Dose of Delilah!

I haven't done this in a couple weeks (well, you've seen pictures of her because of the kids' pics from a couple posts ago, but I haven't dedicated a post to our little monkey in a while. She's growing up so fast! She'll be six months old next Saturday! My, how time flies! Enjoy her cuteness--she was drying off by the fire with her toys after a bath tonight for the first two, and the last one is from last weekend. Happy Friday, everyone!

Plink of the Week

So, the Plink of the Week this week is:



What are 5 things on your bucket list?


1) Go to Egypt. I've always been fascinated by pyramids and mummies!


2) See a Broadway musical ON BROADWAY! I would love to visit NYC, and I hear there's nothing better than a good musical on Broadway!



3) Swim with dolphins. Dolphins are so intelligent and unique. I wanted to be a marine biologist for the longest time because they are one of my favorite animals!


4) Have one of my photographs published in a major publication. National Geographic would be ideal, but I'd take any magazine or website that would have me....photography is a major passion of mine, and being published would be a very proud moment.



5) Go to a Men's College Basketball Final Four game. The NCAA tourney is so unpredictable and I love basketball so much...it would definitely be a great memory to make--the atmosphere in the gym must be amazing during those games--you can't get that through a television broadcast!



Of course, there are many more things on my bucket list, but those were the first five that came to mind. What's on YOUR bucket list?

I love the CN Tower....

I've lived in the Toronto area for a year and a half now, and I still can't help but be totally intrigued by the CN Tower. It stands near the shoreline of Lake Ontario and reaches 1,815 ft into the sky. It opened to the public 1976, and the big antenna on the top broadcasts TV and radio signals to the Toronto area. It is made of about 500 tons of concrete, and the concrete is 22 feet thick in some places! It has a restaurant called the 360 (it has fabulous food!), which is about 1,150 feet in the air and does a 360 degree revolution every 72 minutes. It is possible to see the mist from Niagara Falls on a sunny day. It is the tallest freestanding structure in North America and more than 2 million people go to the top each year. One of my favorite parts is the glass floor, which totally freaks out some people, but it is cool! Each time I go downtown, I take way too many pictures of it, but for me, it never gets old. It is unique, it is beautiful, and it is one of Toronto's many defining places. Here are a few of my pictures to help you get a better idea of how awesome it really is! I am so lucky to have something like this be basically in my backyard!

Not the most flattering picture of me, but I'm on the glass floor...you get the idea.

Hoosiers in the City!

My sister and her fiance Cole were up last week for their first visit to our house since we moved to Canada! I was so excited to have them visit, because life here is so completely different than life where we grew up. They came into town on Saturday early evening, and we took them out to a very "exclusive" bar....ha. That was an experience, but I won't elaborate. On Sunday, we treated them to a Raptors/Pacers game at the ACC with our friends Mat and Emma. We rode the subway downtown, which was a new experience for them as well. The Raptors wore their green jerseys in honor of St. Patrick's Day and they blew the Pacers out of the water! I've found a new favorite Raptor since Jermaine O'Neal was traded---his name is Pops Mensah-Bonsu. He is AWESOME! A great rebounder, good at the free throw line, and he can throw down a monster dunk! He had a career high 22 points the day we went, it was awesome!

After the game, we had a meal at Jack Astor's downtown, then we walked past the CN Tower and down to Harbourfront. We got some great pictures because it was a sunny and beautiful weekend! They had great weather for their whole trip, actually. On Monday, I took them for lunch at Wegz and to the mall shopping, and we made a nice dinner on the grill--first BBQ'ed meal of 2009! YAHOO! Tuesday was their last full day in town, so we brought them to work and Gary gave them a quick tour (they were very impressed with how big and professional he is at work....ha ha) and then I took them to Niagara Falls. I had never seen it by day and my sister and Cole had never seen it, so it was a great trip for us since the temperature was in the 50's and the sun was shining brightly! Enjoy the pictures! We had a wonderful time...it was really the first time that Gary and I have had to spend more than a day with just Laura and Cole by ourselves since they've been together. I really enjoyed it, and I am pretty sure that they did, too!




We went back to Ohio this past weekend to visit Gary's aunt, who was in town from South Carolina. It was the first time we had seen her in a couple years, so that was really fun to catch up with her and show her pictures from our wedding and what's been going on with us lately. She brought her daughter-in-law and her new grandson with her....he is just two months old and has already made his first plane trip! He was such a good baby, too! 5 of my 7 nieces and nephews came to visit as well, and they had a great time playing outside with Delilah on Sunday!




Spring is finally here, and I am so happy about that! Well, at least the grass is getting green and flowers are starting to bloom in Ohio.....it will still be a few weeks for us up here in "igloo country," as it's known by many of my fellow "Amurricans." :)

I believe in fate...

I've recently been pondering the idea of a post regarding change and fate and all of that gobbledy gook, and today I randomly stumbled across this quote on a new blog I discovered, which you can link to here.

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. - Nelson Mandela

I could not agree more--I was just discussing this very concept with my boss today, surprisingly. In the short time I've lived in Canada, I really feel as though my eyes have opened up so much wider to see the world. I've met people from so many different countries and circumstances, and I learn something new from someone each and every day. When I go back to my hometown (which is my ultimate comfort zone), I really notice the changes in myself, and so far, I feel as though all of the changes have been good. It's amazing to me, really, that so many of my views have changed, and I like it!

So it was no concidence that I had that conversation today, and then later came across the italicized quote above. Everything happens for a reason. I firmly believe that. I've been through some stuff in my life that hasn't been so pleasant, but I have no regrets about any of it and wouldn't change a thing so far. I had to go through the tough stuff to get to the good stuff. I've been at "the crossroads" many times before and have had to make a decision.....the decision may have been a difficult one--but it has gotten me to where I am today, and I've learned and grown from it. I think about the different people who have come and gone in my life. I may not be in communication with some of them anymore, but each and every person has had some effect on me and I have learned a lesson from each of them, some more difficult than others. They were brought into my life for a reason, and for that, I am forever grateful and thankful. The path that I am on right now is the path that I am meant to be on, and the thing I try to remember when I'm frustrated or unhappy with something I'm dealing with is that "He wouldn't bring you to it if He couldn't get you through it." I try to have faith and trust that every choice I make will lead to something bigger and better in the long run, and I am a much happier person for it. So that's my sappy, insightful thought of the day. Ponder it.

Wow, that's mighty gutsy of you, Octomom.

Headline on Yahoo! News today:
Octuplets mom fires free nannies for allegedly "spying" on her

Are you kidding me? This woman has a lot of gall. I mean, obviously she is lacking common sense if she wanted 14 kids in the first place when she is unemployed, single, and had no house of her own at the time. Now, miraculously, she has a house of her own, and was supplied by what I am assuming was the California government free nanny care around the clock. And she is FIRING them? WHAT?!?! She doesn't even have all of the kids home yet.....she has no idea what it's going to be like to raise 14 children alone--and a few of them have special needs. I was thinking about it, and if she tries to spend 20 minutes with each child every day, that takes up 4 hours and 40 minutes of her time every day. That doesn't count the time it will take to feed them, bathe them, get them dressed and undressed, go shopping, go to work, and do other normal, everyday things. When is the state going to get involved and say enough is enough?

I am actually angry at myself for even giving this woman any attention in my blog, because that's all this whole fiasco is about for her--attention....but it's kinda like a bad car accident. As much as I want to, I can't look away. The thing that breaks my heart is that she is not going to ultimately be the one who suffers, instead, it will be her 14 innocent children. Sad.

The Plink of the Week

Since blogging is addictive and I tend to have a bit of an addictive personality, sometimes I want to blog, but I have no idea what to blog about. I found a website through the Blogger Buzz called Plinky. It is a bit Twitter-like (from what I understand about Twitter--I still refuse to start doing that, it's just too much), but there are prompts there on a daily basis that give bloggers with writer's block something to blog about. When you log in, a prompt automatically pops up, and you can choose to answer or not, and then you can post on the Plinky website or directly to your blog or whatever...I'm not going to link posts right away, but I may eventually do it. I'm going to try to start doing one once a week and call it the Plink of the Week (and I may come up with variations of this title!) I want something to do on here weekly, since I've seen it on many of the blogs I follow, and I like the idea, but I don't want to be a complete copycat. So, The Plink of the Week this week is:

If you were a superhero, what would your superpowers be, and what would you call yourself?

Oooh, a tough one. I think that the most important superpower I would have would most definitely be flying at supersonic speed, that way I wouldn't have to spend so many hours in the car traveling back and forth between Canada and the U.S. I'd like to be semi-psychic....not necessarily know exactly what's going to happen or be able to totally read people's minds, but I'd like to at least get a little inkling of what was going to happen....I'm big on planning stuff in advance. I think I'd also want the power of not requiring so much sleep....maybe I could just live on power naps...I'm always complaining that there aren't enough hours in the day. Or maybe I could have the power to replicate myself so I could be in multiple places at once. Yeah. That's a good one. And my name would be.........hmmm........Boilerqueen. Just for old times' sake.

So....what would YOUR superpowers be? Feel free to comment in my comments section! I think it's an interesting and very random question. :)

Have a nice weekend, I still have a bunch of fabulous pictures from our trips downtown and to Niagara Falls to post, I just haven't had time! Soon, I promise!

BOILER UP!

March Madness starts TODAY! Do you have your brackets ready to go? I have done about 7 online, and on the majority of those brackets, I've picked Oklahoma to win it all. We shall see what really happens, I think it's basically impossible to predict the true outcome of the tournament without missing any games. That's why college basketball is the best, it's unpredictable!! I'm rooting for the Big Ten, of course, but I'm rooting most for the Purdue Boilermakers, who play their first game at 2:30pm today...I'm hoping to get off work in time to see some of it since I had an early start at work today, but that poses two problems: 1) I don't think Rogers Cable is covering the Portland games, and 2) I don't know that Canada will get access to the games being streamed online by NCAA.com. Wish me luck, and GO BOILERS!

BIG TEN TOURNEY CHAMPS 2009!!!!

How sad...

Natasha Richardson passed away today after hitting her head while skiing--on a beginner's hill. She seemed like such a beautiful, vivacious, and loving person. I loved her as the mom in the Parent Trap remake. It breaks my heart that such a freak accident could take someone like her away from her husband, children, family, and friends. This is just another reminder to cherish every moment, live life to the fullest, and not take anything for granted.

Rest in Peace, Natasha. The thoughts and prayers of many are with your family and friends.

TGIF!!!

Funny little story that happened today--well, maybe you had to be there, but I thought it was absolutely hysterical. We were at Starbucks, standing in line, and there was a gaggle of teenagers in there ordering a bunch of super-high-maintenance drinks that took forever to make, holding up the line. Gary and I starting talking about them and I forget exactly what he said, and I said, "You're going to go to hell for that one," and he said, (and this was the funny line that I think I'm going to start using on a regular basis)--"You don't go to hell for facts." On the drive back, we saw someone running, and he said, "That is the ugliest woman ever--and YOU DON'T GO TO HELL FOR FACTS!" :) I love him, he's witty. At least I think so!

I came across a pretty cool website recently. It's called the 50 States Project. It was actually started by someone in the UK, but he rounded up a photographer from each of the 50 states and will be giving them a series of assignments. They then take a picture that follows the assignment criteria, and post it on the website. The first assignment has been completed...it's to take a picture that represents a person/people that live in their respective state. The one from Indiana is pretty disappointing---I would have taken a picture of a basketball fan myself, but the photographer who lives in Indiana isn't even a native Hoosier, so he doesn't really get it....Anyway, check it out--it's pretty neat, and it should get better once more assignments are posted!

http://www.50statesproject.net/

Sites like these are why I love the internet---also because you can start looking for something in one place and end up finding something a million times better by accident. Technology rocks.

Happy Friday, the weather is supposed to warm up and be sunny this weekend and early next week, which will be spectacular for me since my sister and her fiance are coming! We're hoping to make it to Niagara Falls while they're here, plus we have lots of other fun things planned! Pictures to come early next week!

P90Xcruciating

The little kit shown above has inflicted mass amounts of pain on me and my husband over the course of the last three days or so. We heard about P90X through some co-workers originally, then Gary's brother Ben and his wife started doing it, and so of course, Gary wanted to try it, too. It's a three phase workout system that we can do at home without too much high-tech equipment. All we use are some resistance bands, a mat, a pull-up bar (well, I can't do any, but Gary uses that), some free weights, and a chair every now and then. We workout 6 days a week, and the workouts are different each day (that's supposed to promote muscle confusion). We have done the chest and back, plyometrics, shoulders and arms, and ab workouts so far. They are very intense, but even though the pain REALLY sucks, at least we know it's working, and most of the before and after shots I've seen of normal, everyday people have been amazing. We took before pictures on the first day, and let me tell you, mine left a lot to be desired. I want to get back into shape, as does Gary, so it's definitely going to help us. I complain A LOT while we're working out, but honestly, I always feel better after we're done and it's really nice that we can do it together. I just hope we can stick with it! It will be interesting to see how dedicated we are--we have some tests coming up, because my sister is coming for a visit, and I'm taking a 5 day trip to Denver in a few weeks, so I'll have to figure out how to improvise while I'm there.

I'll keep updating about our progress....wish us luck, we need it!

Whoa, look at the ears on that one!

A couple months ago, Delilah's ears were folded down, puppy style. She looked almost like a gremlin from that terrible movie that gave me nightmares as a child.

Then, at around the three month mark, her ears started to stand up (first the left, then the right), but the top 1/3 of them folded backward. I wrote a blog post about it--I checked it out on the internet and some Boston Terrier expert claimed that it was because she was teething and that once she was finished, her ears would stand at full attention.

Well, we must be close to the end, because we've got one ear up and one ear down. It's amazing how big her right ear is when it's standing up all the way! I can't wait for her to be symmetrical once again--so far she's been asymmetrical for about three days, so we'll see how long the other ear takes to follow suit! It's weird though, the last time, her left ear flipped first, this time it's her right ear....she's a freak of nature, but we love her very much!

In other news, Gary and I have had a fairly lazy weekend this weekend....we're resting up since my sister and Cole (her fiance) are coming up for five days starting next Friday. We're going to be taking in a Raptors/Pacers NBA game, we'll probably go to Niagara Falls, and who knows what else we'll get into. Here's what the highlights of my day have been so far:

Purdue at Michigan State and a Grande Non-fat Chai Tea Latte from Starbucks. The only thing that would make it better would be if Purdue could get their act together in the second half. 2/15 shooting so far with 7:31 to go in the game, down 10. BOILER UP.

The man, the myth, the legend

So, I don't know about you, but I have recently just discovered the genius of Mr. Clint Eastwood. Gary and I went to see Gran Torino in the theatre a month ago or so, and we absolutely loved it. It was a great performance by Clint, and the story that was portrayed by the movie is very real in the Detroit area....we know, we lived very close by. Anyway, I'd never really seen too many Clint movies beforehand (maybe Million Dollar Baby, and that was it) and after seeing his performance in Gran Torino, I was very impressed. It was then that I realized he also DIRECTED the film AND that our dear Clint is 78 years old. The man is amazing, seriously. And not only has he directed 33 films, produced 30, and starred in 66, he has also been a mayor of a city in California, composed music, and of course, is an Academy Award Winner. I have now set a goal to try to see as many Clint Eastwood films as I can--both those that he stars in and that he directs. So far, I have seen Gran Torino, Unforgiven, Dirty Harry, Absolute Power, and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and I've bought a few more and DVR'ed 5 from the AMC channel's Clint Eastwood week. IF you've never watched any of his stuff before, I'd highly recommend it. The man is a genius. Definitely the studliest almost-eighty-year-old I've ever come across. :)

It's the little things.....

I've come to the realization that in my life, it's the little things that make me the happiest. Let me give some examples: this morning, my husband ironed my shirt for me....he didn't have to, he did it to be helpful. He enjoys making me dinner. Little things. The sound of my nephews' voices last Saturday morning: "Good morning, Aunt Erin!!!" in their polite and so grown-up three year old tone.

A piping hot green chai tea in the morning from my Co-Ex-Tec mug. A genuine "thank you" coming from an employee's mouth after I have helped her with something. Being on the road and having to pull over to take pictures because the sunlight is just right.

The sound of the laughter of my friends at a get-together after not seeing each other for months. The smell of the air Up North--pure and fresh. The taste of a spicy garlic boneless chicken wing at B-Dubs. Yeah. I know that is a pretty random list, and there are tons more that I could add, but those are just a few. Things like that make me stop and realize that in the midst of all the craziness going on in the world around me, my life is pretty awesome, and I should be thankful.