Recent Reviews

Discalimer: Any typos or non-sense phrases are a direct result of the yummy mango peach coolers and I accept no reponsibility whatsoever. Nyah.

I felt like sharing my thoughts on the following book and movies which I have recently watched or read.

Ahem.

The Notebook: Liam and I really enjoyed this movie, so he bought the novel for me (birthday, Christmas...? I dunno). Anyhow, it's amazing. If you haven't seen the movie yet, rent it and sit at home with a box of kleenex. If you've watched the movie, buy (0r borrow from me) the book. As is typical of books, it offers far more depth in the characters and the sorrow conveyed by the narrator is much more intense. I came away from it thinking "I'm so glad to have found my true love" , "I hope I never take a day for granted" and "I can't wait to be looking back on a lifetime of shared memories". A must-read for married folk who want to appreciate the golden days of marriage.

War of the Worlds: I wish someone had told me it would be such a waste of time. It really did seem like it was going somewhere for a long time, and I even liked Tom Cruise in it, but what's with leaving so many questions unanswered in the terrible terrible ending? I give it a big fat raspberry. Screw you for wasting my evening.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith: Fun! Pretty much exactly what I'd expected. Quick and entertaining without a whole lot of substance, but things blew up and Brad Pitt was in it. I even managed to get past my dislike of Angeline Jolie enough to not be irritated by her. The best part (and the part I showed Nick) was when they shot the crap out of their house. (The house, by the way, made me insanely jealous, and not because of how huge it was but because of how clean and toy-free it was. Oh, but to have a house without toys and craft supplies everywhere...)

Fantastic Four: Another fun one. There were a few moments where it was necessary to turn off logic and remind oneself "It's based on a comic book", but all it all it was good. It made me laugh out loud several times, and that's never a bad thing. Mostly-naked dude wrapped in a pink jacket was amusing. I was also thrilled to see Commish playing a part. He's so cool.

Camp Haikus take two

Spring camp was this weekend and in light of that, here are some haikus a la spring camp.

Lily's pearly whites
Finally edged through her gums
Are there one or two?

Last camp they drank wine
We did juice and garlic shots
Well, maybe just me

How much corn was popped
By Akela late at night?
Enough to stuff us

Pit stop at Esso
Chunky puke in plastic bag
Nick felt much better

Sunshine in the morn
Sudden hail storm drenches kids
Look, the sun is back

Highlight of the fire
Was my kid telling his jokes
And others' punchlines

A fun run

Here's a photo from the recent Bay to Breakers race. Something about it made me think of Krista and I felt the need to post it. (sorry Liam!)

Happy morning to you!

Laughing babies

Click on this to instantly make your day happier. Make sure your volume is turned up. Lily gives it two drooly thumbs up.

Noooooo!

"As Spears has confirmed, she's pregnant with another child, rumored to be a girl.
Federline wants to name the baby Julia after his mom, according to In Touch Weekly, but Britney would rather name the baby Lillian after her own maternal grandmother. “She also likes the names Emily and Lola,” says a friend."


If Britney Spears names her kid Lillian I'll beat her (Britney, of course, not the baby).

Sick, sick, sick, and sick

Somebody either make me healthy and give me a real night's sleep or shoot me. Seriously.

I'm knocked out with my second cold since Easter. Nick gave it to me and he's still hacking away day and night. We're both exhausted and barely able to drag our butts through the day.

Oh, and Lillian came down with a stomach bug yesterday. Between 8 am and 1 pm she threw up about 20 times and started having diarrhea. I had her either in my arms or in the CuddlyWrap for 11 freaking hours yesterday. I finally got her settled for the night around 11, then she was up every hour until 4:30 when she threw up all over the bed. Yum.

And if that weren't enough, Liam also has this stomach thing. The poor guy had to bike home in the heat yesterday when he felt quite ill because I wasn't comfortable taking the puke-monster into the car. He's been pretty much camped out in the bathroom since yesterday.

I think there should be a few rules in place when it comes to families and illnesses.

1) Only one parent can be sick at a time.

2) If both kids are sick at the same time, only one of them is allowed to wake multiple times at night.

3) Mom should be allowed to sleep for more than 1 hour at a time when she's sick.

4) Nobody is allowed to get sick twice in a one-month period.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms! Thanks for doing the job that nobody else in the world could do!

A quickie

I thought this was too cute not to share.

Two for two

I ran both yesterday and today. Yay me!

Yesterday I went for 45 minutes and picked Nicholas up from school on the way back. Today Lily, Jack, and I headed out and I ran/walked a total of 35 minutes. I was originally going to just walk today and run tomorrow instead but I was feeling really good and Liam convinced me to go for it.

My ankle is holding out pretty well though it's kind of sore right now. I've already iced it once and I'll ice it at least once more tonight. I'd be very bummed out if I messed it up and set myself back again.

I'm pretty happy with the running I'm able to do. I thought I'd have to take things a lot more slowly than I am, but I guess that the regular walking I'd been doing combined with being pretty busy throughout the day have kept me in better shape than I'd anticipated.

After talking with Chantal last night (who is currently doing a Running Room clinic), I started thinking about doing the run/walk ratio Running Room suggests. After a number of weeks, you work up to 5 minutes of running to 1 minute of walking, then in the long term 10 running to 1 walking. They suggest running entire half-marathons in this manner. (When I did my half-marathon in 2002 my training didn't involve any type of walking breaks)

Anyhow, today I paid attention to my stopwatch and aimed for a 2:1 ratio. Unfortunately, the mental part of paying such close attention to my time caused me some grief and I'd shoot myself down or get too anxious to push for as long as I could really go. Next run, I'll tune out the watch and just focus on how I feel. Maybe I'll try incorporating a 5:1 when I'm more into the swing of things.

And that is the end of my mental ramblings on running.

You're called a parent because that's what you're supposed to do

I am growing increasingly disgusted with the parents in my area. (No, this is not aimed at anyone with the last name of Leddy!) Here’s warning that this is nothing but a rant because I’m very ticked off.

On Friday, I saw a little boy wandering around alone in our parking lot. He followed my neighbour up the stairs to her house and I offered to take him back home. This cute little boy was maybe 3 1/2 years old, couldn't tell me where his home was, and trustingly took my hand and followed me as we tried to find his Mom. As grateful as I was to be able to help him out, it scared me how easily he followed me, a total stranger, around. We eventually found a man (Dad, Uncle, random guy??) who said he was looking for him. He very nonchalantly explained that the boy had taken the garbage out and walked off with him.

Today, a little boy (about 4 years old) a few doors down played outside from 10-1:30 and Nick played with him from about 10:30-11 and when the little boy went to ask his mom if he could come over to our house, she was nowhere to be found. He called and called her but nobody answered. After Nicholas was gone to school, the boy continued to play outside of our yard and teased Jack by yelling at him, poking his fingers through the fence, and putting sticks over the fence. I asked him FIVE times to stop teasing the dog and then I went outside and very loudly (are you hearing this Mom??) told him to stop it immediately.

A full half hour later, I heard his mom asking him “Are you still playing with your friend? If he’s not outside anymore come back in the yard”. Sorry, lady, but my kid has been gone for almost an hour and a half. Maybe you’d have noticed if you were actually properly supervising your kid.

I’m sad to see how little supervision these young kids seem to have. When did kids stop being important?? My kids are the most precious things in the world to me and I can't imagine letting them wander around without anyone keeping an eye on them. It takes all of two seconds for some sicko to make off with them, or for them to get hurt.

Just parent your children already.