Wow, haven't laughed this hard in ages...

I went to get Nyla out of her crib after she napped and this is how I found her. She's been peeling off her clothes for a little while, but trying to get them on again is definitely new. When I first saw her I laughed so hard... ah, this kid cracks me up.
I have no idea how she got this shirt... she somehow got her new rubber boot in there too. She's magic baby :)
I can't believe what a ham she is.


She also loves to hoard her soothers...


And drive around in boxes...


It seems like every day her personality bursts out a little bit more. What a wonderful little girl, I loooooove being her mom.

Well, its a miracle :)

My Dad can now enjoy listening to his mp3 player. He keeps muttering over and over, " I just can't believe they can fit so many songs into a contraption so tiny". I just say "Yeah, its nuts alright..."
Now I have hundreds of OLD country songs on my computer. I'm actually surprised that listening to some of them didn't make me want to scream... some of them actually brought back some vivid childhood memories.
One song I will always love is 'The Highwayman' sung by The Highwaymen (Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson).



Now, in other news, I'm looking for snowshoes that will fit a toddler. I found a pair that are cute, but not very practical. If anyone has found some that are good, please let me know where you tracked them down (Right now she's in a size 5 boot). We'll be using them a lot so I don't want to waste money on crapola. I guess I'm just looking for reviews if you have any.
Check out these cute ones :)They're super cheap, so if you have kiddos who'd love to make dinosaur tracks in the snow I'll pass on the link.



If you're looking for really good quality gear check out http://www.msrgear.com/index.asp
Sucks that the kids snowshoes are too big for Nyla :(

MEC has a really cute set of little cross country skiis that we're going to get for Nyla for next year. Have I mentioned that I'm freaking excited to be moving far out of town??
I have a feeling she's going to be stuck in the backpack til spring. Poor little girl, she loves to explore. Unfortunately the snow out there is as deep as she is tall.
Anyway, let me know if you've found any great gear for small, but determined toddlers :)

I'm humming the time warp song...

Yes, I know the colorful nature of this picture lends itself to something much more... cheerful :)

The fact is, today is the day I leave my 20's behind. I'm sad because I had so many memorable moments with many memorable people, and wish it was possible to re-live these great years I've had. I laughed more then I cried and when I look back I get that warm fuzzy feeling.

I made some huge mistakes, but was fortunate enough to never live through the fallout alone. I know that the same things I loved about my 20's are what will make my 30's just as great... all the people I've shared these moments with.
So a huge thank-you to all of you who have touched my life, made me laugh, made me cry, and everything in between.

I'm surrounded by people that I'm proud to know. When I really start to think about the people I call friends, I'm amazed. I know this is really mushy... and I'm not that great expressing the mushy stuff... I just hope that each of you who have touched my life know exactly how much you mean to me. Whether we talk all the time, or not at all, I'm so fortunate to have shared this journey with each of you.

Now, the next part of my journey includes a beautiful little girl who gives the most amazing hugs and kisses, and makes me laugh harder than anyone I've ever known...
It also includes a man who has faced a lot of challenges this year but even though he feels like crap most of the time, and is usually in a lot of pain he still lives every day to be the best Daddy he can be... even when its really hard.

Ok, so maybe turning 30 isn't so bad. Just don't expect me to get all stuffy and boring!!!

Hugs to you all. You deserve it for putting up with me!
Mwah hahahahaaaahahaaa!

I was going to include a list of what I consider the highlights of the past decade, but I'm tired, and I'll probably forget way too many important things, so instead feel free to email me some of your favorites. We should take a tour down memory lane... probably not in the public comments though ;)

These cartoons are pretty great. There's a whole website of them www.toothpastefordinner.com

HEEEEELLLLLP!

This weekend I have to mentally and emotionally prepare for two different, but equally traumatic experiences... the first being........ teaching my Dad, who is 75, mostly deaf, has issues with concentration and has an intense dislike for new technology, how to use an mp3 player (don't ask me why he wants one... I don't know).
I'll pay someone to do this for me... really. Contact me, I pay well!

Yeah, that's right, we're moving again... wooo hoooo!

One great thing about living in a small town is the "its not what you know, its who you know" clause. Thanks to this, we have found an amazing place to live.

We went to look at the house today. It's about 30 KM out of town and pretty much in the middle of nowhere, (which is perfect for us. I hate being in town).
The house is on 25 acres, but the surrounding fields also belong to the landlord (no, we aren't buying because we aren't planning on being here much longer). There's a creek on the property that winds through the woods. The former owners built a little drawbridge over the creek so they could cut across to collect their mail. It's just really cute.
When you look out any window in the house all you see is trees and fields. I LOVE it. Even just being there today to look around did great things for my peace of mind.
The former owners were also part of the community garden tour, so the flower garden is INSANE! Its huge and elaborate with fish ponds and gazebos etc. I think Nyla and I will have a lot of fun playing around back there. It has been neglected since this new guy bought it a couple of years ago, so if anyone wants to come lend a hand feel free. There's lots of room for guests :)
The house itself is older, but really funky. There are lots of little hidey holes and interesting add ons. I think I would have found kindred spirits in the old owners. AND there's already a little workshop set up in the basement where I can do stained glass. It's just perfect.

I have never been so excited about moving somewhere. I didn't realize how much I missed living in the country.
Nyla and I will be there alone a lot, so I'm trying to convince Darryl we need a dog. It doesn't even have to be a big dog, just something to warn us if bears are going to come and bite us on the bum. So everyone should start mentioning to Darryl how wonderful dogs are!

( OH JOOOOONI!!!! I'm getting chickens :) Just a couple... and NOOOO roosters. You'll have to share all of your chicken wisdom with me ;)

This is a picture of one of the canola fields next door. I think its really pretty so I thought I'd share.



Darryl's mom sent an email with pictures of ice waves from antarctica. I guess its so cold that the water freezes the minute it comes in contact with the air. I thought the pictures were amazing, so I'll add a couple of them here too.






That's all the news for now. I'll update on Darryl next week because we'll have a bit more info.
I hope you're all enjoying this winter. If you don't live in the sub-arctic you should be very pleased with yourselves right now!

Nyla is a cool cat!

I know her hairdo is goofy, i do that to keep it out of her eyes while its growing.

One thing I really love about Nyla is her amazing coolness :) She has invented her own dance moves... hard to explain them, so I've been trying to catch her on video. No luck yet...
Her new favorite song is 'Immigrant Song' by Led Zeppelin.



I have the beginning of this song as the ringtone on my cell, so she gets pretty excited every time my phone rings. No matter where we go if she hears this song she'll completely throw herself into dance. This is no little rock back and forth dance... this is a full body dance :) it's almost like she does a bit of headbanging, and then scrunches up really small on the floor so she can jump up really high... then she starts stomping (I call this move 'happy feet') and stomps herself into a circle... My absolute favorite move is when she concentrates hard to keep her legs still and just dances with her top half. She waves her torso back and forth kind of like Stevie Wonder. This kid is amazingly cool:) I love that she has her own style already.
I REALLY wish I had a video of her. I'll add it when I finally get it.

I have more to update, but not the time to do it. I'll be back...

FINALLY PROOF!

I've been asking people for YEARS if they remember the craziest Muppet Show sketch in history...
Usually when I ask people look at me like I'm a crazy person... well NO MORE! I mentioned it to my brother a few days ago and JUST LIKE ME he was not only able to recall the sketch, but could still sing the song all these years later. This sketch was just that bizarre. So now I know I'm not crazy and actually found it on youtube.
So, now I'm going to share it with all of you who thought I was crazy. HA! Suckers!
Its not the best quality, but it will do.
And no, this is not my special one for Christy...

Now, tell me this isn't just a bit disturbing!!! No wonder it stayed with me all these years! Now, does anyone recall the tattoo lady song???

Quick update

I have to make this a quick one, so I'll leave out all the goofy details and just fill up the post with my wit and humor... OR, I'll add lots of pics of Nyla so people will stop sending me angry emails.

Christmas with Nyla was so fun. We put up the tree on christmas eve when she went to bed, so you can imagine how shocked she was in the morning. She had a lot of fun opening gifts and trying everything out.
I spent a good part of the day in the ER with my dad, but still managed to pull things off relatively smoothly (dinner was amazing... I AM a master chef!). Darryl's sister Laurie was here... I think she's the reason things went so smoothly so THANK YOU Laurie. You're a rock star! My bro Kevin and his girlfriend were here too, so we had a nice group for dinner.
We didn't get a family picture like I had planned because the day flew by so fast and before I realized it Nyla was in bed. I have some pics of Nyla in her Christmas dresses too. I'll add them later.





Nyla loves her Aunty Laurie. She calls her Gogaaaa (very cute). when she sees a picture of her and Laurie together she does her excited dance and screams 'GOGAAAAAAAAAAAAA' at the top of her lungs.
I played Nyla a video of her and Laurie together... I felt so bad, she was trying to get to the computer to give her Aunty Laurie a hug and broke down into tears when she realized she wasn't actually here. It broke my heart! It won't be tooooo long till we're back in the same area, so hopefully they can hang out lots.



H'mmm, what else.... My bro Kevin and his girlfriend are waiting not so patiently for their son to be born... we're all excited to meet this little dude.

Now, Darryls update. How blooody annoying can this get??? REALLY bloody annoying.
We're still no further ahead then we were a month ago. His tests show a really high level of tissue death, but they're not sure where its coming from. He does more tests toward the end of this month to check the levels again, and after that who the hell knows.
We've heard that its possibly cancer, but we just don't know where. So until I hear otherwise I'm choosing not to believe that. I have another appointment set up on Friday (i think), so I'm going to bust some heads until I get some answers... or I guess I can ask nicely...
I can't remember if I posted about his tard of a 'specialist', but that guy is an ass. We're still waiting to see where he'll have to go to see the next specialist (cross your fingers for Edmonton).
He's really tired and in constant pain, so I hope we can get some answers soon.

So, that's life in a nutshell. Nyla is growing like crazy. She learned how to take off all of her clothes, and is pretty darn proud of herself for it :) All of her teeth are in now so she's chomping away at anything she can.
I'm sure there's more, but I have a zillion things to do before I go to sleep so I better get shaking.

Why I love the muppet show

I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Years!

I don't have time to do a catch up post now. I'll do one soon I promise.
I wanted to do a quick one to let you all know that we're still alive and kicking.

Here's a quick video from the Muppet Show. This one is full of the weirdness that made the muppet show so great. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.