Something new

Recently I have found that sitting down to make a meal plan ends up with a regular set of meals, so I wanted to try something different. Boy was it a hit, Lil man are all his food as usual, same for Daddy. Coco picked out all the broccoli and ate that first, and Ginja well she are what she felt like before she was up in the kitchen asking for George which happens to be curious George cartoon on netflix. This is the repeat cartoon of the week. For those who don't know Ginja is being referred for autism. At 3 speech is minimal, potty training is a complete regression, meltdowns are frequent and nothing can help her. She has now started telling us no touch, which can rip any parents heart out. She is affectionate on her terms, noises cause her to cover her ears multiple times a day. She will escape anything (safety door covers, double stacked baby gates) and a fascination with lights. This are just a few of what had us urging the doctors that something just wasn't right. I have a friend who has been a huge help through this process, JK has been there as a sounding board for me, she is a mom to three autistic children, we had a play date and she saw the things I saw in Ginja. She has offered so much help and advice. I appreciate being able to text or message her for help, knowing how chaotic her days can get with therapy, and everyday life of her household of 6. So JK when you read this, Thank you for being there. You gave me strength to push back against the doctors and bring out the momma bear and I know how I feel when Ginja is having a hard day, and knowing you face this with each of your children and are still there to help other parents. You are a Super Momma bear. Thank you, those two words can't express the gratitude I have for your friendship. Our next step is our visit with the child and infant development worker on Tuesday, which is the start of our path to answers and help. 

Family Handprint Art

Over the Christmas Break we decided to do a few activities for the family and for our home. I am a Pinterest lover (might need rehab!!) and I love all the amazing ideas, so we tried out this handprint Family sign for our living room. This was a super easy project and all you need is a canvas (size dependant on your wants) I picked ours up at Dollarama for $3, I already had paint in the house and we also had painters tape and brushes on hand. So this project cost is $3, and the kids had a blast painting their hands and stamping on the canvas. Black handprints are Daddy, green are Lil Man, pink belong to Ginja Ninja, red for Mom and purple for our baby girl Coco. The part that took the longest was ripping the painter's tape to make letters, I would think you could use vinyl letters if you want something exactly the same and crisper. I rate this project a 1/5 for difficulty, if you have wee ones they may require some help from Mom or Dad :) I rate this a 1/5 for cost as well. 

Wedding Planning

Yesterday I attended the wedding show at Garrison Petawawa. To say it was busy would be an understatement. For the first 4 hours of the show it was packed! They had a walking fashion show, tons of awesome vendors and some good food to try. I fell in love with the deep fried macaroni and cheese bites! We have booked our venue, invites have been purchased, a preliminary guest list has been created, DJ is booked , dress purchased, bridal party chosen and so many more details are in motion. I finally chose my bouquet and that will remain a surprise but my girls will be carrying gorgeous flowers from Kevin's Flowers and he generously gave me the display bouquet that is their bouquet.

Simple and elegant, the roses will be cream or white that is still undecided. I really wish there was a way to share their amazing scent. After smelling these roses I know why the term was coined "Stop and smell the roses." 

As you can read a lot of the details have already been decided on, except the photographer! Not because I don't think the photographer isn't important but the exact opposite. Photography is SO important because after the meal has been consumed, the drinks are no longer flowing, the dancing has ended, you hang up your dress, you dry your bouquet and you look at your pictures. I also do not want to have to sell my first born to afford these images. I know the extend of the work that goes into amazing photography, it's not just take out the camera, shoot a few shots and presto amazing images. I enjoy photography as a hobby, so I know the cost of a quality camera, education, time in the editing room etc. So I am extremely stuck because I expect a certain quality but I also don't want to spend a mortgage on a wedding. Local photographers are charging about $3000  and to me that is a small fortune, considering I really want our wedding to cost us about $5000. I think of $3000 and what I could do with that amount of money.  I have been very laid back for most of the planning, so far from bridezilla, but when it comes to photography I have certain expectations. I want the details remembered, the dress, the accessories, I want his reaction to me in my dress, the decorations, our rings, our guests and all the other things that will blur by me on our big day. So the hunt continues...

Good food and Great Company

Yesterday I drove with a friend to Ottawa to shop at Costco. The drive is about two hours from the military base we live on. People look at me like I am a crazy person pulling around an extremely overfilled cart!! I consider myself frugal and I know a good deal when I see one. So I grabbed our usual purchases Kirkland brand wipes, Kirkland diapers, their toilet paper is a must! 2.5 dozen eggs for $5.99 that is almost what I pay for a family pack of 18 here. So after shopping I know Costco has an affordable menu but I have a hard time after being in the store with that many people who cut you off or walk in front of you or decide to let their children to sit and read a book in the middle of the aisle, with no parent in sight, I am usually at the end of my patience level by then and can't be bothered to fight for somewhere to sit to have a cheap meal. So my friend and I decide to try a new place that I have heard rave reviews about. 

This is an amazing chicken burrito at Mucho Burrito in Ottawa. It's a party in your mouth with seasoned rice, black beans, stir fry veggies and a generous amount of chicken topped with medium salsa for me. I then dipped it in some of this delicious smoke and fire sauce.

My friend and I also ordered a plate of Nachos to share and to be honest the plate of nachos are the best nachos I have ever had and no way I could have eaten the platter to myself after my very filling delicious burrito. 

Makes me drool thinking of it again! The gentleman that served us was extremely helpful when we told him that it was our first visit. It was an affordable meal considering how good it was. For two chicken burritos, two waters and a tray of nachos the total was $33sh. I would rate this a 5/5 and a definite try for those who have never been. I will be returning 

Hello

Good day, 

I want to give you some background information on why I wanted to start a Blog. In less than a month I will celebrate my 30th Birthday! Most people celebrate 30 with open arms but I am having a hard time embracing this year. 25 was what I thought was my hard year  to accept  but 30 seems to be lingering in my mind. I think my concern with the age of 30 is that was the age my mother was first diagnosed with cancer. I still can remember the day like It was yesterday. I can remember sitting there while our parents took us for dinner and a drive and my everyday world came swirling in. My parents took my brother and I to where we went as kids to feed the Canadian Geese in our hometown and mom started to cry, she told us that there was something that Dad and her needed to tell us. She had Cancer and at 12 years old, cancer was a term I had heard but didn't know the full extent of what it really meant. My grandfather had cancer, my mother had cancer it's in our genes. So 30 is a scary year to think about. At 29 I am a Mommy to three amazing children, my lil man is 9, Ginja Ninja is 3 and Coco is 1, I am engaged to an amazing man who has dedicated his life to our country, he is a Canadian forces member and I couldn't imagine our  perfect little world playing out anyway than the way it is right now. This year in October I will marry the love of my life, we will start the next chapter of our lives  and I think about all of life's what ifs. So my reason for wanting to blog is to have something for my kids to look back on. On tough days I wish that I had something encouraging of my moms to read. I do not have Cancer but why should that be a reason to leave memories for our children? I have looked at many ways to document our life, I have spent a small fortune on scrap booking and the furthest I got with that is about 10 pages of lil man's baby scrapbook and well he is 9 so I don't foresee completing that anytime soon. I looked at doing a Project life book, but the cost and my previous track record, I think there are better ways to spend a few hundred dollars, so a free blog seemed like a good idea. I could try it out, and if it doesn't seem to be for me then there isn't a pile of papers in the  house that the kids will end up using for cut and paste  while I cringe at the amount of money I spent on paper !!  So here begins the journey of blogging, a way of documenting our journey  in love , friendship and parenting.