My Crazies

Nothing much to report on. Sam started grade 1 today but I'm going to save the big "back to school" post for when Juliet starts on Thursday & they both get on the bus. For now I thought I'd just share a couple of pictures from our vacation that didn't make it to the collages... but are priceless nonetheless.

The Subway Poo

WARNING: This post may be offensive to some readers. It is about poo.

So when does pooing stop being a totally normal and everyday thing and start becoming something you don't talk about or try not to do in public?

Childhood innocence rocks. Yesterday we were at Subway for a quick supper before swimming lessons when Sam was hit with the urge. It's always an emergency. So I sent him into the ladies bathroom and locked the door so he could do his business. Some people can't poo in public bathrooms. Some people won't. Six year olds don't care because there is no stigma attached to pooing at that age. They will poo anywhere, anytime, and don't care who knows or hears them farting into the toilet bowl. Although we all know it's a normal part of life, for them it really is just a normal part of life. Like having a drink when you're thirsty.

Five or so minutes later Sam emerges from the bathroom informing me that the toilet didn't flush and it was broken. Now at this point anyone other than a small child would walk quickly out of the restaurant with their head down hoping that no one saw them coming out of the bathroom. Am I right? Sam, on the other hand, told and showed a Subway employee walking towards the bathrooms that the toilet was broken. So basically he invited the poor guy into the ladies bathroom to look at the toilet full of his poo, tell him it didn't flush and that it was broken. Now... correct me if I'm wrong, but no teenager or adult would invite an restaurant employee into the bathroom to point out the broken toilet full of the poo they just passed. It would be discreetly ignored and someone, an employee or someone NOT responsible for the poo, would eventually notice the problem and fix it or have it fixed. Right?

I thought about laughing and saying 'sorry man' to the employee... but then I though nah... forget it. We sat & finished our supper while another employee emerged from the back with an "out of order" sign for the bathroom door. HA! That's why childhood innocence rocks.

Adventures in Hairstyling

So off I went to the hairdresser today. I am notorious for taking big risks when it comes to my hair and today was no less risky. The mission... leopard print. The result...

SUCCESS!! Both my hairdresser & I were very impressed with how it turned out. It was a first for both of us. The picture isn't all that great and you really can't see the shape of the leopard strip at all... but it lines up perfectly with the mohawk. The strip ends with 2 more rosettes before the black so it's hard to see them in this picture... so it looks more like a blob. It's pretty freakin' cool.

Oops...

It seems as though in madness that was my Sunday afternoon trying to put together photos of our trip, I may have left out a few. Now I wouldn't want to disappoint my band of followers and jeopardize the success of my blog so here they are...

I have also had numerous emails requesting a photo of our new couch. Well, I've had one. But I'd like to think that numerous people are reading my blog and simply choosing not to comment or follow or to let me know in any way shape or form that they enjoy it. Hello? Are you there?

Happy Monday

We got a new couch today. Totally not in the market for a new couch but we couldn't resist a deal. Not that we don't desperately need a new couch to replace the one we've had for the past 7 years that's been physically abused and peed on more than once. We walked into this furniture store on the weekend looking for a good deal on dressers for when the kids amalgamate into one room. No such deals. BUT.... there was a 100% leather, Canadian made couch on sale for $799 down from $2399. It's not my first choice in a leather couch style but it's not offensive to look at and it's cheaper than the cheapies at Ikea. So.... we bought the couch. It'll take some getting used to but I think overall it looks pretty good in our living room.

On another note... after asking if she could color earlier this evening, Juliet comes to me with this:

"Mommy I wrote my name all by myself" Umm... hello? When did you grow up? She's 4 years old and hasn't even started school yet... am I crazy for being amazed? Granted she spelled it wrong (2 "L's" instead of only 1) but come on? Really? All by herself? Way to freakin' go.

L-A-Z-Y Sunday

Today was quite a day. I started it off by staying in bed until 11am-ish. It was POURING rain so it's not like I was missing anything or wasting my morning. Then, when I finally got up, I was oddly inspired to do some cleaning. I enlisted the entire family & we all pitched in. We ate lunch... and then Sam & Papa played Wii while I grabbed my laptop & headed into the basement with Juliet. The CLEAN basement. I spent all afternoon & evening putting together our vacation photos that I promised. Instead of posting them here I just went back into my last post and placed them in where they fit. So you'll have to go back & check them out. And I mean that. You HAVE to go look because I spent HOURS on them today. GO. NOW.

So all in all it was a fabulous day of relaxation & not feeling the least bit guilty for not getting dressed & not leaving the house. It rained & thundered all day & I even accomplished some chores so as to not feel completely useless. Yay me.

And We're Done.

It's the last night of our vacation, although this will only get posted tomorrow (Friday) cuz the WiFi is across the field and I'm way too burnt out to walk there. I've (we've) spent the better part of the last few days on our feet… which isn't easy for a pregnant woman. Camping in general doesn't mesh well with pregnancy. Every night there's at least 4 trips into the bush for a pee and last night I peed on my sweater. Awesome. I'm also stuffed to the gills because of allergies, at least I think it's allergies. Either way I can't breathe out of my nose. I've used an entire box of kleenex and now am stuck using public bathroom toilet paper. My nose is loving it. I expect the skin around my nostrils, what's left of it, will peel off tomorrow. The tiresome past 4 days are catching up to me now as I sit here in front of the fire. That's one thing I love about camping… the fires. It's so nice to wake up in the morning & sit around a campfire, even more so than at night. Now if only I had a more comfortable chair. I'm joined by our resident bird that I'm thinking suffers from some kind of identity disorder. This morning, like a dog,  it ate rice crispies off the ground around Juliet while she ate (& spilled) her breakfast. Then it walked on my husband's foot. If it's not sitting about 2 feet away from us just checking out the scene it's under the picnic table looking for scraps or at the tap where we wash the dishes.  It's also very protective of it's territory and freaks at any other birds that come around. The wildlife around here seems to be a bit off. Last night the skunk that paid us a visit didn't eat the raw veggies we left in the garbage. Picked through everything else but left them in a pile. And the squirrels sit up in the trees and throw bits of branches at us. Seriously?

The Charlebois Family Adventure Mid-week Update....

So off we go on another Charlebois family adventure. Two years ago it was Tadoussac, last year we drove from Calgary to Vancouver. This year… Wasaga Beach. I wouldn't normally have picked this destination but we were meeting my best friend Steph & fam so it was a no brainer.  She would be staying with her family in a cottage and we would camp. So I booked us into the Jell-E-Bean Family Campground for 6 days & 5 nights of family fun!! … A far cry from the wilderness-y type camping we're used to, but an adventure none-the-less.

Extreme Sailing

We tried to go sailing today. My mother & step-father, uncle, grandmother, grampa & me. We had good intentions, really we did. Perhaps though, when we almost crashed into 2 boats trying to get out of the harbour, we should have judged that maybe the wind was a tad strong. Or, when we got out onto the river and the waves were splashing water up over the boat, we could have said that maybe the wind was too strong. Or better yet, as we motored full speed ahead without really gaining any ground, and realized that maybe it was too dangerous to even put the sail up, we should have decided the wind was really too strong. No. We voyaged on. My grandmother was panicked as she's more of a no wind sailing type. I was excited to get my extreme sailing on. It felt great bouncing in the swells. But alas, the rapidly approaching black clouds had other plans for us.... abort. We headed back. I won't deny, that somewhere between the rapid speed we gathered in going with the wind towards the harbour & when the only hope we had of any control, the motor, conked out.... I really thought I'd have a great story for the blog. But grampa had us up & running again just in time to gain enough control of the boat so as to not smash into the rocks, and we motored gracefully into the harbour. A 15 minute attempt at sailing as extreme as it gets in the St. Lawrence River. No sails. No motor. No control. It was a good idea for a bit, really it was.

now we are Six

Six years ago plus a day I lost 30 pounds overnight. It was a miracle. Now if only I could pull that off without giving birth to a child. My first baby turned 6 yesterday... that's pretty amazing. We went to Boston Pizza with family for dinner & had a great time. Sam ordered hamburgers as usual. He didn't eat much because his tummy was hurting and he had gas. Who knew a child could produce such stink? I guess when you're 6 things mutate. He conveniently let one go on his father's lap just as all the waitresses came with his cake & to sing happy birthday. No bother to Sam of course but my husband & step father were mortified because who blames the stink on the kids?? Surely the waitresses pinned it on one of the men. HA!

After BP we hit DQ for some soft serve.... mmmmm. Or not. To compliment my son's gas was the faint smell of sewage seeping out from an open drain in the floor. Delish. And then my mother sits down and shares with us that the woman in the bathroom with her was disgusting. Of course we all sat there waiting to see who, or what, would walk out. Maybe she had hamburgers for supper too? Lovely evening. We have such class it's riDQulous.

xoc

Monday Monday

So Sam & Juliet went back to daycamp today after a 2 week hiatus. Glorious. I over slept, although the kids didn't & were waiting for me downstairs watching the Backyardigans. So by the time I was ready to leave it was 9:15am.... 15 minutes before my yoga class. Monday is garbage day so I decided I'd better get that to the curb before we left. I yanked the bag outta the can only to discover about an inch of garbage juice in the bottom of the can that dripped all over my leggings. Awesome. By this time yoga starts in 10 minutes, the kids still don't have their shoes on and now I am about to puke. Believe it or not... I still actually dragged the damn can out the front door and got the bag to the curb. At this point I have abandoned all hope of making it to yoga on time so I changed clothes and decided to walk the kids to camp.

For the first time in my life as a parent, I really didn't know what to do with myself sans enfants. I headed home and put a load of towels in the wash. I had to feel like I accomplished something. I cleaned up my room a bit and then decided it would be a great idea to go for a pedi. So I did. A mani too. I went into the office afterward and lasted an hour before I felt anxious and had to get out of there. This is how my life is right now... I just can't bring myself to do any more office work. I want to get as far away from it all as possible. I obviously can't replace it with mani/pedis... I will wrap my head around that eventually. But I need to replace it with something. At least for the next 6 months until number 3 arrives.... but what?

After an early supper the kids were playing in the backyard when Sam run's in asking if we can go swim in the neighbours pool because he heard that the neighbour was swimming. I decided I would go and ask. Of course they said sure... but only for a little while because they hadn't had their spaghetti supper yet. Next thing you know an hour and a half has passed, my husband is home from work, BBQ'd a steak & zucchini and brought it over... another neighbour has joined in on the noise with a fist full of beer... the wine is pouring... the shrimp & calamari are cooking and the kids are eating chicken fingers & french fries. It was dark dark by the time I dragged my water logged trio (yes... hubby made it into the pool too) home for bed. Three hours of swimming that I have no doubt were the 3 best hours my kids have ever spent in a pool. Are summer Mondays fun or what?

here we go again...

Hello. So it's happening again. My body is kicking my ass to make another person. Yep.... pregnant again. Number 3. I don't know why I thought this time would be different. All you have to do is say "pregnancy" to my body and it gains 10 pounds. Lovely. But I am really excited to have a little baby around again.... until, of course, it wakes me up in the middle of the night, then I may not be so excited. But for now I am.... and so is the rest of the fam.

So this isn't the first time I've blogged.  But I failed miserably the first round. It was good for a while... but then I lost my mojo and it quickly went downhill. I just stopped posting. But there were some good times... and I may post there again. I'll keep the less family oriented stuff for there and here you can just keep up with the Charlebois. Funny things happen in life. And funny things happen in families. Better still, funny things happen in children. Out of the mouths of babes they say. So I thought I would try and blog about us and our adventures. It may work, it may not. But I'm sure family & friends will appreciate it.

This is us...

together we bring you...












and most recently...

This is my family. Keep up with us if you can!
xoc