Baking...Baking...Baking

I have been fortunate this week having only to pick up the 2 older children from school at 3, so with all my extra time in the morning I figured I had time for a little baking. I planned out what I was going to bake, made my list and headed off to the grocery store and the lovely Bulk Barn. I first had to consult with my Grandma on a recipe and she seemed delighted that I enjoyed some of her favourite desserts.

The next day I began my bakefest.....I started with one of my favourites....well they're all are my favourites or I wouldn't have made them. Anyway, I made some soft ginger cookies and some date squares, the date squares did not exactly turn out the way I expected, and actually I ended up burning them as at one point I forgot to put the timer back on.....OOPS! The recipe I used was from one of the Internet websites, but then I remembered about this great recipe book I got for Christmas last year. It is one of the best because it has all the old family recipes in it dating back to my great great grandparents. The recipes were found in some old books and written by them. Very cool. As I was referring to this book my great Aunt had a recipe for Matrimonial Squares aka date squares. So I thought I would try it again and they turned out great.....I should have known better than to mess with family recipes.

The next day I attempted the recipe from my Grandma, apparently they are called saucepan cookies, not a very original name, but I do remember how much I liked them when she made them for us last year. It seemed easy enough but as I progressed I realized that there may be some things are better to just eat than to make. I think I will leave this one for my Grandma to make. I also made some macaroon cookies and the classic Rice Krispie Squares with sparkles on top.

I still plan on making shortbread and sugar cookies but I just ran out of time and honestly I am not looking forward to it. I don't really like getting too messy and these cookies will be messy and probably frustrating at times. We'll see.

Clockwise: ginger cookies, rice krispie squares, macaroon cookies, saucepan cookies. Centre: date squares

It Is Cold

I can't believe that Jack Frost is showing up on our doorsteps already. It seems like we didn't get to finish off with Fall properly, and BANG winter is here. Now, it is not that I don't like winter, I mean there are lots of fun things to do throughout the winter. Skiing, skating on the Rideau Canal, seeing the Lights, building snow castles, snowmen and snow angels. I love the snow, really I do, it's just the cold that seems to get to me. In Ottawa we don't get it as bad as some other places in Canada but it does last for a long time, and by February we are looking for it to all go away and for the warm air to return. We are expecting a lot of snow over night tonight. It always look nice with the snow but causes a lot of headaches trying to get to and from work. I expect a lot of delays tomorrow.

I am advancing the distance in my runs now working up to the Half. Today I ran 14 km in the snow and minus temperatures. I am so glad that I have decided to do this with other people or I may have given up by now. It takes a lot to get up in the morning and run. I hope that I can last until the end of January when the race takes place.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas....

Winter is here....or rather it is knocking on our door. We were hit with a storm the last couple of days. It started Wednesday morning, stopped for a while in the afternoon, then continued Wednesday night and all of Thursday. I was so happy to have gotten my winter tires put on a few weeks ago but at the same time was worried about the other drivers. Who forgot to put winter tires on? How close are they driving towards me? I made it to and from work without any problems. The drive to work took longer, as expected, but the trees looked so magical.....covered in a white blanket on each branch, very Christmassy (if that is even a word).

So it got me thinking of Christmas and all the work that goes into it, the lists, the cards, the shopping, the line ups. Actually, I love all of it, I guess you could call me a people watcher. I could go to the mall and just watch other people all bustle around each other while sipping my Timmie's. I am excited for Christmas, mainly because it is when we all get together as a family and just have a good time. Sometimes it is hard to find time like this in our busy schedules but I am glad when it comes...even if it is just to get a phone call.

As I am loving all this snow right now, I know it will go away.....but not for long. If only we could have the snow without the extreme cold (-30). If only.

Update

So I have been working with this new family for almost 2 months now and things are going much more smoothly than before. Loo Loo is about 5 months now and has taken to me and actually smiles at me now when I arrive in the morning. Mom is still at home with us but because she is going back to being a resident at the hospital again she has a lot of studying and research to do and allows Loo Loo and I to play or go for walks. Every now and then she comes in for cuddles because it is hard to be away for your baby all day long. I am really enjoying being here and I get along well with both Mom and Dad. I am still with the last family too but only until Christmas so it will be sad to say good bye to them, actually I don't think I could so I will have to take the kids on some weekends during the year.

I have recently finished playing Ultimate for the season and had a great time and met a lot of great people. We just finished off last night with a get together at one of the pubs downtown. Now I can focus my time on my running, hopefully, I am having a hard time with it as my knee likes to hurt me so I have decided to have someone check it out and give me some advice on what to do so that I won't have to give it up. My next race is set for Dec. 31 (the Resolution Race). It is only a 10k.

Dancing!!

I am enjoying what I can watch of Dancing With The Stars which right now is just the results show. Last week there was an amazing guest singer/dancer, Wade Robson. He is actually the choreographer for when the professionals dance on the show. I have attached a link to his dance, absolutely amazing and definitely kept my attention. Check it out when you get a chance.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=OLJASCTZ3z0

Gatineau

Yesterday was one of the most beautiful days of fall we have had yet. So my sister and I drove out to one of the most beautiful places for such a day, the Gatineau Hills. It is this huge forest full of different trails throughout it. As we were driving, we passed many people either walking or biking.

We ended up driving to the Mackenzie King Estate. A place where our 10th Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, would go to and fell in love with all the beautiful scenery. He ended up buying some of the land and built a cottage there to spend his summers. Over the years he invested more and more into the land. During his last few years he made it so that the public could come and enjoy everything that he enjoyed about the Gatineau Hills.

We took one of his paths down to a waterfall. The hike was nice with stopping stops telling us a little bit more of King's personal likes. We hiked all the way down to find there was no water for the waterfall. So we hiked backed up to the estate and made our way home. Everything was so beautiful though and it was great to see it.

Thanksgiving Half Marathon

Today was the day of my Half Marathon (21.1km). I had a turkey dinner the night before because I didn't really know how willing I would be to eat any turkey afterwards.

I got out to Cumberland, where the race was taking place, at about 8 am. My race didn't start until 9:40 but I wanted to make sure I was there and knew where to go. The had a nice Tim Hortons booth set up with coffee and timbits, so I had a little bit of coffee to help me wake up and keep warm. It was a cold, crisp morning. This race was at the Cumberland Village Museum, it kind of reminded me of a smaller version of Upper Canada Village. They had a lot of pioneer buildings and lots of farm animals. Since I had some time before the start of my race, I visited the animals. My favourite to watch were the roosters. I had some nice conversations with them (hee hee). Choo Choo and Nugley were also coming to the race, they were participating in the Turkey Trot, a 1 km race, and

Dad was going to run it with them. I was able to cheer them on before my race started they did awesome, I was so proud of them.

Next it was time for my race to begin. I wasn't sure how I would do, how much I would walk, but I just started out and was going to play it by ear. I started off well and felt great at the beginning. I knew there were going to be hills, but I didn't realize how many and how steep they would be. At about the 14km mark I started to feel some pain in my knees and shins, so I slowed it down a bit and took in more water, I didn't want to push myself too much. I felt better afterwards, then as I was coming back towards the Museum I felt all this adrenaline hit me and I got some more speed knowing that I only had about 1 km left to run. So I finished my race with a time of 2:01:28, I guess finishing in under 3 hours was a good guess I had no idea I would finish that much under. I am feeling some pain now but I can still walk and I think I'll be ok. I am looking forward to doing it again.

The pictures are of the Cumberland Museum and I am the runner with the orange shirt on.

Still Running...

Since May I have run in a few races. A 10k in May for the Ottawa Hospital, a 10k on Canada Day for Canadian Olympic Athletes, and a 5k that was part of a triathlon/duathlon. So I guess it is now time for me to pick it up a little and set a new goal for me. I signed up a while ago for a half marathon (21km) race hoping that I would train hard and perform well. However I got busy, distracted, whatever you want to call it, so I am not ready for this race but I am still planning to run, very very slowly if I have to. I don't want to injure myself so I can't run later. This race is taking place on October 7, that's right Thanksgiving. It is being held at the Cumberland Heritage Village Museum, a little town just east of Ottawa, and they are raising money for the Ottawa Food Bank. At this time of the year our leaves are all changing colours so it only fits that this race be called the Fall Colours Marathon.

Today I ran with a group from the running room, they wanted to run about 16km today but since they knew I was running in the race (they aren't) I ran a little less and met them back at the store after. they were a lot of fun to run with and it easier than running on my own. In a few weeks I am joining the running room half marathon clinic, so I will learn more about the right and wrong things to do while running this distance. I think I will still run with this other group when I see them though.

Anyway wish me luck with this new challenge. For this first race my goal time is anything under 3 hours. Not a big goal but that's all I can do right now. Oh and if you have any suggestions for good running music let me know. I already have a few dance cds with a good beat to them.

Hockey 2007/2008

So tomorrow is the day that the NHL will start their regular season, well kinda, there are two teams that will start their regular season tomorrow and the rest of the NHL will start on October 3 (which includes my Toronto Maple Leafs). The Anaheim Mighty Ducks, the Stanley Cup Champions of last year and the Los Angeles Kings are playing tomorrow and Sunday and they will be doing something special. They will be playing in London England as a new experience not only for the players but also for the city.

I have joined a few hockey pools this year, all for fun, but somewhat competitive too, mainly for bragging rights. I have just finished all my live drafts and I feel like I have a good chance this year as long as I can keep up with it all throughout the season.

Here in the picture is G Jean-Sebastien Giguere, D Francois Beauchemin, LW Chris Kunitz, and C Rob Niedermayer taken in front of Tower Bridge in London.

Kitties

I am living with my sister and I own one cat (Joey) and she and her boyfriend own 4 cats (Humphrey, Pumpkin, Little Guy and Humpy). Now Humpy is the daughter of Little Guy and is usually a very good cat. She sleeps well at night, doesn't get into too much trouble. One thing that she does and we are not sure why, but maybe she has a little thing for this dog here. It is usually down in my sister's bedroom on the window sill. Then all of a sudden we look down the hall upstairs and here it is. I am not sure why she does this but she does it at least once a day sometimes more. It is very cute but also very weird. Oh well at least she is not bringing mice or crickets home, like some of the other ones.

A New Adventure

I have recently started Nannying for a new family. We have decided to start slowly and gradually bring up my time spent with them as the mom is on maternity leave at the moment anyway. I started on Monday for a couple of hours and I got to hold the baby (we will call her Loo Loo). The first hour was great but then I tried to give her a bottle and she lost it. I think it was too much change at once for her. They haven't been giving her a bottle before but thought they would start the process. So the final hour was crying crying crying. She associated me as the bottle girl. So I left for the day thinking I was a baby hater. :(

The next day I stayed a little longer and mom and me took her for a walk (she loves going on walks), we walked down to a Timmie's since we were in need of some caffeine and then came back and relaxed in the house. She was a bit happier for the duration I was there.

Wednesday (aka today) I arrive and Loo Loo is all ready to see me. She and I go out for a walk on our own this time just around the area so she can see that I may take her away from mom and dad but I will always bring her back. She was ok to start our walk and got a little fussy finally after a little while she fell asleep. I kept telling her about all the things that were going on around her and observations that I made so that she can get used to my voice and know that I am safe.
Daddy was home for a bit today because he is on call tonight at one of the hospitals so he didn't have to be there until four. He missed seeing all the unpleasantness Loo Loo gave me the first two days and thought that maybe a life size cut out of myself would help Loo Loo get adjusted to me when I am not there. I didn't really agree.

This new family is so nice and relaxed and I think we will all get along great. I am looking forward to being with Loo Loo these next few years and baby #2 whenever it happens.

So I have just finished A Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult and I think it was the fastest I have read any book before, excluding Clifford's books. This one just really grabbed my attention and kept it for the duration, plus I also had a lot of free time to read this book during the week.

This is a story about a prosecutor who deals with a lot of molestation trials then finds out it has happened to her 5 year old son. She knows too well how the legal system works and what she doesn't want her son to go through. There are a few twists through out and even right to the end of the book. Definitely one of my favourite Picoult books.

Now I am going back to the fourth Harry Potter book.

Funny things

I have noticed how much these two little ones are not so little anymore. They are both in school now, so I am seeing less and less of them and as I start a new nanny job I will begin (slowly) to see even less. Hopefully, and I am sure I will, I will be able to maintain a relationship with them on weekends or holidays every now and then.

I was picking the kids up from school this week and Nugley's teacher came up to me to tell me something. My first thought was uh oh what did he get into. Her story goes like this: She was telling the class about her family, that when she was little she was called Julie. She has a brother who was called Jacob and she has a mom and a dad. After telling this to the class, Nugley put up his hand and said "I think my Dad used to be your brother", because they have the same name. Too cute.

Today when I was driving them to school we were discussing birthdays and that Choo Choo's is coming soon and she will be 4 and that Nugley's is in the winter near Christmas. Nugley said " I wonder why they chose that day for my birthday". Again too cute.

I am going to miss these moments which is one reason why I am glad I have this blog to refer to over and over again.

Harry is Back

I know I have been lacking in the blog writing but I am here and hopefully I can continue to Blog more. I have recently (as in today) finished reading the third Harry Potter Book. The Prisoner of Azkaban (aka Sirius Black). Now I will watch the movie to complete it. I have decided to take a bit of a break with the Harry series and I will be starting another Jodi Picoult book, Perfect Match.

My New Toy

This my new toy ( which I am still trying to figure out). It is a Garmin Forerunner 305. I mainly wanted it because I am training for a half marathon soon and I wanted a good way to track my progress and to push me a bit too. This "watch" has a GPS satellite installed in it and keeps my pace, my heart rate, and time in it's memory until I get home and transfer it to my computer. It keeps track of where I go for a run and if I choose to run the same route it will compare the two and show which areas to work on. I love this watch. Thanks ebay!! You made it more affordable for me.

NYC Day 2

On our second day here we were happy to have my Aunt show us around some of her favourite areas in New York City. So again we took the train from NJ to Penn Station followed by a subway to Greenwich Village and walked over to Washington Square Park. There was an area where people could go and challenge each other to a chess match. I did see a few people playing. We walked next down through the SOHO area where there were lots of artistic people and the main reason (I think) was so my sister could go to Anthropologie. Ever since my Aunt wrote about it in her blog, my sister's had an attraction to it. I actually enjoyed going there as well and saw a few things I liked as well. There was a huge bird cage in the middle of the place.

Next we made our way over to Little Italy and had some lunch at a little restaurant there called Da Nico Ristorante Italiano. We all felt much better after some food in our systems and then we could explore some more places. So our next area was Chinatown and we went down one street that was full of fish at every store. Some of the fish were still alive and the sellers would bring them out when someone was interested in buying to show how fresh they were. The smell was unbearable at times. I even found a vendor selling frogs in a bucket I couldn't believe that people actually ate frogs. It was definetly an interesting experience.

Our next stop was the Brooklyn Bridge. We were not exactly sure on how to get there but there were lots of helpful people pointing out the way and sometimes giving us more info then we really needed. First we had to walk under the bridge to be able to walk over the bridge. Again this day was a super hot day and you could really feel it walking up the bridge. We walked to the halfway point to look around a bit then came back down the same way. It was quite a walk and called for a Starbucks afterwards for a cold drink. Next we walked down to the Fish Market, now it is not a fish market, I think it used to be but now it is a shopping area on the pier. It was quite peaceful and there was even a woman doing mime.



Next we made our way towards the Staten Island Ferry where we waited forever to board the ferry along with everyone else. The announcer came on and said that the ferry we were waiting for was cancelled and we had to wait for the next one. So we did, along with all the other people. Once we got on we were packed on the boat with barely enough room to move so I couldn't really see too much. On the way back over was a little nicer plus I decided to stand near the edge of the boat to get a few photo opportunities like this one of the NYC skyline.

Then we took another subway up to Grand Central Station. What a great place that was. So full of people and we were able to do few fun pictures there too. This is my picture of Cheryl among all the passengers running to their destinations or so it looks that way.

Finally before heading back to NJ for the

night we went back to Central Park because my Aunt wanted to show us this amazing fountain known as Bethseda Fountain. Unfortunately, they do not light the fountain so it was a very dark place, but kind of enchanting. This water lily was in the fountain and I didn't realize how big it was until I took the photo.

New York City

Our first full day in the area we took the train from NJ to Penn Station and set off on our adventure. We headed to Macy's and browsed all 8 floors of this huge department store. We had to first get me a coffee so we found a Starbucks inside. Then on one of the many floors I found and bought a nice summer shirt. Next we walked up and had some lunch at Bryant Park. We had some hot sandwiches (I don't know why since it was the hottest day ever) and some water. Afterwards we walked around and went inside the New York City Public Library. It was a huge building and just beautiful inside (and air conditioned). We were not sure if we were allowed upstairs but apparently we were so maybe next time I'll have to check that out.


Then we worked our way up to Central Park stopping at some other landmarks like Rockefeller Plaza and Centre where we stopped and tried to get a tour of the studio but found out we were too late for that day. It was a good thing we stopped there because before we were going to leave it started raining, so we waited it out. Then we continued on our way to the park and I had to stop at F. A. O. Schwartz, the huge toy store, they had some of every kind of toy you could think of, even an actual nursery where you adopt a child (doll) from a hospital and the worker is dressed as a nurse too. We walked up Fifth Ave admiring all the high fashion shops wishing to be able to go in. Finally, we make it to Central Park and we were planning on visiting the zoo there but yet again we were too late for that day. So we just walked around among all the tall trees. We sat down to rest our tired feet before the long walk back and just enjoyed the view.


We were starting to get hungry again so we set off to find some place to eat heading down Fifth Avenue and passing by the Radio City Music Hall towards Broadway and Times Square. There was so much going on along Broadway maybe it just seemed that way because of how busy it was. We tried to get some food at the Olive Garden but the line up was an hour and a half wait so we went across the street to another little place and had a huge meal and some martinis. Then we finally made our way back down to Penn Station to get the train back to NJ. I don't think I've walked that much in quite a while and my feet were definitely feeling it. But after some rest I was ready for another day......

NJ

Me and my two sisters have just returned from a weekend in NJ/NYC. My Aunt lives in NJ and was kind enough to allow us to stay with her. It took us about 8 hours to drive there and we were very happy to get out of the car. After taking all of our luggage up to her place and figuring out where we would each sleep we went off to the beach (Sandy Hook Beach). From the parking lot to the water was such a distance especially since we had to walk through such soft sand full of little shells. Once we got to the water it was so refreshing and calm. You could hear the waves coming in and crashing, there were children playing in the water too. So because we were at this spot we had to get some pictures taken, and it was so beautiful as the sun was setting just over the way. As the sun was setting we walked along the shore and got splashed by the waves. Before leaving I saw a crab that had been washed up from the Ocean trying desperately to get back to his home in the water. Finally the waves took him back right before I was able to get a picture of him. I was able to bring home a piece of the beach though, a big shell left on the side of the beach. Next time I will have to go for a swim in it. This is my favourite picture of the beach here on the right.

Harry Potter

I have just finished reading this book and since I am on holidays I was able to read it quite quickly. I am sure that you all know what the storyline is so I don't need to go into too much detail if any. I am now watching the movie as a finale to the first part of the series. My next book....yep you've guessed it, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Vanishing Acts

So I have recently finished this book here and it was quite a good book since it did keep my attention and made me want to read more. This story took place in Arizona about a girl who found out she was not who she really thought she was and had to try and piece back her memories and try to figure out who she was/is and who she wanted to be.

My next story to read is because of the hype of the new book released across the world. I have to decided to start at the beginning though with book number one: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.