Sunnier

A Day Without Sunshine Is Like, You Know, Night.

- Steve Martin

Ironically, when he smiles with his eyes they look like little moons :)

FIVE

One of the things I was very sure of about Ethan turning the big 5 is that he needed a special cake. I don't know why exactly.. perhaps because I so much remember turning 5 myself. I didn't have a fancy cake but there was a cute Carebears topper holding a balloon that said 5 on it... I'm sure with how my grandmother hoards things it's actually still around somewhere. I wanted to start a tradition of giving the kids special birthday cakes every 5 years, hoping they'd really look forward to it and remember them as special years. The result ended up being so awesome, I think it ended up feeling a little selfish since we were about as excited as he was. His face was priceless!


Enter, Lego Star Wars cake (with Tye Dye insides!)

R2 was my fave!

Ugh, the coolness was just too much. I take no credit whatsoever for the creativity when I ordered it.. my only contribution was (agreeing with all their awesome ideas and) it MUST have a Darth Vader on it, which Ethan noted and then nom nom'ed him; and I think a lot of other characters.

I don't know how much the cake had to do with it but he was so happy that day and had so much fun at his playground party that the fact he kept thanking us in the car was almost too much.

the Shitty bar

I need hobbies to occupy the next 4 weeks or so that I can do while sitting down, so I thought I'd start my own 30 Days of Photos album. I'm not going to post it everyday since that's ..overkill.. but it's on my flickr and if you want to play too, have at it, add me or leave a link!

I'm on day 2 and already I know I likely will be interrupted before 30 is up, but that's just adds to the fun doesn't it?? So mysterious! PS who the hell does 365 on flickr and considers themselves 'normal' .. normal is giving up, man! You are not that interesting all year!

30 days also seems to be the magic number for keeping my attention. 31? not as attractive for some reason. 60, you must be joking. I get physically angry at anyone who counts down to something longer than 60 by the way, so I don't even want to hear about it if you did that for some reason. I can't handle the subsequent thoughts of you as a child in some sort of long car ride or whatever.

My other relaxing hobby so far is tweeting kijiji ads I find that are so, what's the word? Hamilton. Oh, and funny!

• Balls for girls, everyone. Who needs balls for girls?! I have two. http://bit.ly/gee5MC #kijijihamilton

• Mint condition marvel action figures! http://bit.ly/fjGzgW see my 'other ads' aka the finally getting laid collection #ilovekijijihamilton

• anyone want to open a really shitty bar with me? they've got labatts, molson and mill time left! http://bit.ly/g31bsg #kijijihamilton

Lucky Number 3

I've had a handfull of moments in my life where I knew, even if there was or wasn't a reason for it, that I was doing something I'd never be doing again. Whether that fact was wonderful or awful I've always appreciated those moments for their clarity since life just so rarely gives us any of that. I don't know how many times I've heard that if only someone knew it was their last ______ they'd have done something differently. I'm not talking about things you just flat out didn't like so you don't plan on doing it again. Those are pretty easy. I don't like butter tarts for example.. it's not news to me I will never be eating one again and I don't have any feelings about that. Maybe a WTF face since butter tarts are terrible. What it could be is something like the day you graduate or go to your last day at work or whatever; it deserves a little recognition, even if it's a small thing.

For me right now.. I am completely finished with pregnancy/child-making as a life experience. I'm fortunate I even had the opportunity since some people do not, or desperately cannot, and although it has left me irreversibly changed (literally.. one of my children took some of my guts with them when they left. I'm also anemic and my thyroid stopped working..) I couldn't be more lucky to have done something universally agreed as almost unbelievable which is also unfortunately impossible to describe to another person who hasn't also experienced it first hand. Everyone but you is pretty much a witness. The results were kinda nice, too :) I suppose that all that before I turn 30 is somewhat of an accomplishment as a human being.. I did a ton of stuff, y'all! I used to joke with one of my pregnancy penpals to tell her husband.. you just cannot win a contest with a mom of shit they did that day. Growing a person plus anything else always comes out on top. But on the reverse side, I'm done before I'm even 30. I need to appreciate that fact, mainly as a person who, in life, never likes to say never; so the little time I have left will be even more sweet. When I can have champagne again we will definitely be doing a little celebrating.

Bring on the table-flipping madness that is a house full of boys and one bathroom!

French fries are the devil.

My Sunday night story

I didn't think I'd be writing anything about the start of the new year until I had my very own "celebrities, they're just like us" moment at the grocery store.  You know at the back of People magazine or US weekly where they show celebrities walking their dog or putting gas in their car segment.. and you're supposed to go WOW it's like they're LIVING MY LIFE!  Or.. something like that.  Anyhow so without boring you of the details of my Sunday night, we went to the grocery store to get bread and lunch things and suddenly I pass this really tall guy in a black and grey lumberjack looking jacket and baseball cap.  He looked right at me for a moment and while a normal person would have smiled, because that's the polite thing to do, I likely had a funny "heyyy..." face because I was either having a stroke or I was looking right at Ryan Gosling.  In the vegetable section of my Fortinos.   In the middle of processing this, as if he was answering me, his face made a friendly "no.. you don't really know me in real life" expression.  I appreciated that since it's the Canadian thing to do: don't make people think they're crazy.

After he passed I paused before I said anything to Sean because I still wasn't 100% sure even he would believe me, but luckily he stuck around the store to finish his shopping with his family so we got a good look again.  AKA Sean went to go see and I hid in the baby food isle just in case he thought I was stalking him.  Sean really enjoyed that.

Folks.. I am the worst at playing any situation cool.  Ok maybe not the worst since I didn't embarrass myself or bother him but I'm definitely the worsts cousin, pretty bad.  Never challenge me to a no smiling contest, no blinking contest, or poker if I am aware of all the rules; because by god I will screw it up.  Pay for groceries with a straight face?  Fat chance.  This is literally the picture I tried taking at the check out.

Where is Ryan Gosling?  He's standing exactly where the blurry monitor is... SUPER FAIL.

Our cashier asked me if I seriously just took a picture (she seemed unimpressed he was there, or upset he didn't choose her line) and I replied, of course I did!  haven't you ever heard of the Bill Murray "no one will ever believe you" stories?  I have.