New Beginnings

Once upon a time, there was a blog here and it was about more than just postcards.

But then life happened and blogging became something that stayed at the bottom of the to do list.

In August, Alex and I did something we'd been talking about for years. We packed up our stuff and sent it away to storage. We loaded our kids and a few things into a UHaul, the back of our car and my mom and dad's station wagon and we moved to Kelowna. With no jobs, no daycare and a place in French Immersion for Miss J.

It was a bit scary and a lot exciting and somewhat nerve wracking but we did it.

And now, almost six months later, we're feeling quite settled and there might just be time for some blogging as we create new memories in a new city. I'm making no promises but I think I'm back!

And then…

Wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy back in 2006, when my life was a different kind of life than it was now, I started this blog…it’s gone in a few different directions and it’s become a complete postcard blog and there’s been radio silence as well as times when I posted at least once a day…which brings me to today.

The last two years have been a roller coaster ride of emotions, challenges, successes, joys and frustrations for our family. Some of it I’ve shared here and some of it I haven’t. We’ve had some major health battles, we’ve had illness and death in our families, we’ve had stress, lots of stress. And to preserve our sanity and privacy, a lot of that has stayed off the blog. And I don’t regret that. But now, we’re in a place of relative peace and calm. We have adjusted quite well to being a family of four. We have a new place to live. Our health, all four of us, is good. I don’t even think we’ve got any colds right now (and I’ve probably jinxed it now…)

And I miss blogging. I miss writing. I miss this place that was for me. I’ve taken a look at my 101 in 1001, version 2 and I have a few things to post. We’ve got plans to do some fun stuff. I’ve got thoughts buzzing around in my brains…so I’m going to see where this takes me. And if it’s another sputtering start, well, then maybe I’m just supposed to have a postcard blog and that’s it.

If you’re still out there and still blogging, let me know…I feel like the little world that was here just a couple of years ago has moved on…

Happy Family Day tomorrow…we’re doing “fun” family stuff – the grocery store, the pharmacy and the hardware store! I promise I won’t blog about that!

The next chapter

Five and a half years ago we opened this door and started a new chapter of our life that would see our family grow from two to four.

I was hugely pregnant with J and this was the place that would be her first home. By the middle of that day, our place looked like this:

But even so we hosted our first dinner. My awesome parents were here to help us move and we got the apartment cleaned and sorted enough to have company. Luckily we didn't have to do anything for dinner...my amazing aunt and uncle brought dinner, dishes, cutlery and a lot of laughter which was great after a really long day. We had a one hour window between when we could get into our new home and when we had to be out of the ghetto Pink Palace. Thank goodness for excellent helpers!

Less than three weeks later, before we were fully unpacked, this little lady made a dramatic entrance into our lives and the Lyons' Den became home to a family of three.

We had lots of fun, celebrated some birthdays and Christmases and then, last April, this happened.

And we made do in the Lyons' Den we had outgrown a year or two before for another nine months...it looked like this for a while

(seriously, what family with two small children can sustain this for an extended period of time?)

Today, our little Lyons' Den looks like this...

much like it did on that hot summer's day five and a half years ago. We made a few changes and a lot of memories. And now our keys belong to another family, also starting a new chapter in their lives. There were a few tears and one emotionally torn five year old went around to each room to say goodbye and I love you. She kissed all the walls and each window and door in her special green room.

And then the chapter ended.

And our next chapter? Well, it begins here:

Goodbye Lyons' Den. You were good to us and we'll miss you, but we are very excited to see what this next chapter brings!

And now we are four

Four and a half years ago, our life changed in more ways that we could ever imagine when J made an early entry into our lives. J had grown into a smart, articulate, kind little girl who has been super excited for the last six months about the impending arrival of her new baby brother or sister.

Three weeks ago, our life changed again. Baby C arrived, again a bit earlier than anticipated.

We went in for a regular prenatal appointment and a few hours later, Baby C was here. She was a good size and her APGAR scores were both 9…one very happy, healthy little baby.

J had gone to Kelowna with her grandparents after Easter, so she was away when C arrived, but the day we came home from the hospital, my mom and J arrived from Kelowna. J was so excited. You can see her big sister shirt in the picture below. She wore it every day for over a week (she thought it was never washed, but it did sneak a few baths in over that week).

J loves Baby C – she is constantly kissing her and hugging her. The first thing she does in the morning and when she comes home, is look for her little sister to say hello. And the last thing she does before she goes out or to bed is hug her sister and tell her she loves her.

Welcome Baby C! We’re all so happy you’re here!

Thank you random stranger

Dear stranger who unknowingly spared J many tears,

Tonight we met my mom and sister for dinner. After dinner my mom walked home with us. We had a few bags, a few coats and puppy with us.

This is puppy. Also known as Woof. J got him as a gift two years ago and they quickly became inseparable. I don't think she's spent a night without him. Puppy has been to a bunch of Giants games, some Olympic events and he came on our trip to the Newcastle, London and Scotland.

My mom came in and hung out with us for a while. She got J into bed and they were reading stories when I realized that she didn't have Woof. I went to find him. I couldn't find him. Alex looked. My mom looked. Puppy was gone.

I put J to bed, Alex went on a search and rescue mission. My mom left and back tracked the same way we came home. No puppy. When Alex got home, I grabbed the flashlight and took a look too...Alex wasn't with us when we came home, so I tried to retrace our steps. I walked up the hill. I wandered down Broadway to where we last remembered seeing Woof. I looked in newspaper boxes, on top of mailboxes, under cars. No luck.

I walked the path though the garden that J had run laps around. I looked under bushes and in gutters. I walked back down the hill feeling a bit sad for J. And less than 20 metres from our building? Woof. Perched on a fire hydrant.

Woof is safely tucked into bed with J. J didn't ask for him before she went to bed, but she was up an hour and a half later than usual and was distracted by my mom.

So stranger, thank you for noticing a grungy, bedraggled puppy. Thank you for picking it up and putting it on that fire hydrant. Thank you for recognizing that a puppy in that state is valuable. That a puppy so sad and scrawny looking (click some of those links up there and you'll see him in all his fuzzy, furry glory days) is very well loved. Thank you for keeping the tears out of our house. I don't expect you'll ever see this thank you, but if something brings you to this page, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Yours Truly,
A very grateful mommy

History repeats itself...sort of...

DISCLAIMER: I'm FINE. That's all. Now you can keep reading.



You think I'd learn the first time.

But I didn't.

So the second time, you think I'd learn for sure.

Uh.

Nope.

Apparently not.

Almost twenty years ago I was getting ready to go out to some field hockey thing. But I never made it. Because I flew down the stairs and went to the hospital instead. With my parents and my sisters. They had to repeat the very painful x-rays because they didn't work the first time. My mom bought me a Coffee Crisp...strange things that you remember. So diagnosis: destroyed knee...almost. According to the doctors, based on the way I fell, I should have torn my patella and most of the ligaments around it. I strained everything and moved, but didn't dislocate, the fibula...I'm talented.

I earned myself a soft, very hot cast and two weeks on crutches in June when we had no classes, just exam prep time. I did well on my exams that year...

Just over four years ago I decided it would be fun to repeat that exercise on the stairs in the blue house. I didn't fare as well. A few hours, one landlady, five paramedics, two ambulances (including a transfer from one to the other in the middle of Broadway in the middle of rush hour) and I was at the hospital. It took eight hours to get a diagnosis. I had a nurse who thought I was there for the morphine and a neighbour with dementia who had a very lucid moment when she told the nurse "This is a hospital. You're supposed to help people here, not hurt them more" seconds after the nurse forced me to a seated position and I screamed loud enough to wake the dead.

I had a fractured vertebrae. It hurt. A lot. I was off work for three months. It was evil. You can read more about it here.

So last night, I thought I'd try again. At Alex's parents house (which, interestingly, has the same floor plan as the house where I first fell down the stairs). With J standing on the top step. I apparently yelled very loud. Alex had flashbacks of 2006. J started crying. Grandma and Papa came very, very quickly...

My back hurts where it hit the steps partway down. My left thumb and the outside edge of my right hand are bruised and sore. I ache. All over. But I'm fine. Alex gave me Tylenol before I went to bed and I'm sure that helped - at least I got a decent sleep. J keeps asking my why I fell down and why I yelled so loud and why she cried...even though I'm moving fairly well, she's not sure I'm okay. She just told me it would be "better for me" if I stayed home from the park today...

They say things happen in threes...that's three tumbles down the stairs for me, so I've decided either I'm cursed and I should stay away from stairs permanently or I've had my three tumbles down the stairs and we're good...

Five YEARS

Hey! Guys? Anyone out there?

Five years ago today, right now, for the first time, I hit publish post and scribbles, scratches and scrawls was born.

FIVE YEARS with a blog? ME? I wasn't going to have a blog. Umm, yeah, I have three and contribute to a fourth. Right. Not going to have a blog.

So not possible. But it is. And it's real.

Lots has changed since then.

• In 2006 I lived in the Blue House. Now I live in the Lyons' Den. And in between we lived in the ghetto Pink Palace.
• In 2006 I rented. Now I have a mortgage.
• In 2006 I had a boyfriend. Now that boyfriend is my husband.
• In 2006 I lived with a roommate. Now I live a husband and a kid.
• In 2006 I took the bus to work every morning. Now I drive.
• In 2006 I had worked for my "new" boss for just over a year. In 2011 I have worked for my "new" boss for just under a year.
• In 2006 I had insomnia a lot. Now I don't have insomnia at all but I wish I had more hours to sleep.
• In 2006 I think I had about four readers. Now I have more than that. And I think that three of the four original readers are still reading. The fourth one I'm not so sure about, but my bloggy-sense tells me she's gone (and I'm okay with that).
• In 2006 I regularly lamented that Punk lived in another city. Now she lives eight blocks from me.
• In 2006 my blog had polka dots on it. Now it has birds.
• In 2006 Heddy left me my very first comment. She started a new blog last month and I got to leave her very first comment.
• In 2006 my book club was still running strong. Now my book club is virtual.
• In 2006 my now mother-in-law was in a tooth and nail fight with Cancer. Now she's been cancer free for four years.
• In 2006 I complained a lot about a Blackberry a certain person I worked with possessed. Now I have my own Blackberry.

Lots has changed, but some things haven't changed a bit.

• Alex is still here.
• I still love to read.
• My paper obsession hasn't stopped. In fact, it has probably grown a bit.
  
• The most important things in my life are people: my family and friends.
• I missed Pax Lodge. I still miss Pax Lodge.
  
• I still blather on and on and on about all kinds of things.

So, thanks for reading and thanks Heddy for pushing me to start...I thought it would fizzle, but there seems to be no end in sight!

In which the computer gods were looking out for me

We have a computer at home. It's green. I love it.

But I never back it up.

We have an external hard drive at home. It's twice the size of the hard drive on the computer.

But I never back the computer up.

We take lots of pictures. Every few months I think, "Gee, it would suck if we lost our pictures." And then I copy them to the external drive.

But I never back the computer up.

And then I read something, somewhere. I can't remember what it was or where or when, but the gist was that whoever wrote it (or it was written about) had a fire or something at their house. And lost everything. Including all of their photos. I thought it might be a good idea to get a second hard drive to keep at work, so if something happened, we'd still have those pictures.

So, for reasons still unknown to me, on Friday night I stopped on the way home and bought a second external hard drive (HD2).

And on Friday night I copied all of the pictures on the hard drive of the computer onto the first hard drive (HD1). Then I copied the photographic content of HD1 onto HD2. I don't know how long it took. I started it at 10:00 pm and when I woke up the computer had gone to sleep around 4:30, so the copying had stopped, but it wasn't done yet. So I finished it.

Then I decided to run a back up to HD1. It took 16 hours. I was going to do a second back up to HD2, but ugh...16 hours. I decided I'd do it later.

I'm glad that I got it backed up to HD1 because, well, on Sunday afternoon, I turned the computer on to get a recipe for dinner and it didn't do anything. Last night it still wasn't happy - it loads the desktop icons and then it freezes.

I guess the computer needs the doctor...and maybe we need a new computer. But at least I was smart enough to do a back up.

And HD2 has moved into my office to stay until it's time to do another back up.

Which I will be doing often.

Devon Coyote: The Tri Colour EP

My cousin Devon sent out the link to his album today...check it out (and if you like, buy it!)




YAY Devon!

I have lots to say today

So I might overblog.

For that, I'm apologizing well in advance.

Announcing a new arrival

This post was originally published at Get Fit Chicks. It may refer to posts on Get Fit Chicks that no longer exist. Please email me if you run into any of those and I will break the links. More information about the reposting is available here

Our guest poster, Melynda, delivered a baby girl this morning at 1:24 am. Her name is Georgia Ruth and she weighs 7lbs 8 oz.

Congratulations Melynda!

Tweet Tweet cupcakes here I come...

The other day I mentioned that Maggie was doing a give-away of super cute cupcake kits.

They were both adorable, but I really liked the Tweet Tweet kit. I entered her giveaway, which I sometimes do when I see something that I really like and I really think I'll use and that maybe I wouldn't (or couldn't) get for myself. But I don't win. Ever. And that's okay. I also never win the lottery.

Until today.


These are coming my way! How exciting...I'm not sure what occasion I'll use them for or what kind of cupcakes I'll make, but I'm excited.

My new imaginary friend

Did you have an imaginary friend when you were little?

I did. I had multiple. I could never remember their names though. They changed all the time.

But I have an imaginary friend now, and I'm not that little (and I can remember her name). Her name is AndreaClaire and you can read about her over on Writings from a Nobody.

She's part of The Great Book Challenge, she's doing her own Project 365 and she likes postcards.

So we had an imaginary cup of tea together. Because it just seemed like the right thing to do!

Lola Fiona Jessica Tinkerbell Lynons

And the lesson from squirt is: It's sometimes good to change your name. (and no, there is no spelling mistake in the title of this post)

My kid announced at dinner last night that her name is Lola Fiona Jessica Tinkerbell. She will not answer to her real name. She will only answer to Fiona, Jessica, Tinkerbell or a combination IF they are preceded by Lola. We know where she got Fiona, Jessica and Tinkerbell from. No idea where she got Lola (but it's cute!).

Of course it was more like this:

Me: J would you like a popsicle?
J: NO! Lola Noah Caca.
Me: Oh, is your name Lola Fiona Jessica?
J: NO! Lola Noah Caca Tinkybewl
Me: Okay. Lola Fiona Jessica Tinkerbell would you like a popsicle?
J: Peeeze. Yup.
Me: What colour?
J: Black. No orangie. NO PUPPLE! Greena. Greena popsicle.
Me: Okay.

I go away and get a green popsicle

Me: Here's your popsicle little girl. What's your name?
J: Lola Noah Caca Tinkybewl LYNONS. Lola Lynons.

For the rest of the evening if I forgot:

J: NO! MOMMY! Lola Lynons. LOLA!

I thought she might forget by this morning, but when I went in to wake her up at 7:00, a still half asleep little voice muttered NO! Lola! when I said it was time for J to get up.

So Lola it is. For now.

Hello?

So, I have the opportunity to do a bit of a give away, but first I need to figure out if I still have enough to readers to hit double digits. That's right. I just need ten of you. So, if you're (still) reading (I know I lost a lot of random readers when Facebook exploded) and especially if you're reading through some kind of a feed service (like Google Reader) pretty please could you click on the blog and leave me a quick comment. If we hit double digits, well, next week there will be a fancy-schmancy give away...

Where did I go?

I get my blog back and then I vanish. Well sort of. I didn't vanish, I just quit publishing on the internet for the better part of a month. It's been a crazy month and by crazy I don't mean busy. I mean crazy.

But the month is almost over and I hope that April will be a better month. Not that there was anything I could do to make any of the ugh that was March go away. Three years ago I started this blog and I never would have imagined I'd still be at it three years later! At the end of March that year I was also looking forward to April, and surprisingly while some of those reasons no longer apply today, a good number of them do!.

Back then I was excited for April for these reasons (apparently I'd just learned how to change font colour or something!):
1. in the words of my very intelligent sister: punk come to vangroovy (I think she sounds like she's imitating a muppet...Elmo or Animal or someone...)
2. punk come to vangroovy to celebrate her champagne birthday (and Kelsey's too)
3. easter
4. road trip to Kelowna with Kelsey and Alex
5. cherry blossoms at UBC
6. Champagne Birthday Party for Kelsey and Rebecca
7. we're going to a wedding
8. dessert with the Mulvis tonight...okay, so not officially April, but it still counts cause it's Friday and tomorrow is April
9. April Fools

So,
1. punk lives here now
2. you can only have a champagne birthday once in your lifetime, but there will be a birthday at the end of April for Rebecca and Kelsey
3. Easter is in two weeks
4. no road trip this April, although a trip to the grocery store (8 blocks) can feel like a road trip if you take the baby along
5. I bet they're still there, but I'm not
6. Some kind of birthday party for Kelsey and Rebecca (I must have been super excited for this since it's there twice)
7. no wedding
8. it's not April and I'm going to have dinner (so probably also dessert) with the Mulvis tonight...
9. April Fools. Yes it will be happening. No, I'm not looking forward to it.

I have some lofty goals for April...I hope I get to them all
1. Paint the storage room
2. Put shelves in the storage room
3. Buy a deep freeze and install in the storage room
4. Get rid of the mountain of laundry
5. Get rid of the boxes that are still not unpacked
6. Walk 70,000 steps/week...

That's it. The laundry alone could take 35 days to do, so I might be out of luck!

Okay, I'm back. That was boring. There's a baby chattering from her bed, so I have to go now.

Where did my blog go?

My blog is gone. The archives still exist, but where is the main page?!?!?

Help!!!!

Congratulations Kelsey

We're so proud of you for finishing your very first Ironman!

Look. Here she is:

Sorry, no real pictures yet.

And here are her times:



Yup, we're proud of you and amazed at what you did to get ready for and complete this event, but even still, we might, maybe, just a little bit, thing you're a bit crazy too! We love you lots and we can't wait to see you!

Shannon, Alex and Baby J who all cheered loud and hard from far away all day yesterday!

Ooh...mail in the mailbox!

The first postcards from my foray into the world of Postcrossing have started arriving! I am going to try to upload them as they arrive and they'll all be under the label postcrossing! I think I'll make them available by country too, but we'll see how it goes!

When in polite company

one should probably not discuss the functioning (or non-functioning) of the communal office toilet. And I do really try to avoid the topic of work in this particular venue.

But I couldn't resist. It's not really work related. Really.

For the past two weeks or so there has been a problem with our office toilet. The following notice appeared on toilet door:

It didn't last long...someone didn't like the last part and it got itself trimmed down and now ends with the words "feed it."

This morning this sign appeared on the door:

Seconds later this follow-up email appeared in our inboxes...and no, it has not been edited. It really was signed Team Front Desk!

-----Original Message-----
From: Sender Hidden
Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 9:40 AM
To: Recipients Hidden
Subject: Toilet Trouble

My fellow poopers,

The 2nd floor toilet is once again on strike due to too much paper usage. Our people are consulting with its people to try and get things moving again and to flush out the problem. A trouble call has been made and we hope to be operational again within the day. Front desk fully realizes there is a fine line between too much paper for the toilet and not enough paper for you, but again please remember, that is one finicky toilet. Thanks.

Team Front Desk