Hallowe'en '06, part one.

The other night Armondo and I carved pumpkins. Armondo's turned out great:
Mine? Not so great. I was doing some stupidly hard design, and my hand cramped up near the end, so I asked Armondo to help me out and finish it. And boy, did he finish it!
Yeah, my pumpkin got destroyed even before it was finished.

SO... I had to have some sort of a Jack o' Lantern, and here's my version:Armondo helped me paint it.

And, because some of you have been requesting belly shots, here are a couple more:

Pics of the kid etc, to come up in part two!

That is life.

One of our fish died today. We have had this fish for over three years, and he was probably a couple of years old before that.

Armondo: He probably just reached the end of his life span.

Me: Are you sad?

Armondo: No. If I got sad every time I saw a dead fish, I would have to kill myself.

Me: Good point.

Appliance Day! Whoo hoo?

I was scheduled to have a spa day Saturday. A pedicure, a facial, and a set of gel nails were all part of the plan. When I got there, the place was still closed and the spa lady didn't show up until 10 minutes past opening time, when she told me she was sick and couldn't give me my treatments. She knew she was sick last night, but didn't bother to call me this morning. Jerk. Anyway, I drove home, fighting tears, (I was SOOO looking forward to my pampering day!) but thought it was probably for the best, because I could be home for the arrival of all our new appliances and I could help keep Cherry out of the way.

And the appliances arrived, and are in working order, but not without some complications!

First of all, awhile back, I told you about how Armondo dropped some light bulbs behind the fridge. (I'm so not looking for the link.) Anyway, the fridge was in an alcove, and over the many years that it was there, the walls had sort of closed in around it, and the fridge was STUCK, which meant that we bought new light bulbs instead of moving the fridge. Well, in order to prepare for the arrival of the new fridge, Armondo tried to move the old one out, with a little more force this time, but it was much too stuck for him alone to move.

The old fridge, stuck.

But he got it a little ways out. Enough for it to put pressure on the wall and door frame beside it, causing our bathroom door TO NOT CLOSE!

Me: Whoa, that totally sucks!

Armondo: Well, I didn't build this crappy house! *pauses* I just bought it!

So, I had to take a shower with the door ajar. Well, Cherry thought this was wonderful, and spent the time playing peek-a-boo with me with the shower curtain while I washed. I TRIED to get Armondo to keep her company and get her to leave me alone, but I guess he was distracted somehow, and because of that, Cherry had a bit of an accident. She pulled my dirty clothes off of the dresser in there, taking our glass vase with bamboo in it down with them. The glass and rocks shattered all over the place, but luckily Cherry was far enough away to not get hurt. I was actually done my shower by this point, but was still standing in the shower sopping wet when I picked the little one up to console her scared, shaking little body. Armondo came in to pick up the glass while I stood there n@ked and wet holding little Cherry, who all of a sudden became very interested in squishing my br3asts like stress balls. (She's been weaned for a long time, so she doesn't get to see them very often.)

After the glass was cleaned up (but not all the rocks), I was able to finish getting ready for my non-spa date. I had to remind Armondo TWICE that I was running late and needed him to watch Cherry closer so that I could finish getting ready. And for what?!?! Ugh! (I'm so not over it!)

Anyway, in the spirit of before and after, here's an open shot of the old fridge. I didn't post a pic back when Belinda was doing the fridge dare, but I figured now would be a good time!

Yes, it's a freaking mess, but I blame Armondo. I keep a much tidier fridge when I'm the only one around! There's two types of milk in there. 1% for us adults, and homo for Cherry. There are several different flavours of salad dressing that we don't use for salad, but Armondo uses for making sauces for other foods. Anything else interesting? Hmm.. farm fresh eggs. A roasting pan with left over shepherd's pie in it, two containers of ketchup, and two containers of yellow mustard, and um.. that's about it. The freezer was much more interesting! Among other weird things, there was icing in baggies, a baggy with ONE strawberry in it, and various types of weird leftovers and fish.

So, Armondo wasn't able to get the fridge out of the alcove by himself, in fact it took THREE guys to get it out!

Armondo's on the floor, pulling from the bottom. You can see his nose.

Then, once the fridge was out, we got to see all the crap that had collected behind and under the thing! And, we got to survey the damage the fridge did to the wall as it was pulled out! (upper left corner)

Yes, Tricia, you were right, (she said so in the comments a long time ago when Armondo dropped the lights behind there) there was a lot of junk under and behind there. There was the handful that Armondo is carrying, plus all the other junk that you can see there on the floor. And the cobwebs? Disgusting!

The new fridge fit in there nicely, with ample clearance on all sides. It's also on wheels, so we can pull it out to clean behind it more often than every 10 years or so. Also, the new fridge is actually metal, so we can stick magnets on it! (The black fridge was just plastic, which was annoying!) So, now we're going to HAVE to get Cherry magnetic letters, which as every parent knows, all end up under the fridge!

See? Ample clearance. BUT... it's not level yet. We're still working on that.

And of course, since you saw the open version of my old fridge, I know you're dying to see the open version of my new fridge!

I could never figure out what that tiny little shelf on the bottom of the fridge door was, but apparently it's for pop and beer cans! Who knew?!? So, now, Armondo's fake beer lives there. (He doesn't drink alcohol, so he drinks that fake stuff. Which I just can't understand, 'cause if you're not drinking beer to get buzzed, then, what's the point?!?! Beer tastes NASTY!)
The fridge has good points: Wide door shelves that hold 4litre milk jugs, and clear glass shelves and drawers that are easy to see through and clean.
The fridge has bad points: Extremely noisy (apparently due to the high-efficiency something or other) and the meat drawer is much smaller.
Overall though, I love my new fridge!

Ok, and then there's the stove. Here's our old one:

Not really all that bad looking, really, but Armondo wanted to try the ceramic top instead of the coil top.

And, here's the new one:

Pretty? Ya? Ok, this range is awesome! You can boil water in the blink of an eye! The oven? Even neater! It's all digital. It tells you when it's preheating. Beeps when it reaches temperature. KEEPS it's temperature! Easy to set timer, clock etc. as well. Oh, and the top, just wipe clean and go. And, OMG, it has a self cleaning oven! I have NEVER had an oven with that feature! Welcome to the 21st Century, CeCe!

The problem?

That would be shipping damage there folks! NOTHING, I repeat NOTHING is ever simple in our lives! We get a new one delivered next week, and for now, we live with this one.

So, remember that room I loathe? Well, now that I've got my new washer and dryer, it's part way to being all fixed up! Armondo removed the tools the other day, and now, this washer and dryer:

Has been replaced with this:

It only took Armondo two hours and several cuss words to get them all fixed up and stacked!
And they are WONDERFUL!

And now, our home and yard is an appliance graveyard! Our broken dishwasher (which we didn't bother replacing) is sitting at the end of our driveway to get picked up by the "large collection" truck that's supposed to come by twice a year. The old washer and dryer are waiting, covered on our front deck for friends to come take them away to their new place they just bought on the island, the fridge is also on our deck, waiting for our local electrical company to take it away and pay us $30 for the parts, and the stove has been pushed aside in our kitchen for someone to HOPEFULLY respond to our ad in the Buy Sell and Trade Classifieds.

And thus ends our adventures in appliances... for now!

Yummy Yogurt.

Yummy Yogurt on Vimeo

Making a Mess!

A Wedding Story (Series part VI)

I have to admit, it's taken me awhile to continue with this post, because, well, I thought it would be boring. I hope though, that I was able to make it at least a little bit interesting for you!

If you want to read the other stories in the series, look for the "Love Series" in the sidebar and click on the previous posts.

A little while after Armondo had given me the promise ring, I sort of freaked out. I all of a sudden saw my life closing in around me, so I had to do something drastic to take some "control" back in my life. As you can see from the following photo, I went a little extreme.I chopped off all of my hair and bleached it blonde in an attempt to gain control over my destiny.
(yeah, there's some weird line thing that showed up on my face from the scan, but I didn't feel like re-doing the scan, so, um.. yeah. I don't have pen on my face.)

Luckily, I had gotten all of that anxiety out of my system before we actually got engaged, and was able to really enjoy the time leading up to the wedding. And, I had time to enjoy my hair too, as you can see from the following "engagement" photo:

My hair is actually hot pink here, but it looks more red in the photo. I had to wear a wig over it at work!

In December of that year, we bought our first house. We had perfect timing and were able to get into the market when houses were still affordable. (We're still in that house, and it's an on-going project!)

After getting settled in the new house (my REAL engagement gift!) we started to plan the wedding.

I had it all worked out. I was going to get married on the beach, my grandmother was sewing the dress, we were going to roast a pig for the party afterwards, my friends' band was going to play, there were going to be Siamese fighting fish in martini glasses on all the tables, and we were going to go spend a couple of nights in a nice beach-front resort hotel and have the whole "honeymoon" package. All this was supposed to happen in July. Then, we were going to have our "real" honeymoon the year afterwards.

Well, after crunching some numbers and having some really itchy feet, we decided that we'd rather elope, and spend the money on a real honeymoon instead of on a huge dinner and expensive bride's maids dresses.

Then, after realizing that it costs close to $1000 to get married abroad, we changed the plans again. We booked the trip to the Dominican Republic, then scheduled a quick, cheap wedding for the day before the flight at Armondo's Aunt's house.

It was Wednesday, March 31st 2004. We had bought a simple dress for myself (My grandmother thought she had months to make the dress, so it hadn't even been started yet), Armondo wore a suit he already owned, Armondo's mother made a small cake, and we got our pastor to come and do the ceremony.

I don't know how many people were there, but my guess would be around 50. Due to the short notice, and the fact that it was in the middle of the week, some key people weren't there for the wedding. Including my Dad. But he didn't seem to really mind. (He really hadn't warmed up to Armondo by that point). I had my (then) three year old god son "give me away" and I just gathered whatever female friends were kicking around to be my bride's maids. I know some people were upset by the fact that they missed the wedding, but I figured that we were going to elope anyway, so if a person was able to make it, then it was just a bonus.

The ceremony didn't go off with out any hiccoughs though. In fact, the day started off bad before we even made it very far from our house.

As some of you may know, my mother and I don't have the best relationship. Actually, these days I'd say that we don't even have a relationship. But she was invited to my wedding, and had said she'd come. (She was excited). We live on an island, and she lives on the mainland, and she was due to arrive on this side and call us from the ferry terminal to get a ride with us to the wedding. My grandmother had already made it from the mainland and was spending the morning with us waiting for my mother's ferry to arrive. We waited until about an hour after the scheduled arrival time, and without a call from my mother, we decided it was time to leave without her. None of us were surprised that she hadn't shown, though I was a little disappointed. We were three minutes down the road when Armondo realized he had left my ring at home. So, we turned around, and headed back to the house. As we pulled into the driveway, we saw someone getting out of a taxi cab in front of our house. It was my mother. Armondo quickly ran into the house to get the ring while my grandmother and I just sat in the car. We were both angry with my mother, and didn't show much enthusiasm towards her as she walked up to the car and asked her mother for cab fare.

The drive to the wedding (in the next town-30 min away) was pretty quiet, besides my mother trying to make small talk. She tried to explain her tardiness and it turned out that she took a totally different ferry (different time, different arrival point) than she was supposed to, and that was why she was late. I blocked out most of the rest of the chatter as I mentally prepared myself for the upcoming ceremony.

As I was getting dressed and ready for the wedding, my mother and my girlfriends all joined me in the room. I felt really awkward having my mother that I barely even knew there in the room while I changed and prepped myself, but I didn't make her leave. I already had my jewelry picked out, but changed my necklace when my mother presented me with "something blue"- a gold coloured necklace with a small blue stone pendant hanging from it that had almost painfully obviously had either come from the discount bin at Walmart, or had come from some sort of other shady means. I took the pendant off of the chain though, and switched it over to the white gold necklace chain I was already wearing.

Getting ready.

I was pretty wrapped up in getting myself ready, but was distracted part way through when my mother asked me to help her choose what shirt to wear for the ceremony. She had brought two ratty tank tops. And she wanted to know which one to wear. She also brought a small cardigan, and I insisted that she wore it over one of the tank tops. Ugh.

When I was finally ready to present myself, we got my godson ready, and he slid down the stairs in front of me on his butt as I followed behind. It was totally cute, and he had the whole crowd cracking up. I hadn't done a "rehearsal" run before hand, and my ribbons on my shoes fell down as I walked down the stairs, causing slight embarrassment for myself, but apparently no one else noticed!

What a cutie pie!

I joined my fiance at the bottom of the stairs and stood in front of the hearth as the pastor read our vows. The whole thing was very surreal and I was beaming with happiness.

Then it was time for us to exchange our rings. And this happened:

"Doh!"

Armondo had forgotten the ring. AGAIN. This time in his jacket pocket in the room he got changed in. Quickly, I slid the "something old" ring off my thumb that my MIL had given to me (it was her father's wedding ring) and we used it for the rest of the ceremony. The big kiss.

(Before we signed the book, Armondo ran and found the ring and we sort of slyly switched them over.)

Then, after the ceremony, we had fun squishing cake all over each other's faces, we took pictures, and we did the customary bouquet and garter toss. Then, the guests all started to file out as we prepared to leave to the mainland to go catch our flight to paradise. But of course, not before my mother fell asleep on the couch and then tried to figure out a way to get alone with my new FIL. Newlyweds.

My mother, myself, and my grandmother.

Though the day didn't go exactly as planned, it ended with me taking the prize.

Then, there was the ride to the ferry before the trip to the Dominican. But that's another story!

Oh, the cuteness! I can barely handle it!

I'm usually watching TV at this time of night on Wednesdays. I watch Lost, then Criminal Minds, then CSI NY. Tonight though, I'm skipping out on the Criminal Minds, due to the fact that in tonight's show, there's a serial child killer. I SOOO don't need to see that. So, instead, I'm blogging, and Armondo is switching back and forth between the Oilers game (not our team) and Trailer Park Boys. This is what it sounds like: "F*cking this and that, Drinking rhum, smoking pot, Ducks, goal, whistle." I think you have to be Canadian to get all of that.

So, time for me to tell you about all the cuteness going on around here!!

Cherry is talking up a storm and has been learning all sorts of new things and words lately. Here are some samples of our conversations with her:

Armondo and I: "Do you want to go to the pool?"

Cherry: "PoooOO?"

Us: "What sound does a cow make?"

Her:"MMmmmmm-ah"

Us:"What sound does a pig make?"

Her:"Hong, hong."

Us: "What sound does a horse make?"

Her: "Nnnnnuh!"

Us: "Where's Annie?"

Her: "Aaaannnnuh?"

Us: "Where's Jacy?"

Her:"Jsssss?"

She's also learned how to nod and shake her head yes and no.

"Are you hungry?" *nods head wildly*

after her nap: "Are you still sleepy?" *Shakes head violently*

So, the big girl bed thing is totally working out. Ok, well not totally, but pretty well. She's going down without any problem now. Just barely a little fuss, but nothing huge, but the mornings are another story! She's waking up WAY too early! And not going back to sleep! And also, last night, she woke up in the middle of the night and screamed for awhile before calming down (maybe she didn't know where she was?) There's a night light in there, so it shouldn't be too bad for her, but I guess these things take time.

She's also figured out which blanket is her "blankie" as seen in the pictures below:
Oh, and she no longer hams it up for the camera. She makes dumb faces like the one above. And yes, that's the creepy doll you can see there. I couldn't get rid of it. And I'm glad I didn't, because my MIL has even made a scrap book page about the dang doll, and Cherry will have that forever, and if I had gotten rid of the stupid doll, there'd be questions I'd have to answer. I might gently suggest that it might have to go to charity one year if she wants any Christmas presents (You know, the "one in, one out" rule.) But I can't just get rid of it myself, because I'm weak, and trying to not be mean. *sigh*

So, Christmas is coming soon, and since Armondo is going to go back out on the water in the next couple of weeks or so until early Dec, he's started to look for our Christmas presents. Today I "caught" him looking at Barbies on the Toys R Us site. Last year, I got a nice fancy "Inuit Legend" Barbie, and Cherry got the Holiday Barbie. I'd like to collect more, and I sort of wanted to get the Christmas one for Cherry every year.

Anyway, the two of us were looking at the Barbies, and Armondo's clicking on the pictures and saying things like "I like the colours in that one." "Ooh, I like HER hair!" "We should get THAT one! Oh, and THAT one!" And I couldn't help but giggle. Seems like I might know what to get HIM for Christmas this year! (And I, of course, want them ALL!)

Appliances, the tree, big girl bed, dumps and cankles.

This is what happens when you don't blog for awhile:

~We just purchased four new appliances. They arrive on Saturday hopefully! A new fridge, stove, front loading washer, and dryer. I'm so excited about the front loading washer, you have no idea!

~My beautiful tree in the front yard is coming down on Hallowe'en. We were told by a few "tree" people that it's a totally dangerous tree to leave in the yard and one guy told us we were crazy to even let our kid play in the front yard. It's the tree that housed the raccoons and is currently housing the squirrel. It turns out it's only one squirrel, and I'm a little upset that we have to fall the tree now, 'cause that little guy has been saving up food for the past month or so, and is now pretty much hiding in the tree for the winter already. We can't really wait until the spring to chop it though, 'cause it'll probably lose big chunks of itself during the first snowfall. So, us chopping down the tree might cause a squirrel to starve over the winter. But at least, my child won't be impaled by a tree branch while we're making snowmen and snow angels this winter.

~We got tough with Cherry. We've made her move to the "big girl" bed. She's been sleeping in her play pen for ages and wasn't too keen on making the move to the toddler bed, but lately, she's taken to pulling up the foundation thing in the pen and sleeping either on the folded up part that she created or sort of nesting on the hammock-like part in between the support bars. Neither arrangement seemed all that comfortable, or safe, so it was time to move her. In the beginning, I had moved her out of the crib partially because I was switching her to her "big girl room" and didn't want to move the crib in there, and partially because I didn't want her to associate getting kicked out of the crib with the arrival of the new baby. Even if I didn't kick her out of it when I did, there would be no way she could have stayed in it past this time anyway, because all you all know, she's CRAZY and climbs on EVERYTHING! And there'd be no way I'd be able to keep her in that crib.

So, last night, we decided it was time for her to get into her other bed. After doing a bit of research online, I found some good tips on the transition from a crib, and we implemented a few of them. She was NOT happy last night and fussed and cried for quite awhile before settling down. We went back to her a couple of times during the fussing to try to calm her down, and after the second or third time consoling her, she finally fell asleep. Today, at nap time, she cried for nine minutes, and tonight at bed time, she cried for eight. She's a fast learner. She totally surprises me sometimes. I don't totally get why she would cry AT ALL though, I mean, she can just get up and play with her toys if she doesn't want to sleep, it's not like she's tied to the bed, but I guess she just felt more "secure" in the pen. (At nap time, we also tried to get her to cuddle and sleep with us, but she will NOT co-sleep, even though we'd like to have that close, cuddly time with her sometimes.) I think the best tip I found was to remove the crib/pen from the room completely so that the kid doesn't get stressed out trying to "choose" which bed to sleep in.

~Thank you everyone for your love and support after my last post. I can totally get into moods sometimes, and they sometimes will last for a few hours, and sometimes for days. I try my best not to let myself take my pissyness out on loved ones, but it can be hard those times when it lasts for days. I'm still sore, and tired, but I'm not so moody. Armondo was nice enough to take off with the kidlet for an hour or so that day so I could have some time to myself, and the next day he took Cherry to the pool for a couple of hours and I was able to clean the house up and have a SHOWER WITH THE NEW, FRESH CAULKING OMG! and I felt quite a bit better with just having those simple pleasures. (I've been taking baths and squatting showers for what's seemed like months now, and I'm sooo glad to have my shower back!)

~And on Saturday, the day that we should be getting our shiny new appliances...

I'm also going to...

GO TO THE DAY SPA AND GET A PEDICURE AND A MANICURE WITH GEL NAILS AND A FACIAL!!!

Wow. This is going to be sooo cool! I've never had any of these treatments before, and my nails are ALWAYS a mess, and I'm really excited! I hope I enjoy myself, but not too much, 'cause these sort of treatments are expensive, and I'm not sure I can fit them into our regular budget! It should be a nice day! And it might just make up for the fact that I no longer have ankles. That's right, I've now joined the legions of pregnant and chubby women out there who have cankles. I'm telling you, it's very attractive. It's sort of like having feet at the end of tree trunks. *sigh* oh the joy of pregnancy!

And on that note, I think I might go put my feet up!

The Dumps

I'm moody right now.

I've got a headache that's lasted for days.

My hips are hurting me so bad some days that I can barely move.

I'm able to have fun with the family for short periods of time, but it almost seems like I'm faking it.

I love my family, but it seems like the family doses might be better if they were a little smaller.

I know I'll get over it. It might just take a few days. I'm glad I have the support of my loving husband.

Furniture re-arrangement.

There's no reason why you'd find this interesting, but I do, so that's why I'm posting it. The last 2 1/2 years of owning this house have been all about getting it "just right" for us with as little moolah spent as possible.

When Armondo and I moved in together, we brought all of our old furniture into the mix and have been upgrading bit by bit, and trying to make the place nice by re-arranging stuff and making things tidier. Since this is like a photo-journal for me, I'm including, once again, some before and after shots of our improvements.

This is the before shot of our computer area:

Which I turned into a little play area for the kid(s):Cherry totally loves it!


And I moved the computer to another corner, and got a nice new, less cluttery desk:

I love it. Cherry loves it. The fish are getting much more attention. It's all good.

Cherry goes to the farm.

We started the fun off by waking her up early from her nap.

Then we strapped her into the car and went for a country drive.

And we ended up here:
Where, apparently, they've had problems with people hunting rabbits or something.


Then, the little one was in her glory, mucking in her boots and checking out the animals.
"Hey kiddo, can you show me a duck?"


"Is it a sheep? or a goat? I just don't know!!"


"Here, bunny, bunny, bunny!"
"Whew, all this animal petting has got me tired, time to take a rest."

"Hey ma, this 500lb pumpkin is pretty cool and all, but does it DO anything?"

Happy Birthday Belinda!

It's a little late in the day, but better late than never!

It's BELINDA'S birthday!

Happy Birthday Belinda!!!

The Beginning of "Forever". (Series part V)

Please click the links to "A Love Series" on the sidebar to see the previous stories in the series.

The next few months were pretty uneventful, except for my change in employment. I had a fight with my boss at the Asian restaurant, and that, combined with a stark lack of hours, I decided to find myself a different job. (Jeez, two fights with bosses, two jobs in a row! I must be hard to work with!)

So, I wound up working full time at the hardware store, and at some point, I dropped out of school. I can't honestly remember when I dropped out, but it was after I had done two and a half years. I just didn't have the motivation to stick with it, and I had never really had a goal to begin with, so I couldn't justify going into even MORE debt. Armondo agreed with me, and we made plans to eventually open a restaurant together.

During all this time, we discussed the probability of an upcoming engagement, and I made it very clear that I wanted my promise ring to become my engagement ring, and that I would MUCH prefer a down payment on a house to an expensive ring. Armondo seemed to agree and was glad that I was so "sensible". And then the waiting game began. I knew that I wanted to be with this man forever, I just didn't want to wait forever for him to ASK me to be with him forever!

Armondo and I were pretty avid concert goers. We still go to the odd concert and bar show, but of course, since we've had Cherry, we haven't been able to go as often as we would like. In the summer of 2003 though, we went to several, including Warped Tour. Warped Tour is an outdoor show that happens every summer and features several punk, ska/punk, and pop/punk bands on several different stages. It's an all day event, and also features skateboarding and bmx demos and each band has a tent set up to sell their merch and such. Armondo and I had both gone to several Warped Tours over the years, but this was the first one we went to together. For some reason, I always overheat at these shows, and always get lethargic and sometimes sickly, so I usually spend half the day just lounging, and/or sleeping in the middle of a three thousand plus sized crowd.

At this particular show, while I was sleeping on the lawn at Thunderbird Stadium, Armondo took the opportunity to take off and head into the massive mosh pit to get some circle pit action.

After a couple of hours, we met back up and spent some time sitting together in the bleachers to enjoy the music, but also get away from the crowds. At some point, I started talking marriage with Armondo. He told me he wasn't really ready and it just didn't seem like the "right time". To that, I replied, "Well, do you want to be with me for the rest of your life?" To which he responded "Yes."

"So, if you want to be with me, and you don't have to buy me a ring, then, what are you waiting for?"

"You're right." He said. "There's no reason to wait."

"So, when are you going to ask me to marry you?"

"Hmm.. When Pennywise is playing."

"Whatever!"


And he did.


Pennywise was the last band to play that day, and during their set, he leaned over my shoulder from the bleacher step above me and asked me the question:




"So, uh, do you wanna marry me? Sometime?"





Yeah, that's how he asked me. No bending on one knee. No staring into my eyes. He was on the bleacher step BEHIND me and he leaned over to ask me.

Stupid shmuck that I am, I said "Yes, I want to marry you!" and turned around for a kiss.

Soon after though, I started to rib him for his lame proposal. On the way to the car, I kept asking him "Did you REALLY just ask me to marry you?!?"

And when I asked him why it was such a lame proposal, when he's a romantic person most of the time, his answer was:

"I hurt my knee in the mosh pit."

This is What Happens When a Baby Girl has her Dad Wrapped Around Her Little Finger!

She started crying when he went outside to mow/mulch, so he packed her up in the back pack and they're mowing the lawn together!

Who's Da Man?!?

Things Armondo has said to me in the past 16 or so hours since he's been home:

"I really like that shirt! You look really good in it!"

"Did you do something to your hair? It looks really nice. Did you dye it or something?"

(After I asked) "Yeah, you look bigger! Your belly is nice and big and round, and I really like it!"

"Wow, the house looks great!"

"I'm really happy right now."

(To Annie) "Wow, I forgot what a pretty dog you were!"

"You want me to move furniture around? Ok!"

And, right now, he's out with Cherry at the pool, leaving me alone, by myself, for two whole hours!!! During which time, I've been able to bathe/shower without worrying about a screaming toddler, I sorted and put out the recycling without worrying about either barking dogs waking the kid up as I go outside without them, or the kid screaming as I go outside without HER! I've been able to write a grocery list without fighting the kid for the pen, and without having to snatch the paper back out of her hands several times. I'm able to write this blog entry without fighting with her over the mouse which is one of those optical ones, and she really seems to like to pick it up and attempt to stare straight into that bad, evil red light. (I fight with her and stop her from doing it, but it's hard!) I was able to sit on the toilet for several minutes without being disturbed. (New trick I learned for the dogs if they're bugging me while I'm in the bathroom- I say "Do you wanna have a BATH!?!?" and they run!) And now, I'm going to go lay down for a nap! Oh, life is bliss!

The Hubby is Coming home!

Soon. Maybe tomorrow, but probably the next day.

So, um.. yeah, I'm busy getting the house that much tidier, and then, when he makes his arrival, I'll be that much more busy, 'cause well, YOU KNOW WHY!

So, go enjoy my archives! 'Cause I might not be writing much here for the next couple of days.

And, once things are settled, I'll continue with the series!

Next post in the series: The lead up to the engagement. (It's not as exciting as it sounds!)

Why I will NEVER get a male dog. (A little TMI, just be warned)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cherry and I had Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws last night sans hubby.

It was interesting to say the least.

My Mother In Law was actually pretty cool last night. And her husband was nice and fun as usual. I had no worries about the brother and sister in-law, because those particular two are always fabulous.

There was, however a problem with ONE in-law.

And this inlaw had four furry legs.

Sunny, the un-altered 11 month old golden retriever male dog was a real pain in the rear all night.

And he LOVED Jacy.

He wouldn't stop chasing her around, biting at her neck, and trying to do things only doggies do. And he wouldn't put his lipstick away.

I tried my hardest to protect my little girl dog, but it was hard to deal with a toddler, Annie, Jacy, and a crazy horny love dog at the same time.

My MIL and StepFIL were nice enough to give us their room for the night, and Annie, Jacy, Cherry and I tried to settle down for a good sleep after being filled with tryptophan. Cherry, of course went to bed before me, and it was hard to get her to sleep between the yelps from Jacy as she ran away from Sunny, and the barks from Sunny as he begged to be let back inside so he could have his way with my poodle.

After the rest of us all settled down in bed, at an early 9pm, the real fun began. I took the dogs straight into the room with me, without letting them out for a pee, hoping that I could just wait until Sunny was settled upstairs with the rest of the in-laws in order to spare Jacy the stress of meeting her Pepe Le PU again. So, 10 or so minutes after he was upstairs, I let the dogs out for a pee, and my MIL came to see what was going on, and Sunny came downstairs and barked and woke Cherry up again. She went back down without too much of a fuss, but it was just the beginning of a really rough night!

Later, at some point I guess my MIL went out for a smoke, and Sunny came bolting down the stairs and ran into our room and JUMPED on me, trying to get at Jacy. This of course, caused whispered yells from me, yelping from Jacy, growling from Annie, and inevitably, crying from Cherry. After my MIL and I got Sunny out of the room and back up the stairs, I was able to settle Cherry down again, and go to the bathroom, wake Cherry up again as I came back into the room, and finally settle down for a few hours of sleep. Until 5 am.

At five in the morning, for some reason, my StepFIL's kid decided to walk through the house. The kid does NOT live there, and he's going through the house for some reason at 5 am. I heard a noise, possibly the front door opening, and Jacy, the good guard dog that she is, started growling, then Annie barked, Cherry woke up, and the fetus kicked me in the bladder. I had no choice but to get up, and there was no way Cherry was going to go back to sleep easily this time!

So, I got up, saw the kid doing something with some blankets out the back door, (thanked God that I had kept my purse in the room with me, and not out in the open), and let the dogs out to pee and sniff him while I got Cherry a bottle. Then, after I got the bottle, changed Cherry's diaper, got the dogs back inside, and put Cherry back in her pen, it was time for me to pee. It wasn't until then that StepFIL noticed that something was going on, and he came downstairs WITH SUNNY, and the whole cycle started again!

Cherry didn't really sleep much after that point. She whimpered every few minutes and let out little cries here and there, and we spent the next few hours in a half-sleep state, being woken up by the odd bark by Sunny, growl by Jacy, and footsteps of the in-laws.

And then the phone ringing and the arrival of Sunny into our room at 9am really got us started for our day.

Right away, Annie and Sunny were put outside to play and to keep Sunny away from Jacy, and Jacy was too stressed to leave my side as I went and did stuff around the house. When I went for a shower, Jacy sat outside the bathroom until she couldn't help it anymore and pissed and pooed all over the upstairs. She was too stressed to go outside with the big dogs and couldn't hold it any longer, so she let go and I had quite the mess to clean up.

It was then, that I decided it was time to go home. We had to make it home before nap time, 'cause I was NOT going to go two days in a row without a nap! (I figured Cherry would sleep in the car on the way up, but that so didn't happen, and I didn't want to screw with nap time a second day in a row!)

So, after looking for one of Cherry's lost booties for twenty minutes, we were able to drive home. And I listened to Cherry fuss and whine and cry for at least 45 min. (Half the drive.)

Jacy and Annie were excited to be home, and I could see the relief in Cherry's eyes as I put her down for a long quiet nap. We slept for over three hours, and now, hopefully, our sleep schedule is back to normal!

Oh, and Sunny? Well, his macho days are numbered. The in-laws had been debating whether to fix him or not, and after his *ahem* performance this weekend, he's headed for the scissors. Apparently, he whined ALL night wanting to get downstairs and at Jacy, and he panted like it was 30 (86F) degree weather for close to 18 hours. Sort of brings the term "puppy love" into perspective.

Happy Thanksgiving Canada!

Wish me luck, I'm spending the evening with the in-laws MINUS my husband!

Ugh, The language barrier!

When I call a number and the automated service asks me to press "1" to speak to someone in French, or to stay on the line to speak to someone in English, and I do NOT press one, then, I expect someone who speaks ENGLISH to come on the line.

Is that crazy of me? I mean, is that unreasonable? In a country of mostly English speaking people, I get to talk to a Frenchy who can barely understand me. Oh, the insanity!

The Promise (Series part IV)

You can find series part one here, part two here, part three here.


I couldn't open the box at first. Several thoughts went through my head. The box he handed me had a fancy "B" written on the top, and I thought for a second that there was going to be some sort of expensive Belgian chocolate from Bernard Callebaut.

The second thought was that it was a joke. There'd be some sort of note inside telling me I was getting ice cream cake for dinner or something. (My favourite.)

I spent a few minutes sort of playing with the box with the tips of my fingers. He couldn't be PROPOSING, could he? I mean, we've only been together for four and a half months! I knew that I loved him, and I knew that he was the one, but I so knew I couldn't say yes so early! And besides that, we were in a greasy spoon diner, and he so wasn't on his knee!

I was scared to open it. I SOO hoped it would be a fancy chocolate.


But I opened it, and inside was this:
"Uhhhh" Damn! It was a ring! It was THE ring. It was exactly the sort of ring I wanted for an engagement ring. It had three, small diamonds, a white gold band, and was just so small and delicate, which was perfect for my little hand. Saying "no" would mean it wouldn't be my ring! But it HAD to be my ring!

"Do you know what it is?" He asked me.

"Um, not really!" I replied.

"It's a promise ring." He smiled.

WHEW! It was a PROMISE ring! That means I could keep it! I could totally accept that. I put my shiny new ring on and was very happy. Well, sort of. If THIS was the promise ring, would that mean that I'd have to get an engagement ring that WASN'T as perfect as this one?

(even if you know what a promise ring is, you should click on the links for "promise ring" both links are different.)

Melora Wins!!

Melora was the first Non-Canadian to figure out who I was supposed to be dressed as in my last post!

Congratulations Melora! You are my new hero! *HUGS*

Melora correctly identified my costume as The Paper Bag Princess. It's a character in a children's story written by Canadian Author Robert Munsch. I highly recommend ANY Robert Munsch books!

So, because Melora is sooo awesome, make sure you send her some love and go visit her blog!

Oh, and it's her birthday too! So go be nice!

The Lead Up to a Promise. (Series Part III)

You can find the series part one here. Part two here.

After hanging out a couple of times, Armondo and I totally clicked. Everything just seemed right with him, though I had no intention of getting too involved too fast.

The first while getting to know him, I learned details about his recovery from drug use, the stories of his tattoos, his family dynamics etc., and would often find myself falling into his soft brown eyes as he spoke. But it wasn't all about him. He was as good a listener as a talker.

And he cooked for me. And if any of you have been following along for awhile, you know that I SO cannot cook!

I couldn't help but compare Armondo to my ex, Jimbo in the beginning, and to other guys I had been with recently. Armondo seemed to have and do all the things that Jimbo didn't, but wasn't as needy and nerdy as RM. And he seemed totally into me.

I have to admit though, that things were a little weird at first. I was hurting from finding out all the details of Jimbo's indiscretions, and was scared to jump head first into a relationship, and Armondo was less than a year clean and sober, so the two of us entered the relationship a little messed up and cautious. Sex didn't happen at first, which probably is actually a good thing, but we would spend nights together sleeping in each others arms. We spent a lot of time together in those early days and got to know each other really well. It was just... comfortable.

I also started to get to know his room mate, who outed herself in the previous post's comments, so I will use her blogging name Ryann. She had a computer (Armondo did not) and the two of us kept in touch often by msn chat. That is, when I wasn't actually at her house.

One of the funniest things I remember when talking to her on line was when I told her to tell Armondo that I wanted him to come over.

She passed on the message, and not five minutes later, he was at my door. Ryann's comment on MSN was "where'dhego?" He hadn't told her he was leaving, nor did he call me to tell me he was on his way. Just bam. There he was. And he would often drop what he was doing to come see me. It wasn't long before Ryann was fretting that she was going to have to start looking for a new room mate. I thought she was crazy for saying that, being that Armondo and I hadn't been together for very long, but only a few months later, it turned out she would be right.

We never really had an exact date that we considered to be our anniversary dating date, but we generally called it Hallowe'en.

And Hallowe'en that year was AWESOME. There were several parties. For Hallowe'en day at school, and the bar at night, I dressed up and went out like this:

The first NON-CANADIAN to correctly identify who I'm supposed to be gets a big virtual hug and congrats!

Jimbo and I were still hanging out often due to the fact that we had all the same friends, and he was close friends with my room mates, and I had already promised I'd help him with his costume, so I painted him for a party that I didn't end up going to.
And then, after Hallowe'en, my room mates and I threw a party. Everyone HAD to dress up, and if they didn't, we would dress them up! Armondo and I had raided the cheap after Hallowe'en deals that year at Value Village and had a huge tote full of accessories to dress people up with.

I took the group photo, so I'm not in it, but Armondo is front and center as a punk rock witch thing.
And this is me at our Hallowe'en party. Right after I kicked a$$ at the bobbing for apples competition! (You all know what that means, right? hee hee) My make up is running, but basically I was a slutty, dead nurse.

Things with Armondo were really good. We were into pretty much all same things, and he was just a little more adventurous than the other guys I had dated recently.

The boyfriend I had before Jimbo almost hit me the day I got my tongue pierced, and Jimbo totally wasn't into piercings either, but, Armondo was different. When I met him, I think he had 6 piercings. I had three. It only took a couple of weeks of being together before we decided to go and get our nipples pierced. Armondo already had one done, but he got it re-done in the other direction, and got the other nipple done too. I got both of mine done too. And, out of all the piercings I've had done over the years, THOSE ONES hurt the most! (I've had nine all together, including ears.) We spent the next week or so with breast feeding nipple pads in our shirts to protect them and to soak up any blood. It was pretty hot.

A couple months later, Armondo moved into my small two bedroom suite that I was sharing with a married couple and their toddler son. He was due to move in at the END of the month, but moved in half way through, before I could even get organized, and that, combined with some off hand insult he made about my father, caused our first major fight. That night, Armondo left for work, thinking he was going to come home and be dumped. That didn't happen though. I WAS angry, but he just seemed too "worth it" to get rid of.

On New Years Eve, he quit smoking. He had cut back quite a bit before hand, and had stopped smoking around me, and would often shower right after a cigarette, so it hadn't been so bad, but it was a good thing he quit, 'cause THAT would have been what would have broken us up. (Shallow, I know, but I just couldn't stand the thought of living with a smoker for a long period of time.)

Right around that time, we got ourselves a small two bedroom apartment in the other end of town, and started our animal collection.

In that small apartment, we already had Sabre (I'd had her for about two years by then), and started to collect rats, degus, fish, crawfish, and a guinea pig. I was pretty much bringing home a different pet every month. (The fish and crawfish were his though!)

We were very happy in our little, messy apartment, and things just got better and better.

March came around, and so did my birthday. Armondo took me out to breakfast at a diner and presented me with a box that sort of looked like this:

Wanted:Manny*

Foreign accent a bonus.



*Manny=A male nanny. From the same roots as murse, a male nurse.

Quick! Someone Call the Fire Department!

This tree always seems to be a source of amusment for me. From raccoons to squirrels, and now a cat!

Ozzy was STUCK in the tree for over an hour! What a goober!

Bits and Pieces

~I'm working on my series number 3 right now, but it's taking a little while. I've been scanning old photos for it, and that takes time!

~Cherry is loving our new schedule! She loves swimming so much, and each time we go, she's more fearless than the time before! The lifeguards find her quite entertaining and one of them even said to me (after Cherry dunked herself and didn't get up right away) "You looked more scared than SHE did!"

~I've been taking her to playgroups as well, and today we totally found a winner. She's liked both of the ones we've gone to so far, but today she had a blast (we're trying another, different one tomorrow too). Today's group was held in a big hall, and half the hall was blocked off from the other by gymnastics equipment, and on one half was all sorts of ride 'em cars and trikes and other things with wheels, and the other side had tables and chairs for the parents to sit at and a bunch of smaller toys. The place was PACKED with kids, and Cherry had a blast running around, stealing stuff from other kids and playing with everything and everyone. INCLUDING other parents! I have to admit that I had a slight twinge of jealousy when she grabbed a book and planted herself on another mother's lap! She did it at the last play group too!

I've been enjoying getting out more and meeting people too. I've already made two connections with other mothers, as well as I have re-connected with an old friend who met Cherry and I at the pool the other day. She has a five month old son, and he's the cutest little thing ever. Well, besides my kid, of course!

~One of my darling friends has offered to take Cherry for a bit tomorrow so that I can have some time to myself! It's been so long since I've had time to myself during the day that I just can't think of what I want to do! I think I might do some yard work and plant some flower bulbs!

~Lost starts up again tomorrow! I'm so, overly, insanely excited about this!

Critters

~After all the trouble I've been having with spiders, I decided to go out and get some sticky, non-toxic, baited bug traps. I haven't seen a monster spider in my house since. And I haven't caught so much as a flea in those traps. There are, however many, many spiders EVERYWHERE outside. I don't know what they're called, these particular type of spiders, but they aren't scary. They have tiger-like stripes and big fat bottoms, and they sort of "pop" when you step on them. But anyway, the REASON why they aren't scary, is 'cause they are the type that stay on their webs. Right, smack dab in the middle. You won't catch one of these things crawling in your bed, or scurrying across the floor, unless, of course you have just walked through their web and knocked them down. There's one in particular that likes to build his web right outside my front door, and every day, as I step outside, I have to make sure that I don't walk face first into the sticky strings. I don't kill him though. I figure it's good that he's catching the other bugs that may or may not be trying to come in my front door. I see him as a helper, a friend even.

But this type of spider? They're EVERYWHERE outside. When I stand at my kitchen sink, doing the dishes and daydream as I stare outside, I can, without even trying hard, count over 14 spiders in their webs just RIGHT THERE. It's sort of fascinating to watch them when they catch a bug.

~Those raccoons I had in my tree left almost as quickly as they had appeared, but now my tree has welcomed some new tenants. My big maple is now full of squirrels, and they are SOOO cute. (Sorry, no pictures.) I really like squirrels, I've decided. I love how they squeak, and how it seems like their tails have something to do with the sound, 'cause they twitch with every sound they make! I used to have pet squirrels from Peru (degus) and they didn't make good pets, and I'd never get any again, but I sort of just want to catch these little suckers from outside and hug them and squeeze them and squish them into itty bitty pieces. Somebody stop me!

~Sabre is totally a master hunter. It makes me proud, but sad at the same time. I'm happy that she loves me and shows her affection by bringing me presents, but I really loathe cleaning up dead birds! The snakes have all gone away for the season, so she's moved onto bigger prey now, and coming home to a dead bird on the deck is not my favourite welcoming home present! At least the doors are closed now, so these little treats don't make their way inside during these colder months!

Clutter Busting

I'm trying to get my house more clutter free. Just doing little things here and there.

Today, I sorted the diaper change table and bought some containers to hold all the diapers and other junk stuff that gets stored there.

I also decided to clean out my drawer in the bathroom and re-organize it using some cheap baskets I found at the Superstore today.

Most of the stuff I threw away was typical bathroom build up stuff: Old creams, expired meds, etc.

The one thing that confused me though was this:


Can anyone tell me WHY I decided to keep my wisdom teeth for probably about 7 years? And why, up until today, I thought that this was a completely reasonable thing to have stored with my cosmetics and hair brush?!? Did I think that the tooth faerie was going to come and give me a fortune some day? Did I figure they would be a fun thing to pull out and show to the kids one day? Maybe, I was going to keep them for some weird Hallowe'en accessory. I have no idea.

What sort of weird things do you keep and have no idea why?

Cooking With CeCe part deux

My last attempt at making spaghetti sauce didn't go so well, but this time? We have a winner!

I used the crock pot again, and we got three good days of spaghetti dinners. This time, it actually tasted good, and for two reasons: one, the super smart Maidink figured out that my missing ingredient was SUGAR! A little over half a cup for the whole batch made the whole thing taste just wonderful! And two, I didn't burn it as much this time!(hey, I'm new at this stuff, ok?)


so... you need proof that it was better this time?

Last time, the dogs wanted nothing to do with my sauce.

This time? They devoured the leftovers!