Laugh of the Day

Here is a e-mail between my sister and I. My sister loves Winners so I took a picture of a great thing I had bought there and sent it to her.

Here's the e-mails.

To: Alexis
From: Jennifer

Subject: The best thong I've ever gotten at winners

Alexis Brown to me

Cool!! How much was it?

PS You should watch you spelling of the word "thing", cause I thought u actually meant a thong and I was praying that the picture was of thong flip flops and not underwear... or your butt!! LOL

Lesson of the day: double check your spelling.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Blog Post from Email

I thought I would test out this blogger function of being able to post something on the blog by sending an e-mail.  So I'll write a short post, maybe even try to add a picture. 

Life around here has settled down a bit after Mexico and then everyone getting sick.  The kids had a great time at Lesley's and school with all their friends.  Nathan is back to sleeping through the night (knock on wood).  The weather has been nice as well so the kids have been playing outside as well.  Tonight when I think Lucas fell asleep before his head hit the pillow.  Nathan was also being very clingy to me while he was sick and wouldn't take anyone but me, so Darryl has been spending lots of time reading to him and putting him to bed.  The first couple of nights he was upset, but then he learned what a great book reader Daddy is and is now enjoying it.  Lucas is still enjoying his chapter books, although we are almost out of Ronald Dahl books. 

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

--
Jennifer L Brown

http://jennandlucas.blogspot.com

Olympics

I wouldn't classify myself as a sporty person. I'm not competitive, I'm not very good at sports. I do like to exercise, but happy to just be doing it, don't have to be the best at it. But I LOVE the Olympics, really love it. Darryl and I were debating on driving to Vancouver and sleeping in our car just to see a glimpse of some of the events. But decided against it in the middle of Feburary. But we watch them constantly. I love that you can watch sports you don't normally see. I love the emotions and the highs and the lows with the Olympics. Actually I don't really like the lows, but love the highs. Some of my favorites were Canada's first gold medal, and the wonderful story about Alex and his brother Fredrique, who has cerebral palsy. He talked about how his brother inspired him. They told his brother he wouldn't walk over the age of 10, but still walks now in his 20s. It is such a great story.


Then there is the story of people you kind of know, Mike Robertson won the silver in snowboard cross. He is the boyfriend of a friend of a sister.


Or Clara Hughes, someone who is not only a decorated Olympian, partipates in summer and winter olympics but also donates her time and money to Right to Play.



I also really enjoyed the ice dancing competition. I don't usually watch it becuase I find it to be a little over the top and ridiculous. But I thought the Canadian dancing was so beautiful.



One of the lows of the Olympics this year is how much pressure is being put on the Olympics to win at home. Especially for the men's hockey team, when they lost to the USA the whole country was deflated. But today after the win with Russia everyone is feeling better.



The time I cried the most was a Joannie Rochette's beautiful performance brought me to tears. I can't imagine how strong and brave a person must be to perform at the Olympics after your mother dies a few days before.

Over the rest of the week and weekend I'm looking forward to the rest of curling and hockey.

Have there been any other really memorable moments for you?

Great job Canadian athletes, we are so so proud of you. You have provided us with great entertainment.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Never say never

I did two things in the last couple of days I swore I would never do. First I booked an appotiment for Darryl to go to the doctor. I said when I got married, that would be something my husband would have to do for himself. Nevertheless I married someone who dreads going to the doctor, so I have made him a yearly appointment, hoping that it will become a yearly thing. I've heard to stories lately about people finding out they are sick after there yearly appointment.

The other thing I did that I swore I would never do is buy skinny jeans. When they started to come back into style I thought they were horrible. But I bought pair of high boots and needed some jeans that would fit in them. I've tried them on with a couple of other things as well and think they don't look too bad. And they are really comfortable, which is always a good thing.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Eat at Home Challenge 2010

Just a reminder this is your (and my) last week to eat out. We'll start the eat at home challenge Monday March 1st. For those of you who mentioned in the last post you would like to partipate I'll invite you to be part of our blog. No pressure to do it, as it really is a challenge. So I'll understand if you don't want to.

The rules are simple. No eating out, including snacks and stuff. No Starbucks, no McDonald's. That being said if you want to make an exception for yourself totally fine. If Starbucks is your addiction and you're not ready to give it up but want to try to give everything else up for the month, that is still a challenge. For me I have a birthday party, my plan is to drink but not eat while I'm out. I do have another dinner with the girls, but rather then eating at a restaurant, we are going to do a potluck.

If you are still interested the blog part of it will change a little bit from last time. Last time we did it we posted everything we ate. With all the participants maybe we'll leave it to everyone trying to post one recipie once a week. It can be a family favorite or a new one you thought was great. This is helpful to everyone because there are different and new recipes to try.

Enjoy your last week of eating out.

Jenn

Book Review and Deer

I have read a couple of books lately and thought I'd review them for you. First was Half Broke Horses. It was written by one of my favorite authors from last year Jeanette Wall, who wrote Glass Castle. Both books are excellent. She is a really great author, she stories are interesting and really easy to read. This story is an incredible one of her Grandma and all the things she went through growing up. She was a teacher and a rancher and a mother.



It is a great book, I recommend it.

The next book I read (or almost finshed) was the hour I first believed. It is by the well known authour Wally Lamb. I have read his other books, She's Come Undone and The Hour I First Believed and really liked them. They did have sad parts but it seemed balanced. But this book was too sad. I really like a good story, and it is well written and he is a great writer. But I just found it to be too many bad things that happened.



Oh yeah, and last night Darryl was barbecuing our dinner a deer with big horns came running up the back pathway. It was so cool. Too fast for us to get the camera though. Kind of like the time there was a moose in our park.

What about you? Have you read any good books lately?

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Monthly Newsletter: Nathan (22 months) Lucas (54 months)

Hi Boys,

I totally missed Nathan's monthly newsletter as I was too busy bragging about the great time we had in Mexico, so I thought I would combine both of you into the same newsletter. This month has had some big up and downs for both of you. Both of you were INCREDIBLE in Mexico. We took you on a plane ride that kept you way up past your bedtimes where the four of us had to fit in 3 seats and you both were so so well behaved. I was proud to be your mom.

Then once we got to Mexico you both had a really good time. You loved swimming, playing in the sand, looking for fish, finding all sorts of other animals, eating, drinking, swimming, playing, hitting pinata's, dancing on stage, freeze dancing, and sleeping. It was really a vacation where Daddy and I got to connect with both of you. It was great fun to play with you, where there were no outside distractions.



You guys are continuing your friendship. It's amazing all the things I'm okay with Nathan "playing" because he is just mimicking Lucas. You guys get bad guys and shoot them. You throw balls around the house and generally have a good time together.



Nathan you are communicating more. It's not with a ton of words, but with more words and gestures. You are also playing more by yourself lately. It's great that your imagination is developing. You love to play with the farm that we have and with the food you got for Christmas. You will "help" me clean and love to spread out a blanket (or napkin) out on the floor.



Lucas you are growing up so so quickly. The other day I brought you home a pair of 10 shoes. Both you and Daddy thought they would be too big and although they are a little big for you, your 9 shoes don't fit you any more. You became a good swimmer while we were in Mexico. You and I had so much fun in the pool. I really love swimming and I'm happy you love it too.



On the bad side you both have been more whiny this month. Lucas you don't want to get dressed by your self and have been lethargic the last couple of weeks. I think alot of it comes from watching too much TV. It's winter and we seem to be watching more TV then normal. Nathan, we had a bump in your sleep and you have been getting up in the nights more often. You both went through a bout of sickness as well. Different sickness, Lucas was throwing up and Nathan you have had a cough and fever for the last couple of days.



While we were in Mexico, I had such a great time reconnecting with both of you. We also got lots of compliments on our parenting and what great kids you were. I am so so happy and honored to be your mom. You are great kids and mommy loves you so so much.

love mom

Commercials

I don't really watch too many commercials with the PVR. We tape most everything we watch and skip over commercials. But with all of our Olympics watching I have been watching alot of commercials. This one has been my favorite. I cried the first time I saw it. Have you had a favorite commercial from the games?

I love being Canadian.

Till Tomorrow
Jenn

Eventful Weekend

whew! what an eventful weekend. Friday I got an e-mail that the Barenaked Ladies are going on a cruise again. Which has me so excited. It's not for another year but it was such a fun time that I'm sure Tammy and I will have a great time again. It was also the Olympics opening ceremonies on Friday night and I really enjoyed that. K.d. Lang did such a great job, although Hallelujah is not really a "sport" song, but what a great singer. I also loved the poet. All in all I thought it was very well done. It made me proud to be a Canadian. My sister also arrived on Friday for a week, so it was a great night, even though I was working.

Saturday was also fun. Nathan got his hair cut and he looks like such a little boy. Both boys were really well behaved there, especially as there was another boy who was screaming his head off. Then I went and got my hair cut, which is always a nice experience. They give me a scalp massage, hand massage and straighten my hair. Then we had our best friends over for dinner and some great conversation.

Yesterday another great day, we headed out to IKEA, did some organizing, played outside, went for a walk. Then Darryl and I went out for our Valentines dinner. We went to the Keg and it was fantastic! I love steak and red wine.

So after 3 great days of the weekend, I can't really complain about the bad today we had today. One sick kid (Nathan) and the other one was un-cooperative, so all of our plans for a fun family day went out the window. I had to clingy kids and that why it's 8pm and they are both in bed.

Did you have a good family day weekend?

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Mexico: The Pool Edition

Our trip could have been divided into fours, A quater of the time is spent at the beach, quater at the pool, quater of it eating and a quater of it sleeping. Here is some pictures from the pool part. Becuase there wasn't a big beach at the resort they made the pools great. Plus there were great fun club and kids club staff who was lots of fun.


Lucas and Nathan in the kids pool.


Lucas became quite the fish on this trip. His record for holding his breath was 10 seconds and he would jump right under the water and swim. It's amazing how a week in the pool can improve someone's swimming skills.

One of our favorite things to do in the pool was use these intertubes and float around. Or push Lucas around.


In another one of the pools there were deep sections with seats. Kind of like hot tubs in the pool but they weren't any hotter then the other water. Lucas liked to slide down the poles of them like he was a fireman.



Lucas and Nathan sharing a drink by the pool.

Mexico was also good for my parenting pysche. It was great to spend the whole week with the kids and although I enjoyed a many of mojitos, the trip was really focused on them. Darryl and I each slept with one of them and our schedules revolved around their schedules. But we also had a lot of fun playing with the kids. And people noticed and told us. It is always nice when a stranger goes out of their way to tell you what a great parent they think you are. One couple who was by the pool said I had "mother" written right across my forehead. It's so nice to know that people think I'm doing a good job, and good enough that they take time to tell me so.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Mexico: The Beach Edition

I like a beach, I'm not a crazy beach person, but I like to play in the sand. ALthough over this trip I think I became more of a pool person then a beach person. I wasn't so crazy about the sand in the bathing suits. The resort we stayed at had a man made inlet so on the windy red flag days in the ocean we could still swim on the inlet. The other cool part about the inlet was all the fish.


Darryl, Lucas and Nathan in water


A far away shot from the beach

n
Castles in the sand


Feet in the sand



Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Mexico: The Animal Edition

We are back from sunny Mexico in cold and snowy Alberta. It was an excellent vacation, but one thing I like about going on vacation is coming home again. Over the next week I'll be giving you different editions and details of our trip. Here is the animal edition (there will also be a pool edition and a beach edition and maybe a food and drink edition). We stayed at a resort that was attached to Xcaret, which is a animal park as well as underwater snorkeling caves. Although if you ever go there bring your own snorkel (mom and dad). They try to bring that theme into the resort and have areas where animals are. They also carry around the animals and you can have your pictures taken with them. Two of the cool animals we did see, but didn't take pictures of were a monkey and deers. Here our the rest of the animals in "Mexico: The Animal Edition".

Lucas and I and the scarlet macaws they had in the lobby. Lucas really loved the birds.

Close up picture of the macaw.


He blends in well with the back ground but there is a coati there. There were wild and just running around.

In the lagoon where we were staying there were all kinds of fish swimming around. I'm not crazy about swimming with fish, but I kind of got use to it after a while. This picture is more when we were feeding the fish bread.

Oh another igunana

One of the animals on the resort were flamingos. We also saw them carrying the flamingos around, which was cool.
Turtle cage in the lobby.


Lucas and I holding an iguana
A butterfly (there were lots of them, around but hard to get a picture of)
The kids watching..... guess what..... another iguana
The resident/wild cat that lived off table scraps in the out door restaurant. I remember there was one at another all inclusive we were at as well. As you can see we blinded this one. As a side not if you notice the flooring here, Nathan would walk very gingerly anytime we were on flooring like this. It was cute and a fear he may get from me.
And of course I had to end it off with an igunana. Here he is on the archelogical ruins, also on the hotel grounds.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn