Taking the Long Way

As I was driving to volleyball on Tuesday night, with Ty in the passenger seat beside me, I asked him -- should I take Wellington or Corydon? 

His answer -- "Corydon.  We always take Wellington". 


I love this answer.  We didn't take Corydon because it got us there faster or because there was less traffic.  We took it because we always take the other route. 


Getting outside your routines is never a bad thing.


Thanks for the reminder, Wirv.

A few oldies for a new year

I will miss the group trips to the outhouse.

Ah, summer.  You can't get here fast enough.  Love you!

a photo journey, part 1

After intensive research, Ty, Es, Mark and I decided on this restaurant in St. Petersburg. 

Cafe Alma. Lovely food, wine and company.

Probably the coldest I've ever been at a football game.  This includes the Grey Cup game I attended 3 or so years ago.  Apparently the 2nd coldest Bucs game in history.  Es and I amused ourselves by randomly yelling the word "punt" often and loud.

Dueling piano bar in Tampa.  We had two dinners this night (one at 4 ish and one at 9 ish) and then many Bud lights (when in Rome...).  Check out the classy sign in the corner.

Ty and I -- utterly defeated by Epcot.  First we were defeated by the Magic Kingdom. 

Did you know that Disneyworld has a maximum capacity?

Dad, Anna and Ty -- exhausted after a serious Pickle Ball game.  Dad is a sniper. 

After being defeated by the Magic Kingdom, we weren't going to be defeated by the Magic.

  We had no choice but to opt for scalped tickets.  Good seats.  On a side note, when you enter "Orlando Magic" into a Garmin, it directs you to corporate headquarters. 

Shockingly, this isn't where the games are actually played.

This picture just made me laugh out loud.  Ty is in desperate need of sunglasses.

Anna and I in our rental helmets.  Andrea tightened hers so much she got a headache. 

Safety First. 

Hee.

Oh, shit. Is it really January 10, 2010, already?

Am I too late to discuss resolutions? 

As always, my apologies for the blog-break.  As always, work weighed me down, as did a number of pre-Florida parties.  And then, of course, I was on a plane, and who wants to blog on their holidays?

Nonetheless, I'm sure you will be pleasantly surprised to hear that blogging 3 x per week was on that ever-so-elusive list of resolutions.

So let's start off this year on that foot that isn't the left one, and throw out a "what makes me happy":

Good communication makes me happy. 

A few notes on communication et moi.  I hate talking on the phone because, invariably, I always end up saying something ridiculously inappropriate or out of place, or I accidentally talk over the other person and then there are weird gaps that I feel I have to fill.  I am also deathly afraid of voice messages and often leave them until Rogers makes them magically disappear.  I am also notoriously slow on email returns.


All of the above are problematic.  Because whenever I start thinking about how bad I am at communicating, it upsets me (it is absolutely paining me to write this post) because I know my behaviour is terrible friend behaviour.

I don't mean for it to happen, but sometimes I seem to get stuck on this little old island of mine.  And getting off seems really, really hard.

But good communication?  Good communication makes me feel like a million bucks.

So -- in 2010, I resolve to get off the island more often. 

Roll With It, Baby

I want to be easy-going.  I want to roll with it.  I want to be someone who believes in the visions of others and helps make those visions happen.  OK, so maybe the last “I want” isn’t exactly on the same level as the first two, but that does not make me want it any less.  Or maybe they are more connected than I first thought?

With respect to the first two – sometimes I am easy-going and sometimes I do roll with it.  But generally, I don’t do either of those behaviours enough (certainly, Ty would likely not describe me as easy-going and / or able to roll with it).  When things are going sideways for me and I feel that incredibly frustrating feeling starting to spread through my chest (is that you Stress?  Is that how you physically manifest yourself?  I suspect that it is you lurking around in there, but I haven’t quite figured out how to trump you yet) I do know that the ensuing period of time is not necessarily going to be fun for me, or for Ty (oh Ty, it's always you who bears the brunt.  You know I want it to be different!).

But I try.  And I will continue to try to because I desperately want to be that woman who is effortlessly cruising through life (or maybe it’s just that she appears that way?  Damn her and her perfect hair and outfit!). 

I read something last week that made me reflect on whether I am that easy-going woman.  Bear with my heavy paraphrasing:  When a nearly 17 year old daughter said to her mother “I want to invite fifty of my closest friends for dinner the week before my seventeenth birthday,” her mother replied  “Would spaghetti be okay?”  When that same daughter, several years later, sent an email to her family that said, “When I graduate from law school in two years, will you all fly out to California to spend the weekend with me, so we can visit my favorite Palo Alto places and go surfing?” her mother said, “Are we going to have to wear wetsuits?”
And when the girl said, “As part of my goal to go to all fifty states by the time I’m thirty, I want to go to North Dakota to run my first half-marathon,” her mother said “I guess I should do it, too.”  And this from a non-runner!  

This is the woman I aspire to be.  Although I am not a mother, I wish to model myself after this mother, who clearly is rollin’ with it every single day.

Word.

ps.
Lots of pictures and announcements coming your way!  Will post tonight when I get home because that is where my camera is!

pps.
yes, I've been delinquent.  Work has been dragging me down (hence the stress-related post).  Will be back to my normal self as of Wednesday!

Will This Guest Post Make Me Famous?

ARice Senior, here.  Yep, that's right- Senior, not Junior.  I was asked to guest blog, so guest blog I did.  I'm pretty sure Oprah wants me after this little gem...or maybe Ellen.  Probably both.  People, let's not worry though...I always have time for the peeps...

So I’m almost finished my Christmas baking. Almost. Shortbread cookies, butter tarts, Nanaimo bars, caramel shortbreads squares (new this year- and TASTY), ginger cookies and chocolate peanut butter no bake cookies. It was a labour of love…and a massive investment in butter and sugar!

Baking is one of the things I love most about the Christmas season. I try my very hardest not to scarf down loads of the stuff while I’m chefing away in the kitchen, but usually fail miserably in this task and wind up languishing on the couch cursing the very moment that my brain told my stomach that consuming mass amounts of unbaked goods was a logical and smart thing to do. This year, I was benefitted by the terrible cold settled in my sinuses and chest (cold=benefit? Strange!), but since I couldn’t taste anything, I really didn’t feel like eating anything, and that means more baking for the masses and less in my tummy!

I know you’re probably wondering what a single 30+ gal could possibly do with all that baking. Don’t worry, I certainly don’t consume it all myself…imagine the junk in the trunk if I did! I love to give my baking away as gifts. This is another thing I love about this whole Christmas season…the gift giving. Such a pleasure to give someone something homemade and from the heart and see their reaction! I work in a school and I can attest first hand that teachers are BUSY people at this time of year. While lots of the peeps are dashing from one Christmas party to the next, teachers are often staying late at school, putting on the Christmas concerts and arranging the millions of Christmas activities that accompany the last week or so of school…and lets not forget those senior and junior high teachers that are spending hours in the gyms supervising other peoples’ children on teams. After all that, who has time for baking? So bake I do…and each and every teacher at my school will get a little bit. Sugar, butter and chocolate make people smile. Especially at this time of year!

I should also mention, along with the baking and the gift-giving, that I find Christmas is the time of year where we spend the time, energy and effort to catch up with people we don’t get to see that often…and even those that we maybe do…and I love that about this time of year. Amidst the atrocious winter weather, icy roads and busy schedules, we just seem to make time to fit in time with those people we love and cherish. And that in itself is a wonderful thing. A fabulous thing in fact. There is nothing like catching up with old friends and the people you love with a lovely glass of red or a warm cup of tea in hand. I like it so much in fact, that this just may in come to be my goal for the New Year (noticed I called it a goal and not a resolution)…more time with the people that really matter. After all it really is about the simple things, isn’t it? Baking. Making someone smile with a gift. Visiting with friends. Just a few of my favourite things…

Cutest kid EVER. Period.

This is Isaac.  A joint effort of Caitlin and Scott.

oooooo -- have I mentioned they are currently cooking up Cutest Child Ever #2?  Well, to be fair, Caitlin is doing the cooking.  Scott has already made his contribution.