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A Rainy Day Monday, Naked Naomi, Birthdays and Mothers

A Rainy Day Monday, Naked Naomi, Birthdays and Mothers, the long lost Carr blog has finally been found and now up online wrapping up week 18.

Naomi
When Nathalie was little, her doll of choice was her Cabbage Patch Kid, Naomi Adeline. Now if you are quick in you head with math and are in complete touch with pop culture, you would be able to figure out that when the worldwide phenomenon of the cute little doll hit it’s stride in the mid 80’s, Nathalie would have been around 14 or 15 years old. So the doll was way more like a future investment item than an actual toy, but nonetheless, it was hers.

When we had girls, and they too received Cabbage Patch Kids for Christmas one year, it seemed like a nice idea to bring Naomi out of her resting state, and let the girls play with her and love her as much as their Mom did and that is just what we did. The girls have been playing with her on and off for a while, but there was always something missing, and I am happy to report that a couple of weeks ago, during a trip to Oma’s they raided her doll clothes, and finally dressed the naked Naomi. Not sure whatever happened to the clothes that she would have been sold with, OR if she spent a whole lot of time, without clothing while in Nathalie’s possession, but she has been bare for a long time that I can remember and I am happy that she has now been covered up.

Rain Rain Go Away
A couple of weeks ago, I laughed as I wrote my Facebook status updated, referencing a Pathetic Fallacy. You see I was a little down, and waking up in the morning to wet weather was frustrating, only to be standing in it for the regular morning duties of Kiss and Ride. For just a second, I had a Disney movie moment image flash in my head, when the hunky lead (that’s me!) has to trudge, reflectively through the wind and rain, with the sad music playing hoping beyond hope that the sexy female lead will appear in a warm car with her magic umbrella, only to find out that the car approaching was a jealous ex-boyfriend, who only slowed enough to hit the puddle just right, so as to give me a good splash.

Gym update
Well I would not say that we have fallen off the gym wagon, but we have jumped off and on over the last few weeks a couple of times. Both Nathalie and I have had knee and or shoulder issues, and in some cases, time issues and as a result we are not as regular visitors as we had been. Having said that, we are still proud to say that we have kept our good eating habits, and attempts at regular water hydration, and as such, have maintained the weight loss, and not gained anything back. We are still very committed, and will be back on the gym track this week.

Graffiti
Truth be told, I hate to see graffiti. However, I will confess here right now that in my 42 years, I have written on a wall in a public place, twice that I remember. The first was during what must have been our first Jim and Nathalie “couple” road trip when we where dating in 1992 or 1993 to Boldt Castle. Such a romantic image, this beautiful building, on one of the 1000 islands’, originally built as a testament of a husbands love to his wife. In one of the yet to be renovated rooms, thousands of “declarations of love” adorned the walls and with all that love floating around, Nathalie and I wrote our names and professed our love for one another.

The second instance of petty vandalism came much later in life, on a birthday trip to Mother Tuckers, for my Dad’s 70th, when we marked the special occasion, by adding our family name to a free brick near the closet, like many had done before us. In both cases, not even close to being trend setters, just another name on a wall of names. Certainly, a bit of a long story to get around, to my original point, that I don’t like graffiti, but I felt I had to share.

This came to mind, while visiting a bathroom stall at work, with certainly no shortage of doodles’ and word dribble to occupy your mind when you are otherwise occupied. A couple of weeks ago, I conceived this entire piece in my head, after spying this little ditty. “If God was a woman then we’d all be sandwiches”. I mean this guy is so right, and I am so glad I had a chance to peer into the mind of a genius. I hope the sarcasm is obvious in my statement… I just don’t get it!

Jordyn’s Hair
It must be hard to be a girl with respect to expectations, and how you see yourself specifically with your appearance. Yes, men have issues too, but there has always been too much emphasis placed on what you look like when you are a girl. Well the other week, Nathalie was having a Mommy moment with Jordyn, and talking about her hair, and her overall displeasure with it and exclaiming, “I hate my hair”. Nathalie was quick on her feet and responded with a, “Don’t ever let me hear you say you hate anything about your body! Your body has parts of me and daddy and all your grandparents – do you hate us?” Jordyn quickly answered with a clear and resounding “No!” I am so glad that first Nathalie will always get those tough talks, and second, that Nathalie always does such a great job in cutting to the truth and to help our daughters love themselves for who they are.

Birthdays
I would a little remiss if I did not cover off some of the significant birthdays that have happened since my last post, and considering this is the busiest time of year for such occasions with us, there have been a few. On the 4th of April, my brother-in-law Earl turned 42; my other brother-in-law Guy turned 50 on the 18th, Nathalie turned 42 on the 23rd (more on that in a second), the girl on the corner, turned 73 on the 24th and on May 3rd, my sister turned (older) and my adopted nephew, Cayce, turned 16. My apologies for anyone else I’ve missed… and Rylan… I know you’ll be turning 16 on the 26th – so Happy ‘early’ birthday to you!

April 24th, 2011
Easter / Birthday Swim
Yes, April and May are what we call Hallmark months, and I am so happy to tell everyone, all reports from the birthday celebrations are all positive. Speaking personally of the party to mark the anniversary of my wife’s birth, it was a super nice night, highlighted by a birthday swim. YES my wife wanted the pool open, for her birthday, and so, we cranked up the heat and that is just what we did. I will let you know how if it was worth the fun we had when the gas bill comes in!

Mothers
When talking with a friend a while back, who lost her mom a couple of years ago, she said that just about every big holiday, or family celebration that happens after a loved one’s passing, is going to be hard. Stands to reason I guess, for the first year or more, you’re still grieving and dealing with the loss and when your emotions are heightened by family gatherings or an event like Mothers Day, you just are more tuned in. Today, in the summer heat, while sitting on the porch, my mind flashed back to Mothers Days’ of the past, and I also saw images of my mom dancing at my wedding and of all things, her face on Christmas morning, opening gifts. Yes it is hard, but it is getting easier. (My Mom blog from September)

I am fortunate to have a good relationship with my Mother-in-law and I look forward to time with her. Today on Mothers Day, she shared with my a bit of a philosophy and perspective on mothering and I was very grateful. She said, “When you are given a child, they are a blank canvas. They become whatever you paint on them”, and I thought first how true that was, and then second I thought how wonderful of a painter she is, to have done such a wonderful job with every brush stroke of love and caring she put into Nathalie to have painted such a wonderful person for me and my girls.

In Closing
So what is it that makes it a perfect day for you? I have a friend at work that answers the question, “How’s it going?” with, “Upright and breathing!” and I laugh, thinking that that would be one way to go. If you break it all down, the perfect day is one you have the same number of exhales as you do inhales and that is just fine I guess, but to me, today would be a great example of a “Perfect Day”; Sun shining, kids playing in the pool, music loud and in the background and guests at our house enjoying a few laughs and some great food. Top that with a little bit of the pride that comes from accomplishing a few things around the house that I have wanted to do for a while, oh yeah, and ice cream and this WAS the perfect day. Mark it down, Mothers Day, 2011 a perfect day in my books!

Hope your day was perfect as well!

Thanks for reading and have a great and safe week.
Jim

Feet Clothing, our House and the Very Fun Parent Teacher Meeting

Feet clothing, our house and the very fun parent teacher meetings are part of the Carr family for week 11.

Socks
Possibly too much info, but the first article of clothing I put on in the morning, are my socks. I like the idea of starting with a good foundation, and you can’t get closer to the bottom than what you are standing on. Well I guess this rule is weather contingent, because it only applies to the months between September and May, but never the less, it is always socks first. So I laugh each morning when I see Julia putting on her shoes, with NO socks, and I repeat, “Julia, it is cold out there, you need socks, and besides, your feet will smell very bad!” I think she gets it from Nathalie who hates socks on her feet, and usually shows it by taking them off first chance she gets. Well, I guess as articles of clothing go, it is a need to have not always a nice to have and there is nothing you can do about that.

House
It is a sad day at the Carr house. We pushed it as long as we could, not because we have been using it, but because we knew that looking at it in this state would make us feel a little sad. Today, we closed our pool. The hot tub is still open and currently sitting in the high 90’s but today the water was pumped out of the pool, plugs have replaced the water jets and the big blue tarp is safely secured with water bags and wood. The amazingly fun and wonderfully wet, family play thing we have thoroughly enjoyed for the last couple of months is taking a break for the winter and that makes it a little bit of a sad day around here. I guess the one thing I am now looking forward to the most is the next season open the pool day, currently scheduled for April 15th, 2011.

Parent Teacher
So this is the end of the first term at the girl’s school, and that could only mean one thing; report cards. While, here in Ontario they have eliminated or at least changed the process and the way they evaluate students and have introduced yet another report card, and the girls did over all OK. Well, the best I can understand it anyhow. They certainly both have some work to do, and in each case, their teachers had very positive things to say about each of them.

For Jordyn, the message is that she is such a positive energy in class, and works hard, but needs to start taking way more initiative on things and start being in control of her own work. Julia is helpful in class, sometimes to a fault, leaving her own work to help a friend with theirs, so she has to focus a little more and just paying attention. She is also struggling with reading so we have to work on that, but juxtaposition that with Julia’s drama teacher telling me that Julia was one of only two of her students to receive the “Progressing very well” excellent in all of her classes. In the end we are so proud of all that our girls do, and happy with who they have become and are becoming each day.

In closing
Jordyn’s teacher made us laugh and it was just a side story, nothing to do with education. First, I need to back up a little. I have talked about Nathalie’s incredible shopping ability in many blogs from the past, so it should not be a shock to you that she got a great deal on a couple of winter jackets for the girls at the end of the season last year. Now when you find a deal like this, you don’t think twice, you grab two in whatever predictable size you need for the future, and you head for the checkout. Who cares that the jackets are the exact same colour. We did not think it was an issue, and Jordyn has never let on that it was, but when her teacher asked us out of the blue, “does she like her winter coat?” Nathalie and I look at each other and at the same time reply, “I think so”.

Mrs. F, told us about one morning she watched Jordyn come around the corner, out of my sight, and take off her coat, and stuff it into her backpack. She even asked her if everything was ok with it, and told her to put it back on because it was cold out. Jordyn relented and put it back on, but when she pushed a little further, Jordyn admitted that what she was having an issue with was it is too puffy and it is exact same coat as her sister’s. Mrs. F admitted that she caught her two more times, looking for a place to put her coat, other then on her body. Needles to say, we have fixed her wagon, with another shopping trip and yet another bargain on a new, completely different winter coat. Let’s see how this works.

Thanks for reading and have a great and safe week.
Jim