Saturday, February 16, 2008

Is It Spring YET?????

Someone needs to stop me from looking back on my blog and the kids and bemoaning the loss of summertime..its BAD. Mr K and I went through his whole blog, watching the vids and looking at the pictures... but I lingered on the ones of them outside....us putting the grass in.....my flowers (sniffle sob)...oooh I get so restless by this time of year. I am just DONE.

Its also the time I start my planning, and yes, I have my drawings scattered around the house of what plants I want, new designs for the flowerbeds (especially since I hated the front last year) new things I want to try, and to actually maybe finalize the backyard. I think I am a yard commitment phobe, I really like ripping things up and trying new things, BUT I actually placed a NAME to the style of gardening I like, after picking up some magazines. Now this may not seem like a huge thing, but it is :) To finally figure out that a "cottage garden " (English garden) is what I aspire to just clicked a light bulb off in my head. My love of white picket fences, and arbors and trellises with climbing vines.. yup, thats it by George.

I am the kind of person who planted her dill in with her asters, tomatoes with her pansies, and the whole point of a cottage garden in the olden days was to fill up the space with not only flowers, but herbs and vegetables as well for use in the home. Exactly my style of gardening.

So I am planning....and waiting....impatiently...sighing over the seeds in Walmart....buying gardening magazines to help (or maybe they're making it worse) stave off the longing for greenness.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Lipstick Jungle


Anyone else watching this? I made sure to tune in last week to catch the first one, and caught it again last night. It has received mixed reviews, but I think too many people are depending on it to fill the gap that Sex and the City left. Cashmere Mafia (don't ask) is one of the silliest shows I have ever seen (once, very, very briefly, I can't stand Lucy Liu) and other than that, there aren't any fashion parade, wild sex crazed women shows out there.

I loved this show from the first purse. Kandice will have a good laugh at this one. See said blue purse below? Well, while watching the show, I saw this purse and said WOW! I love that blue purse! Then we started talking about Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo and Mike literally turned to us and asked us if we were speaking another language LOL.

I digress. What I meant to blog about was the fact that I have this innate, gold-digging talent to pick the absolute MOST expensive item and covet it, without ever peering at a price tag. Said purse? Retails for $1600. I was sitting here with Mike, and said "OH! I should google that purse while I am blogging about the show. " So I look it up, find out it's Jimmy Choo, (money warning bells started clanging in my ears at that point) and poked Mike "Hey, honey, watch this" went to the website where its sold, and showed him the price tag. His response was " How the hell do you DO that?" followed by "Who in their right freaking mind would pay $1600 for a PURSE!!!"


Oh, yes, and aside from the fashion...the plots are interesting ;). They are tho, I really like Brooke Shields as an actor, and she's really great in this as the working mom/movie exec. She really is doing a good job portraying the mom who's trying to do it all, and I like the plot with her husband being the one staying at home (hell, damn straight, you go mingle with stars while he stays at home). The whole nanny-expose book angle is interesting as well. I like the other characters, I LOVE that one is a fashion designer down on her luck, that should be very interesting and can go sooo many places. I don't like that once again, there is a character who's a high level exec with a magazine (isn't there another job in New York??? I know, that and fashion, nothing else to do there I guess) but I do love that she's having an affair with a gorgeous younger man.

Its just a darn good show with lots of fashion fluff, great actors, good storylines and I am so glad there is something on Thursday nights now instead of Survivor crap!

Er, Happy Belated Valentines!

Hahahaha I so can live without Valentines Day! I realized that yesterday, instead of well wishes and looove to you all, what do I post? The new Indiana Jones preview.

Ok, I DID send presents via Facecrack, but that was Hug a Dork with my wishes for you to survive the commercialism of the day. And I did make the kids their own valentines and make them pancakes with homemade sauce for breakfast. Then I raced home after my training for my new job, and took Mr K to the last half of his preschool party. THAT was a labor of sheer love for my children. Then came home and made Mike a fantastic dinner, with beer, followed by homemade cake. It doesn't sound like much, but let me tell you, after training and a preschool party, that also took some luv. But thats just kinda Mom/wife stuff anyways, y'know?

Mike was a sweetie and surprised me with a subscription to Canadian Gardening magazine, which is one I wanted. I had told him exactly what I wanted, my indoor greenhouse, but I told him not to bother right now because I am so busy, and I want to be able to relax, set it up, plan and enjoy it. So he went out and bought me my magazine instead, which was so thoughtful of him...only a husband would know that a gardening magazine would make me happy :) The girls at work laughed but I told them that I truly wanted that more than chocolates or roses, and the thought that went into it meant so much more.

I used to like getting flowers from Mike at work on Feb 14th, but I used to LOVE getting them when it wasn't Valentines Day. I adored when he just picked a random day and sent them, and everyone in the office oooohed and aaaahed and I was a wee bit embarrassed yet giggly pleased and lovey-dovey at the same time. It was nicer to get them because he didn't HAVE to give them to me because of the calendar date, and everyone else in my office knew that too, and that makes you feel special. When something is requisite, it kinda loses the appeal. Thats really how I feel about Valentines Day, I don't like that everyone is expected to do something on that one day for the person you love.

Then there's the fact that we celebrate the 11th as the anniversary of our first date, so we really lost Valentines Day, it has no meaning when compared to the 11th for us. So to turn around 2 days later and do something special again just because the rest of the world does to seems redundant. Perhaps if the 11th wasn't a special day to us, we might celebrate it more, who knows.

But that's just me and my humble opinion, and of course, I hope everyone else was romanticized and chocolatized and spoiled rotten!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Jonesing for May 22nd

I CAN'T FREAKING WAIT! This will be what we take my Dad to for his Father's Day movie this year..but I will have to wait 3 agonizing weeks! I was incredibly glad to see Harrison all kicking some ass and being all Indy....hopefully Shia can measure up!

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Breastmilk Contains Stem Cells

Uh, I was rendered speechless at this, thank Karen for the article on her BLISS blog..I hadn't found that article yet. I mean, there really is just nothing to say about this amazing discovery, nothing. I wish I could go on forever, but I am speechless. (quick. make a note of the date lol)

The Perth scientist who made the world-first discovery that human breast milk contains stem cells is confident that within five years scientists will be harvesting them to research treatment for conditions as far-reaching as spinal injuries, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.

But what Dr Mark Cregan is excited about right now is the promise that his discovery could be the start of many more exciting revelations about the potency of breast milk.

He believes that it not only meets all the nutritional needs of a growing infant but contains key markers that guide his or her development into adulthood.

“We already know how breast milk provides for the baby’s nutritional needs, but we are only just beginning to understand that it probably performs many other functions,” says Dr Cregan, a molecular biologist at The University of Western Australia.

He says that, in essence, a new mother’s mammary glands take over from the placenta to provide the development guidance to ensure a baby’s genetic destiny is fulfilled.

“It is setting the baby up for the perfect development,” he says. “We already know that babies who are breast fed have an IQ advantage and that there’s a raft of other health benefits. Researchers also believe that the protective effects of being breast fed continue well into adult life.

“The point is that many mothers see milks as identical – formula milk and breast milk look the same so they must be the same. But we know now that they are quite different and a lot of the effects of breast milk versus formula don’t become apparent for decades. Formula companies have focussed on matching breast milk’s nutritional qualities but formula can never provide the developmental guidance.”

It was Dr Cregan’s interest in infant health that led him to investigate the complex cellular components of human milk. “I was looking at this vast complexity of cells and I thought, ‘No one knows anything about them’.”

His hunch was that if breast milk contains all these cells, surely it has their precursors, too?

His team cultured cells from human breast milk and found a population that tested positive for the stem cell marker, nestin. Further analysis showed that a side population of the stem cells were of multiple lineages with the potential to differentiate into multiple cell types. This means the cells could potentially be “reprogrammed” to form many types of human tissue.

He presented his research at the end of January to 200 of the world’s leading experts in the field at the International Conference of the Society for Research on Human Milk and Lactation in Perth.

“We have shown these cells have all the physical characteristics of stem cells. What we will do next is to see if they behave like stem cells,” he says.

If so, they promise to provide researchers with an entirely ethical means of harvesting stem cells for research without the debate that has dogged the harvesting of cells from embryos.

Further research on immune cells, which have also been found in breast milk and have already been shown to survive the baby’s digestive process, could provide a pathway to developing targets to beat certain viruses or bacteria.


Original Article

Oh, I should add the picture wasn't in the article LMAO, it's one of my favorite sayings, and damned if it just doesn't suit the situation.


Monday, February 11, 2008

Happy Anniversary!

Happy anniversary to my honey! Today is the 9th anniversary of our first date. We don't usually remember most dates, to be honest, if you asked when Mike proposed I wouldn't be able to give you a date, just a month. But we remember this because Mike was irked that I was going away to Manitoba for Valentines Day, so he asked me out before I left instead.

Its also weird, but I started with Telus on this day 3 years ago too, and at the time newly unknowingly pregnant with The Princess...so I was VERY WEIRDED OUT today, that my first day of training at my new job was on this anniversary as well....and let me assure you we are not trying for a third LOL!

First Day

Well I made it through the first day of training, and let me again tell you how much I really would never want to go back full time days. UGH. I admire women who can get up in the morning, get dressed in office attire with hair and make-up done, (yah, no jeans for me, insert disgruntled face right about.....here) get your kids out the door and to whomever is sitting them then off to the office, and all usually BEFORE 8. I barely managed to get the kids to Melissa's for 8, to the university for 9, and that was with Melissa feeding my kids lol. All I did was get them up and dressed and teeth brushed and out the door. I wonder about those women who actually prefer going to work, rather than staying at home...they just can't enjoy the actual chaotic mornings before they get to work...just not feasible. They must breathe a sigh of relief once they are there. This morning showed me that I literally can't think of anything more stressful with more suckage than getting two very cute but generally very uncooperative (can you blame them? the sun wasn't even up) kids ready with massive time constraints, racing to the sitters, then barreling through rush hour traffic with all the rest of the lunatics, trying to find parking, getting into the office on time.... Shudder. I don't thrive on that kind of stress LOL! Its so different with two to get out the door, I can't believe it! I did full time (this is only 9-1) training when Mr K was 15 months, and I can't remember being this stressed out. You just get one dressed, and the other one has taken off her coat....you get the other boots on, the other one has taken off her mitts...one runs upstairs with her boots on. the other won't get his mitts on.... and on and on and seriously, ON. WTF, do you have to chain one to the couch in order to get two fully dressed children out the damn door? :)

But aside from my whining about what millions of moms do daily, and probably most without the whine, the job should be ok. And I say ok because like with Telus, its very overwhelming at first. But, like with Telus, I know that once you get it down, you can do it almost with your eyes closed. I just hate the process of getting there. But I remember when I started Telus thinking "eff, I will NEVER be that fast" yet you do and will and are eventually.

Tomorrow Uncle Wyatt is here, so now I need to go work on the list of what to do and not do and many, many emergency contact numbers, as well as how to change a dirty diaper, what knives my children can and can't play with, and where Mr K hides his matches. S'all good.