I’m not sure if I’ve made this clear through my blog, but I am fairly easily irritated.  I really don’t like to be inconvenienced and I don’t like to pay for things I think shouldn’t cost money.

For EXAMPLE cell phone costs.  What drives me crazy? Having to pay an activation fee when I just agreed to continue paying the company an enormous amount of money for 3 years PLUS paid for a phone.  That activation fee…. totally not a lot of money in the grand scheme of how much I’m paying for my phone and if you put the total amount for those 3 years together and took the activation fee off of that number I’d think it inconsequential.  But the principle of paying it has always made me CRAZY grouchy. (Poor guys who work in the cell phone stores who feel my very great irritation. )

Know what else I hate? Paying scads of money for voicemail and call display.  Someone had to flip a switch once, just make me happy and don’t charge me for it.  Or make it like, $2. I’d be ok with $2.  Even $2 for each service.  What it actually costs?  Makes me grouchy.

When I got asked if I wanted to write about some of the recent changes Telus has made to their cell phone plans and I saw they’ve eliminated activation fees and are including voicemail and call display I decided that was information worth sharing.  Maybe there will be a few less grouchy customers complaining to Telus employees now

Anytime upgrades sound good too because with the cost of smartphones, I just can’t afford to upgrade without it being when I sign a new contract.

Cell phones are expensive but (for me at least) a non-negotiable part of life now. Making the process of having them more pleasant is something I’m definitely all for.

Here are all the changes they made (straight from their mouths):

• Customers spoke, saying they wanted more freedom and flexibility and TELUS listened and eliminated activation fees. They’re the first premium Canadian carrier to get rid of them
• TELUS will no longer charge a $35 activation fee for new customers, nor will they charge a $25 equipment exchange for renewing customers
• TELUS customers said that if they’re to be charged for something, they would rather it be for a tangible “thing” rather than something intangible like an activation
• TELUS listened and now charges $10 for SIM cards to cover the product cost that was previously included in their renewal and activation fees; A new SIM card is only required when customers don’t already have a compatible TELUS SIM card for their device

By listening to customers, TELUS has not only eliminated activation fees, it has dramatically simplified its entire fee schedule. This builds on a series of improvements made over the past several years where TELUS has also:

• Eliminated carrier 911 and system access fees on all its Clear and Simple rate plans
• Reduced bill shock with Flex Data Plans, Data Notifications and Worry-free Travel by reducing international roaming rates by up to 60%
• Added Caller ID and Voicemail as standard on all TELUS rate plans
• Simplified device pricing with Anytime Upgrades
• Revolutionized mobility contracts by introducing a Device Balance instead of a contract termination fee

*Disclaimer: Telus gave me a lovely phone but my opinions about activation fees are all my own

Elf on the Shelf.

I heard about it and I loved the concept.  ”WHAT FUN!” I exclaimed. (disclaimer, I don’t remember what I said, but I liked the idea)

We’ll get an elf, he’ll do all kinds of funny things every day and the kids will have to find him and be amused. Super fun and amazing Christmas tradition.

The kids love it.  We’re only on day two but they run around the house in the morning searching for him and giggling at where they find him.  I got woken up this morning to “MOMMY!  The elf is listening to MUSIC!  HA HA HA HA HA HA!”  My usual morning self replied with “hilarious. go away. I’m sleeping.”

The elf is a hit.  Except I’m feeling a bit guilty about it all.  Why?

1) The kids knew about Santa, the Easter bunny, etc from before they can remember being told about them.  They take it for granted.  New fictional person to believe in?  Requires a lot of blatant lying! Especially because they can plainly see HE’S A TOY!!

“Why can’t he move?”

“Um, Santa says so”

“Why can’t he talk”

“Santa told him not to”

“Why does he look like a toy?”

“I don’t know, ASK SANTA!”

“Oh! I know, Santa probably gave him magical powers to turn into a toy during the day”

“Yes! That sounds right.  You’re so smart!”

“How can he see and hear what we’re doing if he’s a toy?”

“We’re going with magic again on that one, ok?”

All this lying is making me slightly uncomfortable, even though it’s all in fun.  Especially since “don’t tell lies” has been a common theme in our house with the three year olds lately.

Cue a little MOM GUILT!

2) I use Snowflake as a huge threat.

Ok, so this isn’t new.  Every year we all do it with the magical power of ‘Santa knows all’.  But doesn’t it make you all feel a bit guilty too?  And also angry when it doesn’t work?

Don’t these kids know Santa might not bring them presents if they keep acting bad?  No, they probably know “Santa” will gives them presents anyways because “Santa” would have been heartbroken if “he” hadn’t gotten presents as a kid, and plus, can you imagine the tantrum “Santa” would have to put up with on Christmas morning??

But I digress.  This is me 50 times a day now.

“Ohhh snowflake! (Really, who lets small children name ANYTHING. Other name choices included “ceiling” “lamp” and “ironman”) Look who isn’t listening!”

“Snowflake.  You getting this?  Child not getting dressed.  Child making mommy frustrated. Child goes on list. Report to Santa!”

“You want Snowflake to tell Santa about this? Do you? Are you sure?”

So you’re lying, you’re threatening, and you’re right pissed when one of your kids doesn’t take it seriously. Christmas spirit at its best.

Happy Holidays everyone.  And go get an elf, the kids totally love it!

Amanda Todd’s death hit many of us really hard, for so many reasons.  She was unhappy for such a long time. Despite the sadness of what she went through, I think the video she made of her struggles has helped make us all think a bit more about what’s going on with kids today.

What saddens me the most isn’t the horrific way someone decided to try to ruin her life. Don’t get me wrong. It saddens me immensely but somehow, we know there are bad people out there. What really hit me the hardest was that having made a mistake was enough for friends to cast her aside. New friends, years after a photo that she shouldn’t have been put in a position to have recorded for posterity was taken, stopped being friends with her.

I know I don’t know the whole story, and I know I’m not a teenager, but here are a few things I’d like to say… to my kids when they’re ready, to teenagers out there now, and to the me who could have been a teenager in these days if born 20 years later.

- We all make mistakes. I guarantee everyone does things they regret. An error in judgement does not make for a bad person, even if that error in judgement becomes something  tangible that can’t be deleted.

- Being there for people who have made mistakes makes you a better person. Forgiving people and helping people is a far kinder  and better thing to do as a human being than to judge someone.

- When you make a mistake, you don’t deserve to be punished.  You too deserve forgiveness and support.

- The internet and hateful words have more power than you can imagine. The mob of kids you can get going in the school yard is nothing compared to the angry mobs ready and waiting on the internet. Though I don’t believe you should ever say hateful things to people, certainly don’t say them online.

- Don’t say anything online to anyone, or post photos online anywhere, that you wouldn’t want your mother, your grandmother or your school principle seeing. There is no guarantee they won’t be the ones seeing it, so think ahead. I know it’s hard. Try.

- There is nothing weak about being overwhelmed, scared and depressed.  Let people help you and don’t make people feel bad for needing help.

- Be careful. Though kids may not be crueler now than they were when I was a kid (they were plenty unkind back then too) there is this new arsenal of tools that can make moments you regret impossible to forget.

I feel for kids who are bullied and who make some bad choices in life.  Being a kid is hard.  Being a kid who is bullied is harder.  Being a kid who can’t figure out how to get away from it must be unbearable.  I want to help. I wish I knew where to start.

So, apparently drinking almost a pot of coffee a day…. not ideal.  APPARENTLY.

But let me tell you this. 6 years of a combination of sleepless nights, tiring days running after kids and my distinct inability to give up being a night person has me struggling with mornings in a major way and REALLY wanting a nap every afternoon.

I’m not suggesting I’m going to give up my coffee here by the way, though quite a few people have “suggested” I should.  For now, I try to manage my fatigue by happily going to bed at least 2-3 times a month at the same time as my kids to get a little catchup, and trying to up my vitamins to try and keep me healthy.

This last year I’ve gotten to work with Swiss Naturals on this blog and try out a number of different products.  The most recent, Solutions® Energy.  Getting multi-vitamins, probiotics, calcium and now solutions energy into my body on a regular basis may not necessarily be why I stayed so much healthier this year than last, but it certainly can’t have hurt and I’m willing to bank on “help” and keep taking them.

I’m still going to keep asking for 5 more minutes every morning though – I think that might just be part of my genetic makeup.

What do you do to try to avoid getting worn down? 

Check out Swiss Natural’s Facebook and Twitter pages. It’s been fun getting to try out their products this year!

We’re well into week 3 of back to school in our house and the twins start back at preschool on Friday.  That Staples ad about this being the most wonderful time of the year?  It’s been running through my head since about the second week of July.

As I watch some of my friends struggle with back to school and missing their kids all I can do is look at them in wonder… Do their kids not fight and scream and cause so much chaos you just want to lie on the floor waving a white flag daily? Do their kids listen to them? Because mine listen to almost anyone BUT me. Do they not crave silence and calm and the time to get some work done without feeling like they’re trying to work in the middle of a Justin Bieber concert?

I love my kids (I feel like I have to say that a lot as I then continue to tell people why I’d rather not have them around that much but we have way more fun together when they are in school and the weekends and the occasional days off are special and unusual.  They thrive at school, I thrive when I’m working. I also thrive with the flexibility of a job that lets me shuttle them around, get them on and off the bus, and stay home with them when they’re sick.

So while I empathize with my friends who are missing their kids, you’ll find me at home basking in the silence, and only feeling moderately guilty about it.

PS I totally would vote for full year learning with 2 week breaks on a regular basis.  Can we do that?

Juliette loves you. She loves everyone. Except if she’s mad at you!! Then you aren’t her best friend and she DOES NOT LOVE YOU!

Truly? I didn’t expect this at 3. That being said, it is very interesting to see her exploring relationships and her trying to manipulate people.

J: “Quinn…. I love you”

J: “Quinn…. do you love me too?”

Q: “Yes, I love you too”

J: “Can I have that toy you’re playing with?”

—-

J ” Daddy can I have more juice?”

E “No, you’ve had enough juice, you can have water or milk”

J “NO! I. WANT. JUICE!”

E “No, you’ve had enough juice, you can have water or milk”

J “I DON’T LOVE YOU!!”

—-

She’s doesn’t love the bad guy on tv because he makes her nervous, she lovingly cuddles up to people she likes and gazes up to them and says softly (and with so much feeling)  ”I love you.  I love you SO much”. She screams “You’re not my brother!” or “I don’t love Quinn!” when she’s mad at her brothers.

It’s fascinating. It’s often hilarious.  And it’s an opportunity to talk about being nice to the people we love.

Is this a girl thing?

Part 1

There were many delays in our backyard work as copious amounts of rain decided to fall in early may, but finally on a lovely monday the weather was fabulous and the landscapers (I plan to write a whole post on how fabulous these guys were) were really kicking it with the new stone patio. I was thrilled.  I could hear the buzz of saws, the sprays of hoses, the thumping of their music.

Around 5 I had picked up all the kids and was sitting in our living room for the first time that day and I could hear this bizarre noise coming from the vent. Perplexed, I tried checking to see if the heat or a/c was running – it wasn’t.  So I ventured to the basement to see if anything was going on in the furnace room.

What I found was our newly installed indoor swimming pool!

Context: Carpet looks dry because water was underneath - you can see footprints wherever we stepped down

There was so much water in the basement that the carpet was floating. There was so much water on the floor that when I took a photo the lights are reflecting in the water.

The pipe to the hose had burst.  The guys outside (and this was zero % their fault) had the water on with the hose nozzle off.  What that meant was that the water was running into our walls and basement for I believe HOURS before I found it.

They felt awful and bailed the basement for an hour and a half! The reason the water had risen so high was discovered by the company insurance sent a few hours later – the guy who lived in our house before duct taped the drain shut before laying the carpet.  NOTE: DO NOT DO THAT! If you think it will stop a sewage back up you are wrong. If you think it will make a basement flood a hell of a lot worse and that’s what you’re going for then you may as well go for it.

Insurance and the company they sent were amazing, my landscaping guys were amazing. If nothing else this experience was nice in that getting to see how helpful and warm and genuine people can be when things go wrong is really really nice.

I am weeks behind in the telling of this story.  I will get to subsequent parts of this story sooner than this second part got up I hope.  If you take anything away from this it should be :

a) make sure you have good insurance

b) never be surprised by the dumbass things people will do

c) there’s always a bright side.  Maybe this was the one part of the house I had no desire to redo, but we will be getting nicer paint colours, more carpeting and a chance at a do-over on the messiness and organization of the basement. Worse things can happen.

Our backyard was a pit of death. Seriously.

1) Falling down fence – like 45 degrees falling down just being held up by random posts in the ground.  The fence will get it’s whole post its such a story.

2) When we moved in there was a wooden deck. It was covered in carpeting. It had many soft spots.  Eric took up the carpet and was going to replace soft boards when instead he found zillions of carpenter ants.  The deck went away and fast!

Then there was a year of a backyard with no deck, hazardous cement posts still in the ground, steel rods sticking out of the house and a wooden IKEA step stool as steps into the backyard.

3) There was a 30 foot pine tree in our yard.  We had it cut down last year but the pine needles from that tree KILLED our lawn.

Overall – our backyard was a mess.  And it needed to not be a mess so I could shoot the kids into the yard to entertain themselves and leave me in peace – you know what I mean?  So much work has been happening but I’m going to start with the before pictures to give you a sense on where we started.  Le sigh.

Note the angle of that fence

Poor poor sad backyard. If only they were cheaper to turn into a backyard haven The good news? It doesn’t look like this any more

It’s a good thing I really liked milk as a kid so theoretically had a good store of calcium because MAN, the last few years have NOT been good for my calcium intake.

I finally plucked up the courage to go to the dentist a few months ago after over three years away. Turns out, growing twins in my body and then nursing them for two years afterwards, especially in combination with my year off dairy for their intolerances… not so good for my teeth. She found six cavities.  Admittedly some were old fillings that were failing, and some were between teeth so more like one cavity in a bad spot, but still. That’s a lot of cavities… my teeth are not strong enough, those twins literally sucked the calcium right out of me!

FACT: Pregnant and lactating women need 1000 mg calcium/day. (the kicker? I knew this because my mom told me, I just never got around to taking the horse pills she kept bringing me)

They look cute - but they are CALCIUM VAMPIRES

As usual, my Swiss Naturals partnership has been timely so as I get the news about all these cavities a package arrives in the mail with fudgey calcium chews. Genius! I can leave them at my desk and eat them, they’re yummy, and I don’t even have to get up to get a glass of water or swallow some ginormous ucky pill. (fact: I just ate one of the fudge calcium chews now. Candy in the morning people, candy in the morning)

The good news – one root canal and about 6 dentist appointments down, only 2 to go.  I think I’m going to get another fudge, I clearly can use two a day, right?

What do you do to ensure you get enough calcium?

This post is sponsored by Swiss Naturals and they provided the product. The opinions are (clearly) my own. Gnom gnom gnom.

Pam challenged me to take part in this meme by Hostel Bookers (and btw – the social media consultant in me says “way to go Hostel Bookers for getting people to your site and linking to you with this pull at your heart strings meme  - clever!  I’m so glad I started to do it because it had me looking at photos I haven’t looked at in a really long time, and it was a pleasure walking down memory lane.

Takes my breath away

My husband and the love he has for our children. I captured one of many of these moments and every time I see it makes me smile. I had it blown up and turned into a canvas print for our living room even!

Makes me laugh/smile

This girl makes me laugh and smile every day – how could she not with so much personality?

Makes me dream

Sitting in a field of grass at the family farm… brings to mind hope and dreams of the carefree days of childhood.

Makes me think

I am not religious but this church near Almonte spoke to me. For its beauty, its serenity and its history.

Makes my mouth water 

Eric and I spent our 5th wedding anniversary at Atelier Restaurant.  Best meal I ever ate. drool.

Tells a story 

I was once a history major – did you know that? I love all stories, your stories, my friends’ stories, and stories of the past. There is lots of history and stories in our city – the ByWard Market has little gems to discover as you wander through it.

My National Geographics shot

This photo is what inspired me to take on my first 365. I didn’t complete it, but I got to almost 200 which was pretty impressive.  Looking at it almost makes me want to try again

So now I challenge my 5 to dig through old photos and to share some snippets of who you are through photos!  If I didn’t tag you – do it anyways and leave a comment – ok?

Amy 

Vicky

Karen

Ali

Jordan