Quote of the Day

Just had to record this one because we laughed so hard about it - and I haven't added a quote of the day for ages.

At Christmas Chase's sister Emily asked if potty mouth had started at our house. My answer was - NO? She then went on to explain her kids new obsessions with potty words such as 'poop'. Well it has now arrived. Cayden has started explaining his 'poop'. It started the other day after a proud "MOOOOOOMMMMMM!! Come Look!" - when I arrive on scene - "look mom - soup poop". The descriptions have continued but this one was hilarious:)

Only a mom can appreciate:)HA!

Traveller

Last year at this time I blogged about our first trip to Las Vegas. I have just returned from another trip to Las Vegas - this time alone. A couple of weeks ago Chase and I went to Indianapolis for a conference and I had a great time, hardly had to work at the booth at all, spent a lot of time shopping and visiting with my new friend Monica, and ate great food. Then last week I was off to Vegas - which I dreaded because I thought I would be bored and lonely - instead I laughed my head off, ate great food (real chinese in China town practically every night), saw some great performances and worked my hiney off at the booth. Seriously, when I got home I slept from 2-6pm then went back to bed at 10 and slept until 9 the next morning. Anyone who has been to Vegas understands the amount of walking that is involved. We stayed only two hotels over from the conference and yet it still would take about 35-45 minutes to walk there - what the!!! Who designed this place? The great thing was - that even with all the great food I still lost another pound this week - yay! I had a great week! I am now in the thick of catching up on what was left behind for the week and preparing for the next conference. Toronto - next weekend - then Edmonton two weeks later then Toronto again two weeks later then Winnipeg, Edmonton, Toronto, AHHHHHH! What have I got myself into (I feel a bit like a movie star or something:)) Business is going well and hopefully we can quadrouple our sales this year (last year we doubled). Hopefully things continue well. Glad to be home.

The latest Escapades

I know, I know, he looks so sweet(photo by Eric Cahoon http://erincahoon.blogspot.com/2010/10/for-naomi.html but don't be deceived.

I never knew that the terrible two's really existed until three with Kiah and even then there were never really that many giant disasters.... and.... now...I...learn...my...lesson.

Yesterday was a day of big lessons. It all started with an alert from Kiah - MOMMMMMM! "Cayden is throwing clothes". I was working on getting my laundry room ready to tile and so I had finished all my laundry and had moved everything out of the room. Each basket was sorted and in each according room, ready for putting away.. or was. When I went in every piece of clothing had been flung from the basket in various areas around and on the bed. And not only that, but EVERY pair of socks had been pulled apart and thrown into the massive mess. I started over, and needless to say - put them straight away. What a way to start a morning.

Then....a couple days ago we received a giant load of books from a neighbor - YAY! I got them all put away the night before and sorted by size, type, shape, etc., and separated from all of our other books so the kids could enjoy the new ones...until... I heard the ever growing in volume MOMMMMMMMM! from Kiah and went in to find every. single. book. covering the whole floor.

After instructing this one to be cleaned up by the assailant I got back to work trying to get mortar mixed and tiles laid. The hyterics of the next 'MOMMMMMMMM' ensured a real disaster awaited. It did. Cayden had climbed up to the sink and filled two giant bowls and a roaster with soap and water then... proceeded to dump them over the edge and flood the entire kitchen!!! Well that clearly wasn't enough water so he turned on the tap, extended it over the edge of the counter and let it spray. ARGHHHHHHH was my only response and Cayden clearly got the idea because he ran and hid. I got enough towels and soaked up the mass of the mess but of course it had ran under my island, stove, fridge and shelves which were not so easy to clean up. Well several towels, hours, and fans running later most of the water had dissipated.

I made it through the day with no more giant disasters and got 3/4 of the room tiled (mostly after Chase got home and was able to help avoid any more 2 year old creations).

This morning I was reminded of my lovely two year old when he asked me for a drink of water which I poured for him from the bathroom sink next to me as I sat doing what we all have to do when we first wake up in the morning. Then a thought struck me - my mouth guard should have been sitting where his cup was on the edge of the sink and it WAS NOT THERE! I stood up to find it in the yellow tinged abiss below. At least I saw it before I flushed. ARGHHHHHH! - he ran and hid.


Needless to say he has been well aquainted with time out the last couple of days:)

The Love Letter

Recently a lovely new girl moved in and was teaching us a lesson. I was lucky enough to be able to sneak in on this lesson as I usually don't get to. It was a really nice lesson and she handed out these thank you cards to us and asked us to give them to someone who we thought would need it. Well I love giving cards and so had plenty of people come to mind immediately, so I decided to ponder on this and decide later on who to give it to.

This lesson was a few weeks ago and late last week I was reminded of this little card waiting patiently in my bag to be used, by a feeling. I was spending some time with one of my good friends and I was looking at her thinking how beautiful and amazing she is and how lucky I am that she is my friend. I have many friends and people in my life that I think this about, but this feeling became so strong to me and it kept coming back everytime I thought of her in the few days after that. I wanted to give her the card but I didn't feel like I could fit all that I had to say in it..... so I wrote her a love letter.

I know this may sound so dorky but one of the things that I am really bad at is keeping in touch with people and feeling like the people that I love don't really understand how much I love them, and maybe I don't understand how much I really love them. If I think about this and record many of the reasons I care about them then maybe I can do better at taking care of them and keeping them in my thoughts (I have a best friend since birth who rocks at this by the way... she always remembers everything that is going on in all of her friends lives and remembers everyones birthdays EVERY year!)

Anyhow so I wrote this letter and told her several of the reasons why I love her and love that she is in my life and included it in the card. She is my wonderful friend.

She called me today to say thank you. The funny thing is that she was thinking many of the same things about me at the exact same time we had been spending time together that I was thinking about her..... But neither of us had said anything - why? I guess it may be inappropriate sometimes to say things like I love you and why, at a random time to someone who you do? But perhaps more often than not it is entirely appropriate. Why aren't we allowed to do this? For me I think it is the intimacy of it. At this point in my life I am working hard at letting walls down and letting people close to me see the real me... and help the real me. She also said many sweet things to me about why she loves me and told me a story about the first time that we met. The clarity of it was interesting to me because I always wonder what people really think about me and she gave me some insite into what she really thinks of me. It was nice, brought tears to my eyes, and made me feel like she really loves me too..... and it was okay for us to say this and to talk about it. At the end of the conversation I felt like something had changed in our friendship, something was there that wasn't there before and I truly treasure it.

It may have been dorky, wierd or risky for me to write this love letter but I know that she will treasure it and she really made me feel loved in her reaction to it.

I wonder what would happen it I wrote a simple love letter to many of the people that I treasure. My husband, my son and daughter, my mother, my family, my friends. How would this strengthen our relationships? How would their response make me feel? How would I feel knowing they have this letter to look back upon listing a wide range of wonderful things about them on a day when they really need it? I am grateful for that lesson and the cards that were handed out and know that that little gesture by my teacher went a long way today.

So... I challenge you to write a love letter. Let someone who you care about and admire know how you feel, and allow them to have something to look back upon to remind them of this. I could have just told my friend, but I was afraid that I would get flustered and it would be awkward and I wouldn't be able to say all that I wanted to without losing my thoughts - so I just wrote it down.

Kind of a random entry I know, but I think I might get a few more love letters on the go:)

Struggles

A couple of weeks ago I did the Riding Mountain Olympic Triathlon. I did this race last year as well and it was miserble and cold, foggy and pouring rain and I didn't really like the distance. I vowed to never do it again. Funny how you change your mind about things after a while. Anyhow I signed up again this year for the Olympic distance which is 1.5k swim, 40K bike and 10K run. Anyhow the weather was awful, again - pouring rain - but this time add high winds into the mix and you end up with huge white caps on the swim, crazy head winds and side winds in the bike and a freezing run. Funny thing is I still had fun. I love to race. I love that it is hard and that it took a lot of preparation to get there. I love that I really am not there to race against anyone but myself but the others really help me to push past my barriers, I love that I have family and friends there every race to cheer me on and take pictures, I love the lone long runs and rides I get to do late in the evening or early in the morning ALL BY MYSELF, I love the feel of the water as I glide through it and practice my stroke effectiveness for hours until I can feel the power of my swim. I love feeling tired after a training session and knowing that I worked hard, and that even though I worked hard, in the end it will give me more energy. I love Triathlon and am so lucky that I get to do so many each season. Now to the Struggles part... This race was HARD! I don't think I have had a race this hard since the two races when I started Triathlon 7 years ago. The swim was killer and I couldn't even see the bouys between each wave, I swallowed so much air trying to avoid swallowing water that at one point I had to stop and let many many burps out, it was kind of funny though - the bike was really hard because of the wind and the bike course in this race is all ready challenging because of all the huge hills in the course. Then I got to the run. Well at this point I realized that several people had had to drop out because they were done for after the swim, and several had flat tires on that nasty bike, I thought to myself, if I finish I will celebrate. I felt okay at the start of the run, but tired. And then this blog started in my head and continued to distract me throughout the run. Through all the leg cramps and sore knees, I thought about how we all have struggles. How most of us try most of the time to pretend we don't have struggles. And how when we are having struggles sometimes we feel like they are worse than anyone elses. And that brings me to this thought - this race was a struggle - it was hard - really hard. And I still had fun. It taught me many lessons - like most struggles do - and in the end it was all worth it.

I started triathlon because I like to be active, I knew how to swim, but not fast, I had a mountain bike and I knew how to ride it and I could learn how to run (or to walk-jog or wog as I call it). I really hate running and I am still not good at it - but improving and continuing to practice. Anyhow, I fell in love although the first few races were a disaster. It was a challenge and it gave me something to be proud of that I could do. It has helped me deal with all kinds of other struggles by both distracting me and empowering me and I think everyone should try it.

If you can swim - doggy paddle included (and if you can't then take lessons), ride a bike, and walk - you can do a triathlon. There are lots of "Try a Tri" races with nice short distances all over Canada. I believe the one in Saskatoon in May is 200m swim (flutter boards allowed), 6km bike and 2km run. Friends, if you want to try it I have lots of tips and advice and I can help you find some good resources and help you set up a program (mind yo not so many tips on how to win - but lots on how to have a great time:)!

Dispite the struggles I still had fun!


And was so proud of myself when I was done:)

....and I am sure I will be back again at this race next year.