I just finished telling the Big Guy that there was a problem with my blog…it’s been reverting to a white screen because I waited too long to do my WordPress upgrade (again) and since I didn’t have any time to fix it I was just going to delete it. Since I have pretty much no commenters left since returning to work full time (unless I run a contest – then the emails fly in) it seems a waste to pay for my domain & hosting fees if nobody’s reading it. I sure wasn’t about to put any amount of time into it.

Came here to delete it and it’s back just fine.

Fate?

Primo is about to embark on his first trip to the USA. He’s been asking to go for a couple of years and we’re finally making good on the promise that yes, we’d take him one day. I think he’s planning to bring a flashcard with the letter Z on it just so he can ask people to say “zee.”

FYI, it’s “zed.”

Alice Cooper is kind of a dirt bag, but I’m thrilled that school really is out for summer!

We thoroughly enjoyed our family Canada Day festivities yesterday, and are now off to playdate two of three today.

Happy summer!

What Makes a Dad

God took the strength of a mountain,
The majesty of a tree,
The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea,
The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle’s flight,
The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need,
Then God combined these qualities,
When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
And so,

He called it … Dad

~Author Unknown~

If I didn’t receive anything to review and am just giving something lovely away, so I still need to post this off of my main page? Huh? Bueller? Bueller? Blogher?

Anyhoo, the kind folks at Pear Tree Greetings have repeatedly asked me to be a part of their Pearista program and I finally had time to send off a “Sure!” So, because I took that few seconds out of my busy day, you guys get a chance to win something from them every month! That’s it; that’s all!

This month, you can win FIVE sets of address labels – that’s up to 120 labels! View Pear Tree Greetings’ entire collection of address labels!

Pear Tree Greetings is a fun, fresh and affordable personalized stationery company that offers birth announcements, kid birthday invitations, note cards and more!

Simply email me at muchmorethanamom at gmail dot com with Pear Tree Greetings in the subject line and tell me which one(s) you’d choose, or leave a comment on this post before noon mst on June 18 to enter.

Rotsa ruck!

Our fucking basement is flooded.

Gah.

Gone for three days now.
Just finished downloading Lost.
Will we learn something?

No spoilers allowed!
At least for the next two hours.
It’s fine-ly over!

I am at home sick.
It will hit the high twenties.
Sick on the back deck?

We had a lovely Mother’s Day. The kids made me cute gifts – a tissue paper corsage from Primo and a flower in which the centre is her photo from Bella. This morning we met my mom, mother-in-law & her husband, brother & niece about half an hour out of town for brunch, came home for a quick rest and took a family nature hike in the coulees. After bathing the kids, making lunches & preparing the smoothie for tomorrow, we ate some cold takeout and are watching survivor from last week. I’m exhausted, but happy.

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone who’s a mother in any way to anyone!

So, Primo’s at a Montessori school now right?

Friday, I showed up to pick him up at about 12:30 and he was in the kitchen crying on a chair while the other kids were playing games in the gym. Why? Because he was punching kids and wouldn’t stop or listen to his teachers. GAH! He blamed it on everyone under the sun until the guilt finally set in and he was sad that he had “been a bully.”

He didn’t actually hurt anyone – it’s more of a superhero arm extension with a fist – but still.

He has hit someone every day since then.

Help!

1. Laundry sucks. I was caught up for about 3.4 minutes and now I can’t see the laundry room floor. Again.

2. My poor cat who is “dying of thyroid cancer” has gained weight and is eating & playing like a growing kitten.

3. Our dogs are a giant pain in my ass. Good thing they’re cute & cuddly.

4. Primo’s now in full time Montessori preschool and LOVES it. I hate the full time, but he is totally cool with it.

5. Poor Boston Rob. He should still be in contention.

6. I went shopping in my garage and got more than a full wardrobe for each child. Woo hoo!

7. I love shopping in advance and never having to pay full price. Thank goodness for Rubbermaid!

9. My school district had a snow day yesterday for the first time since 1958. It sucked getting to work 1/2 hour late after digging out of here, and then phoning parents to pick up kids & going home again, but it was awesome to have an unexpected afternoon with my family.

10. Heritage Makers? Utterly addicting.

Thank God for Easter break. Though it’s rather a tease – I’m getting used to being a stay at home mom again, and that’s just not fair, but our family is just loving this week.

This morning I got up intending to write about taking Primo to his first morning of pre-school. But then, I just couldn’t. I didn’t know what to day other than OH MY GOD! MY BABY! And that’s just more twitter or facebook like than blog like.

But now that we’re home? Wowzas. It was awesome. He’s going to a Montessori school. He’ll be full time next week but this week he’s just going to go for a couple of hours a couple of times to meet his friends and learn routines and the rest of the week he’ll be with the rest of us. Bella and I dropped him off at 9 and he took right off. I had to search for him to say goodbye, and even then he barely grunted at me because he was busy. We did a bit of shopping and headed back to get him at about 11, at which time he promptly delared “MOM! My preschool is AWESOME!” Let’s hope that lasts.

I had a girlfriend over this afternoon for a digiscrapping get together (We use Heritage Makers now – it’s so awesome that I became a consultant so let me know if you want to learn – I get to give free stuff to people and it rocks. Don’t sign up without my link or I can’t give you the freebies. It has my real name on it so if you want it, just ask.) Anyway, the whole point of my mentioning that was to tell you that I made chocolate whipped cream with strawberries and mangoes for snack and it was freaking awesome so you should try it. Whip 2 cup-ish of cream and add 2 T of quality cocoa (I love Epicure) and 4 T of sugar. Serve with fresh fruit to dip.

Oh, and the other day I mentioned a great free DVD ripping/burning program which you probably didn’t click through to, right? But now I have 10 giveaway codes for their premier version that’s worth $30 so if you want one comment or email me! (muchmorethanamom at gmail dot com with I WANT TO RIP DVDS in the subject line.)

Babble babble babble. Over and out.

For backups, I mean. Duh. (heh)

This? Is awesome, and free.

Check it.

It’s Earth Hour tonight. What’cha doin’?

My kids are in bed by then and I’ll have company here, so we’ll likely be watching a movie in the dark. I know we shouldn’t be watching a movie, but as long as we do it in the dark I feel like I’m doing my part since I try to protect the earth as much as possible all day – every day. Maybe we’ll play a board game instead. I’ll leave it up to my friends.

Five more sleeps until the Big Guy gets home. Eighteen days is a LONG time to have your best friend & partner away. If he was home and we didn’t have company, I can tell you what we’d be doing. Bow chicka bow bow.

This is my last weekend without him, so it’ll be full of cleaning, errands, playing & reading with kids, and eating with friends who are coming from out of town for an overnight visit. I love having company – I’m super excited! Sadly, they won’t be getting the usual host experience at our place. Usually I bake, cook & spoil our guests but I’m on a 3 week cooking hiatus so we’re ordering in and we’re delegating breakfast to the man in the morning so we can sit & drink lattes. They’re even going to let me go for a solo run & grocery shop before they leave! Now those are the kind of friends you want to have around.

Speaking of friends, I turned 34 on Wednesday while my husband was away and it had the potential to be an incredibly depressing day. Instead, my grade one teaching team surprised me in the morning with a fancy red velvet cupcake and a Starbucks gift card and brought all of their students in to my room to sing to me. My own students made me lovely gifts and interrupted our lessons all day with beautiful renditions of Happy Birthday. Then in the evening my friend who lives across the street brought over an ice cream cake and three other friends came over for tea and cake. It was just perfect. When the BG called he instructed me to go dig in his underwear drawer (heh) to find my gift and he had hidden an incredibly sweet card and a gift card for me to go shopping at one of my favourite stores to spoil myself. My sizes are changing so it’s great to be able to continue to have a decent professional wardrobe that fits along the way. Plus there’s this bright red coat there that I’ve been wanting…

My mom came the previous weekend to help me, which was FABULOUS, and now I’ve got some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket. On my list are iPhone (when my current contract expires), Roomba and food dehydrator. Which one would you get first?

Hope your weekend is fantabulous!

Thank God for my mom.
She drove two hours to help me
Get through the weekend.

House is clean. Food cooked.
Recycling and garbage out.
The laundry is done.

Playgrounds and shopping.
The weekly trip to the pool.
Playing with Grandma.

Appreciation.
My mom. A few friends.
I am so grateful.

Support does feel great,
But unfortunately it won’t
Bring my husband back.

Eleven more days
Until I have my best friend.
I can hardly wait!