There`s a hidden beauty finding its way out of everyone

I'm not sure what's wrong with me.

You see, I walked into Walmart the other day and was nearly in tears looking a picture frame that said "LOVE" my greatest blessings in life call me Mother.  Then I had a glass of Red Velvet Cupcake wine and watched E!'s Giuliana & Bill's happy pregnancy news.  Don't do what Donny Don't Does.  You'll find yourself in a MESS of a MESS.

Ok maybe not that messy, but certainly not pretty.

When I thought of writing a post for Mother's Day I initially was a little sad that you will not be reading a big poem about how much I love my Mom.  Sad for YOU since I assume you all have totally awesome relationships with your Mothers, as I assume about everyone who has things I don't have, but not because I am a robot with no feelings.  I do love her, but in a defensive way.. the "don't talk crap about my Mom! only I can do that" way.   As an adult child of a Mother who has paranoid schizophrenia, I simply can offer no verses to write about how fuzzy and grateful she makes me.. but I'm pretty glad she took care of me even though she didn't take care of herself.  There was a time before all of that where she was the person I would write a fancy poem about.. like how I loved when she forgot my mittens for school and had to give me her fuchsia gloves that smelled like her.   It was the late 80s... not really her fault everything was fuchsia at the time.  Or velvet, or permed.  I felt like the coolest, most awesome kid with those mittens on.

Tonight I am completing another something on my 30-30 list for Mother's Day which is taking her out to dinner.  Sounds like a regular thing but for us it's not happened before.

On the flipside.

My favourite things to think of when I think of being a Mother are the times where I get a rare picture of me with my baby birds, usually taken BY me.  I hope one day they realize if there aren't a lot of pictures of us together it is because they are so special to me that I couldn't help but always be holding the camera, looking at them be great.  Since I'm sharing feelings and all that jazz I'll tell you that before I left the hospital with each of my babies, I took my iPod and put a little earbud to their brand new ear, and played them a soft little song.  One day I will tell them about the first song they ever heard.






Ethan Avery: 
Katie come true/Son, Ambulance

Gabriel William:  
I will follow you into the dark/Deathcab for Cutie

Kieran Patrick:
Talking Bird/Deathcab for Cutie

Happy Mom's Day to everyone.. nomatter what, it's a title that comes with respect and challenges; you are irreplaceable to someone so never forget the good you do.

Relay

Listen, folks.. I am waiting patiently to inevitably be rejected for  #17 on my 30-30 list; donating my blood.  Why is it so important for me to donate blood?  I don't know I just feel like I should, same reason I am a (vital) organ donor.  If you could help someone I just don't see why you wouldn't.  So.. while waiting on that I decided to replace one of my list items "be Vegetarian for a month" since that will not really help my iron deficiency situation/ineligibility!  I wasn't really sure why I even put it on there at all... I like eating things with faces.  It's Steak Saturday this Saturday, even.  I am going to be eating so much face.

That didn't come out the way I thought it would but I'm going to keep it!

So in Vegetarian Month's place I had thought to do a 5k run on Mother's Day, but since I was asked by a friend, I decided instead to participate in the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life.   Myself and my team "The Sisterhood of the Travelling Sneakers" will be doing it up June 22nd from 7pm-7am!  For real this is going to be one long night.. however I have three kids so pfft PIECE OF CAKE?  I do most things in my sleep anyway.  This is not to say that these things are easy but because my body literally doesn't allow me to fully wake up when I do them.


I'm very grateful to everyone who has pledged me so far, I didn't know that I would get any supporters at all and I've raised $100!   People believe in me.. times 100!  I thought I'd put a link up if anyone wants to donate a few dollars to help me reach my goal I'd be very thankful to you.

The Sims Family Fire of 2004

While this blog has ended I feel the need to mention that it's nice that blogger will have the history of it, until I guess blogger dies or something.  I have quite a lot of blogging-time that wasn't saved/saved poorly when I didn't have blogger to do it automatically for me.  So, when I was reading an old journal of mine quite a while ago I liked being reminded of the inappropriately late nights I spent playing The Sims (it was 2004) and trying to leave it on all night without my family killing themselves somehow.  It involved A LOT of fire alarms.

Pretty sure I woke up and my "Brooke" character still ended up dying in the weirdest way possible.  She was hovering over the pool, I guess Sims got glitchy, so there she was mid-swan dive and couldn't complete it.. and ended up dying of starvation!  Poor SimsBrooke.  I still love that I created all my friends in Sims version when I suppose it was too late to actually hang out in real life.

Anyway in that same post I had somehow come to a conclusion about life that makes even more sense to me than it did 8 years ago. 

Thanks, Self, it's always good to be reminded of the way things work.. and why we don't play Sims anymore.  I have enough little people in my life who need that kind of constant supervision!  And they really love me, so, that's lucky too.

Fire Alarm Count in the House: 4

Give me a second I, I need to get my story straight

My 30th birthday party ended up being last weekend due to it being a busy few weeks, plus my best friend Brooke didn't move back home until after my birthday anyway.  We all went to this new bar + kitchen which was amazing, enjoyed some food some wine and I had the most fun night.  Here's where it gets boozy.  Tradition on your birthday is that you drink whatever is bought for you, my cousin decided she hated me enough to have not one but TWO tequila shots delivered (you can see number one in front of me in this pic).

I insisted that I was sure 30 year olds 'do' shots anymore.  She didn't agree.  In fact I think the last shot I ever 'did' was bought by her at my bachelorette, and that sucked more than I will ever admit.  I truly believe someone was trying to kill me.  This result was at least fun, just a whole lot of dancing, I believe I ate some strangers olives, and then I performed "We are young" by Fun. for everybody.  

Pardon my language, but tequila makes me think I am hot shit.  A la the end of the night.

That reminds me of the speech I wish I could give at Alisia and Justin's wedding next March, by including a little story about the night they met.  You see, I was somewhat responsible for them meeting.  I took my cousins to a house party where we made up a game of writing a nickname on everyone in black marker.  That is how Alisia gave Justin her phone number.. the rest is 7 years of history.. but I do believe when we all went to a Christening the next morning I had to find a sweater to cover up the permanent "HOT SHIT" written on my arm.  You just don't forget stories that end like that.

Let's go with Easter 2013

I crossed decorating for a holiday that wasn't Christmas or Birthdays off my list, so here are the amazing and complicated results! I know it might be hard to take it all in, and you can thank my ability to not be able to decide on anything and also having a huge TV to work with. Luckily I didn't make the rule for accomplishing this for it to be AWESOME but maybe that's just something to work towards next year?  We'll go with that.

When I was 17

Yes! I am still updating as I cross new things off my 30-30 list, which may either confuse you since it's past my birthday, or get you excited since this was a pretty anti-climactic way to end an 11 year old blog.  When the list is through I might type something up about ending asgoodasitgets but I really haven't had the time to think about it.

So you will see #1 is done.  Epic 4-day trip with Andrea to Vegas is booked!  I think the last trip we went on together was at camp with our Grade 7 class.. it was less fun than this is going to be.  I wish I were exaggerating when I say it will probably be the best trip of my entire life, or as Ethan would say.. I'm being double true.  I am so excited that I'm making us some fake IDs that we won't even need.

Yes, we're both going to have the same one.  I don't make sense when I get this excited... and that's just a FACT.

Until next time!

30 candles

My birthday ended up being full of really funny stuff that happened.  In the morning a friend of mine and I went to the salon to get blonder/summer'er for me and we chatted etc. The girl doing her hair was a bit slower than mine so she was getting annoyed that my friend kept facing me to talk, kept snapping her head back and then actually turned her around.  My grade school teachers would be satisfied to know that even on my 30th birthday I still get separated for talking too much to my friends!  That wasn't the funny part I mean though, so, while she's turned around I'm laughing that I got her in trouble and go return a birthday phone call.  My friend chats up the lady she is facing now about stuff etc and when I get back I see that woman is either a) so in love with her hair she doesn't know what to do with herself or b) she absolutely hates her hair.  PS IT WAS B.

This woman treated us to a salon tirade I have never heard before and I loved it!  Apparently they let the woman who made my tea style her hair.  She had a wedding to go to and told them she needed to be out of there by 1pm so not only did she HATE it, and it looked exactly like it did when she came in, but she had no time for them to fix it so three people had to rush over to try and calm her down.  I was almost sad we had to go because I'd love to know how it turned out.

Anyhow after that I spent the day with the kids the other birthday treat was dinner with just me and the hubbs at a restaurant called Tappo's in the (historic) Distillery District of Toronto.  Pretty cool area if you haven't been as I hadn't, but when we got there for our late reservations we noticed everything was hard to find since it was poorly lit.. in fact everything looked closed except for this huge band playing in the square (for me, maybe? nah).  There were all these people there, with kids even, holding candles and whatnot... neat, I guess?  We thought we might be late for our reservations until we realized the restaurant was behind the band playing.  When we get to our table I notice, hey, I know candle light dinners are great but they kind of went crazy with it.. candles everywhere!  Then it hits me.

Yes, we made reservations for Earth Hour and had no idea.

We didn't even realize we had oil and vinegar on the table until the lights came on, that's how dark it was, at our own table.  Luckily it really was a fun evening and the food and wine was fantastic, aaaaand we got to enjoy dessert with lights ON.  Best end to the night is when we stopped at the Mill Street Brewery Pub and had a pint of fresh organic.. sooo awesome.  Definitely spending some time in summer there with friends very very soon.

So did I make it?????

I only made my 30-30 list about a month ago and haven't actually been working all year at it, so, clearly I overshot that!  By the summer they should all be crossed off and I can update on them even though I've 'closed' asgoodasitgets.. let's not be dramatic!

My last day as a 20-anything is also without incident or dramatics.  I worked, got groceries, I ran around the house with my boys being a tickle-t-rex, I let my oldest boy stay up an hour later with me watching 'who do you think you are' (he was really into it), and I'm relaxing before bed.  I also just completed a 12 day detox so I'm not even that interested in birthday cake.. although I think I should have a little.

The best part of my day, without a second thought, was when my son Ethan came up to me too excited about his present to wait for tomorrow and sang "happy birthday to mummy" all by himself.  Inside the box, under the tissue paper, was two pairs of his 3D glasses so Sean and I can go to a movie :)

In my heart I know as long as that boy remembers my birthday, it doesn't matter at all if I'm turning 30, 40 or 50, it feels special.

Kinda Easter?

I wish I could say I've now crossed one more thing off my list, ie decorating for Easter.  I have decorated some but it just doesn't feel done as I never owned actual Easter decorations to dip into until now.  This is why I put it on my list because decorating for a holiday is not like my normal decorating style which is really simple.. plus my fireplace mantle has a big black TV on it so I'm trying to figure my way around that.  So far it looks kinda Easter, some spring, totally unfinished.  I will know when I am done I hope.  In the meantime here are some Easter things I like.

Stranger

"You ever look a picture of yourself, and see a stranger in the background? It makes you wonder how many strangers have pictures of you. How many moments of other peoples life have we been in. Were we a part of someone's life when their dream came true or were we there when their dream died. Did we keep trying to get in? As if we were somehow destined to be there or did the shot take us by surprise. Just think, you could be a big part of someone elses life, and not even know it." -OTH

Ireland has stuffed crust pizza right?

Since I didn't update about crossing 'celebrate St. Patty's Day' off my 30-30 list, I might as well do that now.  I wish there were some great pre-story here as to why I've just never celebrated it before but the answer is very boring.. I've either been in school and not ever been friends with someone who would drink on a school night (Brooke was at a different university than me, likely why lol) and then either by chance I never made plans, then a lot of non-drinking for me!

Soooo what did this 29 year old decide to do on her very first Irish celebration?

DINNER AT PIZZA HUT WITH MY KIDS AND SHARING A SHAMROCK RING CAKE!  Then some beers when the kids were in bed ;)

I even put on festive gold and green eyeshadow!  Something a blue-eyed lady never does/probably should do, but for St. Patty's why not.  The boys and us really couldn't have had a better day, it was great.  From now on I guess our new Irish family tradition includes 'stuffed crust' and 'cake' !  Although a week into this cleanse I am really wary of us ever eating stuffed crust again, I guess once a year isn't so bad right?  I mean honestly, I've never heard a 2 year old say thank you so many times while eating dinner.. it was adorable!

Hope everyone also had a great 'green' day :)

Scale bandit

UPDATE: April 11 2012.  I finished the detox almost two weeks ago and even with the huge amount of sugar via 4 different birthday cakes, sharing a deep fried cheesecake from Brown Dog Frittery, and two huge Easter dinners, I have only gained 1 pound back.  I have even had some coffee, too, but generally we decided we liked eating a lot of what we were eating (or rather, did not miss what we cut out) and Sean found his body apparently really liked not having sugar and gluten.. so those are going to be out of our diet going forward as much as possible.  My total weight lost is an unknown because day 6 of 12 is the point where I actually broke down and bought a scale.  From those 6 days though I lost 6 pounds, so, if it was something like a pound a day like Sean experienced.. at least 10 pounds then I'll guess at being my total.  I wanted to make sure it was not water weight before updating this, but I think the fact we're sticking to the healthy clean unprocessed way of eating (minus the holiday food) has contributed to not gaining anything back.  I also did FEEL GREAT at the end of the cleanse and I'll be doing my blood soon to see my iron and thyroid levels.. perhaps it's made a difference?  

Something that I'm doing this week or two before my birthday I did not include on my 30-30 list, which is a whole body detox.  Maybe I can replace 'donate blood' with it because I am fairly certain at this point I will be turned down due to my low iron count.  Even with supplements I can't manage to keep it high enough.. I still hope I can though.


Anyhow, I have wanted to do a detox since last year so I finally am and I convinced my husband to do it with me.  Win-win! This is beginning of day 2 of 12 days (Wild Rose Detox) and so far it's pretty much what it's supposed to be.  I wanted to do this for the health benefits and not weight loss, and I have never owned a scale, but I wouldn't mind keeping track of my 'progress' near the end when sitting like a monk eating my brown rice in the dark has lost its excitement.  Other than my marker of fitting nicely into my little running shorts from last summer I don't have much else to measure this by.  Maybe I can just go use a scale at Home Outfitters for this purpose and when someone asks if they can help me I just run away!  Maybe even yelling out whatever number I weigh just to taunt them.  By the end of the 12 days I'm sure they will have a photo of me up in the store "don't let this woman weigh herself! she's on a detox and she is SO CHEAP"

I won't be updating what each day is like because there are tonnes of blogs about that you could read, mine would be full of TMI bathroom stuff and relating the taste of the drops you have to take with various horrible things everyday.. like garbage water.  However, I will likely let you know if my goal was reached at the end; which is, do I feel better?

There is no coincidence that we happen to start this after I crossed another thing off my list.. celebrating St. Patty's Day! ;)

your life

I believe there comes that point in life that no matter how things are going and how successful you are you just stop and frankly ask yourself, uh what am I doing?  Maybe you know things are getting out of control or it's for some self-assurance that yes, this is in fact what you want to be doing with your career, life, relationship etc. Like climbing a mountain and checking every once in a while that you are where you want to be.  And you say hey everything is cool, let's go forward.

Or, if you are like me you have an almost palpable fear of reaching your potential that several gut-checks are in order to make sure you don't FREAK OUT with the amount of things you've taken on/how far you're getting.  Like going into a restaurant and ordering the left side of the menu.  It's not the waiters fault when they bring it to you.

...at least Cake made the top 5

I'm in the process of one of my list items, decorating the house for a holiday which isn't Christmas or Birthday.  Easter it is!  I keep running into Pintrest stuff and suddenly I discovered something really interesting... did you know "I" am on Pintrest?  Yeah!  Without knowing it, my website has been pinned by people.  Not for things I made or anything but just pictures I have.   And here I thought nobody was reading!

Except for those people who googled some horrible stuff to get here... you should be ashamed of yourselves!  Fun fact about my keyword stats...  what?

#5 is a tie for the words "jeff + bridges"

Another fun fact I'll share with you while I'm at it. Gabriel has two Tron action figures, one where you push a button and Jeff Bridges' character says "so you like bikes?" and every time it says that Gabriel emphatically tells it "UH HUH!!"

Purses and Cupcakes

My friend Kim had a great birthday by getting a surprise trip to Vegas with her husband and she sent me a picture of a display that made her think of me.

This is why having girl friends is nice.. they just get me *sigh*

#27 DONE

I've meant to send my best friend Andrea, who lives in Calgary Alberta, a gift for a while.  I had the idea of sending her a mix tape around Christmas but since I haven't burned a CD since 2003, I decided to just send it to her online.

I called it Vegas Mix, I'm sure it will be playing while we're out in the desert burying the Werewolf.. he really shouldn't have followed us out there.

Vegas Mix from anniobe on 8tracks.

5?

I don't know exactly why I had to include FIVE courses in my dinner party menu, it seems like people would be super full? but ask me do I care and, just like Jonah Hill in the movie Moneyball,  the answer is a flat - no I do not.  So I'm having some fun looking for an extremely delicious dessert first since 1. I like dessert the most and 2. you will really have to want something if it's the very last thing you eat.

Some recipes (from other blogs, who bake more than one awesome thing *ahem* blackbottom cupcakes) that I am considering, and therefore you might be interested in too, all involve cheese today.  And small portions so even if you're full, are you too full?

• Whatever - The best cheesecake ever ever (ever)!
• Joy's Hope - Puffs
  
• Sprinkle Bakes - Red Velvet Cake Minis
• How to make Irish Cream Coffee Cupcakes

Easy Bake

Before I even start this post I want to make something clear to everyone at home; ever needing to refer to your children, if you have them, by saying 'all' as in 'all of them' is a exceptionally weird thing for me to get used to.  Not the singular, not 'both' but all.. could be 3, could be 19 (it's 3).  That said, all my kids have consecutive birthdays in December, January and February.  I'm sure I will get the hang of planning these epic parties someday but this year I'd decided to bake all their birthday cakes myself.  Is it because I'm starting my own Facebook cake business, Ann's Crazy Cakes?  Unfortunately not.  It's not even an instance where I felt like I would even be good at it.  It just hadn't occurred to me until now that my children might actually appreciate my effort to bake them their birthday cake, no matter the result; and if they are anything like me.. especially if they can make fun of me for it later.    So let's see the results!!

Kieran's cake is locked away on someone's camera since mine died, but I know he enjoyed it.. 

10 good deeds

One of the things on my 30-30 list is do 10 good deeds.  I am not going in any order here because why the hell should I do that?  So I added this because I didn't want to do just one good deed, anyone can do one good thing and I like to think I do good deeds regularly anyway but 10 seemed like I'd have to seek some out.  I won't list them all but I made it to 10 yesterday; I went looking in the classifieds to volunteer to take an elderly man in my area to Church on Sundays.  Another good deed that was a favourite was getting to give some infant snow suits away to families that needed them.  On that note I just wanted to mention that although it's not a 'good deed' by my classification (aka needing to go somewhat significantly out of your way for a person you don't know at no benefit to you) I get stopped while shopping an AWFUL LOT from other moms or grandparents asking me for advice on products to purchase.  I've never thought to do that myself but it's probably not a bad idea!  Plus, it's fun to be reminded that maybe I do know a thing or two about a thing or two ;)  Except dry ice, I still don't completely understand how that works.. mostly because I think I'd like the answer to be MAGIC!