Lots of post today....

I could try and spread it out over a few days but then I'd forget everything so here we go.

Alex is turning into quite the performer! He has learned a new song at preschool almost every class and can recite most of the them - even on demand from me, they're just so darned cute I want to show him off to the world!

Santa's Reindeer (to the tune of Frere Jacques)

Santa's reindeer

Santa's reindeer

Off they go

Off they go

Flying over rooftops

Flying over rooftops

Ho Ho Ho

Ho Ho Ho

I'm a Little Christmas Tree (to the tune of I'm A Little Teapot)

I'm a Little Christmas Tree

Short and green

Here are my branches

The cutest you've ever seen

When I get all decorated

Here me cheer

Merry Christmas and

Happy New Year!

Isn't that awesome?!? Okay, what else? Oh yeah, a freaking hilarious video:

I was also going to vent a little today but I've had a change of heart and have decided to just say that there is a definite difference between these two words:

helping hand and free ride. Look it up and figure it out.

ICE

The following is an email that I received from a friend, and what better way than to spread the word than posting it on the web?!

We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in its memory but nobody, other than ourselves, knows which of these numbers belong to our closest family or friends.
If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn't know who to call. Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency? Hence this "ICE" (In Case of Emergency) Campaign
The concept of "ICE" is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergency situations. As cell phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name "ICE" ( In Case Of Emergency).
The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile phones with patients, but they didn't know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose. In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital Staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialing the number you have stored as "ICE."
For more than one contact name simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3 etc. A great idea that will make a difference!
Let's spread the concept of ICE by storing an ICE number in our Mobile phones today!
Please forward this. It won't take too many "forwards" before everybody will know about this It really could save your life, or put a loved one's mind at rest .

ICE will speak for you when
you are not able to.

Thanks Mary Jane for the info, I think it's a great idea too.

Thursday 13

It's All About the Hair - The Good, The Bad and the Downright Nasty - in no particular order -

1.The poufy bangs - I'm the one in the black dress with the fushcia crushed velvet bodysuit underneath...oh yeah ladies...I'm dating myself here.

2.The blond hair...not so hot. and in a bob with bangs no less
3. Ah, the 'Blossom' hat - with bangs and bright pink lipstick. Yikes!
4. Perm #1. Who didn't want to look like Baby from Dirty Dancing?
5. Ewww...I think that was one of the first times I coloured my hair. I'm wearing those little cowboy boots that are really just shoes. 6. Pigtails are so cute on anyone! Okay, just kids, let's be honest I wouldn't look so hot with pigtails nowadays.7. My grad 'do. I did it all by myself and it was hottie hot hot. And of course this was a one-shot deal I've never been able to duplicate it again. 8. Grade 1 - Aaron and I watched Benchwarmers last night and I just about pee'd my pants when I came across my own mushroom cut pic.
9. This is more recent. I don't think I'm preg with Alex yet but still carrying the fat in the face...4 years later I think I'm still too. Bangs? Not so hot

10. Kathryn's wedding with my Gwen inspired bangs - they were super high and the sides all slicked back and the back part curly and all over the place

11. ...sigh...my summer hair, totally gorg, smooth and silky

12. ...I loved my hair this way so much it deserves 2 pictures

AND NOW....HERE's MY HAIRSTYLE TODAY

13. Curly, highlighted, lowlighted, and all over the place. I don't think I ever mentioned that I got a perm last month. Stop laughing, that's not a typo. I got a perm. The stylists laughed their asses off too. But in my defense I wanted a wave put in not a spiral perm. I ended up with something in between. If I goop it up and diffuse it it's curly but if it dries naturally and I brush it it's back to straightness but fuller. But my hairs been so traumatized that I can't even attempt a touch up to my roots. Gah, what a hair nightmare....

It's hard to believe my baby is 6 years old today!

Here's Joey at 6 weeks....

And here he is at 6 years....listening to his MP3 and playing his game Happy Birthday Joey!

My Eager Beaver

Last night Joey was invested into Beavers. He's thrilled to have his scarf and woggle so he looks like the other boys...that makes it harder on me though. Much easier to just look for the kid without the snazzy scarf.

Busy week coming up.

Tuesday - Joey's birthday/skating lessons

Wednesday - Auntie Kathryn and Uncle Jeff are coming for dinner

Thursday - pickup Beaver popcorn

Friday - Brooklyn's birthday, Ladies Bunco night

Saturday - Beaver bottle drive, Brooklyn's birthday party, Aaron's work party and Dave & Monica's party

Sunday - recovering from the week...and spending the day with Jonnie

I think all of our weeks kind of look like this until the holidays are over. This is probably why I have 3 bottles of Bailey's stashed in my house - to relax :o)

An interview from friend to friend

Now that's my kind of interview. No microphone 6 inches from my face or on the spot questions that surprise the heck out of me. Just a few questions from a friend that wants to know something about moi. Jenn was interviewed by Goofball and offered to interview any bloggers so I put in my best Oh oh pick me pick me and here we are:

1.What is the most romantic thing Aaron has ever done for you?

That's easy. Aaron surprised me with a weekend in Banff and proposed to me on a horse drawn sleigh. Ahhh, how romantic. It was a lot of planning on his part because he had to arrange with my boss to have someone cover my shifts for me and he had to pack my bags.

2. I know you are an avid reader, what are your top 3 favorite books?

1. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson- It's the book that made me fall in love with reading and faraway places in my imagination. In my opinion books always surpass the movie versions and I don't want to taint the movie version in my head. Does that make sense?-
2. Night by Elie Wiesel- It's a hard read but opened my eyes to autobiographies. It's a horrific book filled with such inhumanity but I just couldn't put it down. It could easily be the definition of survival.
3. Mercy by Jodi Picoult - All of the her books are so incredibly thought provoking and about subjects which may seem a bit taboo. This one was a page-turner I stayed up reallllly late one night because I couldn't put it down. If I had the time I'd start a book club solely on her books alone.

3.You are very close to your parents, has it always been that way? Even when you were a teenager?

I'm definitely very close to my parents now. We normally talk every day whether it's a quick email or phone call or a lonnnnnnng chat while I vent about that place that rhymes with Beers. In any case, I have the free long distance plan with Shaw and definitely get my money's worth. My boys like to call and leave messages on their grandparents answering machine too. When I was a teenager I had a rebellious phase - wore all black, stayed out all night without calling home...yep, I was pretty rotten at times but I think it shaped me into who I am. When I got to the fork in the road I could have kept going downhill but with help from my parents I took the less travelled path at the time and changed my attitude. Not a lot of people know but I actually was a high school dropout. I needed some time to regroup so I took almost a year off before returning to a new school to graduate. I had started school early so I still graduated with my peers. My parents supported me the whole time and it probably made us closer. My friends always thought my folks were the cool ones - looking back it's obvious why.

4. Other then planning excellent parties do you have any other hidden talents? If so what are they?

Aw, thanks Jenn :o) I do love to party plan! Other hidden talents? I can change a wet diaper while the child is standing up. Alex was so active early on that it was obvious he wasn't going to stay still for bum changes so I had to adapt to him. I also advocate for things I believe in whether it's products or services or policies.

5. Describe your perfect day.

Wow - that's a toughy. It would definitely include a lot of family stuff. We do a lot of fun stuff together it's hard to choose fave activities. Probably just hanging out with my boys at the park. I love to watch kids being kids. Aaron included of course, he's the biggest kid! Tobogganing with hot chocolate and mini marshmallows afterwards is a close second...the coldness is the deciding factor.

Well that's all folks! Thanks Jenn for some fabulous questions, if anyone out there would like to be interviewed or have any questions they'd like answered leave me a comment :o)

It was a furry good time today!

I think this was the spotted gecko

Jonathan wasn't really too sure what to think of the reptiles
Here's Alex holding the bearded dragon for oh about 5 seconds before he started screaming like a little girl and dropped it. In my lap which almost made me scream like a girl...
Joey with the bearded dragon
Hmmm..I can't remember what this guy was called

The birthday boys' cake of his choice - they didn't have YuGiOh so pirates were his next choice. The cake was delish!
Do any of you guys re-use gift bags? Well, I do. This gift bag contained Alex's birthday gift from Danny , then it held the boys gift to Danny , and now it has held Danny & Jonathan's gift to Joey. I think we've started a long running joke. I can picture our 14 year old kids getting a beat up old Transformer gift bag and wondering WTF?
Here's Joey checking out the bunny and guinea pig.
Joey petting Cocoa. She was the only pet that had a name.
Joey and I playing with one of the kitties.

It was a great party! No accidents - from the pets or kids, phew. Joseph had lots of friends/family over for the party and it was awesome.

New Registry for Calgary Dayhomes

One of the child care providers within the Mackenzie Registry has her own website up and running for all CALGARY DAYHOME PROVIDERS. I don't think it'll be long before the word gets out and the website gets bombarded with listings.
Good luck everyone!
:o)

Beers rhymes with the store I'm still ticked off at

I'm sure you know where I'm talking about seeing as I mentioned it last week.

We're in that vicious cycle:

Had carpet/lino installed

Phoned immediately to complain

Carpet is a minor issue

One stair was cut a hair too short

Lino is an effing disaster

Phone calls weren't returned

We were passed along to several people

And then I phoned the store manager

Someone will be at my home tomorrow to "try" and rectify the situation

Hmmm...how much you wanna bet he'll show up late enough to come at the party start time? Damn you Murphy!

Bringin back the Thursday 13s

13 Things That Have Made My Day...over the last 24 hours

1. Joseph eating all his lunch without protesting once - wahoo
2. Having my contractor fight with Sears on my behalf - sigh of relief
3. Alex keeping his Batman sweater clean while eating spaghetti
4. Going Bunco shopping with Andrea
5. Buying a favourite author's book for $4.99 less 10%
6. Spending time with my nephew
7. Donna's optical illusion email - I'm still smiling
8. Numerous pats on the back for my news coverage
9. Pecan Passion bubble bath from a girlfriend
10. Buying a marble countertop for the bathroom bathroom $100 cheaper than original cost
11. Getting an uninterrupted sleep
12. Circling March 15th on my calendar for the annual Great Danes event - I'm on the A-list now
13. Having everything for Joey's birthday party checked off my list

Phew! All these interviews are making me tired :o)

This morning City TV phoned to ask if they could interview me for the news tonight. I said pretty much the same thing as last time "Uh, do I have time to brush my hair?"

More deets to come...

Here's the deets:

It wasn't what I was hoping for. I think I made some very good points and strong statements and what came out on the actual video was in a word...meh

I said "I have a police clearance, social services check, first aid/cpr, child safety house, references and a lot of experience with children - what I don't have is that piece of paper that says I'm licensed. "

And I'm sure you can all guess what was aired:

"What I don't have is that piece of paper that says I'm licensed."

Hmm...not what I was hoping for at all.

On the upside to things - Andrea was a freaking SUPERSTAR!!! She got most of the air time but made so many important points that I had also stated. But, hearing it come from a parent was probably a lot more powerful than coming from the unlicensed provider.

Oh yeah, they also aired me saying something like "It's a lot of word of mouth, if you're good - people will find out about you and if you're not - people will know." Doesn't really make sense but in my head it did, I think if they played the sentence before and after it would have sounded better but whatevs, what's done is done.

And off to the dayhome meeting I went.

There were mixed feelings there too. Yes, it was good to talk to TV but no, the private dayhome provider wasn't portrayed as a comparable service b/c they failed to mention that WE HAVE POLICE CLEARANCES/CHILD WELFARE CHECKS AS WELL AS LICENSED FACILITIES. I think we're back to square one again.

Do you think the TV station will allow me to do a rebuttal?

Didn't think so...

I'm in print ! B & W but still it's print, right?

Here is where you can read the article.

And the picture...hmmm..not what I was hoping for BUT at least my eyes are both looking the same way.

So, the article was well written although I would have liked to be referred to more as a private dayhome rather than unlicensed. I mean really, I meet the criteria of a "licensed" facility such as police check, social services check, first aid/CPR, and it's kid-proofed but I like setting my own hours, rates and not have to worry about big brother coming to pop in. What can I say? I like being my own boss.

Keeping with that theme...am I really my own boss? Hmm...not really if I have to answer to the parents but I like to believe that I interview them as much as they interview me. And I feel that for the most part we're more of a partnership.

Meet Thing One and Thing Two

Last night Cindy and I went to R B Interiors to check out the Christmas launch and a girl could really go crazy there :o) I settled on these two guys after much debating on which two snowmen represent my boys the best. See the resemblance in the nose - just kidding.

Honestly, I don't think I was really in the Christmas mood until last night. Everywhere you looked Christmas Christmas Christmas! Fab-u-lous !

I seen quite a few things that would look great in our home BUT we're decorating the upstairs AND downstairs this year and I'm not sure exactly what I'll need, or what will go where. Know what I mean?

The past few years we've decorated for Christmas right after Joey's birthday but left the tree until the last minute. I just envision someone pulling off all the ornaments or pulling the tree down and with a house full of little kids why take the chance. BUT this year we're putting our tree in the basement now that it's almost complete - carpet will be installed Tuesday...grr..

So, I think I'll have to sort through what I've got and will then head back for a few more things.

Does anyone have a cool name for their basement other than 'basement'?

Say Cheese!

"Reporter: So, how do you feel about me sending a photographer over to take your picture?

Me: Uh, will you give me enough time to brush my hair?"


What a great way to kick off the weekend, hey? I'll be sure to post my article - pending on what the pic looks like of course, haha.


Last night was Couples Bunco and Aaron and I kicked ass! Woot Woot! Michelle and Jon were sorely missed but Brett & Shannon were good subs. Aaron and I are hosting next month so we automatically get the hostess prize and we decided to up the $20 to $25/couple so each couple walks away with something.

Aaron and I would have won:
High Score
Last Bunco
and
Most Bunco's.
Potentially we could have cleaned house, so to speak.

Cindy came up with the fab idea of buying fancy alcohol for prizes, seeing as we're getting close to the holiday season of entertaining. We got Starbucks liquer and Caramel Bailey's...mmmm...not to mention a Baja Rosa shooter for each Bunco. Unfortunately for Aaron out of the 9 Bunco's we got 6 of them were mine :o)

Tonight is UFC night and I'm headed over to a Christmas launch of a home decor store in New Brighton this evening. I'll let you know the deets tomorrow!

Who me? You really want my opinion?

I'm still surprised to have gotten an email from a reported from the Herald asking me for info. Me! "They like me, they really really like me!!" Sorry that was a Sally Fields moments for sure.

About a week ago I wrote in a hot tip to the paper and it looks like they may want to investigate it a wee bit further.

Here's the jist of what I wrote:

Calgaryarea.com has hosted a city wide child care site for 8 years. As of October 15, 2007 they have removed over 800 unapproved dayhomes. The only listings that can be found on the site are dayhomes approved by the Churchill Park Family Care Society. In my neighbourhood and in the surrounding areas there are 5 listings which are approved. We do have a registry in our area, which is done by volunteers and there are 79 unapproved dayhomes on that list. Mackenzie Towne and Mackenzie Lake are fortunate to have this service but there are so many other areas in our city that do not. Parents are going to be scrambling now more than ever when it comes to finding child care. The president of calgaryarea.com issued a statement on the child care website stating that it was a legal liability issue. There is a legal disclaimer posted on the site which should prevent them from being liable. It is definitely buyer beware and parents need to use good judgement when choosing any facility whether it's approved or private. It's unfortunate that there isn't a comparable website available or as widely known as calgaryarea.com. Hopefully this will not give parents seeking child care the impression that private care is not comparable to being an approved dayhome.

The whole situation sucks for both the parents seeking and the providers advertising. As a provider I realize how hard it is to get the word out when you're first starting out-much like most businesses would. I remember putting fliers up at the local grocery store just to have them ripped down by a competitor. Honestly! The store manager caught the culprit removing a few dayhome posters....almost pathetic isn't it? But anyways, once I had a few clients things just took off and before I knew it I had a waiting list.

Will let you know what happens!

Screw you Sears!

It's totally not their fault but our carpet/lino install was set for tomorrow - and now they've realized that they don't have all of our product in yet....

Once again,

Screw you Sears!!!!!

Not only did Aaron take tomorrow off just to be here to supervise the whole thing but I skipped out on my stamping class last night to help move/kick/drag our treadmill into the storage area (which will not be carpeted or linoed) and empty out the rest of the basement.

Those bastards...

So, now we're looking at sometime next week.

Who want's to be the one to break the news to Aaron? I sure don't...what makes a bad situation worse is that Aaron even phoned them on Saturday to confirm that it was all going down tomorrow like planned.

Don't worry - everyone is okay

But we had a fire this evening in our kitchen. Relax - it was in our oven and totally contained- but still. It smoked out our entire main floor. And I must say I was totally cool during the whole incident. Here's how it all went down.

I baked biscuits in the oven to go with our beef stew for dinner. Simply delish by the way. And afterwards I turned the oven up a bit and through in a few fries for Alex and Joey. (No yeller yeller, obviously) Then Aaron comes tearing down the stairs yelling what's burning? where's the fire? Uh, duh, I had absolutely no idea what the heck he was talking about until I noticed the flames in the oven. Yeppers, there were flames. So, we turned off the oven and it burned off whatever had spilled in the bottom of the oven.

Hmm...how could I have not noticed this you're wondering? Well, in my defense, I had a head cold and seem to have misplaced my sense of smell lately. Which was a gawdsend when it came to all the poopy issues Thing One and Thing Two were having the past week.

So, now I have to clean my oven and see if the element is salvageable....sigh...and the funny thing is (okay funny isn't the right word) that I have no idea what the heck spilled all over the bottom of my stove that could catch fire like that? Usually the only thing that I consistently spill over are pies, or cheesy pizzas.

But like I said, everyone is okay. That's what counts, right?

I obviously spoke too soon

Alex is still...hmm..what's the word I'm looking for....liquidy? Yeah, I think that sums it up. I've been assured by the doc that he's fine - just has a bug to work through his system.

We had a whirlwind weekend with my folks. Friday night we stayed up chatting and scrabbling. Saturday Papa took Joey to a Beaver tour/hands on experience at The Military Museum. It was really good - I totally recommend it to anyone interested in military history.

Saturday night Aaron and I took Mom and Dad to Bolero's for a belated anniversary dinner. It was fab-u-lous!!! Picture it: you sit at your table with a little totem, if you turn it to green, servers come by with tons of different meats on skewers that they carve off of right at your table. And when you need a break you flip it to the red. Simple, isn't it? I was there for the beef and had filet mignon, ribeye, sirloin, bacon wrapped filet mignon, and pineapple and veggies. They also had chicken, lamb, pork ribs, pork sausages.... And there was also a cold/hot buffet of side dishes.

Simply amazing!

Papa and Joey
Saturday night at the Beck household, isn't he saucy everyone?

A family portrait, guess I could have cropped it a bit first - but I've been having a shortage of spare time lately so it'll have to do.

So much to blog about I have no idea where to start

This is going to seem like a random post but here goes:

Yesterday was uneventful - Alex was no longer singing out "Yeller yeller" if you know what I mean.

Today was a super busy day!

I had the pleasure of Jonathan's company for part of the day. He's such a funny little guy - and his big cousins sure enjoy him. Joey even rescued him out of his playpen which is a whole other story for another time. We had a very outdoorsy day as well. The weather was beautiful and the kids had spring fever! Coincidentally so does my cat.

And tonight was my Christmas Card Workshop. And oh what a night! It was a good group of women, lots of chit chat, lots of stamping - in a word- FAB-U-LOUS!

One of the girls is a Beauti-Control consultant and she offered to bring her mini-pedicure set for us to try. Well, we were kind of overwhelmed with card stuff so the only one who had a chance to test it was myself after everyone else had gone home. And oh my gawd - I could almost hear the angels singing in the background Hallelujah - it is also FAB-U-LOUS. I had every intention of doing a before and after shot and totally forgot to do the before shot but I ordered a kit for myself and one for my Dad - that's how much I LOVED it! I have pretty rough feet from spending a summer barefoot in the backyard and now they're smooth and silky - except for one spot. I intentionally left my big toe naked from the miracle creams just to be able to do a true comparison on how it does on callouses and it's un-freaking-believable. My feet are smooth as silk. ( except for my big toe )

Maybe at my next Ladies Night we can do mini-pedicures?!?

Okay - here's a stumper for you ...

Where the heck is , , Canada ??? Seriously! I check my visitor map now and then and I always have , , Canada listed.

Toronto, ON, Canada
Malden, MA, United States
Omaha, NE, United States
Brampton, ON, Canada
Canaan Station, NB, Canada
Oromocto, NB, Canada
Orangeburg, SC, United States
Charlottetown, PE, Canada
Edmonton, AB, Canada
, , Canada
Frankford, ON, Canada
Calgary, AB, Canada
Halifax, NS, Canada
Bathurst, NB, Canada
Sackville, NB, Canada
Berwick, NS, Canada
Pretoria, South Africa
, , Canada
Calgary, AB, Canada
Lethbridge, AB, Canada
, , Canada
Blackfalds, AB, Canada
Notre Dame, NB, Canada
Burlington, ON, Canada

I had to refrain from posting yesterday for fear that it would be allllll about poop. Thing Two has had a wicked case of the runs. If there was an upside to it, it's forced me to evaluate his underoo situation and throw out any that look a little snug...and it was easier to rinse and toss then attempt to make his tighty whiteys actually, you know, white.

The review's are in everyone

And the movie was a hit with the Becks! Joey had to pee halfway thru but other than that everyone remained seated from beginning to end. It was almost magical!

The story line was pretty cute and Jerry Seinfeld did a great job of his character Barry. There wasn't as much adult humour like there was in Shrek 3 - which made it more age appropriate.

Chris Rock has a funny role in the movie as well, I'm not a huge Chris Rock fan but he was good in the Bee Movie.

Honestly I had huge doubts about this flick but I'm sure we'll be buying this movie.

Yeah it's the weekend

and my boys let me sleep in this morning. Well technically I was up with them at 6:30 but then Aaron let me go back to sleep once he got up. Either way it was after 10 when I was finally up for the day.
Thursday while I was cutting the pumpkins in half to bake them in the oven - you know, so I could use the insides for pie - I ended up jamming a sliver of pumpkin under the nail of my pointer finger of my dominant hand. It's not infected but it hurts like a mean sonofabitch! The pain literally kept me up until 1:30 last night. I have a feeling I'm going to lose the nail - I totally just shuddered while typing that.
Anyways, it was massive cleaning day at the Beck's. We put off taking the boys to see the Bee Movie until Sunday when it's supposed to be super cold. At least today the boys could play in the backyard while Aaron and I were working.
Hockey game was good - boy those Hitmen sure like to fight! I'm not sure if that surprised me more or if it was the two kids sitting in front of us that smuggled in a bottle of beer each. Aaron said they probably just taped it to their legs...hmm...how does he know this? Although I don't even think they enjoyed their smuggled goods - they looked way more concerned about getting caught. Ha ha, maybe that'll teach them.

Gah! How could I have lost before I even started?!?

This is how :

It's National Blog Posting Month. You're supposed to blog everyday for the month of November and I really really really wanted to do this. And guess what happened?

I forgot to post on the very first day!!!

Hmm, me thinks I may need a vacation!

Anyhoo, last night was Stampin class at Christine's and I was the hostess of the month. That must have been why I forgot about the whole NaBloPoMon thing. I've now got all of my supplies needed for my Christmas Card Workshop (insert super big smile here) for Thursday night. I still have room for 2 more ladies if anyone out there's interested - although I think most of my readers are out of towners so the odds of getting a positive response is slim to none, I know.

Now, I've just got to figure out some hot holiday beverages and get crackin on the homemade cookies.