Assorted Ramblings...

We're taking the littles downtown today for the parade. I never went as a child, but we always watched it on tv. Hubs and I went together every year when we were dating. We'd gather a group of friends, a pile of blankets, a thermos of hot chocolate and stake out a spot at Queen's Park Circle. Between working weekends - gainful employment is SUCH a drag - pregnancies and too tiny babies we've missed the past five years. We showed the Princess the photos of last year's parade on the website, and she just about peed her pants she was so excited. I can't wait.

And Veronica - I love your comments on all my posts but thank you especially for commenting about the snow. You reminded me of the year I was 19 and I spent a year living in London. I went to Edinburgh for Hogmanay (New Year's) with two friends, and when we woke up, painfully hungover, on New Year's Day there was snow! I was thrilled, because it reminded me of home and it doesn't take long for British weather to do you in, but my friend Vanessa was over the moon - she's from Perth and at 27 she'd NEVER seen snow. We couldn't drag Rachel out of bed but we raced outside and threw snowballs and made angels and basically acted like 8 year olds. Or idiots. When we'd had enough we gathered up great armfuls of snow, raced upstairs to our room in the B&B and banged on the door until Rachel opened it. Then we snowed her. We spent the rest of the day lounging in bed watching cheesy movies on telly. I seem to remember something about people going on holiday in a double decker bus.....does anyone know if that was real or just a result of too many pints? Anyway, I hadn't thought about Vanessa or that day in a long time, and I'm glad you reminded me. I hope you'll get to see Amy playing in the snow next winter too.

Photographic Negative

So I had this bright idea that I could snap the kid's photos for our Christmas cards myself....

Will you please sit still?



Now smile!

I said SIT STILL!

Does this look like sitting still to you?

Sigh.

I'll make an appointment with the photographer next week.

First Snow - Updated

And this. I love this too.

First Snow

By February I'll be telling you that I hate snow....but today I have nowhere to go, there's hot chocolate in the house, and I love this:

and this....

and this.

Dirty Laundry

The laundry situation has reached epic proportions here at the House of Bad. We are talking hampers full of dirty laundry in every room, baskets of clean clothes just dumped on Bad's bed and long folded piles tottering precariously on dressers and chairs throughout the house, waiting in vain to be put away. I think that the piles are breeding whenever my back is turned.

Obviously, I shouldn't be sitting here posting about the mess. I should be upstairs dealing with the situation, but Badness loves nothing more than to knock down piles of carefully folded clothes and, if I weren't so lazy, it would be a good time to re-organize everything - since there are more things out of the dressers than in them. I don't think I have enough time left this afternoon, because I need to do it while the Princess is at school. She never wants to get rid of anything. Ever. We still have her favourite sweater from when she was a year old. I used to have to hide it when it was dirty, because she would take it out of the hamper and put it back on over her jammies and insist on sleeping in it. Now she uses it for one of her guys.

I did manage to get rid of 5 big boxes of the girlie's baby clothes last week. One of the friends we had over last weekend is expecting in January, and as soon as we found out that she's having a girl Mark phoned her husband and told him to bring the van. We had everything piled in the hallway when they arrived. It makes me so happy to see this stuff leave my house. Making room in the closets so that I can go shopping.

Liar, Liar

While commenting on yesterday's post, Jennster called me a liar. I laughed out loud - thanks for that. It got me thinking though, I lie sometimes. Of course I do. I lie to the dentist: "Yes, I floss twice everyday." To the doctor, "Only one alcoholic drink a week, and I work out ALL the time." I lie to acquaintances: "Your new haircut looks great!" I lie to my kids: "No, the cookies are all gone. Sorry guys." (Really, the cookies are hidden for after you finally go to bed.) I lie to Hubs, "I've just got the WORST headache, baby."

The lie I tell most often though, is to my dog. Sorry Sally. It all started innocently enough. Sally doesn't like to come in from the back yard. She feigns deafness when I open up the door and call her. Sometimes I can lure her in with a cookie, but even that doesn't always work. So one day, I was cooking breakfast and I wanted Sally to come in and I opened up the door and called "Sally! Sally!" Nothing. "Sally! Cookie!" Nothing. "Sally! We're having BACON" Within 2 seconds I had 70 pounds of excited and obedient dog through the door, kissing my feet, and ready to do my bidding.

The next morning when I wanted her to come in before I took the Princess to school I called again. "Sally! Sally!" Nothing. "Sally! Cookie!" Nothing. "Sally! We've got.......BACON!" 70 pounds of excited and obedient dog, sitting at my feet. Hubs was scandalised. "Don't lie to my dog! That's mean! How can you do that?!"

"Well, it works. That's how" And as long as it continues to work, I will continue to lie to the dog. I mean, I don't have bacon, but I do give her the cookie. For some reason she falls for it, over and over again. Once in a while, I do give her bacon - just to keep her guessing.

Now dish - what lies do you tell?

NaBloPoMo Filler....

Well, Hubs would tell you that it's not possible, but I feel like I don't have anything to say. My kids have left me without any fresh material. Brats. Even Hubs has been well behaved this morning, actually getting out of bed before me, so I can't bitch about that. Jerk. I signed up for this NaBloPoHo thing though, so I feel obliged to see it through and post something....

Do you want to see some of my work? I have half an art degree, and a diploma in Interior Design. I love to draw and paint, but since I can't stand to be interrupted while creating, I haven't done much since the babes were born. (Bit of an understatement there, when interrupted I can make the Wicked Witch of the West look like Grandma!)

I did get a chance to teach art for a week this summer to a group of kids 5 - 14. The Princess's ballet teacher runs the camp and she mentioned to me that her Art teacher had quit. In a moment of either inspiration or insanity I volunteered. I had never taught before. The theme of the camp this year was Japan, something I know almost naught about. It was a challenge to do the research, and try some techniques I hadn't used. A real challenge. Japanese art is detailed and intricate and meticulous - I am more of a slapdash instant gratification type girl. I tend to destroy any project that requires patience!

The best part, for me, was designing and overseeing a huge mural that was used as the backdrop for the kids play and was eventually installed in the Kindergarten playground of a local elementary school. I had huge half scale mock-ups taped up all over my hallway and living room walls where I could sketch and scribble ideas as they came to me while holding Badness in my other arm. The challenge was that I wasn't painting it all myself - I had to find ways 35 kids could contribute. I had to use exterior latex paint so that it would withstand the elements and there wasn't a lot of time in the program allotted to the mural. I think it turned out amazing - the kids were fabulous. What do you think?

SummerStage Arts Camp 2007 - Mural at Alliston Union