Roast Beef

Where I live we have decided to each take a day where we are responsible for cooking the dinner meal. This way we all chip in and contribute and one of us won't have to feel like we have to do it every night. I have officially made my first roast beef dinner and it went smoothly. It was a late dinner but that happens when I have to work until 5:30 and I don't usually get home until 6:00. Cooking a roast wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I just had to make sure I didn't rush with starting some other things like the vegetables. The gravy part I'm still going to work on because it was a little bit too thick but it still tasted good. I don't mind thick gravy but not for roast beef, it should flow more than stick. I ate it though, and so did everyone else, they must have liked it because the next night they had some more as leftovers. Along with the dinner I also prepared a cherry cheesecake. We couldn't eat it until the next night though because I forgot about the "chilling" time. While doing all this I only burnt myself once, from picking up a hot dish but it wasn't too bad. Just a few choice words came out at the time. everything is fine now and I may attempt to do this again one day. Hey Thanksgiving is just around the corner. hmmm. We'll have to see. What are some of your experiences with cooking?

Sunday

Well it's one of those Sundays where there is not much to do and it feels great! I am spending some time reading some blogs and catching up on how others are doing. I found this on gnarlynanny's blog and I thought I would try it out too. A good and fun way to spend an afternoon.

Rock Star Name: (pet's name and your current street name) Joey Crestway

Movie Star Name: (grandfather/grandmother name on mother's side and favourite candy) Irene Poprocks

Fly Guy/Girl Name: (first initial of last name and first 3 letters of middle name) G-Lyn

Detective Name: (favourite colour and favourite animal) Red Bear

Soap Opera Name: (middle name and city where you were born) Lynn Victoria

Star Wars Name: (first 3 letters of last name, first 2 letters of first name, first 2 letters of mother's maiden name and first 3 letters of the town you grew up in) Gorstdikan

Superhero Name: ("the" , favourite colour and favourite drink) The Red Smirnoff

Nascar Name: (first name of both your grandfathers) Jacob Edward

Futuristic Name: (name of favourite perfume/cologne and name of favourite shoes) Calvin Klein Merrell

Witness Protection Name: (mother/father's middle name) Louise Adam Reginald

Have Fun with it and let me know when you have done it too.

Autumn

Tomorrow is the first official day of Autumn. However, I am already blessed with all the colours that autumn has to bring. As I drive the kidlings to various places in the morning I see the gradual change all the trees make and then it seems like "poof" they all magically changed to bright reds , yellows and oranges. This I do have to say is my most favourite season of all. Bringing out all the sweaters that I have been longing to wear again. I've already bought a few things for Hallowe'en too. It's all very exciting! The kids can't wait to gather the leaves and place them at the bottom of their big red slide so that can fall right into them and then gather them up again. This time of the year is the best time to go on trail walks through the avrious areas and listen to the leaves crunch and the Canadian geese prepare to fly south for the winter. I remember "years ago" driving to my grandparents place (A nice place out in the country) and with my two aunts we would gather as much leaves as we could find, and there were plenty, and we would spend the whole day out in those leaves jumping, hiding, rolling. You name it and we did it. It was so much nicer then, and I try to bring some of that to these kids here. I am so happy for Autumn we should have a party to celebrate the coming of Autumn (maybe that's what Thanksgiving Day is for).

Have a happy Autumn day tomorrow and go out and do something before Jack Frost comes into our lives.

Money Money Money

I found this article today as I was browsing on the Internet about 10 jobs that pay a six-figure salary. You will be surprised to see some of these on the list.

1. Court Reporter - If you can type 200 or more words per minute, a six figure job transcribing court testimony or captioning Web casts can be had.

2. Professional Coach - About 20% of the 10,000 coaches make six-figure salaries.

3. Mine Manager - Claustrophobia aside, a profession with a median salary of $106,000 a year awaits those with the project management skills to set budgets and deadlines for mining projects, plus review and inforce safety procedures. A College degree is not always necessary.

4. Sales Person - If you have a way with people and can handle rejection, it doesn't matter if you are selling stocks, life insurance, cars or magazine subscriptions you will be making big bucks.

5. Truck Driver - Long haul drivers willing to be on the road for weeks at a time can pull in $100,000 a year, plus benefits.

6. Pressman - aka Printing Machine Operators, make as much as $32 an hour which comes to six-figures annually with overtime.

7. Tech Writer - These workers make $50 an hour to do freelance tech writing jobs.

8. Restaurant Manager - Working your way up to manager from the kitchen or wait staff can earn you $100,000 or more. Usually in higher end establishments and resorts (not Swiss Chalet).

9. Air Traffic Controller - A high stress job with a daunting training program. Many pay $100,000 to start.

10. Elementary School Principal - The US national median is $76,000 a year but those in higher income areas break the six-figure barrier.

After all of this said, you can't just take a job for the money you also have to really like what you are doing. I don't think I could ever be a truck driver because that would require me to sit down too much and I can't do that. Sure I wish I made more money but don't we all? I do know that I would never give up working with children they are too precious to me.

Camp Skits

Has anyone ever gone to a camp where you perform skits and sily things? I grew up going to church camps through the summer, mainly music camps (or as some of you may know it as "band camp"). Well this site made me think back to those days when all the cabins would put on a special skit to make fun of ourselves or staff members of the camp.

http://www.nationx.dk/coats/

What are some of your favourite camp memories?

The Richmond Fair

Today I went to the Richmond Fair. What a great day it was too. The cold air disappeared for the weekend and the sun was shining the whole time too. I am watching the kids this weekend too so that Mommy and Daddy could go away for their anniversary. They left Friday a.m. for Vermont and should return before supper on Sunday. So I took the kids to the fair. They were so excited. The rides the rides the rides. That was the only thing on their mind. So I bought a bunch of (over priced) tickets and asked what they wanted to ride on first. "Horsies Horsies!" Ok off we go to the Merry-Go-Round. It was actually quite nice and lasted quite a while. When it ended Choo Choo was very sad and cried a little, she didn't want it to end. It took a little while for her to calm down. Then they went on some motor car ride, the ferris wheel and a train. Nugly wanted to go down the big slide so he went on his own. He carried his blanket up all the stairs and down he went holding the blanket instead of sitting on it so off he went to try it again and tada it came down so much nicer. The tickets were gone and that caused another upset with Choo Choo but she got over it when I said lunch time. We went and got some nice hotdogs. Choo Choo ate the bun and that's it but I knew that was coming seeing as how she is a carb-ivore.

After lunch we ran into Sparky the fire dog and got pics taken and hugs. Then we were off to find the petting zoo (nothing was marked out for us). We found a kid section run by a nursery school which had crafts and painting and then a singer came, Mary Lambert from Kingston, ON. She was really good. She sang a song that needed children to dress up and Nugly was chosen for the sheep. He got to wear a sheep hat and a tail. There was also a pig, a chicken and a cow. When it came time to perform he had to BAAAAAA at the right time in the song then turn around and shake his little tail. It was priceless. I got lots of pics for Mom and Dad. Choo Choo realizing that Nugly was up there and she wasn't began to have another melt down. Fun times. After Mary's performance we thanked her and finally found the petting zoo, which was goats and a donkey. They were starting to get tired out so we started heading for the car taking one last look at the all the cows and dressed up horses. We all had a great time and they are both passed out up in their beds. (2 points for me).

A Bad Nanny!?!?!

I found this on topfive.com and found it quite funny. Enjoy.

The Top 5 Signs You've Hired a Bad Nanny

5. Instead of shaking the baby, she just puts it in the blender.

4. She asks for your credit card numbers so she can reach you in case of an emergency.

3. First offense for back-talk? A ten minute time-out.

Second offense? Sell 'em to the gypsies.

2. "Just look at me as a Mary Poppins with nuts."

and the Number 1 sign you've hired a bad Nanny......

1. She's supercalifragilisticexpiali-wasted.

Have a good day!

Floods

What a day today was. Busy as everyday seems to be the kids are getting better at getting up early and get out the door asap. Most days I start around 7:30 although today was a special day where I was asked to come in earlier so they could get off to a prework meeting. So I had a long day. I will tell you my typical day at work as a nanny/office helper. I end up feeding the kidlings breakfast as soon as they come down hoping that they are already dressed (not usually both of them) then wash them up and get them out the door and into my car to leave for school hopefully by 8:00 (we're getting better at it). We don't have too many meltdowns about no tv time or playtime in the a.m. I drop Nugly off at his school (full day JK) which is about a 20 min. drive in traffic to get him there hopefully before the bell rings. Then I am off to take Choo Choo to her school (half day preschool) by 9:00 (we are always on time for that one it's only about a 15 min. drive there). That's it for kids for me until lunch time so the parents asked if I would work in their office until lunch time. So off I go there where I get to relearn my alphabet by filing charts and documents in the right section (it's going to take me a little while longer to figure that out). Then I am back at the preschool to pick up Choo Choo who always has a smile on when she comes down the stairs and sees me. I take her home and give her some lunch and off she goes for a nap while I do some cleaning/kid laundry (I refuse to do the parents) and relax for a bit. She only sleeps for about an hour so it's not much time. Then I snack her and put her back in the car to go and pick Nugly up from school. When we get back I let them choose their activity (lately it's been riding bikes) and wait for mom and dad to return at about 5:30.

Although today was quite a different day, Dad was off because he worked a night shift and came home mid morning and was trying to clean out or something like that (I don't know too much about it) his fish tank (now this fish tank is not just your ordinary tank with cute little goldfish in it. It is a salt water fish tank with live coral, clams, starfish, etc. and he grows his own coral and has this whole system that I don't go near) So after he did that he went and slept all afternoon just like Choo Choo did (she's a great sleeper as long as the cat doesn't stay with her). While I was making muffins with Choo Choo Dad said he had to go out for a while so I went and picked up Nugly as usual and because it was raining they got to play inside with the trains and Hot Wheels (yes Choo Choo likes that more than dolls) I sent them down and was going to join them after putting the lunch bag away but Nugly came back up very upset and mentioned something about a flood. "WHAT A FLOOD?" so I went down to check it out and yup there was a flood. Apparently the huge fish tank was overflowing somehow. OK that's fine I'll just call Dad on his cell phone. It would have been fine if only he had it on. OK so then I'll just page him. Oh what's that I hear? "beep beep beep" that's right he left his pager at home with me. OK so now I am officially panicking. So I call Mom on her cell phone Hooray I made contact. So she drops what she is doing and races home. Meanwhile I call an aquarium store to ask a) is Dad there? b) how do I stop the flood? They tell me no Dad has not come in today and to pull the plug on the pump. OK I can do that, after a half hour of trying to figure out which plug goes to which thing. AHHHHH! Mom gets home and helps with the towels and searching for THE plug. When Dad gets home ...... Boy is he in trouble as Choo Choo told him often (hee hee hee). The flood wasn't the big problem it was mainly that he didn't have any way for me to contact him. I think he learned his lesson though. And I am pretty much a pro at this now because after 3 years working here I've dealt with 4 floods.

15 YEARS!!!!

I can't believe that DiPietro has signed a contract for 15 years. That means that he will be making 4.5 million US a year until he decides to retire whether he gets hurt this year or not. That is INSANE!!!! and he is only 24 years old. I do have to say though that he is not to blame for this whole ordeal. I would definetly take it no matter what but what on earth are the Islanders thinking????? They better win the Stanley Cup with all that they have invested in this one player. In a way I hope he gets hurt (not in a bad way) just to see how they react. Maybe this is just a way for the team to get more attendance from the fans. Wouldn't it be great if you witnessed the fall of the big goalie guy? It could be as good as seeing the Stanley Cup final. No not really. I do wonder what Don Cherry has to say about all this I bet he has a lot and it will probably be his top rant of the season. Well you know he's not a Canadian. Maybe that's part of it. He doesn't want to end up getting traded at some point to a Canadian team. Who knows all I know is that it will be something to watch. And watching I will do but mainly for my Toronto Maple Leafs. First game is September 5 against their rival Ottawa Senators.

ps Do you think DiPietro is married? I would make a good hockey wife

What goes around comes around

Who knew that living all your life you would be so used to certain ways of living? Sure my ways may not always be the best ways for everyone but they are for me and I like it my way. Wouldn't you? Little things that didn't bother me so much are now really getting to me maybe it's that I'm not use to these other people's ways of living or that I am getting old and crabby. Hopefully with time this too shall pass and I'll be able to relax a bit but then would that be giving up a part of who I am? I guess when I was younger I was a lot like this and have just grown up more over the past few years. Maybe it's that I feel I should take over the "morthering" role. Maybe I should just let it be. But I can't do that because I am too stubborn. What do you think? What are some of your pet peeves?

It's a Start

This is the first blog of mine hopefully of many. I guess I will see how things go and how dedicated I can be. This is just a start and I will write more.