christmas shopping on etsy

i love etsy (all things handmade) but i've never actually bought anything on it. today i decided to search for canadian etsy shops just to look around. well, man there is fantastic handmade stuff out there. and i finally bought something.

if you have a kid to shop for this christmas, check out timeless puzzles. i bought a benjamin puzzle. can you believe that it wasn't in stock? they have crazy names in stock - atticus was there...and benson...but no benjamin. if you can never find anything with your kid's name on it, you will be able to find it here! haha. but for an 8 letter, custom made puzzle PLUS shipping, it was $27 CDN. what a great christmas present! and great to support canadian artists. hurry and order if you want it for christmas - the date to order by is november 15.

(yes, this picture is for you, yvonne and janine)

an unattainable goal?

well, i'm almost 5 months into motherhood. i had big plans to hit the gym often. i have not.

there's this "stroller stride" class at the rec centre that i've often said i was going to go to but it's a 9:15am. it seems to just be a time that i cannot make work. ben always seems to either need to be fed or is napping at that time. well today was the day to get there. ben got up at 7:15am and was back in his crib at 8:10am for his nap. naps are always 30 - 45 minutes so i figured i'd get all ready to go and when he woke up, i'd pop him in his carseat and we would get to stroller stride! so while he slept, instead of also sleeping (which is often what i do), i shaved my legs, i did my hair appropriately for sweating, and i got dressed in workout clothes. i packed a diaper bag. i got the car seat ready with blankets and toys and a hat. i was ready.

9am came and went. ben was not up. guess who decided to sleep a whole hour this morning? maybe tomorrow.

so many shoes and nothing i like...

inspired by a rookie moms post called "evaluate, admire, photograph, and throw away your shoes"...i pulled all my shoes out of our hall closet this morning and made myself a grid. this is totally a post for lana's blog, "get out of my closet". heck, it's a post for ALL of us. if you are inspired and post about it (or just do it and don't post about it)...let me know.

SO...the shoes. i'm not a shoe person. this grid may make you question this but let me assure you, in dorms, no one was wishing that they had the same size feet as me so we could swap. i've been alternating between two pairs of shoes this fall: row three, pair 4 and row three, pair 6. both were way overworn last fall/winter/spring at work. both have terrible, thin soles that eventually make my feet tired if i wear them and walk too far. both leak and make my socks wet if it rains...umm...which happens often. and i've been lamenting about how "i need new shoes." now that i have them lined up like this, i see that i "want" new shoes. but nonetheless, i also see that i need, need, need to get rid of some of these.

now i HAVE put a few of these pairs on craigslist because they're in perfect condition only to have them not sell. later this week, i'll post a few pairs here to see if you want them.

those red ones really stand out, hey? i wore them on sunday. i have such bad blisters from 2 hours in those shoes that i'm still recovering. does anyone else have this problem? like, every pair of shoes gives me blisters. and if they don't, it's because they're lame. i buy shoes, knowing that people have to "break in" their shoes and i try. i honestly do. ask the people i have worked with because they've seen me walking around barefoot by lunchtime with bleeding blisters. yuck. it keeps me from being a shoe person.

so out of these 32 pairs, i wear 6 often, 6 occasionally, 3 pairs that used to be occasional no longer fit me post-pregnancy, and the rest are nevers. in fact, one pair belongs to liz - i should give those back. so how many to toss? i'm giving 8 pairs away to salvation army, 4 pairs i'll try to sell again before giving them away. 12 out of 32? it's a start at least.

the rules.

well, a few pounds gained in ontario, i've returned to BC with a new determination. i need some rules. sure, if the rules are made FOR me, i'm not too keen but if I make the rules, then i can do it. so still counting my 22 points a day - here the new additional rules for the month of november:

only 2 pts. can be alloted to dessert-like food per day. (that would be like a mini chocolate bar or a 1/2 cup of frozen yogurt)

only 2 pts. of "junk" food per day. (that would be about 14 baked chips)

fries can be once a week at the most.

one diet pop a day. (yes, at this point, that is cutting back)

pizza is allowed on sunday nights of course. (this is 20 year tradition in the macdonald household though it used to be fridays)

yes - this helps me to write it out and throw it to the internets. ;) now it's public, i can't break the rules, see? so here we go - november is my month to turn it all around. i need to get "on a roll" and this is it. (thanks for being a part of my self-pep-talk).

exersaucer...

so the day before we left for ontario, i was feeling like ben was getting tired of his playmat and how great would it be if he could play in his exersaucer while i was packing and cleaning? i went and pulled the box out of the closet where it's been waiting since april. in my mind, i was going to dump out a mostly put together toy. you know, snap the legs on and snap the top and bottom together and voila! exersaucer.

instead, i dumped out a billion tiny pieces in baggies and way more plastic pieces than i was expecting. okaay...well i had obviously gotten myself into a bigger job than i'd realized. but hey - let's get it done. i pull out the 12 page instruction booklet. i go to the garage and get the screwdriver. (who knew there'd be screws to this thing?) and i set to work. as you can see, ben watched from his playmat.

work, work, work. eventually, ben was tired of the playmat and moved to his jolly jumper to watch the process. lots of snapping things together and using my sscrewdriver to make things stick. i'm working away, thinking how handy i am as well as speedy but 45 minutes in, i discover a missing piece. WHAAAT? a missing spring. now, springs ARE round and have a tendancy to roll and i DID pour all the parts out of the box. so i search my kitchen for about 15 minutes. and the kitchen is not 15 minutes big. i searched thoroughly. in fact, i even walked around my house looking...just in case. no spring. GAH!

i email evenflo to say that i am missing a spring. can they get me one? a pieced together exersaucer sitting in my kitchen is at stake. well the very next day, i'm in ontario. i check my email and discover a prompt email from evenflo saying, "yes! we can mail you a spring! it'll be there in 2 - 3 weeks." WOAH! i'm pumped. maybe it'll be home before i get home!

nope. i got home on thursday and it wasn't here yet. but no worries. it was on it's way. so friday morning, i'm on the phone with my friend, kara, and as i walk into my kitchen, i see a glimmer of silver from under the sink cupboards. i stop talking mid-sentence and get down on my hands and knees to look into the cavernous hole under the cupboards that leads to a heat vent. THE SPRING! it had rolled all the way over there and even though i'd gotten down on my hands and knees and looked under the oven, i hadn't looked in this direction apparently. shoot.

so i set to work and finished up the exersaucer. ben's pumped. and if anyone finds themselves missing a spring...i have one for you.

a halloween classic...

on this night, 2 years ago. classic.

back to thoughts on our trip...

okay...we got a little sidetracked with the cuteness of the matching sleeper and blanket and the craziness of poor understanding of numbers BUT...back to ontario. in "s. him-ee" fashion, i have been collecting my highlights and lowlights of the trip in order to summarise the fantastic-ness of our trip out east. though i'd like to preface these highlights with the obvious: the biggest highlight of course is that we got to see our extended family of aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents and introduce them to ben. so awesome.

highlights: 1. excessive desserts. 2. never getting lost thanks to jmac's gps. 3. (tim's) witnessing the maple leaf's worst start in franchise history while in toronto. 4. a time's up battle of champions. 5. watching not one but two impersonations of busta rhymes from amy. 6. 2 - 3 hour breakfast chats at the matuskas. 7. (tim's) jogging around port stanley. 8. imagining the possibilities of buying a shop in port stanley and turning it into a bookstore/coffee shop. 9. (tim's) a high-speed tour of the wardsville golf course with jonny hanging on for dear life. 10. paul's nicknames...for everything. 11. picking up abi at school for lunch then picking up rachel at school for a second lunch. 12. a colossal serving of apple crisp. 13. (tim's) managing to fit in two canuck games. 14. ben's fear of uncle brad's laugh (i guess this shouldn't be a highlight but it sure was funny). 15. the generosity of our family. 16. cheesecake with caramel and chopped up toblerone at the wards. 17. trying out the wii fit. 18. meeting molly green. 19. actually seeing the CN tower while in toronto. 20. donuts for breakfast. 21. a game of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader with made-up rules. 22. anticipating a fight at the car rental place only to have none because there was no sketchiness to the car drop off. 23. staying in only two places while in ontario...fantastic spaces of our own while away from home. 24. lots and lots of photo albums that lead to lots of stories. 25. hershey black cherry and almond chocolate bars. 26. spaghetti sauce.

lowlights: > not getting an empty seat beside us on the plane on the way there. > getting a smaller rental car than i had thought i had reserved. > choosing "shortest route" and ending up on gravel roads on the way to kitchener. > (tim's) our 2009 corolla. > discovering 5 oclock naps are not possible. > (tim's) losing the ski jump game to 10 year old kamrin. > ben's screams before take off on the way home. > excessive desserts.

a ben series: stripes

price is wrong

okay...this seems silly to post BUT it was too unbelievable.

today on the price is right, at the final showcase, the first woman had two within-US trips AND a trip to london, england. she bid $4200. i was like, "whaaat? oh well, she must not know what trips cost." because you know, sometimes the trip-showcases are quite low...umm...but not that low.

anyways...the next showcase (always the better of the two) was an HD home theatre, movies, ipod, and a car. the guy's like..."hmm...42...hundred dollars." drew was staring at him, "42 HUNDRED dollars?" the guy nods, "4 thousand 2 hundred dollars."

at this point, i'm screaming at the tv, "WHAAAT?!?!" and ben is staring at me. so these two idiots both bid $4200 on their showcases. after the commercial break, both of them looked like they'd figured out their mistake. the trip showcase was $19,ooo. the car showcase? $44,000. so the trip woman won. that guy is never going to live it down.

yes. this was my morning so far.

ben visits ontario...were his parents there?

the miracle of flight

whenever my dad returns from a flight, he can't help but say how amazing it is that just a few hours ago, he was on the other side of the country (or wherever he was). i feel the same way - it's crazy, really. on saturday morning at 4:30am, we woke up and made our way, bleary-eyed, to YVR for our early morning flight. a few hours later, we were in ontario having snacks with my dad's sisters and family. unreal.

but as for the flight...i was crying before the plane took off. oh - how did ben do? very very good. i was sure he wasn't going to be able to nap which would lead to excessive crying (which lead to my own crying) but instead he just cried a little each time he needed to sleep. which was three 20 - 30min naps in tim's arms.

yes, the stewardess offered to take this photo. i did not ask. we unfourtunately did not have a free seat in our row despite the 30 free seats on the plane. boo.

on the way home, we had an 8:50pm flight. so we ate our time horton's sandwiches around 6ish and then i washed ben's face and hands, put him in his sleeper, gave him a bottle and laid him in his stroller. he seemed to know it was bedtime so settled with no crying. unfortunately, many, many, very loud announcements get made in an airport about flights. at every announcement, the stroller would shake but not a cry was heard. unbelieveable. i was beginning to have high hopes for this flight home.

and then we got on the plane.

ben was awake and unhappy to be so. he let the entire plane know by wailing in way that you might think i was pinching him as you walked by my seat on the way to your seat. and you would have been thankful that you were in row 22 since we were in row 5. but again, despite a non-full plane, a guy comes along to sit in our row. "noooo!" i yell. (just kidding) actually, he was so nice and he's like, "i'll ask if there's another seat i can have so you guys can have a spare for the baby." (or maybe he was thinking, "i got to get out of here!" but either way, i was happy) and off he went. ben proceeded to scream but after 10 days of letting him cry when he went down for his naps, i was a little more up for it...and no tears for me. despite ben being awake for over half of the 4.5 hour flight, there was only that initial 20 minutes of wailing. the rest of the time was smooth though sleepless.

i actually had thought of a plethora of witty things to post about airports and such while we were waiting to board but now, they're forgotten. and all i can remember is this: with all the amazing technology that we have out there, why does the "live map" that tells you where you are on westjet flights, have SUCH a big airplane icon? it is no help. in this photo, depending on where you are seated in the plane, you could be over the ocean, vancouver, the okanagan, or almost even in alberta. thanks westjet - but why am i not home yet?