she found me

The lady from the gym found me, at a yard sale, most unexpectedly. After doing a few double takes of each other we realized that we recognized each other. And then she approached me and clarified that she hadn't meant to be bossy or tell me that I'm lazy, but simply that she's been going to the gym for a long long time and that she likes exercising the way that she's been doing it. So, we made up. We're friends now. I'm not sure that we should be work-out partners though. I don't see that going very well.

Michael's real imaginary friend

Today Michael had a friend over. They were sitting at the table having a snack when Michael looked at me and gestured towards his friend. He then commented "he's pretend. I made him up." I may need to clarify the difference between playdates and imaginary friends.

LAZY, LAZY, LAZY!!!!!!!!

Today I went to the gym. I decided to start out on the stationary bikes. As I sat down, the woman on the bike next to me immediately started talking about her work-out. I asked her for some help setting my program as I wasn't familiar with this particular bike. She helped me out and then started giving me advice that didn't seem to make any sense. So, I changed the topic. Then she noticed that I had a "key." A key is a genius device that you can get programmed for your work-out. You meet with a trainer and they program your work-out into the key. When you go to the weight machines the little screen says "Hello Grace, you are lifting 50 millions pounds, nice job" and then the machine adjusts to 50 million pounds. Well, my new friend did not approve of the key. She started explaining that it was making me lazy. Lazy? I'm at the gym, lifting 50 million pounds. How is this lazy? She continued to explain her theory about how the system was making everyone LAZY, LAZY, LAZY!!!!! Again, I wasn't following her logic. Then I realized that I was five minutes into my work-out and I was trapped beside this woman. So, I pulled out my magazine and started reading and she pulled out her DR. PHIL book about relationships.

cake and quiche

I'm not sure if you know this, but today was National Bring Grace Something Delicious to Eat Day. I strongly believe that food prepared by other people always tastes best. I will admit that cooking isn't my first passion, but we get by. Anyway, here is the list of wonderful food that was given to me today:
carrot cake with vanilla bean icing (we ate half with playgroup, but yvonne left the other half of her cake love with me)
yummy loaf cake that smells good but I'm not sure what's in it because i haven't started eating it yet
quiche
spicy butter chicken
banana muffins
peanut brownies

It was a good day - a delicious day. Thanks to Yvonne, Kim and Cindy. Also, thanks to Lydia, Josiah and Levi who helped us eat this feast. No thanks to Jen who wasn't wiling to drive here to eat this feast.

I might make this holiday a bi-weekly thing....or maybe weekly.

Christmas List

I find my kids birthday and Christmas lists to be very entertaining. I still have Charis' birthday list in my wallet because it is so funny and cute. Yesterday morning Charis wrote out Michael's christmas list for him. It is as follows:
1. sea doo
2. a dirt bike
3. a bunny - either alive or toy
4. dinkie cars
5. real cell phone
6. polly pockets
7. candy
8. nerf guns
9. teck decks

Today he started asking how soon until Christmas. He held up four fingers and asked "this many sleeps???"

honestly

I went to Costco today. There were lots of samples out. One of the sample tables was hidden in the back of the store, past the milk. The lady was handing out tiny little samples of juice in tiny little paper cups like the kind that the fluoride lady used. If you never had the fluoride lady visit your school as a kid, you were clearly born at the wrong time and in the wrong place. The fluoride didn't taste great, but the arrival of the fluoride lady meant that class would be interrupted for ten minutes and how exciting is that? Okay, back to the juice, the brand was "HonestKids." So, I asked if drinking the juice would make my kids honest and if it would I would buy six cases of it. The lady kindly replied that "No, it will not." Then she went on to say "only modelling honestly will make them honest. Children learn by what they see." From most people this would have been condescending and annoying. But this lady was so gentle and soft spoken that I wanted to sit beside her and talk for awhile. Maybe I'll go back next week. She can keep the juice though. It tasted like fluoride.

my apologies

I was on a long long road trip with the kids today - just the kids and me and eighty million Geronimo Stilton books on CD. All in all, it went really well, but anytime that four people are stuck in a vehicle together with some guy pretending to be a mouse (if you don't know who Geronimo Stilton is, now is the time to find out), things can get a bit nutty.
I put off dinner until 7 p.m., thinking that if I waited that long, then there would only be an hour more driving required until we were home. So, we were all suffering from not enough food and too much Geronimo, who, by the way, is totally obsessed with cheese, when we stopped at Wendy's for dinner. As we ordered, Michael climbed on the little railing that is meant to corral the customers before ordering. I ordered our food and then looked behind me just in time to see an older man reaching out to grab him in case he fell, all the while reprimanding Michael for climbing there, as it was much too dangerous. Well, I was cranky and not in the mood to have some dude imply that my parenting sucked. So, I took a look at him and said "I am not in the place to get parenting tips from you." I may have been a bit snarky about it. I then took Michael and held him on my hip under the pretence that our food was ready. It wasn't ready. As I stood there, waiting, I realized that I kind of agreed with the guy. It wasn't that great of a place for Michael to sit. He would totally crack his head open if he fell. But I didn't have it in me to be gracious and say "Hey, you're right." I was tired and hungry and wanted my cheeseburger. So, to the not so helpful man in Wendy's who was trying to be helpful, "I'm sorry." I'm pretty sure that both he and Brian Mulroney read my blog.