Expanding the family

Posted on October 8, 2010 by Sherry

Five years before I was born (and ten years before my sister was born), my parents got a cat. He was a big black cat named Satan and he lived to a ripe old age of 18 years. My mother always likes to joke that she was so glad that neither of her kids had allergies because she would have hated to have to give us up for adoption.

Although we had a cat and later some fish (and I brought two hamsters and a dwarf rabbit on the scene when I was older and capable of taking care of them myself, including buying their food and other necessities), we never did have a dog. Both my mother and father had grown up with a family dog but they chose to not have that responsibility once they were on their own, though they do both love dogs.

I love dogs too. I love animals, period. Not including the cats that my parents had I have owned and loved a couple of cats of my own, the aforementioned hamsters and rabbit, an iguana, a gecko, two more hamsters, two rats, and two dogs.

Whew.

Back in June we had to find a new home for our dog, Pearl. She was a beautiful animal and she had her good moments but she was incredibly aggressive and would often snarl and snap at the kids, even when they weren’t doing anything in particular. It got to a point where I couldn’t let them play together and it was unfair for everyone, including Pearl. Luckily I found someone through a woman I know up at the school so I know that Pearl is doing well – in a home without kids – and I get regular updates on her.

I was happy to no longer have to be afraid that my dog was going to go after my kids, but it wasn’t long before I was really missing having a dog around. As much as I love animals in general, in the end I’m a dog person (well, truth be told I’m a horse person but alas, they don’t tend to do well in suburban apartments). I wanted a dog and I knew the kids wanted a dog.

There are different levels of people when it comes to dogs. There are people who don’t like them at all and don’t wish to own them. There are people like my parents who love dogs very much but just don’t want to own one. There are people like George who also very much like dogs but are ambivalent in the sense that he can live with a dog or live just as happily without one. Then there are people like me who just feel a need to have a dog in their life. I could have lived without one if my kids were allergic of course, but for me a dog fills up that last space in the family.

Basically I spent months looking for the right addition. I discovered long ago that I have my own type of obsessive-compulsive disorder; once I have my mind set on something I will spend a ridiculous amount of time compulsively looking for it. I would check out Petfinder, Craigslist, and Kijiji on a near daily basis, usually more than once per day. I found a lot of dogs that looked good but either the owners would tell me that they had never been around kids, or worse, that they had seemed agitated or unnerved by children. I had one who wasn’t sure how his dog would be with kids but said that he had been abused in the past and was scared of sudden movements. Considering kids routinely make sudden movements I said a hasty no thanks to that one. The few that I found who seemed perfect were always snatched up before I could get a chance to meet them.

Hell, I even contacted the Dartmouth SPCA when we were in Halifax because I had seen what looked like a great dog on their site. They would have considered doing an out-of-province adoption on a case by case basis, but alas, she was adopted mere hours before I called.

About a week ago I found an ad on Kijiji for a dog; the owner lived with her parents and since she was so busy with full-time work and school they were the ones who ended up taking care of the dog most often and they didn’t want that responsibility. We emailed back and forth and finally set up a meeting here at our place for last night. I spoke to her on the phone the night before and got nothing but good vibes from her. She sounded like she loved her dog very much and only wanted to find the most loving home she could.

In the hour leading up to our meeting time I was so nervous it was ridiculous. I worried that maybe she wouldn’t be a good dog for us. I worried more that she would be great but that her owner wouldn’t get a good feeling from us and would refuse to let us keep her.

We met the dog. She was fabulous and gorgeous and just what we wanted. The girl thought we were great, loved the kids, and asked us if we would take the dog. I said absolutely. She cried and so did I, partly because I was so happy and partly because it was so heartbreaking to see a girl who loved her pet so much having to give it up. I promised her we would take good care of our new dog and give it all the love in the world.

We have a dog. I can’t believe we finally have a dog again. She’s not perfect, she needs some work of course. But she’s amazing and I’m in love.

Her name was originally Lola but Breanna had chosen the name Winnie even before we met her. Winnie fits her very well so we’re working on getting her to learn her new name (I was relieved she picked a normal name since her usual names for stuffed toys and Club Penguin characters are things like “Sparkle Rainbow” and “Pink Butterfly Unicorn” and whatnot).

She did really well last night. I had fully expected her to whine and fuss at bedtime but aside from a few barks when we put her in her cage for the night at about 11:30, she settled right down and slept quietly until I got up at 8 am. After breakfast the girls and I took Winnie for a nice long walk, including a stroll through the woods. Between the walk and all the playtime, Winnie is exhausted and has been snoozing on and off all afternoon.

I’m also impressed with her bathroom habits so far. The girl who had her before said she was housebroken but I still braced myself for some accidents just because of a change in routine and environment. It could still happen but so far she’s doing a great job of letting me know when she needs to go out. She either goes and nudges her leash that hangs by the door or she barks once at the door. Each time she’s peed right away when we get outside so I know that she knows what she’s doing.

I’m so happy. The kids are ecstatic. Life is good.

How is this kid eight already?

Posted on September 27, 2010 by Sherry

I haven’t quite been able to figure out the inner workings of time now that I’m a mother. Somehow eight years end up feeling more like eight months – if that. Last Monday Hayley somehow hit the age of eight and for some reason eight just sounds so much BIGGER than seven was. Eight is the second to last year of single digits. It’s crazy to think that it’s even remotely possible that I’m a mother of an eight-year-old child.

And yet it’s very true that she went from this:

To this, in the blink of an eye:

Despite it being a school day, I think she had a pretty good birthday. For one thing, it started off with scrambled eggs which is something I don’t normally do at 6:30 in the morning. We also got her a big box of TimBits to take into class for sharing. When you’re celebrating your birthday it’s announced in the morning message over the loudspeaker and you get to go see the principal for a sticker and a toy so that made her very happy.

She also got some nice gifts that day. My sister sent a gift card for Toys R Us, her grandparents gave her the Justin Bieber CD, and Breanna went to the store with George and picked out a teddy bear to give her.

And I apologize if you were frightened by a loud scream that day because that was what came out of her mouth when she opened up the gift bag from us.

I would have screamed too. That’s kind of the way I felt the year that I got my telephoto lens for my birthday, so I understand.

The day ended with some homework (not too much, thankfully), her specially requested supper (George’s curry chicken with sweet potatoes), and some computer time on her new laptop. Not bad at all.

On the weekend we had a double party for her. First we invited some kids to come over for games, hot dogs, pizza, and cake. They liked a couple of the games (the “what’s missing” game and freeze dancing) but overall they just wanted to play and have fun. The ladybug cake was a hit again.

After supper was over we had family and long-time family friends over for the evening. It was nice and laid back with snack-type foods (cold tomato pizza, cheese, pate, crackers, chips, vegetable platter, etc) and adult beverages, and the kids just played together all night. The party actually lasted until midnight and I was amazed that there weren’t any meltdowns after the sugar crash.

You can see all the pictures over here; some photos are friends-only.

It was a great time and we spent Sunday just taking it easy. I had done a lot of cleaning up late in the evening so when I got up in the morning there wasn’t a ton of stuff to do other than vacuuming and putting a few things away. Hayley was tired enough that she spent part of her morning wrapped up in a blanket and playing games.

Now I get a two-month break before I get to do it all over again for Breanna when she turns five!

Leaving Halifax

Posted on September 16, 2010 by Sherry

On Saturday morning we were all up bright and early because the day had finally arrived – the day we had to leave Halifax. Every year it gets harder and harder to say goodbye; on the Monday we had gone to my sister’s house for supper and much to my embarrassment I broke down crying when it was time to leave.

We took our time coming back, stopping over at the halfway point to spend the night in a motel. By Sunday afternoon we were home and immediately threw ourselves back into the school routine since Hayley had to go off to grade three (!) on Monday morning (two weeks late, alas).

We had some great times before leaving Halifax though. There was the aforementioned afternoon and dinner at Amanda and Neal’s house.

(Did you know she’s pregnant? You can read about it at her blog and let me tell you I did many creative crops in Photoshop to hide that fact until she announced it!)

We all had a great time; there are no pictures of the kids to share because they spent a lot of time in the backyard next door playing with the neighbors.

Later in the week we also headed out to my favorite beach, Lawrencetown Beach, as well as a couple of others that are nearby. The ocean was breathtaking. It was a ridiculously foggy day but in the end it created a fantastic atmosphere and I didn’t mind the lack of sun.

At one beach there was a sand bar that went out quite a bit and there were waves crashing from three sides when you stood out at the end. The best part was that when I stood out there by myself for a few minutes the fog made it so that I couldn’t see anyone else, nor could I hear them. It was like I was the only person in the world. It kind of felt like I had stepped onto the set of Lost for a bit but instead of being creepy it was exhilarating; when I got back I told George’s cousin that I had actually gotten giddy out there, bouncing up and down and giggling. I am an ocean dork, what can I say?

Our final stop was Conrad’s Beach which is very sandy and a popular swimming spot (not that day in those temps though!). It was the perfect place for some ocean-side yoga.

Friday took us on a quick shopping spree (you should see all the healthy stuff I bought at Bulk Barn – chia seeds, hemp seeds, flaxseed, etc) and then we stopped for a final fish & chips lunch and visit to Point Pleasant Park.

In the evening, we all stayed up far too late and we were tired the next morning but it was worth it just for a few extra hours with friends and family.

I’m home and I’m back in a routine of school mornings and homework in the afternoons and quick baths after supper. I’ve been unpacking and cleaning and purging and tidying, and life is back to normal. My heart’s still in Halifax though.

Is it too soon to look forward to next year?

(All the Halifax photos are over here)

He rocked us like a hurricane

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Sherry

It was dark and mildly humid when I went out. A layer of fog settled over the neighborhood just like it did a year ago. There was a bit of wind but no real sound, the true calm before the storm. I stood on the deck and stretched and did some Pranashama yoga for a few minutes, breathing deeply and enjoying the breeze as I twisted and lunged. I joked that it was Hurricane Yoga – yoga to harness the powers of a huge storm for good.

By the time I crawled into bed at just about 2 am the night was still windy but quiet and I drifted off to sleep easily and quickly. When I woke it was with a bit of a jolt. A glance at my iPod told me it was 9 am but it wasn’t the time that woke me, it was the noise. Wind whistled loudly through the tiny crack I had left open in my window. Pulling my glasses on I peeked out through the blinds and saw that while Hurricane Earl hadn’t arrived yet, he had sent plenty of rain and strong gusts ahead.

About two hours before the eye was due to pass this general area George and I decided to try to see some water. The original plan was to drive down to Point Pleasant Park, the same place where we had gone swimming in the ocean only days before. As we headed closer to town though, there were too many big branches already down on the trees. Many of the streets of Halifax have beautiful, big, old trees. That wasn’t the best idea for driving because odds were good that a branch could have hit our van so we turned around.

First though, we did stop near a boating club and pulled into the parking area so we could enjoy a little view of nature in all her glory as the wind tossed the boats up and down and pelted people with heavy rain.

Humour me by forgiving me for my cheesy and fairly obvious choice of soundtrack.

By mid-afternoon we had the windows wide open, finally allowing some cool and fresh air into the house after a full week of stifling heat and humidity. We struck out around four o’clock once more in a second attempt to get down to the water. I had hoped to film some impressive post-storm waves out past the harbour but the entrance was closed off, complete with police blocking the way. The drive there and back showed a great deal of fallen trees and branches. Sad destruction to be sure, but it could have been so much worse and I think that all of Halifax heaved a collective sigh of relief that Earl was not another Juan.

Once evening rolled around, you would be hard-pressed to really tell that there had ever been a hurricane at all. Other than the branches dragged to the side of the road it was like nothing had ever happened. Earl roared up the coast, blew into town, and just as quickly blew back out. A party was held here with friends and family and just like Earl we rocked it like a hurricane.

The party was just for fun but it was still a pretty good way to celebrate making it through a hurricane that was the size of California without sustaining too much in the way of damage.

How to beat the heat in Halifax, Nova Scotia

Posted on September 2, 2010 by Sherry

When the weather goes haywire while you’re on vacation, and the humidity levels in Halifax climb up to the mid-30s Celsius (or 106 Fahrenheit), you can sit around and sweat and feel like you’re going to die.

Or you can drive down the ocean and take a swim in the Atlantic Ocean and cool off for awhile.

The water was slightly chilly but it was very refreshing and it felt wonderful. I swam around and splashed with the kids and it made the day a little more bearable.

The fact that it completely renewed my spirit was a fantastic bonus.

East Coast ahoy

Posted on August 26, 2010 by Sherry

On Saturday, August 21st the family packed up in the wee (and still dark) hours of the morning. By 5 a.m. we had hit the highway and were headed east. After a year of wanting to go back, we were on our way to Halifax, after having said goodbye to the cat and our friend who is pet & house sitting for us while we’re gone.

Last year we left at 3:30 am and had to stop so many times that it took us 17 hours to get to Halifax. George was fried and that’s why we ended up taking two days to drive back on our way home. This time he was determined to get there in a more reasonable amount of time and he didn’t want to stop overnight anywhere. We made it here in 14 hours and 15 minutes, which is pretty much what Google Maps estimates as well. What helped was having a minivan this year. The kids had more room and we alternated between having one in the middle row and one in the back row, switching them when we’d make a stop. That way they weren’t on top of each other which minimized bickering. They each had a DVD player, coloring books, crayons, and a few toys. On top of that, we were able to fit the cooler in between the seats so we didn’t have to stop each time someone was hungry or thirsty because everything was right there. Basically we stopped for breakfast, lunch, and pee breaks (including one pee-in-the-woods-by-the-highway stop, who says girls can’t pee outside like boys?).

It’s so good to be back here. I love Halifax more than anywhere else in the world. It’s not that I hate Montreal, it really is a good city. I just love it here more. And when you have fresh fish & chips and the ocean, how can you go wrong?

One day I have to actually type up my Life List, but one of the things I had on there was to do some yoga by the ocean. I can officially cross it off my list now, because we went out to Point Pleasant Park the other day which looks right out onto the Atlantic Ocean as the Halifax Harbour ends. While the kids were happily picking up 975 shells, George filmed me doing a couple of my usual vinyasa flows. Without a doubt it was the best moment in my yoga practice so far. Yoga while listening to the waves and looking out into the ocean is an incredible experience.

I think it will be a repeat performance when I go to one of the other beaches and can do it right on the sand. We still have over two weeks left here, I’m sure I can fit it in!

(Full Halifax photo set is over here and will be updated regularly.)

Life’s a Beach

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Sherry

A week ago one of my friends called me up to see if I’d like to bring the girls and join her with her daughter at a beach not too far from here. I never think of Montreal as being a place that has beaches that are suitable for swimming, believing I would have to go up north to a lake for that. However, much to my surprise there’s a very lovely beach on the tip of the island called Cap-Saint-Jacques and that’s where we spent the entire day last Wednesday. And I do mean the entire day. She picked the three of us up at about 9:30, we got there by 10 am, and we were dropped off at our front door a few minutes before 6 pm.

It was completely awesome. Neither one of us had anything in particular to rush home for, the day was beautiful and sunny with minimal cloud cover, and the temperature was absolutely perfect – hot enough to want to go in the water (which I did, repeatedly) but without the energy-sucking humidity we had earlier in the summer.

We spent the entire day in and out of the water, my friend and I chatting when the kids would come out to play in the sand, we had a picnic within view of the lake, and I was so utterly relaxed that I’m looking forward to a return trip next summer.

I’d be happier to return sooner than that, but alas, it closes very soon since most of the lifeguards (and I love that they have lifeguards, even though the water in the designated area isn’t even deep) are college students who are returning to school within the week.

The rest of the set is over here on Flickr if you’d like to see them all. Life really is a beach.

Starting from scratch

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Sherry

Back when blogs first started up I had a habit of blowing mine up at random and moving it about to different directories at will. I don’t really know why. It was never a matter of drama, and it was drama-free this time too. I just felt like a change.

In all honesty I felt stifled on my previous blog for no particular reason. I think it was mainly that my writing focus was changing and I felt strangely “required” to keep with my current theme. I decided to move all my old stuff over to this site mainly for archiving purposes. Eventually I might just password protect them all but for now most of the entries are still there for reading.

And now here I am. I’ve made some changes besides starting from scratch. I decided to remove myself from BlogHer Ads for instance. I loved being affiliated with them but it just wasn’t worthwhile for me because my blog just wasn’t making much money with them. When I get a few free moments I’ll probably put some Adsense code up here to go along with the ads I used over at my work blog.

Anyway, that’s about it. I have stories to tell but it’s somehow already 11:30 pm and I really should think about making my way to bed. Welcome to the new-but-not-really-new blog.

Leaps and bounds

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Sherry

I think that part of the reason that I’ve had some trouble posting over here lately is that I don’t want to inundate my blog with yoga, yoga, yoga. And sometimes all I want to do is talk about yoga, yoga, yoga. Then I realized that this is my blog (duh, I’m slow on the uptake sometimes) and so if that’s what I want to talk about, I can go right ahead and do that.

So let me talk to you about yoga!

Back in January I got started on yoga after literally YEARS of meaning to try it out. Why it took me so long, I don’t know, but I guess that’s the way it was supposed to be, because that’s how I lined up to find myself an amazing yoga instructor (who also hired me awhile back to help her out with online management, which is awesome). On the last day of January, I took a photo of myself in mid-sun salutation and as I sit here seven months later, I can see that I was still stiff and not overly flexible.

I’m certainly not being courted by Cirque du Soleil with my amazing contortionist abilities, but I’ve definitely improved a lot over the past seven months. I do some yoga just about daily; the only times I’ve missed it were a few days when I really hurt my back (not doing yoga – I was fighting with my sliding doors!) and last week when we had insane temperatures in the 41-43C range. Too ridiculous to breathe, let alone do yoga. Clearly I would not fare well doing yoga at an ashram in India in summer.

Anyway, (almost) daily yoga has helped me motor along in my desire to learn how to do poses that amaze me and sometimes I can’t believe the things I can make my body do. Not only that, it keeps my legs from aching which is something they did almost every day since I was pregnant with Breanna. It’s also been helping to keep my panic attacks down to a dull roar courtesy of the chakra meditation I’ve learned. If you’d told me about chakras this time last year I might have rolled my eyes. I don’t roll them anymore.

Being a photo junkie works out well with becoming a yoga junkie because it means I can not only feel my progress, I can see it as well. The other day it was still pretty hot but it was reasonable after supper so I went to the park with the kids and took some shots since no one else was around. I’m happy with the way my practice is going and growing.

One of my favorite poses, Natarajasana:

(Natarajasana is the Sanskrit name for Lord of the Dance Pose, but I have to call it by its proper name because seriously, “Lord of the Dance” just makes me dissolve into giggles.)

Crow pose:

The first time I saw Crow Pose I laughed and said there was no way I’d ever be able to do it. Now I don’t even have to think about it.

My holy grail pose (so to speak) is Scorpion. Scorpion looks like this:

ICP

Before I get to that point, I’ll probably get to this, which is a peacock pose variation:

peacock

When I look at those two poses I think I may be nuts, but it’s something I’m working on. I practiced in the park for a bit and I get into a dolphin pose, then carefully kick up. I don’t get my legs straight up yet, but there’s a moment – just a brief one but a moment nonetheless – where I can feel myself balance:

It takes a lot of upper body strength and core strength to do it but I’ll get there one day. I can’t wait!

(I have a yoga set on Flickr if you’re curious enough – you can see it over here.)

Yoga is something that I was always interested in and somehow it’s become something that is an important part of my daily life. I can’t imagine stopping anytime soon.

For those of you who do yoga, here’s a question: Who do you like to follow and learn from? My favorite of course is my instructor, Dashama, but I also like to do yoga via DVD or YouTube with Shiva Rea, Sadie Nardini, Tara Stiles, Rodney Yee, and I recently tried some Hillary Rubin as well. I prefer vinyasa type yoga because I like to move with the breath, and I didn’t like Kundalini at all, but other that that I’m pretty open to new experiences so if I’m missing someone that you think is awesome, please let me know!

Another year older

Posted on July 8, 2010 by Sherry

Yesterday, July 7th, I celebrated my birthday and turned 36 years old. I remember when I was 29 I spent the weeks leading up to my 30th birthday wringing my hands and feeling strangely unsettled. I don’t really know why other than I had some vague idea that I was not whatever I had expected to be by age 30. What I was supposed to be, I do not know, but whatever. In the end, I was fretting over the big day and then when the 7th finally rolled around it was so far from a big deal that it was practically a non-event.

That’s the last time that I stressed over my birthday and the number associated with it. I reserve the right to freak out when I’m about to turn 40 and every decade after that, but in general it wasn’t an issue at all yesterday. The only thing I didn’t like about it is that I just like the number 35 so I was sad to let it go, but 36 will be good too.

I’m in better shape at 36 than I have been in the past ten years and feel great (more often than not). The last time I was so fit was when I was doing kung fu for two hours a day six days a week. As of now, I do yoga (almost) daily and it’s done so much good for me, not only physically (man is yoga great for toning your muscles without turning into a female Arnold) but mentally and spiritually as well. On top of that I’ve discovered a cardio workout that I love (hello Zumba!) and I find myself wanting to try more and more new things because of this fitness addiction. When I find myself feeling in shape, feeling strong, and feeling healthy (not to mention the bonus of helping me through panic attacks), it’s hard to be down on something like age, you know?

Anyway, the day was a good one. It was brutally, disgustingly HOT so it was very low-key but it was good nonetheless. I got some of my favorite things as presents – books! I ordered one for myself with Amazon gift certificates, and nearly missed the delivery. It wasn’t supposed to get here until the 9th but I saw the postal truck as we were leaving the parking lot and sure enough I saw the familiar Amazon box as the mailman approached our front door. I jumped out and ran over asking if it was for me and I think he was thrilled that he didn’t have to climb up four flights of stairs in that heat. (I got Going in Circles and blasted through 100 pages last night; I loved her other two books but this may be my favorite!)

George and the kids dropped me off at Indigo so I could browse the books for the one I wanted; turns out they didn’t have it in stock but I always have a backup choice so I got the 4th Sookie Stackhouse novel, Dead to the World. I am woefully addicted to this series and determined to read them all as soon as possible. I was skeptical at first but I’m a fan now.

After they picked me up, we went out to the West Island and stopped at the secondhand bookstore. I ended up picking up Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood since I really enjoyed the first two books.

I love books.

Since we were out there we went down to the water but it was so disgusting outside. Even with a slight (and I do mean SLIGHT) breeze coming off the water it was just uncomfortable, there’s no shade, and everything was just a big nasty haze. I managed some pictures but less than five minutes later we were on our way back home.

The kids had also picked out a little extra gift for me when I had been in Indigo, and I love seeing what they feel will be good for me. George doesn’t usually give them any input so it’s all their idea. Breanna knows I like candles so she got me a pink pillar candle and Hayley chose a little pink bear that lights up.

With everyone having new reading material and the thermometer reaching record breaking levels, we stayed as quiet as possible until supper. Breanna did make a tea party for me though, since she was distraught that I wasn’t having a party for my special day.

There was no way I was turning on an oven or even standing over a pot on the stove so we had cold chicken, potato salad, and macaroni salad for supper. It was the perfect meal on a day like that. I also elected to have Birthday Pie instead of cake. So much better!

I have absolutely no complaints (other than the weather, but I AM Canadian, eh?) about my birthday or my age.

If next year is like this, I’ll be very happy.

Chaos Theory

Author Archives: Sherry