Last year(2011), I  had my child’s passport application sent back to me twice because of the photo. The first time I got the photo from wall-mart(bad idea) and the dimension was wrong, the second time they could see the chair behind my daughter so it was not good?!?! They were probably scared they wouldn’t recognise my daughter at the airport if she didn’t have a chair behind her like the photo.

So I went to the agency in our town and I had them take a photo. Since it was for a child they didn’t know if it would suit our government’s expectations so she suggested that I apply in person to make sure it would go through, if not, there is a professional photo shop in the building.    

So this morning we arrived there at around 10ham and started to line up in front of the photos shop so while I was standing in line hubby went with Missy and got another photo taken in case to prevent having to start over if the other one wasn’t good enough.

We waited about 30 minutes to get a number and been told that it would be another 30 min. (Ah! it will take less time than I imagined) and we could wait downstairs where there are screens showing which number is coming up.

While waiting for a pizza the fire alarm started and we had to get out of there (we were right beside the terrace which was good.  While sitting at a table outside being thankful for the mild weather,  the guy from the pizza shop brought the pizza to us even if he was suppose to stay out too. I tough it was super nice of him considering the situation. 5 minutes after the security made us move and go the other side of the street into the Shaw conference center for about 30-45 minutes until they made sure Canada place was safe.

Of course  we had to line up again, seat and wait at the passport bureau. After another 40 minutes we finally got the applications in to learn that my daughter’s photo taken by the travel agent was too shiny on the chin and forehead.  I congratulated myself for taking one more pic at the photo shop and we headed to the car.

A few hours of waiting and a fire drill (my guess) that I would have skipped made me very happy to take the road home.

When I looked up “how to build a skating rink” on the web, I found all sort of DIY project that needed tools and probably carpenter knowledge. For most of the skating rink you need to buy wood or other material.  There was also a way to do it that didn’t need anything but snow.  So I decide to use this one except that I bought a tarp for about 100$ to make sure the water would stay in the rink no matter how warm the weather would get. I am not talking about keeping it until may but for  weather like the other day when it was 6 degrees Celsius and everything was melting.

So when the first snow came and it was all sticky (snowmen material), I cleared a rectangular area of my yard that was about of the tarp’s size but a little bit smaller. I made sure to push the snow evenly all around it to make the sides of the rink. Because it was all slushy it turned hard as ice a few days later. It was perfect for a good base. So I did the same thing at every snow fall until the sides got to about 2 feet tall.

We waited a few days to let the sides harden  before to proceed with the tarp. I said “we” because when it started to look a bit more interesting Hubby decided to step in and help. I am glad he did because laying a 25’ x 45’ tarp is a bit of mission when it is packed and folded tight.

So we laid the tarp over the  cleared spot and made sure it went over the sides as well. After, we gathered all the pieces of wood we could find in the shed and put it around the side to make sure the tarp wouldn’t lift with the wind.

It was the afternoon and the mistake we made was to start filling it up right away. We should have waited and start on a morning of a not so cold day and fill it up all at once.

Instead we started the flooding the same afternoon at minus 25. The water was freezing almost right away. We had to keep moving the hose constantly. So we flooded it over the week-end to end up with an uneven surface. We had to flood it again when it was just a few degrees over zero so the rink could fill up and the water get flat before to freeze. After that it was perfectly smooth.

For about 100$ we now have our own skating rink and Missy can now cross it all by herself on her skates. She falls off and gets up on her own too. Because the weather hasn’t been too cold lately we just went on it about 3 times and she is so good already. I am so proud of her! That rink was really worth the money even if it was just to see the look on her face when she made it the other side.

One project finished and lots of beautiful memories built!

Me a mom at home

…Done! I have just lit every candle holder that I have and improvised some new ones with a few “ramequins” (little ceramic dish). It looks absolutely beautiful in here which makes me wonder why I never do that ! I used to light candles all the time but with a child I got rid of the habit even if I still have a few high place that would be out of Missy’s reach.

So with almost all of the electronics gone we decide to go on with our plan to go shopping for ice fishing gear. The rest of the town still has power and if it’s not back we will head to a restaurant for dinner after the shopping trip. I am just asking myself what we would have done if the rest of town didn’t have electricity either.

For me and my brothers as children,  evening with no powers meant endless fun. We got to use my mother’s  coloured glass candle holders and  put them around the table to play all our society games  for hours. The darkness everywhere was so mysterious and made us feel kind of brave. The wood stove  kept us warm no matter how long the power was out for. Mom use to make some soup putting the pot on it and it felt even more special. All the family felt closer together and those memories are very precious to me now.

Now as an adult no power means nothing to do and a colder house. It all makes me think that we are so dependant of electricity and of all electronics too.

So Today at a Christmas party my daughter was eating a piece of pizza and some brownies she had picked up from the desert tray. I was just beside her sitting at the table with another mom and her children. So I hear coughing and turned to see that it was Missy. It happens often that she does that but this time she was not stopping and was having more and more trouble breathing. I picked her up from the chair and put her on the floor while yelling at hubby to come. She was choking, and I was totally freaking out not knowing what to do. I  was really trying to remember that damned first aid course but NOTHING!I just panicked! I ended up hitting her in the back and pressing on her belly with one hand (around the place we are supposed to press with both hands,  I remember that now) and she finally vomited! I don’t know if what I did helped or not but I was just so relieved!

After making sure she was alright I took her to the bathroom to wash up. She told me that it was the ham rind from the pizza that was stock in her throat and it was too far from her to get it out. I was doing my best to hold my tears and Missy was back on track, happy like if nothing happened.

Back at home I just kept thinking that I should have been in control of the situation. I should have known exactly what to do! That was the purpose of the first aid course and I hopelessly failed. I am supposed to be the one protecting my daughter and today I almost lost her because of my lack of knowledge. I feel so horrible and guilty too.

So I wrote this post just after reading the first aid book and practicing on Missy. If it happen again I don’t know if I would still panic but I might be able to get my head together if I keep the information fresh. Nobody is prepared for that kind of situation but some people’s reaction is better than other. It is something I will now practice very often so that I will be able to remember the procedure step by step.

I am usually the best at preventing but it didn’t help this time so I will get prepared for the worst from now on.

My next try is going to be macarons , I don’t know which kind yet (probably raspberry)but I already bought the almond powder. I found  a recipe direct from France at Total Immersion-French style . It looks absolutely delicious. It would be a perfect treat for Christmas with a nice pink-red colour! We will see if I can manage to make those cute little patisseries.

I am taking the time to watch Christmas cartoons and movies with my daughter having a hot chocolate and testing a cookies or two. Christmas decoration everywhere in the house, cookies, cuddling on the couch! Life is good at home!

Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that and as I clean a room another one gets trashed. A friend of mine often use to say to me:

“ It’s alright, there is people living in this house “

Yes it’s true, but we are only three and during the day only two and sometimes it feels like a whole hockey team went through the living room. As soon as I let my guard down the counter and any other surface with space will simply fill up with all sort of stuff from papers to DVD’s. Nope, the Fly Lady didn’t do it for me and Yes, I am that hopeless.

In fact I am just a naturally disorganised-messy person. I have an organiser or daily planner if you prefer but what I really need is an army general! So my problem is not the actual cleaning because it feels like  it’s all I do. It seems that it would be more of a maintenance issue. Putting things back in their proper place right away, is a concept that is totally alien to me. Oh yes I tried and I’m still trying but as soon as I get the “new me” out, the old one come back running. The good thing is that with all that trying over the years I am getting  a LITTLE better. lol

Hi, my name is Mom and I am a messy person. Now that I have admitted my problem what is the next step?

About 2 weeks ago I was looking for my bank card, a bit more serious than losing the remote control this time. I knew exactly where I left it and Hubby confirmed that he has seen it in the exact same spot. I looked everywhere I could think it might be. Suddenly  Missy told me “I think it’s me who took it”. So the maybe here might suggest that she really took it OR would like to join me in the little game I am playing.

So I started to look seriously in her bedroom and after many attempt to make her remember where she might have put it, I gave up and started to think that she was making hiding places up just to play with me. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!

So we headed to the bank and got a new one, end of chapter.

This morning Hubby wakes me up with a  “honey, where did you put my keys yesterday when we came back from the arena?”. Well I was still in bed and was dreaming something nice…All I could remember was that I unlocked the door and rushed to the toilet. We looked absolutely everywhere for the damned keys including Missy’s bedroom where Hubby found my bank card from the other day. Then we kind of new that she took the keys even if she said she did not!

Well I had a strange confirmation about it when Hubby left for work and Missy looked very surprised that her Daddy was going. How come Daddy is going to work? He doesn’t have his keys! It sounded like her plan had failed…I guess she doesn’t know about spare keys yet. I know that by now she wouldn’t remember where she’s put it anyway…

Because I have already gave up, we went and had some new keys cut today and I am expecting to find a set of keys somewhere unexpected …hopefully soon.

UPDATE Dec. 14: Thanks to Hubby stubbornness, he finally found it at the bottom of his socks drawer. Silly me  even topped it up with fresh clean socks today and didn’t even see the keys. I told you I gave up…

I gave her some Advil and went back to bed for 10 minutes then she woke up again and started coughing…and whenever she cough she almost always end up vomiting.  Poor Missy! Even at 4 she did not understand what was happening to her and got all freaked out about it…

So it came out on my bedroom carpet…Yeah! Then I thought: why is there carpet in a house with children? It was about 5h30 am and I made her a bed in the living room and we watched cartoons on TV.

This afternoon it was the Christmas parade in town so we ended up going since she was not too bad after all and I  am glad we did because we had a great time. They were throwing candies and chocolate for the children to pick up, she ate a few and had a sugar rush doubled with the excitement of seeing all the lights and decorations on the trucks. She was just screaming ”there’s another one coming” while jumping of excitement! A great day after all

Me a mom at home

I kind a like it when the TV is off…it is so peaceful! So if I count the screen in here there is 1( TV), 2 (desktop),3 (laptop), 4 (iPhone), 5 (portable DVD player). Wow! Maybe we should look at each other once in a while. I  miss the time when we did not have satellite TV and just a few channel. We still used to found stuff to watch but also found more time to interact with each other.

The ultimate solution is probably not to have any satellite connection and only watch DVD’s in the week-end sometimes. I will try to explain that to Hubby now. He will probably tell me that we should get rid of my laptop

So Missy and I went shopping for scrapbook paper. We picked the Christmas ones of course and got 2 sheets of each to make some huge stars.

So back at home I just put my laptop on the table in front of us so we could easily follow the steps. Everything was well explained and fairly easy to do. Me and Miss M did one sheet each. I was doing a step then helping her with hers after until we were done and stock our 2 pieces together.

It was a bit hard for a 4-year-old to do because it  have to be a little bit straight  for it to work. We probably will do better on the next one anyway.

The post asked for “glue dots” and I only had normal white glue. I used the glue that I had at first and soon realized that it needed something thicker like hot glue or sticky tape because you cannot press the 2 pieces of star together very hard like you would need to do when using white glue. I finally used the tape and it worked fine.

So we were pretty happy with our first star and we will make some more soon. I strongly recommend reading The Magic Onions: Make Hanging Christmas Stars before, so you can get everything you need including the right kind of glue.

Me a mom at home