Churchill

Its been almost exactly 10 years since any did her nursing placement in Churchill, Manitoba. She was there for 3.5 months and we somehow managed to talk on the phone most nights (I think I remember that anyway).
Yes she saw a polar bear, and she did make some good friends that she still keeps in touch with.
I found this pictures on the computer and though it would be an interesting post.
(posted by Luke)

Tooth Fairy

Maya finally lost another of her teeth yesterday. She seriously worked on that tooth from the time she got up, until when it came out at almost lunch time. She was rigging up all sort of contraptions around the house to try to yank it out, but in the end it just finally got loose enough that she just pulled it out with her fingers. She was very happy and proud that she was able to do it all by herself.

She is also not into putting it under her pillow. I guess if you take it to school, you get some special thing to put it into? In the mean time its in a clear plastic baggy so she can look at it. We will probably put something under her pillow or whatever anyway :) (posted by Luke)

Investment

This post isn't about Maya skating, it is about her skiing, I just don't have a faltering photo of her skiing.

We, meaning I have decided that we are not going to do the downhill ski sport with the kids as cross country skiing is simply more accessible. There are more places to ski locally and equipment is slightly cheaper. With Maya we have the co-ordination factor. As in she has none, so if we had started her downhill I'm sure she would be dead by now. But all that isn't the point of my post.

The point of my post is that being with Maya learning to ski is an investment in time. In the future I want to be able to spend all day skiing as a family, but that requires putting in the time now for harvesting in ten years.

She is trying her best, and she is making fabulous progress in skill and speed but regardless it is slow, slow, slow. She is skiing her little heart out wearing a t-shirt, coat and snow pants. My heart rate is below 60, I am wearing three layers on the bottom, five on top and I am freezing to death. I am getting anxious about making it back to the car before night fall and my fingers falling off from frost bite. Maya is just getting frustrated from the hills but being positive- despite not actually liking the forest. I am being super encouraging and making all sorts of bargains with her just so she will ski faster with out letting her know just how miserable I am. Part of the problem is that I totally over estimate what she can do vs what I do....and I am not even that fast!
That being said, to make the investment a little more enjoyable on both ends, I think she is getting a lesson from a complete stranger,

Saturday Morning Poetry

Want to sleep to nine

Mommy, mommy
Kicking, cold feet, talking

GO AWAY

I hate my children Saturday morning before eight.


Hows that for selfish and self centred?

Longing for Summer

SwimP3

You know all those amateur athletes who are sponsored and do gear reviews in return for free product, well I'm not one of those. Although would be certainly willing to start. Think I need better results but here's hoping there is a company out there looking for a tired shift worker who occasional goes running, biking and swimming while feeling guilty and selfish looking to make my life slightly better by giving me some gear and in return I will give them rave reviews here on the blog, facebook, and I would actually start tweeting instead of just stalking.

OK- enough of the 0220 rambles. My loving and adoring husband, he emotionally sponsors me so I got to give a shout out to him every once and awhile or he might revoke our deal, was tired of hearing me complain about how dreadful and boring swimming laps were so in my stocking at Christmas was a SwimP3 player.

The swimP3 player is a cute little device that hocks onto your goggles to provide tunes via bone conduction. Thus far I have been pleasantly surprised by how well it works. I have seen people in the past fiddling endlessly with earphones and knew I wanting none of that. It just works- and it can even be loud... and yet I are not tuned out of the world cause my ears are still there so I can still hear whats going on around me.... Although I admit it I have used it to ignore people a couple times.

And todays wrath of anger goes towards....

Snowmobilers...

Just skiing along, minding my own business, when snowmobile tracks come from the right thus destroying the wonderful groomed track. Groomed track at Glenelg. A cross country ski club. A ski club where members pay for groomed tracks. Are these idiots or what? Is it not obvious what with the no trespassing signs? Well maybe they can't read the no snowmobiling signs. Guess they are blind cause it is evident they could not make out the symbol no snowmobiling signs.
My guess is they are selfish people who think their several hundreds of kilometres is not enough and thus need to obliterate our 25kilometre trail.

Anger

I admit it, I like groomed trails. Today through knowing full well that I could be getting into a mess of a trail I went to Allan Park.
A happy surprise was , although not groomed it was evident that alot of skiers had been through breaking trail, which made for a somewhat happy ski. I should note I am post nights and I am not in a good mood.

Then out of no where in the middle of the trail snowshoe tracks appear, thus eliminating the track set. Anger is building. All I could think about was how evil and selfish those snowshoers were to destroy the track. As my anger is bubbling I can't help but notice now super fresh these tracks look, well 2km later I catch up with them. At first sight I scream "STOP". I skied my little heart out to get passed them, just saying how I was anxious to get back to the beautiful track set. Cause I knew if I shared how I actually thought then it could come to blows.

Was I selfish to think that it is nice to enjoy the track set, will I be criticised for sharing my feelings on my blog??

Off Road

I'm thinking of doing an off road duelthlon in June. The runs on trail should be super easy for me but it is the bike that causes some worries.....
The ride is 18km long. On the road that should take me around 39-40min. So I'm thinking on trail that would be one hour at least. And we also have the problem of a mountain bike... I don't have one. I can use Luke's- it is a little big and I don't have pedals for it, I could switch out my pedals Can you even use road pedals/shoes on MTN bikes, Or is there a whole other system? As well I don't have any actual Mtn biking skills, but it should be that hard, right?

I am going to play the rest of my races this week so I can get the time off work. Of course, with me.. races tend to be added.

1/66 Completed

Because Luke set the goal of reading the bible in a year and because I thought that I'm just as good as he his... and because I am too competitive for my own good, now I have the goal of reading the bible in a year.

I am now done Genesis the first book of 66 in the bible. The goal is to read four chapters a day. I admit I will skim all the genealogy and frankly I hate poetry soo there might be some skimming of the poetic books. I am reading the message version which is really readable.

So this here is my public decoration of this goal so I can be held accountable to strangers.

So tonight Ever was pretending to be me while he and Maya were playing house.
So Maya says, "Ever, you're at work now!"
Ever doesn't something with his hands and says "I'm fixing Windows"

I have no idea where he would get that from *sigh*
Although he didn't say which windows, I'll assume it was Vista.

Boots

I get it, boots carry in dirt and snow. So in our homes we take off our boots. In public buildings... nope don't think so. Why would I want to take off my boots are risk my feet getting cold and wet? Why would I want to stumble around where there is no practical sitting arrangement to do so? Thankfully it is accepted practice for kids to have indoor shoes at school. But at church? In the hospital? Nope not taking off my shoes, nor are my kids. That's disgusting I always say.

What I really do not understand is why people do it? It can't be comfortable. Why do they make their kids go without footwear and themselves keep their boots/shoes on?

That said, we have white carpet, get your boots/shoes off NOW.

Lazy

It took me an hour and half of sitting and surfing. It went so far that I had a cup- not glass of wine in my hand before I was able to gather up the energy to get on the treadmill for a sad 30minute run.

Either I'm slightly seasonally affective or I need some work on motivation.

I think a southern holiday would solve this.

Boots

Andrea broke it to me gently ".... You just are not made to wear tall boots."

She is right.

Devastation.

3 for 1

Went swimming tonight and as a result of the new arena I now have to walk a kilometre from my car to the change room. But thats not my point.
Apparently the weather is really bad tonight.. sorry didn't notice so the pool was closing at 9pm, giving lane swimmers from 8:30- 9pm to swim. I got in the pool and started swimming at 8:39. I have never focused so hard in my life. I actually got 700metres done. I think it is a miracle.
So cause they had it open for only half a hour you didn't have to pay, and they gave you a free pass, and a friend who has a membership gave me his. Productive evening I would say.

Resolutions....2010

In typical Anne fashion several are repeats....

• Drive less
• Surf the Internet less
• Spend more time at work doing work related reading/ note taking.
• Attend more concerts
• Clean and organize the basement
• Blog more
• Run 2011km in 2011
• Run with people more
• Volunteer at races
• Don't do races that I really don't feel the love for/ have done really well at before.
• Become a OAT Triathlon coach.

Totals

This is the first full calender year that I have kept track of the kilometres I have completed in workouts. Not included are family time bike rides, etc. Wish some of the totals were higher but this is what I get.

Swim: 76. 19km

Bike:1124km

Run: 1876.51

Ski: 58km

Copycat

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2010/12/27/alanis-morissette-baby-boy-christmas.html

Wrong Address

As I jumped right on the gmail bandwagon at the beginning of time i managed to get what is apparently a coveted address. Or at least the variations are common.
As a result I get a almost something daily that is intended for another 'Annelizabeth'. I even have had correspondence with AnneElizabeth about the issue.

Today I received the following

Dear tammy,

To start with I want to thank you for your confidence. As promised, I will prepare your Confidential Free and Urgent Reading. I agree to send you this In-Depth Study completely Free, within 48 hours at the latest. You can count on my help, tammy.

I send you my best wishes and full support. Your devoted friend.

Tara
Visionary Medium

Can't wait to get the next one from my devoted friend.

Good Vamprie Reading

For all those looking for another vampire read, rather enjoyed The Radleys by Matt Haig. The ending was a little too happy for a story involving vampires, but otherwise satisfactory.

Merry Christmas!

Family photo by person who we love who's name will go unsaid. Follows is our Christmas letter.

As a family, we traveled to Mishewah Family Camp. This past year sets the bar high for future years. Simply amazing swimming weather, lots of good eats, wonderful cabin stay, relaxing, and fabulous times with old and new friends alike. Join us next year?

Running continues to dominate Anne’s life. She completed her first marathon of 42.2k in 3:48, but she found she really didn’t really like the distance so completed her first ultra, 55.9k in six hours. Many other running and triathlon races took up many a weekend. A highlight being second at Haliburton 26k Trail race. She would have had first but she got a little distracted by the bear on the trail. Anne enjoyed being part of the Saugeen Triathlon Club’s Board of Directors this past year but in leading several learn to run clinics has found she has a heart for encouragement and will be a coach with the club next year. She continues to work as a registered nurse at the Chesley Hospital to fund races and running shoes. To occupy herself on the night shift sewing has become Anne’ s resting hobby. Maya’s closet benefits . Just to add another sport, Anne has started cross country skiing.

Luke continues to enjoy his computer consulting and repair business in Walkerton, which continues to gain businesses and home clients. His competitive side did not allow Anne all the glory, did some running this year and won a medal for a 24 minute 5K fun in Owen Sound, one of his main goals. Involvement at Hanover Missionary Church increased, with Luke accepting a seat the ministry council there, which acts as the board. It’s something new but also something he is really enjoying so far. Luke still maintains his interest in rally car racing and once again attended the Tall Pines Rally in Bancroft this year.

Maya baby girl isn't so much our baby girl anymore but an opinionated, expressive, seven year old. She continues to attend grade two french immersion at Dawnview Public School. All of a sudden one day, seemingly like magic she started reading both English and French. A whole new world has opened to her. Although she still loves being read too, her current favourite being the Junie B. Jones books. Mondays she has piano lessons; we only have to threaten her occasionally to practice. Surprisingly she prefers theory over actual playing. Mondays also mean ballet. A highlight of last year included participation in a festival where her class achieved 89% for their rendition of “baby elephant walk”. Tuesdays are Brownies. In typical Maya fashion has opted out of the regulation uniform and would rather wear the older brown dress uniform. Other highlights include new swimming levels and the ability to go down the slide at the Hanover pool. She accepted personal challenges of riding her bike from Walkerton to Hanover, and riding from Port Elgin to Southampton. Amazing what the promise of ice cream can do.

Everest continues to be our adventurous, thrill seeking three year old. No one is to big for Ever to tackle, no really, he will try and take you down. We are taking bets on how long it will be until he breaks a bone. There is simply nothing that boy is not interested in doing- especially if it means a drastic vertical jump. We have gotten quite good at calming strangers fears for his well being. To channel all this energy Ever completed the fall session in gymnastics. We are rather proud and relived Ever potty trained rather easily- right on the same schedule as Maya did. Frankly all he had to do was get sick of us forgetting to change his diaper. Ever was disappointed he didn’t grow enough to ride a tricycle this year- short genetics but consoled himself by playing endless games of trucks, motorcycles, and crashes. Anne and Ever get into frequent ‘discussions’ on the merits of bicycles vs cars. At age 38 months we think Ever is weaned from nursing.

Excuesses

I was going to go for a run tonight at 9am. I put a call out for company.. no takers.
Realised it was really cold, thought I would use the treadmill.
Treadmill has no Internet access as computer and laptop are at the church.

Think I will work on my wine drinking instead.

Corners of my life

To anybody who complains their mcmasion is too small.
This is my sewing room. It is also the dining room. The kids colour here, paint, and do play dough. The piano is just out of view.
Every time I do a project I move the sewing machine up from the bottom shelf where it is stored and move it back again when it is time to eat. Most of my supplies are kept in the cold dark basement bins. So if I want to work on more than one project at a time I keep them in bags and the scraps stay. To store them for ease of use I push the bags under the bookshelf. This picture was taken after I pulled everything out to look for a particular scrap. The ironing board is always ready. Of course I guess it is a good thing that I don't have a serger... where would I put it?

The rug is completely failing apart. Could really use a trip to ikea for a new one..it is eight years old and made of sisal so I think we have gotten our moneys worth.

Cross Country Sking

I am very pleased with my ski purchase thus far. I have been skiing at Sawmill, Allan park and Glenelg norctic. I liked glenelg so much I joined. I is a 30min drive but I think it is worth it and Hepworth has a cheaper day pass. As I downhill ski it is funny trying to do something that I would expect my downhills to do but the back country's just don't respond that way.

Had a lesson from Ang but I didn't really listen so I didn't snowplow so I fell eight times. Pulled a muscle in my leg, snow up my coat and down my coat... serious good fun.
Luke was asking if there is any races I can do. Perhaps this can be a non-competitive sport....but skate skiing looks really fun.

Justin Bieber

This morning at breakfast I pointed out a Justin Bieber doll in the flyer to Luke. His response:

"I don't know why he is soo popular, when I had helmet hair I was mocked and ridiculed."

I think Luke has unresolved issues.

I think the only tv show I am watching these days is The Biggest Loser. I wait until I have three epoisodes to watch and just fast forward through them. There is alot of repeated footage and product placement. Overall I am not going to pass judgement on whether loosing weight at the rate the contestants do is sustainable but I do find it inspiring,
One of the contestants recently said in the finale..

"Stop making excuses and change your life."
She went on to say that we sometimes need to do whatever it takes to reach our goals but our goals are important and there is nothing more important than our fitness. Or something like that, perhaps I am paraphrasing and adding it it to make my point. Take that woman at church who said I was a bad mother for taking the time to run.

Egg Nog Jog 2010

I must remember to double knot my shoes.
Repeat x10.

Wet wet day, tough footing mixed in with intense calf pain with some very fast/fun( 3:20)k's with Ron. Tied my shoes three times in the first two km. Stopped once to massage my calf.

So first in my age category was 52:14
I was third in 52:31
As first got a $50 gift card and as third got $20- not tying my shoes cost me $30. Hows that for a lesson!

And that's my Egg nog jog. Solid effort put forth considering my mileage went from 260k in October to 70k in November.

Sadly the tri club had only two people dressed in green as Ang and soon to be member Bodo thought skiing would be a more appropriate activity for a stormy day??????

Just a note..

If you are driving usually it is advisable to wipe off your car, in particular mirrors and rear windows, and if you happen to be drivng 50 in a 80 zone with 10 cars behind you, please just pull over as you really should just stay home.

I have not ran in 8 days.
I have skied once... and that is about it for my physical fitness.
I had a xray today as a first step to deal with my ankle pain.

I have a race on Sunday.....it isn't going to be pretty.

As seen in the Hanover Parade..

Maya Bellamy appearing on the Girl Guide float.

Four in the bed and the little one said..

Birthday Creativness

Birthday Outfit- I made her the skirt and the headband

For her adult party I made Maya Hostess cupcakes... complete with the filling. Baking note- remember to use icing sugar not granulated sugar. Or else you have to make it twice.

Birthday nightgown. Rather big..in fact I have to fix the hem as it has already been stepped on and ripped.

Birthday cake for her swimming slumber party. I followed the jello websites setting instructions and thus had to drag Ever out kicking and screaming to get more supplies to make it a second time. Second round the jello was set separately then scooped in. Under the jello was money. I thought Maya would LOVE it...wrong she started crying and grabbed at the playmobil mermaid and sea horse and ran them up to her room. The sand was icing covered with graham cracker crumbs. The cake wasn't so much for eating as for looking at, thus *gasp* it was made with a mix.

Seven

Maya is 7, entering the year of perfect and eating her birthday cereal Reese Peanut Butter sugar in a box.

She is wearing a PJ shirt I got in a bag of clothes that she mad me sew down to her size...she has lots of room to grow into it.

Parent

I have been a parent for seven year now as of today. I'm not one of those women who was born for this, good thing Maya is becoming more adult like with the birthday and such.

Oh another note Maya new favorite game is setting up a backdrop and doing pictures. Thanks Erika.

Shopping for EIGHT hours

Yesterday Annie and I went to the One of the kind show cause Annie really likes it and I went along for the ride. Sensorey overload, materistic overload, thankfully not not credit card overload. It was a craft show but in a way it was a art show as alot of the venders were artist. Most was made in Canada by non sweatshop labour so a good place for my money to go.



I got:

Smoked salmon

Indian Spice paste

Something for Luke, Luke don't look !!!!

Wooden Puzzles

Hat

Scarf


I liked but didn't buy:
Dress

Jammies for the kids

Pottery

Pottery

Crab Dip

Bathing suits for kids

Bookbags

Poppies Wax Painting

Tin Huricane Lamp

Postal Bank

Cool kids clothes that I could make

Cool Adult Clothes and yet more

Two Happinesses on Friday

• While sitting on the hard concrete floor with Ever 'enjoying' the entertainment of Christine at the library I randomly pulled The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye off the shelf. Blogged about way back when. Quite happy to read to Maya...wish she would listen. Scary faires at the beginnings worries her and I can't wait for her to settle down I want to read it now.
• Dragged Maya kicking and screaming to Annie. For some reason she didn't want to go. Only to say 10minutes into the show how wonderful it was and I was right she is enjoying it. Brought up about 87 questions about orphans, adoption, and deception.

I would never...

.......drop out of a race beacause of my period.

Ever's "Cooking"

This didn't take as long to sort out as you would think.

Dentist

Went to the dentist today for what I thought was a filling that had fallen out.

Umm nope.

Chuck fallen out of my actual wisdom tooth.

I blame lack of fluoridated water growing up and those damn genetics.... will get you every time.

On another note Christmas is cancelled this year... sorry kids.

A Poem

Trail running at twilight.
Can't see puddles.

SPLAT!

Rant

Is it just me who has noticed that the fashion accessory to own in these parts is a Tim Hortins Coffee cup?

What is it with people? Are they incapable of going anywhere without a cup of coffee? For petes sake I was trail running the other day and along trots a woman with a steaming cup in her hand. Of course she is also caring a purse for the family hike so she is dead to me already.
We don't even have a Tim Hortins in Chesley and yet nearly every visitor to the hospital comes in carrying a cup... even the people who live in Chesley!

Word to the parents.... apparently it is grounds to notify CAS if you come into the hospital with a sick kid and a coffee cup.

Merry Christmas

For the past two years I have gone to a ski swap with the intent of getting cross country skis. Failure.

I went away and thought about it and returned awhile later to Suntrail Outfitters and had a wonderful positive retail experience. The sales person was wonderful, really understood what my needs were, and even though it was a crazy busy day she took the time to make sure the skis were perfect.
I ended up getting a set of Fisher back country skis as they can be used on groomed trail but also plain old trail. Now just hoping Maya will be a tad more positive about skiing this year than last. Ie. When I take her out of school to ski- she does not whine and cry to go back.

So bring on the snow, right Angie?

Hypochondriac

I think I might have compartment syndrome in my left leg.

Ok, I most likely don't... but maybe.

Apple Sauce

Made applesause last week. That is the only productive thing I lave done- other than paid employment in the past two weeks. I said I wasn't going to run but I'm breaking that today cause otherwise I think I will need antidepressants and Luke will divorce me.

Complaints Department

So you get a new puppy...that is not an excuse to bring it into public buildings.
Sorry about that.

I ran cross country with her in high school.
She stopped running and started doing drugs.
She has schizophrenia.
I told her that her father was dying.
I cared for her mother dying of cancer.
I sat with her as her mother died.
I saw on day on the street, pregnant.
I started praying.
She had the baby.
The baby was taken away.
She sees her baby three times a week.

She asked me to go running with her.

Hey Dad, I cleaned the living room like you asked!!

LoL. No, I just threw everything in the corner...

Maya is offcially a Brownie. She really enjoys the program and has a few friends in it too, which is nice.
She didn't like the new orange shirt/blue pants look and got one of the old style brown dresses, which she is very happy to wear.

Halloween

Pictured are how the children dressed to beg for candy at strangers houses. Joining my children are a turtle and a pink cat. Ever is a monster. He refused all offers of a costume made by mom- instead Maya coaxed him into the monster costume purchased at a garage sale several years ago. Maya wanted to be a princess and I refused as every girl is a princess. I told her to be more creative. Her main priority was pretty dress. Thus a wedding gown was purchased from the second hand shop smelling strongly of moth balls and was cut down from what ever size I am- how funny it fit me- to fit a six year old.

Couple added notes:

- This is the singular time I have ever worn a wedding dress.

-Maya says she was embarrassed wearing her costume at school as there are alot of boys. That is the first time she has ever mentioned boys in that manor. Creepy.

Maya has her BFF over for a sleep over and she brought her own breakfast.....kinda reminds me of a time somebody brought her own jar of jam to my house for lunch.

Pinapple Boy

Rally of the Tall Pines 2010

So this years rally is on November 20th. I plan to leave probably the night before or very early Sat Morning. Its about a 3.5 to 4 hour drive to Bancroft, where the rally is.

Who wants to go this year? The entry list this year is really really good. It will be a 3 way battle for the Championship as well. You'll get too see this....

Scary Food

JAWS!!!

FINGERS!!!

BLOODY WORMS!!!

MUMMYS!!!!!

Living the Dream

Standing in the footing of their new home, Andrea, John and Travis.

Toronto FC and a Weekend

A few weekends ago we were gifted tickets to see the Toronto Football Club by bookkeeper extordinar Corey. We were both surprisingly had a great time at the game. It wasn't cold, there was a steel drum band in the background and the sound track of the game was provided by the fans sitting behind us. I honestly could not stop laughing out loud at these couch coaches who knew all the salaries and vital statistics on every player. I couldn't believe the emotion that was shown quite frankly as this is Canada. Loved it. High light of the game was seeing the keeper thrown out of the game for naughty behavior to another player.

The entire weekend was great in fact. Prior to the game we slipped over to the Toronto Marathons Expo for a few deals. After the game after deliberating the reviews on the windows of several Indian restaurants we went to Little India. For desert we went to my new yummy favorite Cold Stone Creamery. On Sunday Luke spent the day at the office and I went running all day on the Bruce Trail. Good times....of course it was nice getting the children back as well.