You Talkin' to Me?

I have to admit that I only half listen to what my family says to me. It's hard to be really attentive when I constantly have three kids and a husband vying for my attention, sometimes all at the same time. Lately I've found that my inattention has gotten me into trouble. 

A couple of weeks ago I was busy working and I had Liam sitting by my feet. Kyla stood beside me and said, "Whatcha doin'?" Without turning my head, I said, "Cleaning out the junk drawer." Kyla replied, "I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to Liam." 

The morning that Liam and I were getting ready to fly home, I was standing at the stove making a drink. Moira, from somewhere in the kitchen, said, "I'm really going to miss you while you are gone. You are so much fun." I turned around and said, "Ah, Honey! I'm going to miss you too!" Moira replied, "I'm talking to Liam!" 

Last week Kyla and I were in the bathroom and I heard her say, "... so beautiful." Naturally I thought she was talking about me so I said, "I think you are beautiful too." Kyla said, "No! You're toothbrush is beautiful." Oops!

I Got Up for This?

Does anyone know if there is an opposite to the Midas Touch? If there is, I think I have it this week. And it's not even a full moon so I can't blame it on that. Nothing seems to have gone right this week, in spite of all of my efforts. I don't normally like to complain on my blog, but I have to vent before I bust wide open. 

Where to begin... Let's see...

• I had my Etsy showcase on Wednesday. I worked really hard to get a bunch of new Valentine's Day jewelry up in time (that meant making the items, photographing them, editing the pics, and then posting them). I got quite a few hits, but only made one sale. It wasn't even enough to pay for the cost of the showcase. 
  

• I also slipped and fell on a piece of ice the size of a twonie. In the process I twisted my foot and bruised my hand where I fell on it. My hand is still really sore.  
  

• Last night I was working on some baby shower gifts. I had to start one of the projects from scratch three times because either I screwed it up or the thread in the sewing machine got all tangled up. I even had to recut the fabric pieces.

• I've been working on some wooden pendants. The first time the resin coating I put on top dried uneven and full of air bubbles. I went to the store and got some regular polyurethane to spray on. The second time around the pendants got stuck to the paper and were ruined again. Now I'm going to have to start all over again and hope that they turn out this time. 
  

• Today I wanted to work on Will's birthday presents (he turns 35 tomorrow), but he decided to take the day off of work. It's hard to surprise him when he can see what I'm doing. 
  

• My Avon sales sucked. I handed out about 80 books, launched my Avon blog and had TWO give aways, and I still didn't do very well. In one of Avon posts, I wanted to attach a pdf file, but Blogger doesn't have a way to do this. I spent an hour researching a way around it. I finally found a recommendation for starting a Google website, downloading the file there and then using it as a link. I was so proud of myself for getting all that figured out (I'm a computer dummy) and it still didn't work. 
  

• I lost my gift certificate to the book store again. I could have sworn that it was on my desk but when I cleared it off it wasn't there. I decided that since I was cleaning my desk I would do some much needed filing. Then I discover that my files are still packed up somewhere so I had to create new temporary files for everything. My desk is still a work in progress that I hope to get cleaned up this weekend. 
  

The only decent thing that has happened this week is that I got to sleep in every day because Moira is off of school for track break. Not that I wanted to sleep in because I still wanted to get up at the regular time so that I could get some work done. 

Thanks for listening to me and wish me luck for the rest of the week. 

Poll Results

Thanks to all of you who voted in my poll. Here are the results for which way you stir. 

     4 votes clockwise

     2 votes counter-clockwise

I voted for counter-clockwise. I tried stirring the other way to see if it made a difference and it felt so awkward to me. I actually had to concentrate on stirring in that direction. I wonder if the direction in which you stir means something. If anyone knows, please tell me. 

Check out my new poll.

Robbie Burns Night 2009

Last night was the annual Robbie Burns dinner. This would have been his 250th birthday. If you are planning a trip to Scotland, this would be the year to do it with all of the birthday celebrations going on. 

I didn't bother to take any new photos this year. You can always click here to see last year's post.

However, I had to take pictures of Liam wearing a kilt. It was Moira's when she was little. It barely fit over Liam's big tummy, but he still looked so sweet. 

So Big!

My little baby boy! I can't even call him a baby any more. He has grown so much these past few weeks. He was really slow with the walking and showed no interest in it. Why would he when scooting was so much faster! He would try to walk, but if  he was in a hurry, walking only slowed him down. Today Liam decided that it was better to walk so all day he didn't do that funny little thing that he does to get around. It was so great to see this huge milestone, but, at the same time, it meant that another stage in his life was over. Here is a video I took this afternoon of Liam's new talent. (I couldn't rotate the screen. Sorry! You'll just have to tilt your heads.)

I was beginning to think that Liam was going to talk before he walked. Check out the words he can already say:

daddy

hi

more

ball

bowl

balloon

kitty

bird

plane

shoe

bye (bye-bye)

light

Not too bad for a 16 month old. The words aren't completely clear, but you can understand what he is saying, especially when he is pointing. 

My boy. A baby no longer. 

Poll Results

Thanks for voting in the "How often do you eat out" poll. Here are the results:

     3 votes 1-2 times per month

     2 votes 3-5 times

     1 vote never

I voted for 3-5 times per month. Not that we actually "eat out" that often. In fact we rarely go to a restaurant. Usually I send Will to bring us take out. We are such home bodies that we prefer to eat at home even if I'm not the one cooking. And we tend to go in phases. Sometimes it seems like we are always eating take out and then we won't do it for a long time. I like it once in a while for a treat, but not on a regular basis. Even though I'm not the best cook in the world, I prefer to put the effort into our meals, that way I know exactly what goes into them. We get a much more balanced diet that way. 

Check out my new poll. 

Home

Liam and I flew home for a few days to go to my grandma's memorial. Even though our trip wasn't made under the ideal circumstances, we still had a decent time. 

Waiting at the airport in Boise.

Looking out the window at Sea-Tac. This was Liam's first plane trip. He did very well. He was glued to the airplane window. 

We spent our first couple of days at my dad's house. This is the view from his backyard. 

The little tree in the backyard was covered in huge dew drops one morning when I got up. It looked so beautiful. 

On Monday night Liam and I went over to Erica's house to play with the Wii. This is Caitlin and Liam snuggling on the couch. 

On Tuesday Liam and I and Mum and Al went to the Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver. It's a fun market with lots of shops and fruit and seafood stands. 

The view from the quay. I never get tired of seeing the city from here. It's always so beautiful, even when the weather isn't. 

Liam loved watching the tugboats. 

The water side of the quay. 

Kathleen Taylor

Three days before Christmas I got a call that my grandma had died. Even though it didn't come as a complete surprise, it was still difficult news to hear. This past Friday, Liam and I flew home to go to her memorial service. About a hundred people came. It was so wonderful to see so many people come to honour her.

This is my grandma (on the right) and her little sister Irene.

This is my grandma and grandpa and my cousins, Steve and Chris. Yes, that is me sitting on Grandma's lap.

I have a lot of fond memories of Grandma. She used to let me drink tea when I came over to visit and we would play Scrabble. Erica and I would spend weekends at the trailer in Birch Bay and we would hang out at the beach. One time we were out making sandcastles and before we knew it the tide had come in and it felt like we were a long ways out. Grandma had to come out and rescue us. She liked to drink B-52's while watching Johnny Carson and she was a pretty decent golfer. I will really miss her. I'm so glad that I was able to spend so much time with her growing up and I feel like I am a better person for it.

Poll Results

Thanks for participating in my "How do you warm up on a cold day?" poll. Here is how you voted:

     3 votes curl up on the couch and watch a movie

     3 votes have a hot shower/bath

     1 vote other

Personally, I love to have a long hot shower. There is nothing like having the warmth of the water gently hit your body and you can feel the life come back to your skin. When the hot water is all gone I like to make myself a cup of tea and curl up on the couch. Or if it's at night, I like to crawl into bed and pull the covers up to my chin. I hope this doesn't get too personal, but if Will is in bed too, then I like to lie right up next to him. He is always so warm and in no time I feel human again. 

Make sure to check out my new poll. 

For the Birds

I took our Christmas tree out of the house the other day and set it up in the backyard. Yesterday Moira and I redecorated it for the birds. We strung up some popcorn and orange and apple slices. I also put some of the fruit along the back fence for the squirrels. 




Then I gave Suki a good brushing and left her fur on the grass for the birds to soften up their nests. 


We love to watch the birds and squirrels in our yard. This year I would like to get our yard registered with the National Wildlife Federation as a backyard wildlife habitat. It's actually not that hard. Our yard at our other house would have qualified. We'll just have to redo the same things here. It will be a fun challenge. 

New Year 2009

Happy New Year, everyone!

I hope 2009 is filled with love and happiness for you all. 

We had a very quiet New Year. Will and I and the girls stayed up playing the Wii until midnight. My arm still hasn't recovered. A few people in our neighbourhood set off some firecrackers, but by 12:15 all was quiet and we were in bed. I keep expecting midnight to bring enlightenment and big displays of fireworks. But instead, it's very anticlimactic and I go to bed thinking, "I stayed up for that?" This year was more fun, because the girls were up and Moira was so thrilled to still be up when the new year started. 

A new year always brings a sense of having a clean slate, to fix the things that need to be fixed, of making a fresh start. It's a time for wanting to make improvements and, boy, do I want to make a lot of those. This year I made myself a little book and wrote down all the things that I want to do this year. I left myself plenty of room to add things as they come up and as I get things crossed off. Here are just a few of the things that I want to accomplish this year:

• Need I say more? I was hoping that, by posting these pics, I would embarrass myself enough to make a real effort into getting these two areas cleaned up. I wish I could say that I had been sick lately or that the kids did it, but the truth is, I have no one to blame but myself. I'm an "out of sight, out of mind" kind of gal, so when things are neatly put away in drawers and cupboards, I tend to forget that they are there. Hence the piles. Plus, I admit, I just have way too much stuff. The first picture shows my work area downstairs. Will went to a lot of trouble putting those shelves up for me so I could see what I have and I still have stuff everywhere. It's awful. So, my goal for the year is to get these two spots cleaned up and keep it that way. 
  

• I also want to put more effort into my Etsy site and now my Polka Dot Dreams site on my cousin's MoodsXpress site (which goes live today).

• I have two quilting projects that I've started and really want to get finished. 
  

• I want to apply to the Library and Information Technology programme at the University of the Fraser Valley. They now have this programme on line and I can complete the whole thing from home. 
  

• I want to keep in touch with my friends and family better than I have been.
  

• I want to donate to Kiva. 
  

Those are just a sample of the things that I want to accomplish this year. I have many more things listed in my book. It's going to be a busy year!