it's me again....

Just dropping in for my bimonthly update?? Is this what is has come to?

Well, to be fair, these past couple months have been more "interesting" than most.

It started with receiving results from a recent food intolerance test for Last But Not Least.  She has always had a sensitive stomach, but recently this has escalated, with frequent stomach aches and diarrhea, and it was time to investigate.  We expected a food allergy but were a bit gobsmacked by this:

Intolerant. To. Everything.  Let me tell you, trying to cook for a kid who can't have dairy, egg, gluten, rice, potato, sunflower, most nuts and more is a bit of a game changer.  No more fast food or processed foods, almost everything from scratch.  It has required a lot of research and time spent scouting out unusual ingredients like yucca root, arrowroot four, coconut butter and more.  But we have made it work. It looks like she is getting some relief from her symptoms, and we are having her tested for Celiac's disease as a precaution.  It is pretty time consuming but we are starting to find some alternatives that work for her.  Good times.

Next, it was off to a much needed holiday- Dominican Republic! Yay!  We enjoyed some of this...

...and a bunch of this...

...for about 2 days.  And then came this:

I am not kidding. I took a tumble over the tiniest ever step, fell hard on a marble floor, knocking myself out in the process even.  But wait, the story does not end there.  We came home, had it all re-examined, and it was actually this:

Which made me want to spend all my time drowning my sorrows like this....

...with the help of my kids, because who knew but it is really freaking hard to open a bottle of beer with 2 broken arms.  Among many, many other other things.  Please trust me on this and do not research for yourself.

So, that has occupied much of my time of late, to say the least. Two broken arms is not exactly compatible with my work as a dentist, so I have been off for the past 7 weeks as I have been recovering and, more recently, starting physiotherapy to regain mobility and strength in my arms.  Back to work later this week though!  Both happy to get back to "normal" and a bit nervous at the same time.

And in the midst of all of this "fun", life continues of course.  Luckily, I have the best friends and family ever who have been incredibly helpful with practical issues like driving my kids to and fro, making meals, or even helping me get dressed or comb my hair!  I am hoping I did not scar my 11 year old son for life by having the first bra he removed on a woman to be his mother's.  

Ah well.  Save that for the therapist.  And of course there was the emotional support, the laughs through the frustrations, sweet gifts from friends.  I am truly thankful for all of it.

While all this was going on, we have also been in the midst of a full blown renovation at the cottage.  Back in September, a leaky fridge hose resulted in all of the flooring needing to be replaced, along with some drywall, lighting and the kitchen counters.  So why stop there? We decided to to a full on gutting.  I came up with the brilliant idea to repaint all of our sturdy but dated oak kitchen and built ins with chalk paint.....which then became the job of the Hubs when I was rendered armless!  Ha! The show must go on! We went out for a few days over Spring Break to put it all together and this is what is happening so far:

Still a ways to go but it is coming together nicely!!  I will be sure to do a full before and after post once things are finished :)

Anyways, that pretty much brings you up to speed.  Crafting was more or less shut down until recently, when I started some short bouts of knitting and hand sewing as a part of my physiotherapy-  I actually had them write it on my instructions as proof to the Hubs that this was "work" for me.  It has been a wonderful thing.  I have a small finished quilt to show you in another post.  

In the meantime, I want let you know that a blog hop is underway for Make It, Take It! Each of the contributors is having a turn discussing their projects, and are giving away digital copies of the book. I will be back with my turn and giveaway on Sunday!  If you wold like to follow along, here is the schedule:

Blog Tour Schedule 

Friday, April 3 Blog hop kick-off at Poppyprint!
Monday, April 6: Berene at Happy Sew Lucky and Amy at During Quiet Time
Tuesday, April 7: Leanne at She Can Quilt and Felicity at Felicity Quilts
Wednesday, April 8: Martingale Inc. at Stitch this! (check out their Rainbow Round the Cabin staff party!)
Thursday, April 9: Krista at Spotted Stones and Krista at Krista Withers Quilting
Friday, April 10: Lynne at Lilys Quilts and Cindy at Live a Colorful Life
Saturday, April 11: Ayumi at Pink Penguin and Krista at Poppyprint
Sunday, April 12: Kristie at OCD: Obsessive Crafting Disorder and Christina at Sometimes Crafter

NYC, baby!

So, I made the decision years ago that my 40th birthDAY would, in fact, be celebrated for a YEAR.  Why?  Because I am actually really excited to be 40.  I mean, why not?  I have my family and friends, a great home, a career and hobbies I love, so much to be happy about at this point in life.  My 30s were so much about building my family and career, that I feel like my 40s will be the time to reap the rewards of that hard work.  I became a mom about a week before my 30th birthday, which was celebrated by a quick dinner at a restaurant, where I basically couldn't sit comfortably and I milked through my shirt and dashed home in embarrassment, so...yah, I thought I was owed some fun for the Big 4-0 ;)

I am also extremely lucky to still be close with many of the girlfriends of my youth.  Five of us, who have been friends since Kindergarten, decided to take a trip to NYC to celebrate our birthdays in style, and to toast our lifelong friendships.

I had TECHNICALLY been to NYC before.  What does that mean, you ask?  Well, 8 years ago, I went with another friend to celebrate her 40th. She had recently moved to North Carolina, so I flew there to see her and her family, and she arranged a bus tour to NYC for us.  Did you know that North Carolina is really FAR from NYC?  Well, as Canadians, we really are not all that sharp about US geography so, um, we did not.  So our trip started with a REALLY LONG bus ride, made even longer when the bus broke down on the side of the road for 6 hours.  This was especially painful as I happened to be 8 weeks pregnant with LBNL, so was nauseous and had a bladder the size of a pea.  In addition, the bus tour was through a church group of extremely exuberant African American Southern senior citizens, who were the sweetest people ever, but who piped their homemade cheesy soap operas through the tvs and tended to shout "Hallelulia" and "Amen" approximately 47 times per hour.  It was quite the experience!

And the fun didn't end there- we arrived in NYC to catch the tail end of Hurricane Ernesto, which caused rain to pummel us sideways, preventing any kind of walking outdoors (which is how you DO NYC!), nor could we see through the windows of our city tour bus so....yah.  Not fun.

I digress.  But you can see how my life is a bit of a sitcom?

Anyways, this time?  I WENT to NYC!  And we sure did it right.

We shared some laughs with Rob Schneider at his standup show:

We saw amazing musicals:

 We had many cocktails:

We shopped:

We danced until the wee hours of the night, and then we did karaoke (check out my pit stains, dudes):

We even went here.....

...and did this:

So many awesome things happened.  And one of my favourites?  Visiting Purl Soho!!

So many pretty things....

And I brought some home with me :)

The stuff in my Purl Soho bag was WAY more expensive than what I had in that little blue box above, lol!  But I just LOVED being in there, surrounded by succulent yarns, soft and gorgeous Liberty of London fabric, the friendly staff, and all the inspiration! Heaven :)

So all in all, I would say this trip was FABULOUS and we are already busy planning our Big 5-0 return!!

Funny things my kids say: loud voices in a quiet auditorium edition

Well, Big G is getting close to middle school, so we have been attending some school open houses to decide what is the best fit for him and our family.  This past weekend, as we sat in the auditorium awaiting the presentation, a family sat next to us.  The father was the OBGYN who had delivered LBNL six and a half years ago.  We struck up some conversation and introduced LBNL to the doctor, telling her that he was in fact the first person to ever see her, even before Mommy or Daddy.

"He told us, 'It's a girl!'", I said, "and Daddy and I were both so happy!"

"But how did he know I was a girl?" LBNL asked.

"Well," I replied, "Girls have vaginas and boys have penises. You had a vagina so he knew you were a girl."

"SO YOU MEAN I WAS NAKED WHEN I WAS BORN, AND HE SAW MY PRIVATES???" she announced in her 100 decibel voice, standing and pointing at the doctor.

Umm.  Yah.  Annnnnd I pretty much shrivelled up and died at that point!

Funny things my kids say- the "where do babies come from?" edition

It has been awhile since I shared some of my funnies with you, and this one is too good to skip (though my son may kill me later in life if he reads this).

And I am at a total loss as to what kind of picture would be suitable for this post, so I am going imageless on this one (you can thank me later).

Ever since my niece was adopted, our kids have understandably had many questions about where exactly babies come from.  My 9 year old son, Big G, especially.  Finally, he wore me down and I decided to give him the low down.  I gave him a somewhat flowery description of the biology of making babies.  To which his reply was, "you know that is totally gross, right?"  Um, right.

Anyways, it remains on his brain because every now and then a question pops up out of the blue.  He and I were driving alone in the van one day when one such moment occurred.

Big G:  Mom, when people have sex, does the man or the woman go on top?
Me (sweating bullets but trying to look calm): Well, that depends.....
Big G: And is there penis rubbing involved?
Me: (Gulp) There CAN be.....
Big G: Now would I do that part or does the doctor?

Silence.

Me:  Um.....there isn't a doctor present when you have sex, Buddy.
       (side note- there is for me, but I am married to one.  haha!)
Big G: WHAT?!?!?  You mean you don't do it in a HOSPITAL???
Me: No....most people go to the hospital for the baby to come out, but not to put it IN.
Big G: So you can do it ANYWHERE??  Like, OUTSIDE?? (waving arms frantically to the street outside our van)
Me: Well, usually in the privacy of your home is a good idea.  Otherwise, you can get arrested....
Big G, crossing arms and shaking head in disgust: I just do NOT understand this sex thing AT ALL.

Hello 2013 and my Friday Felicity

Happy new year, friends!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and that 2013 is already treating you nicely.  I have much to say and share, but today I thought I would just touch base with a hello and my felicity of the week, which is HUMOR.   Really, isn't life better with a laugh?  If you have been around here awhile, you know that it one of my favorite things.  So today I thought I would share a few things that had me in stitches (ha ha!) of late.  And we knitters/quilters sure know how to laugh at ourselves!

First off, I am totally putting these glasses from Ravelry on my birthday wish list.  Seriously...what better than a saucy pint to drown your sorrows when a WIP goes wrong?  For you non-knitters, a project is "frogged" when you screw up and have to "rippit, rippit!"  ;)

On a related note.....

And who doesn't appreciate a good ballsack?

And if the men in your life are feeling a bit chilly this time of year, believe it or not, you can pick one of these up on Amazon.  Yes, you can officially buy anything on the internet.

So be sure to hop over to see Felicity to get some happy.  She is even featuring a little something I made for her over the holidays....will be back to post more about that later!

Have a fantabulous weekend!