videos but I’ve never really played around with it and there’s a lot you can do. With a bit of poking around I took some of my favorite pictures from Halifax, cut out a few clips from our videos, and spliced them all together with “I’m So Paid” as the soundtrack. I fiddled a bit, moved things around, got the timing I wanted, and in the end I had a video that serves as a great reminder of all the fun we had during those last three weeks of summer vacation.

Here it is:

I can’t believe I didn’t put in anything from the video I took during Hurricane Earl, but that’s okay. I got some of the best stuff in there anyway and I had a hell of a lot of fun doing it. I have to say, if you ever want to revisit some good memories, putting together a video like this one is a great way to do that.

Enjoy!

(If you’re curious, my video channel is over here and you can feel free to subscribe. I have a feeling I’ll be using it more and more often.)

On dogs and damp weather

Posted on October 21, 2010 by Sherry

Life with a new dog has been working out quite well. We’re getting used to each other and have settled into a fairly predictable routine. I really couldn’t imagine a better dog for our family. She’s still a puppy so we do have a few bad habits to break, but nothing that is really major.

For one thing, she loves shoes. I’ve never seen her actually chew them, mind you. She just goes over to our shoe rack by the door and she’ll pick one up (she’s particularly fond of a slip-on pair that Hayley wore in the summer and which need to be tossed since they’re too beaten up to save or donate), carry it into the living room, and lie down to lick it. I don’t want her to keep that habit though because I’m sure eventually licking would turn to chewing. Besides, I don’t want to be running around early in the morning with one shoe on while frantically searching for the other one. Luckily she’s pretty good when I say, “No!” and she drops it.

Her other bad habit was begging and it was pretty intense so I think she was used to sharing snacks and getting scraps from the table. What’s good is that she’s smart and pretty eager to please so she’s gotten a lot better. We’ve taught her to stay out of the dining area when we sit down to eat which is much better.

When we first got her, the girl told me that she was used to sleeping in a crate at night and being in there when she was left alone but I was warned that she would usually bark for a couple of minutes to voice her protest and then she would settle down. That’s why the girl wanted to make sure we were allowed dogs in our apartment because people would hear her now and then.

It did indeed happen for the first two or three days but I managed to make her more accepting of the cage. I can tell she still doesn’t love going in there, especially during the day when she’s wide awake – it’s always easier at night when she’s tired anyway. However, I stuffed some cushions in there for her to lie on so it’s very cozy and I took a cue from something I read recently and started casually tossing dry kibble in there from time to time. Eventually she would walk by and smell it, and when she’d walk in to investigate she’d find food so she made a positive association with the cage. When it’s time for her to go in, either because we’re heading out or because it’s time for bed I just throw a bacon treat in there and tell her “go get your cookie!” She always gives me a LOOK, almost like she’s saying, “listen, I know what you’re making me do and you kind of suck but FINE, those are tasty so I’ll go.” Then she wags her tail and heads in. The barking has stopped; she doesn’t make a peep once she’s in, so that’s amazing progress considering she had been doing it daily for months and I got her to stop in only a few days.

It seems as though she’s learning her name. Before I could call out “Winnie!” and she wouldn’t really react. Then again, I could also call her by her old name and it had the same (lack of) effect. Now I find that she responds about 80% of the time, so that’s better. I think it’s entirely possible that she does know her name now and when she ignores me it’s because there’s something much more interesting going on.

The best thing is watching her with Breanna. Breanna was the biggest target when we had Pearl and it was almost impossible for her to play with her at all. Now that we have Winnie, Breanna has a furry best friend. They play tug of war, she’s been teaching Winnie to “find it” with rawhide sticks (it’s amazing to see my not-quite-five-year-old training a dog!), and they chase each other around. Our living room, kitchen, and dining area all open onto each other so you can essentially travel in a circle from one room to the next; Breanna will run one way and Winnie will run the other way, then they turn and race back the other way. Other times they just run around and around in circles, Breanna laughing hysterically. When they’re both tired, Winnie will crash out on the rug in the living room and Breanna will lie down with her head on the dog’s belly. It is ADORABLE and exactly the way it should be with kids and their dogs.

Hayley is enjoying having a kid-friendly dog too. Winnie doesn’t jump when you walk in the door but she does run right over to greet Hayley when she gets home from school and she likes to play lap dog with her. Hayley is also thrilled with the run-around-chasing game so that gets picked up again.

Between both the kids playing with her and the walks with me, Winnie is the laziest energetic dog I’ve ever seen. Yes, when we’re outside she’s raring to go (though after one particularly long walk in the woods she actually sat down on a lawn on the way back home and stared at me like she thought maybe I could carry her the rest of the way) and when she plays with the kids she’s ecstatic but then in between those times I frequently find myself looking around for her, only to find her passed out cold on the floor, sound asleep. It’s a good mix.

As for me, that dog follows me everywhere I go. I actually tiptoe past her when she’s asleep just so she won’t wake up and jump up. Even if I’m just going around the corner to another room for a second, she comes too. If I have the baby gate up to block the bedrooms (at night when the kids are sleeping) and I climb over to get something, she’ll sit and wait until I come back. She loves me and that’s fine by me.

She’s also quite protective. While she’s extremely gentle and even the kids can feed her because she’s not prone to trying to grab the dish, apparently she is very On Guard when it comes to her home and her people. We’d only had her for less than a week when she was lying in the hall by the front door. Somehow none of us locked it when Hayley got in from school so when the door at the top of the stairs opened, the draft blew our door open just a crack. All Winnie knew was that her four people were inside with her, the door was open, and she could hear someone out in the hall. Despite her short time with us, she immediately jumped to her feet and started barking and growling, putting herself in between us and the door. No one was getting inside without our okay, let me tell you! That made me rather happy.

So yeah. Great dog. We all love her.

In other news, this damp weather is sucking. Rain is supposed to be a regular feature in the spring, not the fall. And yet we’ve been getting quite a bit of it lately and even on the days that it doesn’t rain I find it pretty damp, at least early in the day.

Today was my first day back up at the breakfast club at the school and it was pouring when I got up. Let me tell you, nothing makes you want to crawl back under the comforter for the rest of the day quite like that. My alarm blared at 5:30 am and it was still pitch black outside which was bad enough. Add in the rain and it was just UGH. Once I got up and got to the school it was fine. I wondered if I’d forget all the things I had to do but it wasn’t too hard to get back into the swing of things and I really do love doing it.

On that note, between my early morning and the chill in the air I think it’s time for a nice hot cup of coffee.

Thankful

Posted on October 13, 2010 by Sherry

This past weekend was Thanksgiving up here in Canada* and with Hayley being off school for the Friday and the Monday we had a wonderful long weekend and there was a lot to be thankful for by the time it was over.

We basically spent Friday getting to know our new dog, and we took her for her first walk in the woods. On Saturday our friend was the unknowing guest of honor at her surprise birthday party and that was a lot of fun. I went over early to help decorate and get everything ready, and we didn’t leave until midnight. I had such a good time that I may have to re-think my stance on surprise parties. I’ve always said I wouldn’t want to have one, even though I enjoy attending them for other people, but maybe it would be fun for someone to throw one for me too after all.

Even though Monday was technically Thanksgiving day, a lot of people celebrate with the big dinner on Sunday since many people have Monday off (and can thus recuperate from all the turkey, stuffing, and pie!). We went over to George’s parents’ house and visited with them, as well as his sister and her husband. We had a great time and enjoyed a huge meal.

George’s sister suggested that after saying grace we should go around the table and have each person share something they’re grateful for. When it was my turn I said that I spent my whole life having big family meals for holidays up north at my grandmother’s house but since she passed away several years ago, I don’t have that now. I said I was grateful that I still had the good luck to be a part of that with George’s family.

The kids both fell asleep pretty easily that night, which was a good thing since I got a phone call from one of my friends on Monday morning. She said she was going with our other friend to a big nature park with the kids and they wanted to know if we’d like to join them. I’m so glad I was able to say yes. It was a beautiful day – possibly one of the last before winter hits – and we spent a wonderful three and a half hours walking around, looking at the trees, petting goats, checking out farm animals, having pony rides, and eating a picnic lunch.

By Monday night everyone was pretty much wiped out. There’s something wonderful about being completely tired because you had so much fun over the past four days.

You can see the full Thanksgiving set over here and all the photos from the nature center over here.

*I mentioned it being our long holiday weekend over on JoliePittWatch and thanked my readers for their kind wishes. Hilariously I had someone email me about how I’m an idiot for thinking it was Thanksgiving because DUH, that’s in November. I had a fun time replying that although the Internet is very US-centric, many of us actually live in other countries, and thus have different holidays. I included a link explaining Canadian Thanksgiving and implied that perhaps it takes a bigger kind of idiot to have no clue about the world outside their own little dot on the map.

Chaos Theory

Author Archives: Sherry