New blinds

We are slowly but surely making changes to our place to make it more our home than just the place where we (and all our stuff) live.

First up was the blinds, and not a minute too soon with the evil heat we've been experiencing. The bedroom blinds are blackouts and all the blinds are insulating and the difference in temperature has been spectacular and the new blinds were just installed this morning!

Before: Living Room

After: Living Room

Before: J's Room (don't you love the nasty orange sheets attempting to make it darker and cooler?)

After: J's Room

Before: Our Bedroom

After: Our Bedroom

We can't get over how much better the entire place looks, just by replacing the nasty blinds!! Oh, and we did the dining room too, but I didn't take a picture of it.

Happy Birthday Alex!

Today was Alex's birthday...we actually celebrated for three days this year.

Some highlights:

Dinner with the Mulvi-fam

Mommy, I want out!

mmmm...water in a big girl glass

Daddy with J

Grandma Colleen and J

J and her aunties

Whatcha doing Grandpa Paul?

Alex and Jared

Cake with Alex's family


Umm...so yeah, it ended up being more about J than her Daddy, but I guess that's what happens when you have a baby!

France - Paris

Postcard from greta_alley from France

Description: Paris et ses merveilles. Paris and its marvels. The palace of Luxembourg, built in 1615 by Salomon de Brosse [translation by me, confirmed via Google]

Park attire

It's been very warm here. Very warm. So today Alex and I decided to take Baby J to the park for a bit.

As I mentioned over there, J got a bit wet on the walk to the park and so she got to play in her pjs...I remember once playing in a park in my pjs. We were on our way to the drive in to see ET but we were early. The difference was there were no feet in *my* pjs!

at the top

down we go

all done

Daddy and Baby J

The Netherlands - Baarn

Postcard from FamilieSnel from the Netherlands

Description: Baarn, prov. Utrecht, Holland Soestdijk Palace, built in the late 17th century commissioned by William III [translation via Google]

USA - Synthia Saint James

Postcard from kala from Minnesota.

Description: Synthia Saint James (American, b. 1949) Strutting

Australia - Australian Legends

Postcard from Laurent5 from Australia.

Description: First day cover of stamp painting by Arthur Boyd, Nebuchadnezzar on fire falling over a waterfall c. 1966-1968. The painting on the postcard is Nebuchadnezzar protecting his gold (detail) c. 1968-69

This is the third postcard I've received from this guy - he has multiple accounts and send huge numbers of cards...this could be an expensive hobby!

Things that came back since yesterday...

• Jocelyn's sunhat it was in with the grocery bags!?!?! go figure
• my memory
• the clouds they're back...but it's okay, they don't have rain in them...yet
• my ability to stay awake from morning until bedtime - still working on this one
• the Canucks' ability to score and let's add their ability to defend too
• my bank balance (thanks Revenue Canada!) - whatever, it's gone...it's not coming back....
• eight months of maternity leave - also not coming back, so we're going to make the most of the remaining fifteen weeks and one day.

Rebecca and I went to book camp again this morning and my body remembered and isn't complaining nearly as much as it did last week. And to celebrate, we went and got cinnamon buns...oh Sundays...

We have a busy week planned this week with some kind of outing every day and Daddy home during the afternoons because of a work schedule change, but I'm going to try to make the most of spending the day with my little lady because I'm sure going to miss her when I got back to work full time....

Things that have gone in the last few days...

• Jocelyn's sunhat
• my memory
• the clouds
• my ability to stay awake from morning until bedtime
• the Canucks' ability to score
• my bank balance (thanks Revenue Canada!)
• eight months of maternity leave

If you've seen any of these or have any great ideas on how to get them back, please let me know. The Canucks, well, they might want to know about goal scoring in the next couple of hours and the clouds, if you find them, you can keep them, unless they're big puffy, fluffy, white clouds.

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Wait, what was I writing about?
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That's all

USA - Kansas Sate University

Postcard from rach87 from Kansas.

Description: Anderson Hall, Kansas State University; Manhattan, Kansas. Anderson hall is one of the oldest buildings on campus and houses many of the administrative offices.

Kick it out...

Rebar and I are doing a kick boxing boot camp once a week and suffice to say, it kicked our butts on Sunday...in a good way, but still. I actually needed almost twelve hours sleep to recover...but this is good; it means that I might actually fit into my work clothes when the time comes to go back to work.

I am on reduced boot camping this week though. The area around where the c-section scar is was quite achy, especially while I was doing crunches (that made sense to me), but the doctor checked me out and no abs work allowed this week...I sure hope that doesn't mean lots of push ups for me. Push ups are my mortal enemy!

I don't think I've been pushed like that since oh, high school, when I was scarred for life by the stupid Canada Fitness test. I swear that stupid test made more people hate PE class and did more damage than good...and apparently I'm not the only one to think that way...look what a Google search found. But unlike the Canada Fitness test days (which you can find here...at least the version of the CFT I was subjected to), I'm actually enjoying boot camp so far...maybe because I'm there, doing it by choice, not because someone said I had to!

Lithuania

Postcard from Lithuania from singapurijus

Description: Rio de Janeiro. Maracana - Built for the World Cup of 1950, with a capacity of 170,000 people. Maracana is considered the largest stadium in the world.

yup...it's from Lithuania but it's a Brazil card, that's not a mistake!

Totally made my day!

It's a dreary, rainy, grey evening here in Vancouver...J is sound asleep and Alex is at work and it's actually quite pleasant to sit at our desk which is in front of a large window and look out at the rainy city...

Anyway...I was catching up on my list of blogs, and I'm rather behind in reading what's going on in other people's lives (who am I kidding, I'm behind in what's going on in my own life, how am I expected to keep with other people?!?!)...I discovered this video on Laurie's blog...and oh my goodness it definitely made my day...I'm still smiling...and oh, the Sound of Music, only my all time favourite!

USA - Idaho

Postcard from Montana from lew 2424

Description: Idaho - A Syringa bush grows along a bank of the Salmon River in Idaho. the Syringa is Idaho's state flower.

Norway

Postcard from Norway from Joey

Description: Norge Kjeragbolten i Lysefjorden

Delayed mail

Back in October of 2001 I picked this card up for Fiona at the Louvre. I fully intended on sending it before I came back to Canada in January of 2002, but my good intentions were thwarted by something...likely the vast number of other postcards I bought to send to Fiona that she may or may not have received.


Yes, yes I do have a pile of postcards from other places that never got written on or sent to their intended recipients.

Since we no longer live in the ginormous Blue House and no longer have the lovely basement with all its storage, I've been trying to declutter. And some days I'm good at it and others, well, I suck. My criteria has been to keep only necessary things or things I love or will use. Which means I get to keep the two drawers plus random piles of stationery and writing utensils because I WILL USE THEM.



So if your mailbox suddenly starts getting surprises from me, that's the motivation...that letter I've been promising for two years is finally going to get written...

Anyway, back to the postcard. In the last 18 months I've come across it a number of times....and I remember finding it in the Hobbit Hole more than once...and possibly even in the Blue House...but it was sent on Monday, so Fiona should have it by today, so this shouldn't be spoiling any surprises.

And because my brain is no longer functioning as it should (I blame it on having a baby!) I forgot that today is also Fiona's birthday....so happy birthday to my super wonderful friend! Look...you got a pseudo-birthday card on time-ish from me for the first time since, oh, elementary school?