Happy Halloween!

We've had some awful weather blow in here today!
A hurricane, a tornado and lightening storm!

The tornado:

The hurricane:

The lightening storm:

Happy Halloween!

What happened at the library

When I was on vacation this summer I visited the city that I grew up in. It is also the city that my birth mother lives in and the city where my adoption was done. So I took the opportunity to scan the microfiche for the city's newspaper in search of my birth father's obituary. I have 3 pieces of information about him:

1. His first name is Ken


2. He was married and had 4 children, one of whom is named Carole


3. He died on March 31, 2001

It's not a huge city by any means, so I figured that this was enough info to find an obituary. I had no clue what I would do with it if I did find it! (You can read my thoughts on this from before I went here. ) Alas, after scouring the days before and after March 31, I found nothing. No men of the right age, with a name or circumstance that were even close.

Now what?

I find myself thinking more and more about my father's family, especially my half-siblings. I grew up as an only child, so the idea that I have 5 siblings brings so many mixed emotions. They are all older then I am; some would be in their 60's now. Do they know about me? Did they suspect that their father was having an affair? How will they react when they do find out? Will the hate me because I represent their father's transgressions, or will they welcome me into the fold?

As with most adoptees who wonder and search, I also wonder on the medical side of things. Seeing so many friends getting breast cancer diagnoses lately makes me even more nervous about my lack of medical history. What do these people know that I don't? Do they know that we are all prone to diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure so they take preventative measures to keep themselves safer? I've had to live my life on the assumption that I *might* be prone to everything and anything.

Since I didn't find anything at the library, I can't move forward on this right now. Sure, I could hire a private investigator, dig through the Internet or enlist the help of a search angel. But something is holding me back from doing any of that. The fear of the unknown and the risk of rejection are two big motivating factors for inactivity.

and yet................ I really want to meet them.

Not as pretty as Mummy...

Kids say the darndest things sometimes!

As I was reading Heather's blog entry about her daughter commenting on her butt (check it out here) I giggled again at Liam's most recent comment.

We were all getting ready to go out for dinner on Saturday, Liam looked at me in my long brown skirt and long beige shirt and said:

"You look nice Mama, but Mummy is prettier."

Thanks Dude!

What am I? Round 10 - Reveal

Congrats to N for solving this "What am I?"

My MIL bought me these a couple of years ago so that I could get in touch with my inner Diva while cleaning the house. Unfortunately the boa part sheds, so I don't actually use them.

I'm going to have to hunt for more obscure items for the next time. Thanks for playing!

What am I? Round 10 - # 2

Only guess so fare is some kind of Halloween Costume. Like most things around the house, I'm sure it could be incorporated into a costume, but that is not it's primary purpose.

What am I? Round 10

Hopefully my dry spell for blogging is over. To help goose the creative juices I scoured the house this morning with camera in hand looking for a new subject for "what am I?"

And here is what I found:


I took the item outside on the railing of the deck to make the best use of the natural light (and it's always more sneaky to not photograph the item in it's natural environment!)

So guess away! Guess often! There will be 4 pictures, one per day, before the final reveal. Unless someone guesses it sooner!

And if you enjoy playing this, be sure to check out Lori's Childhood Trivia.

Teppanyaki

My Mom's birthday falls during her visit to us this year, so Hilary and I decided to take her out for a nice fancy restaurant - somewhere that didn't offer crayons. We live in a very touristy city, so we have a lot of wonderful restaurants to chose from. Pre-Liam Hilary and I would eat out fairly often so we could check out a lot of the new restaurants. Post-Liam- not so much!

We decided to try something new and unusual, something that neither Hilary nor I had ever done and definitely something my Mom had never done! We went out for Teppanyaki:

Teppanyaki dining is a Japanese tradition where specially trained chefs prepare the meal right at your table on a large grill. In Japanese, teppan means an iron plate or steel sheet and yaki means stir-frying.

We had a fabulous time! The chef is not only skilled with a knife he is also an entertainer. He built our table a volcano out of rings of raw onion, filled it with oil and lit it on fire.




The grand finally was the meat being cooked under a very large flame. We were sitting about 1 foot back from this! You can just see the edge of Mom's plate in the corner of the picture.


We all had a great time and headed out for a leisurely coffee at a local pub and made the most of having a babysitter at home dealing with bedtime!

Well Bust my Buffers!

It is a sad day in our household. Well, sad for Hilary and I. Surprisingly Liam seems rather unfazed.

We've packed up all of the Thomas the Tank Engine toys. Thomas has been a part of our life since Liam was 2 years old. We have trains and tracks and buildings and books and DVDs and clothes and, and and......

Now at the very old age of 6, Liam has outgrown Thomas. His interests now run to things like Bakugan's and Bionicles and Hot Wheels and Star Wars.

Hilary and I will adapt. We are slowly learning the languages that go with these new fantasy worlds. And of course we are acquiring the toys, the books, the clothes and the DVDs for this next phase of childhood.

The Thomas stuff will remain packed up in boxes (5 in total!) in the attic. Liam may want to revisit them one day or we will keep them to pass down to the next generation of train buffs.

We are pathetic

Yup, Hilary and I are pathetic. Hilary trapped a mouse the size of a quarter under a container and I had to go wake a neighbour up to come and deal with it for us.

How sad is that?

Shoes

If you were to ask Hilary she would tell you that I have a shoe obsession. Nothing that rivals Imelda Marcos she would say, but too many shoes for one person. After all, Hilary likes to argue, you only have 2 feet and can only wear one pair of shoes at a time.

I don't believe that I have a shoe obsession. I have 1 pair of running shoes, 1 pair of flats for the office, 1 pair of outdoor Crocs, 1 pair of indoor Crocs (worn as slippers), 1 pair of actual slippers, 1 pair of winter boots, 2 pairs of sandals. This is only 8 pairs of shoes, hardly an obsession.

But I digress.

My 1 pair of running shoes (cheap $19.99 ones from a big box store) had a crack in them and I was getting wet feet any time I walked in even the slightest of misty conditions. And since I live in Halifax, that is pretty much our everyday weather. So it was decided that I should buy a new pair. Off I went to another big box store, because overall I'm pretty cheap, and will not pay much more then $20 for any pair of shoes. I might concede to $40 for winter boots, but I'm not going over that. Even my Crocs are not brand name Crocs and only cost $9.

At my current age I have had many opportunities over the years to purchase new shoes. And ever since I stopped growing at the age of 12 I've worn a size 8. On the odd occasion an 8.5. That is until last year. Last fall I bought my first pair of size 9 running shoe. I figured that the sizing was wrong, or that particular brand ran small. Then last winter the boots I got were a size 9 too. And this years sandals? You guessed it a 9. I was now starting to think that it was maybe my feet that had changed and not that the entire shoe industry had secretly changed their sizing methods. Maybe my foot was suffering from the same middle age spread that the rest of me has been experiencing. And really? a 9 is not that far from an 8, so no big deal.

Well! Want to guess at what size my brand spanking new running shoes are?

11

Yup, 11! My socks still fit, all my other shoes still fit and yet I found myself buying size 11 runners yesterday. Hilary took one look at them on me and started making clown and boat references. Nice, supportive even one might say. I tried on the 8s, the 9s, and the 10s before committing to the boat like 11s.

So why did I buy these huge clunkers?

They were on sale of course! only $17.99 - regularly $49.99. Who could pass them up? And they really are quite comfortable too.

Going to the Chapel

We attended a family wedding yesterday. It was a very small wedding in a very small church. The 50 people nearly filled the pews.

I was raised Catholic, spent a better part of my teen years as a born-again Christian and then returned briefly to Catholicism before coming out as a Lesbian. For me, the 2 were not something that I could do at the same time.

Hilary was raised in an Atheist household. Since we have been together, I have moved away from believing in a higher power to being an Atheist as well. We are planning on raising Liam to be exposed to many world religions but are also sharing with him that we do not believe in them.

So yesterday was really his first time going to a religious service. We've been to 2 other weddings since he's been born, but he was 2 and 3 years old, so young enough to not be aware of what was going on. Now at 6 he understands what a wedding is, we have had discussions about God and how different people believe different things, and what we believe and don't believe.

We sat at the back and brought a new toy for Liam to help keep him quiet, we only had to pull it out part way through. We did have some interesting theological discussions: "Why do they keep calling this a house? It doesn't look like a house? Where does God sleep? Who is God again?" "Who's that guy hanging on the wall?" "Why do they all talk at the same time?"

The new toy he got was 2 Littlest Petshop dogs. He then decided that they should get married too and had them walking down an imaginary aisle and kissing while he pronounced them married. He did sit and watch a good part of the service. Overall he was quiet and well behaved.

He has one medium velocity burp (purely accidental- I picked him up to sit on my lap and kinda squeezed it out of him). Luckily only the folks immediately around us heard it.

And of course he was the cutest kid there! Okay, I may be slightly biased since he was also the ONLY kid there! But check out the handsome lad:

The Hostest with the Mostest!

I haven't been around much this weekend as we have been visiting with family who are all in town for a wedding tomorrow. And during all of this visiting, Hilary has stepped up as usual with her Hostest with the Mostest abilities!

Case in point 1:

Thursday night her parents flew in to Halifax and landed at 11:12 PM. After collecting their luggage and rental car, it was well past midnight when the arrived at our house. Hilary knew that their tummies would still be on BC time so she had a light meal prepared for them. Rarebit and salad.

Case in point 2:

Her uncle called yesterday. He and his wife are staying in Halifax before the wedding and called on Saturday to see if they could come by to visit us Sunday morning. So Hilary threw together this brunch:

She made potatoes with horseradish and salad shrimp while drinking her first cup of morning coffee!

The Profiteroles she did buy pre-made, but she still has a knack at platting things so that they look awesome!

So Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends, and I hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend. I'll be back after the wedding with pictures of Liam in his first tie and tie-pin!!

Love Thursday

Liam took this picture of Hilary and I with his camera. He doesn't use it often, but at unexpected times will pick it up and say "I better take a picture of this so that I can always remember it."

He is getting much better at centering the shot and being aware of the lighting around him. Hilary is not thrilled that there are now 2 of us in the house randomly snapping pictures of her!

It's out!

It came out during French class today, so the teacher put it in an envelope for him to bring home.

A part of motherhood

I wasn't prepared for.

I can deal with cuts, scrapes, a hole in his tongue, MRIs and surgery. Apparently I cannot deal with a wiggly tooth.

His tooth is so loose that he can push it forward with his tongue so that it is perpendicular to the rest of his teeth. He can almost spin it right around. And every time he does this, usually while shouting "WOOK, WOOK at my TWOOTH" [thus pronounced because he has half his hand in his mouth] both Hilary and I succumb to a bad case of the heebie jeebies **SHUDDER**

Our tenant downstairs is a dentist. I sent Liam knocking on his door today to see if Dan would pull it out for him. Alas, Dan was not home. The tooth is going to come out any moment. It just needs a small yank by someone who won't pass out when they yank on it. Liam keeps trying, but can't seem to get a grip on it.

The fight is on!

And I plan on winning!

Good luck little mouse-y, you must go else where now for I WILL conquer the kitchen cabinets and take them back as MY domain, NOT yours!

I've never been so busy

at work as I have been for the last 2 weeks. And there is no end in sight!

Seven things

My friend (and virtual twin) Heather from Nobody but yourself has tagged me to share 7 interesting facts about myself:

The rules are:

• Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
• Share seven facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as
  links to their blogs.
• Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their
  blog.

My seven tidbits are:

1. I have once, and only once, told my father to F-OFF! I had just been thrown from my horse, was a 20 minute (when not injured) walk from the house, and he came by in the truck to give me a ride home. Instead of offering sympathy or concern for my injuries (which were severe enough to require a trip to the ER in an ambulance and I was on crutches for week) he launched into some long and annoying lecture. I couldn't handle him and the pain, so I chose the pain. I told him to F-OFF and pull over. I got out and made my way home alone. It took me over an hour. And when I got home? My mother's ONLY concern was how I had treated my father. "Whatever Mom, just dial 911 while I collapse, Okay?"
2. I have bitten my nails since I was a toddler. When my parents put the nasty tasting nail polish on me I resorted to biting my toe nails (ahh to be that flexible again!). And then last year *POOF* I stopped.
3. Growing up one of my favorite foods was fried liver and onions. I loved it so much that if we ate out at a restaurant that would be what I would order. Most of the waitresses gave me such looks of pity, assuming it was some form of parental abuse that I was being forced to eat LIVER for dinner. Now? the mere thought of it can turn me off all meat for days.
4. I have 2 tattoos. My first one was a Celtic Knot in multiple colours on my right shoulder. I loved it so much I went back the same day and got a second one! A circle with a half moon/old man's face and stars. This one is on my hip, and if it had been first I would not have gotten another one! Boy howdy did it hurt! And who knew that tattoo needles spark when they hit bone?
5. I can touch type 60/wpm and have been able too since my Mom taught me to type when I was 10.
6. I have a fuzzy navel...literally. In a drunken, foolish, stupid moment, on a dare, I shaved my belly button area. And what they say about hair growing back darker and coarser after it's been shaved? I'll save you going and trying it out yourself. It's true.
7. I like to put rocks in my belly button to see if they fit. Enough said about that one!

I'm tagging the following 7 great bloggers!:

• Jensboys at A Nickel's Worth of Common Sense
• Cher at punk rebel mama
• Alex at BesoMami
• Aunt Becky at Mommy Wants Vodka
• Lori at Weebles Wobblog
• Paula at And always very curious
• and Chez Perky

I'm tickled PINK!

Did you happen to notice the cool change around here? I won a contest that FireMom ran on her blog Stop, Drop and Blog. FM was up late last night redesigning my blog as well as her own.

We are PINK for October!

Web sites will Go Pink during the month of October to bring attention to Breast Cancer Awareness Month, get people talking about breast cancer, and raise money for research. But to be clear, raising money isn’t the primary purpose of this web event. The hope is that you turn your site pink (in whatever way works for your site), educate yourself about the multiple issues related to Breast Cancer, then take that knowledge and tell someone else what you’ve learned.

I have not been personally touched by breast cancer, in that no one in my family or immediate circle of IRL friends has ever been diagnosed. But breast cancer doesn't just effect family or immediate friends. It has a ripple effect, working it's way out from the woman with the diagnosis and touching everyone around her. I do have several on-line friends who are at the center of the ripple. So it is for them and every other person touched by this disease that I have gone PINK for October.

Share your story, either here in the comments or link back to your own site. How has the ripple of breast cancer affected you?

What am I? Round 9 - 3rd photo