Thanksgiving

We had a fun Thanksgiving. Greg surprised me by organizing a fun dinner with some friends here. The turkey was delicious! It reminded me of my Grandma because she always made turkey when we visited and it totally made me miss her. Anyway, I got all fancy and made a pecan pie. I would never try pecan pie when I was little because it looked freaky and funky. They don't really have pecan pies here in Canada. You can occasionally find little pecan tarts which basically are super mini pies. I got some at Walmart of all places after Canadian Thanksgiving and they were delicious so I told Greg I really wanted to make one. I thought it turned out beautifully, thanks to my sis-in-law's recipe but it wasn't a big hit at the party. Just reminded me how pecan pie is kind of old people pie. Ha, ha. I also have learned that I like my pecan pie like super cold out of the fridge. Yum.

Here's a pic because I was so proud of myself.

And here are some notes from our Thankful Wall this year. I love this tradition. It is fun to hear the things the girls are thankful for evolve and it was fun to have Chloe be able to write her own and even write some for Gavin and Tati.

Gavin is thankful for:

• boobie milk
• for my 2 best, biggest sisters in the whole world!
• for Eugene, the monkey
• for my pacifier

Tati is thankful for:

• for fun
• for candy
• for my new cougar "Mango"
• for milk (normal)
• for my jewelry
• for anamls (written by Chloe *)
  
• for the sun
• for colrs (*)
  
• for ants (huh?)
• for peanut butter
• for Sneaky (her BFF jaguar)
• for my barbie mermaid
• for Lucy, the elephant (the real one who lives at the zoo)
• for my mom (yes!)

Chloe is thankful for (in her awesome spelling that I want to remember):

• the holly gowst
• for the erths (that's deep)
• for a home
• for my school
• for my family
• for missionaries
• for church
• for my toys
• for food
• for books and stufees
• for frends
• for Linda (her Llama stuffee)
• for Samin (Tati's alter ego when she's a dog) (yes, you read that right)
• for Halowdays

I am thankful for:

• for my Chloe because I love her so much!
• for finally having a baby boy!
• for my cozy duvet on my bed.
• for our nice camera.
• for my best friend, Greg (and his biceps)
• for pretty snowflakes
• for cranberry gingerale
• for my sweet, little boy who makes me smile
• for yummy food
• for avocados
• for my Tati who gives me lots of great cuddles and hugs.
• for video chat

Greg is thankful for:

• for Canada
• for fresh fruits and veggies
• a fully functioning body
• for snow (sometimes)
• for technology
• for blankets
• for the Book of Mormon
• for my awesome family

Bionic Nose

We had a fun night last night. Chloe puked and felt disgusting, then Tati kept getting out of bed because her pillow was sweaty (which I finally remedied with putting a towel on her pillow, and Gavin kept waking up crying because he is teething. Man, am I ever tired today.

So last night the puke smell was overwhelming. I was spraying air freshener and febreeze everywhere. My bionic nose was in super high gear. Greg stripped the sheets, she got a new pillow and blah blah. The smell was going no where. As we lay in bed trying to fall asleep Greg was talking to me about this profound subject of how puke smells lingers and that was all it was.

I was just trying to get all the kids to take a nap and as I was about to tuck in Tati's blankets to get her bed in order when lo and behold but what do I see? Dried, streaks of puke that have dripped down from Chloe's bed and down to Tati's bed. So gross. It was like the last thing I wanted to deal with. So as I'm taking things off of Tati's art string that hangs along her wall with papers and special treasures that are now dried with spew, I just had to laugh at the beauty I found behind a laminated picture of Orcas that Tati has hanging next to her bed. It is from May, 2001 and it has our engagement day.

I know this is gross but I have to include a picture because it is also really funny to me.

I never would have remembered that is where the calendar ended up and I also never had that date fully documented (since I was never quite the journaler). Anyway, just goes to show that there really is a silver lining to even the nastiest jobs sometimes.

And speaking of random, while thinking of my bionic nose, I found this. We'll call it an ode to my childhood:

• 

• When I was little, I remember having bad dreams about fembots.
• Why is her name spelled like Jaime Escalante? Shouldn't it be Jamie?
• When I go to weird, cheap sweat shop stores, I say that it smells like "fembots" and Greg thinks I'm nuts.
  

The Best Day Ever!

Today was quite the momentous day for Chloe at school. It was so awesome because she lost her tooth, AT SCHOOL! I didn't realize her tooth was that loose to be honest with you. She told me a few days ago how she wished she could lose her tooth at school because it is so awesome and you get a little tooth box and blah blah. She told me how she likes to wiggle her tooth in her class and all I could think of was how many germs she was putting into her mouth.

Anyway, when I picked her up from school, she was just busting with excitement! She had lost her tooth AT SCHOOL! And not only had she lost her tooth at school but TWO of her other classmates had also lost a tooth THAT SAME DAY, in the SAME CLASSROOM! Crazy. Unbelievable. Exciting. Best Day Ever! I honestly can't believe she pulled it out. I guess after the second kid lost a tooth, that just did it for her and she got a kleenex and pulled on it really hard. She never would've done that before. Just goes to show me how much this girlfriend is growing up.

Here's Chloe telling you all about it.

Afterward, she got right to work writing the tooth fairy a letter requesting a fairy book for her "prize". I hate the dumb fairy books by Daisy Meadows. Avoid them. But they are oh so in right now in a 7 year old girl's world. Thankfully, her friend, told her that it didn't sound very polite requesting a specific gift from the tooth fairy. Her dad chimed in with "Yeah, she isn't Santa." Brother. Anyway, so here was the revised letter:


So not only did she have a much humbler letter, she also made a donation because she bet that the tooth fairy didn't have very much money. Ha, ha. She's right. This tooth fairy had to take this prize from the Christmas stockings pile. Oops.

Also, the washcloth is to dry off with because her Daddy mentioned, it was quite cold outside.

The next morning, what to everyone's surprise, the washcloth was wet and there was even glitter on it!

"Mom, the tooth fairy totally dried off and there is glitter!"

Then Chloe proceeded to tell me how the tooth fairy shops at the dollar store and how she put a sticker over the price tag to be polite. I was talking to my sister on the phone about it all and she was in disbelief that our sweet Chloe still believed all this. I just have to say that I like it. I will be sad when she figures it all out.

Our First Snow

I have to say I've been really proud of Canada this year. I mean, here we are like half-way through November and we just barely had our first snow. Not bad. Granted we did have some pretty insanely low temps in the days that followed this but we survived.

I love how crazy my kids are and I love how the snow just doesn't even phase them. The day after this picture, it stormed and snowed like crazy and because Tati is my stir crazy child, I decided to get her out and exercise her around. After spending 10 minutes getting our gear on, she marches outside and sits right down in the snow like she's at the beach.

Yeah, this ain't no beach. But it is pretty. At least for now it is quite pretty. Don't ask me if I think it is pretty in April.

And a special close up to admire Tati's use of my red lipstick. (See this post if you haven't read it.)

You're Dead!

Somewhere something is slipping through the parenting cracks. My 3 yr. old just made a gun out of K-Nex and has been shooting me. Then she says, "I'm just joking Mom!" Yeah, good one.

Red Alert

My Mom sent me this package which was super fun and one of the things thrown into it was this liptstick. The note attached said that she bought it and then upon trying it on at home decided it wasn't her color but she was sure it would look great on me because RED lipstick always looks good on younger women. I was scared of the lipstick especially because it was called "lip stain" and also scared of it because it was called "Cherry Pop". Then right before heading to church as I was finishing up my make up job, I decided my white face needed some color. What would I use? Aha, I'd use my new lipstick from my mom.

As I started to draw the stain onto my lips I remember thinking 3 things:

1. Man, I hope I follow my lip lines well.
2. Man, this seems awfully bright and red.
3. Uh oh.

So I tried what any normal person would do, I tried to wipe it off. Nope, it went no where. Although to their credit, it wouldn't have rubbed off onto my glass or another person had I been kissing them.

So I pulled out the big guns and got a hot washcloth with soap and started to SCRUB my lips. It got some of it off but there was still a VERY red tinge. And there was also a bit of redness now on my chin and upper lip. So I did the best thing I could think of, I put on some brownish gloss. Together with the RED, it toned it down enough to not come across as the big, blinking, red alert I was feeling like.

See for yourself.

And for the record, I can see how addicting Photobooth can be for somebody. I'm too picky about the results but it is fun.

Tati keeps staring at me and smiling and saying, "Mom, you look beautiful!" "Your lipstick is awesome on you." "Your lips match your nail polish! How did you do that?" Maybe I'll give the lipstick to her.

I decided I would fit in best with my red lips if I were sketching in gay Paris.

Au revoir.

Remembrance Day

So tomorrow is Remembrance Day here in O Canada. It's the Canadians way to say "Veteran's Day". Today I went to an assembly at Chloe's school. I loved it. I love that religion and patriotism are still alive. It makes me think of when I was in school back in the day, this is how it was in the States and then it makes me feel really sad for how far things have changed. One of my friends on Facebook put this as her status yesterday:

"It's gone from the 'Christmas Party' to the 'Winter Party' and now this year it's the 'Mid Year Celebration'. Seriously? I want to know which group was offended by the term 'Winter'."

I just thought about how lame that is and how much we suffer as a people by denying the spiritual nature of us and worrying about who will be offended by any sort of "religious" things we say. It also inspired me to be a stronger proponent of true patriotism where we acknowledge the help of God in how we govern ourselves and how we work with others and respect others.

Here in Canada, everybody wears a poppy pin. It is really cool to see so many poppies everywhere. They come from this poem called, "In Flanders Fields". I guess there were lots of battles fought there and lots of people died and were buried there. Each spring, the fields were covered with red poppies so when Canadians got back home, they'd remember their friends who were buried in the fields covered in poppies so everybody who wears a poppy is saying they remember the people who died fighting for freedom.

You can buy these poppies everywhere. Well, technically they are free but you can make donations to have them and the money goes to the war vets so how can you really not give them money, right? I used to think it was a weird way to celebrate the vets. That was because it was a different way of celebrating than I'm used to. At home we put up our American flags and play some patriotic music. It is a little louder of a celebration. Here things are quieter, more reverent maybe. I like it. I've come to learn that it doesn't matter so much where you come from but what you believe in and what you're willing to fight for.


Anyway, here are some things that I loved about the assembly:

1. They asked us to not clap and to be quiet during the assembly and not one elementary student made a peep. (And on that note of miracle, Tati sat for an entire 30 min. quiet and in her seat.)
2. The children, not the administrators, read poems and stories about the history of and reason we still celebrate this day.
3. All the children listened intently to the messages of freedom, gratitude and peace.
   
4. The entire school sang a song that had the word "God" in it twice.
5. All the children stood up and sang the National Anthem with the teachers and parents. The entire auditorium stood and sang and nobody walked out or sat down during the singing.
6. They somehow got all of the boys from Grades 1-6 to sing a "oooooohhhhh" background voice as a girl read a poem and nobody laughed or made fun of each other.
7. There was a moment of silence where everybody bowed their heads and remembered the people who fought for our freedom. There were many adults wiping their tears when it was done.
8. At the end before the kids left, the Asst. Principal asked how we can show our gratitude for those who have fought for our freedom and she told us it was by "remembering" them. Which is the whole point of today.

I just came away feeling really uplifted and hopeful. And I am VERY grateful for all the people who courageously fought and continue to fight for freedom.