Year End

Somehow 2009 came and went. Now poof we're facing 2010. I have neglected our blog. Let me make some excuses, or rather fill you in on our happenings of '09.


Where to begin....Trips. If there is one thing we like to do it's take trips. This year we managed to make it to St. Louis twice; once in March for Zada's birthday and then again for Thanksgiving. We brought James' parents with us this past November. They experienced their very first American Thanksgiving and Black Friday. We spent a week in Collingwood, Ontario in July. It just so happened that the Elvis Festival was on the week that we were there, we had fun seeing all the followers. While there James, Ed and myself spent the day mountain biking and eventually making our way down a ski hill! Loads of fun! We did some swimming. However the water was not warm at all - but it's something as a August born warm-blooded Missourian I must learn to accept. We of course made a couple camping trips throughout the summer.

We did have a couple visitors this summer - My parents. They came in July/August for two weeks. What a great visit! Zada had a blast because she had Grandma and Papa all to herself while James and I worked. We did manage to get some little side trips in as well.

Zada finished up Grade 1 in June and traveled up to Grade 2. She was enrolled in Figure Skating at the beginning of the year but found skating wasn't really her thing. Over the summer she took gymnastics which she really enjoys and is always eager to go to class. She has recently expressed an interest in ballet. She graduated to Brownies this September, which she loves. She was just tested for her first interest badge before winter break. Her interest - woodworking! She made a treasure box and used a couple different tools and learn all about safety.














James and Zada visiting Ottawa Transportation.

James and I are doing great! I ran in my first 10km race in November.

What an amazing experience. I am still training and increasing my distance weekly. My goal is to run a half marathon in 2010. I am still happily employed at the same law firm and still enjoy going to work. James is still employed - making sure the Government's computer systems run smoothly. In January of this year I had the opportunity to head down to Parliament Hill (Canada's Government buildings) to see President Obama. Though I didn't get to see him up-close and personal I did get a chance to snap a few photos! Then just a week ago the Olympic flame traveled through Ottawa. We got to see it en-route to downtown. We stood next to one of the runner carrying the flame!

I'd say we have had a pretty fun year and look forward to an amazing 2010!

We'd like to wish all of our friends and family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I plan to be much better at blogging!

Cheers!

James, Linda and Zada

Life and such.

Wow first of all it's been quite a while since I blogged. I think winter happened oh yeah and life! I guess with work and school we got a little busy. Zada has been busy with Sparks (girl scouts) and I was busy with my sewing class. 

During Zada's March break we made a visit to my parents house in Missouri. We had a wonderful time and did lots and lots of activities. It was great to see all of the people we got to visit with. We're looking forward to a return trip sometime later this year. 

Work has been going quite well. I'm truly enjoying my job and the people I work with. I"m learning so much in the world of Patents...

We are finally entering Spring up here in the north. The tulips are finally blooming. Its nice to see the buds on trees and the green grass. I'm also happy to report I had my first set of Cardinals on my bird feeder last week! 

I'm also happy to report that we have made a new addition to our family. No not a baby. A kitten. He is ever so cute with his 6 toes! He was born the day before Zada's birthday this year! We will always remember the kittens bday! We let Zada pick out the kitty..James and I got to pick the name. We settled for Little Darwin. He's a playful little kitty. Zada is over the moon to have a kitty that she can finally hold and squeeze and love! 

Please enjoy the photos! More to come!

I will also hopefull get back to blogging. Sorry for the lack of post to anyone who has come here to read about our little life! Really you haven't missed a whole lot!! :)

We will miss you Black Cat......

Most of you probably not aware but the week before Christmas Black Cat was diagnosed with lung cancer. It was spreading an a fast pace and there was absolutely nothing that could be done. We decided to bring her home where she could be surrounded by her family during her last days. She stopped eating two weeks ago and slowed down considerably. She was still herself - somewhat. She was pretty inactive but very alert and always excited to see us.

Last night she took a turn for the worse and her breathing because extremely labored.When we came home from work she was still gasping for a breath and we decided that enough was enough - she was suffering. So we made that rough journey and had her put to sleep.... and sleep is exactly what she did.

She will be missed a lot.

Workin 9-5....

Hellow readers. I guess it's about time to let you all know that I'm working! I have actually started my third week and so far so good. So what am I doing? I work for a law firm that handles patents, copyrights and trademarks. So what am I doing? I'm an administrator in the Patent department, I basically handle all of the incoming mail/emails for certain professionals in my office.

A lot of what I'm doing reminds me alot of working at Citi only different content and a different company out look. So far I have really enjoyed my job (though I"m still in training) but everyone around me also seems pretty happy.

That being said - and if I havn't told you - we wont' be making it home for Thanksgiving this year. Due to starting work when I did I can't take vacation time for the first six months. We will however be making a trip as soon as we are able to. I'll keep you posted.

My company has a website and if you're interested in reading about it - email me and I"ll give you the website. :)

...one more way to waste your money....

So we received this flyer in the mail. And yes I'm going to poke fun at it... and if you work for or use this service then I'm sorry and I'm sure you have a good reason to use it. OK... But seriously. Isn't part of hanging Christmas lights putting them up? Getting all frustrated when they are knotted up or even better when that one light bulb is burned out and you have to check each one to find it. Isn't that what decorating is all about!!!

I guess if my house were as big as the ones shown on the flyer I too would be able to afford paying someone to do it for me... I wonder when we'll get the flyer to have someone shop for our Christmas gifts... OH and bake...

Funny funny stuff...

I GOT IT!

Welp. I'm employed. And, it was well worth the wait. I officially start on October 27th which is five days after my 3 year anniversary of moving to Ottawa! How exciting is that? I am looking forward to finally getting myself back out into the work force. It's going to be a huge change for all of us, but a very positive one.

There are a few things I will miss, here I'll list them for you in no particular order:

1. wearing pj's from 9am - 2:30pm
2. going to the gym in the middle of the afternoon
3. hanging out with Megan mid-afternoon
4. taking a nap if I want to
5. picking zada up from school and going to the park with all the other moms
6. volunteering at Zada's school

I'm sure I will find a ton more but there are a lot of positives with having a job most of them being financial gains. I think the one I'm happiest with is taking some of the stress off of James' shoulders. Oh my gosh and I'll get adult conversation during the day.

SO what's my job. Well I can give the gist of my job. My title, is Central Docket Administrator. What the heck is that? I'm working for a company that does copyrights, patents and trademarks. I will be working in the Patent department. I will be receiving incoming requests and mail that I will need to respond to and forward to the right person. Lots of data entry type stuff which I'm pretty used to and enjoy. I will be working right downtown! YAY! I will commute with James to work since I"m on the way to his work.

What's happening with Zada? Welp not a whole lot. We will be able to drop her off in the morning. She will go hang out with my friend Brigitte (I babysat her kids this past summer), now we trade. Zadas pretty happy about going to her buddy's house after school. Hopefully they won't get sick of each other.

I'd like to thank the ladies I used on my job references. It really meant a lot to be able to use you ladies. I appreciate everyone putting in a good word for me. SO thanks, you girls know who you are! :)

So that's it in a nutshell. I have one more week to relax and then it's hi-ho hi-ho off to work I go.

Stuff and Stuff

Fall is here in full swing. Zada is getting a taste of her own medicine these days. In the store I often here "MOM! Look at this, MOM look at that!!" This weekend I found myself doing that, "ZADA! Look at that tree! ZADA!! Did you see that one!!" There are lots of reds and oranges right now and they look amazing! If the weather holds out for next weekend I am hoping to go for a hike in Gatineau Park to take some pictures.

The pictures below are from our last night in St.Louis...err Catawissa. Kyle and Zada are such good buddies and it warms my heart to know that they can live 1600 miles apart and see each other a couple times a year and play like they see each other all the time. It makes the distance seem not so bad.

Zada has picked up a new interest, fishing. She loves it. The day she insisted on fishing papa's pond was the day it was 950 degrees F outside. That was the day I remembered how humid St. Louis can get. It was so gross out. Poor thing never caught anything, she kept getting her line snagged or it would break. We all decided to give up and try another time.

Zada isn't really a dog person, most of the time up here she is afraid of them or admires them from afar. She got along well with her buddy KC. Sadly the Sunday after we were back in Ottawa, KC passed away. She had been fighting pneumonia and had a high fever for about 4 days. We haven't told Zada, I'm not quite sure how I'm going to. Zada is such an emotional kid.

I hope when I'm 90 (If I make it that far) I look and act as young as my Grandma. At 90 she has a better memory than I do at 29 (ok 31). My sister and mom had a special cake made, we call it the quilt cake. Some people were asking why we had a cake made too look like a bed. Grandma's love is quilting so it seemed appropriate to have a quilt cake. It turned out amazing!

Last weekend me and the family went on a secret mission. We made a semi-surprise visit to Missouri. The mission - to surprise the heck out of Grandma. Mission - completed. My family decided that since grandma was turning the big 9 - 0 this year they should throw a huge shindig. When asked if we would be there we originally declined but decided we better go. Not many people make it that far in life - or that far in life and still have all their ducks in a row. I have to say grandma's ducks are pretty much in a row - I think her memory is way better than mine. My cousin Kim put together a slide show that was playing during the party. We of course asked grandma to retell some of the stories behind the pictures. There was one that stuck in my head as being funny and well cool. 

The picture is of grandma sitting on the hood of a car. An old car. She's looking young and spunky. She's still looking young and spunky by the way. She explained to us; that car was the first car grandpa ever bought. He was drinking a beer, she even remembered the name of the beer : "Griesedieck". While he was drinking it he found a MOUSE inside the bottle. So they took it to the brewery where they gave him enough money for him to buy a new car.  How lucky. What are the chances of that happening now. 

I found a picture of one of the cans. http://www.breweriana.com/Beer-Cans/Flat-Tops-Non-OI/2339-Griesedieck-Bros.-Double-Mellow-Beer.html

Anyway. Our visit was great and lots of fun. Thanks mom and dad for letting us stay at your house and eat all of your food and drink your beer and wine! :)

Tibute to Aunt Jan

This tribute is to my amazing Aunt Jan. She taught me everything there is to know about being on a beach. So the story goes a little something like this. A couple, ok several years ago when I was a youngin and before our lake was established with....water we used to visit a beach near our house. This was always a full family event, parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents. This particular day we had been working on building a mega sandcastle. When I say we it was mainly my sister and my Aunt Jan, I was a little young. I can remember this sandcastle being pretty big and if I remember correctly it even had a mote. Upon completion and being super excited about our creation some bratty kid came running through our kingdom and smashed it to smithereens. That's when Aunt Jan prevailed and yelled at the kid. I don't remember exactly how things went down but I do remember giving my Aunt a new name.  She has been nicknamed, Aunt BOB. Bitch Of the Beach. 

In following my Aunts footsteps I am proud to say that some little kid somewhere is probably calling me BOP. Bitch Of the Pool. Last Thursday Zada and I made our trip to the pool near our house. This was the third day that week we had been. It would haven't been fourth but the pool is closed on Mondays. It seems to me that there are a lot of older kids, 12 or 13 with nothing better to do than fool around at the pool. Normally I would be happy to see kids doing something constructive with their day than say, spray painting the local playground equipment or causing trouble among the neighborhood. However these kids are really rough and rude and disrespectful. After being there for three days and watching the lifeguards do more babysitting than watching to make sure my kid didn't drown I was fed up to say the least. I didn't mention that on Wednesday on of the boys got his face smashed in the side of the pool and had to go to the hospital. 

On Thursday there seemed to be about 10 of these older boys in the deeper end (where I happened to be sitting on the side of the pool) playing rough and now allowing the younger ones around. Two of the boys were playing dodge ball with a soccer ball and one of them threw it and it went flying right past me. My knee jerk reaction was to yell "HEY WATCH IT!" Then they started a splashing war right in front of me. I had it and I told them to knock it off that was enough. They weren't too pleased with me but inside I was grinning because I knew exactly what Aunt Jan felt that day at the beach!

So cheers to BOB! Thanks for being an awesome role model!!!

Happy Canada Day and Happy "4th" of July. I was watching the news this morning and I actually gave a little chuckle and then pondered what I just saw. I was watching our local news which I watch in sequence with The Today Show. I flip. I have about a 15 minute window in the morning in which I flood my brain with the news in the States and the News here. The newscaster made the comment about it being Independence Day, or as many of us Americans refer to as 4th of July. It does sound kind of funny. It's like we're celebrating the date only and not what it stands for... something to think about. Independence Day I suppose is a bit of a mouth full... funny stuff to think about.

Next year I have already informed my Canadian Friends that they will be invited to a "4th of July" party next year in which they will be required to wear RED WHITE _AND_ BLUE. On Canada Day (1st of July) several friends asked what I would be doing on the 4th of July. Well nothing. It's not like in the States. So I thought why not have a party! I think I should be celebrating these separate holidays if nothing else for Zada. She should know where she comes from and what these holidays mean.... that then means TWO THANKSGIVINGS !YES.. too bad there arn't two different Christmas'! That would rock...

Nothing exciting has really happened besides the holidays. Unless you consider me cornering a ground hog in the back yard. That was damn exciting but very anti climatic. Once you corner a groundhog what are you suppose to do with it ? Exactly - so get the heck out of dodge groundhog AND LEAVE MY VEGGIES ALONE ALREADY! I haven't seen that sucker back again! Job Done.

Speaking of garden...

I purchased and planted a black/violet pansy and I love it. When I mentioned it to Zada's teacher (from last year) she asked if I was feeling morbid. I always find black flowers kinda cool. How often do you see such things? I planted it right next to a very purple flower to add contrast. It's growing really well and is spreading. Check it out! Love that plant!

Here's a picture of Zada from the last day of school with her little buddy who showed up with the same swim suit. She has another friend (a third friend) with the same suit also! It's SOOO cute!!!!!

There are nice people out there!

This afternoon we were all in the basement and the door bell rings. James and I kind of grumble because we know it's someone we don't know. Everyone else just walks in. Zada was on her way to her room when she yells "MOM ITS FOR YOU" so we know it isn't someone we know. Great. Someone trying to sell of crap we don't want. GO AWAY ITS SATURDAY!!!

I go to answer when I see two young guys soaked from the rain standing there patiently waiting for us to open the door.

"Hi, is James there?" 

"Yeah - just a sec."

"JAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMESSS it's for youuu." To which he gives me that "I'm so sick of these people look." I tell him, they know your name. 

So he goes to the door, "Hi"

"We found your wallet at the gas station."

"oh shit." (typical response from James) 

Thankfully nothing was taken - it was clearly gone through but they didn't take any of the cards and good thing we're broke as James wasn't carrying any cash. We did however cancel our credit card just to make sure.

We were so thankful for these guys returning the wallet we gave them 20.00. They seemed pretty happy to get a reward, even as small as 20 bucks. 

So thanks guys for being so thoughtful!!

Grub Buster Day

A couple weeks ago we went to Ritchies Feed and Seed and picked up a few items. Our big ticket item were Grub Busters. We have a grub problem in our yard. It's gross. There's all these nasty looking white grubs. Besides the fact that they arn't pretty to look at they are destroying our grass. They need to go away. We didn't want to use any chemicals  for obvious environmental reasons. Not to mention we have kids and animals. The animals being "goats" aka cats. So we purchased them and the lady told us to keep the in the refrigerator for at least a week and to only apply them when we knew it would be raining.

Today was the perfect day because the ground was wet and it was raining and we're supposed to get more rain tomorrow. So after I dropped the kiddies off to school I rolled up my sleeves screwed in my lawn sprayer and shot nematodes all over the lawn.

What exactly are nematodes? Well let me tell you. Beneficial Nematodes are microscopic, non-segmented worms that occur naturally in soil throughout the world. Once released, the nematodes seek out their host, enter through body openings, emit a toxin and death occurs within 48 hours. The little creatures are quite gross to look at. I guess we'll see how these guys work. I must say that I feel like have little micro organisms climbing all over me!

If you're interested check out their website!
http://www.environmentalfactor.com/html/nematode.html

I have a cramp in my brain - I think they call it "writers block" or something to that effect. I wish I had some exciting story to tell. So instead I'll bore you with what we have been up to lately. Not much. We had those awesome warm weeks in April and then it got cold again. Our temps are finally climbing back up to where it needs to be. We've been doing small amounts of our door garden stuff. Like trying to grow grass in our yard. It doesn't seem to grow fast enough! I planted a few blubs and we are just waiting to pick up a few others to liven up our flower gardens. Exciting isn't it?

Mothers day was an interesting day. It was great because I got to spend it with my kiddo and my hubby. It started off a little rough as I got a call at 8am from my neighbor. She needed a babysitter for her daughter - she had to make a trip to the hospital with her son. So the little girl got to come over and have breakfast and hang out. In the afternoon we went Dows Lake to see some of the Tulip Festival and then to the inlaws for dinner.


Zada today just completed Swimmer 1 - she's been taking swimming lessons. She was the only one who was able to move onto Swimmer 2. Talk about proud mamma!

This weekend we are going to do our annual long weekend camp out. Hopefully the weather will hold out for us and we won't get R_ _ _ _D out. I'm not saying the word because ya know.

A couple nights ago we took some old uneated bread to feed the ducks along the river. It's always fun to watch the ducks this time of year because they are doing their "spring dance". The males are all territorial. It's fun to watch. James enjoys bringing his camera along to capture the wildlife.

Sorry for the lack of posting. I will try harder in the future to provide more exciting posts.

....Spring......NOT!

Yesterday was hot... So hot that Zada needed to take her coat off her arms because she was... HOT...it was around 45F... It was such a nice little taste of spring... of course while watching the news last night - we were disappointed to hear that tonight we would be getting around 5 more inches of snow and the weather is back below freezing so we're back to winter. Spring was nice while it lasted... maybe next year.

As many of you have noticed I have been slacking in my posts since being back from Mexico. I guess I've been a little busy - babysitting. I was able to pick up a little babysitting from my friends. Twin girls... who are every so funny and have given me a nickname (as they do everything). Kiki.... no that's not the name of a stripper at a local bar that is yours truly. Not sure how they came up with it but I'll go along with it. It could be a lot worse - like.. Hey Lady... or MEAN OLE BABYSITTER...

Zada is doing well.... she will be a big 6 year old next week! We're hosting a birthday party this weekend with all of her friends and then on her birthday we're going out to dinner --- of her choice -- of course her choice was McDonald's.... so we suggested highly that we go someplace else... OH Zada remember that place where you get free ice cream AND toys...never mind the good food! lol

Well I won't keep you all... I hear you Missouri folks might have some shoveling to do! For once we don't..

The Great Thaw of Ottawa....

So the snow came, buried us and gave me my winter AND NOW... it's all making it's way to the Ottawa sewers. At first I was a little sad to see the snow go. However, it does make life a little easier and more manageable now that there isn't near the amount of snow.

Zada started back at school yesterday - so far so good. It's nice to be back into the "swing" of things. She did come home drenched. Well... that's because she has a new "baby" - a piece of ice we now keep in the freezer. She takes it out periodically throughout the day to check on it and carry it around. Then when it shows signs of THAW she puts it back in the freezer. She said it always cries when she has to put it back there. She apparently kept it in her BOOT while she was at school yesterday. Today when she put on her boot it was wet.... hmm.. wonder why. !

Have you Seen IT?

The remote. It's gone missing. Our remote grew legs and walk straight out of our house yesterday - IN A SNOW STORM! I finally know what it was like back in the dark ages when our parents had to walk up hills both way to get to school AND get up to change the channel.

The Short One was the last to lay fingers on it. She informed us that the last time she saw it, it was in her hand. This could be like the key incident. For those that didn't hear about that OR remember: way back when we were living downtown in the apartment Zada put my keys somewhere. When asked where she put it she couldn't remember. I searched for those keys for days. The problem was I couldn't get back into the building with them, and worse yet - I couldn't do laundry *gasping* alas we found them tucked away in a laptop bag. To which Zada responded...OH YES I remember now!! Thanks.

We are kind of treating this the same way...I mean we have moved the couch chairs and everything else around in the tv room. Nothing.  

So if anyone has any suggestions or ideas or can tell us where the darn remote please let me know!!!!!!

In retrospect....

VIENNA, Austria - Austrian authorities said they arrested a man Monday after he tried to enter the U.S. Embassy in Vienna carrying a backpack with explosives. The man tried to flee after his backpack triggered metal detectors at the embassy entrance. He was arrested nearby and was being questioned.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21082350/

So I guess I'm pretty glad that I had to go through all the hassle to NOT bring my purse to the US Embassy. 

Just one Wall

So last weekend James and I decided to start working on our basement. We have been wanting to remove the bathroom in the basement since we moved it. Three people don't need four bathrooms. How lazy does one have to be to walk up 12 steps to go pee. Seriously. Not to mention I refused to clean that many bathrooms. We almost immediately turned the bathroom into a "storage closet" when we moved in. The shower was great for hiding unplayed-with toys and Christmas Presents. We eventually dismantled the sink and shower giving us more storage room.

Last week James said "We're ripping down that wall in the basement this weekend." YAY! We're finally going to work on the basement! These are our plans. Take out ONE wall, cap off some pluming pipes and add a couple pod lights. Oh yes and paint. Easy as pie. Our major goal for the basement is to make one area into Zada's play room and the other area into our TV room. It's in an L -shape if you can picture that.

So Saturday came and sure enough we took down the wall. Of course when you do that you have to take into count the pipes and what not. So far it was going pretty good. We even got our OMEN this week to finish up the basement. The Home Depot was running commercials on "BASEMENT RENOVATION WEEKEND." So we took full advantage and got everything we needed to FINISH the basement. NOT!

If there is one thing I have learned when doing projects on houses - it's A. Never simple B. you'll never get everything from Home Depot in one shopping trip. You will always go back at least twice to get everything!

As James started working on stuff this morning - mostly rewiring some switches and plugs we realized there was more to this project than 1 wall. We ended up having to take down half of the ceiling to figure out some wires and then realized the ceiling was actually starting to sag due to not enough support. I even pitched in and helped cut 2 X 4's with the electric saw! I am so proud of myself!

We are finally getting things figured out and hopefully by next weekend we'll get to the fun stuff and start painting! I'll be posting some before and after pictures when it's all finished. SO if you don't read anything in the next month you know we ran into more issues!

Zada has even been a big help - she enjoys using HER hammer to hammer in nails... AND she helps us UNSCREW screws when needed.

Sighs of relief....

I made. Today I went to that big scary building downtown. Thanks to my friend Brigitte (whose name I cannot say properly in french) drove me down there - she even walked to me to the door to make sure I was greeted properly. Not with handcuffs or worse guns. In fact I was greeted by a very nice man who ask what my business was and allowed me. Then there was this nice lady who paid more attention to Zada than me who scanned my wallet. (I managed to smuggle that into the building.) Then this nice man opened the door for me (there are big signs on the doors that say STOP WAIT FOR SOMEONE TO OPEN THE DOOR FOR YOU) Americans are so into chivalry. Then the nice man that opened the door pointed me to the right place - the sign stated: US CITIZENS. There was this other line - so glad that wasn't my line. When I walked into the waiting room I was alone. The nice lady helped us and again paid more attention to Zada - she kept saying, I love her haircut it's so cute. Where did she go? Oh I also got asked the most asked question I have ever had "Are you related to the famous Carl Jung (pronounced Young) ? I laughed and said no.

After I was all finished talking to the nice people behind big glass windows we left. We awaited the nice man to open the door for us and said our good byes.  I was ever so glad this was a good trip. It was refreshing to know that just because it looks all scarey the people inside were kind.

OH you know what I did see - Lots of WANTED: Terrorist; there was even one up there for Osama. Pretty crazy stuff.

A penny saved is a garage door earned...

After 10 years of hard saved change and 2 boring winters we were able to roll enough change to replace our garage door opener! JUST THE OPENER. It broke about a month ago due to the garage door being frozen to the garage floor. Thank goodness for Sears  and their great sales we got a great deal. It's always nice to replace items in your "used" house. Now we each have our own little door remotes - James suggested I look "cool" and wear mine on my belt loop. I belive I will pass on this one. Zada is thrilled because she gets to keep the old one! lol It seems everyone wins!

That was our Saturday.

The three of us are fighting off a nasty cold - so I didn't do a whole lot. I did learn that mom's arn't allowed to nap. EVER. I tried to sleep but as soon as I snuck into the bed I had someone whom wasn't tired laying next to me. *sigh* *cough* *gasp* *mom?* hahah Finally she went to play with her playdoh but that too eneded up in our bed.  Zada finally gave up and went to help the "boys" with the garage door opener installation I could finally rest. NOPE. I had 1 cat scratching at the door and the other one on the inside of the door meowing. Zada was sweet and asked if I had a good nap. LOL