Nominated!

I am so thrilled and excited to announced that my blog has been nominated in the 2010 BlogLuxe Awards for Best Eye Candy!

First of all, whoever nominated my blog, thank you so much (mom?)!  I am so honoured to be in a category with some of the greatest eye candy blogs out there! I really couldn't be prouder, well unless I won, actually then I would probably poop my pants which wouldn't make me very proud at all, but I am so very happy to even be nominated, even if it was my own mother that nominated me.

Maybe it was David Duchovny who nominated me and by eye candy, he was actually referring to me and not my blog?  (a girl can only dream,  right?)

Anyway, you can vote for my eye candy by clicking the button above!  

I am sort of not crazy...

I recently blogged about EVILBOY losing his tooth and then LOSING his tooth which ended up making me feel like a crazy person.

When I was a little girl my mother kept all of my baby teeth in one of those velvet Crown Royal drawstring pouches.  I found the bag of teeth while snooping for the Hot Lixx Guitar that I was certain I was getting that Christmas, and it never occurred to me that they were my teeth.  Which is really kind of weird because I sort of thought it was normal that my mother kept a bag of teeth in her closet.

I eventually did make the connection that those were in fact my teeth in the little drawstring bag, but not for quite some time after that.  Apparently I wasn't the smartest kid on the block, the brightest crayon, sharpest knife, you get my point...

In the post about EVILBOY losing his tooth I mentioned that I had kept every single one of his baby teeth, and in fact they came in handy when I had to replace the lost tooth later that night.  My Twitter feed went crazy with my friends (I still love you, I swear!) wondering why I was keeping the teeth to begin with.

To be honest, I thought it was the normal thing to do!  My mom kept my teeth, my grandma kept someone's teeth (she had a lot of kids, I'm sure she had a nice collection) and I just thought this is what parents were supposed to do.  As much as I hate teeth, I kept every single one of those pointy little creepers in a Ziploc bag in my underwear drawer - because I love my son and that is what mother's do - or so I thought.

My Twitter friends made some very valid points, such as what I was going to do with these teeth, how would I explain to Mason that the tooth fairy is not real when he does find these teeth and asked if I was planning on making a necklace or decorating his 18th birthday cake with them.

Then I felt weird for saving the teeth.

but now I just can't bring myself to throw them out because it's a sort of messed up family tradition and I have kept them for so long. 

So please tell me honestly, am I being a total weirdo for keeping these teeth?  Do you keep your kids' teeth? Is there some sort of product to save these teeth in that doesn't make it seem as creepy as a Ziploc bag in an underwear drawer?

...and then he graduated.

It's been a pretty exciting first year of school.  Evilboy has made a lot of new friends, learned how to read and  how to say his teacher's name properly and came out of his shell a little.

Today was his last day of being a kindergarten student, well actually tomorrow is but today was the graduation so that sort of makes it official - I think.  To be quite honest, I think he's going to miss "big school" over the summer.  He is beyond thrilled that he passed kindergarten and that next year he will be in all day school and will get to bring a lunch.  Yes, my child is excited about bringing an actual lunch - I am not.

Right now we send snacks everyday, something small that the kids can eat within 10 minutes. When the year started I was making dinosaur-shaped sandwiches and fancy little wraps and now he's lucky if he gets a granola bar that hasn't already been nibbled on.  

The kids were so cute, reciting the poem they were forced to learn, in a room full of their moms and dads (and in our case a mom and a grandma).



and....


I didn't even tear up.  Not even a bit.  I'm like a freakin robot! 

Sometimes...

Sometimes I try to blend in with the crowd.
Slinking in, trying to be someone unknown. 
Like one of those people on television shows who just mouth the words in the background. 

Sometimes I just want to be that person.

and it's mostly because I don't want you to see me like this. 


Sometimes I like to be the center of attention.
Sometimes I like it when you are around - just there.
Sometimes I like to put on a sumo wrestler outfit and do a dance routine.
Kind of like the ones we did in grade six. In my basement.  To "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tiffany.

and now for some reason this whole post reminds me of Saved by the Bell.

Sometimes I miss him a lot.  
Especially when his nephew graduates and he wears a little suit and tie and when he sees me he gives me a great big hug, even though his friends are all around.
The same kid that told his uncle to break up with me because I wouldn't buy him a Etch-A-Sketch.
I think of how much R. would have wanted to be there.
I complained of how much I really hated graduations and the hot rooms and the stupid speeches
but I was really just protecting my heart from hurting.

It also made me realize that I never really loved him enough while he was alive.
I didn't love him as openly as I do now that he is gone.

My advice - love now.  Don't wait.

We are the champions....

We won the Why the Y? Contest!



We can't thank you enough.  This whole process was such a wonderful experience for both of us and I am so happy it turned out the way it did (well duh!)

Thanks to everyone who voted, watched the video, liked the video, laughed at the video, kept checking in about the video...you all are so wonderful!

We are celebrating our win (I can't believe I'm even typing that!) on Monday afternoon at the Central Branch Y and we are so excited (and nervous).

Again, THANK YOU! and I promise there will be more updates on our celebrations.

Being the Tooth Fairy is never an easy task...

It seems like I've been telling tooth stories a lot lately.  The truth is, EVILBOY is losing teeth faster than a hockey player in a playoff game. The truth is, I can't stand loose teeth.  They irk me.  I see them hanging out of kids mouths, hanging by a fleshy string, wobbling about just threatening to be swallowed and pooped out.

I blame my tooth phobia on my friend in grade six who was chewing on one of those old Halloween molasses candies and her molar came right out into the candy.  It was absolutely horrifying.

I can usually mentally prepare myself when a tooth is about to come out of my child's head by telling the daycare "tooth puller" teacher and he usually comes home with a little baggie with a pointy little tooth and a cool story about how it came out and didn't hurt, to which I block out the disgusting details of tooth removal and sing old rock and roll songs, Michael Bolton songs or Beth by Kiss but whatever, anything to spare me the details of teeth and the fleshy veins that hold them in.

Last Thursday we went to Dairy Queen and enjoyed a dipped cone.  I watched as EVILBOY took a bite of his ice cream and then next thing you know the tooth was IN the ice cream cone, along with blood that sprayed out like a can of spray paint.  I think the fact that he was blowing it out didn't really help because next thing I knew I was holding a bloody cone at a blood splattered table while he ran off to the washroom to rinse out his mouth.  I held on to that bloody cone at my bloody table in horror while some people stared, including the mean receptionist at my doctor's office who just happened to be there.

I cleaned up our table the best I could with dry .5 ply napkins.  I then had the task of fishing the tooth out of the cone and throwing the disgusting cone in the garbage.  I'm not going to share the details of getting the tooth out of the ice cream but it really wasn't marvelous.

Now this part is important because this is where I made the biggest mistake ever.   I wrapped up the disgusting tooth in one of those .5 ply napkins and put it in my purse. We had to stop by "Nana's" house and Mason was pretty stoked to show off his tooth so I (stupidly) told him to get it out of my purse.  Well you know how excited kids can get, especially those who just downed about 5000 calories of bloody ice cream covered in chocolate.

Something I only thought of as I saw him rip open the paper towel, at which time the tooth went flying somewhere in Nana's living room.  The tooth was gone in an instant and being smaller than half of my baby fingernail in a room packed full of couches, DVD collections, magazines, blankets and dog hair, it was literally like trying to find a needle in a haystack only instead of a needle it was a disgusting tooth and instead of a haystack it was a pile of dog hair.

As much as I hate teeth, I still had to find it because I have a touch of OCD and if I don't keep all his teeth I will have failed as a mother.  I thought this over and over as I waded through someone's dust bunnies.  Even after everyone gave up I was on the ground flipping through the DVD collection thinking it may have fallen into one of the crevices.  I finally gave up about an hour and a half later, when the dog started humping me.  After all, I am a woman and I was covered in fur at this point so I don't blame him for being confused, but I will tell you that it really put a damper on trying to find a tooth and after searching so long without any trace of it, I did what any desperate mother would do, I picked up a peanut piece that had fallen somewhere deep behind the couch and I announced "I FOUND IT!".

EVILBOY was on to me right away claiming that the peanut didn't look like a tooth, to which I lied and said that all teeth look like that after thy are out of your mouth for that long (I'm a terrible liar and I'm probably going to H-E-double hockey sticks for that one).  Once he was convinced the peanut was his tooth, we packed up and went home.  I had put the peanut in my cup holder of the car and had forgotten about it when we went upstairs.  We live on a floor that is pretty high up and the elevator is on the other side of building from the parking lot so when I realized what I had done, I did what any desperate mother would do.  I got the tooth that had just fallen out on June 11 (and I only know the date because EVILBOY hasn't stopped talking about it since then) and handed it over.  Which made things totally okay because it was actually a tooth and not a food product that had been under a couch for who knows how long. 

and so I am missing one of his teeth forever now, which for some reason makes me feel like a crappy mother, even though collecting teeth is pretty repulsive and a little creepy (think tooth necklace!).  I think I am okay with it.  I never really understood how I didn't find the tooth though and then it hit me like a dog trying to hump my leg, the humping dog must have eaten the tooth!


Then she said I was gross and hung up on me.

Update in the Why the Y contest!

EVILBOY's video is a finalist in the contest! If you would like to help us out, you can now vote for your favourite video on the Facebook fan page! Each vote goes towards our final score from the judges!

If you have a moment and could give us a vote please go here:
http://www.facebook.com/video/?oid=89790351257#!/video/video.php?v=10150209291515304&oid=89790351257

Thanks everyone!!

-Love, the boy who wants to win an iPod more than anything "in the whole widest world" and the mom who wants to win a free membership for a year so she can save some money!

Why the Y?

EVILBOY and I made a video as an entry to the Why the Y? video contest. We could win a one year membership to the YMCA along with some other goodies.

If you want to help us win, all you have to do is watch our video and leave any kind of feedback as part of the judging is based on community response.

Even view counts are a part of judging so even just watching the video helps out!

It is a pretty cute video (if I do say so myself) so even if you just want to see something cute feel free to watch!


Thanks for your help!

I'm a sucker for school pictures...

Mason had his second picture day of the year last week. As much as I always say to myself that I won't give in and buy pictures, I always do. I'm never happy with other people's photographs of my son.  It's not the quality of the picture, it's definitely not that his smile was "off", nor is it the price (okay well it's partially the price).

Don't take this the wrong way, but I like the pictures I take much better.  They may not be perfect, he may not always be wearing the best clothes and he may have a dirty face, but the thing is they are all mine.  Each picture is not only a picture, it is a happy memory, a time that I remember because I was there.

So even though these pictures are really cute, I just can't ever be happy spending the (big) money to have pictures that really don't mean much.  I mean I buy them once a year because it's what you are supposed to do as a parent (is it?), but when it's twice a year it becomes a little excessive.

As hard as I try, I can never just leave it be, I have to buy these pictures because to me they feel like orphans.  If I don't buy them, I fear they will end up in a dumpster somewhere.  This cute little smile wasted forever.

Oh picture day, you stress me out.

Not only do I think about the money it costs to keep these forever, I also have the make the choice of which one makes me smile the most (help?). 







...of course his school pictures are nowhere near as good as mine was:

Just look at my beautiful smile, even the coffee stains are charming on this little gem!

The exciting life of a single mom...

gets even more exciting when she buys a fancy smancy coffee maker! This is a huge deal for me because for a long time I haven't bought myself anything fancy smancy.  Plus I got a great deal on it so I win. 

When I was 21 I didnt know how to make coffee.  I also didn't know how to pre-heat an oven or rake the front lawn properly, but I digress.

R. and I had just started "dating" and by dating I mean he never left my house because he liked living with me a whole lot more than living with his mom.  There was nothing normal about the beginning of our relationship, but it was just so right.  We managed to make it work and sharing a single bed was both romantic and awkward.

Eventualy I had to meet his mother, which was uncomfortable at first but once she welcomed me so warmly and fed me lots of food, coffee and gave us a dog - true story.

It only seemed right that I invited R's mother over for a taste of my food and my coffee.  Unfortunately for her, the only food I knew how to make was chicken caesar wraps.  Here I will give you the recipe for that right now: cheapest bag o' chicken you can find, lettuce that has been in the fridge for two weeks, caesar dressing that expired ten and a half months ago (when I was 21 I didn't know that salad dressing expired - seriously!) and a stale leftover soft taco shell.  Roll them up and voila - edibleness! 

I knew nothing about cooking, I ate poutine from a pizza restaurant down the street every day.  One meal, each night - poutine.  I got pretty fat, but man was I ever jolly. Nothing cheers you up better than poutine - nothing.  Actually, that probably isn't true because the owner of that pizza place hung himself in his basement.  True story.  I knew him.  It was sad. 

As I was saying, I invited R's mother over for my feast of chicken caesar wraps (my mouth drools just thinking of those wraps).  After our meal at my fancy table, while firmly seated on my milk crate chairs I felt the need to explain why I wasn't serving coffee.  I looked my almost future mother in law in the eyes and said:

"I would offer you a coffee but I don't know how to make it"

and she burst into laughter, and tears, and more laughter while I stood awkwardly biting my lip, my face probably turning eight shades of red.  Now this is the running joke of that family.  Whenever I am around and there is coffee around someone brings up that time when I admitted to not being able to make coffee. 

One day his mom came with a present for me, a jar of instant coffee.  She told me to keep this in her freezer and when she comes to boil water and add one teaspoon of this coffee to the water and stir.  This jar is still in my freezer and I still have to read the directions each time I make her a coffee.

My new coffee maker is fully automatic.  All I do is pop one of these little disc things in and it does all the coffee magic stuff for me. No more measuring with spoons, no more wondering if I'm using the right spoon (big or little...I can never remember).  Not only that, it makes specialty coffees as well, the ones that I pay $3+ for and get embarassed when my card declines so I never go back to that coffee shop again (my stupid bank deactivated my card and didn't tell me, but the coffee chick thinks I'm a hobo now).

I had to invite people over tonight to try out my new machine.  The first person I called, R's mom.  She had to come and let me make her a coffee - without her help.  I was a little disappointed when she only wanted a plain old coffee.  I mean I had all my little discs ready to whip up some lattes, but it's okay, my coffee woes are forever over and now I can throw that yucky old jar of instant coffee that was in my freezer since 2002 in the garbage because I think it might be poisonous by now.

Disclaimer: Nobody paid me for this post.  I am just really fueled up on caffeiene and Sour Patch Kids right now. If you think that's gross, try it, you will be amazed.