"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else." - Judy Garland

I consider sex a misdemeanor - the more I miss, de meaner I get." - Mae West

"We are who we're going to be when we're very old, and when we're very old we are who we were when we were eight." - Meryl Streep

Birthday party!

I have seldom gotten invitations for birthday parties so when I got this one it was extra special....


This little munchkin was turning 1!!


So on March 13th, Mya had her big birthday bash. I was supposed to arrive early to help Mabyn decorate the cake but I was getting my hair did and it took allll morning (literally) so I only arrived in time to take the cover off the sandwiches and to give Mya her birthday balloon before the rest of her guests arrived. She loved it! She had on the cutest dress and loved all the attention she got on her special day! My favorite part of the party was when she was inhaling her little cupcake.











There was not one crumb left!!

I feel I need to mention the fact that when the party was over I went home and took a three hour nap. Then went to bed 2 hours later and only woke up at 11am the next morning. I have NO idea how parents run a household like they do and still manage to survive. I mean, let's get real, I hardly even did anything at the party and I was still zonked. I think instead of contributing to an RRSP I am going to start putting money away for a nanny....just in case I ever have kids.

"The secret to staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, sleep sufficiently, work industriously, worship faithfully - and then lie about your age." - Lucille Ball

"Do not, on a rainy day, ask your child what he feels like doing, because I assure you that what he feels like doing, you won't feel like watching." - Fran Lebowitz

"It's said in Hollywood that you should always forgive your enemies, because you never know when you'll have to work with them." - Lana Turner

"It hurts my feelings to think that people never came up to me and said, "You don't need to gain anymore weight" but they sure as heck will say, "You don't need to lose anymore." - Star Jones

"Outside every thin girl there is a fat man trying to get in." - Katherine Whitehorn

Catch up!

I thought blogging would be easy because I always have tons of stuff to say and sometimes like to think out loud. It's not as easy as I thought it was going to be. Sometimes I don't feel like typing or writing out what is going on in my life. But I am determined and have challenged myself to keep it up because someday I will want to read what was going on in my life back then.

So, let's start with two weekends ago. I went home to visit friends and family. It was an extra special visit because my little sister was home from St. Catharines Ontario. She at Ridley College on a hockey scholarship and has been since last year. She loves it. I am really really proud of her. I would never have been able to 1) leave home at 15 or 2) have had that much perseverance for anything at that age.

It was also a bittersweet trip home because it ended an era for me. From the ages of 13 - 18, I worked as a gas attendant at my Aunt Louise and Uncle Roger's car dealership. There was no self serve then so I had to pump people's gas in terrential downpours, blizzard conditions, and yes sometimes I could suntan while waiting for people to pull up at the pumps. God only knows how they let me work there that long because believe you me I cost them some money over the years. I backed into one showroom window while trying to park a neon. Now this wouldn't have been SUCH a big deal if 1) I had had my licence, and 2) the crack wouldn't have continued into all other 6 showroom windows, causing them to replace them ALL at the bargain price of $10,000. Oops. I also decided (still with no licence) that I was going to extend the wash bay (where the cars are washed and waxed) by not pushing the brake but rather the gas while entering the bay. This was to give me plenty more room to wash those big trucks that they wanted me to wash on the weekends.

Needless to say, some of the other gas attendant employees kind of had a hate on for me because they thought I was getting preferential treatment by not getting reprimanded nor having to pay for any of the damage I don't know why they thought that...

I know I'm rambling but I am getting somewhere with this story. My first year in university I came back home to work for the summer. Unbeknowst to me, my Aunt Louise had purchased a hardware store from an older gentleman who had run the store with his wife for 50 some odd years. As most of you know, I am from a very small town that survives on mill work jobs, teachers and little entreprises. I thought to myself, what in God's name is she going to do with a hardware store!? Little did I know I would be working there that summer when she informed me that she wanted to get rid of all the hardware and turn the store into a sort of Wheaton's. I absolutely fell in love with the store. It was built in the 1830's and has almost all the original structure to it. The ladies that Aunt Louise had hired were great and we had a blast working together. The funnest part of all was the fact that Aunt Louise let me order EVERYTHING I wanted from catalogues to stock the store. I was shopping with someone else's credit card!! I became really attached to the girls at the store and came back to work for 2 summers after that, during the Christmas holidays and any other time that she needed me. It brought Aunt Louise and I a lot closer, which in our case was hardly possible because she has four sons and no daughters. She likes to refer to me as the daughter she never had.

Aunt Louise is really into antiques and heritage so it came as no surprise when the store was named as a heritage property. I think she bought the store cause she loved it's charm. The store carried everything you could imagine. From dainty teacups that you find in your grandmother's china cabinet to fondue sets to wallpaper. In 2002 came the really fun part. She decided to add a flower shop to the mix! She tore down the barn that was attached to the store and rebuilt it to house a cooler and everything else you need to run a flower shop. That was the best summer yet as I learned how to be a florist!! She did have a trained florist but she let me do whatever I wanted.

Aunt Louise and Uncle Roger have ran Clare Dodge Chrysler for more than 20 years now and when she bought the Trading Post she wanted it to be a fun project and also be a place that she was happy to go to and proud to own. It really upset me when I got home and found out that the Trading Post was closing for financial reasons. Aunt Louise kept the store open for a lot longer than anyone else would have and tried to make it work. I know it's just a store and she has other ways to earn her livelihood but the girls lost their jobs and a store that has been around since the 1800's is no longer. I have always believed that people should support their towns and local businesses even if stuff is a little more expensive. This has confirmed it. I will leave you with a few pictures and a little write up that was done to promote the store.


This is what the upstairs of the store used to look like....it was ALL christmas stuff!!




The Weymouth Trading Post, Main Street, Weymouth is the oldest general store in Eastern Canada. The store was been in continuous operation since 1837 and has had only three owners during that period. The present owners, Louise and Roger Mullen, Weymouth North are longtime residents of the area and are committed to preserving this well-known landmark in the village.

The Trading Post once housed one of the first three Royal Banks of Canada (Merchants Bank of Halifax) in the country, as part of the ‘general’ line of products and services available at the store. The Trading Post staff is still using the original safe owned by the bank today.

On November 30th, 2002 the Weymouth Trading Post was officially registered as a Digby County Heritage Property. Gordon Campbell of Kentville, Nova Scotia, a descendant of the original owners, unveiled the heritage plaque.

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I also witnessed something really cool over the weekend.....

It's like a ring around the sun! I had never seen this before...it was really cool!


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Last but not least I have to show you my new artsy fartsy project:
What looks like a frame with string hanging from the back actually is........

an earring holder!!

It's an frame with screen that is used for windows. My dad put it together for me and it not only displays my earrings but also serves as a piece of art on my wall!

Maybe tomorrow I will really be able to catch up and blog about last weekend!

"Isn't it interesting how the sounds are the same for an awful nightmare and great sex?" - Rue McClanahan

"It's the good girls who keep diaries; the bad girls never have the time." - Tallulah Bankhead

"People who drink to drown their sorrow should be told that sorrow knows how to swim." - Ann Landers

P.S. Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!!

"Think twice before burdening a friend with a secret." - Marlene Dietrich

"Most beautiful but dumb girls think they are smart and get away with it, because other people, on the whole, aren't much smarter." - Louise Brooks

Well! I figured since I didn't have something interesting to post everyday other than my quotes, I would wait until there were a few things to blog about and do it all in one shot. So, as some of you might already know, I am in a book club. It started out as the Canada Reads book club but since that is over tomorrow for another year, we decided to keep the club going and each pick books that we want to read but instead of meeting every week like for Canada Reads, we would meet once a month or something. I should be able to finish a book in a month.

Let me give you a little background on Canada Reads. Canada Reads celebrates five Canadian books for three months online, at public events and on air. It all leads up to a week-long show on CBC Radio which just happens to be this week. In the annual title fight, five celebrity panelists defend their favourite work of Canadian fiction. One by one, books are voted off the list, until one panelist triumphs with the book for Canada to read this year. Here are this year's books.



My friends Noel and Stacey introduced me to this neat little thing that Canada had going on and since I've wanted to be in a book club FOREVER I suggested we start our own and do all the Canada Reads books. We got a few gals together and met at a different person's house for each book. Wine and food was a must and book talk usually ended up in girl talk by the end of the evening. Having to read 5 books in 1 month was a little tight and I am still rushing through the last one (even though it was voted off last night). At the beginning of March we welcomed a new member to our club: Miss Eloise Corriveau!! We had the meeting at my place not long after she was born as well as a little baby shower for Eloise and Stacey. Here are a few pics!










To change the subject a little bit, I have to share with you my newest purchase.

My new lamp!


I know it isn't made of gold or anything but I hadn't bought myself anything in a really long time and I had to have it. I was walking through Scotia Square to catch the bus when I saw that Wicker Emporium was having a Liquidation Sale. I went in and they said that the store was moving to Dartmouth Crossing (big surprise) so they were trying to get rid of their stock so they didn't have to move it all over there. Everything was 70% off!! So this lamp was originally 139.99 and I got it for whatever 70% off that is (I can't remember right off the top of my head and forget about me doing math!) I don't think I would have paid more than the sale price for it cause it's that faux-wood stuff that is definetely not worth $139.99. It looks really cute where I have it too!

The only question that is nagging me now is if I should get another one for the other end table in my living room. See, Wicker Emporium did have another lamp like the one I bought but it was at the store in Bayers Lake and was not on sale. What do you guys think? Should I go get the other one or is one ok in a living room? There doesn't always have to be two matchings lamps right?

"If you have been married more than ten years, being good in bed means you don't steal the covers." - Brenda Davidson

"I'm more careful when I'm being interviewed by a woman because, from experience as well as reading articles about other women, I know there is a little stiletto knife hidden behind the back." - Helen Mirren

"If a guy doesn't call you, why not call him? ... If men have a problem with that and don't call you back, then that guy has no balls and you're better off without him!" - Kate Hudson

"Heels or flats? Heels! I can't concentrate in flats." - Victoria Beckham

"The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth." - Edith Sitwell

"The best thing about me is I don't have to look like anything. I don't have to do the makeup, the eyelashes, and the hair. I am not the glam queen." - Whoopi Goldberg

Circus

"Every country gets the circus it deserves. Spain gets bullfights. Italy gets the Catholic Church. America gets Hollywood." - Erica Jong

When I first read this quote, I started trying to figure out what Canada's circus was. My first thought was hockey, as it was only yesterday that we rocked the hockey world with our goal medal win in Men's Hockey, won in overtime by our own Sid the Kid. But then I thought, no, hockey and canadian sports aren't really a circus, they are more something that Canadians should be and are proud of. I associate a circus with somewhat negative connotations and something that is kind of out of control. Then it hit me...Canadian weather is our circus. From the Hurricane that someone forgot to mention was going to pass last Friday, to the 40cm of snow we get in the blink of an eye to the insufferable heat and humidity that graces our houses and 4th floor apartments in the summer, that is, what I call, a cirus. What do you think our great country's circus is?