Where are we runnin'?

Today was the annual Terry Fox Run for our schools. Kodiak placed 4th out of over 300 students. The High School students helped with marking the route and such so his "competition" ranged from Grade 1 to Grade 9. He was very proud of his accomplishment. La Diva and Iceman enjoyed their "run" as well. La Diva wore a sign saying who she was running for with pictures of her Great Papa and Zackary. She also had a list of people we know who have survived cancer, those still battling and those who are in our memories her poster. Iceman had made a copy of her sign but decided to leave it at home because he was afraid it would get rained on and ruined. He has it hanging in his room so he can remember to pray for Great Papa and Zackary every night.

Turtle did not have school today but was able to go in the fire truck and help Daddy with the traffic control for the big race. The Hero came home rather discouraged at the lack of community support. Everyone is in such a darn hurry that they were trying to sneak around the road blocks when children were crossing the street. The Hero almost had to take on one jerk who was throwing a fit. What an example to the children who are doing a great thing, raising money for a cause that affects nearly every person in our country in one way or another and these pinheads think they are more important than the safety of these children.

On the bright side, one of Kodiak's teachers stopped to talk to the Hero during the run and told him what a fantastic kid he is. That is always great to hear. Kodiak really looks up to Mr. D and thinks he is a fabulous teacher. Kodiak has been really stepping out of his comfort zone and taking Jr. High by storm. He is the class rep in the Student Union for his grade. In years past he would have just let someone else come forward. This year he threw his hat into the ring against 3 girls in his class. I'm really proud of him. One of his goals the beginning of this year was to become more confident in his leadership skills and he is definitely stepping up to achieve that one. I shouldn't be surprised as he achieves or exceeds any goals he sets for himself.

La Diva is involved in the "Pay it Forward Posse" and the Spirit Squad. She is also taking piano and finally has a fabulous teacher. Piano teachers are really hard to come by these days and the group lessons seem to be very popular. We tried that last year and it was a complete gong show. Her teacher recently graduated with her degree in music; she is young, talented and a great teacher. I'm so glad that we found her as La Diva has a natural gift and I was worried last years fiasco would discourage her from growing her talent.

We are crazy busy this coming week. We are moving La Diva to the basement with Kodiak. The Hero is talking over her room as his office. He's been working from home for almost a year and his little perch on the top of the stairs is just not working for any of us. It will be great to be able to shut the door on him. Kodiak has X-Country meet, La Diva has piano, we have hair cuts for Kodiak and Turtle. I need to get the invitations made for Turtle's birthday party which will be in mid-October because our life is just too crazy right now. The Hero is going to be on TV on Wednesday to promote the Heroes in the Sky event this weekend. We have tons of organizing to do for that weekend. Friday I need to take the crew up to Gramma and Poppa's for the weekend. We will pick them up on Thanksgiving. This way I can dedicate my time to all the things the Hero may need as he orchestrates this big fundraiser and media event.

I'll be so happy when next weekend is over and some of the craziness goes with it. It's no wonder that I chose my latest phone ring tone to be Lenny Kravitz's Where are We Runnin'?

Favorite Things

I haven't been very inspired to blog lately as I've been dealing with pain from my wisdom teeth removal. It has been the most tedious of healings ever. I have pain that radiates in my jaw, my sinuses and the other day even my ear ached. I'm on antibiotics for possible infection. Aleve and Percocet make it tolerable and I sleep like a log which is a bonus for the poor Hero who is usually dealing with my tossing and turning.

Here are a few of my favorite things - some make my life easier, some taste great, some are guilty pleasures, some are great gift ideas.

Westham Island Estate Wines. My favorites are blackberry, snogoose and their fabulous pumpkin dessert wine. We found this treasure while on holidays this summer. Cheers!

Method Home Aroma Sticks make my house smell great and they don't aggravate anyone's allergies.

Method Home Wipes in any scent make cleaning my bathrooms an easy daily occurrence.

Nellies Dryer Balls have helped cut down my drying time immensely. My clothes are no longer covered in animal tallow and fragrance, no static, better for the enviroment.

Lash Exact Mascara No clumping!

Wish Upon a Necklace Great gift idea for teachers, teens, friends, sisters, etc.

Coastal Goods I received a few things as a gift last year and I'm hooked. Fantastic quality seasonings for all the foodies you know.

Carrot and Stick Press Gorgeous letter pressed stationary. I love, love these.

Swoon Candles My favorite scent is Violet cocoa. Another thing I received as a gift and fell in love with.

Cell FX This has totally changed my quality of life. I was having horrible bouts of pain to the point of making it difficult to do much but sit or lie down. I went to the doctor and got the run around. My Hero is a die hard Cold FX user so I decided to give this product a try. My bouts of pain are few and far between and when they come it is most likely because I have missed some doses of the Cell FX. I'm so thankful for this product. It has improved my life 10,000 times over.

Ganache for Lips No lips should be without this lip balm. YUM-O!

Honey I washed the Kids Soap

Trichomania Shampoo Bar I bought this for La Diva and was very skeptical about the whole shampoo bar concept. I tried it a few times and it is fabulous. It totally changed the condition of my hair. This is great stuff!!

Flying Fox shower gel The smell is like an aphrodisiac. Nuff said.

Butterball Bath Bomb A necessity of winter.

Jake's World Famous Tartar Sauce To. die. for.

MEC Windstopper N2S Gloves These rock!! My hands are warm, they are thin enough to stuff in my pockets and they look sexy.

Ergodyne Work Gear I haven't tried these yet but the Hero says it is better than Under Armor. He is in love and they have a cool slogan on the clothes as well "Be Tenacious".

MEC Seamless Boxer Briefs Another recommendation from the Hero. He has an almost disturbing case of love for these. I have tried the women's version but sadly my ample behind needs to shrink a bit more to fit into them in a manner that I would find comfortable.

Almay Nearly Naked Touch-Pad Liquid Makeup I ran out of my normal foundation and then Wally World was out of my shade. I was desperate as I was scraping the corners of what I had left. So I decided to give this a try and I love it so much that it will be my new foundation. It covers great and it doesn't feel like you have anything on your face. If I didn't have raccoon eyes from getting my contacts out (don't ask) I probably would forget I had makeup on and not wash my face at night. It is that light!

They're Poppin'

The Hero snuck down and caught this clip of Kodiak and Turtle jammin'. Make sure you are not drinking anything and you've just gone potty. ;)

We did it!!!

We survived the first week of back to school.

The biggest challenge for us was my body's revolt against waking at a set early time. I'm the first to admit that I am a night owl and hate waking up in the morning.

Kodiak, La Diva and Iceman started on Tuesday. The Hero escorted Kodiak to the secondary school while I took La Diva and Iceman to elementary. As we walked by the secondary we passed several of Kodiak's classmates so he fell into step with them and didn't really need the Hero there afterall. He has embraced this new adventure with so much excitement. He comes home with exciting tales of his teachers and classes. They have options now and while he was disappointed that he did not get into his top pick of digital imagining he is happy with the rest of them so far. They do options with all the jr. highs in that class so he is with 8s and 9s. The prospect of that was a bit daunting, especially in the phys ed ones where everyone is bigger than our little bear. He proved his place though because he outran all of them in cross country (he lost count and did 2 extra laps). His coach was very impressed and asked him who taught him to run and why did he do 2 extra laps. He said his Dad is a great runner. Which made me giggle because he only started running again since his treadmill Father's Day gift. The Hero can run for 30 minutes on it so that impressed his son. In soccer/touch football option they played soccer, the older teens barely gave our little bear a second glance when the class started but by the end of the class he had their respect with his skill and perserverance. He has scientific experiments as his other option. He comes home for lunch but took a lunch the other day so he could attend the meeting for the trip to Greece. He was disappointed to discover it was only for the sr. highs. I told him he can start working towards the senior high trip now. If they still head to Greece I'll glady chaperone. There is a dance this weekend but he has no interest in attending. I assured him that he'd merely be holding up the walls and making his harem happy that he was there. He told me this morning he'd rather watch a movie tonight so I won't push it. His harem will be phoning and disappointed at his no show.

La Diva was very worked up the week prior to school and that we both survived that week was nothing short of a miracle. She was very stressed out about not having "friends" in her class. I told that was just an opportunity to make new ones and that she is awesome at that. I was shocked she was so full of drama over it as this is the first year in a long while she has not had to adjust to a new school and a new city. She has the same teacher as last year even!! Girls!!! I know the tweens are here, I have to find a way to cope. Nothing a good bottle of vino can't help. So it turns out her friends from last year that are not in her class still play with her and still ring our phone off the hook. She has met at least 1 new friend too. It hasn't been all that horrible afterall.

Iceman was so ready to get back to school. He is such a social being and was getting bored with all of us. As we walked to school we ran into his red headed buddy from last year and discovered they were in the same class. They both had huge grins and then found out their "lockers" (aka cubbies) were next to each other. After I hung all his things in his "locker" and got him organized I asked if he'd like me to stay to which he replied "What for?" which was a much different response than the sobs of the year before. Suck it up Mom and be assured that you made the right choice to keep him in Kindy another year as he is very ready to be in Grade 1. He is a bit disappointed that a "weird" kid is in his class. This kid threatened to kill him and his siblings while walking their dog this summer. He is a bizarre child but we assured Iceman that he would not in fact kill him and that he would probably spend much time out of the class with the resource teachers. When we walk to school in the morning it amazes me how much charisma this child has as he is bumping fists with popular kids in Kodiak's class that are barely friends with him but they all know the Iceman. The girls from Kodiak's harem are always tickling and chasing him in attempts to get a hug. Kodiak said to me the other day that he doesn't know why the girls are all over Ice. Then I enlightened him that it has nothing to do with Ice and everything to do with him. They need to get his attention somehow, his obliviousness to their goo goo eyes makes me laugh.

Turtle had staggered entry day yesterday. I was so worried at how he and I would make out. The Hero had his wisdom teeth removed that morning so he was unable to come with us. I expected tears, clinging on for dear life and physical removal from the classroom. I'm talking about me not the Turtle. He had been anxious the night before and we read The Kissing Hand, by Audrey Penn. I'll admit that I became rather weepy and nostalgic. I grabbed Kodiak's hand and showed Turtle the kiss I had put there so many years ago. Of course Kodiak hammed it right up rubbing his hand on his face saying "Mommy loves me, Mommy loves me." We saw the kiss on the hands of La Diva and Iceman too. Turtle embraced the tradition and was excited to come home and tell me they had that book at school too. He settled into class the next day with little hesitation. I was very happy that I had decided to go a fair bit early so that he could get some face time with the teacher from the start. He happily said goodbye and I was out the door without a tear. The artwork that he brought home proves that all is well, his traced hand with a heart in it and the words "Turtle came to school on the first day and he felt happy." He has sure come a long way from the barnacle that was stuck to my hind end last year.

The house was so quiet yesterday, the dog was depressed as all her kids were gone and the usual noise of the Hero talking or his crackberry ringing constantly and the typing of the computer was missing. I did a bit of laundry, organized Kodiak's closet and then had to get out as the quiet was too much. The next little while will be filled with long overdue appointments - dentist, chiropractor, hair, etc. After that I will have to figure out what to do to fill my days when all my bunnies are out of the Hutch. The irony..... when they are small you long for days of peace and quiet but once they've left the hutch the quiet is too much to bear and you long for those noisy days again.

Cupcakes, Costumes and Chaos

I made the Barefoot Contessa's Coconut Cupcakes today. It was my sister's birthday yesterday and my Mom's is on Friday. So the crew and I are heading up there to visit them tomorrow. The fabulous food staging and photography was done by my aspiring photographer, Kodiak. He is very keen on building a portfolio since we investigated what colleges or universities offer photography degrees a few days ago. He chose this photo for me to share on the blog. We managed to make enough for sharing tomorrow and having a small taste today. They were so yummy! I have been looking for an excuse to make them for some time and am so glad I finally did.

We also made Kool Aid Playdough. Iceman and Turtle thought is was very cool that the Kool Aid colored the dough green. La Diva has been playing with it on and off most of the day. She has made cabbage rolls, cookies and other things out of the playdough.

One would think that with cupcakes and playdough we'd be having a great day. However, our Hero is away for work this week and that means that all heck breaks loose in the behavior department. He really isn't the sole disciplinarian and is much easier on them than I am most of the time. For some bizarre reason day 2 of his absence is always the day of chaos, sass mouths and deaf ears. I think they have finally got the clue that Mom is not putting up with any of it and they have found things to amuse themselves, are being helpful with the laundry and Kodiak even came and apologized for giving me so much attitude today. Woot! I'll take that as a small victory in my day.

You are asking yourselves how costumes fit into this equation. While I had tasked La Diva and the littles to go through the tickle trunk to try on the costumes in there. This way I can get things that are too small washed and out of my house in plenty of time for those looking for Halloween costumes. For reasons unknown to me this has been a near impossible feat for them to complete. So today I said get it done already so we can get this mess put away!!! So they got it done and Cody managed to snap this photo of one of Iceman's costume creations. He is apparently a cross between a mad scientist and "Bubbles". This kid is obsessed with his Bubbles face. One of our Hero's former employees, who Iceman adored, did a brilliant impersonation of Bubbles. So naturally Ice wanted to imitate Cpt. D but we never imagined that he would be so good at it. Now some of you may have no clue who Bubbles is and Isaac has only seen this character on the likes of Canadian New Satire Shows and the Juno awards. He is oblivious to what the Trailer Park boys represent and the full scope of the character that is Bubbles. He knows that he gets a giggle from everyone and that is all that really matters to him. For comparison purposes: