Trying something

Why You Don't Want to Die in Canada.

  My birthday falls the week after Father's Day so this year we decided to take a trip to Canada to go to a Women's World Cup game. Woohoo Canada!?  It all seemed really fancy. We got out our passports and clothes packed, we had a hotel with an indoor pool, and free breakfast. I printed our 5 World Cup tickets and off we went.   With only a few set backs, like when I  lost one of our tickets on the way to the game, we had a blast. I think the best take away from my birthday/ Father's Day Canadian adventure was this lovely conversation between Papa and Izzy. 

Papa:   Izzy, put your seat belt on properly. 

Izzy: I like it like this. 

Me: You can't wear it like that Izzy, it's not safe. You could die if we got a car accident. 

Papa: And you don't want to die in Canada, cause then you'll have to go to Canadian heaven, and it's not as nice as American heaven. 

Izzy: I want to go to American heaven!! (fixes her seatbelt) 

With that said, here are our pictures. 

Hot air balloons on the drive. 

I thought Canada would be like a foreign country, but this was the view out our hotel room window.

This is a little blurry, but the girls thought the fact that the word Goal is But in French was the funniest thing ever. 

She got bored around the 75 minute mark. 

Cause sometimes you have to go to Canada and chug grape soda wearing a bonnet. 

Things you don't want to know.

 I am reading Mom's Night Out and I heard from a very credible source, that sometimes it helps to know that other people are having hard times.  So here are some of my not so cheery thoughts from this week.

 1)    I spent $9 and 3 hours doing laundry this week (this is not including the $20 and 10+ hours that I spend every week washing the laundry in the laundry room downstairs) just to wash every blanket and towel we own because Izzy and Emma threw up on every. single. one. of. them.  Emma was sick, Izzy ate too many cheese-its.

2)     I am tired of my job.  Like I don't spend enough time in a grocery store just buying food for a family of 5, I am now there 20 hours a week helping other people buy food. 

3)     Also, thats 20 hours a week that I am away from my family. I leave for work when my husband gets home which puts us at about 70 hours a week of one of us being at work and the other home with the children. 

4)  I found some plane tickets to Orlando in May for $68 each way, and I kind of wish I homeschooled so that I could just go back to Florida for a couple weeks. 

5) But then I think about how much my kids don't like to listen to me and I don't want to home school. 

6)  I have the best friends in the world.  Like really really great, and I moved away and can't help them, and that makes me feel super duper selfish. 

7)  I have a new friend, and she came over and washed my dishes one day a couple weeks ago just to help me out.  So now I wonder how disheveled I must be that people think they need to come to my house and help me wash my dishes.  

8) Speaking of a new friend, she also told me that when my girls look at me, she can see how much love and respect they have for me.  So that feels pretty great. 

9)  Gwiny studied for weeks for her 5th grade spelling bee.  Even during their week off, and when she lost,  I told her " Thats okay, we are proud of you for making it this far.  PLUS you don't want to have to keep studying for the county spelling bee anyway."  (I'm not winning mother of the year this year) 

10)   Izzy hates wearing pants, but its too cold to let her wear skirts, so I have to get on to her almost every day to put on pants. 

11)  Emma refuses to learn her ABCs.   It's like her colors all over again.  I bet if Kara asked her what letter is "k" she would answer her.  Instead she goes " ummm A?"  

And I would like to leave you with a nice little snippet from a conversation between Izzy and Gwiny.

Gwiny:  I lost it!
Izzy:  Well I am not giving you another one. 
Gwiny:  I just want one more piece of your hair. 
Izzy:   No! 
Gwiny:  But you have like a million on your head! 



Should I be concerned? 

My Parents Visit the Great White North

 Last week something wonderful happened, my parents came to visit.  We had many fun adventures, and some that were less fun but we were together for four whole days and it was great. Here is the run-down (with pictures, yay me!).

This was our first night together.  I had found some Beringer White Zinfindel. It used to be our favorite, until they stopped selling it near Mom and Dad's place.  So, we made a toast. 

On our first full day, we visited the Cabot Factory, ate tacos, and visited Ben and Jerry's!  This was probably my favorite day because Dad got into a fight with the tour guide at Ben and Jerry's over GMOs and Dad and I each ate three free scoops of Ice Cream.

Why did we eat so much ice cream?  Cause they had too many and the lady pictured below gave up SUGAR for Lent.  SUGAR people.  Do you know how much faith you have to have to give up sugar and then find yourself at the Ben and Jerry's factory and not eat ice cream.  A lot. 

Mom brought me a hogsbreath shirt, so we needed a selfie.  I think we took like six just to be able to get a good one, but we did it!

Then we went to Canada

First Stop:  McDonalds.  And they invited the girls to come behind the counter and make their own ice cream cones.  This single-handedly made this the "best trip ever" in Gwin's eyes.

                                             Stop 2:  The Notre-Dame Cathedral.  I got in trouble from the tour guide when I took this picture, apparently pictures were for after the tour. This Cathedral was just amazing.  Oh and Celine Deon got married right there.

This is the wedding chapel in the Cathedral. 

 Stop 3:  The Underground City.  This place was supposed to be the worlds largest underground shopping center.   Really it was some above ground shops and you could take an underground metro to some more shops.  Not much shopping and a little bit of disappointment, but there were these fun fake trees and some traffic cones to pose with.

 Stop 3:  The Underground City.  This place was supposed to be the worlds largest underground shopping center.   Really it was some above ground shops and you could take an underground metro to some more shops.  Not much shopping and a little bit of disappointment, but there were these fun fake trees and some traffic cones to pose with. 

Stop 4:  Our room.  Dad got us an amazing room in the heart of the city.  He was upgraded to the Presidential suite and we got this fancy fireplace, two bedrooms, a full kitchen, living room, and a jacuzzi tub.  We were living it up!

Montreal dinner.  Subway, white wine, and a package of cold medicine.

 The next day Mom and Dad left to head to warmer climates ( I mean who doesn't want to trade 10 degrees for 70) but we showed them, we sent them away with a plague to remember us by.  

Top 14 of 2014

I really like lists so today I bestow upon you my 14 favorite things that I have discovered in 2014.  And by favorite things I mean material items, cause I don't want to be all sentimental, and people like stuff.  Also these are in no particular order.  Just the way things pop into my mind. 

14)  Black Milk Clothing - Seriously people nylon leggings and dresses that cover my large bust.  I will take one of each please. ( I only have one piece cause these bad boys aren't cheep) 

13) Honeysuckle sea scrub -  I bought this for a ridiculous price thinking it might help Emma's ezema, but as it turns out, the dry air up here has pretty much cleared her skin.  I am 99% sure that the ingredients in this are essential oil, coconut oil, epsom salts, and paraffin wax.  This has kept me from being itchy and having to don the dreaded lotion. 

12) Crinkle cut turkey pepperoni-  Its like eating a slim jim, but slightly healthier. 

11) Fleece Cuddle duds - I love these so much I thought about sending them to all my friends for Christmas, before I realized that they don't really need them.  I wear them for every reason always (and this explains why my pants are always full of pants) 

10) Beats by Dre - So this is my newest love, I always 'wanted' a pair of these.  Like in that way that you want things that are way too expensive and you know you will never get so you tell yourself they can't be worth all that money. I mean a $20 set of headphones and a $200 set of headphones can't possibly be that different.  But they are, and thanks to a black Friday deal and RJ's goal of finding them for me as a Christmas gift, I can now noise cancel out my children and jam out. (seriously people I can't hear the kids talking when I wear these, so unfortunately I wear them one eared most of the time, but sometimes you just need a minute.) 

9)  Little Muffins Snickerdoodle flavor-  What I think clouds in heaven taste like. 

8) Maple everything -  melted wax scents, donuts, syrup, soda, fudge, rum.  MAPLE!!!! 

7) Cuisinart cookware - This was a promotion by our grocery store for free cookware, and unlike my lifetime warranty ones we got for our wedding, these can be washed in a dishwasher (not that I have one) AND you can use metal utensils on them and not scrape off the non stick. 

6) Popcorn in a pop- up bowl.  (See #3 on not having a dishwasher)

5) Green Mountain Coffee Vermont Country Blend - oh yes. So so so yummy. 

4) The Rinnai in my living room.  It heats this place up fast and hot and also has a humidifier in it. 

3) Hoodie Allen -  His songs have a great beat and the lyrics are pretty funny. Bonus, you can totally youtube his songs so you don't have to buy anything.  His songs are NOT kid friendly so this is one of those times when the beats are necessary. 

2) Disney Infinity -  This is more for the kids but they love it, I love it, fun times for all. 

1) Jerusalem by Simon Sebag Montefiore -  While I have read a lot of books this year, this was probably my favorite of the 'grown up' variety.  It is a comprehensive history of Jerusalem.  Somehow it was easy to read, informative, and entertaining.  Its hard to find a good non-fiction book with those qualities. 


So there we are, Happy New Year everyone. 

December Update

There is a lot of work going on at our house these days.  We have been reorganizing the apartment, putting up a tiny tree, buying and making gifts, and sampling lots of Vermont goodies so that we can make sure that they are good to send to people as gifts.  Wink wink.  I have made over a hundred Harry Potter Christmas ornaments and Gwiny and I are in the process of creating tons of soaps to donate to the school craft fair.  Even though there are lots of things happening not too many of these have stories to go along (Just the one where I told the girls not to eat other peoples Christmas presents, and then I ate them.) So I think our updates will be told with pictures today.

We had professional pictures taken by my friend John at 802 photography.  He is awesome and this was his first experience photographing children.  He had a ton of great ideas and he wasn't even mad when he had to chase Izzy down to try to get her picture.  

We all know Gwiny likes the arts, But I was seriously impressed with this little sketch. 

I went to lunch at the girls school at the end of November and got yelled at by a lunch lady for throwing my food in the trash instead of the compost.  Seriously, who does this?! 

It snowed, we got a sled. RJ pulled the kids up and down the road until it got dark. The next day we found a parent approved hill by the house (i.e. one that didn't end in the street). Problem solved. 

I just love the cuteness of these girls in their snow pants.

Snow Storm #1 gave us 6ish inches of snow. 

We tried our hand at perfume making, it was our original idea of a gift for everyone.  We had a successful first batch.  Batch 2 was a huge failure, and then we (the adults) drank the rest of the vodka that I needed to make a third round.  Maybe we will try again with ever clear, we probably won't drink that. 

Snow Angels! 

Playin' in the snow. 

Oh and this is the prettiest hamburger I ever made. Cause you know, it's the little things. 

Black Friday Shopping

At 2pm on Thursday we packed up all of our kiddos and drove 2 hours away to hit up the sales in our nearest big city.  We got there for the Old Navy sale at 4, but they were one of the few that decided not to open at the advertised time. We went over to Michaels, also supposed to open at 4, but they didn't have any power.  And at 5 we started doing some crazy crazy shopping.  A snow storm took out the power in some of the areas in the mall.  Some stores were running on generators, some were cash only, and some just took f.o.r.e.v.e.r to get a transaction done (seriously people, we waited in line at Old Navy for an hour and a half because somehow the girls all found coats and winter clothes that they liked there a.k.a. Thanksgiving Miracle)  While we really needed warmer clothes, the real point of this trip was to get winter tires on sale at Sears.  BUT.... Sears never opened.  Of all the stores that could not run on a generator, the store that sells generators.  And the one we needed to be open!  So no winter tires for us.  But we drove and shopped, and shopped and drove, and at 3 a.m. we got home.  We had our children out in one of the craziest shopping days of the year and we had a total of ZERO meltdowns.  
Well the children didn't have any meltdowns.  I got mad at the lady selling pretzels for being stupid and that doesn't usually go over well.   Here's the backstory on that.  I went to JCPenny and RJ took the girls to get pretzels, after filling his order they told him that it was cash only.  He didn't have any they got me, and I went to pay cash for what they had ordered. 
Tiff:  You know if you are cash only, you should probably put up a sign. 
Lady:  I don't need a sign, I have told everyone. 
Tiff:  Well obviously you didn't or we wouldn't have ordered this. I am just saying it will be easier on you if you put up a sign saying you are cash only. 
Lady:  We don't need a sign.  All of the other stores in here are cash only.
Tiff:  Well thats not true.  I have been to 5 stores and they all took credit cards.  Seriously, I'm just trying to help you.
Some dude in the back of the Pretzel store:  EVERYONE KNOWS WE ARE CASH ONLY! 
So I thanked them for my stuff and left.

The real point of telling you this is because Gwiny witnessed the whole thing and when I asked her if I was mean to that lady and she said " You were nicer than I would have been."