I have been in Hell this weekend. (AKA motel 7-iles). We went to Sept-iles (seven islands) for a hockey tournament with Jérémy. The team all stayed in the same motel. Our original reserved place had mistakenly booked us for the month of February - not January and so we scrambled for last minute reservations at a big tournament. Of course, all the well known places were full - of other hockey teams! and we were left with the  Motel.....

So, our first night, the boys played a game at 6:20

                                  and won!                  

Ok so, we went for supper and i had been feeling sick all day, but put it down to lack of sleep and some very poor roads. 

Turns out, i had picked up the nasty flu bug that's going around and is closing hospitals due to it's severity

So, I begged off supper and went back to Hell and shivered and was ill alternately. Little did i Know that fun times were to be had in the coming night as the water in the sink stopped working so, i found myself leaning the tub to brush my teeth and rinse a face cloth, then a few hours later, Daniel discovered that the toilet was no longer flushing - after having used it and before i knew i'd need it again! (he usefully took the plastic garbage can and used it to fill the toilet tank so it could flush and be 'clean' - no mention of the hole in the bottom of the can ok?)

next, a few hours later, the tub faucet decided not to work and i was thirsty, sick, miserable and waking everyone in our shared room up every time i got up to run to the now almost useless bathroom! but the boys were very good and tolerant of me

the next day i moaned and groaned in solitude as the boys went out for breakfast and another hockey game

 and of course a trip to walmart for jeremy! the boys then spent some time at the arena and after game #2, (which they won!) 

they came back to tell me that we were moving to another hotel.

I was happy in my miserable daze.

The next place was nice, king size bed and all, business class complete with mini bar and video games which J. was sad to hear he couldn't play. So Instead, he and the team and the 2 other teams in residence contented them selves with playing mini-hockey in the corridors and running and being generally crazy-like. I felt rather bad for any non-hockey people in the hotel

really, but also, enjoyed having fully working facilities - my first action was a shower!

ok, saturday was an off day for the boys with no games and lots of time to run wild.... and i slowly started to feel human. 

Today i went to the 8am game and the boys lost 6-0. they took it rough but still played an excellent game.

After daniel drove us home

 and what awaits tomorrow is my leaking washing-machine...

can't wait to be 100% and not feeling like crap.

  

Did some baking yesterday (saturday). I've noticed that extreme cold and dumpings of snow tend to bring out the baker in me. (ok, sometimes i cook pot roasts and the like, but more often it's sweet goodies!) so, the pictures show proof of: banana and peach low fat, 0 cholesterol muffins;

and, Apple pizza (or what's left of it after supper).
This was a new recipe. We went to Boston Pizza to eat one day and this was on the menu and i was inspired to try it as the idea is simple. What i will say is that the recipe i found on the 'net is a little involved and long, but not difficult. It just had many small preparationso f all the steps to make a pizza and with muffins baking and meat thawing doing this in the middle was an adventure.
my bread machine was a big help in the process. their pizza dough is amazing and quite puffy! we topped the pizza with caramel and vanilla ice cream and everyone decided that i didn't do too badly for a first try of a new recipe. 

I think i washed the dishes and cleaned the kitchen a total of 5 times yesterday between noon and 6pm, all between dishes being prepared but, i feel accomplished and we will eat well for the next few days. Oh, and the pizza? it isn't low fat, 0 cholesterol i don't think, at least the recipe didn't mention it!

oh my god!

I've just been learning about dog and cat fur trade. I had no idea. It's awful, cruel, terrible and so many other words i just can't say. The videos oh!..... it's not for the faint of heart i'll say. All I can do is encourage awareness and hope to not be a consumer. Apparently in Canada there is no restriction to the fur and it's tough to tell if you've bought something with it - or will buy.... but from now on i'll try to be extra careful. Imagine: the fur around your mittens, your coat hood, some small little fuzzy furry desk ornament - that looks like a cute kitty or puppy! all these things could in fact be made from dog or cat hair/fur. I don't wear traditional fur stuff for many reasons - only one of which is the animal factor but this seems to be so much more and I feel such anger on behalf of these poor animals.

ok, ranting over, but please, check it out and be careful and sign the petition if you haven't already? 

brrrr! it's cold out there!!

So, a cold snap has arrived. Now, y'know if us out here in nowhere-land are saying that- it's probably a bit chilly. According to meteo-media it's -19C, with a wind chill ect. that makes it more honestly like -31C.  Brrrrr.... 

They or I guess we, are having a big windy time too so, visibility on the road is not so good - all the powdery snow blowing all over the place makes it kinda hard to see that big tractor trailer bearing down directly at you as you are not on the correct side of the road since you can't see the stupid - yet useful! yellow line and so you don't know to toss over or be scared and panic.... yeah, you get the idea right? so anyways, they closed the schools since it's less than ideal conditions to ask the school bus drivers to drive in with our precious children right? they (school board people) probably told the radio stations but we heard nothing of it, and since Jérémy doesn't take the school bus from our house to school, we aren't part of a phone-tree to tell us either and WE SENT THE KID TO SCHOOL  - y'know, it's a Wednesday, a school day and lately they've been keeping the schools going on more dangerous days so.... logical thinking. Daniel as usual waited to see J. open the side door to the school before and after care program and J. went in. D. went to work (gotta go there!) and I was asleep having done my chores already (cats ect....) 

Now a few hours later - let's say 10am-ish... I woke up to the sound of little boy footsteps and discovered Jérémy in the living room. I was a little confused (I might have even scratched my head in classic fashion but I don't remember) and asked something along the lines of "what are you doing here?" J. calmly and quietly explained that there was no school and the school care program was closed. I had been when D. dropped him off this morning. Next question: "How did you get home again?" ummmm, a man dropped me off, what man? the dad of a student, what student? Tommy i think, tommy who.?...(you see how this was going right?) finally it comes out that he'd been found hanging out outside the door of the room where he should be by another parent whose kid jeremy knew and after some questioning it was decided that the dad would bring J. back home to be there. This is the moment where i congratulated myself for being a creature of habit and sleeping my usual hours and not instead out working or running errands like many other moms i know!

The end of all this is J. had a surprise day off school, D and I had minor heart attacks due to the situation (how could the school have closed the day care program, why was the door unlocked when there was only 1 adult in the building, how come jeremy accepted a lift from someone we don't know.....) we feel like not so hot parents, and I have this story to tell and all due to a little blowing snow and some low numbers on the thermometer! (oh, and Jérémy now knows what to do (and not do) if this situation repeats itself - and it's not to take a lift with just someone....)

happy winter.

For daniel:

A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water. ~ Carl Reiner

First post uhhhh... blog uhhh... blah?

 So, here I am in the middle of January 2009. Well, ok, it's not the exact middle but the date is close enough. I don't do resolutions per se but, it's been on my mind for a while to start a blog. To say what and to what end I don't exactly know yet, but i figure I've always got something to say or news to share and this might be an interesting way to do it. If not, well, it can always be shut down / deleted and the URL forgotten non?

A rough few years have passed and in an effort to move on, not much will be said for now about it but suffice it to say, I'm glad in this new year for my 'people'. My friends, my adopted family out here in butt-fu%* nowhere (aka Forestville, QC), my animals (can't forget them!) and the people who are part of my everyday life. I think that for every day that Daniel puts up with me, he should get an extra brownie point towards the final tally of good deeds done or something...

I want to say more but I think as a first post this will do, my quote for the post I'll send out to Julia for her inspirations and I'm sure forthcoming advices on blogging. TIA

"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday" ~ Don Marquis