Ser-VICE!

The club volleyball season that will suck up the next 3 months of our lives is, once again, upon us.
And now I’m sucking everyone else in with me.

Volleyball actually carries through the entire year now with very little reprieve between the school team, the club team and the beach team, between training, games and tournaments home and away – all multiplied by 2 girls. Dang good thing it’s mostly an indoor sport – soccer seasons were mostly COLD.

While I’m completely sold on the benefits of a little bit of team (or personal) sport for kids, especially for girls (keeps them outta the malls and, so far, keeps them too busy for the boys ), just driving to/fro and sitting/yelling, although I do those quite well, isn’t quite enough for me to get out of it.

My personal quest every season, every team, is to capture THE action shot.

Unfortunately I don’t exactly have THE best indoor action shot camera, but I doubt Hubby would let me spend $3,000.00 on a camera just to get volleyball pictures for my scrapbook.

Or, there is the possibility it’s not the camera, it’s just that I don’t know how to use it. The daylight/beach shots are definately easier to achieve.

Either way, these were the best few (out of 200!) from today. (Although the one above looks kinda funny with no ball in the picture… Like she was just very awkwardly “posing”).

It’s definately a bit easier to catch shots in warm-up – their moves are more predictable.

Well, on the challenge goes – 2 tournaments down, 8 to go…

tuesdays for tea 09.02.24

I’ve decided Tuesday am’s are a good time to sit and reflect on… well, anything, over a cup of tea.
Coincidentally, it will also be a good time for the boys to sit and enjoy a morning movie of their choice.
I love win-win’s.

Ahhh, tea, a laptop and some P+Q (peace + quiet).
This morning I’m thinking over a cup of earl grey topped with 1/4c of steamed (skim) milk and 2 squirts of vanilla. MMmmmm.

And I’m thinking I’m still too friggin’ tired to have thoughts.

I’m thinking I need a “Boo’s gotta be sleeping through the night by this time” countdown. With a marvelous spa trip to celebrate sanity after 2.75 yrs (and counting) of sleepless nights and cranky days. Of course, every 3 months we think the end of waking up at 3am is almost over… We’re suckers.

I’m thinking I enjoy writing AND being creative, and can’t wait to set up my new (more design-flexible) blog on my new domain. I’d tell you all what it is, but it might take me an entire year to get it going and I’d hate to lead you on.

I’m also thinking it’s high time I committed to looking decent (regardless of dark circles and massive bags under my eyes from aformentioned sleeplessness) and started coloring/trimming my hair.

More (comprehendible) thoughts next Tuesday.
(Photo above from http://www.sxc.hu.)

Cellphone Photography

WHAT did our parents and grandparents generations do without CAMERAS IN THEIR CELLPHONES!?!
I can’t imagine.

Every one of these memories would have been missed by Hubby – and for me soon forgotten – had it not been for the ability to whip out a cell phone when there was not a camera in sight. Although I’m sure some we could all have done without…

(Boo’s first very own ice cream cone… This has been in my phone a-while!)

(The girls spontaneously gave Tt his bday present early and I had NO TIME to grab my camera! It’s fuzzy, but it’s was a “quick or it’s over” kinda moment.)

(It’s a Common Marmoset, if you must know. It was the closest I’d seen him to the glass. I amuse easily.)

(There are days when you look at your 4.8 yr old and realize his lazy-ass teen years are coming all too quickly…)

(Kid #2 having a “happy moment” with her brand new shoes… OH, I know the feeling, girl!)

(LOVE this shot! It was a quick, spontaneous moment, but these two are just each others Ying + Yang. A great weekend away memory.)

(Boo practicing his “kissing” with a hotel mirror. Don’t get me started on the germs. Or his open-mouthed approach. Watch out, girls…)

(Another precious Boo moment – he fell asleep in his food. I think I was just too lazy to grab the camera on this one… I was probably downing my mid-day latte at the time…)

(One day I’ll write an entire post on what was up with this pic. One day. Not today.) (Wow, even in the dark you can see how tired I am!)

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Ok, can we really give them such an honorable tag as “Photography” when they’re quick, fuzzy grabs at only 2 mp?
Maybe I should just call them “Memory Shots”. Or “my-cameras-too-huge-to-take-with-me-all-the-time” shots. Either way. I’m easy.

Homeschool #012 – Symphony for 5yr olds

Today Tt + I went to a concert of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra for Elementary School-aged kids.  There were quite a few homeschool groups on the list – they almost couldn’t find our particular one, and we almost turned back and just hung out at Starbucks together for an hour.

Really, I wouldn’t have minded one bit.

However, they found us and in we went.
A room full of 5-10 yr olds… at a “serious” concert.
I brought candy to bribe my kid to be QUIET. I’m a bad, bad mother.

The first two songs we sat as still as possible, no talking, no moving. He was hating it, and I could tell. By song two he was already asking if it was going to be much longer… All you could hear were angry parents spitting “SHHHHH” to various wiggly children. FUN. Not.

(photo credit here)

So, for the next song which featured cute and plucky violins, we started tapping. We danced with our fingers on each others laps. Then I started to tell a story (in whispers) – “this sounds like cute little fluffy mice playing in a field, doesn’t it?”. Tt caught on quick (in not-so-quiet whispers) “YA! and now they’re playing in the bushes, around some raspberries that have no pointy things” and on we went (much to the person in front of us’s HORROR I’m sure). Good thing it wasn’t full and there weren’t many people around us.

The next song sounded like a big parade, with Knights and Nobles and Kings and Queens “and 50 pigs and 80 horses and…” passing by.

The next one was spooky, and we were walking through dark castle hallways. We started running faster and faster towards a lit up room as the music got quicker and louder. “The light is getting bigger!!” Whew! We just made it!!

At the end I asked Tt if he enjoyed the concert. He said “It was pretty good, but the beginning was really bad”. The beginning was boring to him – no moving, no stories, no imagination.

And I’m left wondering… WHY does classical music HAVE to be enjoyed only in silence and complete stillness of bottoms? Why can’t we get up and move around to it? Why can’t we imagine stories together as it plays? Why can’t it be treated more like a rock concert? WHY can’t it be more fun?

Whispering during Symphony concerts is widely deemed as HORRID, RUDE behaviour. But, Tt almost walked away with a lifelong distaste for the wonderful instruments and tunes of Classical music. We broke the rules, whispered away, and he left thinking it was all great.

It was a nice date (ending in, what else, Starbucks), and I’m going to buy some vibrant classical CD’s for the car – or better yet DVD’s for the surround sound plasma – where we can imagine to our hearts content, as loudly and as actively as we please.

Post-Oscar + Post-NY Fashion Week

POST-OSCARS

Well, can I pick ‘em or can I pick ‘em?
Ya, I really sucked at picking them. Out of the 24 awards on my sheet, I had only 8 right…
In other words, don’t take me with you to go gambling.

Was Heath Ledger’s family not great up there??
And Hugh Jackman did a fabulous job.
I loved how 5 previous winners personally spoke to each best/supporting actor nominee!

There were a few dresses worth mentioning, however, which is really why I watch:
Amy Adams, Kate Winslet (best dress in my opinion) + Anne Hathaway (who sang quite well!).
(See these photos and more at: www.oscar.com)

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POST-NY FASHION WEEK

On a lighter note, my daughter A and I stayed up LATE LATE last week reviewing the latest NY Fashion week hilights. In a word? UGH!

I mean, really.
I don’t know what we were expecting, but perhaps clothing that actually makes you look BETTER rather than OHMYGOSH worse for wear? Really, people. Maybe I’m just too far removed from “the biz” to really appreciate the true art of fashion.

It was difficult to find some favorites, but one or two designers really hit our soft spots.

Chado Ralph Ricci : loved the asymmetry, loved the peekaboos, loved the fit and femininity, loved the retro. Loved it.

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Ports 1961 : Layers, shimmeries but not shimmeries overload, flattering lines…

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Tadashi Shoji : OH, to feel this pretty!

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Fetherston, Fetherston, Project Runway :  LOVED Fetherston – texture galore, but understandable, not a mass of confusion. We really enjoyed the Project Runway outfit as well.

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And last, but not least
Briana Reyes, Calvin Klein, Leifsdottir : I have GOT to have the Briana Reyes outfit. Gotta. And that Leifsdottir sweater? OHGOSH. Gorgeous.

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There were a few others we picked as well, but these were our faves.
Can I just ask – what was UP with the pom-pom hats?

Having decent looking models who didn’t look completely pissed at the world helped sell us on these ones too. IMEANREALLY! Some of the models had the most unflattering makeup and the most unflattering expression – so much that we just wanted to look away, regardless of the clothes. They hurt our eyes.

Next up : Paris “pret a porter” Fashion Week March 4. Woot woot!

(See Mercedes Benz Fashion Week for more and photo credits from above)

Happy 100 to me!

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Me, sitting at the end of the day, boys asleep, grabbing my laptop and sitting down in my jammies on my super-crazy-comfy RH couch.

Daughter A comes in, “Are you blogging again?”.

“Yep. Grab a piece of couch and stick in the last disc of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ (when is he EVER going to meet the mother!?!?). We’re gonna be up awhile.”

We sit, and she watches over my shoulder as I type, add photos, type, add photos, read blogs, type. Add a cup of tea, and we’re talking bliss.

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AND have a look – I’m about to be “published”!
Check out <urbanmoms.ca> in the next while under “Our Members Say” and leave me some fantastic comments to make me look awesome .
(I’ll add in a reminder when it actually appears).

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WOOppie!
100th post, right here, baby!

And I’m not even out of things to write (yet).
It’s a fun hobby, which so far hasn’t cost a dime. But, I am still a spender at heart – I’m sure I’ll find ways to spend something somewhere.

Thanks to all my faithful readers (ya, that includes you, J+K!), friends and fellow bloggers (it’s been fun getting to know some of you).
I already have a list of about 80 more posts to come – hope I don’t run out of steam before the 200th!
Any ideas out there to add to my pile?

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