Message Board - May 28, 2008

This was today's message. It was a complete accident!! Once upon a time I had a hair dryer that would always making me miss the bus in the morning and shoot fireballs at my head. After the fireball incident I had no desire to replace it. My brother, however did want to replace it so he did...with his own money.

Fast forward to today's message. You see, I was opening the cupboard to get a Q-tip and the edge of the door hit the hair dryer (which just happened to be sticking out of the basket on top of the toilet a little too far and whammo....hair dryer in the toilet!! I thought he was going to be mad and want to kill me...turns out he wasn't all that mad. Good thing I left him that nice little note on message board today so he didn't plug it in and electrocute himself.

Introduction to my message board...

There is a very special board in my house. The magnetic message board was my blog way before I even started a blog. I never realized it until I wrote a nasty message to my brother on it yesterday that it is in fact a blog and should be shared with anybody who will want to read it. First, some quick facts about the message board...

1 - This is a Fisher-Price brand Doodle Pro board. I believe it was a yard sale find way back when...probably before Mason could even walk. The board came to rest on the wall when Nana bought Mason the exact same board (only newer with cool magnet gadgets and a mini-board) for Christmas 2 years ago. He is still mad that I use his old board even though he has a brand new spiffy one (with the attachments) in his playroom.

2- Powered completely by magnets. Makes me think of how possible it could be to ebolish the use of paper...save the trees!!! Almost as cool as using an Etch-A-Sketch to make notes, although that would be time consuming...nothing beats the pooping dog pic on the Etch-A-Sketch!

3- Is held on to the wall with two heavy-duty screws. I'm actually surprised it has never fallen off because it really isn't that secure. I'm actually really surprised about it and I am sure there will be a post about how it fell off the wall.

4- The doodle board will not completely erase because SOMEONE (*ahem* Mason) put pennies in behind the screen and they are now blocking the eraser from meeting the edge. Sometimes it's frustrating because you cannot see past the imaginary line.

5- Used as a passive-agressive tool for me to argue with my brother, to write reminders or to just write a general message of what is on my mind that day. I really like to communicate through message board and I still don't understand how some people walk right by it without noticing the messages on it for days (must have been a little too agressive with those ones).

6- The message board is located on the wall to the left as soon as you walk into the kitchen. Everybody should be able to see it. It is hung right above the My Chemical Romance calendar that stays on the month April (because I think that picture has the cutest little guy on it).

7- I stuck Hello Kitty stickers on message board because I love hello kitty.

Oh and if you haven't noticed....

Message Board --------------------------->

My little ball player...

...bring on the get rid of grass stain tips!! ;)

It's Tuesday!!

Today's "toot" isn't such a great one...there have been a few accomplishments I have achieved lately...but nothing too spectacular nor anything I want to share with the entire world. I did do the dishes before bed last night...that was pretty awesome.

I guess my biggest accomplishment was going for a walk after work. It wasn't a long walk, but I saw a lot of interesting things like the crazy man whose pants were falling down as he ran. Come to think of it, he wasn't wearing shoes either...that was weird. I saw total butt crack...like total...love my neighbourhood.

What we have been up to this past week and a bit...

A little of this...




A bit of that...

















And 27 candles on this....

Jack Black??

You can't fool me...

Mason brought me his Meet The Robinson's DVD and asked if he could watch it. I noticed he had a big boogie hanging out of his nose so I asked him to go and blow his nose. He left, and took the movie with him.

He comes back a few minutes later and shrieks EWWWW (ewww is never a good thing to hear from him) and says there is a "raisin" on his movie cover.

That was no raisin.

Boys are so gross.

Newsflash! He DOES like mustard!!

Grocery shopping night is always fun. We stop at Wendys and get a burger and get some groceries. Okay so I'm being a little sarcastic, grocery shopping night kind of stinks.

Tonight I made the huge mistake of forgetting to order no mustard on his burger. Of course he opens it up right away and starts throwing his 4-year-old-end-of-the-world- I-can't-believe-you-put-mustard-on-my-burger fit. Honestly, I did feel a little bad, but it was a mistake!! So what did I do? I let him whine it out, sometimes your gonna get a little mustard on your bun...suck it up.

Well he was a pretty hungry little guy so he decided to stick his finger in it and taste it. His eyes lit up..."I do like mustard!!" he tells me. He so reminds me of his father!

So hard to choose...

Hayden came to visit today for my birthday (with her mom of course and my mom....). We took so many pictures! What a busy day! SO many of them turned out too...it was nice to take pictures of someone who I don't have to bribe with candy.

I'm the crazy soccer (or t-bal in this case) mom!!!

I never thought it would happen to me. My motto was always "he's there to have fun!". Now that his "fun" is cutting into my busy schedule I am starting to see things a little differently. Don't get me wrong, it's good to have fun and play around with some kids, but throwing your glove in the air, diving off the bench, hanging from trees and running away from the game isn't that cool. He's still in the learning stage and I want him to have fun but there has to be a line somewhere? I realize the other kids are acting like apes in the zoo and I try so hard to redirect him from the "copy-cat" behaviour, but there were a few instances tonight of him being the instigating child. After a few of "the looks" from mom he was fine and listened to the coach but I really wonder sometimes if he actually wants to be there! Maybe it's just me finding it hard to "let go". I was suposed to be the coach and although I am glad I was left out of the deal, I just can't wrap my mind around someone who is not even out of high school controlling all these kids...it's just not happening. Is anybody else a crazy sports mama? I feel like I'm over stepping my boundaries a bit by helping out with my child's behavior but I also feel that he has to be told so he doesn't lose interest in the game.

Here is a clip of Mason at t-ball...it takes a minute for it to actually get into the hit. The best part is after he hits the ball....

PS...maybe I'm just stupid...but I still don't know how a game of t-ball is played after watching the whole entire game!?

Every working mom needs to get this book...now!

First off I gotta say it...I am not a cook. I can hardly even cook instant meals without some disaster in the kitchen happening (the stovetop fire yesterday was a little exciting)...but I want to learn and this book has really helped me.


Cooking for the Rushed - The Healthy Family

Now I hate cookbooks. They always remind me how much of a failure in the kitchen I am. The best way I make meals is to create my own. You can only make a stirfry so many ways before it gets boring so I decided to give this book a try.

Now the best part of this book is that it is totally geared towards busy moms like us. The book includes shopping lists, utensil lists you will need for each recipe and it even goes as far to tell you how long it will take you to burn off the calories from each meal.

My favourite recipe so far has to be the "Amazing Chicken Stew on Rice". The ingredients are simple (rice, cooking spray, 3 chicken breasts, lemon pepper, fresh pepper, Mrs. Dash (I subsituted here for garlic powder...limited on my choices!, worcestershire sauce, 1 onion, 3 stalks of celery - I skipped this one too...bleh, mushrooms, frozen broccoli, frozen baby carrots, cream of chicken soup and water). It was so yummy and I even had enough to take for my lunch AND to have leftovers tonight.

Rained out!

Mason's first real t-ball game was rained out :( He's a little bit irritable now...it's gonna be a fun night I tell ya!

5 Things about meme...

1. I am the oldest child. I have a sister (8 years younger) and a brother (10 years younger). So that means I was an only child for 8 years...boy was I lucky! Looking back now, I'm glad I had some younger siblings to pick on all these years! ;) My brother and sister have a different dad than me.

2. Mason is my first (and only child). I don't think I will have any more children.

3. Mason's dad died of Cancer in April 2005. I don't think I will ever get over that.

4. I went to school in 2006 and graduated to become a medical office administrator. Sometimes I wonder if I went into the right field, I always want to be something more. It's hard for me to just settle.

5. I have some pretty cool pets. I'm not really into the traditional pets (cats...dogs...) but I do have a cat who I want to become fat and lazy like Garfield. So far the kitty is stick thin but she eats like a horse...go figure. I also have a bearded dragon, a chameleon and a cute little turtle. They all have names but I rarely use their names when referring to them...except for George (the bearded dragon) because George is a pretty awesome name. I also have a bunch of guppies...I like guppies.

So that's all about me...there is so much more to me which you can find in my 100 things about me post...but this is a little more in depth ;)

The swimming situation...

I used to be a very patient and tolerant person...used to being the key phrase here. I have Mason in swimming lessons once a week. We go on Tuesdays at 5:30. So Tuesday is my crazy day. I leave work, pick up Mason and head over to the pool (always rushing in at 5:20). It's exhausting and sometimes I just want to say forget it and not even go...but then I get that look...you know the cute puppy look?

So we started a new class last week. I was a little peeved because there were two kids who did not want to get into the pool and the instructor spent 20 minutes of the 30 minute class trying to coax these kids into the pool. Okay, I was more than a little peeved....I was exhausted, and crabby but I let it go and figured it was just first class jitters.

Imagine the look on my face today when the same thing went down. This time throw in two angry mothers who were literally throwing their kids in the pool. The one kid climbed back out and the mom kept throwing him in. When he finally realized he wasn't getting out he clung onto the instructor for the whole class.

Swimming lessons are great, but I certainly didn't spend all day at work and rush my butt off to get there to watch some crazy ass mommas throw their kids in the pool and then have the instructor carry the kid around the whole time while my kid walked laps around the pool.

I know the staff thought I was the crazy one when I marched into the office and demanded we be put in a new class. It is still kind of bugging me now, hours later, because why should I have to change my schedule? When I explained to them the craziness that was going on at the pool they looked at me like I was an ogre with 5 heads or something. Not quite the reaction I wanted, I wanted a little sympathy, an apology, heck I just want to see my kid learn something rather than go to the pool and watch the craziness unfold each week.

I told you...

That he can literally sleep anywhere. My poor tired little guy.

Blog party!!!

I feel like an itty bitty speck in the blogging world...I'm still really new to all this but I was invited to a blog party and you know me, I can't resist a party! ;)

Baby mama

Mason had a sleep-over at his grandma's last night so to avoid another tragic Saturday night of being home alone I decided to go see a movie. I was feeling a little chic so I decided to go to the big mammoth movie theatre. You know, the ones where you can get the bucket of popcorn (that I could probably use as my mop pail -bonus!) and the ginormous drink that could fill your bladder 5 times over (depending on your age?) and to add a little extra fatness you can also throw in a bag of M&M peanuts all for the bargain deal of $12.07 (why the .07..I do not know).

I took Sam (my brother) with me because I've tried going to see a funny movie on my own before and it was kind of looserish. Don't get me wrong, many people can go to the movies alone - just don't go to a Will Ferrell movie alone...I was laughing so hard and I was the only one laughing...what a dork.

I've been dying to see Baby Mama for a while now so that was the movie of choice. It didn't get great reviews but who really trusts those movie reviews anyway? Here's my review...it was funny and you know how they usually show all the funny parts in the movie in the previews...this movie had so much more! At one point I noticed that only my brother and I were laughing though...that might have been some indication that others didn't like it...who cares! I did.

Although one thing did strike me as weird in this movie. This may be a little spoilerish......

Why didn't Tina Fey's character ask her sister (Maura Tierney - awesome actress!)to be her surrogate?? I guess then the movie wouldn't have been so funny, but that is all I could wrap my mind around. That or why did she choose the crazy lady to be her surrogate? Certainly she could have picked some better candidates if their characters didn't match?

So that is my mini review...I loved it. As a bonus it also had Steve Martin in it!! (Father of the Bride). I haven't seen him in a movie in a long time (maybe since Father of the Bride?? haha). If your on the fence about it...go see this movie...or at least rent it when it comes out!

T-ball or football? I think he's confused!

So we had t-ball practice on Thursday which Mason really enjoyed. The whole time the kids were running around like maniacs I just kept thinking to myself, I am so glad I am not the coach...whoever got me out of that deal I could kiss you!

These kids didn't know a thing about playing t-ball. I mean, I don't know much either but I'm pretty sure it's not in the rule book that you tackle the poor little kid who happens to catch the ball. It was actually pretty funny...kid would catch the ball, wait for it...then a whole pile of kids would pounce on him or her. My kid was a little slow to catch on to this and somehow would always end up on the top of the pile (Woo! Way to go!!). They have 2 real games this week which is scary! I'm definitely bringing a video camera to catch some America's Funniest Home Videos clips ;)

Dear mother nature...

Listen, I know you are busy growing flowers and stuff and I know we haven't gotten very much rain lately but please could you just hold off on the rain tomorrow afternoon so mama doesn't have to sit through baby's first t-ball game soaking wet?? This is all I ask of you? Please?

Update: Night one in his own bed...

It went very well! He actually stayed there all night. I watched him as he woke up this morning (yes, he woke without me having to literally pull him out of bed) and he looked so shocked to be in a different environment.

I'm so glad the night went well...for both of us. I'm also glad I didn't have to find room to sleep in this bed!

Tonight I sleep alone...

After years of kicking, punching, teeth grinding, pillow stealing and bed hogging I am pleased to say tonight I will have the whole entire bed to myself. That's right, Mason is moving out of my bed. He's not going that far though...

I never really thought of Mason having to sleep in his own bed. He has a pretty awesome bed, but he isn't really a big fan of sleeping in his room. Sure, it's great to play in there...but sleeping? Not with that monster in the closet!

I tried a while ago to get him to sleep in his own bed. After many nights of struggles and me giving in, he finally had a good night and slept in his own bed. I had won the battle and I was proud. As soon as I laid my head on the pillow panic set in. What if there is a fire? A gas leak? A burglar? All these thoughts were racing through my head, my heart started pounding out of my chest...so I went and got him out of his bed and brought him in with me. It's been a couple months now and as much as I love the little guy, the teeth grinding and kicking...oh and the pillow hogging is just getting to be too much.

I got the idea to put his bed in my bedroom for a while. That way he can get used to sleeping alone and having his own little spot since he has never reallly slept in his own bed before and I could get the peace of mind that he is only 5 feet away and his foot is not wedged in my back all night. It's a win-win I tell ya!

Building "Teddy"

Mason had his final PATCH group on Saturday morning. We went to Build A Bear to make a new friend. Last time we built a bear he named it Chocolate and that was only because he wanted chocolate (a three year old's attention span I guess...). This time we went and he already had his name picked out because when I asked him what he was going to name his bear right away he blurted out...TEDDY.

(I promise this picture was not taken in the firey pits of hell. My point and shoot camera (Sony) belongs the trash. It's lucky it's pink or I would sooooooo get a different one - Plus it takes some pretty good bar pictures...go figure??)

Busted!!

It is not a good idea to let your child play with safety scissors and a comb at the same time or else they may come up with something like this...

Good thing they were the wavy kind so no hair was harmed in the taking of this picture.

100 Things You May (or may not) Know About Me...

(I don't know why there are only 100 things but here we go...)

1. The best day of my life was January 15th, 2004
2. The worst day of my life was April 25th, 2005
3. I secretly love the colour pink
4. I still want to be a movie star one day
5. I listen to sappy music when I'm alone, sometiems I
even sing along, off-key of course!
6. I think I am a Microsoft Word Wizard and that they should rename the program after me. (nerd much!)
7. I drink Coca-Cola everyday...I am addicted
8. I rarely ever drink coffee/hot drinks because I always burn my tongue
9. I hate Tim Hortons (there! I said it!)
10. I think I would make an excellent spy
11. I love to talk about myself because I think I'm super-interesting
12. I'm really not that interesting, but I still like to think I am
13. I like to be funny
14. I spray spiders with hairspray before I smoosh them just so they don't get the chance to escape and crawl on me
15. I am more afraid of earwigs though!
16. I am totally addicted to reality television. I don't know how I ever lived without it.
17. I went to school to become a medical office administrator
18. I graduated with a 93% average
19. I got a little honor student pin...boy was I ever proud
20. I don't have very many friends, but the ones I do have are very good ones
21. I have a lot of online friends from all over the world
22. I live far away from my whole family
23. Sometimes I want to be near them but I am stuck here forever
24. It's a long story
25. Two people have my name tattooed on their body
26. I would never tattoo anybody's name on my body (except for Mason)
27. I want to get a Hello Kitty tattoo but I'm afraid it will be dorky
28. I have one tattoo
28. I saw somebody take their last breath
29. I saw somebody take their first breath
30. I know CPR but I am terrified to use it
31. I panic in emergency situations
32. I love the word POOP
33. I can smell things that other people can't smell...my sense of smell is very very keen
34. I have a hard time telling people I love them
35. I have one brother and two sisters (long story - all half siblings)
36. I am the oldest
37. I met my real dad for the first time in 2002
38. I don't think the meeting went so well because we haven't spoken since
39. I play computer games
40. I swear a lot - to myself
41. My hair is dark brown
42. Sometimes it changes colours on it's own..it's freaky hypercolour hair
43. I'm not really sure what my background is...but I think I'm part Italian?
44. I am creative - I love to make things
45. I went to 9 months of counselling and still didn't feel much better but I lied and said I did because I was just tired of going there
46. I think I procrastinate way too much
47. I am good at keeping secrets
48. I love FAT cats
49. I buy my cat the expensive food to try and make her fatter...it's not working though
50. I have an excellent imagination. Sometimes it makes me wonder if people would think I am crazy if I unleashed EVERYTHING that goes through my mind
51. I am amazed by the kindness and generousity of some people
52. Some people in this world totally make me sick
53. Mean people suck
54. So do my neighbours
55. My cousin Michelle makes me laugh the most
56. This one time we were throwing party snaps at people...I haven't had that much fun in a long time
57. I am now wondering where I can get some party snaps this time at night
58. I used to love animals so much, now not so much
59. I have little patience for stinky things (animals)
60. I hate things that smell bad
61. I smell EVERYTHING
62. I love cherry Kool-aid
63. I collect Tinkerbell pens at work
64. I love Hello Kitty stuff
65. I love doing crossword puzzles, they make me feel smarter
66. Green sour skittles taste the best
67. The word "perhaps" is my favourite word to use right now
68. I am still fascinated by that big giant lego man that washed up on shore...where DID that thing come from???
69. The number 69 still makes me giggle...yes I am immature
70. I still think my kid is the cutest ever (what? Moms are allowed to think that about their own kid!)
71. I am never going to smoke a cigarette
72. I am very cheap. I hate spending money
73. I am lonely and grumpy
74. I taught myself HTML in high school
75. I won an art award in kindergarden for drawing Clifford The Big Red Dog
76. I used to run a very popular Our Lady Peace fan site
77. I've been to England
78. My favourite trip was to Nashville, TN though
79. I was raised by my grandma until I was 8
80. It's been 10 years (1998) and I still miss her - but I feel like I'm forgetting her
81. My family is pretty crazy
82. I hate beer
83. I live across the street from a brewery and can smell beer all the time
84. I like to watch people sing Karaoke
85. I like to play Singstar on PS2 but I don't think I would ever sing karaoke in a bar (except that one time when I was drunk...)
86. I take too much for granted
87. I rarely let people know I am sad
88. I am a taurus - I am stubborn
89. The first time I ever had stitches was when I had my c-section
90. I have never broken a bone
91. I recently developed a fear of the dark...I just recently got over that
92. I was in grade 11 when I saw Star Wars for the first time
93. I never learned how to swim
94. I can't touch frozen juice cans - they give me the heebie jeebies
95. I have a phobia of The Hilarious House of Frightenstein. It makes me want to throw up
96. I can never ever sleep without a blanket, even if it's 100 degrees outside
97. I can't wait to be a soccer mom
98. My birthday is on May 17
99. I am afraid to be 30 (3 more years....)
100. I do not drive. I just got my beginners this year!

Little boy...big mouth!

I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. Mason met his first little person today (forgive me if this is not the correct term...I cannot keep up with this PC stuff!). We were walking down the street and a little person (male) was walking towards us.

I didn't really think anything of it until my little person yells out "LOOK MOM! A LITTLE DAD!!!" Then he continued to laugh histerically and point. I was soooooooo embarassed. I didn't even know how to handle it.

I had to explain to him that some people are born different and it turned into a half an hour mom lecture on how people are different. It ended with and you will be punished if you think it's funny to laugh at people who are different.

I hope I handled things properly. I don't even think the little person stopped, but I am pretty sure he heard what Mason said.