I'm Surprised Anyone Comes Around Here Anymore

I admit it - my blogging has been the complete shits lately. And I have absolutely no excuse, except for the fact that...I'm lazy?

Well not totally lazy. I seem to be tired a lot these days. And to have a headache a lot. And over the past couple weeks I've had this burning in my stomach, and a lump in it that never seems to go away. I asked the husband the other day if he thought I could have an ulcer, and he kind of dismissed it. Then tonight when I was complaining about it, he said "Hmm, I wonder if you have an ulcer?"

Sheesh. Do you think?

I don't really think I do, maybe I'm just becoming a hypochondriac?

Anyways, there are many people in the world with far worse problems than my burning stomach.

So what's new? Not a whole hell of a lot. I think I forgot to ever mention that Ellery is crawling, and pulling herself up, and walking along the furniture, and walking while holding our hands, and pointing at everything and saying "Da?" and then waiting for an answer as to what it is. She has two teeth, claps, waves bye (when she feels like it), dances, knows husband and I by name, loves to be sung to, is a climber, and has the best grin ever.

My return to work is coming up fast. I've got some issues with it. Let's not discuss it.

Husband is good - seems like he's always working lately - but that could be because he's been working some steady nights, so it seems like he's always either gone, or in bed. At least he's back on days for awhile.

Friend wise - I've been a bit of a slacker girl. You know how sometimes when you don't talk to someone for a long time, but you've got intentions to, then it never happens, and then it seems like too much time has passed? Yeah, I'm there with a few of my friends. But last week I got in touch with them all. And they all got back to me and said "Let's get together!" and then I dropped the ball. Because I've been feeling so tired. Stupid.

*Note to self - must stop being lazy with friends and blogging.

Mkay, since I'm sitting here whining about being tired, I should do something about it and go to bed...even though it's only 9pm...sigh...well I'm almost 29!!! I'm getting up there!

Hehe. Love you guys.

I'm Still Around

Have just been working like mad on a few things this week, and barely able to string coherent sentences together for that, let alone on here!

Today is an anxious day for me - in a good way - I hope. Will tell all as soon as possible.

For today though? Can you just send me some love and luck?

Thanks, lovies!

Ali
xo

Changing the Rules

I don't know about anyone else, but I think there are just some things that are meant to be sacred. Things that you've grown up with your whole life, things that have been the same since you were a child, things that maybe your parents did, that always remain the same.

For me there are quite a few of those things, for instance: ketchup has to be Heinz brand, on Christmas Eve you get to open one gift, birthday cards that arrive before your birthday are saved to be opened on the actual day, there's only one fluorescent cheese in a jar that should be consumed, and that's Cheez Whiz - and other things like that.

Another one of those things is that Crest toothpaste is the only one used for the brushing of one's teeth. And it's not all the wild, crazy, new-fangled flavours, either - it's the regular old light blue paste, that has been around since Jesus was a boy.

When the husband and I moved in together, this was an issue. You see...he was raised a Colgate kid. With me being a Crest child, this became somewhat of a problem the first few times we had to buy toothpaste. There was a lot of me foot-stomping, and huffing, and hissing "I don't really care what you buy, but I will be brushing my teeth with Crest!"

Husband, smart man that he is, finally relented, rather than fight a losing battle, and has been brushing his teeth with Crest ever since. In the nine or so years since then, I may have wavered and bought the sparkly winter mint, or even gone so wild as to buy the whitening version, but it's always been Crest.

Until a couple months ago.

We really needed toothpaste, we were in a hurry, Colgate was on sale, and husband smooth talked me by showing me the shiny package that boasted about the breath-freshening strips inside the toothpaste, and then clinched the deal by letting me know the toothpaste was pink.

I rolled my eyes, and said that just this once, I would bend on my Crest rule. And I have to admit...I liked the Colgate. It really was pink, the breath strips looked all sparkly, and my breath smelled oh-so-fresh - so what was not to like? I was hit with a few pangs of guilt while using the Colgate, but I soldiered through them.

Last week though, we ran out of toothpaste again. Since husband's dentist had recently told him he should switch to Sensodyne, I was free to get what I wanted. So what did I do? I went back to Crest of course! I bought a huge tube of the Crest Pro-Health Clean Mint, and felt at peace.

However...now how do I put this delicately...well...it tasted like ass.

Like ass dipped in fluoride, to be more precise.

And the next day I threw that Crest in the garbage and went out and bought myself two new tubes of sparkly, pink Colgate.

I guess sometimes it is okay to change the rules - but nobody tell my husband that...

And That's a Wrap on Another St. Patrick's Day

The husband and I went to bed two hours ago because I was exhausted. Apparently he felt this little "activity" we could do would help me fall asleep. So much for me falling asleep - he's in there snoring, and I'm wide awake! Figures.

Ah well, this just gives me a chance to share how we spent our St. Patty's Day - at the zoo! I don't think we've been since Ellery was born, and she was hilarious, babbling away to all the animals.

While I was yelling lines from Napoleon Dynamite, trying to get the snotty llama to come over, this little donkey wandered over to me instead. He even put his head against the fence and let me pet him.

One of the scary, staring birds in the birdie hothouse.

Our zoo has one of those rooms where you can go in and see the birds above water, then watch them dive. This little mallard was really quick, but I finally caught him diving.

Ellery and the husband looking way up - watching the monkeys swinging around.

There were two that wrestled the whole time we were there - Ellery just screamed at them in delight, occasionally letting out a belly laugh.

The husband and I, enjoying the beautiful day.

Ellery and I decided to be true to our roots, and show off our Irish style.

Then is was bath time for her - where she spent a few minutes chatting up "our baby" in the bathroom mirror.

It was a beautiful day!

More Titillating Talks

*After sitting in front of the computer for 45 minutes, racking my brain for a blog idea (and being a total loser and checking out the Perez Hilton website, which I have never done before, and never will again, yuck!), I finally turn to the husband for help.

What can I blog about?
Blog abouuuuuuuut....

*I start eye rolling right away.

Blog about...how great I am.
Hahahahahahaha! Yeah. No.
Blog about...blog about this conversation.
I can't. I just did one of those.
Blog abouuuuuuuut...
Quit saying "blog about!"
Blog abouuuuuuuut...
I will come over there and kick you right in the shin!
I have no ideas, you're asking the wrong person!

*I keep staring at him, my eyebrows raised expectantly. He finally looks away from his playstation game long enough to notice.

Blog abouuuuuut...

*I huff exasperatedly.

Blog as if it's 10 years in the future.
Nooooooo! That's gay!
F*ck it. I give up...I swear to God Alison...
Fine! Geez...

*A few moments go by while I type all that.

I'd kick you, you know.
You'd kick me?
Yeah, I would.
But?
Well I can't reach you from here.
But if I was over there you'd kick me good and hard?
Yep. Are you coming?
Uh huh, in just a sec.



*In case anyone is worried - this is often how we talk to each other. There are plenty of threats of violence (usually from me), but it's all love - I promise.

An Inexplicable Dislike

I don't know why, but I have a crazy aversion to short, dark-haired, balding actors. Every time I see one of them on tv or in a movie, I am suddenly cranky and almost angry towards them. I wish I knew why, because it's certainly not a rational disdain, but for some reason I can't determine the reasoning behind it.





If I were to run into an average, non-famous man that looked like one of these guys, I'd be fine. For some reason it's just actors that fit this description that bother me so much...weird, I know.

Married Conversation

Conversation between the husband and I as we were watching Man vs. Wild last night:

Me: I have to tell you...
Husband: Yeah?
Me: I have a little bit of a crush on Bear Grylls.
Husband: Yeah.
Me: Just a little one though.
Husband: Yeah, me too.
Me: Really? You have a crush on him?
Husband: Well he's a cool guy - I'd like to be friends with him.
Me: Uh, yeah, me too. Just friends.

Then 20 minutes later just as Bear finishes eating a live spider the size of his hand, and commenting about how when he bit into it, he thinks he bit the ass end, since there was a lot of wetness.

Me: I think I just lost a bit of my crush.
Husband: Me too.

I Haven't Posted Pics of E In A Long Time!!

This was at our house, in the afternoon sunlight. People often comment on her hair, saying it's so awesome, as if I style it to stand straight up...but I'm telling you, it does that all on its own.

Last time we went to visit back in Ontario, Ellery took a liking to my dad's coffee cup. He brought her a matching one to play with...you may recognize it from this post. I was actually all teary when he gave it to her...I'm such a wimp.

This was at my parent's house - right after she pulled herself up for only the second time.

She was so proud of herself for getting up there all on her own.

One of her favourite things is when I sit down on the floor with a stack of fliers, or the newspaper, and let her "help" me find deals. She never puts anything in her mouth, and rolls around making a mess, separating all the pages and dragging them around the room. And the best part? If I stack them all up again, she'll start all over, like it's a new toy.

This was taken on her 9 month birthday - the day we put her in a "big-girl" carseat. She was just getting too heavy to lug all over in an infant seat.

And one of my favourite pictures. Ellery and my dad, right after he went and got her up from a nap. They stayed like this, with their heads together for about 20 minutes - my dad singing softly to her, and her just watching his face. Priceless.

Somebody Pour Me a Drink!

A celebratory one that is!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have slain my dragon. Abolished the bane of my existence. Exercised the demons, so to speak. Oh yes, I have cleaned off my kitchen table.

I know, I can barely believe it myself. But I have proof!
Please pay no attention to the fact that I have hideously chipped nail polish, haven't brushed my hair, am flashing a terribly nerdy thumbs up, and the fact that it took me somewhere around 8 months to do it, and allow me to revel in the fact that it's done! Yay me!

Now for Reggie, who promised to clean out a part of his garage, equivalent to that of the size of my table, once I actually did it - it's 72" long, 31" wide, and 30" tall. Have fun!

Stay or Go?

Since I moved out of my parents' house when I was 18, I've moved around quite a bit. Three different provinces, 3 different cities, 1 town, and 6 different actual residences. What can I say? I bore easily.

Anyways, one thing I have maintained since I was about 14 years old, was that I did not want to end up living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. So guess where I live? Yep, you guessed it. Winnipeg.

When we first decided to move here from Calgary it was for Chris to go to school. We decided we'd move here, he would go to school, graduate, and we'd either move back to Calgary, or somewhere else completely. Eight years later, we're still here.

It's not that there is anything wrong with Winnipeg, it's just that...I don't know, it's so close to home? This was the city where people from my hometown would all come for a weekend - to shop, go out, have an adventure - you know, everyone came here. So I decided that I wanted to live somewhere completely different, where not everyone I knew ended up.

Husband and I went through a phase where we wanted to live in Hawaii. One where we wanted to live back in North Bay, where I went to college. One where we wanted to live in Nassau, Bahamas, where Monica lives. And currently we're on an England kick. Which has even gone so far as both of us looking for jobs online - and holy smokes! Are there ever a lot of sweet jobs for editors and writers over there!

But us moving always comes down to family. We're both extremely close to our families, which is one of the few things that makes living in Winnipeg really great. And now that Ellery is here, I'm sure our parents would be pretty upset if we packed up and moved her away from them.

But therein lies my dilemma. If we stay here to be close to them, so they can watch her grow up, then we're not entirely happy. And then, once she's grown up, our parents are older, and are we going to want to be moving away then? When they might need us around, to help them out?

I realize this sounds extremely selfish, but if we stay it's almost as though we're living our lives for other people. I'm not sure what the right decision is...

Sugarwha?

I like coffee and tea. I also like sugar. A lot. So much so, that some people question if I'm going to have coffee or tea in my sugar. I'm a sugar whore, what can I say?

As a result of this whorishness (and just fyi, husband has a sugar fixation too), we go through a lot of sugar at our house.

So last week I was out, and made a pit stop at one of my least favourite shopping places (I've wrote about this place before...I'll just call it The-Hell-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named) and after I stocked up on the essentials - diapers, wipes, baby food, tp - my brain sent me a jolt that said "Suuuuuuuuuuuugaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrr!" so I cranked the cart around for the baking aisle.

Imagine my surprise when I got home and went to fill my sugar canister, when I discovered that instead of sugar, I had some sort of *cocaine reminiscent, artificial sweetener! It may have been white, and it make have been slightly sweet, but the look and texture of this stuff was pure cocaine.
On the left is the "sugar" I got from The-Hell-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named, and on the right is proper sugar, which I went out to buy the next morning.


I swear, if I would have used the cocaine sugar, I would have surely turned into this kind of mommy within a week.





*Obviously this wasn't really cocaine sugar, keep your pants on Hell store.