june eighteen

I didn't have my cleaning lady today. She had come on Monday morning because I was supposed to have people over Monday afternoon (but that didn't work out and I ended up doing my own thing Monday afternoon), so I didn't need her twice this week. It's perfect that she comes once a week. I'm super happy that both holidays in the next two weeks don't fall on my Thursdays that she comes. (Next Wednesday and then following Wednesday are St. Jean Baptiste (Quebec Holiday) and then Canada Day (Canada's Birthday - like July the 4th for you Americans)). Next year, I'll have this issue, since both will be on a Thursday, but I will worry about that next year.

Mack took a nice nap today. He naps well when we're home. If we're out and about - he'll take a 20 minute nap in the car from going from one place to another, and then that's it... nap's over, he's gotten a 2nd wind, and no more nap time, and then I have to deal with a cranky baby around dinner time. But on days where he naps very well he is a pleasure to be around until bedtime because he's gotten enough sleep during the day. I don't even know when he transitioned from the 2 naps a day to one, but it kind of just happened recently. Within the last month I'd say?? All of a sudden I realized.. woah - he's on the toddler nap schedule now. Made me a tad sad that my baby is growing up... but nothing I can do to change that! I do miss those 2 naps a day for him though. I now have less time to get stuff done around the house, but I'm managing.

This afternoon I checked out a store near my nutritionist's office that is going out of business. I usually get stuff from there - it's a general store. I buy envelopes to ship stuff, I buy birthday cards, I buy crafts supplies, ziplocs, cute picture frames, you name it... On Monday I picked up some stuff, business as usual. When I went to the nutritionist's office on Wednesday, there was a huge sign, 50% off Everything, Closing Sale, Cash only. Wow... I guess it's just one of those stores that just won't make it. I know that we're in a time of recession right now, though, I didn't think that Canada was affected as badly as the USA was. There was a store almost just like it that opened up next door to it just a few months ago - maybe it drove it out of business. That's possible. Though, the store that is closing was always busy - I never thought it would close. So I went to check out what they had left, and had to wait in line to even get in! Can you imagine the chaos? It was insane. I ended up picking up a few things, random stuff really. I picked up number candles for the kids birthdays, I have all the numbers now until 9... (and can use them for double digits afterwards), I put them away in our candle bag in the kitchen drawer, but for the price they were, it was worth picking them up. I got some tissue paper for wrapping gifts, and some other random things. Some crayola crayon boxes, some beads even. I was going to stock up on the envelopes that both Jamie & I use, but they had none left in stock. I guess they never replenished them from the last time I cleared them out - which actually wasn't that long ago. It's really too bad that the store is closing. I'm going to have to find another location to pick up stuff that I usually went there for. The staff there knew my kids, so it was nice and friendly. (Anywhere that I go - post office for example, etc, I go back to the same place, as I get good service, and they all know my kids by name!)

At 4pm we had Sean's concert. What a disaster that was. First off, none of the kids sang any of the songs. It was mainly the teachers, and parents when they knew the song. I don't even know why they bothered to do this? It was cute and all seeing our kids dressed up like ladybugs, but what a waste. Some of the kids cried (like mine) and threw a tantrum (okay, only my son threw a tantrum). They asked 1 parent to sit in the circle with their child, as last year the kids sat on the chairs themselves and the kids were crying for their parents, or kept running to their parents in the audience, so they had 1 parent sit with their child this year.

Sean kept running over to my mother, who was sitting with Mackenzie. Jamie was videoing the disaster, so we have it on video. This is supposed to be their little "class graduation party" as some of the kids are moving up to the next class this summer (like Sean in 2 weeks). Sean is moving up with 2 other boys, and then 3 others will follow at the end of the summer.

We tried to get a family picture, however as you know, Sean does not like to look at the camera anymore. So this is as close as a family portrait we'll get. For now.

Tonight I got to get away from the chaos and went to knit night.

I like taking self-portraits, they're fun!

It was really icky outside tonight. Pouring rain. I like the sound of the rain, so I don't mind the rain at all. I'm glad I had a bag to put my knitting in to get inside the restaurant as I was soaked by the time I got in.

Tonight I worked on my clapotis, and a bit on my test knit.

Tonight we were a small group. It was a nice small group, and good conversation as usual.

While I was at the shop that is closing earlier today, I went into my nutritionist's office to see if I could borrow the pages of the before and after of my weight loss. I wanted to show them to Jamie. Since he lives with me, and sees me on a daily basis, the weight loss, while significant, is not "that" noticeable to him I guess. By showing him this above, he was like "WOAH!"....! He couldn't believe it either. And to be honest, I'm still in complete denial that I used to look like the before picture. I cannot believe I was really "that" big. I know I have two back to back pregnancies as bagguage - but still.. I was really that big?? I don't recognize myself in the before picture. It's just not me, and I don't ever want to go back to that size ever again.