Review - www.hautelook.com

I love this website. Is that long enough?

Despite the complaints I read when I looked for reviews of www.hautelook.com, I decided to order an item. I figured my Visa card's purchase protection would save me if my trust was ill-placed.

I have nothing but good things to say about my experiences with hautelook. I get designer brands that I would normally not wear....like honestly what sucker pays $250 for jeans when you can get the same ones for $89? The downside is you need to be patient. Items can take a few weeks to get to Canada. They are occasionally out of stock, but the one time it occurred, they emailed promptly, refunded me immediately, and gave me a credit. No company is perfect, and they did the right thing....so I am fine with that tiny inconvenience.

I guess all of my years of shopping on co-ops had taught me how long it can realistically take for something to ship here, and how to have a back-up plan if it's time-sensitive. It's worth it for the ridiculous savings.

Next post: co-op buying!


Kid #3 trying on her new soccer cleats....she slept in them that night.



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I cannot stress this enough....

We only get one life people. Start using it for something fucking meaningful. Have you bettered someone's life lately?

They want to know.










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Cutie

I can't believe my baby is already such a big girl.



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Babies everywhere!

My friend had a healthy son, thanks be to God. I am so thrilled for her. A bit worried about her too, but it's her journey, and I must respect her privacy.

Someone dear to me has since lost a baby at 39 weeks. And someone dear to me just had a cerclage removed and is eagerly anticipating her Third (and first living) child. I cannot wait for her to finally feel that unadulterated joy associated with bringing life into the world.

It makes me want to do it again!


Also? Changed my hair again. Gerald is an unapologetic enabler.

Before







What I wanted








During







After








It's redder than the picture, which isn't exactly what I wanted, but I think it works well with my skin tone.

Love it...but hubs says I look like a lesbian. Asshole.


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Come little baby

150 stitches x 172 rows = 24,000 stitches or abut 22 hours....for a baby blanket that has to be hand washed and thus is essentially useless. But anything less than pure wool would have been less than perfect, and this particular baby boy deserves perfection. Come gently into this world, little one.

I haven't, since having my babies, anticipated a birth this much. It's not my story to tell, but suffice it to say, my friend's baby is much anticipated. I am praying for her. For a good birth, and for a healthy loud baby cry in a few hours.





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Abuser

I work prosecuting bad guys in domestic violence situations.

I have sometimes lectured defense or unrepresented accused people and exercised my discretion not to proceed because buddy said he was sorry and deserved a break. Probably bent a rule or two in the pfocess.

But I've been pretty good so far in identifying the real abuser bad guys from the generic douchebags who just need to grow up or stop drinking or whatever.

I've mis-judged some people, but have been bang on with most. Especially the real creeps, the victim-blamers, the controllers, the ozokerite, the esteem crushers. Those are the guys I focus my energy on. They're all guys, almost. A few lesbians, a handful of wives - 220 out of 250 would be men.

Anyway, when they seem sorry and scared and have no record..,,I usually give them s chance. Even two. But never three. And I tell them that. And their lawyers. But never more than twice.

And murderers get zero chances.


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Big girl

She peeled an orange all by herself and was so proud.





Little stinker.




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2011

2010 - it was truly my best year ever...with a job I finally got the hang of, great health, and a few cool trips....It was great.

But it was marred by tragedy with the loss of twin nieces, eagerly anticipated and desperately wanted. T and J. We miss them so. God willing, SIL will carry this new baby to term, I can't imagine having to survive that heartbreak twice.

I miss them. I miss my dad a lot lately too. Mom is running out of money and I can't help but think how different it would be if he hadn't died almost 16 years ago.

So anyway. having said that, I'm grateful for:

Mom





Husband





Eldest (15 now - this is an old photo and my favourite)





Eldest daughter (12)





Second daughter (4)





And my baby (21 mos)





Life is so good.

4

My first homebirthed baby, little miss k, was born December 29, 2006 (in the water!) she was colicky, she was a crap sleeper, hated the bottle, and could sense when I had an important trial about to start. She had spent three nights her entire life away from me, and less than ten entire nights in her own bed. She's got a will of iron, a short fuse, a serious lack of desire to listen to reason, a smile as bright as sunshine, and a heart as big as the ocean.



That's her on her birthday. Minutes old.





Newborn yawns are exquisitely adorable.




She was such a chubster....and the bluest eyes...




First haircut.




With her sisters, age 2....




Nursing her baby. She loved Anika so much from the start.




I just noticed that since A's birth, most photos of K are of both of them. A worships her, and she's ok with that.





Besties.


Last summer. She grew up so much. She's growing so fast, racing as fast as she can towards independence.

Yet she still won't sleep in her own bed. Go figure.




Blogged using this blogger app, having used face recognition to tag hundreds of photos, I could quickly find my favourite photos of K to share.

Way easier than my laptop other than the typing bring a bit tedious....I'll be blogging a lot more from my iPad once I finally pull the trigger!

Over a year

It's been over a year since I've posted. Ridiculous.

Anyhoo - since that post, we've been on a cruise, been to Amsterdam, had a sad loss in our family, had another few awful things happen. But we've survived and we're growing, so it's been a good year.

Tonight - interaction between the two smallest children - the 'littles'

3 (almost 4) year old - (sitting in box) - to younger sibling (almost 2)

3 - "do you want to pull me in my boat?"

sib - NO

3 - (gets out of box) "do you want me to pull you in the boat?"

sib - NO

3 - walks away

sib - jumps in the box.

Smarty.

Been Busy

Tonight's offering - buttertarts - when I told Dan these were to give away, he immediately blurted, "I get one!" Then Meredith said, "I get one" and so did Max. I'll be lucky if there's three left to give away on Monday. And I'm out of raisins and can't make another batch. These people.

Tante Lorette

I was going to blog about a scarf in progress, but quickly realized that I'm not really thinking about knitting, I'm thinking about the recipient of this little scarf I'm making.

Tante Lorette is my father in law's cousin. They share a grandmother, now dearly departed. She is in her early seventies - I know this only because she mentioned her oldest child is 52 years old now (or 53, is it?) so I'm sure she's in her 70s. I just don't have the guts to ask, some things are better left unsaid.

What makes Tante Lorette ageless, at least to me, is her attitude towards life. She amazes me constantly, with what she has accomplished, and with what she still does today. She raised four children, taught grade 2 for 30 years (including my husband's 7 year old mind), buried a husband far too young, lives in a house on her own, traveled to europe and Eygpt in the last few years, and just genuinely amazes me. She babysits the little girls on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Tante Lorette has incredibe energy. She just goes all day and never seems to tire. She's francophone, and speaks French so beautifully and just..correctly...it's a privilege to have her as our girls' first educator. I could tell when she first met Katja, she started thinking to herself, "I can't wait to get my hands on that kid, they think she's smart NOW...wait'll I'm done with her". And she's right. Katja has learned songs, done crafts, learned so many important words and phrases that I sometimes struggle with, and has learned to cooperate so much more (also coincidental somewhat with her just approaching 3 years old, but I know largely it's Tante Lorette's influence).

She's just *grown up* at an incredible pace since I went back to work. I also think some of that is that she really is being educated during the day and that I am also able to relax and give her more attention and to put in the energy she requires to be happy. Katja's not going to just let you come home and read the news, she demands 100% of my attention from the minute I get in the door. Rightly so, I think, and the ability to focus on her is an incredible thing. I think she's a lot lazier when I'm around too, because I just anticipate her needs so well that she isn't doing enough for herself - I'm always a step ahead of her. I think having to articulate her needs during the day to caregivers who maybe don't understand what she's really in need of has really improved her overall demeanour with me.

Anyway, I digress (greatly) with that - what I mean to say is, Tante Lorette amazes me. She has a fabulous, positive attitude. She's the kind of person you just want to have around you. I hope one day if she needs to live in a supported living arrangement of some kind that she would consider living with us. I just adore adore adore her. So do the girls, Katja's face just lights up when she talks about Tante Lorette. She rushes to please Tante Lorette. She misses her mama, but Tante Lorette is probably the most perfect substitute.

So when I knitted up this little scarf, and she watched me knit it, I hoped she noticed that it was a complex little pattern, and that it needed my attention, and that I couldn't really watch TV and knit this properly. So I knit a little here, and knit a little there, and just kept knitting along, and all of a sudden, I'm on the last two rows. I can't wait to give it to her. I have no doubt she will know exactly how special a gift it is, because I spent probably an hour winding yarn, comparing the different weights and colours, taking note of her usual range of colours in her clothes, looking at patterns for each different weight of yarn...it was a labour of love. I hope she enjoys it.

We arent (that) worried about the flu

Great CBC article here - http://tinyurl.com/yk3m3f4

At last someone has the information I'm looking for - how deadly is this disease, really? How safe is the vaccine, really? How has it been tested?

He says there is no reason to panic. Yes, tragic deaths happen, but they do every year. The media focus on these stories is absurd.

We've decided to relax, take care of our bodies by reducing dairy and sugar intake, make sure we're taking lots of vitamin D and probiotics to support our immune systems. We are sleeping a lot more. Taking time off when we get sick and recover fully before resuming activities.

(I'm not a doctor. Don't sue me if you do these things and die. If you're following some random blogger's medical advice instead of making your own informed decision, you're in a lot more trouble than you think anyway)

We're all sick here anyway and I'm hoping it's h1n1 (since 90%+ of flu out there is 'the' flu, we think this is it, especially since the under 5's have no real fever.

So without further ado, I give you

*Flu 2009 update* (insert news music here)

Meredith is almost 100 % other than being tired (she got sick Saturday night). I am keeping her home most of the week in case it's h1n1 as they asked @ hospital when we were there with katja to do that. We don't believe this is a huge deal, this flu, but we don't want to be 'those people who are minimizing and putting everyone at risk', either.

Max is very tired but not barfing. I went to bed at 8 because anika was up barfing last night at 4 a.m. And sure enough she's barfing again, so I just threw a load of laundry in at this hour. Brutal. Did I mention that my dryer is broken? Did I? OMG I verily vibrate with stress when I even think about that.

I was feeling tired and under the weather all day, but in a 'I need a hot shower and a nap' kind of way, not a 'oh God I'm not going to make it through this day' kind of way.

Dan (got sick Friday) is also almost better, with just the fatigue left and some stomach upset.

Katja (got sick monday so 1 week ago now) still has diarrhea and is a little tired (she goes from her normal self to a tantruming mess in 3 minutes flat - I think she tires herself quickly). She is otherwise herself.

Anika threw up last night a little and was a little fussy today, her stomach was cramping a bit, I think, and she had diarrhea. She just got up and threw up a lot, twice.

Max went to bed on the couch then up to his bedroom at 8. He was up listening to podcasts for a while but has basically stayed in bed. No puking yet. He hasn't eaten since lunch so I'm guessing his stomach is a bit upset.

And big mama is hanging in there. I was really worried about getting super sick today but I held it off and meredy was well enough to do stuff like sit with anika while I put katja to bed (she wanted to go to sleep at 530 omg but I got her to stay up til 7:00 stupid time change)

I have a trial tomorrow and important witness meeting as well. And a trial and take your kid to work day Wed, so really I'm not available til Thurs for the flu anyway.

What I did tonight.

• Got home from work, nursed the baby while putting off Katja who was begging very loudly for bubbies. Repeatedly.
  
• Made supper while holding baby and putting off Katja who was still asking for bubbies - roasted a squash and made fresh cornbread muffins (used a mix - I'm not THAT good)
• Grocery shopped while the girls were in the tub with Dan
• Put Katja to bed
• Put Anika to bed
• Went for a run
• Put Anika back to bed
• Did a load of laundry
• Washed dishes from supper
• Made cream of leek sop for crockpot for tomorrow
• Got the bread ready for tomorrow morning
• Washed and chopped veggies for the veggie ray
• Put veggies in snack containers for lunches tomorrow
• Did another load of laundry

now I'm eating chips and I'm thinking I earned my knitting time right after this :)

Why is it....

....that although I take copious amounts of photos and upload them regularly so that my blog doesn't suck as hard as it otherwise would, and I always do this at the dining room table in my home.....

I can't find my camera cable. How is that even possible?

Dear me: really, really, you need to try to start getting it together. Really. You're a grownup now. You're 37. Stop losing stuff already.

You nitwit.

And I deleted the email with nadine's link to her wedding photos in it, so I can't show those either. Gah.

Dear Neglected Blog

I love you, I really do. But this whole full time employment thing is really putting a damper on my recreational time, and my employer doesn't see the benefit in permitting employees to access Twitter or Facebook, so I haven't even tried Blogger.

Nadine and Nathan got married and we took advantage of their photographer, who took this beautiful shot of the little girls.

Things I'm doing...

- pre-washing and cutting veggies - Kristen, I store them in glass lidded containers. I find vegetables get really gross in ziplock bags, and I don't like my food sitting in plastic in any event. P.S. Sorry for rejecting your comment. I'm a spaz.

- NOT WORKING OUT which really sucks - I'm so tired in the mornings that I just can't get my ass out of bed and into the gym. Mostly because I'm staying up late doing the stuff I like.

- strangely, losing weight anyway. Getting out of the house for 35 hours a week is great for me - less boredom and less snacking. I'm down a couple of sizes and actually stepping up my calories a little bit because I don't want to get too skinny.

- organizing my house! Yay! We got new furniture for the living room and I looked around at the clutter and had a meltdown. Got rid of 3 massive garbage bags of clothing as well as a couple of boxes of garbage and a ton of recyclables. The girls' dresser has been emptied of outgrown clothes, inventoried and re-organized. All the yarn (mostly) is downstairs. In other developments, I'm now only allowed to knit one project at a time. Until I finish it. Yeah, we'll see how long that lasts because

- Yarn on the way!! Laines Magnifiques, cestari trim for my Mosaic Moon yarn that came in, and also some really cool Montreal Canadiens sock yarn for a surprise for Dan.

- God I need to start Christmas knitting.

- I ordered these for christmas gifts for the kids, along with tutus for Katja and Amelia. Christmas shopping for the little kids is complete, save for a even-up gift for Levi. Piece o' cake

- Got my knitting needles all organized. Then lost them. I am seriously worried they're in the autobin (dumpster). In which case I am out like $400 worth of needles. ARGH.

- next project is organizing my yarn. I can't wait - I love my yarn so much. I adore going through my stash. Although it is alarming how many hours I need in order to work it all up vs. how many hours I'm actually going to have to knit. I need a job where I can knit and work.

- pumping milk for Anika - she just turned 6 months old and is just tasting a few solids, but is not really ready (although she is sitting up quite nicely for 10-15 seconds at a time now. And has two teeth. They grow up so fast! Anyway, coming home at lunch won't be enough for her for a few more months when she's actually eating. Right now I have to make about 12 oz a day to keep up with her (we nurse at lunch too) - she's a pretty big eater. She eats a lot at night still too - (see paragraph on weight loss)

That's about it. I'm sure I'm missing a zillion things, but that's mostly it.

Hmm - random - meal plan this week - Mon roast beef (crockpot), Tues pork chops, applesauce, mashed potatoes and gravy (broccoli for veg), Wed shepherd's pie, Thurs pad thai (I think).

To do list

Week two of back to work is coming up, and I'm excited to get back out there - I've got my meal plan done and veggies ready to go. I'm really enjoying my new position, so it's just super-exciting and fun. (Also, I got new clothes. Lots of them. Definitely excited to wear grown-up clothes daily!)

Here's what I had left to do as of 8 p.m.

- hem pants

- finish longies (casting off ridiculous ruffled edges at 160 stitches each, in rib (gah).

- blog

- finish laundry and get diapers folded and into bassinet (they're clean & dry, doing the folding tomorrow morning)

- chat with Max about school and make sure he's ok

- chat with Meredy and promise her we will start reading at bedtime again tomorrow

- chop veggies for the week (I have a raw veggie tray that is always stocked with washed, cut, bite-sized organic veggies. No excuses that way - it's probably tripled our veggie intake)

- find sewing needles in order to hem pants

- put photos on new usb drive to bring to work

- find usb drive

- hope to stumble across camera, MIA since Saturday

- do chore chart

These are actually the important things that kind of need to be done for me to stay sane enough that I can fall asleep. Now it's 11:49 and the pants are waiting, so I'd better get to it.

Lucky babies

From mashable.com

"Whole Foods has a very active social media presence. They boast over 1.2 million followers on Twitter and more than 100,000 fans on Facebook. It’s a true big brand social media success story; or is it?

Comments made by the company’s chief executive, John M

ackey, in an opinion piece about Obama’s health-care reform initiatives published in the Wall Street Journal are stirring up controversy on the Web and showing the company the other side of social media. Case in point, a user-generated Boycott Whole Foods movement attracting more than 22,000 Facebook supporters in one week.

In the controversial piece, Mackey denounces the government’s involvement in health-care, expounds on the benefits of Whole Foods approach, and even suggests that a multitude of health problems can be prevented with healthier diets. " (my emphasis)

Seriously. People are up in arms about this.

OK here's the deal:

The people who surround us are sick because they're fat, they're sedentary, they're stressed out, they're eating toxic crap, drinking fluoride, u

sing bleached paper next to their babies' skin, bathing in parabens, and otherwise polluting themselves in so many ways it's a wonder we don't all die of poisoning as teens.

Cancer, heart disease, parkinson's, alzheimer's, stroke, MS, autism, ADHD. These are all directly attributable to the above, along with smoking cigarettes.

These are happening because we're fat, we're sedentary, and we're stressed out. So get moving, put down the donut, and change your life. Live simpler. Get rid of debt. Drive a used car. Work less. That's the key, folks. That's all. It's so simple, and everyone is ignoring it because it's not as easy or as sexy.

Here's someone who has a pretty good shot at never being seriously ill, G-d willing. She's so perfect, so healthy, and we haven't interfered with that. We've just let her grow, eat, move, play, and learn. Everything she's meant to. Sure, there's disease out there that isn't due to lifestyle, but they're not half as common as these killers. I'm glad I learned this now, though I fear the damage has already been done. I just hope and pray that I've regenerated enough to make a difference.

This baby is so lucky.

We haven't subjected her to assaults on her immune system. She's perfect, and we are just keeping her that way. We're trusting that her body knows what it is doing. I feel pretty good about our decision.

It's not like me to complain about the weather, I'm pretty easygoing (and I'm not one of those people who says they are easygoing when they totally are NOT), but this has been a bummer of a summer (heh). It's my last summer off ever in my entire life, and we can't even go to the lake because the weather sucks (kids plug your ears) shit.

I can count on one hand the number of summer sunny days over 25 we've had. I lose count when I add up the rainy days. We had major water damage because of the rain. My rain barrel is literally overflowing, and nothing needs watering. The dehumidifier in the basement runs 24/7 (that thing's a workhorse, we got it in the buy and sell 2 years ago for like 40 bucks, it's run for 2 years almost constantly and still works awesome. Unbelievable.

My garden does look fab, on the plus side :) I have thyme and lavendar to dry, but my basil got eaten by some criter so no pesto :( - tomatoes need a few sunny days but they're coming along. And we also put in a bunch of indigenous prairie plants this year, and they hate dry conditions so they're actualy doing awesome. Was out there today, playing in the mud. Doing my first transplants ever - pretty exciting stuff (if you're a nerd like me). My daughter 'helped' and we were covered in mud but it was fun. Really fun, actually. I didn't want to come in.

And a lily bloomed, right in my garden. It smelled just like it should. Katja and I both spent a few minutes admiring it and smelling it. That was something else. I'll post a photo soon. Just have to take one tomorrow.

Jam

Best jam I've ever made. Going to make changes to the next batch.

Bumbleberry Jam - strawberries, raspberries, and saskatoons, all local.

I used a cup less sugar than the recipe called for, because I wanted a softer jam. Next ti

me I will use a little bit less and add some lemon juice.

Every jar of this is spoken for, and then some - need to do a second batch this week.

Yum.