I am Canadian.

I consider myself patriotic. My parents chose this country, I am first generation Canadian. When I live in the USA, it was clear where my loyalties lay.

But, then the Olympics came to town.
I've sung O Canada more in 2 weeks than in 36 years.
I wore a red sweater constantly.
I put tattoos on my face and neck.
I've refused to feed my children until a hockey game was over.
I listened to the song I believe a million times and welled up every time.
I screamed in victory and agonized at defeat.

It's been a great 2 weeks.

I. AM. CANADIAN.

ps. Please notice my name is embedded in CANADIAN.

Little troublemakers

Aside from the fact that I got less than 3 hours good sleep due to little people crawling into my bed and then deciding 5:30am was a perfectly good time to wake up for the day...today was fun.

We had Hubby's uncle, cousin and his 2 daughters come for dinner. The girls are in between my two, so we had a 6, 5, 4 & 3 year old running around the house for 5 hours. There was lots of playing, giggling, screaming and a few tears. All in all, typical girl fun.

However, once they left, I discovered the extent of the damage....2 totally emptied candy tins and a trashed dollhouse. The candy tins were Valentines' gifts to Pookie and Bear from us and we had been rationing out the candy. Suffice it to say, there were still 30-40 smarties, gummie bears etc. still left in each tin. When I checked tonight, zero. Then I glanced over at the dollhouse. Just about everything had been smashed. This is a dollhouse that we got from Craigslist that was a perfect miniature house. Everything to scale, but very delicate and beautiful. When we first got it a year ago, we really made it off limits to kids to play with. Somehow we forgot to do that today, and the result was too horrible for me to actually go over and look in detail.

So, I feel a teaching moment coming on...don't you???

Yes, tomorrow we are going to talk about how much fun we had. Then we are going to bring up the lack of candy and how that happened. Then how the dollhouse got broken. And how when we are having so much fun with friends, that we can easily forget the rules and do things that we are not supposed too. And how even if our friends want to do it, we need to remember what our boundaries are and hold to them...even if it is hard. And then we will talk about how Mom and Dad can help us maintain our boundaries if we can't do it on our own.

Doesn't that sound lovely?

Yes....yes it does...

Book Club

Had book club tonight. Lots of laughter and food, a few tears and good conversation.

Next book, The Glass Castle.

Items to pray about...starting a home church.

Stay tuned!

I'm not a raging feminist, however....

I would like to point out the sheer dominance of Canadian women at this Olympics. We have 16 medals. 12 have been won by women. Even when the men had 2 of 5 racers in a speed skating race and we still didn't medal.

All I can say is that the men better start bringing it.

***at the time of writing this post, I still didn't know if the figure skater would medal. However, if she did, that just further proves my point!***

Heineken House

Hubby and I decided to drop by the Heineken House in Richmond. We'd heard that the consulate was there and advising folks on how to become Dutch citizens. We talked to a very somber woman who repeatedly told us that anything she said was not binding. Turns out (which we knew), the Dutch don't really want you to become a citizen. Actually, a few years ago the immigration office produced a video of folks that did immigrate to Holland that basically were testimonials about how much it sucked to live there. It was hilarious!! Holland was trying to shut the doors to the flood of Northern African and South east Asians who were coming there and "taking over".

Hubby's parents came over to Canada as kids, my mom is still a Dutch citizen. So we have different rules about applying. Turns out that I may actually have an easier go of it and I can pass the nationality on to the girls. So, we wait and watch what the government will do since a new immigration law is before them as we speak. The rules are crazy though, so we need to do this with a sense of humor, or we will quickly become frustrated. But, if in the end we have Dutch passports, what a gift for the girls!

You know, for all that travelling we'll be doing....


Hubby on the speed skating track. I beat him. Funny how he didn't get a picture of that! Oh the burn on the legs. Whole new respect for speed skaters.

Awana Grand Prix

Last night was our annual Grand Prix car race. Each kid is given a block of wood and four wheels. Cars must not weigh more than 150g. Pookie decided she wanted an exact replica of our mini van. We thought it would be the slowest thing ever...Pookie came in 5th out of 50+ kids. Huh. Bear also got a car made, a ski boat, but didn't race cause she is in the little class.

Goofballs!

Our Olympic day

We decided to pull the girls out of school and do the Vancouver Olympic thing. We joined forces with our good friends, the Oldhams, and headed out early this morning. Caught the skytrain from Richmond and headed to the cauldron. Got some hot beverages, then got an up close and personal tour of someCP Rail cars (where some VIPs are bunking) with a family friend. Then off to Robson Street and the zip line, then lunch. By that time, the wee little legs in the group were starting to get tired and a new plan hatched in our heads...(the ticket story)

I was perusing Craigslist for affordable tickets to an Olympic event, which was ridiculous cause everyone is trying to make money! Anyways, I happened to see a listing where the same guy kept lowering his price. He basically wanted $300 per ticket($1200 total) for the Canadian women's hockey game. So, I decided to email a friendly note saying that we were looking for tickets to take our young daughters to see something...would he consider selling them for $100 per ticket, which is the face value of nose bleed seats..which I assumed he had. He emailed a friendly note back asking if we would pay $600. My friendly note back said, No thanks, but good luck in selling them. If he got desperate, he could call us this morning and we'd pay the $400. So he did. This morning as we are looking at the cauldron, he called and the tickets were ours. Jeff went and picked them up.

So as a joke, Juli said to the girls, "wouldn't you rather come to our house and watch a movie while we go to the game?" And my daughters said yes, we would rather go to your house with a babysitter. And just like that we got a night out with good friends and our kids got a 12 hour playdate! The best part is that after we got into the stadium with our tickets, we found out that they were for centre ice, row 6. Pretty much gold value tickets and the game was awesome. 5-0 for Canada. Leave it to the women to show how its done.

Here is our day in photos...enjoy!

Kids and cauldron



Us and cauldron



Much needed break with Canada donuts from Tim Hortons...can't get much more Canadian than that!



Us at the game



The women getting it done!

Will wonders never cease....

2 years ago we put Pookie in soccer. We live in "Little Italy" and were great programs for little ones. Pookie, however, was not into it. She actually would brag about the fact that she didn't touch the ball all season! I'm still not quite sure how she is my child...

Anyway, yesterday Pookie found the soccer ball we bought her way back when and proceeded to play with it for an hour. She kicked up and down our complex, while Bear and I passed a basketball back and forth. I had to get the camera to document such a rare occasion!

My darling daughters

I love my girls. I'd lay down my life for them if I had too.

However...I think I'd love them that much more if they would just sleep in on the weekends!

Seriously, it is 9pm now, they have been up since 6:30am. And the talking...oh the talking. Just stop. Go to sleep. Preferably for 12 hours!

Too bad they don't read this blog.

Play-date etiquette

Today I feel as though I made a colossal faux pas in play-date etiquette. As I have said before, I dislike play-dates, I just want people to come over. So today I made the offer to a few people, casually saying to them to come to the park behind our house after school to play since it is so sunny.

Suffice it to say, that more than one took me up on the offer. One just gave me her kid, which was cool, and one family came as a group, and one....well, I'm not sure. I think the group invitation was not exactly what she was wanting but in the chaos of after school, she and her daughter suddenly disappeared before I could explain what happened.

I feel sick about it. I've left a phone message and sent an email of apology. No response yet.

Shit. I hate play-dates.

Today

The sun was shining.
The flowers are blooming.
The hockey team won in overtime.

Life is good.

Sushi on the cheap

I was walking through our local grocer the other day and noticed a huge display of sushi kits for $2. Being a good Dutch woman, I went to investigate this deal. The kit comes with a white or brown rice bowl, nori(seaweed strips) and soy sauce.( I chose the brown) I thought it would be a fun experiment.

The kit and my ingredients, cucumber, yellow pepper and spicy Thai tuna



Microwave the rice for one minute, then spread on nori


Add ingredients and attempt to roll --here's my first try!


Sadly, I never mastered the perfect roll, but ended up with 10 pieces of yummy sushi!


Please excuse the poor picture quality, my DSLR needs a tune up and this was the best I could do with our 7 year old point and shoot.

Pancake Tuesday...aka Shrove Tuesday...aka Fat Tuesday

In our ongoing muddled efforts of teaching our kids the bigger story of faith, we celebrated Shrove Tuesday today. The Tuesday before Lent was typically the day where the faithful would rid themselves of eggs, milk etc in preparation for the fasting for Lent. What better way to get rid of milk and eggs than pancakes? Hence the tradition of Pancake Tuesday was born! (For a more theologically explanation, click here)

Here are the girls with some good friends celebrating Shrove Tuesday!

Signs of spring...during the Winter Olympics out here...

Happy Valentines' Day!

Our Love Feast



My Favorite Valentines!

Sleep anywhere Saturdays...

In order to earn "Cool Mommy" status, I've been letting the girls build nests on Saturdays and that is where they can sleep for the night. The only rule is that it has to be in their bedroom.

Here's what happens...cuteness!

Opening Ceremonies

I watched 2 opening ceremonies today. One was homegrown, one was flashy. One featured some of the people I love, one featured entertainers. One brought tears to my eyes. One brought a sense of pride to my country.

Let the games begin!

Conquering one of my fears

Today I did something that I swore I'd never do. Go to a chiropractor.

I've had a 'neck thing' for about 15 years. Usually I manage it with copious amounts of Advil and hot packs. But since I'm heading towards 40, my body apparently needs more. Monday and Tuesday, I could barely move. So, I googled my options in my 'hood and found a place whose website I like. (Such a great way to choose eh?)

The diagnoses is this:

My neck is straight where it should be bent.
My back is bent where it should be straight.
Got that?

Now, the whole reason I've stayed away from chiropractors is because of the whole neck cracking method that they have. There is something about my already sore neck getting wrenched around and cracking to make it feel better. I don't know about you, but it seem counter intuitive to me!

So, I explained this to the Dr as I sat in his office in a pink gown. He said he understood. And then proceeded to crack everything in my back except my neck. This involved many convoluted positions, one of which seemed a little too close to another position that involves the love of my life. (TMI? Sorry about that). My neck got the stretch of it's life, plus a little massage to loosen the muscles.

Apparently I will be quite sore tomorrow. Looking forward to it.

Missed one...

Less than a week in and I've almost missed one...darn it! I blame the fact that I was working on a post for my other blog and completely forgot to post on both....

Close one...

Torch day

Today the Olympic torch came through our village. Pookie's school was right on the route, so there were bleachers set up, hot chocolate and a lot of people there to cheer the torch on. The girls did amazing considering they had to stand there for an hour! As I heard one kid say, 'Seeing the torch was the best 5 seconds of my life!'


Pookie cheering...


Bear and Hubby


Me (picture courtesy of Pookie)


And finally...the torch

Monday's musing...(day 3 of 365)

Up until this point I thought the hardest things to teach a kid was
1. How to blow their own nose
2. How to swing on a swing by themselves.

I was wrong. I've encountered something harder...how to see the world in a positive light or how to answer in a positive way.

***A disclaimer here - the child I am about to talk about is riddled with my genes. She is more like me than her father...so I will take 90% of the blame for inflicting her with this problem...***

If you were to ask my eldest beloved daughter how her day went, chances are that she would say 'Not good' accompanied by drooping shoulders and a sulky face. In her world, no one likes her, our family is no good, we don't love her and on and on it goes. She usually starts her sentences with the word NO and has lately burst into tears when challenged about her viewpoint on life.

If I was to dare ask her to name 3 good things that happened in a day or 3 things that she is thankful for, it could take her up to an hour to think of those things. Usually I lose my cool after about 3 minutes of her hemming and hawing that I throw her into her bedroom for a time out.

It is inconceivable to me that she is like this. She has been raised in a family (as imperfect as we are) that is openly affectionate, quick with praise, teaching around faith, has lots of friends and family around and a ridiculous amount of "stuff" to play with.

Pookie's middle name is Joy. We named her that because after so many years of trying we were overjoyed to be having her. I guess my wish is that she would live into that name.

As I was doing my morning blog reading I came across this Momversation video at Finslippy(it is the second one). I don't think Pookie is ungrateful for her stuff, I think it is more her outlook on life that needs a bit of tweaking/managing/reshuffle....Alice Bradley and I have similar kids.

I am asking for comments, suggestions, a kick in the ass if you will...Help me with this!

Super Bowl Sunday

For years when we lived in Vancity we hosted a Super Bowl party. The party usually involved deep frying pounds and pounds of chicken wings with assorted tasty sauces. In our little apartment we would crowd up to 20 people. There was some watching of the game, but usually there was lots of chatter, food and fun.

Then we moved to the 'burbs. No one from Vancity makes the trip and no one here seems to watch the game! In fact, the church we attend has their AGM tonight. (Luckily, we aren't members so don't feel beholden to go)

This year it was just our little family. No chicken wings, but some tasty beef dip sandwiches. My team won, much to Hubby's dismay.

It's 7:30pm the girls are being tucked into bed, I'm brewing my tea and preparing to ice 24 cupcakes for Bear's Valentine party tomorrow.

This life in the 'burbs...sometimes it is just lacking...

My year of 36(5)

Today I turned 36.

Today I went to breakfast with my parents, sister and daughters.

Today I went to 2 of 3 birthday parties, and none were mine!

Today I got gifts wrapped in napkins and cards made from coloring paper.

Today I got gifts for my garden, gifts for my soul, gifts for my body and gifts from the heart.

Today I got woken up at the crack of dawn with a kiss and a 'I love you'.

Today I got 15 min with my love of my life and a steamed milk.

Today I decided to commit to posting something on this post everyday...365

Today the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day.

Conversations with a four year old

Sitting at my alumni basketball tourney, just after my game...

Me: Hey Bear, maybe when you grow up you could play basketball and Mommy could watch you.

Bear: Why would I want to do that?

Me: Because you are good at running, catching and throwing...that is pretty much what basketball is all about.

Bear: Don't forget about the drooling!

Me: Drooling?

Bear: Yeah, drooling the ball.

Me: Dribbling, honey...you dribble the ball.

Bear: Yeah. I'd be good at that.

Me: Yup. Yup you would.