I just love everything about my Christmas tree.

“When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out with it’s great wide sounds, cleanses me with its noise and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me that is bewildered and confused.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

Brunette…

A bunch of mothers and daughters…

My Mommy and Me…

A meme, tagged by Jenty…

1. What time did you get up this morning? 9ish

2. How do you like your steak? Medium rare

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? I can’t remember. I’m not really into spending our free nights at movies anyway – not a huge deal.

4. What is your favorite TV show? Meh. I don’t really watch TV.

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? I’m living in it – Canada.

6. What did you have for breakfast? Ketchup with a side of hash browns

7. What is your favorite cuisine? Greek, Thai, Schezuan

8. What foods do you dislike? fast food, pizza, sushi

9. Favorite Place to eat? Hy’s Steakhouse/Kobe Steakhouse

11. What are your favorite clothes? Jeans, tanks, hoodies, pajamas

12. Where would you visit if you had the chance? Greece, New York

13. Glass 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? My wineglass is always 1/2 empty. My glass of life is 1/2 full 99% of the time.

14. Where would you want to retire? Traveling Canada/US in a luxury RV. I dread the concept of sitting around doing nothing – in retirement we won’t stop moving till we’ve hit a KOA.

15. Favorite time of day? After the kids are in bed – between 8pm and 11pm

16. Where were you born? Suburbia, British Columbia

17. What is your favorite sport to watch? Hockey

18. Bird watcher? With my girls, sure.

19. Are you a morning person or a night person? Morning person

20. Do you have any pets? No

21. Any new and exciting news you’d like to share? Colin’s making me a romantic dinner tonight – new and exciting to me!

22. What did you want to be when you were little? Flight attendant – and then I flew *panic attack*

23. What is your best childhood memory? I had an amazing childhood – too many best memories to list

24. Are you a cat or dog person? Dog if I had to chose, but I’m not into animals aka another person to bath, feed and clean up after

25. Are you married? No

26. Always wear your seat belt? Yes

27. Been in a car accident? Yes, I was the passenger. Me driving? No.

28. Any pet peeves? Nothing I’m overly peeved by these days.

29. Favorite Pizza Toppings? If I must, all veggie, no meats for me, thanks

30. Favorite Flower? Lilies

31. Favorite ice cream? Meh. I’ll pass on ice cream. Geez, I sound so boring.

32. Favorite fast food restaurant? No fast food is my favourite fast food.

33. How many times did you fail your driver’s test? Once

34. From whom did you get your last email? SparkPeople – yes, I’m a member

35. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? iTunes, Lush, more likely a place for stuff for the kids and/or Col or my home

36. Do anything spontaneous lately? Came very close to climbing up and jumping in the coolest fountain I’ve ever seen but Colin stopped me ’cause we were with the girls. He promised we’d go back when they’re sleeping over at gramma’s house after a drunky night out

37. Happy with your job? Delighted.

38. Broccoli? Yup.

39. What was your favorite vacation? Anywhere I’ve jetted off to whether with friends or family has been awesome.

40. Last person you went out to dinner with? Colin

41. What are you listening to right now? Tracks from the upcoming Matthew Good ‘Vancouver’ album

42. What is your favorite color? Yellow

43. How many tattoos do you have? One. One too many

44. How many are you tagging for this meme? None. Have at ‘er if you want though.

45. What time did you finish this quiz? 6pm-ish

46. Coffee Drinker? One a day

***

Hope everyone had a nice weekend, I did.

Still pretty tired though – hopefully will be back with more brain and less dumb this week.

After yesterday’s episodes, I declared the remainder of Summer ‘09 as “Go Play Outside!!”. Outside there’s fresh air, sunshine, water and sand – and no boxes of Rice Krispies to dump. Plus I’m back to being a nice shade of golden brown – it’s a win/win. So today was awesome, take a look.

This is one of the first huge hills we must tackle to get to the fun…

These here are my darling daughters aka 60lbs. and a Radio Flyer wagon happily being pulled up huge hill…

It’s very much worth it when you get to the top though…

The top is also where the girls decide they no longer require a pull…

Or Mommy’s boring company…

Oooh! Another massive hill.

They tackle it themselves. My arm and wrist thank them…

A little water park action to cool off…

And hanging to satisfy the monkey in us…

And then we stop at mama’s favourite place to dream. This my friends, is a work/live property just one block away from where I live/don’t work now. That little shop space on the first floor? That’s my business. All I have to do is walk down stairs to get to my office. Preferably this would be Vancouver, but the suburbs must be better in terms of pricing, right?

Then we check out my other favourite place to dream. My live/don’t work town home on the other side of the live/work property…

OMG. There is one for sale!

Let’s go home and check it out on the MLS real estate listings!

Building Type: Row / Townhouse
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 4
Interior Floor Space: 1581 sqft
Storeys: 3
Built in: 2009
Title: Condominium/Strata

Brand new, NEVER LIVED IN 3 story concrete townhouse built by Bosa Properties. This 3 bedrooms & 3.5 bathrooms unit features premium stainless steel appliances (SQEEEE!), designer stone composite counter tops (SQEEE!) and full height wood grain cabinets (SQEEE!), extra fireplace in master bedroom (SQEEE!) plus an outdoor gas fireplace on the rooftop terrace (HOLY SHIT SQUEEE!). This is a corner unit, with windows facing North, South and East, bright and ventilated (SQUEEE!). The unit is located in the heart of Town Center, steps walk away from the West Coast Express commuter train, Aquatic Center, parks, library, college & top schools. Full 2-5-10 warranty. GST already paid. (SQEEE!)

$688,000

Huh? Wha?!

SIX HUNDRED AND EIGHTY EIGHT THOUSAND FUCKING DOLLARS?!?!?!

*Dies*

THIS my friends, is suburban living 20 minutes outside of a pre-2010 Olympics Vancouver.

THIS is all kinds of wrongness and craziness.

So I decided to do a little research on what else I could get for my non-existent $688,000.

For a short five minute drive up the hill I could get this 7 year old house…

Building Type: House
Bedrooms: 7
Bathrooms: 4
Interior Floor Space: 3305 sqft
Storeys: 3
Built in: 2002

For a 1 hour drive even further into the boonies, I can get 2.89 treed acres for $679,900…

If I drive 2 minutes over to my mom’s swanky neighbourhood I can get a 2 bedroom 1347 sq ft condo with a view for just $699,900…

This dumpy looking house about 3 minutes from me and in a good, old, influential neighbourhood will cost us around $689,000…

But it does boast an “ocean view” (see the blue ocean there??)…

If I drive 40 minutes into the sticks/cow fields where I was born I can get a “REMODELLERS DREAM: Solid home with unusual floor plan needs practical touch. 2.25 spectacular acres of park like paradise”…

And a blue sink and weird looking bathtub…

Now, if I decide to live in my coveted Whistler Village where many of the 2010 snow sports will be held, my $688,000 will buy me a 985 sq ft townhouse…

And finally, if I just decide to say “Fuck it! Lets move straight back to action and excitement of Vancouver!” my $688,000 will get me a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1068 sq ft condo just 12 blocks from the beach…

I don’t even know what to say right now except that the recession sure ain’t hitting the Vancouver/Lower Mainland real estate market hard!

So I’ll ask you. What can you get for your non-existent $688,000? And if you don’t know you can just say, “Holy shit, you will never own property, woman!” like I just did.

Preschool styles.

C for Callie, J for Jennifer, Y for…?

She knows that her name is Lily and how to spell it. I asked her numerous times if she was positive. “Yes, Mama. I want a Y.” Alrighty then! I say, all the power to her for being different.

This one scares me quite a bit. You see, I have many a photo like this taken between the ages of 18 and 21. Usually, I was on something and quite often at a club or rave – though I drew the line at glitter and tiaras. This is frightening.

This, my friends, is karma. Squared.

Since I’m still having a hard time getting those two songs out of my head from before, I’ve taken to finding and listening to a lot of music at Ski Movie Music. I always fully enjoy the soundtracks while watching the movies. Even my beloved Kid Cudi was originally found there before the Day N’ Nite phenomenon. Sadness.

Through a ski movie, I also discovered my one true musician love forever, Citizen Cope, and his many layers and depths beneath Bullet and a Target. Any Cope album is my go to, back to back, over and over choice. So yeah, it’s no wonder why I love the site so much.

Anyway, I’m liking this a lot today. And it’s working!

Ahhh, Easter ‘09 Survivor!

No, really. It was amazing.

We did a BBQ with friends on Friday night, turkey and ham dinner with my Dad and step mom and extended family on Saturday night and brunch with my Mom for her birthday and Easter, today.

My favorite brunch, too…eggs benedict, champagne and orange juice. Puuurrrrr. Yep…that meal actually makes me purr.

I don’t know what it was, but this was the first time in a long ass time that I’ve been 150% in the moment and happy with the people I love. I don’t even know how to explain it, but trust me, it’s very good…this entire weekend was groundbreaking in so many ways.

I have tomorrow off and I’ll be cleaning this pigsty of a home I’ve let go for the past 3 days. Think of me when you enter your laundry room because I’ve got about 87 loads to do!

I hope your long weekend was as good as – or better – than mine xoxo

*****

Guns don’t kill. Dads with beautiful daughters do…

Girl. Egg. ‘Nuff said…

Sweet Callie…

My Mom and I have something in common. It has to do with spelling late at night and wine. Here’s her Easter egg hunt clues…

Easter brunch? Gimme a hamburger bun…

Too cute for words, Lils…

The only decent family pic that came out of this ordeal (out of 200)…

On occasion I can get that hat off…

Barbie’s purdy (Uncle Jeff photog FAIL)…

Wondering about my other child at this point…

Mean muggin’!! (Oh, the drama) We still bad, baby…

The Christmas card…

Major props to Baby Daddy for picking these out for my Mom’s birthday (trust me, the boy knows flowers)…

Bella! …

This is the kinda beauty that happens here in our backyards. Almost worth the 7 month winters…

Hangin’ out…

Uncle and niece love…

Good morning, my darling Saturday. Do you know how much I love you? Do you really? Because I do. So much.

I. Love. You.

I remember being a little girl and having these friends whose parents would wake up at like, 7am on Saturday mornings, whip up a batch of chocolate chip muffins, be dressed and polished before they woke up their kids. You’d see them outside on the driveway at 8am pumping up the tires of their bikes and by 8:05, they’d be off. Shiny, happy people enjoying the chirping of the birdies in the early morning sunshine.

I was kind of jealous, but not really.

When we weren’t visiting my Dad for the weekend, we’d be sleeping in! My Mom never woke us up, ever. When we became teenagers and it was say, 1pm on a Saturday afternoon, she’d sometimes come up to our rooms and be like, “Guys, the day is halfway over. Do something.” But she was the kind of Mom who worked all week and cherished her own sleeping in and lazy coffee drinking over the paper or crossword puzzle. Weekends were always for chillin’. Always. Plans were made for after 1pm and they didn’t include hitting the grocery stores and places where the hoards converged.

As I grow older, I feel the same way. I. LOVE. LAZY. WEEKENDS.

Weekends = no alarm (my Mom even called them NADs – No Alarm Days), no dressing up (heck, as much as I like career wear, there are only so many blouses and pantyhose and sweater vests a girl can take, man), no packing lunches, no trains and buses to catch, no incessant ringing of the phone and answering it all professional-like ‘Jennifer speaking’, no rushing, no schedules and meetings, no hand shaking and nodding, no Excel spreadsheets or making small talk in elevators, no dodging fifty people in a city crosswalk, no rushing to fit in daycare pickup, dinner making, laundry doing, honey lovin’, Bachelor watching, vacuuming and bathing all in 4 hours.

That said, I kind of envy the keeners. I kind of wish I was that 7am riser who has plans, baby. One of those, lets fit as much as possible into 8 hours kinda people. Just last weekend, Colin and I took the girls downtown to Science World and when we got back at 4pm, we were all totally exhausted and ready to put the girls to bed and crack a bottle of wine. Hell, I took a bath at 5pm just to de-stress.

The thing about Colin and I is that we’re both pretty laid back. I remember when we started hanging out as 20 year olds, we’d just chill. We’d grab some drinks and sit on the balcony and talk. All of sudden, we’d be all, “How’d it get to be 9pm? Wasn’t it just lunchtime?” Our dates consisted of wandering the city. No destination, no watch, no schedule. Decisions were made at the drop of a hat.

I remember once, Colin, his twin brother, my brother and I were all at a place called Lighthouse Park. We sat on a massive rock looking out at the ocean, watching the ferries sail by. All of a sudden one of us says, “Lets go to Whistler tonight”. And that’s exactly what we did. Six hours later we were in a condo with Starbucks cups full of Crown Royal and Coke getting ready for the clubs.

That’s kinda how we roll. Sporadically.

But when you throw toddlers into the mix, you start feeling a little guilty. Do they enjoy hanging out in jammies for half the day? Do they appreciate it as much as I do? I remember being a bit envious of the keener families as a little girl, but if my Mom had been a keener, I’d probably never be this laid back, sporadic person.

But am I too laid back? That’s the question I ask myself.

As a parent should I suck it up and skip out in the morning to attractions and events with hundreds of screaming kids and overpriced food? Should I actually be enjoying that insanity? Because I kinda don’t. I’ve never been one for crowds myself and I like my kids – they are coolest little beings ever know – but I’m not a kid person, you know?

My perfect Saturday?

Today. Sleeping in, enjoying cup after cup of delicious coffee while wrapped in a pink chenille cardigan, taking my time, making phone calls to catch up with family and friends, slowly getting ready and taking a long, lazy stroll around the lake with my girls, no plans, no time lines, no schedules.

Just straight chillin.

What kind of weekend person are you?

Oooh la la, I got some flowers from my not-so-secret admirer last night. They smell better than they look, if you can imagine. Gorgeousity. That boy, I tell ya.

Yesterday, after taking down Christmas – and vacuuming the accompanying two hundred thousand pine needles – Colin and I decided to make good on our promise to take the girls on “Mommy’s train” sometime during our vacation.

It was absolutely gorgeous weather outside – all sunshine and cold – and we hoofed it into the city on the bus and SkyTrain.

Upon arrival, we decided to eat at a swanky downtown restaurant where the girls enjoyed french fries and hot chocolates while being admired by the beautiful people. The beautiful people being the staff and patrons of the restaurant, holy cow…I’ve never seen such gorgeous men and women not on tv or the movies.

When it was time to go, we climbed the stairs to the second level, past the DJ booth, past the four glass wine fridges and into an area with floor-to-ceiling TV screens showing full sized models on the runway.

All I wanted was the restroom!

I finally found it, entered a stall and sat down to find NFL on TV. On the door. Now, if this is normal in toilet stalls nowadays, I really don’t get out enough.

Oddly cool.

Next, we all bundled up against the elements and walked down to the waterfront, checked out the new Vancouver Convention Centre, the Vancouver/Whistler 2010 signage simply stating, “We’re getting ready to welcome the world”, observed sea planes landing, orange clouds casting shadows on snow covered mountains (unfortunately, I was too slow with the camera because that was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in the sky) and walked the promenade of the old convention centre until the girls were too cold and tired to carry on.

Wusses! (Kidding)

Colin and I then hit turbo mode, picked them up and hightailed it to the train. “Mommy’s train”. The West Coast Express is the commuter train I travel to and from the city everyday so that totally makes it mine.

We got a whole little four seat section just for us and as we sat there idle for 12 minutes while the train loaded, Lily made sure to let us and all the passengers know in her loudest voice that the “train isn’t working. It’s broken!”

Finally, the train started “working”, Lily moved into my lap, Callie moved into Colin’s and the next thing I knew, all three of them were sound asleep.

It was the best day out of my entire eight days of holidays.

Later in the evening, I was able to go to the mall by myself and was tickled to find it nearly empty. I browsed the bookstore for half an hour and bought two books, the new Sophia Kinsella novel “Remember Me?” and Eckhart Tolle’s “A New Earth – Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose” (Oprah put her sticker on it so it must be amazing, right?)

Then I roamed the empty department and drug stores for discount Christmas wrapping paper, cards and decorations while shaking my head at the Valentine’s Day and spring patio furniture displays. Already.

It’s snowing hard as I write this and I’m glad we made it downtown yesterday. These big, fat, white, gorgeous chunks are completely covering the streets again. I started to hate the snow over the past two weeks when it canceled my Christmas Eve, caused havoc on transit, delayed air travel and made the sidewalks and streets ice rinks when it started melting and freezing.

But now, we have nothing to do and nowhere to go for two days. It’s time to finally enjoy the snow and love it again through the eyes of two three year olds.