My mom is comin', my mom is comin'!

My mother is like, my favourite person in the world.
I haven't seen her in 2 months.
This is the longest I've gone without seeing her in nearly 4 years,
Since we last moved home to Kitchener.
I know Little Tyke is going to be the star of the show this weekend ...
But I'm pretty jazzed too.
I get to see my mom!
I missed my mom!
It's going to be lots of fun.
Can't wait until they move to this little end of the province
Come the fall. So nice. :)
Hope everyone else has a good weekend too! Much love XO.

My brother

Been meaning to post this for a day or two now as well -



Kyle with this performance won the first ever Drumming for Drinks contest outside of Scotland. Congrats kid! :)

I can't believe I don't watch Glee ...

But judging from this video, I just might need to change that. Kudos!

Condolences

Condolences to Poland this week as they mourn the loss of their President, First Lady, and a sizeable portion of their cabinet in a plane crash over Russia. Kudos to all involved in the investigation for their stoic professionalism, and sympathies particularly are extended to the families of the 97 deceased on the airplane. Such a personal and political tragedy for Poland, already far too familiar with both in its history.

I would also belatedly like to extend my condolences to the family of the victims of the W. Virginia mine explosion last week which took 29 lives. I know I am behind on both of these expressions of sympathy, but they are no less sincere for having been distracted by my own set of illnesses and work last week. May we all have better weeks going forward with this one. Love to all.

ABCs of me (stolen from Alex)

**HEY GUYS - sorry I've been absentee this week - I've had a sick baby. :( But now that he's feeling better, and now that my computer is also less buggy :D, it's an evening to relax, take care of some grading and stuff ... but also to remind blogland that I'm still in here somewhere. So ... I've also been catching up with my blog *reading* and got the idea to make this entry a bit more than just a paragraph of 'I'm alive', from one of my friend Alex's entries - so thanks, girl, for this neat game. Since you've been sharing some of my surveys, I figured I could punk a great one of yours. :)

A. AREA CODE: 613

B. BED SIZE: Queen size

C. CHORE YOU HATE: Floors. Not a fan of sweeping or mopping. Changing garbages neither.

D. DOG'S NAME: No dog - but my former dog was named Holly, and my two current cats are Calvin and Lita.

E. ESSENTIAL "START THE DAY!" ITEM: Little Tyke's milk bottle.

F. FAVOURITE COLOUR: Blue or red, depending on shade, mood etc.

G. GOLD OR SILVER: Gold usually. But I'll go with Alex, white gold is pretty cool too.

H. HEIGHT: 4'11"

I. INSTRUMENTS YOU PLAY: I sing mostly, to the extent I'm musical; I can also very rudimentarily plunk a piano, and knew how to play clarinet once upon a time ...

J. JOB: All kids, all the time - mom and teacher. :)

K. KIDS: My one Little Tyke, with hopefully at least one more someday in the middle-future (not too far off, but not like, next week either).

L. LIVING ARRANGEMENTS: 3-bedroom townhouse with my hubby and the baby boy.

M. MOM'S NAME: Jean.

N. NICKNAME: Sar I guess is the main one; Princess used to be one as well.

O. OVERNIGHT HOSPITAL STAY: When I got my tonsils out, and several that ended up being overnight just from how late I stayed lol - but not intentionally overnight.

P. PET PEEVE: I think I have two - dishonesty is one (I REALLY value trust, and while I've come to accept some white lies of 'No that dress doesn't make you look fat' variety lol, not much beyond that is acceptable to me); also, immaturity. My other isn't so much one thing as a summary of a type of behaviour that would be best labeled 'Drama'. Deal with your problems up front, it's not high school gossiping, sending nasty notes, stewing about problems without discussing them, all Mean Girls-like, and don't take out your issue with other situations, people, or yourself, on those who you KNOW deep down are good people who are just trying to be there for you and haven't done anything THAT wrong. Whether you're 25 or 50, this is so unbecoming.

Q. QUOTE FROM A MOVIE: "I owe you nothing. And you are nothing to me. Thank you for curing me of my ridiculous obsession with love. " (Moulin Rouge)

R. RIGHTY OR LEFTY?: Lefty

S. SIBLINGS: I have one younger brother, Kyle, and a hopefully-future sister-in-law Dawn.

T. TIME YOU WAKE UP: 6am at the earliest, 8am if Little Tyke's let us sleep in

U. UNDERWEAR: Uh, comfortable mainly. lol

V. VEGGIE YOU DISLIKE: Hot peppers.

W. WAYS/REASONS YOU ARE LATE: Losing track of time. I'm awful at getting it into my head I only need 5 or 10 minutes or what have you to get somewhere, when really it's longer. Either that, or last minute ... um ... baby emergencies (feeding or diaper related lol).

X. XRAYS YOU'VE HAD: Teeth, ultrasounds, chest.

Y. YUMMY FOOD YOU MAKE: Shepherd's pie, and penne and sausage. Other stuff too but those are probably my signatures.

Z. ZOO ANIMALS YOU LIKE: I enjoy big cats, or petting zoo animals. I agree with Alex though, monkeys are cute because of how busy they are.

A Lovely Weekend

It was Easter this weekend and a perfect example of looking at the positives rather than the negatives - something my friend Alex has been teaching me by example, and which without even realizing it I find I've applied. Case in point:

We had wanted a movie date Saturday afternoon before meeting up with friends while Ari's parents babysat. We ended up skipping the movie and only a small number of friends managed to make it - but we skipped said movie in order to have a lovely afternoon with our son and my in-laws at the playground, and the people who DID make it to dinner all knew each other and got along well and we had a lovely time.

I'd wanted to go to church Sunday morning - however Little Tyke had trouble sleeping until midnight Saturday and we took the opportunity the next morning to sleep in when he did - but instead we got to enjoy a lovely brunch with my father. I have communed often with the Lord since moving to Ottawa and discovering a truly inspiring church community to be a part of - but it was nice to spend time with my dad and step-mom, two busy professionals who we don't always get to see as often as we'd like. My brother, who I love and miss, wasn't able to join us, and my mom was out of the country on vacation, but we had a lovely trip to the park, a great meal, and saw a nice movie in THE BLIND SIDE.

My tendency at times would be to focus on the sleepless baby, the missing people, the lack of church on the Holiest day of the year ... but I instead consider God to have blessed me with time with my family, a baby who despite the sleeplessness was in excellent spirits and charmed everyone as usual, nice time with my friends and lovely weather both for the weekend itself and travel both to and from 'home'. Hope everyone else had a lovely weekend as well. Happy Easter, and Happy Passover all. XO

Happy Easter! Happy Passover!

After a lovely Seder meal at my church tonight celebrating the Last Supper, Ari and I are headed back to our hometown tonight to see family and friends for the holiday weekend. I may or may not have the opportunity to post before Monday, but that's when you can expect me back. Meanwhile I wish you all a lovely Passover, and a happy Easter.

May all your Good Friday moments lead to the glory of Easter morning Resurrections.

Next year in Jerusalem! XO