The Crazee Chick's View of Life

How can it be that after being home only one week from vacation that we are all completely exhausted? We actually slept in this morning and were almost late for school! Doesn't 10 days of lying in the sun, playing in the sand, swimming with dolphins, doing a bit of sightseeing, shopping and laying by the pool, eliminate the 'exhaustion' factor in one's life? I mean, really, there were NO deadlines, NO appointments, NO STRESS for 10 days and yet we return to our regularly scheduled lives more exhausted then when we left. I don't get it.

  Mexico, you captured our hearts with your kind people, your beautiful weather, and your culture. Hasta la vista...we will be back!

Get back to work! You have a very limited time to rock a bikini....now get on that treadmill, start eating right and tighten up that butt!!

Slowed danced with the Hubby tonight. It's been a long time since we've done that... Felt so good to be cuddled in his arms but I have to admit that I think we're both shorter then when we did this in high school. And greyer. And saggy-er. And one of us has a bigger butt.....

Shin: Device for finding furniture in the dark. Anonymous Knees: I drive with my knees. Otherwise, how can I put on my lipstick and talk on my phone? Sharon Stone Brain: The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office. Robert Frost Fingers : Happiness never lays its finger on its pulse. Adam Smith Ankle: Did someone sew a baseball under my skin or is that my ankle? Kiki After 6 hours in the ER, a one minute discussion with the doctor, and 20 minutes in the cast clinic, Kiki came home with a pair of crutches and this:   Not feeling entirely confident about the one minute consultation she had with the doctor, I decided to take her to Children's Hospital a couple of days later for a second opinion. After a 20 minute wait, a 25 minute consultation with the doctor, and zero minutes in the cast clinic we came out with a similar diagnosis: Grade 1 fracture on the growth pla...

How is it possible that you are 12 years old already? Wasn't it just yesterday that I ran across the street to my neighbors house clutching a positive pregnancy test  to show her for confirmation? Wasn't it just yesterday that you took me from 5cm to 10cm in 10 minutes? Wasn't it just yesterday that you lay on the baby bassinet all calm, slightly purple, sucking your fingers and having a worried doctor examine your heart and lung sounds? Wasn't it just yesterday that the operating staff wheeled you down the hallway in your little onsie, knitted green hat and a soother in your mouth to fix your heart? Wasn't it just yesterday that the surgeons kept sending out a messenger to tell us that they had run into complications and that you were going to die? No, it wasn't. In fact, it was 12 years ago!! How happy I am to see your smile everyday. It reminds me of the miracle that you are. How I love your strong and independent nature.  It reminds me tha...

Last Friday night... was an amazing night for Mo and a bunch of her friends! No, they didn't dance on tabletops. No, they didn't go streaking in the park or skinny dipping in the pool. And no, they didn't break the law. Thank goodness. Nope, these lucky girls got to dance in the halftime show of the BC Lions game at the first game back in the newly re-opened BC Place! Sarah McLachlan singing the national anthem Dancing to "Raise the Roof" Dance has brought her so many amazing experiences! She's danced in a Christmas Parade, at the Paralympics Opening Ceremonies, at Disneyland, and now this. Next month she also gets to be in the Grey Cup parade and in the halftime show again!   In July both Mo and Kiki will be travelling with their dance teams to compete in Vegas!  I wonder if these kids realize how lucky they are?

 My dear daddy sent me this email and normally these kinds of things don't really affect me. But this one did. And I had to share. THINK There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She Hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always There for her. She told her boyfriend, 'If I could only see The world, I will marry you.' One day,   Someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages Came off, she was able to see everything, including her Boyfriend. He asked her Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?' The Girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The Sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn't expected That. The thought of looking at them the rest of her life Led her to refuse to marry him. Her Boyfriend left in tears and days later wrote a note to her Saying: 'Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before They were yours, they were mine.' ...

It's official.  I have crossed the line from 'this' side of crazee to 'that' side.   My life is so hectic that I now understand expressions like: 1. I'm pulling my hair out.     ~when you get stressed out there really is that moment when you fling your hands up to your head in frustration and the only logical thing for your hands to do while they're up there is to pull at whatever they can find which, co-incidentally, is your hair. B.  I'm so far behind I think I'm first      ~I don't even have the time to tell you how far behind I am.  Kiki's birthday is tomorrow and I don't have a present for her, no food for the party, no goodie bag stuff, etc.  My house is a complete disaster with clothes strewn all over, clutter on every flat surface, dust....the list goes on and on.  It's embarassing! iii. Stop the world and let me off      ~If I could just STOP everything for a while then I could g...

HOT. YOGA. HOT YOGA. 41degrees Hot room. 26 positions. Toned bodies. Sweat everywhere. Even my ears. Sweat everywhere. Even my rear. Stretching. Reaching. Straining. Relaxing. Energizing. Calming. Ouch. Pain. Muscles. Where did those muscles come from? Didn't know I had those. Ouch. Walking. Gently. Quads. Aching. Arms. Aching. Butt. Aching. Mind Still rejuvenated. Calm. Relaxed. Energized. Next class? Soon!!

Yes, the PNE is over. Yes, Summer is over. Yes, I am tardy in getting my posts out. Deal. Here are some pix of our day at the PNE. We had a great time and lots of laughs at Zee's expense. He's such a drama queen! That's us on Crazy Beach Party.  I didn't ride as much as I used to--am getting old; tummy doesn't like; makes brain spinny.   Don't need more of that. Zee and me on the Tilt a Whirl.  His favorite ride.  I swear the guy running the thing fell asleep (or was stoned out of his tree) because he left us on for over 10 minutes.  Thought I was going to puke!  Even Zee was bored by the end of the ride. Okay, how funny is this?  Zee is terrified of heights but he decided to try the mini hellevator anyway.  Oh my gosh, the look of terror on his face and his screams had us literally peeing our pants.  So funny!! Artsy fartsy shot.  Kiki on the swings. Squished much?  Love this one--Kiki l...

The other day I was driving around some people and my Mormon radar went off. Certain things they said and did; the way they talked about family; and their clean language made me think, "Hey, I think these guys are Mormons." Rather than ask, I decided to take a little detour and drive them past the temple. As we approached the lady was deep in conversation and when she saw the temple she interrupted herself with a "Holy _________ that`s a big CHURCH!" Nope, not Mormon.

...with the stars up above in your eyes... What an amazing night we had for my company boat cruise! Fantabulous! We started out from Coal Harbor, cruised the Georgia Straight to West Van, then English Bay and finally around False Creek.   I've never seen many of these places from the water so it was an interesting, and gorgeous, perspective! The Georgia Straight The weather was beautiful!  We couldn't have asked for more.  A beautiful night, beautiful weather, a boat, food and dancing...what a marvelous night for a moondance... ...too bad Hubby can't bust a move.  But he's cute so I'll cut him some slack. All aboard! We laughed all night long! Doing the 'Titanic' with Teresa.  Beautiful English Bay Flying the flag Beneath the Lions Gate Bridge Burrard Street Bridge (background) and Granville Street Bridge in the foreground BC Place with the new retractable roof:  looks like a crown now....

There have been bear sightings around our fair city lately and it's got people in a bit of a tizzy. It's a little disconcerting when you hear a rapping at your door and when you go to answer it you discover a black bear on your patio swiping away at your door and window.  Add to that the scene of a conservation officer crossing your yard with a rifle in his hand and you've got yourself quite the scenario.  This actually happened to my friend who now has a bear trap filled with sardines, banana oil and other luxury items sitting across the street from her home. Empty. That bear is just too smart and is not coming back. Maybe if it was packed with chocolate...oh no, I digress, that kind of trap would catch ME! So anyway this episode got me to thinking of my childhood when I lived in a little port town 150 km inland from the Pacific Ocean (and if you think that sounds like something straight out of a travel brochure then you're very perceptive because it is!!) call...

Being that Zee is the third child that automatically makes him the odd one (because 3 is an odd number for those of you who haven't had your morning cuppa cuppa). He's also the only boy in the family. Odd again. But he's also just plain odd. Case in point: Yesterday on the playground he meets up with a friend that he hasn't talked to in quite a while, and one that I am encouraging him to become friends with because they are both sensitive, kinda shy, and tender hearted kids, and they start to play together and talk. The conversation is not one of 'hey, how was your summer?', nor was it 'what's your favorite TV show?', nor 'did you see Cars 2 over the summer?'  No. This is what Zee asks him... "Hi, R, how's your diabetes going?"  *groan* Someone's going to need some lessons in how to be a kid... 

My business partner has a little boy who loves cars. I have a little boy who doesn't care so much for them, consequently we have a box full of unused, unloved, untouched toy cars, so I decided to give them away. As I emptied the cars into a shoe box, and then tried to shove the motorbike with launching pad toy in as well, it became obvious that there wasn't enough room. I remembered a story I had read about a jar, some rocks and some pebbles where the theory was that you put the big things into the jar first and then the smaller stuff in order to make everything fit. It was a theory I'd known for a while but had never tried it out, so I set out to disprove it. There was no way I was going to get it all in... ...but I did. First thing to go in was the launching pad and the little motorcycles and then, miraculously, there was oodles of room left for the little cars. In fact there was more than enough room---I could have added more toys to the box had I had more to gi...

The other day a text I posted to Mo was meant to read, "Be safe", but a slight typo turned it into... "Be sage." Sage is defined as having or exhibiting wisdom and calm judgment, while safe is defined as being free from risk. This typo really gave me pause as I considered the depth of the meaning-- in order to be free from risk, we need to exercise calm judgement and use wisdom--so in order to be safe, we need to be sage, or smart. And then it occurred to me that we are always telling our kids to be safe but are we teaching them how to be wise? Are we providing them with the right tools they need to practise safety and sage-dom? What are those tools? I don't have the answers but here are a couple of things that I think are important to teach our kids: 1. Stranger danger/street smarts--when the kids were little and playing in the park they always knew to draw an imaginary safety circle around themselves (spanning out about 20 feet) and if someone...

The other night I introduced my kids to a whole bunch of my memories. No, I didn't use a pensieve like Harry Potter did (although how cool would it be to have one of those?!). No, my memories are hidden in many forms and one of them is in my stuffed animals. After introducing some of my most special ones to the kids, the last one to come out of the bag and get photographed was Animal from The Muppets.  With his big teeth, moveable eyebrows and floppy body, he was the source of much entertainment and laughter.  Our neighbors must have wondered if we had our senses about us as we were literally rolling on the ground laughing at some points. I kept the camera flashing and this is some of the craziness that ensued... This is how it began.  Zee posed Animal.... Then I showed the kids how my mom used to pose him on my bed... And then, in an unexpected move, Animal jumped on Zee's shoulder... ...and the gauntlet was thrown down.  They're both...