John Deere and other sights of my home

My dad is currently rolling the lawn with his tractor. You know how weird it is for me to look out and see this and not be surprised?

Anyone that knew me growing up knew that I was a city kid. We had a lot and a half in the city that backed onto train tracks. It wasn't the nicest neighbourhood but I loved that house. I loved all the big windows and the apple, pear and lilac trees. We had an awesome swing set and teeter totter that my dad built for us. We had a small garage that housed countless tools and my dad's truck, which was only brought out about once a year just to make sure it ran.

We were happy then it seemed, even though my dad worked nearly 20 hour days 7 days a week and me and my siblings had to do the yard maintenance and cleanup. We were a family and it always felt good to come home. We were in the city, saw buses, could ride our bikes to the library or walk to the store.

It's so odd that we live in the country now.

Okay maybe it's more ironic than odd that I'm back here again. Moving here wasn't an easy decision, but it was the right one. James and I wanted to get a house, and with him working in Guelph, we couldn't afford to live in Cambridge or Guelph without getting a dive - rent was just too high! Instead we made the tough decision of moving out to Clyde and taking back the basement apartment of my parents dream house. Now it's perfectly natural to see my dad out on his John Deere building or doing something. It's so easy to just go to the garage and get involved in some project or other. It's so easy to just relax and just be out here.

Although I love the hustle and bustle of the city, I am certainly appreciating the ability to just relax. I am so looking forward to this summer of parties, bonfires, barbecues and swimming. For my friends who read this blog, the house is always open and welcome to having guests. Feel free to come out and appreciate this little oasis, not too far from the city. Bring your suit and a towel, and be prepared for roasted marshmallows, barbecued meat, random horseshoe tournaments and peace and quiet.

My home, can be your home.

My Niece's Not So Sweet 16

I'm writing from my bright and sunny backyard. I'm sitting by the pool, all by myself soaking up this gorgeous day.

Okay, maybe it isn't as gorgeous as it was when I first came outside. The clouds just rolled in and the wind has picked up. But still, I'm wearing capri's and a pink and purple shirt that my 4-year-old niece Victoria helped me pick out this morning. Tori also decided that I needed to wear "ponies" in my hair just like her. As my hair is shorter, I decided to just pull it up into some sort of 40's twist at the sides. It works and that's all that matters.

Had the pleasure of going to the surprise party for my niece this afternoon. Sweet 16 isn't all it cracked up to be. She got very angry that we had a party for her, but was more mortified that only about 8 of her friends showed up. What she doesn't know is that her parents asked for her friends to come later so that she could have the dorky family time first. To be honest, I can sympathize with her.

Imagine - you are 16, you want to look cool. You think this birthday is going to be the best because your parents have finally agreed to let you get your belly button pierced. Friends were planning on coming over, and you were going to meet up with more later in the day. Only issue is, your friends go with you to get your belly button done, but instead of heading home, you get taken to this small little hall and find that your parents have thrown you a pop and chip party in the middle of the day complete with streamers and balloons. Total buzz kill.

Of course, birthday parties are what you make of them - I know - as I've had many birthdays where people have forgotten or made other plans. Generally, what I've come to know is that the only people that really will remember your birthday is your family. Lucky for her - she has a big family and they all love her. If they didn't, they would've walked out immediately on her when they saw the sour puss on her face.

She didn't say a word to anyone in the family other than to complain until I finally had a talk with her and told her that I think it would be really nice if she went and said thank you to everyone. All us old fogies and little kiddies were all leaving and her and her friends were getting the run of the hall. It's amazing, but I must've had the magic touch because she went out, gave hugs to everyone and I finally saw her smile.

It's hard in this age of shows like Sweet 16 where kids are given everything they ever want - with parties costing more than my wedding, and cars worth more than I make in five years. But even if you watch those shows, the kids generally still throw a temper tantrum because you got a four door model of car when you wanted two door, or the car was the wrong colour or even worse, your so-called friend booked the same band that was slated to play at your party only theirs was two weeks before.

No matter what you think you want for your birthday, especially your 16th birthday, you are most likely not going to get it. I've learned over the years that rather than dwell on who's not there or what you are not doing, that you need to have fun with those that did come, and are willing to do something with you - even if it means wearing crazy hats, eating pink cake and listening to country music because your dad's best friend really likes country and he's the dj.

Maybe it's my old-age wisdom, being that I'm turning 30 this year and all, but I know that I want to have the best time this year. I am NOT going to let anyone stop me.

I just wish I could get inside my nieces head and shake some sense into her!

Sweet dreams

This will be the last morning where I my body is so creaky that it forces me to wake up incredibly early. The time is now 6:34 and even though it is true that I fell asleep around quarter after 10 last night, I should still be able to fall asleep and stay asleep for longer.

Today however, today is the day that our new glorious bed arrives!

It's soft, but not too soft. Its sturdy in all the right ways. We've got a new mattress and boxspring - special pillows that match our needs and personal desires. I'm so glad that my personal nightly dream of a good night sleep is going to come true!

This dream is happening one day before my oldest neice turns 16. Yes folks - 16 years old! Hard to believe that someone I have watched grow up is now going to be driving soon. She's already dating, but she's going to be thinking of possibly college or career. She has so much going for her, but so many decisions that have already gone wrong. It's funny how that happens when you are young.

I got some really good advice from a tv show that has emanated with me for years. And any time I think of her, I remember all the stupid mistakes I've made and how I bounced back from them.

IT'S ONLY HAIR. IT GROWS BACK.

I know that it shouldn't matter to me, but it's a philosophy that I've thought of from time to time. I even shared my wisdom at a baby shower when they asked for parental advice. Everyone else that was there kept thinking about things to do with newborns. Me, I only remembered the quote above. I hope it comes in handy for them as much as it has when I remineded my mother of it.

I have talked with others who are having a difficult time with decisions their children are making. Mostly all silly things that will alter their appearance, such as dying their hair blue, or wearing clothing that they would be embarrassed to be seen with. Thing is - there's nothing wrong with making dumb mistakes when you are young. We'll just take pictures and bring it back to haunt them when they are older!

I remember that I used to go out in a pair of shorts and a sports bra! I wanted to look hot, I had a good body at the time and it seemed fine to me. It actually would show less cleavage than some of the tight shirts I had. I looked really slutty, but do you think I cared? I wanted to be looked at and never thought that someone who shouldn't be looking would be. (Although I do think they were paying more attention to my best friend in her prettier bra than me!)

Anyhow, there were times I wanted another piercing or a tattoo and my parents wouldn't let me. They figured these were things that would mark my life forever. Although this is true, many people take out a belly button or nipple ring and where I wanted my tattoo wasn't really that noticeable. (Well other than when I wanted my first tattoo - a rose wrapped around my ankle - come on now, I was 12!)

I was a bit of a rebel, and I see a lot of me in my niece! She's got spunk, loves seeing boys and tries to fit in when she's with different people. She's screwed up in classes, which is something kids do and she made a dumb decision to start smoking. Sad thing is, mostly all my friends were smokers - just because I made the choice to not start - doesn't mean I didn't think about it. It's amazing that I didn't in retrospect, but we aren't talking about me are we?

I try to be one of those cool open aunts where they can ask me anything and I'll be as honest as I can. I took my neice out shopping for her birthday present to Limeridge in Hamilton. She'd never been there - or even heard of the mall before so I thought it'd be fun ( and it would take my mind off the fact that James was away) to go somewhere new and fresh. I wanted to get her something of good quality, that fit her well and looked really good. She hasn't had it easy in her life, and I was excited by the changes she's been making in her personal style.

Anyhow, I took her to the mall, and the first store we go into, she tries on a top that has very little cleavage showing, but a bit of a princess cut under the bodice and an a-line slightly flowing fabric hanging down. It fit her so well and the colours brought her eyes. She looked amazing and although we didn't want to commit - we both knew that every top the entire day would be compared to this one. She was feeling really good about things - and as we walked around, I noticed some tall good looking high school boys checking her out. I stepped back a bit to give her some space and she hadn't even realized what I did. It was funny watching from behind and seeing these boys looking at her and her not even really realizing they were there. I came to realize that she's an attractive girl that has a lot of potential and I know that she'll be okay.

If only I can accept that her hair is so bleach blonde right now that she doesn't even look like herself! keep remembering Quirky Cori - it's only hair, it'll grow back!

The Internet is soooo slow!

Our internet has been balls lately. (And yes, I did say balls. I’ve been spending too much time with my husband lately!) James is trying to get it up and running, but unfortunately this prevents me from doing very much online. Of course last week, James had my laptop, but I was hoping this week things would be working properly.

It appears that living in the country where we do, we share our bandwidth with every house in the neighbourhood on the same tower. Somehow, someone has been hogging the bandwidth and has made it impossible for the rest of us to actually use the internet for something as simple as checking our email. James called last night and they booted off the person off line. Unfortunately within half an hour that person was back on line and the rest of us couldn’t use our internet. James called back last night – and no one responded and nothing has changed. I came home from work, checked online and sure enough – it’s super slow and not working. Complete pain.

James has been calling multiple different companies to see if they provide internet out here. I just hate the idea of losing all that money that we put in at the beginning.

So now he’s on the phone again. Fingers crossed that we can get this to work!

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In other news, we had a meeting of the BOC on Friday of last week. It went so well! The people that we’ve assembled for this event are all very responsible, very eager and really excited about this event. It’s going to be so much fun. Now we just need to work out the minor details, like getting the money so that the budget will work. It’s going to be tight at $15 – and there is talk of upping it to $20 to try and make things work.

We’ll have to see if we get one more team – the money will be fine, if not, we will need just a tiny bit more in order to be able to afford everything.

It’s interesting the reactions I’ve been getting about this event. I get extreme elation and excitement – and then I get the complete opposite where people say “you know if this were three or four years ago I’d be all over this.” Maybe it’s because I’m turning 30, but I really want to enjoy my life. I want to have a good time with this, and even if I don’t drink beer the day of the event, I still want to have fun laughing at/with friends.

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So back to the internet people. They are trying to tell James that he needs to get an upgrade to our internet in order to make it work. I’m sorry but that’s not a good reason to not have internet. We don’t even have 52 kbs! Now he’s run outside while on the phone with them to see something. It’s so annoying that we’ve wasted hours of time trying to get this sorted out! Apparently, it’s only giving us an 8% connection to the tower! How ridiculous! They’re going to come out and fix it… yeah. Good luck with that.

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My desk at work has gotten more awesome. We had an issue this week. Let me start by explaining a bit more…

Our permanent department assistant got pregnant and went on Mat leave

We hired a girl to replace her who in turn went and got pregnant.

This left a gap of about 3-4 months before the first girl would be back.

Not really willing to hire someone for three months, we opted to put a girl from another department into the position. This girl worked in the warehouse but due to her pregnancy being high risk, she asked to move into an office spot. It was win-win for all of us, as she would fill in the time.

Well on Tuesday she left work early to go to a doctor appointment and it turns out that she’s got incredibly high blood pressure. The doctor put her on immediate bed rest. Her mat leave started that day – after only working a week independently – she’s now off for a year.

This has meant – stress – and lots off it – being put onto our boss, and with a trickle down effect on the rest of us.

So – in an effort to make my desk a little happier, I went and spruced it up. I bought a plant last night at Wal-Mart for the incredible low low price of $1.49. I put it into a green pot this morning before work and took it to the office. It now sits in my window sill, soaking up the sun. It inspired me so much that I went out at lunch and bought another one from Zehrs. This one had an awesome purple pot and cool leaves with green and purple lines. It’s crazy awesome and makes me happy just thinking about it.

Now my window just makes me happy! I hope that I can keep the plants alive.

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Also in other news – James and I went out and bought a new mattress and a new boxspring. The deal was so good that we hooked ourselves up with pillows and sheets to match. The sheets they threw in for free and the pillows were by one, get one half off, so it was a great deal. We get the bed delivered on Saturday. I can’t wait! It’s going to make for such a dreamy sleep! When we were in the store as soon as I lay on this particular bed I said that I could fall asleep right away. Would’ve been bad for me if I had! James was laughing at how much I kept jumping from bed to bed to bed – each one getting better and better! The cost was less than we expected for what we got – considering that we were able to get a pillow top on deal and they knocked $200 off because we got a mix and match set. I told James how cool it would be to have one with a bright purple bottom or aquamarine. Hey – you can get a deal, take it!

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So I better get back to the creepy movie I’m watching. I have The Covenant on – which has some really cute boys in it. Far too young for me, but still fun to look at. Oh boy – they are all naked in the showers now! Craziness! Normally it’s all about women in the showers but this is sexy hot boys. Apparently, all boys in private school have perfect physiques and are on the swimming team. There’s witches, and the hair on the back of my neck is standing on end. It’s quite creepy… If you like creepy movies, feel free to check this one out. I warn you though – there are spiders, lots of spiders in one scene and as everyone knows – I hate spiders! I closed my eyes and preyed for it to end. So yeah, back to the movie...

Have a good night!

Missed my Man

My husband has been gone for a week and I cannot tell you how lonely I have been. He's gone away before and so have I, but never for this long. I knew I could handle two days, maybe three days but I wasn't sure what would happen this time.

I think the hard thing for me was that I couldn't hear his voice. It's hard to go from seeing each other every morning, kissing each other good night every night - to not seeing or hearing each other for a week. At least I found a way to get productive with it.

I almost wish I took some before pictures of the apartment when James left. It was full of crap in all the wrong places. Sad to say, but we still had boxes left from when we moved in to the apartment six months ago. Nothing in those boxes was hugely needed, so they just stayed there, on the floor in the bedroom until one or the other of us decided to poke through and find out what was in there.

I decided to surprise my husband by redecorating, moving furniture and finally putting pictures in our picture frames. Anyone who has come to visit us (which isnt a lot of people) has commented on our lack of pictures. Everyone notices the blank spaces, or the standard pictures that come with the frames. James and I have taken many great pictures over the years, and there is really no reason that we couldn't put them up! Well sort of - digital doesn't get printed very often.

So in the living room I moved the couch all the chairs, put all the plants on a shelf in the corner where the sun will hopefully make them grow, I took my big old computer out of the room, brought the fish back in from the office and I rewired the satellite and internet so that the tv could be set up on a different wall. Moving into the bedroom I dug into our mountains of laundry - and did so much we can't close most of our drawers and ran out of hangers in the closet; I moved the bed and both dressers and side tables. I went through all the boxes in the room and put away or picked out enough stuff that 8 entire boxes were removed from the room. Before you go thinking it - the boxes weren't that big, but they were just awkward. Now I've got a box of things to donate which has been a very popular thing for James and I to do on a weekend. Sure, we could have a garage sale at some point and made money from our stuff - but to be honest, there's more work involved and it doesn't feel as nice as knowing that you are donating to a good cause.

Anyhow, I worked and worked and worked. Got cracking as soon as I got home from work, and stayed up as late as I possibly could so that James would have a nice surprise when he came home.

The funny part was that he ended up going downstairs before me. By the time I realized he was already downstairs - he had checked out the living room. I come down and he says "Somethings different" and then proceeds to laugh his head off.

It's true that I went and put our apartment back to the same layout as when we first moved in but I worked really hard! James at least was happy about it and gave me big hugs as a way to thank me.

It was so good to know that he was happy with how things turned out - and that he did indeed miss me too. Sure he won't admit it on the interweb - but I know!