I have been reading too much Margaret Atwood and watching too many heavy documentaries on CBC, both of which leave me feeling as though the world around me is going to pot and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.

Petroleum products could be the cause of the extinction of our species, and Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood both have some eerie parallels with where our world is headed today. Gah.

Anyways, let’s forget about that and focus on the good we can immerse ourselves in, shall we? Like beach days in April.

Is it just me, or can you totally see what she’s going to look like when she’s 16?

We love it when friends come over to play.

And here’s a dose of reality, just for the fun of it.

UPDATE! The winner of the $50 gift certificate is Marilyn ‘Klause’ Belsham. You can either email me at manda_paige@hotmail.com and we can arrange for you to receive your prize, or contact Tamara through the Facebook Fan Page with your information. Congratulations, and enjoy!!

My good friend Tamara has recently opened up an amazing online shop that sells delicious body products, fancy cosmetics, and everything you need to feel pretty. It’s called La Coquette Boutique and she has done such a great job of making some wonderful products available, and I’m so proud of her for pursuing her dream in this way.

She’s doing a sweet giveaway right now and if you become a fan on the La Coquette Boutique Facebook page you will be entered to win a $50 gift certificate to the shop! How’s that for a deal?! Here’s the link…click it!

I’ll keep the contest open until Sunday, March 21st at midnight, then announce the lucky winner on Monday morning.

Also, my newest post is up at urbanmoms.ca and it’s all about what I’m dreaming of: ridiculously overpriced diaper bags, plastic surgery and a maid!

In early September we began rehearsals for the upcoming Christmas musical our church was going to put on for the community. It was called “Christmas At Uncle Phil’s Diner” and was set in 1958 in, you guessed it, a diner.

I have always loved theatre but haven’t had much opportunity to do any for a while since it’s such a huge time commitment that often eats up all traces of evenings and weekends, which isn’t exactly conducive to a strong marriage and family life.

However, this opportunity arose and I (albeit a tad reluctantly) agreed to be a part of it. There were weeks when I thought there was no way we’d pull the show together, but everything came together in the end (as it always seems to) and our curtain closed for the final time last night.

I played the part of Flodene, the wise-cracking head waitress, and I loved her!

Good times all around. It was so great to be a part of something bigger than myself, my little world.

*Top two photos taken by the lovely Angella and her new, huge mother of a camera!

We walked up the steps to our friends’ Christmas party and I clutched his arm as I wobbled in my heels. He was in a tux, I was in a fancy dress and my wool coat. I stopped for a moment and pondered that somewhere along the line we had become grown-ups together. Weird. When you are married at 15* you get to grow up together, and seven years and two kids later, we have.

The Christmas party was great. The food was tasty, the friends were abundant, and the laughs were unstoppable.

*Fine, we were 19. But STILL.

Avelyn is friends with two sweet little boys named Caleb and Daniel. She has so much fun playing with them because boy-time means rough-housing, tag, exploring, and mildly aggressive wrestling. Every now and again we’ll take the kids down to the beach where they play on a huge log of driftwood, throw rocks for the dog to fetch, and eat muffins.

We haven’t seen Caleb and Daniel this week because they’ve been home with the Chicken Pox. Avelyn has missed them and she wanted to phone them to see how they were doing. Their phone conversation went like this:

Avelyn: Hi, Caleb. Do you still have spots?

Caleb: Yes. I have one on my pee-pee. Maybe I should come over and show you.

Oh dear.

And yesterday Avelyn asked about the boys again and said, “Do they still have Chicken Pot Pie?”

Friends are the best.

This weekend we celebrated as my friend, Heather, tied the knot. She was a vision in her tiered gown and I’ve never seen her happier. Some of my old cronies from Capernwray Bible School were there and I must note that the (nearly ten!) years have been kind to us. That is one HOT group of ladies up there. If I do say so myself. And I do.

This summer has been a wild ride: lots of company, lots of fun, lots of food, lots of sand. I must admit that I am craving the structure that comes with fall, however. Avelyn starts preschool two mornings a week (*weeps with joy*) and I am ready for some semblance of routine again. 

Here’s to September!

My friend Kristin (who I have known since the fourth grade when she had a brushed-out perm and I was a chubster) is here visiting this week with her husband, Martin, and the times, they have been good. We’ve been canning peaches (my first solo run and can you believe the lids all sealed? Hooray for dodging the Botulism Bullet!) and playing at the park with the kids and eating ice cream (with Peanut Butter m&ms on top) and lazing at the beach. We hadn’t seen each other in over a year so this has been her first time meeting Karenna.

They have been doing some serious bonding and are both smitten with one another.

Seeing your friends love your kids is pretty great.

Avelyn is running a fever again and woke up barfing in the night (getting sick while company is here is quickly becoming one of her favourite past times). So let’s remember her in better moments, shall we?

Nothing like an ice cream feast with Daddy.

I hope your final days of summer have been as sweet as ours.

Steve has a camera that he uses almost exclusively for his job, but every now and again it will be put to work snapping random moments in our lives. I rarely look at the images and usually forget about them, but took a couple minutes to download them this morning and here’s what I found:

A pizza party at the beach with Nana. I love how Karenna is right in there, ramming her face full of carby goodness.

Me and Avelyn. Notice her puffy, post-cry eyes. They’ve looked like this for 80% of the summer. Something tragic is always happening for her: her pajamas don’t match, someone opens the coffee shop door before she gets to it, she stubs her toe on a blade of grass. My patience level is at a negative 12.

Aw, what a cute photo of Abby and Avelyn. This was on day two of their visit, when they still liked each other.

This photo was also taken when Jen and her girls were here. I believe this was Avelyn’s morning pep talk for the kids and she was overheard saying, “Alright, ladies! Big plans today! We are going to destroy our mothers’ wills to live. Prepare your strategies accordingly. And….GO!” They were startlingly effective and neither Jen nor I have fully recovered from our “vacation”.

Oh, and thank you all for your kind comments and supportive feedback on my last post. You guys are great and even though I (honestly!) wasn’t fishing for compliments, you took my (truly imaginary, I swear!) bait and made me feel so good. Much appreciated.

Bon weekend, tout le monde!

Jen and her girls have been here all week and it’s been a whirlwind of fun. There have been ice cream cones, beach days, fun at the park, lots of treats, trampoline jumping, cherry picking, and plenty of laughs.

But, as kids are known to do, they balance out the good with the bad so we’ve also seen our share of whining, meltdowns, strep throat, barfing on carpet, refusals to share, kicks to the shins and did I mention the barf on the CARPET?!

All in all it’s been fun, but both Jen and I agree that the next time we get together it will be without the children. And preferably in Tahiti.