I'm Moving Again.

Not homes, not cities, but blogs. I'm moving my blog again. Please contact me if you would like the new address.

celenaszoo at hotmail dot com

Type "new blog request" in the subject line so that I know it's not junk. If I don't know who you are from previous comments, or from your own blog, then I may not tell you my new address.

I hope to see all the cool people soon!

Whoooeee, I'm in big trouble!

The girls got an awesome Barbie house handed down to them from some friends. While on vacation (I'm back btw, and it was awesome) I bought a bunch of furniture for the Barbie house, as well as a whole bunch of other stuff that just isn't available here in my new hometown. (The town is great, the shopping options are pretty dismal.)

ANYWAY... Cherry and I are playing with the house and all the accessories and all the princess dolls and Barbie dolls etc...

Cherry only has one guy doll, who happens to be Prince Eric. Well, in Cherry's little world, Eric is a bit of a polygamist, as he has married not only Ariel, but Rapunzel, and also Giselle. Getting bored of the endless parades of weddings, I asked Cherry if there was anything else we could do with the dolls.

Me: Hun, can't these girls do anything besides getting married over and over?

Cherry: Ummm... they can dance!

Me: Anything else?

Cherry: Uhhh, They can EAT!

Me: Okay, but can't they do anything else?

Cherry: They can drink lots and lots of ALCOHOL!!!

Me: *stunned* Uhh, anything else?

Cherry: Um, I don't think so!

yikes!

I'm on Vacation!

Right now the family and I are down in our old hometown celebrating friends! I've been super busy partying it up, so I haven't had time to write. I'm having a great time! It's funny how great this town seems now that we've left and come back. I'm still glad we moved away, but it sure is great to have somewhere to come back to!

Hey Everybody! I have a Dora dress up box at home!

Happy Birthday to Cherry!

My little girl is 3years old today! We're not having a party for her until Sunday, but we gave her her presents from us today.



This morning, we gave her a "Rapunzel" Barbie doll, which Cherry had decided isn't just named "Rapunzel", but instead should always be called "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your long hair".

Then we were off to the next town to go to Walmart for the obligatory birthday portraits. All day, we told her to be good 'cause she had presents waiting for her at home. Weeks ago, she discovered one of her presents, which at the time we told her it was hers for her birthday, and that she'd have to wait until then to have it. Then we hid it in the basement hoping that she'd forget about it. (Knowing full well she wouldn't forget, of course.)

Anyway, while we were eating lunch in the Mc D's in Walmart, I was reminding Cherry that she had presents waiting for her at home. All of a sudden, her face lit up, then she shrieked with happiness "A Dora Dress up Box!! I've got a Dora Dress up box!" We giggled, then, as her excitement built up, she stood up on her chair, and announced to the whole restaurant "Hey Everybody! I have a Dora dress up box at home for my birthday!!!!!" Needless to say, the room cracked up.



Peach was almost as excited at Cherry as the Dora box was presented. Then they both promptly got dressed up, and enjoyed the next present.




A Barbie Vanity that turns into a Castle! We made the present "from Peach" in the hopes that Cherry would be more willing to share and play together with her little sister. Sharing seems to be a problem these days, and in spite of our best efforts, Cherry was still very hesitant to share. We're going to have to work on that!

It's been a long day, so I'm going to end this post there.

I really want to do a virtual tour for y'all, but that will have to wait for another day.

Greetings From Nowhere Land.

I've been trying hard to think of something to write. So much time has passed since I updated regularly, that I don't know where to start.

So, I'm going to just start from scratch. Do an "about me" sort of post. A re-introduction of sorts.

My online name is CeCe. I'm in my late twenties (yikes, how did that happen?) and I'm married with two wonderful daughters.

I'm currently living in a small community in Northern British Columbia, Canada.

We just moved here from Southern British Columbia, and bought a house in a great neighbourhood.

My husband's online name is Armondo. We have been married for 4 years now; together for almost 6. He spent the first few years of our relationship as a cook in restuarants, for which he has extensive training and experience. He spent the last couple of years working as a cook and a deckhand on commercial fishing boats. This took him away from the family for weeks to months at a time. Since we've moved, he's been working part-time as a cook in a restaurant, and will be attending school in Sept to re-train to become an electrician.

I am currently working as a server at the same restaurant as Armondo. We work alternating shifts, and both do the stay at home thing on our days off. Combined, we work around 40 hours a week. In September, I plan on doing daycare out of my home.

My oldest daughter, who goes by "Cherry" in this blog, is about to turn 3 years old, and she's quite the wonderful handful. She's smart as a whip, and very witty. She "tests" her father and I every chance she gets, and knows all too well that although Daddy will give in to his little girl, Mom is a bit of a meanie. She's all about princesses and ballerinas. She thinks she's the most beautiful girl in the world. She's not far off. She's very independent, and tough as nails, but when she's ready to share some cuddles, she's all sugar and spice.

My younger daughter is about to hit the 18th month mark. "Peach" as she's called on this blog, is a bit of a rascal, and is able to get away with a lot more than her big sister. Armondo and I try not to give in to her, but with her big, beautiful eyes, mile long lashes, and mischievous smile, it's hard not to get suckered in to her every whim. Peach is very musical, and will start to groove to any sound that's even remotely close to a "beat". Not being very co-ordinated at this point (she stumbles around like a drunken sailor), it seems more likely that she'll be the one to create the music that others dance to. Extremely cuddly, this little munchkin is all about baby dolls and stuffies.

We live in an old home that was built during WWII. It's more than twice the size of the tiny box we had "down south", but we were able to sell our little house, pay off all of our outstanding debts, and still have a bit of money left over for other incidentals, such as a new roof. Right now, getting the house set up, working, planning birthday parties, and planning our summer vacation down to our old hometown has been taking up all of my time.

But more about that later...

Tomorrow I'm going to give you a virtual tour of our new house.

It has been a seriously long time since I last posted.

I'm still alive, but in a time of transition.

I have moved 1000 miles away from my former home. I just got a new job today, that I start on Wednesday, and we've got an accepted offer on a HUGE house, and if all goes well we'll own it May 31st.

I don't have consistent internet access right now, but once I do, I plan on blogging again on a regular basis.

I'll see you all then!

This is What Makes Parenting so FUN!

The scene: We're driving on a rural road behind a dump truck.

Cherry: Go faster mom! Faster!

Me: Sorry hun, I can't go faster, there's a dump truck in our way.

Cherry: Move you dump truck!

Except that she didn't quite make out the "p" sound at the end of "dump" and the "t" in "truck" comes out as an "F".

So, I shamelessly got her to say it over, and over and over again. And every time we meet up with a friend, I tell Cherry to tell our friend about the dump truck in front of us that time.








"Move you dumb fuc#!"

I'm such a bad mother!

Happy Birthday My Little Peach.

Obligatory Cake Face Photo




Cuddles with her new bear.



And this is why you shouldn't let a two year old pick out ALL her own clothes!

Life is a Beach.

A super long time ago, I wrote this post which had a bit of a game. And I promised the answer. But then, we had this huge flood, then Christmas happened, and you know.... there was LIFE.

So, if you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, go back to that post, then come and watch this video for the answer. The answer is in the first few seconds, with just some random cuteness after wards.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas! See you soon!

And on a happier note.

We're trying to "pick up the pieces" so to speak after the flood damage. Turns out our crawl space has some water damage , which is being assessed soon.


But, on a happier note: there's nothing like retail therapy to brighten your mood!



So, with money my father sent me for Christmas, I went out and bought new bedding for our new bed.
Isn't it beautiful?!?!?! Now, as Armondo says, we just "need a nice room to go around the bed!" (and headboard, and new curtains)

Which brings us to moving... once again. We're going to try to sell our house again, super cheap this time, and we're going to try to move "up North" in the spring. We just don't want to invest any more money into this place, so we're outta here ASAP.

Ok, so every time I go out and spend money on something to decorate, I feel a little insecure about how Armondo feels about it. So, I had to MAKE SURE that he liked it. He convinced me when I asked "Are you SURE you like it?" and his response was "What's NOT to like?!"

Good boy!

We're fine.

We got evacuated for 24 hours. We slept at a friend's house. And this is what we came home to:







To be honest, the yard isn't that much worse than it was before. But our garden planters need to be moved back into place, and there's garbage to be cleaned up here and there.

The water didn't actually get into our house, but our crawl space is full, and the shed filled up.

Overall, we got off pretty easily. We're thankful for that.

Just a little shaken.

40 days, and 40 nights?

I'll post the answer to the last post by posting a video, but right now I have some more pressing matters to discuss at this late hour.

Or is it an EARLY hour?

Anyway, it's almost 3 am, and I'm wide awake. Why? You ask?




Well, maybe it's because during the day on the 2nd, my yard looked like this:
And, about an hour or so ago, I took these photos of my front yard:

(That's our planter box floating away. Same planter box that Cherry is playing next to in the second photo.)



Our yard is flooded, and so are all of our neighbours'. All around us, we can hear people starting up their vehicles and either leaving the area all together, or are just parking them at higher elevations.

We packed up our van with supplies and have it parked up on the road, which is close to being flooded, but still safe. We're ready to leave at a moment's notice.

We packed snacks, water, valuables, and the girls' Christmas presents. We plan on taking Annie (the dog) and if the cats co-operate, we'll take them too, though I'm guessing they might just have to figure out how to survive on their own in the house. I can't see myself carrying them over the LAKE in our front yard in order to get them to the van. We have cat food in the van just in case we ARE able to wrangle them though.

The good news is that our house is practically on stilts. We have a very high crawl space, so there's lots of room for the water to collect before our actual house floods.

The bad news, is that even if this is the worst it's going to get, we have a HUGE clean up job to tackle. Our (empty) oil tank has fallen over, our gardens have been torn apart, our recycling got tipped over and there are empty cans and bottles floating all around, etc.

Should be a fun few days ahead!

A Little Game.

Can you guess where we were this last weekend?It was a warm, sunny day.

You might recognise that pier. And just beyond it is Point Roberts. (Too cloudy to see in this picture.)

Hard to believe that this was a day in late November! (and that it snowed the next day!)

The town is pretty much famous for the beach.

You can see Washington State if you look in the same direction Cherry is looking.

The houses in the background generally sell for around a million dollars or more.

Those yellow benches were placed there in '86 as a tribute to Expo.


Ok, if you haven't figured it out by now, the next photo should give it away.

Any Guesses?

Know what's funny?

Celine Dion playing air guitar while performing on "Dancing with the Stars".

Just sayin'

My Extreme Makeover Dream

The other night, Armondo and I were watching some show about celebrity nips and tucks, and we got into a discussion about what we would do if there were no health risks, and money wasn't an issue. In other words, if we could wave a magic wand.

If you care to know everything I would do, click on the image below to take you to my Flickr account where you can read all the notes.

Boring.

I haven't written the past couple of days because I've been in a lot of pain. My back hurt from the adjustment last Tuesday, and separate from that, I got into a major emotional rut.

I'm feeling a bit better now. But I'm still feeling a little "off".

The milk thing is going ok, I guess. I sort of "crave" it, and that's been a bit of a struggle, but finding food to eat is easy enough. I haven't found a milk alternative to DRINK yet, but rice milk tastes fine on my cereal. Cherry is drinking all the milk alternatives without noticing that they're any different. I haven't really noticed any physical or physiological differenced yet.

Oh man, I don't really feel like writing. I'm done for now.

Got Milk?

Today I went to the chiropractor for the first time. I've been hesitant to do this before due to the price of it and because I wasn't sure if I should go to a chiropractor, a podiatrist, or a massage therapist. Finally, the pain in my back got so bad that I just decided to start at the chiropractor. No, I didn't really do any research or anything to back my decision, I just looked up the chiropractor in the phone book and thought I'd take my chances.

Well, it was a very interesting experience. Here, in note form are some of the highlights...

~The doc said I was "too messed up for my age."

~He also explained that my pelvis is twisted, and that would explain why I had a difficult delivery with Cherry, and why both babies found it hard to "drop".

~Said I would need orthopedics, but should do some chiropractic work first, because back work can change foot shape, and orthopedics can shift my back, so I should wait until part way through my back work to get my feet worked on.

~He fondled my butt. I have not had a man other than my husband fondle my ass in a LOT of years. It wasn't nearly as exciting as I wish it could have been.

~I almost fainted after he cracked my back. It felt like I was drunk. And it hurt like a son of a gun. And still hurts now. But apparently it has to get worse before it gets better, or something.

~The doc giggled when I explained what was wrong and I used jargon such as "My muscles on the right side are compensating for the slipped disk." He asked me what I did for a living, and I answered "Uhh. I'm a mom." to which he laughed and said he was impressed with my knowledge of the jargon.

~And, completely unrelated to chiropractics, the doc seems to think that I have a milk allergy! He saw my "rash" on the back of my arms and the circles under my eyes, and using those as indicators, he asked a bunch of other questions, and my answers all lead to the conclusion that I must have a milk allergy. And Cherry might too.

~So, now Armondo has gone crazy looking up dairy free recipes for us. What a sweet heart!

~And I've been so close to tears all day. I love milk. So much. No more Alfredo sauce. No more whip cream. No more milk on my cereal.

~BUT! If I AM allergic to milk, and stopping my consumption fixes all of my problems, I should lose weight, my bowels should get better, my arm rash should go away, my eczema should get cleared up, the circles under my eyes should lighten and I should have more energy. Sounds like a miracle cure.

I'll let you know!

Christmas in November.

Remembrance Day is now over, so bring on the Christmas!

Usually we wait until Dec first to decorate, but this year we're doing it early. The Americans usually wait until after their Thanksgiving, and we decided to wait until after our November holiday.

The reason why we're doing it earlier than usual is because we have no idea when Armondo is going to ship out again, and heaven forbid I decorate AFTER Dec 1st! (We keep the decorations in the spider infested crawl space and there's no way I'm going down there by myself to drag them all out, which is why Armondo's presence is required.)

I LOVE Christmas, and I'm stoked we're starting early. We put up the tree today, but have yet to decorate it. I'm sure we'll work on that tomorrow.

Some may say it's too early, but why? Since the time change, it's been getting so dark here so early, and dare I say that the weather has been a little drab? Why not lighten and brighten things up a little by adding some holiday sparkle? And now that we're living in the days of fake trees, there's no reason to wait until late Dec anymore!

Who's with me?

Anyone?

Girl Crush

I can't help it. They're just too cute.

My newest crush is Chelsea Handler, aka Chelsea Lately.

Why do I heart her?

~She's super hot.
~She's hilarious. (Watch her show weeknights on E!)
~She pokes fun at herself all the time. I love self deprecating humour.



My other new crush, Hayden Panettiere.

Why do I heart her?
~She's cute as a button.
~She is one of the hottest young female stars in Hollywood, yet she stays out of trouble, and never talks about other stars when the pap is baiting her.
~She makes sweats and sport bras look super hot.