In the land of kids these days at our house, things are pretty exciting. Matt woke up yesterday with a sore ear, and complained that he couldn’t hear properly. “A-ha!”, I thought, he really doesn’t hear me when I tell him to stop tormenting his sister! So, I brought him into work with me and we headed off to the clinic once it opened. Lo and behold, we have a similar problem to Andrea over at quietfish. Sorry… “Marge”…ahem. Matt may quite possibly have an ear infection, but the Dr. can’t really tell, because his ears are so full of wax. How terrible does that make me feel? Yikes! I DO clean his ears… but I guess I shouldn’t? Ah well. We have some drops to loosen the wax (gaaaaaaaaaaah) and he should get his ears flushed (double gaaaaaaaaah) tomorrow. Give me strength.
On a more exciting note, Gracie seems to be mastering the potty! We have had some small successes over the last little while, but I am proud to say that she went in the potty EVERY time she had to go yesterday, even when we were at a restaurant for dinner! How. Exciting. Is. That.??? I know.. if you’re not a parent, you won’t get it.. but trust me… it’s big news!
No big plans this weekend – other than the usual hockey and stuff. I think that DH and I might actually go on a date… just the two of us… if Grandma and Grandpa agree to babysit on Saturday night. Now THAT would be exciting! It’s been a while since we’ve gone out by ourselves and enjoyed each other’s company solo. Might be fun for a change!
Have a great weekend!

The weather in Ottawa has been TERRIBLE lately. It’s been raining steady for close to a month now, and we’re all looking for a little bit of sunshine. It’s really too bad, as Fall is usually my favourite season, with crisp, bright mornings, the changing leaves and the cool nights! This fall has been awful. Wet, damp, and overall, ick. You can’t leave the windows open at night, because the bed clothes are damp and soggy by the morning. Bright, crisp mornings? How about dark, dreary soggy mornings? And the leaves, well, they fell pretty quickly once the rain started. I’m considering building an ark. I’ve got one dog, one cat and a fish .. anyone have other pets to contribute?

I went to see my aesthetician yesterday, who mentioned that “Deal or no Deal” is coming to Canada. She was considering applying. So guess what.. I’m putting in my application! I’ve never done anything like this before. Can you imagine? I think it would be a hoot… and the opportunity to win lots of $$$…even better! I’ll keep you posted as to my progress… the application has to be in by midnight tomorrow night, and the audition interviews take place in Montreal on December 7 and 8. I’m so excited about the possibility …. I can just imagine what I’d be like if I actually got selected to be on the show!
Stay tuned…

You are 100% Canuck!

You rock, you are an almighty Canadian through and through. You have proven your worthiness and have won the elite prize of living in a country as awesome as Canada. Yes I know other countries think they are better, but we let them have that cuz we know better than they do, eh?

How Canadian Are You?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Yay for me! Thanks to Dani for the link!

As I sit here and type, I am a blubbering fool. I just left our school’s Remembrance Day ceremony. When I was in High School, it was often a fairly cheesy assembly – someone recited “In Flander’s Fields”, the band played a few songs, and there was a skit or two depicting the horrors of war. In grade 11, we gained a new drama teacher – an actor who took his work very seriously, and our Remembrance Day ceremonies became more thoughtful, meaningful and effective. I remember thinking that it was really a time that we should pay attention to what they were trying to tell us, rather than passing notes back and forth down the aisles of the school theatre. The ceremony I just attended was touching, meaningful, and definitely drove the point home. Often children think of people who are affected by was as “old people”, grown-ups, adults, but not children. I have to admit, I hate to think of children affected by war and how traumatizing and terrible it must be, and would rather not think about it than talk about it. The drama students did a fantastic job of presenting some tableaus, very dark, very somber, very effective, and the one that got me started was about a little girl in Holland clutching her rag doll and her mother by the neck as the bombs go off around her house. All that is left at the end of the scene is the doll lying amidst the rubble. (Cue: Vanessa’s waterworks – scene 1). I’ve always had a soft spot for stuffed animals and this type of symbolism kills me. My Mom tells a story about some science-fiction movie I watched with my parents when I was little (maybe 4 or 5) about a little alien boy who comes to live on Earth. He is “adopted” unknowingly by human parents who raise him as a human. When he gets to a certain age, he has to return to his planet. He had a stuffed elephant that was his favourite toy, and when he got “beamed” back to his home planet, all of his earthly belongings, including the elephant were left behind. My Mom claims that it took me forever to recover. I cried, I sobbed, I just couldn’t understand why this little boy couldn’t have his elephant, especially since he wasn’t going to have his parents anymore. The Christmas story of the Littlest Angel gets me too. Particularly when the little angel’s box of goodies is described – the treasures of a 4-year old boy. During this ceremony today, they showed a clip from the movie “Sophie’s Choice”. If you’ve ever seen it, I’m sure you know which scene they showed. In the movie, Sophie has been arrested and is headed to Auschwitz with her two your children. Her little girl looks to be 2 or 3, and her little boy looks about 4 or 5. The soldiers are sorting the line up into two groups - people headed directly to the gas chambers and the other, people headed to the work camp. A soldier, who notices her little girl clinging to her, obviously terrified and upset, and the little boy burrowing into her hip, approaches the mother. He tells her that she can only take one child with her, she “gets” to choose which child she will take with her to the work camp, and which one will be sent to the gas chamber immediately. She keeps telling the soldier that she can’t choose, but when he threatens to take both children away, she tell him to take her daughter. Then ensues a horrifying screaming, clinging to Mom, awful scene. (Cue: Vanessa’s waterworks – scene 2). This movie affected me tremendously when I first saw it. When I saw this scene again, I was done. I’m still crying. Now, as a parent of two children, I can’t even imagine being in that situation, having to choose the life of one child over another. Just thinking about it, I start bawling again. I can’t imagine having to hand over one of my children, kicking and screaming, to never see them again. And to have them think that I chose the other one over them as their last memory of me. What could be worse? So, on this day of remembering those who have fallen for our freedom, and who are currently protecting our world as we know it, let’s take a moment of reflection, and hope to Hell that we’re never faced with making such a decision in our lives, and never have to watch our children suffer as so many did and still do.

I thought I would take a moment to introduce some members of our family - the pets. Now, this isn't a "posting the cat" entry so early in the life of this blog, I just thought people would be interested in meeting our furry friends at home who add to this comedy we call our peaceful at-home life. So, I'll begin with the larger of our two four-legged family members, and he-who-is-most-responsible-for-the-big-messes, Charlie. The Dog.

Yup.. he is as cute as he looks. But don't let that fool you. He has a sniffer extraordinaire, and is willing to eat ANYTHING if you leave it within his reach. In fact, being in his reach is not so much a prerequisite - if he can smell it, he wants it. You can imagine that with a toddler running around, often clutching a bun or other such treat in her grubby little palm, he gets a lot of snacks via Gracie. His favourite place is under Gracie's high chair, where he anxiously awaits whatever she will drop his way, and can't wait for her to leave the table so that he can finish whatever she left on the plate. Whether she was finished or not. This past summer, Charlie got very, very, sick with a gastro-something-or-other, and our vet suggested that it might be "garbage-itis" - an upset stomach of sorts, from eating things he shouldn't have.

I have to say, I laughed out loud. Charlie once ate a two-pound bag of dark Belgian chocolate. Enough to kill, or at least, seriously hinder most dogs. Yes, he vomited in about 1000 different places throughout the house, but there were no long-term effects. Trust me, when I was scrubbing the carpet, I was wishing there had been some long-term effects.. like death! He has eaten poopy diapers, rotten food, cooked chicken bones, tin-foil wrapped leftovers (foil and all), a small roast, carrot cake, styrofoam packaging and his favourite...cat turds... There was no doubt, though, that he was ill...

Have you ever seen anything sadder-looking? Poor little bugger... as it happens, he had "prostatitis" which in turn affected his GI tract, which made him very very ill for a few weeks, but he's all better now. Back to his old eat-everything-in-sight self. We do love him, we just wish he wouldn't shed quite as much, or pee on the floor quite as much, or throw up on the carpet quite as much, or steal food from us quite as much. Now, the cuddling on the bed between us, while lying on his back, snoring and occasionally yelping in his dreams was cute at first, but the novelty has worn off.

Charlie, we love you... but please, oh please, stop eating my underwear!

Bloggy Review

I have just spent an obscene amount of time reading Marla's blog over at Hello Josephine. And all of the archives. All I can say is WOW. Steve and Josie are so lucky to have you, as you are lucky to be blessed with such a wonderful Husband and incredible daughter. Reading this blog, you can feel the love just oozing from Marla's words, like the maple syrup oozes off a waffle when you break the barrier around the little squares. (See... I'm trying to be poetic, and it just sound cheezy). Her adventures with Boo Boo are hysterical, and her adventures in parenting, wifing, and familing are both inspiring and touching, and more often then not, quite funny! I recommend, if you have a minute... or several hours, as in my case, it will be time well spent!

Andrea at quietfish posted this and I recommend you take a look if you ever use Mr. Clean or such "Magic" erasers....http://kerflop.com/2006/11/02/chemical-burn/
Thank you to Kerflop for sharing such a heart-wrenching story.

48 things about me that you probably aren't interested in at all but I'm going to tell you anyway ...

1. first name? Vanessa
2. were you named after anyone? I was supposed to be an Andrea or "Andriyka". My parents saw me and realized that I needed something a little more exotic.
3. when did you last cry? The other day, when I was telling my friend about the movie "On the Beach", and describing my emotional breakdown when I watched it not long after 9/11.
4. do you like your handwriting? Yes - it's pretty nice. Lots of people compliment me on it, and I manage to gt my point across on paper, so it serves the purpose!
5. what is your favorite lunch meat? Haha.... anything that's not "mock" or a "loaf". Kobassa probably ranks as my favourite, but not the cheap kobassa-esque stuff they pass of at the grocery store as "polish coil", but the real stuff from the polish sausage shop.
6. if you were another person would you be friends with you? I'd like to think so. I know I can be a little over the top at times, but I'm not overly obnoxious most of the time. And I'm a good cook. At least I would go over to my house for food.
7. do you have a journal? Besides this blog, no. I was one of those people who always tried to keep a diary or a journal, and besides the journal I kept when Matt was first born, I never really succeeded.
8. do you still have your tonsils? I sure do, but my husband seems to keep looking for them in there.... (ahem...)
9. would you bungee jump? Only if someone pushed me off the cliff.
10. what is your favorite cereal? Honeycombs sans milk.
11. do you untie your shoes when you take them off? no....busted....
12. do you think you are strong? physically - not in the least, mentally - yes, emotionally - depends on the day.
13. what is your favorite ice cream flavor? chocolate mint chip or pralines and cream. Especially from Laura Secord
14. shoe size? 9.5W or 10
15. red or pink? Red. definitely red.
16. what is the least favorite thing about yourself? I'm terrible with the follow-through. On a lot of things.
17. whom do you miss the most? People who know me will think I'm nuts, but I miss my Dad most. I miss that he wasn't a part of my life for the last 20 years, and that my kids never knew him. I wish we could have gotten along and had a semi-normal relationship, but I guess it wasn't meant to be.
18. do you want everyone to send this back to you? umm.. how?
19. what color pants, shirt and shoes are you wearing? Navy pants, Brown shoes and striped top - Aqua, peach, lime and baby yellow.
20. last thing you ate? Grilled cheese sandwich
21. what are you listening to right now? Students counting canned good from our canned food drive
22. if you were a crayon, what color would you be? hmmm... One of my favourite crayola colours is "Mac and Cheese"
23. favorite smell? food... except for anything curry-like, campfire - particularly when it's cold outside, and baby... who doesn't love baby smell!
24. who was the last person you talked to on the phone? The lovely lady who took over for me at my old job.
25. the first thing you notice about people you are attracted to? their smile and willingness to be a little goofy
26. do you like the person you stole this from? I think Babci is great! I've been following her daughter's and her blogs for a while now, and she does remind me a lot of my mom (my kid's Baba) and my Baba, all rolled up into one!
27. favorite drink? Alcoholic? Tequila... just ask Bill. Non-alcoholic? Ice cold water.
28. favorite sport? to watch... anything my kids are playing :)
29. eye color? Tres blue.
30. hat size? big. as in So I Married an Axe Murderer Orange-on-a-toothpick big.
31. do you wear contacts? yes. and they're NOT coloured. God, I hate it when people ask me that. Do you just go up to someone and say - oh.. I love your hair colour... is it clairol or your own? How about... You've got lovely breasts..are they implants?
32. favorite food? wings...fajitas....nachos...just bring me to your local pub
33. scary movies or happy endings? I like both.
34. summer or winter? Summer and fall, but I love Christmas, so I guess winter falls in there somewhere. If only the winters weren't quite as long here...
35. hugs or kisses? Definitely both
36. favorite dessert? Do I have to pick a favourite? It used to be the Deep-fried apple burro at Houston's....honestly, as long as I have just a little something sweet... I'm happy
38. who is most likely to respond? I don't really know... as you may notice, the comments on my blog are a little scarce...hint hint... leave a comment!
39. least likely to respond? Everybody else.
40. what books are you reading? Just finished "Can You Keep a Secret" by Sophie Kinsella... loved it!
41. what's on your mouse pad? A smear of liquid paper
42. what did you watch last night on tv? trash tv... America's Next Top Model
43. favorite sounds? baby giggles... my husband NOT snoring.... the coins pouring out of a slot machine into MY bucket
44. the rolling stones or beatles? Neither … Abba.
45. the farthest you've been from home? Europe...
46. what's your special talent? Tying a cherry stem in a knot with my tongue
47. where were you born? Ottawa, Ontario
48. who sent this to you? Noone... I stole it from the Mater. Now steal it from me! Tag, you’re it!