Friday, July 31, 2009

Get Happy

Come on people spread the love. http://www.scienceofhappiness.co.uk/

This is an interesting author I discovered at the library. He wrote a book called "The Luck Factor" (I forgot that on the list of five books I have read in the last 20 years I guess it is really six.) It was very interesting basically if you believe you are a lucky person you will be. A positive attitude draws good things to you.



The naked truth

If you want to have some fun with your 3- 5 year old....get all dressed up like you are going to the store I mean hair, lipstick, shoes and purse but leave off your shirt. Just wear your bra and go about life as normal then head towards the door and grab your keys and pretend like you are going out like that! It is fun to see what goes on. I have tried this on two of my kids at about 3.5 they giggle and protest and eventually place themselves between you and the door begging for you to put on a shirt before you leave the house. Mean but fun. (no I didn't really leave the house in my bra!)

Sniff Sniff

Yesterday I had a very busy day cleaning and doing laundry. What!?!?! I know it is some shocking news but that is not the bad part. On January 1st like mos of us I made a New Years Resolution. I promised the usual things like lose the baby weight ( I was truly hoping to give birth to a 35 pound baby so I would only have to lose 5 pounds. To my suprise I had a 5 pound baby and the opposite was true) I also vowed to be nicer, learn to bake bread, get organized and blah blah blah. All those things lasted about a week but there was one resolution I vowed to myself that I wouldn't break and I did yesterday about 20 times. I promised that I would no longer sniff things. It is as instinctual to me to pick something up off the floor and sniff it as it is to Ellie to put things off the floor in her mouth ( I need someone watching over me to reach over and slap my hand and say no no yucky and I pull something off the floor and bring it towards my nose.)

First I picked up some of the towels below the dryer where my kids had pulled half the clean laundry out mixing it with the dirty stuff. Heaven knows I don't want to do any more laundry then I already have to give it the sniff test and sure enough it was the towel from the upstairs bathroom that the dog peed and pooped on. Now just the smell in the room is bad enough but to actually pick it up and put your nose on it. Gross. Then upstairs in the boys room I pulled a pair of gotchies out of the clean laundy basket with a skid mark on them. I thought to myself ,"How could that be there? These just came out of the laundry." Why of why would I do it? I can see with my eyes right in front of me it is a brown stain in a three year old's gotch really what else could it be? Did he have a chocolate fondu set up in his room and dip his undies in? Maybe some brown marker? What, what did I think it was going to smell like. Like after 37 years of knowing what poop smells like that today in some Twilight Zone episode (now kiddies that isn't with Edward and Bella) that I would sniff those gotchies and it would smell like honeysuckle or vanilla cookie. Of course it is going to smell just like poop.

What is wrong with me? I tell you ladies stay strong resist the urge to sniff. When you find your 13 year olds shirt crumpled on the floor say to yourself today I am just going to add this shirt to the giant mound of laundry rather than sniff the pit!

Have a good day. Keep it sniff free!

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Life's a Beach

Some great friends of ours called us up and asked us to spend the day with them at their lake. (imagine someone voluntarily hanging out with the circus!) Such a great day. The kids have a million memories.... I was intrgigued by a very Saskatchewan drinking game going on next door which involved a frisbee, hockey sticks, a puck and pilsner beer you will see it in the slide show.....fun


Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Cut the Cord......

I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. (Maya Angelou)

This pretty much sums up my day.....
It just so happens that I had all of these things happen to me today and I am not sure that I passed any test. I went to bed last night with thoughts of the kids at the park and me working on the computer, cleaning the house and getting many of my erands done. Unfortunately for me mother nature was not co-operating. The five bored, restless, kids and I spent the day inside driving eachother crazy. There was hairpulling, crying, fighting, tattling, just general drama (no it wasn't all me it was the kids too!)


The one errand I did have to run involved a haircut... Can you tell by the picture who the haircut was for? I will give you a hint. The next customer in line had peed and pooped themselves. Hopefully from the hint you guessed it was Daphne the Dog and not me( although if we were talking about labour the answer may be different but I digress). Hey I get it being a mom means that you have to sacrafice things like sleep, (did I mention Ellie got her imunization yesterday), and your body, and your sanity and every bit of your time, money, moment of your life. (and when your 12 year old says he wants to spend his money cause it is his money and he should do what he wants with it you think to yourself why do I share my money with you people............If I just didn't have to feed you I could buy pants that went all the way to the floor and get a real haircut rather than cutting my own bangs with the scissors from the steak knife set). But really, who do you think deserves a day at the spa more? Me who looks like I combed my hair with a porkchop and styled it with an eggbeater (Alison) or the dog who craps and whizzes on my laundry and has never made one darn penny in her life!!





While we were out picking up Daphne I decided since it was raining I would pop into the library because someone once told me that is what a good mom does on a rainy day not just yell and freak out. While we were there I decided to take the kids in the Art Gallery portion where little people just shouldn't be while their mom is taking a call on her cel phone. "Don't touch that""You can't play the piano""If you break that so help me..."Ok enough of the library. Believe it or not I was once a librarian and an English teacher in a former life. The only books I have managed to read since I convocated University 15 year ago are:What to Expect when your are Expecting-5 timesThe DaVinci Code (I read 3/4 of the book on a trip and then rented the movie)Twilight(I read 3/4 of the book to see if it would be appropriate for my 12 year old to read and then rented the movie)A couple of books about lead in mini blinds and toxins in everything we have in our house that my husband told me I was not allowed to read before bed ever again!1 trashy romance novel about a naughty amish girl last year at the lake durring our holiday.That's about all I have managed to read in the last 15 years.....Sad! ( I guess I won't be starting my own book club any time soon.)
I had time today for laundry. I learned you should take the pull up out of the pjs before you wash them.


Look how fun he thinks it is.

This is the kind of bill I have to hand in to my accountant....Hope they appreciate art.

Here is the cord part of the lesson. I wasn't trying to untangle just merely find the cord for the video camera. What is wrong with the world when technology doesn't allow us to have one cord to plug everything in. I spent the better part of two days ripping apart my whole house looking for that dumb charger to a dumb video camera that I can't figure out how to work anyway. Someone told me once that may be anxiety...............

I wonder why i can't find the cord. My suggestion to all the organized people out there is to label a new cord with a sticker when you get it......I won't do that because that would ruin my two day frantic scavenger hunts.


This is my graphic illustration of the fundamental difference between my hubby and I.



Monday, July 27, 2009

Neglect

My blog is whinny because I am not paying any attention to it. Well get in line and stop your crying. Yeah you were fun for a while, but I am busy and now I have to get back to real life like taking a nine month old for her six month needles, (Carson said to the health nurse "Please, don't hurt our baby." ) and driving out of town to deliver a part for my hubby's broken car. I promised the kids if they were good I would take them swimming. Well, I was good to my word we showed up at 3:45 and swimming was over at 4 so they had to swim fast. Well I am sorry blog I didn't mean to neglect you. I will try to update you...........
Recently, I was asked to come and speak to a group of fantastic young ladies about photography. Ellie and I were more than happy to come out and share some information with the "girls on the move" here in Swift Current. The leaders had cameras for the girls to try out. It was lots of fun. I always love talking with people! If your group needs a speaker on photography, work from home moms, uplifing/motivation (at least my life isn't that crazy compared to Corla's travelling nutshow) or how to wipe bums and noses and nailpolish out of carpets I'm your gal!


Ellie and her buddy.
Reach for the sky!
Such a fun shot. I just saw her at the park and she had to let me know her cast was off.





Ellie was very entertaining.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Bigger is Better

(Please check the post below for the Drive in Theater) We didn't get home until 1 this morning so technically I didn't post until today so Alison....I owe you a coffee!)

I have a confession to make I am a blog stalker. I have a few favorite blogs that I check regularly and one thing I notice is when the pictures are small. I have contacted some of the authors to let them know that you can make the pictures larger so here is a tutorial for making pictures larger in blogger:

First you need to chose a template that allows you to have larger pictures. The first one I did I customized the site to not have sidebars which was great for the pictures but then I lost my site counter and the elements from my sidebar. Now I just found there are some of the templates that will work.

Go to "Layout" and click on "Pick New Template" You can mess around but mine is "Simple 2" I think "Stretched Denim Lite" also works. So now you have the layout you need. You can easily preview that and if you don't like it you can change easily.

Now do a test post. Put just one picture in a post. Up in the top right corner is "Compose" Click beside that for "Edit Html" You will see a lot of writing for just that one picture. You need to find WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 266px; and delete it. The find s400 and change is to s800. That is is it! Go back to compose. There will be a small red x first while the information is uploading and you should see your larger image. You do have to do this for each and every image you post. Feel free to email me if you have any questions at corla_rokochy@hotmail.com


The smaller image

The larger image



Feel Free to sign my guestbook and leave me a message! There is a little orange tab that says "sign this guestbook" Thanks!





Movies under the stars














It has been at least twenty years since I have had the pleasure of being at a drive in movie. The last time I was at a Drive would have been the "all nighters" in Watrous. Although I don't recall sneaking into the movie in the trunk I also don't recall watching any of the movie. It was more about visiting and chasing boys.

Tonight my good friend Sam and I took 13 kids or I guess I can consider Kimbi an adult now so 12 kids a dog and two moms and one cool teenager almost adult headed out to the Drive in just outside of Kyle. From the moment I turned the corner I knew it was going to be awesome. Just a treasure in the middle of a field. This was right up my alley. They actually have a playground right in front of the screen. We all camped out on blankets and watched "Imagine That" a cute Eddie Murphy film. We stared at the stars and ended up with about 4 of the kids sleeping. All went well until we went to leave and in the process of taking these pictures and lifting up my bunny hug 5 times to feed the baby I managed to lose the keys to Frank the Tank. I had a minor heart attack as I envisioned phoning my hubby who was already sleeping at home to get the spare set and drive 50 min out of town to bring them to me. Luckily a nice man with a large spotlight found them for us! Wheeew.
Now that I have gone with the kids this will definitely be a yearly event. Thanks to the Magic 97.1 for the passes I won on the radio station by idenifying the movie "Get Smart" ( I guess there are some advantages to a DVD player in the vehicle and listening to one movie over and over 65 000 times.
Night............

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Boobies

Disclaimer: This whole post is going to be about boobies. I don't mean to exclude anyone but this post is kinda for the ladies. For the dudes may I reccomend http://www.tsn.com/ or even http://sunshinegirl.canoe.ca/

Ok so now that the guys are gone lets talk about boobies. They are wonderful mystical things, we all have them so what makes them so interesting? I challenge your right now stop for a minute and think in your head 10 slang names for boobs. I bet you can do it no problem. ( Now see if you can think of the names of 10 past Canadian Prime Ministers.... Takes you a lot longer ,if you can even do it. I am not comparing politicians to boobs just making a point that we use up a lot of brain space on kinda useless stuff!)

The First Bra
When we are little no one cares if they are showing you can run around the beach or in the backyard with no shirt on. In every girls life you get to the stage where even in your own house you do the fingers over your little boobie bee stings so that no one can see them. That is about the time when your mom or big sister or heaven forbid maybe even your Dad takes you bra shopping. I think every little girl remembers buying their first bra. I went with my Grandma to Army and Navy in Regina where every happening young lady in 1984 went bra shopping. I was so excited to have this contraption that I wanted to wear it to bed ( my Grandma was a buzz kill and told me you don't wear a bra to bed so I put it on my Smurf. It wasn't even Smurfette just a regular old smurf. Little did my Grandma know that 25 years later I would not only be wearing a bra to bed but 24 hours a day because if I don't I wake up in what could best be described as a wet t-shirt contest.)

Would you like a drink with that?
This brings me to the purposeful part of boobies. I am currently breastfeeding my ninemonth old. The choice to breastfeed or not and for how long is definitely a personal decission. I say whatever is best for you and your baby. I am behind you 100%. This will be my last baby so thinking about being all done is part sad and part liberating. She doesn't take a bottle which means we are never far apart from one another. This weekend I did a wedding and we spent five whole hours away from one another. When I got home she was licking my clevage like a dehydrated dog. I felt a little bit like someone was doing a body shot where I even supplied the beverage!







I know one thing for sure I will stop before she goes to Kindergarden. I will not being showing up for snack time and nursing her through the playpark chainlink fence. Breastfeeding can take a toll on one's body and I have heard girls compare their postbaby boobies to an egg on a nail or a tennis ball in a tube sock. I am fortunate to this point that everything is still where it is supposed to be and stretch mark free. I always wanted bigger boobies but I guess someday when I am in the home they won't have to pick them up to wash under them. (always a silver lining.)

You know you have breastfed for too long when:
You can tuck your boobs into your belt
You can slide your boob under your baby's nursery door to feed them in their crib
You trip on your boobies getting out of the shower wait you aren't in the shower that is just milk spraying everywhere
You use the key on the ham can to roll your boobie up and tuck it back into your bra
If your baby needs a top up before their hockey game
If your kids are fighting over who gets the next turn
Your husband is fighting with the baby over who gets the next turn
You feed the baby and then make yourself a latte with what is left
Your son's is old enough to drink in the real "Hooters"


(This is my attempt at drawing. The mom on the right looks like she combed her hair with a porkchop. I guess most new moms don't have time to shower. If you are a gifted artist would you like to send me an email corla_rokochy@hotmail.com)


Share the Wealth

Another thing I am pretty sure about is that I won't be breastfeeding anyone elses baby. Here is a video of Selma Hayek . What do you think? Maybe if I was hosting a party and it was really late and someone needed a paralyzer I would top them up or some cream in their coffee ( just joking but I know there have been people that drank breast milk out of the fridge by mistake.)






Doing it Right!
But all kidding aside as someone who has breastfed for nearly five years of my life I would like to say to any pregnant moms out there or first timers that it isn't a walk in the park in the beginning but stick with it because it is worth it. If you want to know what it feels like just get one of those name tag holders you get at a convention that you clamp to your lapel and attach that to your boobie. Now twist it around. That is what it may feel like for the first day or two so make sure you are doing it right and it will be much better. I have fed babies while working on the computer, eating, knitting, riding in a car with the baby in the car seat (no I wasn't driving but I don't reccomend this as leaning in plugged one of the milk ducts and it gave me mastitis! That is something you don't want to mess around with. If you think you may have mastitis you will have a burning red spot on your boobie. Take a washable marker and draw a circle around it and if it gets bigger......go to your doctor. Make sure you don't get a fever!

First time Dads are new to all this too so their job can be changing bums and burping. As much as they want to help or understand I am not sure they can. My hubby asked me just before the birth of our first baby, "When do they pierce your nipple? Is it in the hospital" I didn't know what the heck he was talking about. "You know so that the milk can come out!" Man I didn't let boys read this far because he would be mad at me for telling that story. My point is you aren't supposed to have all the answers right away but you will figure it out.



One of my first published images was in a calendar celebrating boobies and breast feeding.



http://www.breastofcanada.com/

Pink Ribbon
Ok enough about the old milk wagon. I think I would be remiss to write about boobies without talking about breastcancer. These fabulous boobies of ours are a source of food, pleasure, sensuality, beauty but can also be a source of worry, disease and anguish. I have two aunts who have fought and won against Breast Cancer. I also have a fabulouse motherinlaw along with 9 of her amazing friends that have published three amazing cookbooks. They have raised nearly a million dollars for breast cancer research and supporting and celebrating cancer survivors. We are so proud of all their hard work and dedication.

http://www.breastfriends.ca/



Here is an image of my one aunt during her treatments. She lost her hair and her two daughters cut all of theirs off in support. Some strong women I admire!



Do you have a story about getting your first bra you would like to share? A breastfeeding story? Or can you draw? I would love to hear from you.





Monday, July 20, 2009

It's fun to be in the PPOC

Over two years ago a committe was formed of of to run the National photography convention for the Professional Photographers of Canada. I have been a member for 12 years now and there has never been a national convention is Saskatchewan so when we were chosen to host I was thrilled. I have been Saskatchewan's education director in the past so I volunteered to be the speaker chair for the convention. This would have been a lot easier if I hadn't "decided' to get pregnant with our fifth baby and have a seven month baby with me at the convention.

Ellie was a trooper! She sat through lectures, luncheons, meetings and the fun and awards nights. The only way I made it all happen was with a team effort. My husband asked his cousin to drive three of the kids up to Grandma and Grandpas where they would stay for the five days of the convention. Olivia barfed while she was there and Carson had a fever. Fun times. They still managed to have a great time and I know they loved spending time with their grandparents and cousins. Pat's cousin is a single guy with no kids so I can imagine how much fun a 3 hour trip in the van with 3 kids was. (lets just say he has moved out of the country recently and I hope we didn't have anything to do with that. ) Levi stayed in Swift and had sleepovers with friends. Pat was off somewhere that ryhmes with schmolfing. My mom came to the rescue as well staying in the hotel with me and being my full time Nanny. It definitely takes a village to raise five kids and I believe I just may be the village idiot!

The Shoot Out at the "Dog River" Fun Night. How many photographers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Mom, Ellie and I in the trade show.
Us and Brent Butt. It was a cutout but don't tell Kelsey he thinks it was real.



The cops finally caught up with me for lack of child suppervision. (Brent doesn't look suprised)

The corner gas meal. Onion rings, chicken, and the chilli cheese dogs really put the "gas" in Corner gas. Oh yeah and what meal is complete without baby food.





The model. Her name was Olivia. My Olivia told me to tell her "hi"


"Get the F out of my convention...." The fellow sitting down is the current president of our association (yes I use the word fellow) and the one standing up is a past president and many times defeated leg wrestler against one of my BFs Alison.

Amina from Still motion putting on a workshop on the rooftop!







This is the travelling circus or the rodeo on wheels. Believe it or not this is how I showed up to introduce and thank all the speakers at their presentations. The life of a working mom.



In the middle of all the chaos of a six day long convention with a seven month old baby I gave myself a bit of a heartattack for just a minute when I found a lump in my armpit while I was in bed and then I realized oh that is Ellie's head! She insisted on sleeping with me which made for not the best sleep!

Ellie is tuckered out. Her favorite place to sleep besides my armpit was the hospitality suite.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Old Man Balls. I Mean Ball.

This past weekend Davidson hosting 22 teams in the Provincial "Twilight" Ball (not the cool teenage vampire Twilight but the politically correct word for old, aging or over the hill) . I have to tell you my older brother Jason put a lot of work into the tournament and may have a few more grey hairs after days of rain leading up to the tournament. He is the kind of guy out on the field in rubber boots and his dress clothes running things behind the scene. I definitely have to give him a hand for all the hard work and dedication he put into the tournament. That kind of volunteer spirit is what keeps the small towns running.

Unfortunately, I missed most of the tournament due to work but I showed up on Saturday evening. By the time I arrived at my mom's house the guys were around the kitchen table drinking whiskey and telling stories about the good ol days. I am amazed how these guys can remember some hockey game or the name of some hockey player that played Junior Double A 20 years ago and what number he was picked in the draft. I can't even remember what I wanted to get at the store or where I left my car keys never mind good old "whats his face". I don't know what smelled worse all the B.S. or the Ben Gay.

I sat and watched the game with my little brother and his family. Poor guy it reminded me of Carson being the little brother not old enough to play. Next year he will make the 35 cutoff!


Wow I thought he made a sexy cowboy! Looks good in ball pants too.......

My mom lives about a block from the ball diamonds so before I knew it everyone was up and gone. I was scrambling to get out the door so I decided to bring breakfast on the go..... What no milk?









Pat's big brother came down for the tournament. It was cool to watch him catching for his little brother!
This is the fabulous guy in town who retrieves frisbees off the roof for little kids, paints my mom's house for a dozen buns and some homemade jam and the occasional golf cart rental.




Well, they didn't win it all but I think they did a great job representing Davidson and had a good time. There is always next year.