Happy Birthday

Today is my Dad's 60th birthday. I know he doesn't read this, but Mom does, so Mom, get him to come and take a look.

Happy birthday Dad! We love you.

Darcy is really excited about having all of our family come down this weekend for Pa's birthday.

See you tomorrow.

Is Nick Coming Home Soon?

It just seems that there are so many things every day that make me more and more anxious for Nick to come home. Over the past 18 hours there have been two big things...

First of all was using the barbecue. If you've spent any time at our house during barbecue season you will know that Nick is the king of the barbecue. I never use it. Ever. Before Nick left he told me how to light it and wrote down some instructions on how long to cook different kinds of meat. Unfortunately, he never wrote down those lighting instructions.

Yesterday afternoon was beautiful so I decided that I'd do some hamburgers for supper. Darcy loves them and love hearing her say "hambooger". So I went outside with the butane lighter and got ready to go. I turned on the propane and then I couldn't get the lighter to light up. After a few attempts I ran inside to get a pack of matches. It took all of 15 seconds. Can you see where this is going? I got back outside, lit the match and as I was approaching the little hole I was trying to stick the match through, a huge fireball came at my head, nearly knocking me over. I wasn't hurt, but the smell of burning hair hit me pretty quickly. I ran inside and saw that a bunch of hair at the top of my head was all burnt up, as well as some on either side. It's really a miracle I wasn't hurt. My scalp is pretty itchy today, so I'm not sure what that means. I had to do a little bit of snipping to try to make my hair look reasonable again. I don't think you can tell anything from looking at my hair, but you might be able to in a few weeks when it starts growing back.

Then, Darcy woke up this morning at 4:45. Not cool. I left her in bed for 45 minutes but then she started calling me. My normal response to this would be "Nick, go in there and get her to go back to sleep." Instead I went into her room and told her it was night night time. She told me she had to go pee. She always uses her diaper at night time, so I don't why that wasn't good enough tonight. So, we went into the bathroom and while she was peeing she said "Mommy, I not awake." Well I certainly was! I left all the lights off and she thought it was pretty cool that she was going pee in the dark.

I took her back into her room and put a new diaper on her (In the dark. It was undone this morning when she got up. I don't know if I didn't do it up right or if she undid it.). I put her back in bed and didn't hear another peep out of her. I got back to sleep around 6:00 and then woke up at 6:30. I'm pretty exhausted today.

My poor burnt, tired head!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

OK, maybe it's not, but it's beginning to be the time when we start thinking about Christmas.

I blogged about this last year and some of you expressed an interest in the idea but it was a little late then. I recently got the info in the mail for this Christmas so I thought I'd post again now before I forget.

It's time once again for the World Vision Christmas Catalogue. Have you ever thought that you'd like to give someone 3 little piggies for Christmas? What about a cow? How about stocking a classroom with school supplies or a medical clinic with medicine? You can do all that here.

There is also a link for requesting information for doing group fundraising in your business.

I love this catalogue!

Why I Was Late...

I'll admit it. Since Nick has been gone, I've been using the TV as a babysitter in the mornings while I'm trying to get ready for work. She loves "Curious George" so she lays in my bed under the "cubbers" while I blow dry my hair and get dressed. (Sad how it's already become "my bed". Sorry Nick.)

While I was getting dressed this morning she held up her little arms and said "Mommy, I want to cuddle!" Well, what could I do? The clock was ticking, but that's the sort of moment I'd regret for the rest of my life if I didn't lie down right then and cuddle.

So, I laid down beside her and we put our arms around each other and just laid there for a few minutes. It was amazing. And then she said "I love to cuddle with my mommy."

Suddenly the mountain of papers on my desk didn't mean very much to me anymore...

Where Does She Get This Stuff

Darcy has come up with a few choice phrases over the past couple of days. Here are some of my favourites...

When driving home from the babysitter's yesterday, she looked over towards the river and said "I see a ghost!" She's been talking about ghosts for a couple of weeks now. I have no idea where she heard about them, but she's seeing them all over the place. Nutty. I have no idea what she saw, but she's convinced it was a ghost.

While she was sitting on the potty and I was trying to get her to stop picking her nose she said "I have boogies in my nose!" After laughing hysterically I explained to her that most people use a Kleenex to deal with that problem. Then I asked her "where did you learn the word 'boogies'?" She answered "Justin." He's a 5-year old boy at her babysitter's house, so I guess that's not all that surprising!

This morning when she was getting out of bed she said "I want my Daddy back." I said that of course we miss Daddy and we want him back. She went on to say "I want Daddy back to chase the moose." I asked her where the moose was and she said in her room. I told her I hadn't seen the moose when I was in there, so she must have already been brave enough to chase him away herself.

I don't think this child is ever going to lack in imagination!

Getting Better

Darcy seems to be doing better these past few days. She had a good conversation with Nick the other night (I had to bribe her with cookies, but she still did it!) and her accidents have been decreasing in frequency. Maybe she's settling into a bit of a routine.

She also ate Cheerios this morning. This is something she did every day with Nick when he was at home, but since he's been gone she's gone on a bit of a Cheerios strike. This morning she asked for a bowl of Cheerios with puffed wheat (Nick's favourite combo) and ate two bowls. I was impressed.

We've got a pretty laid back weekend ahead of us. Not too much going on. I've got a couple of good movies out from the library. Tonight I'm going to watch Pride & Prejudice. I've seen it already, but when we watched it, the DVD didn't work properly and we missed a part in the middle. So, I want to watch it again even though I didn't really love it the first time. P & P without Colin Firth just doesn't seem right to me...

For tomorrow night I've got 12 Angry Men. I'm really not sure what to expect from this one. Whenever AFI does one of the top 100 lists, this movie is invariably somewhere on the list so I've wanted to see it for a while. I'm looking forward to it.

Darcy and I are probably going to head to the mall tonight for supper. I've got a big banquet next week for the church and I don't have anything to wear. I went out on my lunch break to look for something, but I really hate shopping for clothes. I can never find anything to fit me, or at least not anything that's geared to a woman in her mid-30's. If I wanted to dress like a teenager, I could probably find something. So I didn't find anything at lunchtime. It will be even harder tonight trying to shop with Darcy with me. Wish me luck!

Sleep Is For Suckers

Darcy woke up this morning at 5:15. Not only did she wake up, but she laid in her bed kicking at the crib and shaking the bars making it impossible for me to sleep too. Not cool.

Of course she's got a doctor's appointment this afternoon right at nap time, so that should be a lot of fun. She's already exhausted and miserable. I can't wait to see how she'll be when she's not getting her nap at the right time. Should be interesting.

As I was getting dressed this morning I turned on the news on the TV in my bedroom. Darcy came into the room and said "I no like that show. I put on another show." She changed the channel so that news came on again. She wasn't too thrilled with that, so she just turned the TV off and walked away. It's OK, it's not like I was watching that or anything!

Her toilet training is continuing to go down the toilet. With being at home today, she doesn't have a pull-up on. We have had several discussions this morning about the fact that she's not wearing a diaper, so she has to tell me when she needs to go pee. I've offered her several chances to go pee, which were all offensive to her. Then, as I was sitting at the computer, she came and stood beside me and said "I do pee pee in my pants." Sure enough, she had.

Does it sound like we're having a good day?

Rough Day

Darcy is really struggling with Nick being gone. She said a few things yesterday that were really hard for me to hear. In the grocery store we were talking about something else entirely and she said "I'll ask my Daddy". I reminded her that Daddy was gone away right now and she looked at me with these big, sad eyes and said "That makes me sad." Then she held up her arms for a big hug. Heartbreaking.

Then at home she said she didn't love Daddy anymore. "I no love my Daddy. I love Mommy." I explained to her that she should love Mommy and Daddy but she wasn't convinced.

I know some of you have had these times of separation while your kids were young. Does anyone have any tips on how to deal with these sorts of things? She still refuses to talk to Nick on the phone too. I just thought maybe some of you would have some ideas.

On a completely different note, watching "The Amazing Race" was a lot less fun without Nick. And Vipul and Arti, a team I thought had a lot of potential got eliminated in the first episode! I really think Peter and Sarah will be a good team to watch.

I was pretty disgusted with Lyn and Karlyn and how mad they got when Sarah pre-boarded the flight beause of the fact that she only has one leg. Do they not realize that pre-boarding cannot possibly give Sarah any sort of advantage in the race? Seats are already pre-determined. She's not flying out any earlier, she's just sitting on the plane longer. Get over it. If she was somehow getting to the front of the ticket line because of her leg, that would be a different story.

Great Weekend

Darcy and I had a great weekend in Cambridge. We left Saturday morning and met my family in Paris. We headed out from there to go apple picking near Brantford and then we went on from there to an apple festival in St. George.

Aside from Darcy only napping for 15 minutes on Saturday, it was a great afternoon. Then it was over to Aunt Joan's in the evening to help celebrate my Poppa's 82nd birthday. It was great to be there for that.

Darcy loved playing with her cousins Laura and Lucas all day on Saturday and then adding Tracy's son Miles to the mix on Saturday night at Aunt Joan's. Miles had all kinds of cool toys to play, even a few Elmo toys, which made Darcy happy.

We had a pretty enjoyable drive home on Sunday afternoon. I was a bit nervous about travelling with Darcy by myself, but it seemed to go pretty well. She slept for an hour on the way home, which helped things a lot. Aside from that we spent a lot of time listening to Sesame Street Platinum which I currently have on loan from the library. There are some great songs on there, and some really annoying ones. Darcy loves most of them and can sing along with several of them already (maybe because as soon as one song finishes she asks to have it again and again and again). Her favourite is definitely "C is for Cookie". There are also often demands from the backseat like "Sing, Mommy!"

She wasn't falling asleep in the car yesterday afternoon, so I took out the Sesame Street CD and replaced it with classical music. She went right out. Then when that CD ended, I just switched on the radio. After I turned on the radio she woke up. I didn't think she could hear it very well in the back seat, but Queen's "We Will Rock You" came on the radio and then I heard this little voice singing along "we will rock you" over and over. OK then, Sesame Street it is!

It was a great weekend and I'm really glad we went. Plus, we've got a big bag of yummy apples from the apple picking!

Huge Relief

I've been working on an online course since May. I finally finished it up this morning. That's what the stuff I was working on and didn't save was for. I wrote my final this morning. I felt underprepared, but when I sat down to write, I felt great. It all came together in an amazing fashion. I really felt like I knew my stuff. That's a great feeling.

It was a really interesting course, but I'm really glad it's over. It's just been a lot of extra pressure on me in this time since Nick's been gone, so I'm glad I don't have that hanging over me anymore.

As a celebration, Darcy and I are heading out of town this weekend! It's my Poppa's birthday and there's going to be a potluck supper to celebrate so we're going for that. We missed a big family reunion in August because it was the weekend Nick was leaving for his training, so it will be good to be around the family this weekend. We're also going apple picking and to some sort of apple festival with my parents, and my sister & brother-in-law and their kids.

I'm just totally looking forward to a wonderful, relaxing weekend.

Getting Ready

The new season of the Amazing Race is starting on Sunday night. I'm so excited. They've got the teams lined up at cbs.com. The team selection seems to be pretty formulaic. The married couple (wife must be a housewife who's never been outside her home), the gay couple, the hot girls, the model guys, a parent/child team and an older couple. This season they seem to have made a couple of variations. There isn't an older couple and there are two married couple teams. One team (Dave and Mary) seems to fit their typical married couple team. Look for this team to be eliminated early. The other married couple (Vipul and Arti) have a lot of travel experience and speak several languages. They could be a force to be reckoned with.

I don't remember ever starting with three all-female teams before. Hopefully one them will make it to the final three at least.

One team that intrigues me is Peter and Sarah. This woman was featured in one of Nick's triathlon magazines one time. She is an ironman racer, and she races with a prosthetic limb. Her partner is also an ironman competitor, so they're both obviously incredibly strong. I've got my eye on these two to go far.

I'm not making any picks until after I watch Sunday night's episode. I can't wait!

Desperation

I don't know if anyone can help me or not, but I am completely desperate this morning!

I've been doing a course since May and it's due to wrap up this Friday. I've got two journal-type things that I've been working on throughout the course that need to be emailed by Friday. I've been working on them since May but have ended up with some documents saved at home and some at work. Yesterday I emailed the files from work and stayed up until nearly midnight putting everything together, editing and doing some of the final entries I hadn't done yet. We're talking 3 hours of hard work.

What I didn't realize is that when you email Word files from another computer they don't save in your "My Documents" file, they get saved in some obscure hidden file. I saved the work constantly last night, but now I can't find it anywhere.

Does anyone know if these documents still exist and if they do, how on earth can I find them?

Hilarious

Want a laugh? Check out Stef's flickr page for her amazing pictures of her visit with Darcy...

Real Beauty

I'm not normally one for doing free advertising for companies, but I'm really into Dove's campaign for real beauty. It's all about getting women to see the beauty within themselves, rather than trying to make themselves fit into some sort of cookie-cutter, magazine cover image of what we've been told beauty is.

I got an email from Dove this morning, I guess I'm on their list after ordering a free shirt from them. The email gave a link to this film. It's a quick little two-minute film talking to a bunch of girls probably between the ages of about 9-18. Each of them is talking about how they're made to feel because of their weight, or their looks and the pressures they feel as a result. It's shocking to hear how some of these girls are feeling at such a young age.

Weight issues are a very sensitive topic for me. Careless comments about peoples' weight can do a lifetime of damage to that person's opinion of themselves. I hate that this is the kind of world in which I'm raising my daughter.

So if you've got a couple of minutes, watch the film. Awareness can only help!

Missing Auntie Stef

Darcy had a bit of a rough morning today. She seemed OK yesterday after Stef left, but there were a lot of distractions for her.

The first thing she said this morning was that she needed to see Stef. When I explained that that wasn't possible, she had herself a good little cry. I managed to get her fairly calmed down and even got a few bites of cereal into her, which is more than I was able to accomplish all last week.

She had such a great time with Stef last week that she wasn't all that interested in going back to her regular babysitter's house this morning. She walked right up to the front, but it took some convincing to get her inside the door. Then she kept hugging my leg and hiding behind me. The babysitter pretty much had to pick her up to get Darcy to look at her. I think she's going to be missing the one-on-one attention she got from Stef.

I think we'll have a few days of adjustment to life on our own again, but it was so worth. Thanks again, Stef! It was a lot of fun. We can't wait to see the spaghetti and chocolate pudding pictures.

Darcy's Halloween Costume

Here's a lesson for you.

If you're heading to the mall and not planning on spending any money, do not take your daughter to Old Navy when the Halloween costumes are out.

Trying Something New

I started my blog over on MSN spaces and thought it was OK over there. I like the photo album feature they had there. Considering the fact that my blog is mostly about Darcy, photos are a good thing.

However, MSN has changed their setup and I'm not liking it at all. A lot of people are using blogger so I figured I'd give it a shot.

So, here I am on blogger. We'll see if I like it any better...

If you want to see pictures, you're going to have to visit our flickr site.