Confessions of a…

A little oops, a sheet of ice, a leader and a sign, the week 38 Carr blog, is up up and away, like a beautiful balloon.

---

Girls
Girls and boys are different. I know that seems obvious to most, but sometime the differences are not always what you think they are! This week, I was reminded that I have girls, but also, that I have girls, comfortable enough to act like boys. My girls can burp! And not the little hand over the mouth, oops, kind of lady burp, but the ohh my G-d, you almost got through the alphabet, frat boy party burp. What always gets me is that in the moment, they both have this smile and the confidence on their faces, and right after, it turns to the little girls, oops, sorry about that smirk on their faces, with a little voice “Excuse me”. For now, I am cool with it as long as we are not out in public.

Cold As Ice
A bunch of weeks ago, I talked about the first time we had the girls on skates, and how they where interested, Jordyn more then Julia, in lessons. We put our names on a wait list and 3 weeks ago started the classes. I have been meaning to talk about skating each week since they started, and bring it up now because of the progress they have made in this short time. This week, Nathalie and I could not believe how great they are doing and it is very surprising, given the fact it almost did not happen for Julia. I take you back to the first day of the lessons, 3 weeks ago.

That day started with 20 minutes of a crying 7 year old! “But I changed, my mind, I don’t want to learn how to skate.” Julia says after she woke up, and the tears are real and they continue to flow. “Yesterday you said you wanted to, we paid and you need to try it” seemed to be a reasonable comment by Mommy, but she was not to have it. I then add, “Well Julia, you have to come anyway, Mommy has an appointment, so we have to all go. You don’t have to skate, but we ARE going! More crying the whole trip there, we park, make our way in, and find the check in, and something happens. After we had to borrow a helmet for Jordyn, Julia starts to warm up to the friendly teacher as they practice off the ice, going over how to fall, and how to get up. Julia tugs at my coat sleeve to ask a question.

“Daddy, I think I may try it next week.” Not sure what my tone was, but something short, firm but sympathetic, “Julia, you don’t understand, if you don’t go on today, there will be NO next week, because daddy is going to call the lady today and see if I can get the money back.” She agrees to try, and we borrow a second helmet and she is there stretching and learning, then on the ice herself. The best, was her attitude, after the first lesson, “Daddy I had fun, I liked it, but I will let you know later this week if I want to continue.” Are you kidding me? You are going to LET US know? On Wednesday, Julia confides to Nathalie, “I liked skating, and want to keep going Mommy.” So that is why the amazing progress they are both making is just that much more special.

Hey Mr. DJ
You might notice, that I am referencing a bunch of songs this week and this is because I am writing most of this while playing dinner music at a DJ gig. In a bit, I will be cranking out the hits, but for now, between the salad and the main course I am wrapping up this week with my thoughts about life and love with a song in my heart.

Follow The Leader
This week at work, we had our goodbye party for the boss I have had for the last 11 years. An event, designed to be a celebration of his accomplishments and that it was, but for me it was also I time for reflection, and the following is a summary of what I said to him on the DVD they presented to him.

“Many people will likely use this time to talk about all the amazing accomplishments you have achieved over your time here at Seneca, but because they are well known and talked about I would like to spend the time talking about the accomplishments I have made over this time under your leadership. When you started with Seneca, I was in my late 20’s, teaching part-time and newly married. In just over 11 years, I am now in my early 40’s, I have been hired full-time, I have become a Program Coordinator, I have had 2 children, and have bought my first home and whether you believe you have had a tremendous hand in this or not, the fact is, that without you in my life, I would not have grown as much as I have over the years. You have given me trust, knowledge and confidence, and I call on these skills every day. I have always known and felt that you had my back and you have challenged me to be a better at my job and for this I have to thank you so much.”

Signs
From an early age, our girls have been able to read. Well let me be more specific, they have been able to recognize words on signs through the window of the car, as we drive. I think it was one of the very early proud daddy moments, when Jordyn, just learning to talk, would say “pizza” or “donalds’s” when we passed the big orange letters or a golden arch on our commute. So to this day, we laughed when Jordyn remarked, “Used cars, why would people want used cars?” No question goes unanswered, so I reply “Well Jordyn, sometimes you can get a better deal on a car if it is a couple years old, so lots of people buy used cars”. Jordyn starts to laugh at my answer, and I am thinking it was not that funny, then she adds, “Hey, I guess we are used Carrs’”.

In closing
Tonight, while DJ’ing, I saw love on the dance floor and I smiled. The event, a church social, so the age range, and demographics closely resembled that of a wedding and I will have to admit, I was not sure what to expect when I watched a lady in the walker make her way across the dance floor, to her seat. She had to be in her 80’s or more and I didn’t see her move from her seat, until I played “Unchained Melody”, by the Righteous Brothers. She stood, and in the arms of her partner, made her way to the dance floor, and held each other the whole song, so tight as to say I love you and I have you. Love is nice to see, in so many ways.

Dancing my way through another week, thanks for reading and have a great and safe week!
Jim

Tags: No Comments.

Getting old, grade 5, some naked fish and a little white stripe, the week that was 37 in the life of the Carr’s

---

Grade 5
So far, Nathalie and I are enjoying the grade 5 curriculum, just about as much as you can helping with home work and through the eyes and ears of your child. Now, I am a realist, so I knew the hard stuff was coming, I just though we still had a couple more years. Over the last couple of weeks I have heard glimpses of content from Jordyn’s health class and let me tell you, it is no longer the food groups. Things like, “Daddy, today we saw a penis in class”, beg the question, how do you respond to that? “Ahh, that’s nice Jordyn, sounds like you are learning interesting things”. Jump to the dinner table this week, and somewhere between salad and Cannelloni, our little girl drops another P word, in the form of a question. “How old do you have to be to get pregnant?”

“Are you kidding me, PREGNANT, Jordyn you will not get pregnant until you are married and that will not be until you are 30, because that will be the first time I ever let you kiss a boy, PREGNANT are you crazy, stop that crazy talk”. The only problem was that this is what I said only in my head, because my mouth was full! Nathalie jumped on it, and in true Mommy, honest fashion, without flinching says “Well, a girl can get pregnant after her first period.” Me with my mouth still full, shaking my head in anticipation of the obvious next question. “When does a girl get her first period?” she asks, and just as calm and collected as the first answer, Nathalie replays “somewhere between 13 and 18”. I still liked my answer, but I guess Mommy had it right, because that was the end of that conversation, for now.

Reflections
Over the last couple of weeks, I have been in a very reflective mood. Perhaps because there are some changes afoot at work, and I have had to remember back about 11 years ago so I can talk about when my boss started working for the college. It occurred to me that not only was I in my late 20’s, and I had more hair, but I also had no children and neither did my little sister Janey, but she was pregnant. You see 11 years ago this week, little baby Chandler came into our lives and we are so happy he did. Chandler is what I would call an old soul, being smart way beyond his years, and leading the way by example, not only for his little brother, but also for his younger cousins – my girls. I sure do miss him, now that he is in Newfoundland, but I look forward to keeping in touch with him, now that he got a netbook for Christmas. Congratulations Chandler on your 11th birthday, and all the Carr’s send a boat load of hugs and kisses and can’t wait to see you soon.

Naked Fish
There is something to be said about trying something every once in a while you don’t like, to either remind yourself you don’t like it, or perhaps even to change your mind. This week, that’s what happened to me and my feelings about sushi. Nathalie is a big fan, and I have tried it in the past but just never acquired a taste for the naked raw fish thing. This week, I was asked to try it again, and although I am not running out to buy the “I heart Sushi” T-shirt anytime soon, I can admit here and now, that it was not as bad as I remember, so there is a lesson to be found in here somewhere. If you have something in your life that has always been a NO, give it a try someday, and it might change to a yes or perhaps at least a maybe, like me.

Ying Yang
This week as I often do, I solicited blog ideas from people that I meet who I know are regular readers. There are 4 or 5 people on the list, so running into any of them is not that hard really. So one suggestion was the incredibly odd weather we have been having in and around us theses days. Yes, I am so happy that the broken snow shovel we have has not need to be used much or replaced, but I can’t stop thinking that like any good fortune, the payback most be up around the bend somewhere. But for now, I guess we have to enjoy the fact that the mercury is on the plus side of things and forget about the yang.

The other idea, came from a conversation I was having with a couple of students. In the talk, one of my fourth semester students admitted that she is not very good about asking for help with her production. This lead me to a great solution, and it is this I wanted to share. I told her to stop calling in help. Lets collaborate, or share ideas or work together. That is not nearly as hard to do as admitting you need help. Sometimes I amaze even myself!

Animal love
While I love most animals, there are some I could do without. It is possible the reason is because I don’t understand them, but the truth is I just don’t have any time for the skunk. I may have not minded them so much, other than your occasional whiff of one as you drive up to Caledon, but the truth is that I had never come into close contact with one. But since moving to our new house, Bentley has been hit twice by this little black and white striped rodent, twice that is, until tonight, when we added another run-in to the list. Apparently, according to Google, the little buggers need to leave their winter dens at least one time to, you guessed it, empty their scent glands. Well, we are certainly happy that Bentley was able to help them with this task – NOT.

At least we’ve learned the following: a) As soon as you smell it, take/keep the dog OUTSIDE, do not bring him into the house, b) wash with a Hemp-based skunk removal shampoo immediately (again, doing this outside, no matter how hot or cold it is out there, c) after a thorough wash, spray the dog with Nok Out! (you can also use this on the curtains and any other fibers in your home that might have gotten a little of eau-du-skunk on it, and d) light candles, EVERYWHERE! Lastly, e) If you figure out how to keep the skunks out of the backyard, and out of the general area of your dog, ignore steps a through d.

In closing
I have cool children and I have talked about it before, but sometimes I just get back as much as I put in, and that is nice. While driving in the car tonight, the conversation centered around Julia’s classmates reacting to her Webkinz presentation as part of her Show & Tell and she was very proud of herself, and the fact that they liked it so much. In my usual supportive daddy fashion I said “Well Julia, you are cool!” and without a hiccup pause, she says “Daddy, you are cool too and you do cartwheels”. Thanks Julia!

Well this ‘cool dude’ is cartwheeling into the weekend, thanks for reading and have a great and safe week!
Jim

Tags: 3 Comments

Wise Counsel, Games, Another Confession and a Little Fishy Voice, the week 36 Carr blog is up, out and a fun little read!

---

Fish Story
I was told twice this week that I needed to write about the Fishy voice, so here it goes. After shopping and walking past the seafood counter at the Real Canadian Super Store this week, minus the musical number, Jordyn and I broke into a high-school musical style performance of “The Talking Fish”. Jordyn was the funniest though and because we all laughed, she immediately said “You better put this in your blog daddy”. I only wish I recorded it so you could hear her in the red snapper, bigger then her body, voice saying “Don’t eat me please, I will not taste that good. I miss my friends, please can I go swimming in the ocean again?” Look for the show to hit off-off-off Broadway in a couple of years!

Confessions
WOW, I don’t know what it is about writing this blog, but it always puts me into the mood to confess some deep dark, personal secret about my life, and today I am digging deep. Hello, my name is Jim C and I am an impulse shopper. Those little items neatly stacked and seemingly unconnected, beside the checkout at the grocery store and the hardware store or just about anyplace you shop. It has been several days since my last purchase, but while trying to convince Nathalie that we needed the 79 cent 10 pack of pencils at the Canadian Tire checkout, I started to think why is it that I have such poor impulse control? Does my car really need to smell mountain fresh and what I am I going to do with so many bathtub stoppers?

I love that the cost of the items in and around the register is directly proportional to the cost of the average price of the stuff the store sells. I mean who would decide while waiting in line, to drop 80 dollars on a mp3 player at Best Buy? OK, you are right! If I had the money, I guess I would because that’s a good price and I am a sucker for things with buttons, but I guess the thing I need to remember is, to just focus on the exit door, and don’t look down and perhaps I will not fall prey.

Waiting games
When the girls were young, to amuse them while waiting, we would always play games. I spy with my little eye, was the big one at the start, but after we got tired of that one (mostly Nathalie and myself), we would look for other games to bide the time and being the creative bunch we are, we invented our own games. “Animal Noises” was our first and I was very proud of it. It works like the name implies, a guessing game that involves one party making an animal sound, and the other guessing what animal you are. Yes, it sounds kind of simple, but the fun is in the combinations. You see, after we got to the point we knew every animal, we introduced a twist. “Ruf Ruf Ribit Ribit”, for example is one of my favourites, because it is just so fun to say Dog Frog. Try it!

Today in the car, I was listening and enjoying the girls, as they played a game that I have not heard in a while. The game of “Would you rather?” They where having fun, quizzing each other on some whacky situations, and although they were having fun, I had to break it to them that I don’t think anyone would ever pick “fake cry for 100 years” over “learn to drive a car”. Not sure if the choices are not supposed to be a little closer in scope, but whatever works to pass the time I guess!

Wise Counsel
I am so happy to have some great friends that I can call on when I need honest advice, or a sympathetic ear or even a kick in the pants (if I need it!). But this kind of street is ALWAYS a two way street and this week, I was reminded how important it is to be there for your friends when they need you. Nathalie has some crazy mad observational skills and is very good at telling you how it is and that sure comes in handy when someone needs to hear something that they don’t know they need to hear.

Some of our friends are going trough some issues and I know that one of the reasons they will each emerge, stronger and for sure better off, is that they are willing to talk about it, willing to seek advice, and eager to put into action, the suggestions of a caring friend. I am very happy for them that they have people to talk to, but I am most happy that they have someone as special as Nathalie to get wise counsel.

In closing
Julia use to do this thing that always made us laugh. When we were laughing at something, and normally it was just Nathalie and I, she would start laughing louder and louder, then suddenly stop, shake her head and say “Ya, I don’t get it!”… Of course that would make us laugh more, but this week I heard it again with a twist. The only difference is after the insane laughing loudly, instead of admitting she doesn’t understand what we are laughing about, she just says “Ya, that’s NOT funny!”

What is a little funny is that we are finished another week!
Thanks for reading and have a great and safe week!
Jim

Tags: No Comments.

A Soap Box, A Proud daddy and A Little Bamboozlement, a quick look into the week that was number 35 in the Carr household. The zero calories addition!

---

Soap Box
I am SO mad and I can’t take it anymore. Frustrated beyond belief at the timing of an unforgivable event and I just have to hop up on my soap box and yell at the top of my lungs. To fully understand my frustration, I need to come clean and confess something about me. As part of my morning routine, while stopping at Tim Hortons for my tea and bagel, if I have been good, I will reward myself with an apple fritter. Now the reward criteria is loosely based on the academy awards voting criteria (loosely!), and I have a special excel spreadsheet created by my wife, fully sanctioned by KPMG to chart my total “goodness” factor and use it to decide if I get a treat. The frustrating thing for me is that I am always good so I do get a rewarded often, and so now you can see my problem.

The fact is that too many people can see my problem, and one morning, between Christmas and new years, after catching a full length mirror reflection of my problem, I decided then and there I would no longer be rewarding myself for anything with food of any kind especially the morning Apple Fritter. Ok you are caught up, but now to the unforgivable event. My absolute favorite sauce of any kind is caramel and the donut of the month for January, featured in beautifully shot posters, staring back at me in line at Tim’s, is an Caramel Apple Fritter, and only 49 cents with the purchase of any beverage. COME ON! I switched to a 12 grain bagel with half butter, and this is what you do to me? Damn you Tim Hortons, you will NOT break me. I will not fall for your clever, “hit em’” when they are down marketing ploy and I will not eat your tempting little caramel filled, glazed incrusted, sometimes hot, baked good. I just refuse!

(Editors note: in order to fully criticize the new caramel Apple Fritter from Tim Hortans, I felt it was important I was able to fully describe the item first hand, so I did purchase and consume only ONE.) Sorry, for I am weak!

Bamboozled
The art of bamboozlement, defined as the act or process of bamboozling or being bamboozled. To con, defraud, trick, to make a fool of, to humbug or impose on someone. It is a little of this, and I guess not that big of a deal, but this week, we were bamboozled by a couple of 10 year olds and it went something like this. Jordyn gets a call from a friend that apparently, followed through on a promises early that day to call her at home. After the general pleasantries are exchanged, the hush of a convert conversation begins. “Umm Hhh, Yes OK, yes I will ask… Daddy, what time do we get home on Friday?” “Not sure Jordyn, maybe around 5 or 6.” Jordyn, again in a hush “Ya, ok, Daddy, can my friend come over?” Unsure of the correct answer, I say the only thing a good husband should ever say, “Ask you Mom!”. Mom shouts from the front room “I guess”. The next couple of minutes are a little unclear and frankly just a blur, thus the bamboozle. There was request for a sleep over and then a reminder of our first ice skating lesson early Saturday morning, and then the phone is hung up, and all of the sudden, we have Jordyn’s friend for the night, and the skating and she is being picked up around 1:00. WOW.

I am sure the phone conversation on the other end of the call was similar, with words like “she is asking me to sleep over” and “she wants me to go with her to her skating lesson” because we all did it when we were kids and after all, turn around is fair play, so its all good. We have used the situation to gone over the “making arrangements” over the phone, while the person is on the line rules, and hopefully we will not be victims of a 10 year old’s bamboozlement again, but I think we will be!

In closing
So a couple of weeks in the books with the news Christmas gifts, and all but one toy has been opened and well played with. We will get to Martian Matter soon enough, but it was a conversation I had with Julia that made me stand a little taller. She said “You know, I love all my toys and new clothes, but I would give them all back if I had to, because all that is important is having my family with me.” **Smiling proudly** , thank you Julia for somehow learning the most important thing about Christmas, this time of year and life for that matter! The importance of family.

Thanks for reading, and have a great and safe week and remember, please feel free to comment!
Jim

Tags: No Comments.

Personal Growth, an Email, the Count Down and some Great Music, the year ending, recap and somewhat deep look into the lives of the Carrs for Week 34 and the LAST week of 2009.

---

Growth
I made my bed today. In fact, I make it everyday. Well, most days it is just figuratively me, tucking the corners and fluffing the pillows, as in the time honoured saying “you made your bed, now lie in it” but today while actually straightening the comforter on the worlds highest bed, I had an “Ah-Ha” moment. It is true that we are the author of our own destiny and we should always take credit for our success and failures. Sure, we have people in our lives that contribute and somewhat steer us in one direction or another, but ultimately it is us that makes it happen. So it is up to us to take credit for our lives and all that happens in it. That part was not the “Ah-Ha” moment, I suppose on some level I have always known that, but what came to me between the top sheet and the other top sheet was the fact that every day, at every moment, we all start fresh and make our bed, and have from that moment on, a chance to lie in it, sorta speak.

When historians look back at the year that was 2009, certainly, the inauguration of Barack Obama, the death of the King of Pop or end of the “Economic Crisis” would be in there, but if someone were to author our family history book, what events would be on the pages in the chapter called 2009? Positives would include our eldest reaching double-digits in age, our good friends tying the knot, and moving in with my sister and her family. Along with the most significant positive of buying our first house, came the negative of the loss of my Aunt Mae. We lost two other people in our lives this year and although our own health over the last 12 months has been stable, the health of others in our family has been a challenge and that would all be in the book for sure. I think, if one word was singled out in this chapter, that word would be “growth”.

When I personally look back at 2009 in my life, I will always remember that it was this year that saw me grow tremendously as a person and I am giving credit for this to 3 events. First, a new role at work for 4 months that allowed me to learn new things and look at work and life from a different perspective; second, I started recording the comings and goings in my life in a weekly re-cap blog and of course third, we bought our first home. 3 things in my bed that I made and have laid in and with the help of many people have turned into my growth in the year that was 2009 and I could not be more happy.

Electronic mail
Both the girls have e-mail addresses, and do use them to send messages of love and request to both me and Nathalie. “What are we having for dinner?” and “I love you” are popular content in this little message and it is sure cute to see them trying to communicate this way. Jordyn got a netbook for Christmas, so with an email program literally in her lap, the messages have started to come more often just like this one. “hi daddy did you know that and i love you and mommy and julia and bentley and today we watched garfield it was on tv and it is funny.” My only hope is that the girls will never stop sending us these kind of messages and perhaps we are able to teach the importance of punctuation.

Week Off
The week between Christmas and New Years Eve, traditionally for us is a good time to get caught up on sleep, set-up new presents and spend some time with family and friends. Nathalie will normally take the time off, to match the time I have off and this year, she did take vacation days, although she had some work to do from home. Me, on the other hand, had some stuff to do work-wise also, so it was a busy week for sure. The girls enjoyed sleeping in and staying up late, but hiding around the corner in a couple of days is that back to school thing so, it all comes to end soon. Right back at it, and aside from the waking up early again, I think we are all looking forward to the promise of what is to come in 2010.

Count down
We almost missed the big count down this year. Oh we were awake alright, just busy playing games with friends. Getting caught up in the moment, laughing and having fun, we stopped and realized what time it was, and with 2 minutes to spare the TV is turned on in time to see the big ball drop. Thank you to our hosts for a great evening and what would have to be the best way in the world to usher in the new year. Good food, awesome music and a laugh or two with some great friends. Lets hope there is way more of that in 2010.

Music in Me
Well not me per say, but the music is in the house, loud and clear and all in the name of fun in the Carr household and I have to say I like it! The guitars and the new keyboard are being used and songs are flowing. Not necessarily in tune, but flowing just the same. My favourite moment to this point was just before we headed out on New Years Eve, the two sitters where at the keyboard playing a song, and Jordyn was right in there watching the fingering and Julia and the sitters’ little sister were just dancing and singing away, not a care in the world. Lets hope 2010 brings more singing and dancing to the Carrs just like that!

In Closing
A good friend and colleague, Michael Monty would always tell me that we do some of our best thinking before and after sleep and would remind me to keep a pad of paper beside my bed to jot down my thoughts. I have never done it until recently when, I have started to send myself an email with a couple of words that hopefully remind me what it was that I came up with in bed. I find it helpful, when writing a recap of the week, if I can refer back to my emails for content and inspiration and this week, while at the movie theater, I sent myself one that said “opening sequence”.

Actually it said “Open aequince” but it was dark, and I have big fingers and I figured it out anyway. What I was thinking about is what would the opening sequence or title part of a movie about your life look like? My movie, staring Kevin James in what critics call “the role of his lifetime” would contain great music and lots of snap shots of people laughing over a background of sunny skies and some body of water. I don’t know if it is just because I heard the song the other day in a commercial, but I keep hearing “Love Generation” by Bob Sinclair in the background, and it occurred to me that this is a good healthy new years resource for replaying what has happened in your life over the last year and we should all take a moment to become an award winning director and create our own opening sequence!

Feel the love generation,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Feel the love generation,
Ooohhh yeah-yeah,

Don’t worry about a thing,
it’s gonna be alright.

Thanks for a great year and for reading my blog!
Have a safe week, and a GREAT 2010.
Jim

Tags: 2 Comments

Birthdaybook, Bentley and a Lyrical look into the snow falling and way too much food, week 33 in the lives of the Carr family

Lyrical

“So this is Christmas,
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun”

I have always thought that John Lennon was singing directly to me with this song. OK I had thought the line was another year “older” not “over”, so I had thought it must to be that the magical, lyrical and musical genius was speaking directly to me because of my birthday and I have always been happy to answer the question too. “John, it is like this, this year I have tried to help others, I have tried to work hard, be honest with all who cross my path and generally, tried to make a difference each day.” What a disappointment a couple of years ago when I found out that I had the lyrics all wrong. Over NOT older, I mean so close but still wrong. Who knew?

It is not new to Nathalie and now the girls that I am very good a remembering songs and can identify most after just a couple of notes, but YES it is also known, I am not very good at remembering the correct lyrics, so I guess it is not that shocking that I got it wrong. For now, I will still use the time and the inspiration in the songs message to answer the year ending question, “What have you done?”, and will always hope that I have something good to say as the answer.

Another year older
Trying to avoid being selfish, I will instead only talk about my twin sister’s birthday. On Christmas day, 4 decades ago (plus a year), in a little room in the Scarborough General Hospital, born unto James and Helen Carr the twins arrived in the morning. Yes, quite a bundle of joy for under the Christmas tree, a boy and a girl, born more then a month premature 12 minutes apart. Growing up a fraternal twin was to say the least interesting and throw in the fact that our birthday was forever tied in with another significant event, celebrated the world over, gives it just another bit of excitement.

For our family, Christmas Eve has always been the big, wide spread family get together and traditions such as these have been challenge over the last bunch of years with address changes, the addition of new family members and of course the arrival of kids. The one major change that has been the hardest for me to get used to, is the fact that my little sister has moved to Newfoundland with her family and is no longer here for the festivities.

Missing my little sister is something I have done a fair amount of over the last year or so, and being this is the second Christmas and Birthday we have not hugged in celebration of another year gone by, it was especially hard for me. It is early for resolutions, but I resolve to do a better job in 2010 of calling my little sis just to say hello, and do a better job at letting her know how much I miss her because I do. Happy Birthday Baney, I love you!

Bentley
It’s no secret that my Mom loves Bentley and he loves her just as much. When he was a puppy and we had no kids, we always recognized and rewarded his continued love for us with a gift at Christmas. Needless to say, we stopped for the most part, after the arrival of the kids, but my Mom never did. Still to this day, 13 years later, every year under the tree, wrapped in paper is a package for Bentley. When it’s there, he knows it too. Can’t find his ball when he is playing, or a toy when it is lost, but arrive at the house with his gift under the tree for him and he circles and pokes and whines if we say “No”.

Christmas Eve was so funny with us sitting in the family room, in the glow of my sisters’ tree, with Bentleys gift tucked under a couple of other gifts near the back, and it starts. Sniff, sniff, sniff and poke. Finally we relent and let him pull it out, and just like a kid he starts tearing at the paper, looking for any free edges. In a couple of minutes, he has most of it apart and the stuffed Santa head is out and the object of his cruel obsession of removing the stuffing from anything that has it inside.

The line of the night though, came from Julia and her observations of the dismantling of the present. With only a small corner of the gift exposed, Julia asks “What is in it?”, and adds “Is it like a bone or toys or treats or something?” When no-one replies, with a smirk and an indignant tone she adds “It’s not like he is going to hear me, so what did he get?” and we just laughed, as the throws her hands up in the air she says “What, t’s not like he can hear us, he’s deaf!”

“Birthday”book
Thanks to the almost 50 people who have have sent me a birthday wishes and messages on Facebook, between Christmas Eve, and the big day itself. It seemed my phone was beeping off the hook with message notifications and I loved it. A good mix of old and new students, family and friends with well wishes and I just wanted to say a big thank you for making me feel like I am liked!

Proud Father
I am so very happy and proud of my eldest for the newly found skills she has acquired and for that matter mastered over the last couple of weeks. When it is happening, I am not always of the frame of mind to a) appreciate it and 2) remember it so I can acknowledge her achievements in the blog but tonight however, I am happy to report I can talk about her newly found skill firsthand. Jordyn our smart 10 year old little girl understands and uses, when appropriate the art of Sarcasm and it brings a tear to my eye!

In order to fully understand the situation, you have to first know that a couple of weeks ago, while attending the Christmas dinner at the Beach house, the Yamamoto’s gave us a Gingerbread sled kit. On that night the kids enjoyed putting a train version together, and other than the big mess left behind, it was a good exercise in junior engineering and I suppose on some level, baking. From the time we got home that night, with our very own kit, the girls have been asking for us to try it, but we kept saying “We will do it with your cousins at Christmas time”.

Well the kit made a trip to Caledon for Christmas Eve, and Whitby for Christmas day, and all the way back home now for boxing day, still unopened. Needless to say, Jordyn was just a little upset that we never got to it during our adventures the last couple of days and seeing it on the dinning room table caused her to say “Boy, I am sure glad we brought it with us to Grandma’s and Oma’s and never opened it” That’s my girl, kill them with wit!

In Closing
This year, the Carr girls made out very well from the big guy with everything on their list and more. The big item, guitars for each of them! I can say this that the girls are very happy and have already been parading around strumming and making noise. I look forward to teaching them and maybe one day making some music together. Couple that with the Keyboard from the Beaches, there is room for Nathalie in our family band too! How does that famous family band song go?

“I think I love you, so what are we so afraid of?”

Well I am not that scared, just a little worried!

Have a great and safe week, and see you next week for the year-end wrap-up blog.
Jim

Tags: 1 Comment

Love, laughter, fun and frolic, the fast, fun and somewhat late look into the week that was week 32 in the Carr household.

---

Late
With such a busy week, the normally Friday posting of all events Carr is, for this week, posted on Sunday and with the extra couple of days, I can squeeze in a couple of extra stories as well. This was going to be a 3 party weekend, but one was moved to next year and in retrospect, that is a good thing because the Friday and Saturday gatherings turned into much later events then we might have thought. For party details and all that is safe to print, see “Friday” and “Saturday” below!

Sunday Love
41 people gathered in a house in Brampton, under the impression they are there for a holiday celebration, a thought not hard to justify due to the time of year and given the newly fallen blanket of snow on the ground, but the truth is that the reason for the event is so much more then that. Exactly 5 years earlier two people met, started dating and over time fell in love so much so that on this day, in front of their children and all these witnesses they want to declare their love aloud and commit this love to one another for the rest of their lives.

The hosts’ disappear, unnoticed by most, only to re-appear a short time later in an elegant black and white dress and a freshly pressed tux and smiles that light the room. “Did I miss something?” utters someone in the waiting crowd herded into the living room. “Can we have your attention please? 5 years ago we started dating and how we would like to take this relationship to the next level so we are happy announce that we are getting married, and you are all invited because we are going to do it NOW!” Hugs and kisses abound and some tears of joy as well, and then the man thought to be an old work friend is now introduced as the wedding official. He presents the marriage licence and vows from his shirt pocket and just like that we are in the middle of a real, elegant, simple and romantic wedding ceremony that I will remember for a long time. Lovely is, bearing witness to love!

Our heartfelt congratulations to our friends Lisa & Luba on their blessed union and best wishes to their four lovely children for this new found family unit they find themselves in. May the next chapter in your lives be filled with mutual admiration, smiles and the same love always that I saw today in your eyes.

Thursday
On Thursday night, the girls’ school held their yearly Advent Mass at the church and it was nice to get together with so many families from our community. Our school as noted by our school trustee in attendance involves so many of the families in the actual service and it that makes for a very nice service. The girls decorated two ornaments for the “Jessie Tree” and we got to place them on the tree after reading each of the items’ meanings. This is our third year doing it and it was fun. Nathalie helped out with the food after the service and we all pitched in to get the church hall cleaned at the end of the event.

Friday
It was nice to be able to attend the Friday awards celebration at the girls’ school and especially nice because one award had a Carr girl name on it! Congratulations to Jordyn on her Personal Growth Achievement Certificate this school term. You have worked very hard and we are so very proud of all that you have achieved. A special note to Julia also, that the award you where recognized for a couple of weeks ago, will be given out next term and we look forward to that ceremony as well. It is nice to see that others feel as strong about how great our kids are as we do!

Friday night
Every year the most energized and eclectic group of people I have ever met, get together and have a holiday celebration in a small house in downtown Toronto and I so look forward to the event every year. Organized by the home owners, M&M, who are two of my work colleagues and although we missed last year due to bad weather, we have been regulars for the last 4 years or so. To add yet another dimension to the event for us this year, we went without the kids, due to the birthday sleepover they went to. Hanging out past 11:00 for the first time ever, in fact closing the joint after 2:00AM meant that we drove a couple of the last stranglers’ home. We sure had fun!

Saturday night
Another night out, this one at the Beach house and another late night, but with great food and great company, and some fun games, the tired drive home was so worth it. Thanks to Coco, for a wonderful complete turkey dinner (we are told her first?) and for Jeff for keeping the drinks topped up and thanks so much for the Christmas gift that makes lots of noise. We can’t wait to repay the favour in the future when you have children.

In closing
I understand the science of time and that there is a finite number of seconds in a minute, and so many minutes in an hour and so many hours in a day and so on. I get that you can’t actually speed or slow it down no matter how much you might like to, but what I don’t understand is why it is that it just seems that time is flying by these days more then before. It is not just me feeling this way either. Several conversations this week with a bunch of different people, all found there way to the topic of time and the fact that it is already near the end of December and we are all amazed how quick it has snuck up on us. I suppose kids, age and a good life contribute to the effect of seeming to speed up the world clock and I guess with the bad weather on the way I should be happy to get it over faster, even if it only just seems that way, but the fact is that as I write this, I have only 5 days left in my 41st year and hiding around the corner is the start of the next year for all.

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

Tags: No Comments.

One size fits all, a good lesson and I am just saying, words and wisdom from the week 31 Carr family blog with a just a light snow covering.

---

Wrong Size
Last Sunday the reason we had to race back to Mississauga from our Christmas shopping trip in the US was to get the girls to a skating party to celebrate Julia’s little friends birthday. With an excitement and smiles, the girls dawned their skates, and with trepidation and a smirk, I laced mine as well. The trepidation from the fact that in the last maybe 20 years, I had only been on ice skates for about 15 or 20 minutes, and these 40-year-old bones are fragile after all. Julia made it to a “two-fall” count and a little over 15 feet and called it a day but Jordyn lasted a lot longer, making a whole bunch of trips around the rink escorted by the guy with the shooting pain in his feet. I think in the end, we settled on the idea of lessons for both and perhaps some new skates for daddy that hopefully will be the right size.

Classroom
It has been a very long time since I was officially a student, but this week I have the pleasure of saying I actually learned something in school. At the end of any semester, especially the fall semester, the energy and camaraderie in the room is something to behold and Thursday during the practical radio tests I give all my first semester students, I took a moment to watch, listen and think about the tests from the past. This group, not much different from those over the last 16 years of teaching, in a few short minutes reminded me why I love teaching so much just by singing and dancing and having fun in the classroom. Yes, I get a lot out of teaching, in the sense of an awareness of skill in my trade, but I was reminded this week, if you ever want to feel good about aging, do yourself a favor and spend some time with those younger then you.

On Friday, I got to test this theory even more, by spending the day at the girl’s school, recording the primary kids for their Christmas Music CD. I had a blast and will hopefully have the CD mastered and ready to go for next week, but what spending the day with more then 150 kids under 8 reminded me is that you need to remember that at some point in your life, perhaps way back in grade 3 or 4, you where fearless and joy was simply making your best friend laugh with only a funny face. I think all too often, we forget to have fun, and my lesson this week is to try to do just that.

I am just saying
I am not proud of it, but sometimes I loose it. In the car with the girls, I listened to them arguing about what drives me the most crazy. Comparing who got what, and playing the “well you got this and you got that game” and I lost it. “Stop it girls, you know I don’t like you fighting over or comparing what you have with each other. It was the gift bag from the skating party that was the subject of the discussion and on it went. “STOP it, what did I get? I drove you all the way to the party; I paid for your skates. I was the one who went all the way around the rink with you and held you up and brushed you off, and what did I get? How does that sound? WHAT DID I GET? Julia puts up an imaginary hand and is looking for a chance to jump, and finally fits in “Daddy, I am just saying, but you could have had a hot chocolate, they had lots there”. If I only had known!

Lawyers
Last week, I posted a video of Julia on Youtube, and featured it in my blog, but never mentioned it to the kids. That is until, a trip home from the sitters this week. “So Julia, I posted that video of you singing on the Internet, and talked about it in my blog last week. Jordyn in her best “Agent to the Stars voice says; “Daddy, you should have asked her permission before you did that.” I guess you are right, Jordyn, so what would you have said Julia if I asked to use your video? Without a hesitation, she says “NO!” Great, now I have some kind of diva lawsuit on my hands, but as long as neither of them can spell “Lawyer” I guess I am safe (for now). Let’s hope that no one comes up with some kind of first-amendment violation by blogging about my family and friends.

Birthday, Birthday
Next to April and May, the busiest months around these parts as far as birthdays go, are November and December. My Dad, my sister-in-law, my nephew, my aunt and of course my twin sister (and me!). So this week, I wanted to say a big happy birthday to my little buddy Colby for turning 6 years old. I hope you had a great day!

In closing
This week, Nathalie gets the last word. After a small disagreement, and the subsequent lets call it “discussion”, I do what any smart husband does, recognize the error of my way and apologize. “Sorry for being an ass” I say, but there is something to be said about jumping in with two feet and landing on that grenade. It sets you up just a little bit. I don’t think she meant her response to come out the way it did, but ouch just the same. “Sorry for being an ass, Nathalie”. “It’s ok Jim, you can’t help being what you are”. What does that mean?

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

Tags: 1 Comment

Shopping, letter grades and a shameless plea, fun and games and a little road trip for the Carr’s in the week that was – Week 30

---

Vote for me (please!)
When I started my blog, my intent was never notoriety. Don’t get me wrong; I could use my 15 minutes just as much as the next guy, but the idea was more of an electronic breadcrumb trail of my family life in the form of a weekly recap. Sometimes funny, sometimes not, sometimes late and sometimes not but always an easy, quick read and fun look into what happened with the Carr’s for any given week. Mostly designed for the enjoyment of family and friends, but never held back from the general public I case someone finds it interesting. I have been checking out a bunch of other blogs and found several “best of” awards and found a nomination form for “Canadian Blog Awards – 2009” and thought why not.

I am nominated in the family section with 32 other very cool blogs, with literally thousands of readers each, so I am not holding out much hope for a top place finish, but maybe top 10 would be nice, so please help me out and cast your vote if you can!. On December 12, they will release the top nominations in each category so I will keep you posted!

A, B, C, and a D
This is the time of the school year where we stop and look back and discuss a little thing called progress. The hope is that you are at the least a little a head of where you where the last time you did the look back, in an academic improvement kind of way. You get to put all your efforts and work into 1 of 5 or 6 categories and I am very happy to report the girls have done very well on their report cards, landing in the top 2 or 3 categories. A’s, B’s and C’s for both girls, and one little D. It would seem that one of the girls is not enjoying reading as much as we would like her to and for her effort (or in this case lack of!) she was given a little carrot dangling incentive in the form of an almost failing mark. Perhaps, she needs to start reading my blog.

Road Trip
Well as Nathalie’s Facebook status “love that after 20 years we can still be totally spontaneous!” states, we are still able to make last minute decisions, and fill the car and point it wherever and just go. We had already planned a shopping trip to the US for Saturday, so I guess it was not that “spontaneous” but grabbing enough clothes and leaving a day earlier and now staying a day longer, oh and driving a couple hours further, makes it unplanned in my books. So we end up in Detroit, Michigan instead of Buffalo, New York, for our little Carr family Christmas Shopping road trip.

There is nothing like a trip to a mall on a busy pre-Christmas shopping excursion to give you a little perspective. First, I am so happy that my kids have never been the ones to pull the middle of the mall temper tantrum, after finding out that they are not getting the latest whatever and I am also very happy that I am married to the best shopper in the world. Not only does she know product pricing, and if it is a good deal or not, but she has some kind of fancy magnets in her pockets that attract “the crazy math discount on discount deals”. There is know one that can get as much stuff, for as little money and in the end, have the sales clerk laughing to the point that they want to give an extra 5% off the whole thing.

In closing
I love my iPhone and so do the girls but not because they Google street map their friends house, but because it has a video recorded, and they love making these mini movies. I must have 20 or 30 of these little 15 – 30 second files on my phone, and they are so funny but so far my favourite one is a little song. I thought I would close, by sharing it with you!

Have an awesome week, thanks for reading, and please don’t forget to vote!
Jim

Tags: 2 Comments

Talk, talk, talk, Kiss-n-Ride and a guilty pleasure with no fear of judgment, the Carr blog is up for the Week that was number 29.

---

The talk
It happened, and we are not all that happy about it. We just felt that we would have more time to prepare. More time to plan an approach or come up with a unified strategy. Time to come up with the answer to the “going to happen” question about the magic of Christmas. This week it happened in the car, with not only our kids, but the little Shea people as well and that is what made it very difficult. These are four smart kids, and having the questions hanging in the air like a bad scent, only caused a ripple effect of more questions. “How does he…” and “How can that be…” and “What does it…” This cannot end well, the belief and power of this festive season and the mystical properties of the man himself all in question and nothing to divert attention or change the course of questioning. Nathalie and I just look at each other horrified and threw in an “of course we are not the ones who…” but that is all we said. How do you follow that? Leaving it and letting it blow over, turned out to be the best approach, but it was close, far too close and that only means one thing. It will come up again.

Guilty Pleasure
What is your guilty pleasure? What is it that you like or crave, or need in your life that if your friends ever found out may result in unspeakable judgment to the point that you are voted off the island? Nothing illegal here, but right now, my audio guilty pleasure is a song by Owl City, called Fireflies. When I hear it on the radio, I turn it up loud and sing along and I don’t care! It is what I might call a slightly corny attempt at a pop song with odd but memorable lyrics, and although it is doing (or has done) well on the charts, most I simply mention it’s name too, scoff in disapproval of this melodic little ditty. So for now, I will keep my fondness of the song one of my guilty pleasures and I will do so, with no fear of judgment, unless of course it ever gets out that I like it.

Talking dog
Bentley the super dog is 13, and for the last 7 years or so, he has stayed at home by himself during the day while we go to work and school. Before that, he would go to doggy daycare but that is a story for another blog, some other day. For now I would like to share a typical conversation we have with him as we arrive at home to find him waiting for us, or at least what I think it would sound like if he talked in words we could understand.

“Ohhhh you’re home, you’ll never guess what I did all day, ohh I am so happy to see you, today I heard a sound and I barked at it and scared it away, (lick, lick, lick) I heard the mail man and I told him to go away, then I ran upstairs and I looked for my toy and played for a bit, then I ran downstairs because I thought I heard you coming home, and then I slept and I barked and ohh I am so glad to see you, can you fill my water dish, I am thirsty, did you bring me anything, oh I missed you, sorry about the accident I left downstairs, ohh I am tired, how was your day (pant pant pant)?”

Kiss-n-Ride
A smile. Boundless energy and an excitement to arrive at school and sometimes even a kiss goodbye. I see it every morning while I open the doors of the cars, dropping the kids off at the St. Richard, Kiss-n-ride. That great energy and spirit of youth, seemingly thankful for education and for the most part excited about getting it started by first getting out of their parents car. For my help with a backpack, or a “have a great day” wish, I get rewarded with a smile and a little voice “Thank You” and it makes my day. You can’t have a bad day after volunteering and that’s why I do it. If you get a chance to somehow “give back” do it, and do it with force because it makes you a better person from the inside out.

In closing
This week, after having a conversation with a couple of my 3rd semester students about the need for a personal verbal filter, I was reminded of a conversation I had with Nathalie on the same topic. It is amazing that kids just say what they think or feel and never are concerned how the people around them will react, so they can get away with no filter. It is one of the things that is so enjoyable about having children. The other side of not caring what they say, is sometimes they say things that make you react, but not for the way that they might think. Julia said this week “I love living in the closet”. Ok, yes she is talking about the front hall closet and the fact that she enjoys hiding in there to scare anyone who makes the mistake of walking by, but still no filter, no worries, and not a care in the world and still funnier then most, even if she doesn’t mean to be.

Thanks for reading, please feel free to comment and have a great week!
Jim

Tags: 1 Comment