Friday's Feast, on a Monday

ahhh, better late than never as they say.

Appetizer: What was your first “real” job?
This could be open to a fair amount of interpretation. When I thought that I wanted nothing more than to be the world's greatest hairdresser I applied for and got a job as an apprentice in the coolest hair salon in Collingwood, ON. I was only there for a while and then moved to another salon. All in all I spent two years working at learning the art of hair styling. I still miss aspects of "Headlines" and "Marion's." (The two salons I worked at.)
The work I do now is more related to the courses and such that I have taken over the years and so I guess I am now working at my first "real" job. I love what I do though, if that counts!!

Soup: Where would you go if you wanted to spark your creativity?
The ocean's edge. There is nothing more breathtaking to me that the oceanscape. It is where I feel largest and smallest at the same time. I take a fair amount of creative inspiration from a quiet evening spent with Doug and the boys too.

Salad: Complete this sentence: I am embarrassed when…
I burp while I am trying to teach a class. They are never loud belches but they are enough that it is pretty hard to pretend they didn't happen.

Main Course: What values did your parents instill in you?
Be grateful for employment. No one ever owed me my job. I was to feel privileged to have been given the job in the first place and do what was asked of me in order to keep it. This was particularly relevant when I was a teen and all of my friends were complaining about their jobs and telling their bosses when they would and wouldn't work. My father, a business owner, could not abide by his employees telling him how things would be. He was happy to try to accommodate when asked but never when told. Wow! Can you tell that lesson stuck??

Dessert: Name 3 fads from your teenage years.
BIG, permed hair, stone-washed jeans pinned at the calves and ankles to be as tight as was physically possible, and ghetto blasters

Have I Told You???

about my latest venture???

My friend, Kristin, and I have opened a new business. We are babyREADY!!! We play the role of "baby planners" although shower planning, layette purchasing and diaper cakes are not our only areas of focus. We will continue to offer the programs and services that I have always offered with Hand In Hand Prenatal Services. I will continue to teach prenatal and breastfeeding classes.
Now we also have more selection of the types of classes being offered. One of the new classes is a Grandparent Preparation class outlining how things have changed and how to know what parents are doing now. There will also be discussion in the class about how to understand that it isn't personal when children make different choices. This is taught by my friend -- a grandmother herself -- and Canadian award-winning author, Teresa Pitman.
I am also going to continue attending births in the role of labour support. It's in my blood. I can't stop. I LOVE that part of the work I do more than any other!!!

I hope you will take a minute to check out our website and tell me what you think. We even have a blog section there too.

The Candy Fairy Arrives again

As I may have posted last year, although I don't remember if I did or not, my children leave their Hallowe'en candy out for the Candy Fairy who arrives and either leaves money or a gift in exchange for the sweets. It has been working well for the past 7 Hallowe'ens that we have celebrated and since they still buy it, I am still game for CF to keep coming.

This year the boys couldn't decide for sure what it was that they wanted. At first they talked about pooling their CF gifts and getting a video game. This idea didn't last long however. Finally it was settled. They would ask, again, for money to buy their own things. (This is actually the Candy Fairy's favourite choice as she is pretty lazy you understand.)

Fergus has been collecting his weekly allowance and coupled that savings with the $20.00 from the CF and was able to buy himself a Mini XPV. Quinn bought himself a cool looking Bionicle that he has been coveting for a long time. Both are gloriously happy and I managed to capture some of their excitement (with Fergus' gift anyway) outside today.


I also managed to spend some time standing on the stool outside of our house waving a broom in my hands. It seems that when you fly a remote control plane into a tree, no amount of revving the engine will untangle it from the snare of branches that trap it. At the end of the day it was a long garden stake that poked and prodded the little plane out of the tree.

Below is a feature I have found on the blogs of a few womyn who mean a great deal to me. It's called FRIDAY FEAST!! Hopefully I will remember to do this on a weekly basis.

Appetizer: Which snack do you like to get when you go to the movies?
Licorice, TWIZZLERS preferably, and always red (the best part of having high blood pressure is that I don't have to pretend to like black licorice because I wouldn't be allowed to eat it anyway)

Soup: What year did you start using the Internet?
I remember a friend taking me to a new, small, and virtually empty "internet cafe" in the fall of 1996. I was pregnant with Fergus and she was showing me how to do more than just read email, which I had been doing for a while.


Salad: What is your first name in Pig Latin?
amanthaSay


Main Course: Name something you are picky about.
Recycling and being environmentally responsible whenever possible.


Dessert: Fill in the blanks: I ____ ____ yesterday and I ____ ____ today.
felt overwhelmed . . . feel less-so

Special days in a child's life

A friend of mine from a very special email list I am on posted that this morning at 8:28 a.m her daughter would be 5 years, 5 months, 5 days, 5 hours and 5 minutes old. What a neat thing to read.

I decided to calculate it with my boys and so at 00:07 January 09th/08 Fergus will be 9 years, 9 months, 9 days, 9 hours and 9 minutes old.

Quinn will celebrate his special moment in time at 16:04 November 25th/07. At that time he will be 6 years, 6 months, 6 days, 6 hours, and 6 minutes old.

Time for you to do the math. Can you tell me what time of day and on what date my respective children were born????

Can you believe it? I've been "memed"

What the heck is that you ask? Good question. Well, it is something my friend Suna did. A friend of hers "memed" her and now she has to tag others.
The Rules: Once tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Then post the rules before your list, and list 8 random things about yourself. At the end of the post, you must tag and link to 8 other people, visit their sites, and leave a comment letting them know they’ve been tagged.

So, here it goes . . . my 8 random things . . .
1. I can't stand not colouring my hair. I get bored and need the change.
2. Despite the size of the item I am knitting, I am pretty much always bored with it by the time I am 2/3 finished.
3. I actually like having my MIL in the same house.
4. I am a Facebook addict.
5. I especially love giving and receiving home-made gifts as opposed to freshly bought gifts.
6. Starting this new business (babyREADY) has made me happier than I thought I could ever be -- as far as employment goes.
7. I wish I liked the cold more because I love the idea of outdoor winter sports and activities.
8. I wish we could afford to travel more with the boys and take them neat and exciting places.

Now the idea is that I am to tag 8 people. The challenge is that I don't think I know 8 people who blog. I know Suna tagged Stephanie but I am going to tag her too and then Steph can do it once for both of us. Kristin is my business partner, until she realises what I have done with this tagging thing. I will try my SIL at MTC but think that since she isn't with that company anymore, that she isn't likely checking that blogmail (hopefully though). I'll send it to Jennifer, Vicki, Barbara, Robin and Sandy too, although I will admit now that I am sorry I am sending it on. I am excited to see what each of you put down as your "8 random things about you" though.

Take care