That's so random!

When I was thinking of my "random thoughts" today, it reminded me of the other day when I was chatting with a teenager at church. I don't even recall what we were talking about but at one point he said (like many kids these days) "Dude, that's so random!!"

So anyway, where was I?? Oh yeah... random ramblings. In no particular order:

I have now eaten all of the junk food in the pantry... and we're talking 2 big family-sized bags of Cheetos and 1 Costco-sized bag of Veggie Straw thingys. I did share some of these treats, but mostly I just inhaled them myself over the span of 2 weeks. Now that they can no longer call to me in the middle of the night, I felt it was time to get out my healthy cookbooks and do some serious menu/snack planning.

I put in my first couple of hours as a newly hired employee of Enefen. Direct Supervisor: Rodger Talstra. Yup, can't believe it either. Rodger and Joseph needed some help with filing/organizing of projects as they are starting to come in more regularly. I don't know how many hours they need me for, but Rodger mentioned it may be about 10 hours per week to start. Not sure how I will manage with Ruby around but I'm going to give it a try and see how it goes! Day 1: success.

I made 3 loaves of bread today, and managed to keep my grubby paws off the warm, yummy bread.

Sorted through an Epicure orde4r that arrived today. Have I mentioned how much I love getting parcels?? So fun.

(written way too long ago to remember any more random thoughts... so I'll hit POST and forget about it!!)

What We've Been Eating

Yay, it's Spring Break!! And double YAY, my sister Shirl is here to visit!!

And where there's Auntie Shirley, there's sure to be Happy Hour and Cheetos! The weather wasn't super great over Spring Break but we managed to have a Happy Hour on the deck at our new table & chairs (handed down from Art & Michi). The kids got to have their very own small can of coke! A huge treat.

Isn't life good?? Love those sinful treats...and they're gluten-free. But not classified under "clean eating" or the "raw diet". Who cares.

So what have we been eating during these past few days?? Well, here's our menu for one day:

Breakfast: Homemade Gluten bread with half white flour (highly processed and containing no nutrients whatsoever)/half whole wheat flour (ditto), topped with a fried egg (with butter). The eggs were free range and very fresh... and for a real treat, we actually ate the yoke too! Our second piece of gluten bread consisted of more butter and some "super bad for you" cheddar cheese... what the heck, we're on holidays. And to wash it all down, we had 3 large mugs full of fairly traded coffee, lots of cream and "gonna kill ya" Splenda.

Lunch: More yummy gluten-esque bread loaded with more of that awful cheddar cheese and grossly processed deli meat (ham). I'm not sure, but I think the pig was not was not free to roam the farm in happiness, and did not lead a stress-free life. We also had some milk which we were not really created to consume, and a non-organic apple.

Dinner: Fish & Chips. Oh yeah!! What else can I say??

Evening: The leftover Cheetos and some really cheap, homemade red wine.

The next day we went to the mall because the weather was crappy. We ended up at the Zellars restaurant, which was so cool. What a time-warp! And those poor women have probably worked them for 25 years - or at least they looked like it. We all shared a big pile of fries and gravy, and I gave each kid a garbage-generating juice box.

for dinner I made full-on gluten pizza dough, and we loaded it with all sorts of yummy veggies which were not locally grown, chemical-laden deli meat and more cheese. It was heavenly.

After dinner Shirl and I went for a long power-walk in an attempt to reduce some of the damage done. But I don't really care. Most of the time, I truly do my best to provide healthy meals for myself and my family. I exercise quite regularly and drink lots of water. But I will never be a vegetarian, or eliminate whole food groups from my diet, because society tells me I should. I will cook my vegetables and still use a can opener. I will enjoy "may contain real meat" hotdogs on white buns with the kids. I will continue to use butter on my gluten bread. And if I want a big bowl of Cheetos after a 6 month break, I will. And I will not apologize for it, or feel the need to justify it to anyone. Damnit.

(How's that for a rant?? Ah... I feel better now.)

I cried my eyes out when I dropped Shirl off at the airport. As I always do. Life is short, we will all die of something eventually. So enjoy your life the way YOU want to enjoy it!

Spring Break on the Mainland

We spent 4 days on the mainland during Spring Break, and we had an awesome time. Well, except for the first day when Ruby was suffering from a 24 hour flu of some sort. Not fun!! Anyway, for the first time ever, we decided to stay at Don & Linda's place and we just had a great time there. Not to mention it was much more central for visiting friends.

So we were originally meant to be there for a going-away party for Art, Michi, Kai and Hina, who were supposed to be moving to Sendai, Japan on May 23rd. But since the earthquake/Tsunami happened, their plans were obviously delayed and the party was called off. What a tragic and stressful situation for them, as they had packed/sent a big container of their belongings to Japan and either sold/got rid of the rest of their stuff, in anticipation of their big move. The move will still happen, they just don't know when.

We had a family BBQ at Don & Linda's anyway, and had a great time with everyone. Kai and Hina stayed for 3 nights with us, so all the cousins were together for 3 days of non-stop fun. And it really was. It's awesome to see how well they all play together. They played endless games of street-hockey ("CAR!!"), went to the park, watched hours of TV, ate junk food, destroyed the basement and did a round of mini-golf. And basically just had fun hanging out with each other. These moments will be cherished and remembered for a long time. It will be hard to see them go to Japan, especially for the kids who will miss growing up with their cousins.


For me, I enjoyed taking the boys to Science World with Sylvia and her girls. And I had a great visit with Marguerite one evening, while picking through her lovely Pandora-esque beads. I went home be-jewelled and love my new bracelet. Mmm... I feel a new business venture coming on...

We picked Shirley up at the Vancouver airport on Wednesday afternoon and headed straight home, to begin the next phase of Spring Break! It was a full week. And I am so happy.

Public speaking

This week is just a strange one. The boys had a Pro-D on Monday, followed by 2 days of getting out of school early for student-led conferences. And now all of a sudden it's Thursday... how did that happen?

I had my first "real" Epicure party on Tuesday night - with an actual hostess and people I didn't know in attendance... Gulp! There were a few familiar faces so that was comforting, but otherwise I was forced to do some public speaking in front of strangers! Not my favourite thing to do but apparently I did pretty good, even though I have no idea what I said. Sales were good, and it was a fun evening. A party centred around food... how can that be anything but great??

So this reminds me of the time I was a Maid of Honor at a friend's wedding in my early 20's... I really didn't want that "honor" because there was no way I was going to give the toast to the bride in front of 250 strangers! My friend assured me that she wouldn't make me do that, because she knew I had a huge fear of public speaking. So I agreed to stand up for her and it was a lovely day. We drove to the reception in the back of a limo, drinking way too much champagne, and I arrived very... aheem... relaxed. We all sat down at the head table and I was in good spirits, anxious for the fun party to begin. Halfway through the meal my friend leaned over and said "by the way, you're doing the toast... just thought I would give you a bit of notice." That's when the panic attack started and I began to sweat buckets in my teal taffeta dress... lucky for me, the dress came with a horrendous bolero jacket with crazy pointed sleeves which could take out an eye if I wasn't careful. So my pit stains didn't show through at least... so anyway, to this day I have no idea what my speech was about (remember the champagne?) but apparently I did an amazing job... everyone said it was great and I was funny and charming. And the bolero jacket stayed on all night in spite of the intense heat and hours of crazy dancing. I think I threw out that hideous dress as soon as I walked in the house that night, because I haven't seen it since. Thank goodness.

So yeah, public speaking is not my gift. Unless there's champagne involved. Or food.