February 2012 Resolution

Guess what? Tomorrow is Feb 1st...it just occurred to me today that if I was going to keep up with the monthly introductions of my 2012 resolutions, I had better come up with one quickly. So I thought about the options, as all of these are going to have to happen at some point this year - resolve to get back to a good face-cleaning regime at night before bed; get back on weight watchers; or work on the exercise part of my life. However, I'm really not committed to accomplishing any of those things yet. So tonight, when it was clear that our family dinner plans had gone awry, I decided to resort to my favourite guilty pleasure meal *Dirty little secret alert*: Takeout Wendy's after the kids have gone to bed.

So this is one of my worst habits - getting a hamburger/fries combo, with Diet Coke, and eating it after 8:30pm. Seriously - what sounds smart about that??? And I do this approximately once a week. Sigh...I am totally ashamed, but I rarely regret it after. If only I got a stomachache or something, it would be much easier to convince myself not to do it.

Anyhoo, the point to all of this is that my February resolution will be to stop getting Wendy's takeout late at night, and definitely not eating it once a week. I'm not saying that I won't ever eat Wendy's again, but it will be very rarely and only when it is the "only" option. Like on a car trip to Toronto and we all need a little breather (and a meal). So wish me luck - this is a bad habit I have tried to break before and I always pick up the habit again.

And for an update on the morning coffee making and less Starbucks buying: these January resolutions are going awesomely! I haven't missed a day yet - even day one when I thought I was going to break the Starbucks buying part, but then I never managed to buy an afternoon coffee. I had a really bad headache that night - but at least I didn't fail on my first day! :)

The 2-year old monkey!

Happy birthday morning, 2-year old!

Christmas elf

Micaela is 2!!! This is a little after the fact but within a week of the actual date - that is pretty much a miracle. Mikes at 2 is just more of the same...super-cute and crazy stubborn. Thank goodness she is cute! She is a study in contradictions - at times very shy and scared of loud noises, and at other times she is chatty, super-outgoing and loves adventure. Her first time tobaggoning she couldn't get enough. She is fiercely independent, determined to do things her own way, but also a sucky little Daddy's girl when it is convenient. And of course Greg eats that up! :)

Sisters

Micaela is pretty steady physically, and is a pretty good talker. She started a little soccer class on the weekends and she really loves to run around the gym - though she is less than interested in the ball. She loves reading, colouring, and watching TV - and she is always interested in what her big sister is up to. Micaela absolutely hates to be left at home when Avery gets to go out and do something. I suspect her naps are going to go by the wayside sooner rather than later. She is doing really well with the potty training - really good during the day at Linda's and at home, though going out is still a little dodgy because Mikes is a little afraid of public bathrooms. They are noisy you know! :) As if there was an internal timer set, Mikes also started having an opinion about her clothes this week. Nothing that was picked out for her was good enough, and she even second-guessed what she picked out. Super fun - love that little personality quirk!

Chocolate birthday cake!

So thankfully she was actually in good health on her actual birthday - this past weekend when we were supposed to have her birthday party? Not so much. A combo stomach bug and head cold did her in. I think we will probably just do a joint party for the two of them when it is Avery's birthday - now it's going to have to be something a little more interesting...I am thinking party at the gymnastics centre. And I guess we had better get used to birthday plans being derailed by colds/flus/gastro bugs. With two winter birthdays, it is very unlikely that we will manage to have them both healthy for their birthdays in a given year. Sigh...it was a very trying weekend. Anyway, hopefully this is the worst for the season and we'll be on to more exciting adventures.

Remembering Dilly

On January 19th, we made the decision to put down our cat Dilly. Even though I wasn't very close to either cat, it was extremely sad nonetheless watching her die, and knowing that it was in large part due to a decision we had made. She had developed significant kidney disease, and we decided to put her down without pursuing too many diagnostic tests and/or treatments. She was 13, going on 14 years old, and we felt that because she had already had a fairly long life, and was basically no longer acting like herself - as in, she had become too lethargic to even run away from the kids...she let them pet her!!! - and knowing that regardless of how many interventions we tried and how much money we spent, she wasn't likely to live more than 6-12 months longer anyway, that now was a better time than later. I still wonder if we made the right choice, and if it was more for her or more for us - in the sense of convenience and being willing to fit any treatments for her into our already busy lives...

The euthanasia was a very surreal experience - I do wish you could know they understand and also give their blessing, but really, I just want to feel better about the decision we made.

Greg, of course, had a much longer history with the cats. They were found as tiny kittens in a garbage can and were brought to the Animal Hospital where his ex-girlfriend worked as a vet tech. After a few days, Greg and Mel made the decision to adopt them and they have been with Greg ever since. I can imagine that there were both super-cute little kittens and Dilly being the smaller, more timid of the two, was adorable I am sure. That being said, Greg's favorite memory of Dilly is from when, as a kitten, she was being a bit too curious and ended up surprising herself by falling and/or jumping from the second floor hallway, through the railing, down into the living room. Probably used up the second and third of her nine lives that day!

So...the aftermath? Dobyn (her sister) seems a little lost right now. I suspect she will come around and will probably just interact more with us, but it must really be strange for her. The kids have taken it all quite well - probably in part because Dilly never interacted with them very much due to her skittishness. Also, Mikes is really too young to understand any of it, and Avery has decided that Dilly is in the ground after having "dived", and has a toy to play with there and a book to read. So she won't be bored... :)

Anyway, this is not an experience I relish going through again, but I suspect we will be back to the vet clinic soon enough with Greg's dog Trus. He is going on 13 now, and is going blind and crazy. He has been living with Greg's parents since I went back to work a year ago, and we can all see the fairly progressive decline he has been going through. That decision is not going to be an easy one for any of us...

Picture Avery drew for Dilly

And Dobyn - I am sure she is going to live to be 20, just to drive us bonkers.

We all love and miss you Dilly :)

I figured it out!

By buying one less $3 Grande Non-fat Americano Misto at Starbucks per day, I will save abt $1000/year. Awesome and scary all at the same time...This one is for you Bonnie!

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2012 Resolutions - January edition

New Year's resolutions...such a loaded concept. I always have a ton of things that I want to make better about myself. And I thought I was going to have about 40 resolutions all carefully detailed into separate categories. And...of course that didn't happen. But I have decided on a few different "changes" to work in the money category. I'm also pleasantly surprised that I am pretty much sticking to them so far! Some of the others have already dropped off the table, or are on temporary hiatus, but I have come up with a new plan. I am going to introduce some new resolutions every month - working on a different category each time. And I am going to try and blog about how I am doing. TRY I said...no delusions that I will keep it up!

So the catgegory for Janaury is money matters as I mentioned. I make a decent salary and yet, I never seem to be saving much money. I have a few completely frivolous habits, that I never feel very good about doing after the fact. The two that come to mind first are: 1) too many coffees at Starbucks, and 2) too many trashy magazines. The directly resulting resolutions are therefore: 1) I am only allowed to purchase one coffee per day at Starbucks, and 2) NO MORE trashy magazines!  Basically, I won't be buying the magazines anymore. If I really want to read a story, I am either going to find it online or read it at Chapters. I can do this...it just makes so much more sense and I won't have to feel guilty about wasting so much money. On the Starbucks front, I am really not interested in decreasing my caffeine intake. Instead, I was just getting into the bad habit of buying too many coffees even though I have a perfectly good coffee maker at home, I can buy Starbucks beans in bulk at Costco and make my own in the morning. Then I get to buy one in the afternoon for a little treat. Cross my fingers, this is actually working so far. I haven't figured out exactly how much this is going to save me, but I am guessing it is in the order of $700/year. As for the trashy mags, it could be as much as $2-300/year. Or maybe more...

The last thing I am doing is "paying myself first". I have set up an automatic transfer into my savings account for the same day that I get paid. I am going to make sure I have a minimum balance in there, that will increase with each pay period. When it gets to a substantial enough amount, I'll figure out something to do with it. Like contribute to my RRSP - how totally exciting!!! :)

Awesome and quick steel-cut oats

UPDATE: after making this recipe a couple of times lately with pretty soupy results, we decided to try 7 cups of water to 2 cups of oats. Worked MUCH better! Unless you really like watery oatmeal :)

So we have been doing this great breakfast option lately...I cook a big batch of steel-cut oats at night, and then portion it into servings the next morning for Greg and I to eat for breakfast at work. Seriously simple...next challenge will be to get the kids to eat oatmeal as well!
Here's the recipe:
8 cups of water
2 cups of steel-cut oats (we get them at the bulk barn)
1-2 pinches of salt
1-2 tsp Vanilla extract (optional)
Set water to boil in a large pot. Once boiling, add salt, vanilla and oats and stir. Let boil for one minute, stir, remove from heat and cover. Let sit overnight. This makes approximately 6, 1cup servings, plus a little more. I add milk and honey, and microwave it for 1-2 mins at work. The remaining portions will keep for a week in the fridge.
Important note: if you add milk, make sure you Tupperware has a tight lid. That is properly closed. I have learned this lesson the hard way. Twice. :)
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Green bean and chickpea salad

This is one of the Pearce family's old stand-by recipes...and amazingly both girls seem to love it. Still working on G though :)

Ingredients:
- A bunch of green or yellow beans, trimmed and rinsed
- one can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- approx 1 tsp of salt (the dressing needs to be pretty salty)
- ground black pepper to taste
- approx 1/2 tsp of cumin
- approx 1/2 tsp ground coriander (optional)
- approx 1/2 tsp oregano (optional)
- approx 1 tbsp good mustard (ie not French's) (but also optional)
- 2-3 tbsp cider vinegar
- 1/4 c veg oil (prob not olive oil though)

Boil beans until tender, drain and rinse with cold water. Mix dressing ingredients, then toss beans and chickpeas together with dressing. Salad is best if there is time for it to sit for a while - that way the beans and chickpeas absorb some of the flavour from the dressing.

Notes: the dressing should be pretty tangy before tossing with the beans. The dressing ingredients and measures are obviously pretty much a guesstimate. This is one of those meals where I usually just wing it and taste as I go! :)

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Awesome recipe for Steak Fajitas

We have made this many times, including tonight. I use flank steak and normally grill the meat on the BBQ. But given that it is now officially winter in Ottawa, we were not brave enough. Instead I seared the flank steak in a hot pan for abt 3-4 mins on each side and then put it in a 350 deg oven for abt 15-20 mins while the peppers and onions cooked. It was delicious as always!

http://www.cooking-mexican-recipes.com/steak-fajita-recipe.html

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2011 - A year in review

I am determined to bang this post out in one sitting...so that it is actually posted on a reasonable date. To that end, I am not going to include pictures now, but will add a few later. Pictures = complications!

The major events of this past year really included my stepsister Shelly's wedding in June, and various other trips to Toronto. We didn't do any other major trips or have any interesting holidays, but it was a busy year nonetheless trying to figure out the routine with me back at work starting in mid-January. I was definitely dreading my return to work, not because I don't enjoy my job and the people I work with (which I most certainly do!), but more because going back to work the first time was pretty challenging trying to learn how to juggle everything. Overall, I would say this time around was nowhere near as bad - of course there are phases of everything seeming so overwhelming and frustrating and like it is never all going to get done, but overall I think we have the work-life balance somewhat in check. Greg might disagree...he is always concerned that I work too much - and that is something I need to keep in mind. As hard as it is likely to be, I am going to stop worrying so much about advancing at work, and just enjoy this phase. In all, I/we have a pretty sweet gig with our jobs - assuming we still have them come Budget time.

Our latest drama has been all about the computers - I had a work reject computer at home for the last while. It came in handy for remote access purposes, and it was far better than the hunk of junk we had been using (my brother-in-law's cast-off from his university days, circa 2001?). Anyway, the work computer has been slayed by some kind of virus and work doesn't loan out its reject machines anymore. We are all supposed to be getting laptops, but I am not sure when that will happen for me. In the meantime, it is back to the 2001 machine, or the "freecycle" machines Greg gifted himself with from the side of the road. So at this point, I think we have at least 4 crappy towers at home, Greg's work laptop, I might get a work laptop one of these days, and we are thinking about buying one. I was more or less convinced about getting the MacBook Pro, but spending that kind of money doesn't really seem prudent at the moment. Sigh...the office is getting a little crowded (with junk!).

The Christmas season was pretty good - we had an "open house" party in December that seemed to be quite a success. It was a little crowded and I learned a few more lessons for the next time. Hopefully we can continue to make it an annual event. We had Christmas here in the Odot with Greg's family and my mom, then moved the party to the Tdot for a few days, which was very luckily combined with an impromptu visit from Uncle Dan. As always, it was great for the girls to get to spend time with him (though we missed Auntie A), and we'll have to make more effort to get out to Calgary for some visits. Or Auntie A and Uncle Dan could move east...Anyhoo, once again the girls received way too many presents. Next year we are going to have to be really diligent about limiting the number, especially given that their birthdays follow so quickly after. Avery was in her element opening presents, but not so understanding of the concept of "giving". She was also more than happy to open Micaela's presents - though it could be the last time she gets away with it. We are also going to have to work a little harder on the "giving back" concept and giving to those who are less fortunate. The January toy purge is going to be interesting.

And some observations on the girls at this stage: Micaela will be two in a few weeks. She is still a little monkey, mischievous and headstrong, in both a good and bad way. She is quite shy and loud noises frighten her, and yet she is a little daredevil (tobogganing...no problem!), and can be very chatty, loves to sing, and is even outgoing at times. As long as it is on her own terms... :) Avery will be four in March and has matured a ton. She is starting to listen more (maybe wishful thinking on my part), is really good at creative play, loves to dance, and is still into all things girlie. She is very social and always wants to go meet new people - she's very good at integrating herself into the activities of other families at the park for example - and she is definitely looking forward to starting JK in the fall. Full day kindergarten for her...not so sure what our daycare solution is going to be and I am a little sad to think she won't be going to Linda's anymore. Oh well, a few months to go yet.

A favourite anecdote from this year - it can be very challenging getting the kids out the door in the morning, particularly when winter gear is involved. One morning this fall I was trying to get them ready, only to be frustrated at every turn. At one point I had them both sitting on the stairs, Avery whining and flopping instead of zipping up her sweater, saying "I can't do it...can you help me?" even though she definitely can do it on her own. Micaela, on the other hand, was trying to do up her own sweater, saying, "I do it. I do it!" instead of letting me help her. And, of course, she can't do it on her own!! That was one of the crazy mornings...and I am sure there are a few more to come. But then, they are so darn cute!!!

On tap for 2012: again, no major plans as of yet. Sorting out the computer drama, making some progress on home reno projects (that damn gazebo is coming down this year!!! And hopefully we will rebuild the back deck too), maybe a summer beach adventure, Greg's impending 40th birthday (maybe a trip to Vegas???), and the usual day-to-day chaos...setting up to be another busy one! I also have approximately 40 New Year's resolutions - I want to do a post about those as well, because of the whole "write it down, and publicly commit to them" philosophy, but I worry that I won't quite make it happen. Sigh...and I didn't like the looks of any of the apps that are available. Oh well, resolution post (maybe) to come.

Happy 2012 everyone!

2010 - A year in review

This post was literally a year in the making...and I still never finished it. Since I now have to get to work on the 2011 summary, I figured I would post this one first. As you can see, the end is a little "point-form" :)

This is only a little later than I meant for it to be...like a month.  But what can you do, right?

Trying to remember all the things that happened over the last year will be a challenge - all I know is that is was one of the fastest years of my life. Probably the fastest actually.

The biggest event was of course, the birth of our second daughter Micaela in January.  It was all very exciting to finally give birth and have the newest member of our family at home, but I'm not going to lie, the first few months were very challenging.  She turned out to be a little colicky, particularly around bedtime, which coincided nicely with our challenges getting Avery to bed at a reasonable time. While that particular phase seemed like it was never going to end while we were in it, now I look back and can't remember when it did actually finish. But I suppose it did at some point.

Anyway, moving on...we had some nice visits from family just after Micaela was born, including my parents and my brother and Andrea.  In April we headed to Toronto for the long Easter weekend - which was nice, though we quickly realized how much more challenging road trips and being away from home would be with two little kids. In May the girls and I went back to Toronto for a longer trip and Greg joined us for the last weekend.  I had been toying with the idea of driving alone with the girls...I figured it wouldn't be that bad since I had done it with Avery once at 5 months and she slept for the whole drive. However, my dad offered to take the train to Ottawa and then drive to TO with me, so I took him up on the offer. And thank goodness...everything was going fine until we were detoured off the 401 near Kingston and Micaela started to cry.  And basically didn't stop until we got to TO 3 or 4 hours later. Man, was she ever pissed off! And then she fell asleep when we got off the 401 in TO - you know, about 5mins from my mother's house. Still slightly scarred from that trip! :)

Summer in 2010 seemed like it would never end, what with the great weather we had in April.  So what did we do?  A bunch of fun things, but the main highlights were our trips to Kincardine and Calgary, a few pool parties, visits from a couple of Toronto aunties, as well as Grossmueti and Aunt Barbara, and other assorted adventures.

Starting at the beginning of July, my aunt Barbara from Switzerland and my mother came for a visit.  In Barbara's honour, we decided to brave the masses on the Hill on Canada Day with the girls.  Don't get me wrong, I love the atmosphere on the Hill on Canada Day and it would be great to go every year.  However, having done it once now with a single stroller and once with a double stroller, I am not so sure we will be heading there next year.  I could be wrong, but probably only if the Queen doesn't decide to pop over this time. :)

At the end of July we took two weeks off to go to TO again, and then to a cottage on the beach at Kincardine with Uncle Ted and Auntie Jamie. It was a really nice week. Avery had a great time playing on the beach and collecting rocks, having fun with her aunt and uncle and getting ice cream after dinner. Micaela didn't love the beach so much this year (apparently, babies and sand aren't a great combo!), but will surely enjoy it more if we decide to go again in 2011. Greg was able to golf and I managed to play tennis with Ted. Which actually made me remember how much I enjoy it and would like to get back into playing...another thing to add to the list! :)

In August the girls and I had a major adventure - the 3 of us flew to Calgary to visit Uncle Dan and Auntie A! I really wasn't sure what I was getting myself into flying with the two kids by myself, but other than a couple of "pull my hair out" moments, it actually went pretty well.  And the pulling-out of my hair was mostly induced by encounters with obnoxious people and/or Air Canada employees, rather than by either of my children. They were real troopers and I was very impressed with how well they coped with all of it.  Before I tar all AC employees with the same negative brush, I should say that most of the in-flight crew on the way there were very helpful and courteous...it was the ones on the way back who seemed annoyed at me for taking so long to get us all off the plane when we landed in Ottawa, while they watched me struggle with all of our stuff from the back of the plane rather than actually help me!  We did a bunch of fun things in Calgary, including hanging out with Andrea's family, and it was nice to finally see where D&A live. I think the trip also really helped Avery understand where they live and how far away it is that we needed to go there in an airplane. In all, it was definitely worth to effort to make the trip...especially since Grampa Kelly picked up the tab for the tickets! :)

Fall - mostly defined by weight watchers for me, but will do another post about that. Avery doing sportball, tried to get her into a dance class, which she would have loved, but couldn't so did Gymboree. Micaela coming into her own, settling down in temperament, starting to eat, move, crawl, get more chatty - started slowly at daycare...Avery at Halloween with the Cinderella costume - her love of all things princess, shoes, dresses all the time, not wanting to dress warmly.

October - Baby Jacob being born. Very exciting for the girls to have a new little baby cousin, and a first nephew or niece for both Greg and I.  Congratulations to Jamie and Ted!!

November - another trip to TO

December - open house, Christmas season


Wrapping up the year - return to work, Micaela turning one, Avery soon to turn three, the girls starting to play together more, weathering the sick storm, figuring out the rest of our lives. looking forward to Shelly's wedding, maybe more nieces/nephews/cousins