Miss H

It seems unfathomable that exactly 1 year ago, little Miss H entered the world. It's amazing how fast this past year has flown by (although I'm pretty sure her parents would say otherwise). While reminiscing with Aimee this afternoon about Hayley's 1st year, we thought it was seriously just yesterday that we were visiting Aimee in the hospital while she was on bed rest and now she has a beautiful 1 year old girl. 

Words cannot adequately describe how I feel about Hayley. I love her to bits. I love her sense of curiosity and adventure. I love her eagerness to enjoy life (if only those legs of hers could keep up with her ideas and ambitions). I LOVE her giggles, her fake laugh she puts out when she thinks she is sooooo funny. I adore that cheesy grin she plasters across her face when I walk into the room. I love her stubborn attitude - I have no doubt that will carry her through life and become a wonderful quality. She knows what she wants and I like that (although I'm sure that same attitude will cause many disagreements and trouble for her parents)!

Hayley I have loved getting to know you this year. I have loved watching you grow and discover the world around you. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching your personality emerge as you have grown. Heck, I just love you! I am excited to see what this next year has in store for you and even many years down the road. I am honored and extremely lucky to be your Auntie.

I love you lots Miss H!!!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY HAYLEY!!!!!!!

And the cakes continue...

As of 2 weeks ago, Lavonne, her sister Julia and myself embarked on a new cake journey - the Wilton Cake Class Level 3 - Fondant and Tiered Cakes. The first cake we made was surprisingly not too ugly, however our last cake class we are making the most hideous cake of all time. Yup, that's right. It's worse than the clowns. Stay tuned for the last Monday in May when the photos are revealed. 

The classes were not entirely what I expected. I thought we would be learning some cooler techniques with fondant, but it looks like I might have to take another class, such as at the High Tea Bakery one of these days. I've learned I'm just not a huge fan of the Wilton cakes. You would think that with the craze of cakes and cupcakes like Ace of Cakes or Cake Boss, a big company like Wilton would adapt their classes to cater to some of the new trends. Oh well. You learn something new everyday.

Anyhow, this was my first cake of course 3.

This summer I have the privilege of making my first ever cake for pay. I'm pretty excited and honored that someone would think that I am good enough to make their wedding cake. Because this is my first go at a paid cake, I thought it might be a good idea to do a mock up of the wedding cake. The bride happens to be having an engagement party this upcoming weekend and asked if she could use the mock up for the event. I figured, I had to make the cake anyway, so why not. The cake I made for the mock up is not entirely what the actual wedding cake will look like. The wedding cake will be 3 tiers and will not have flowers, but seashells (from the beach the couple got engaged at) on the cake.

Mothering Day

I am thankful and blessed to be able to spend a day celebrating some pretty neat people in my life. I will be the first to acknowledge that I have been incredibly blessed with a number of remarkable women who play a vital role in my life and have shaped who I have become over the last 25 years of my life.

I learned early on that biological family is great, but sometimes highly over-rated. Genes and DNA do not necessarily make a family. I am extremely lucky to have my mom be someone who did a pretty good job raising us 3 kids (mostly on her own too). She has sacrificed a lot over the years for us and will continue to go beyond the call of duty to make sure we are taken care of. However, I think we both would tell you that we don't have the ideal "Mother-Daughter" relationship. We often butt heads, but that in no way diminishes her importance in my life. We will also readily admit that I was not the easiest child to parent (shocking, I know :). Thank you to my mom - who loves me, who put up with me for all these years and who gave so much of herself for her kids.

Throughout my teenage years and into my twenties, I have been fortunate to have been adopted into other families and those women have been incredibly influential in me being who I am today. I am a very lucky girl!

I think it's a neat thing when you can have a bunch of different women in your life - friends, mentors, etc, each who bring a unique offering to the table in how they "mother", but when compiled, their gifts and influence in my life brings out the very best in me. I have incredible friends who are mothers themselves now - who I have had the privilege of walking beside as they parent. They are phenomenal mothers and have taught me much already in how I will strive to parent one day. 

If I'm being honest with myself, I will admit that this isn't always the easiest day of the year for me. I would love to be on the other end of the giving/receiving on Mother's Day and be a mom myself. Unfortunately the time has not come yet, but in the meantime, I will joyfully celebrate the lovely women in my life who love me, who I love in return, who have encouraged and supported me and who have taught me so much.

So, to Mary, Sandra, Nicole, Rose, Sandra, Sabrina, Kristy, Aimee and Heidi, I thank you for being an example of what being a mom looks like. Thank you for loving me, for encouraging me, for pushing me, for kicking me in the ass when I have needed it and for praying for me regularly. You are all amazing women and I am beyond blessed to have you a part of my life.

Happy Mothering Day!

Before...

We are getting close to beginning the renos at our new massage clinic, but I had to take some before pictures before we get started.

All of our individual clinic rooms come off of the common room.

Stay tuned for the after pictures coming soon.....

Weekend Goodness

It's been a good weekend. We have been spoiled with incredible weather, which has made for evenings filled with walks to Starbucks, games played in the park, times spent with friends around backyard fires roasting marshmallows while having good conversation. What more could we ask for during the last weekend of April???

 Who knew a ladybug could be so exciting???

One of the perks of not being able to work for last couple weeks and the next few weeks to come is that I have more time hanging out with some beautiful ladies...Kristy, Aimee, Hayley and Norah. In a few short weeks 2 of those ladies will be BC bound for the next few years, so Aimee and I are soaking up all the time we can with Kristy and Norah before they leave. I can't believe in less than 6 weeks we won't be able to see these 2 girls on a daily basis. Let's not go there yet. We still have 6 weeks!

My beautiful ladies.

One day last week, Norah I got to spend the whole day together while her mommy and daddy got some things done around the house. We had a blast, but boy is she a busy girl. I slept soooo well that night after a full day running around at the park and playing outside in the backyard.

Norah loves all things kitty and puppy. It's a good thing I have one of each and that my animals are so tolerant of children. Norah loved on those animals from the moment she got to my place, right up until we had to leave to go home. Hugs and kisses were given numerously throughout the day.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the week holds and more time spent with my girls. As long as the weather keeps up like it has been, I will be a very happy girl.

Stopping to Smell the Roses

Well, April has taken a slightly different twist than I had expected. A couple posts back I had said that I was wanting April to be less busy - to really sit back and enjoy life around me. Be careful what you wish for.

A couple weeks ago while watching Gavin for the day, I was taking his carseat out of my car when I felt a little twinge in my left wrist. I thought nothing of it and continued working for almost 2 weeks. By Easter weekend, my wrist was getting more and more painful and swollen. It was getting to the point where I could hardly bend my wrist at all. Last Tuesday, I finally decided to get things checked out, so I went to Pan Am to make sure things were ok. Well, it turns out they weren't. At that time, the doctor diagnosed me with having a TFCC cartilage tear. Essentially that means that the cartilage that is around my wrist bones has torn, thus allowing some of those bones to be unstable. The treatment: a wrist brace and no work for 10 days. I was not impressed as no work for me means no money. Because I am self-employed, I have no coverage, no disability, no workers comp, etc. 

I had a follow-up appointment yesterday with the same doctor at Pan Am and the news just keeps getting worse. It is quite possible that I have a stress fracture in my wrist due to overuse. This was not confirmed as he did not do a bone scan, but I have to go back and see him again in 2 weeks and we'll re-evaluate from there. So, I remain off work for the next month at least. The trouble with stress fractures is that if you don't let them heal fully, 6 months down the road you can end up with the same injury again and it becomes a chronic thing. I have decided that I can't allow this to be a chronic thing. I want to be able to massage for years down the road. So, in the meantime I am doing some physio and making sure my wrist gets a lot of rest. You don't realize how much you rely on your wrists until you can't use them for a time. So, I guess I am getting the rest I was needing, but it's just unfortunate that I had to be injured in order for that to happen. 

In other exciting news, as of this past Tuesday, I am officially a business owner. Three other therapists from where I work, along with myself have decided to branch out and start our own clinic. It has been an exciting few weeks as we have been making carpet decisions, choosing paint colors and getting the lease signed.

 Our new clinic is located on the corner of Nassau St and Pembina Hwy (beside the Deaf Centre) and we will be open starting June 1, 2010. It's a very exciting time.

This past weekend, my girls and I ventured down to Grand Forks for the weekend...Sans Kids. This was our first trip ever without having a nursing baby come along. Now, don't get me wrong, we all love those kids to bits, but there is something nice about not having to worry about scheduling in naps and feedings when we have some serious shopping to do.

 Every good road trip needs Starbucks.

We did do a decent amount of shopping, but it was also a weekend to spend time together as friends before Graham and Kristy embark on a new adventure as a family to BC. Conversations were good - some filled with tears - all good tears and lots and lots of laughter. Evenings were spent playing games, watching cake shows (thanks for putting up with my never ending desire to watch cake decorating shows girls) and eating lots and lots of ice cream. We discovered that Ben & Jerry's ice cream is only $2.50 in the states. We definitely ate our share. 

our loot after a day of shopping. Pretty impressive.

April 1st marked Aimee's 26th birthday, so we thought it would be fun to celebrate Aimee and the lovely friend that she is by taking her out for a belated birthday supper when we were in the states. Her pick...The Greenmill. It was very yummy.

Cheers for awesome friends and delicious drinks.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I LOVE these ladies. I could not have asked for better friends in my life. You ladies are a blessing to ME.

So.....that's been a little bit of what has been going on in April so far and the month is only half over.

Aces of Cakes

I love to make and decorate cakes. Just in case you didn't know that about me. Last week Thursday I got to spend the day hanging out with 2 very cool girls. They are the most creative 7 and 5 year old I have ever met. As I was thinking what I was going to do with them for a whole day, I immediately thought of decorating cakes. How much more fun does it get? Seriously. 

Ella and Sophie were natural talents. It took no time at all to explain how to work with fondant, how to dye it, how to roll it out, how to properly ice a cake. They just got it. That made my job that much easier, which meant we could just enjoy decorating. Here are some pictures from our day:

Working with fondant is not for the weak of hands.

Ella's final creation.

Sophie's masterpiece

By the end of the day, we were our own Ace of Cakes. Duff, watch out!!!

Thanks Ella and Sophie for a fabulous day. It's definitely a day that needs repeating again soon.