my mother’s day surprise(s)

i called in sick yesterday – i actually felt myself coming down with something on sunday (mother’s day of all days) but it hit me harder monday morning. i’m back to the daily grind but am feeling so weak.

still, i managed to have a very nice mother’s day weekend.

my favourite part was saturday morning. doug was working but i mentioned to him earlier in the week my plans to take chaeli out for brunch while he was on shift – as a mother-daughter, pre-mother’s day celebration. and we hadn’t gone back to cora‘s for awhile so i figured we were due.

as we were getting ready the morning of, i asked chaeli if she knew where we were going and she said, “yup! i’m taking you to cora’s!”

“oh,” i said, “did daddy tell you already?”

“uh huh – but it doesn’t really make sense. i can’t drive so how can i take you?”

“well, don’t worry about that. i’ll drive.”

so off we went.

as we stood in line, waiting to be seated, i teased chaeli, “so, does this mean you’re paying?”

she stood there and smiled. then she slowly nodded and reached into her little hand bag. to my surprise, she pulled out a gift card for $25!

i asked her, “did daddy give you this?”

“yup!” she said, very proud of herself, obviously, for being able to keep a secret for half a week.

the gift card was more then enough to cover our breakfast – there’s actually a remaining balance which we will use up the next time we go back (with doug, of course).

my mixed berries and french toast brunch

chaeli had the kid’s eggs, sausage/bacon, potatoes, toast and chocolate milk. i had their french toast and mixed berries special. it was EXACTLY what i had been craving for awhile. thick french toast (they used ciabatta bread), a generous heap of sliced strawberries, blueberries and my favourite, blackberries – all drizzled with raspberry coulis, a light cream sauce and then sprinkled with icing sugar. i ate most of it without any pancake syrup because it was that good on it’s own. i only added the syrup at the end just to see what it would taste like.

what a nice surprise! i text-ed doug right away to thank him.

after brunch, chaeli and i went to winners for a bit of shopping. i was looking for a pair of summer, low heel, black shoes and a pair of sport sandals for chaeli. she had me try on a lot of shoes, though – picking out some outrageous heels i would never wear! funny thing, one pair looked great on me but the price wasn’t low enough for me to feel that it was a good enough bargain. and i wasn’t sure what i would ever wear with it.

i treated myself to a new yoga matt and chaeli to a new casual dress. hobbes also got two new toys which he’ll get on his birthday this weekend.

the next morning, he came home from his shift with a bouquet of flowers for me. and a bouquet for my mom as well. chaeli was disappointed we didn’t get a chance to do breakfast in bed but she did help doug prepare my favourite way of eating eggs – eggs ‘n toast.

we had little time to sit around and enjoy our sunday morning since we had to prepare some food to bring over to my parents’ place. but i managed to have half an hour or so to sip my coffee and listen to some jazz.

xmas 2012 loot

as usual, we made out pretty darn good this year.

Doug’s loot (left to right):

1. The Pacific – DVD TV Miniseries: This is something Doug has been wanting for years now. It was a gift from me. I would have bought him the blu ray version but the price was still a bit on the high side.
2. Spaghetti Western: There’s 20 classic spaghetti western movies on this one DVD. It’s one of Doug’s guilty pleasures so I made sure Santa had this in his stocking.
3. Moroccan Tagine: Another item that’s been on his list for a few years now. The problem was that it was really tough finding a place to buy from where the tagine was authentic and didn’t cost an arm and a leg. There are a lot of modern ones that boasts that it can be used both in the oven and in the stove but the cost is about 3 times the amount. I sent the link from Amazon to my PIL who have a drop off place just south of the border which they go to often (for their store). It was shipped there and so was a gift from his parents.
4. Pirates of the Caribbean – On Stranger Tides: My aunt and uncle bought him the fourth Pirates of the Carribean on blu ray. We have the first three – Doug loves anything with sword fights and adventure.
5. Stories of Survival from the Front Lines of Firefighting: Another stocking stuffer I made sure Santa would bring for Doug. He hasn’t put it down since Christmas day.
6. Beer and Stein Gift Set from LCBO: When I saw this in the store, I really didn’t realize how big both the beer can and stein was until Doug took it out of the box. The can itself is probably around 2 pints or 3 regular beer bottles.

Doug also got a very nice Canadian Team Olympic apparel hoodie from his sister and BIL. Chaeli got him some animal crackers in a box shaped like a fire truck. He also got a slew of shaving lotion, cream and some dipping oil & vinaigrette.

Chaeli’s loot (left to right):

1. Crystal Making Science Kit: A gift from Doug and I. Yes, it’s educational but it was actually one of the things on her wishlist. We haven’t cracked it open yet because I’m saving it for a rainy day.
2. Squishy Squinkies: My parents bought this for Chaeli. And if I never had Chaeli, believe me, I would not know what a Squinky is, let alone a Squishy Squinky. They bought her the gum ball set (since all Squinkies come in these clear, plastic balls that open down the middle) as well as extra Squinkies to kick start her collection.
3. Captain Underpants #5-7: A present from Santa – to feed her obsession with the dude that wears nothing but a cape and underpants.
4. LalaLoopsy Silly Hair Doll: Here’s another item of which I wouldn’t have known about if I hadn’t become a parent. Chaeli loves styling the hair which bends sort of like a continuous crazy straw. This was a present from my aunt and uncle.
5. UNO: There’s nothing more in the word that Chaeli wanted from Santa then the classic UNO game. We’ve played it so much during the holidays that I’m ready to enter any UNO tournament out there. If such a tournament actually exists.
6. My Farm Around the World – for Nintendo DS: Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a couple of DS games. Here’s one that was a stocking stuffer.
7. Operation: A present from my SIL and BIL which I’m happy to say is like the retro, classic game. When I did some window shopping here, all I could find was the Pixar Car’s Mator version. Not that that wouldn’t have been cool – but there’s something about the retro style that just can’t be beat.

Chaeli also got some other cool gifts, like the Phineas and Ferb books, Star Wars Life Saber lip gloss (the lip glass lights up), a Hello Kitty digicam from her godparents and Jenga from Hobbes.

Shy’s loot (from left to right):

1. Body Shop Hemp Gift Set: This set contains hemp cream for my hands, body and feet. And it does the trick! My hands are ultra dry during the winter so I usually need some serious moisturizer but without that greasy, oily residue. The hemp hand cream really gets absorbed into the skin. The scent is a little stronger then I would like but because it is on the musky side, I don’t mind. I’m not a fan of the flowery and fruity (except coconut or citrus) scents. Santa Doug bought this for me.
2. Sims 3 on PS3: A gift from my sweet Chaeli (with help from Doug, of course). I’m sad to say that I have had no time to play this game. Can’t wait, though!
3. National Geographic – The Photographs: A great coffee book with all the significant and influential photographs capturing both culture and history around the world. This was a gift from Doug.
4. Anthony Bourdain’s Medium Raw: A stocking stuffer that will be well worth the read, I’m sure! It’s a softer side of Bourdain now that he’s got an adorable little girl and is settling down into family life. But the softer side of Bourdain, I would imagine, is still edgier then most people’s hard side.
5. Horrible Bosses: I got this from my SIL and BIL. What a great gift! I love this movie and can’t wait to watch it again and again.
6. Snow Shoes: Santa (Doug) got a pair for both Chaeli and I. Doug’s pair is back in T-Bay so we’ll have to get that shipped over soon so the three of us can enjoy it.

I also got a $50 gift card for Reitman’s from my PIL. They inserted it in one of these beautiful, hand-painted wine goblets (Doug got one too to make it a set). I also got season 1 and 2 of The Cosby Shoe from my aunt and uncle. And a DVD remote control from my parents for our PS3 system.

madly rushed and random

• chaeli had her surgery last week to get a cyst removed from her bottom, inner lip. it was a cyst that’s been there for several months and while sometimes, it does go away on its own, hers decided to stay. she was nervous. i was nervous. but they had a pre-surgery orientation two days before which was designed to ease any fears in children. it was a fabulous program and made a huge impact on both of our nerves. i would say that it cut down our nervousness by 90%. i’ll be writing a letter to the hospital, commending them on a great program.

• i have been wondering for quite some time now – does katy perry have issues with letting go of her teen years? it seems that 3 out of her 4 last singles released have been about teen dreams and/or angst. maybe she’s just gearing towards a demographics. at least that’s what i hope. because otherwise, well, it’s a tad pathetic. and embarrassing. katy – you’re not a teen anymore. live in the moment!

• i finally buckled down and did some shopping. and it was a good timing – i found some amazing sales. i now have enough of a wardrobe without having to wear any of my big pants, skirts and tops where i had to sadly hold up the bottoms with a belt. i even bought a pair of black, knee-high boots! loving the boots. they’re slick and quite comfortable with nice height from the heels.

• doug made amazing chocolate chip pumpkin muffins yesterday. i ate two of them for dessert and brought in two more for today. granted, one of them is suppose to be for my manager but i haven’t told him yet. just in case i end up eating both!

• i wanted to create another wordpress blog for just my ‘guilty pleasures‘ but there’s something wrong with the import function. i went to the discussion board and it looks like a lot of people are having the same problem. what’s ironic is that it’s just an xml file exported directly from an existing wordpress blog (under the respective category) and yet it’s not working. i still am waiting for a response from support – it’s been a few weeks now.

• as of this past weekend, i have only the final items to shop for christmas gifts: one more stocking stuffer for doug and a present for our annual kid’s secret santa exchange.

he said, she said – with holly’s

doug has this superstition tradition – you have to have some wrapping left to do on christmas eve.

i’m not sure exactly who he thinks he married to but if he took a moment to understand how his wife works, he’ll know that i certainly can not stand leaving anything to the last minute.

and wrapping gifts the night before christmas just before actually placing the presents under the tree and in the stockings, isn’t how i ease into the christmas festivities.

even so, this year, i figured i’d leave two presents to wrap last minute. and thankfully, the family member i’m wrapping it for could sit there watching me wrap both of his gifts for the entire time and STILL be mega excited when he gets it the next morning. because really, what do dogs know about surprises? we do it for ourselves, not for them.

so – one toy and one treat. both for the dog. to be wrapped on christmas eve.

and as a side note, i seriously can not believe christmas is just three days away. i woke up thinking, “well, i suppose the count down begins” except that the count down had really begun long ago. but for me, i basically have been putting the thought of christmas on hold during the week because i’m more concerned about taking my christmas holiday without stressing and worrying about all the work waiting for me when i get back in the new year.

which is, unfortunately, why i’ll be bringing work home with me.

chaeli pre-holiday update

so it’s that time of the year again. the pre-excitement of christmas has made my sweet, little darling into the the spawn of lucifer.

alright – that was definitely an exhaggeration. but if you compare some of chaeli’s more recent behaviour to who she truely is – a very well natured and well behaved child, you can imagine how challenging it’s been these past couple of weeks. and it’s not that she doesn’t try – i can tell that the pressure of being good, the extra sugar intake (not to mention the caffiene intake from all the chocolates), plus just the sheer excitement of christmas itself, has collectively funnelled together in her little body, causing her to basically act, well… possessed. for a lack of a better word.

oh… and speaking of being the little devil, my own offspring went to school the very next day after doug and i took that sample, canadian citizenship test to announce how i did.

from what i was told, the conversation started something like this:

chaeli: ms. kothari?

teacher: yes, chaeli?

chaeli: do you know what mommy and daddy did last night?

teacher: wait… chaeli, do i really want to know what goes on in the privacy of your home?

chaeli: mommy and daddy were taking a test – and mommy got a LOT wrong! daddy only got two wrong and mommy is usually always right.

teacher: test? what test? why were they taking a test at home? you must mean they were playing some sort of game.

chaeli: no. it was a test. i saw it. they had to pick a, b, c or d.

btw, that’s how the conversation always goes with chaeli and her teacher. she learned to first ask if she really needed to know what we do at home after chaeli told her that hobbes likes to bark at GO trains and daddy barks with him and mommy doesn’t like that, leaving the poor teacher to wonder why doug barks along with our pet dog to begin with. chaeli omitted to explain that sometimes doug likes to get hobbes going for sport; he gets close to hobbes and lets out a low ‘woof’ which is like an on-button that gets hobbes all worked up – OF COURSE I DON’T LIKE THAT!

anyway, i was pretty sad that neither doug nor i could attend chaeli’s christmas show. this was just not a good year at all for me to take time off work and the show was in the middle of the afternoon. just in case, i asked chaeli what she would prefer – that i arrange to leave work early and go by myself or have both my parents go and video-tape the whole show. she was excited about the latter so it all worked out.

but here’s the deal. the day before the show, she came home with a letter stating that if we wanted to, we could pack some make-up with a comb for the day of the concert.

i looked at doug and said, “make-up? do they know who they are asking this from?”

aside from eye-liner and eye-brow definer, all i have is a plethora of lipstick and lipgloss. i use to have eye shadow and blush but i threw them out years ago after never using them for a very long time (and was pretty sure they went stale). they couldn’t have asked the least likely person to own enough make-up to lend to her daughter… had they had asked a week earlier, i’m sure my mother would have had somethng.

anyway, chaeli went with just red lipstsick and glittery lip gloss, as well as some glittery hair gel from earlier that morning.

and i thought my baby-in-blue looked smashing!

TGIF random

• friday! finally. we’re heading over to my aunt’s place after work for chinese hot pot. i haven’t had hot pot in months – it’s just not something doug and i crave until the cold weather hits us. and now that we’re moving into winter, oh yeah – hot pot it is!
• don’t know why, but i’m totally into Pink as of lately – now listening to Ave Mary A. great stuff to workout with. next track is Bad Influence.
• doug is going to be gone both saturday and sunday during the day so it’s up to me to tire hobbes out tomorrow before we leave him for the whole evening on his own (have a party tomorrow night to go to) – chaeli and i will check out a new dog park not too far from where we’ll have to be tomorrow noon.
• it’s unbelievable but i just realized in the next couple of weeks, i’m going to have to organize my christmas presents and start wrapping all the ones i’m going to ship to t-bay. as for shopping, i have two more gift certificates left and a couple of CD’s.
• unfortunately, doug’s moustache for movember is growing in fast.

christmas shopping

even though i started much later in my christmas shopping, i will most likely be done earlier. i think, though, it’s only because i bought just so much less year due to a stricter budget. but i’m happy that a lot of what i got, i watched for price drops. i don’t think i paid anything for it’s full price – some were a steal.

i only have to buy for my mother, one more stockings stuffer item for doug, two gift certificates and a couple of birthday presents that fall around christmas time.

i was going to add presents for the teachers but i remembered we were going to bake a variety of different types of cookies for them and make them into packages. i may even look into making chocolate truffles.

Protected: it starts with a tough morning…

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christmas on a budget

yes – it’s that time of year again.

i’m planning my christmas shopping list. believe it or not, this is the latest i’ve ever planned.

this year, things are a big tighter financially – so my main goal is to cut down on spending. unfortunately, that means no stocking stuffer except for chaeli and a little bit for doug.

no presents for any of the pets for my in-laws, even though we get christmas presents from my PIL’s dog.

and a max. spending on each present outside of our own household (we’ll spend more on chaeli – not as much but a little bit more).

as for christmas presents for chaeli’s teachers, this year, i don’t have just her two main teachers, but one for french, gym, computer class and music class. even if i were to get then $10 gift cards to tim horton’s, thats $60!

the solution? we’ll spend one weekend, baking cookies like mad. i’ll go to the dollar store to buy tin cookie containers (they always have a bunch before christmas) and that’s their gift. the presentation will be impressive and it will involve the whole family – a gift made from our hearts.

with the tuition we’re paying, we’re already shelving out enough for their salaries.

so if they don’t care for cookies, too bad! cause that’s all they’re getting!

brunch, sushi and a belated birthday

saturday, i woke up early-ish (8am is actually a sleep-in for me on weekends) so i could have a light breakfast and head out to a saturday morning bodypump class.

oh it felt good. i have not done the bodypump class on weekends in awhile because p90x was so demanding, strength-wise in particular, that i had to whittle my 3 times a week bodypump class to just every thursday (as a way to maintain my fitness level for the class – and because i would miss it too much if i took it out of my schedule completely). anyway – great class. and because i was done with p90x, i upped my weights – felt great!

afterwards, i went directly to bayview village to meet up with cathy for brunch at oliver & bonacini. we both had:

Savoury Smoked Chicken Crêpe
two poached eggs, wilted spinach, Thunder Oak Gouda, Northern Woods mushrooms & hollandaise sauce

oh it was definitely a good choice! i also got the cottage fried potatoes as a side. i was hungry. who wouldn't be after bodypump, though?

afterwards, doug and i picked up a large platter of sushi, sashmi and maki rolls, then headed over to tai's and trish's for an early dinner. with wine and lots of cuteness from their 3-month, twin boys, and of course, visiting with their poodle, cowboy, is never a dull moment, it was a great way to spend the later part of the day.

i also gave doug his belated birthday present. work has, i admit, totally thrown off my organization skills in terms of presents so i was behind with both mother's day, father's day and doug's birthday.

i have caught up on everything but was most happy with my present ideas for doug. and the reason why it was belated was because i was waiting to to get them in the mail.  and… as luck would have it, the two items (one from me and one from chaeli) arrived friday.

doug got the germany's home world cup soccor uniform from me:

Germany_fifa

and the liverpool world cup uniform from chaeli:

Liverpool_fifa

he's a quarter italian, a quarter german and a half scottish. he already had the italian uniform from a couple of world cups ago so i focused on germany this time.

scotland didn't make it to this world cup but i reallly liked the liverpool look. doug loved both.

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