My Birthday Month

Posted on August 29, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..the celebrations started two weeks ago and continued last Sunday, Monday and today

Most people celebrate their birthdays on one day. This year my birthday stretched out over two weeks. I wrote about going out with my friend D two weeks ago when we had lunch at Merryberry and then went to the Riverdale Farm. Lunch turned out to be my birthday present from D and today I received a beautiful card from her in the mail as well.

Last Sunday my sister from Chatham came over to celebrate her birthday and mine and my daughter G and her husband joined us for dinner. K made us a beautiful dinner of grilled salmon, green beans and baked plums.

On Monday I met my friend A, downtown and we spent the afternoon at the Elmwood Spa. We started with lunch on the fourth floor and despite a few hiccups with the reservation and my first meal we ended up enjoying a very visually appealing and tasty lunch.

After lunch we went to the water therapy room where we had a steam and then I went for a 50 minute aromatherapy massage. I’ve never had such a good massage. I felt my legs were getting a great workout and it made up for the fact that I hadn’t run that morning. Once the session was over I went up to the pool and swan some laps and then enjoyed a few moments in the hot tub.

A bought me a beautiful black jersey top and we decided to go the store where she bought it and see if I could get the matching pants. The store is called Endz and it carries absolutely gorgeous designer clothes and accessories. I bought the pants and am looking forward to my next visit to this wonderful store.

When I got home on Monday a parcel was waiting for me from my sister in Calgary. The box was quite heavy and when I opened it I was delighted to see a glass box with a scrabble motif. As some of you know I love to play scrabble and I play with both my sisters on line. That, however, was not the entire gift. When I opened the lid I found a set of fine paint brushes. In an earlier conversation my sister had hinted that for her birthday she’d like one of my paintings. I guess I have no excuses now.

Today started off with coffee in bed, the scarf from husband, a morning run and then a wonderful breakfast prepared by my husband. I went to work and was greeted by numerous birthday wishes from my colleagues and my friend L gave me a beautiful crocheted and beaded necklace.

When I returned home from work I was greeted with a bouquet of flowers from my father that had been delivered to the house. My cousin from Germany called me to wish me a happy birthday and my neighbours down the street appeared on our doorstep and sang Happy Birthday to me and presented me with a bottle of wine.

I wish I could have invited them in for a drink but K had made reservations for dinner at Bloom and we were running a little late. When we got to the restaurant my daughter A and her partner J were already waiting for us. The staff was extremely friendly and the food was out of this world. We had been to this restaurant for our anniversary and the service and food were so outstanding that we knew that we would return.

Just when I thought things couldn’t get better the staff at the restaurant presented me with a complimentary dessert, decked out with a sparkler and ‘Happy Birthday, Carol’ written with chocolate sauce on the rim of the plate. Our waiter started singing Happy Birthday and the restaurant patrons joined in. Even my husband was surprised because he hadn’t said anything when he made the reservations. The four of us shared the dessert before I could take a picture of it but I did manage to save the design on the rim of the plate.

All day I’ve been receiving birthday wishes from fellow bloggers, facebook friends and phone calls from family. I am so blessed and want to thank all of you for my making my day so special.

Tomorrow I have to phone my sister in Calgary and my father in Oshawa and thank them for their thoughtful gifts. The only thing that I’m sad about is that I missed several calls from my family. I hope that I can connect with them tomorrow.

Setting a Running Record on my Birthday

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….it would have been so easy to stay in bed

Today is my birthday. My husband brought me my morning coffee and my birthday present. When we were in Ireland we went to a beautiful shop in Dublin that sold hand made articles from local artisans. I left a big hint that anything in the store would make a wonderful birthday or anniversary gift and I promptly left the store. When I returned I noticed that K had made a purchase and some how he’s managed to keep it under wraps all this time. Normally he wants me to open my presents early.

Anyway he bought me a beautiful hand screened scarf. If it wasn’t so warm today I would have worn it right away but I’ll put it away for a cooler day. As I was drinking my coffee, K asked me if I wanted to have a lie in and forgo my run. It was so humid this morning that I decided that lying in bed would have been too uncomfortable so I got up and put on my running shoes.

Even though the humidity was high there was a nice cool breeze coming off the lake which helped make the run bearable. I never plan on how far I will run. I always play it by how my legs feel. K handed me the leash near the end of our normal route so that he could get a good last couple of kilometres in without worrying about the dog.

As he ran off in an alternate route I decided to follow him for part of the way. I realized that I could be setting a personal best if I kept going so I did. The total distance with walking and running wasn’t as far as I had hoped but the running distance was a non stop 5K. I have run 5K before but I’ve never done it without stopping to walk. Yeah me!

What a great way to start my birthday and it’s still only 10:00 in the morning. Time to shower and get up to school. Looking forward to ‘another’ celebratory dinner with the rest of my family tonight.

“They’ll be small!”

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….. famous last words from my obstetrician

Story #6 for Daily Post Writing Challenge

December 30, 1981

When I started this blog I wanted to share memories of my childhood and life in general with my family and friends. Over the last nine months (how ironic) my family has grown to include the blogging community. Today I celebrate the 31st birthday of my twins.

The memories of that day are vividly clear. It’s not because I was going through hours of agonizing labour. In fact with this pregnancy there was no labour unless you count the five separate occasions when I experienced false contractions. Actually the contractions were real but they always stopped just before I was ready to make that trip to the hospital.

Back in late August of that year I was informed over the phone that the results of my ultrasound showed that there was definitely more than one baby in my womb. I must have been in shock because I didn’t ask how many babies they actually saw. The doctor on call did inform me though that I probably would have these babies earlier than my due date of January 7th. On average twins are born 22 days early.

A week later I saw my obstetrician and he assured me that there were only two babies on the ultrasound pictures, although a few weeks later he did question me as to why I was so big. Apparently he was so busy that he completely forgot I was having twins when he made that comment. Once again I wondered how many babies I was actually carrying.

As my due date drew closer I continued to drive the car and I routinely had to readjust the seat so that my swollen belly didn’t hit the steering wheel. I gained a total of 56 pounds but luckily I had lost a lot of weight before I became pregnant and I actually weighed less at the end of this pregnancy than I had with my first.

I loved being pregnant. I experienced very little in the way of morning sickness and all the complications that I was warned about never happened. I looked forward to each new stage. Being pregnant with twins certainly draws a lot of stares from strangers. My first memory occurred early in the pregnancy when a complete stranger asked me my when my baby was due. At the time I was only 3 months into my pregnancy but I was already wearing maternity clothes. I just assumed that because this was my second pregnancy it wasn’t unusual to show earlier. I remember how shocked the woman looked when I told her my due date.

The other thing that my husband and I discovered was that older people who found out that I was having twins all had stories how one or both of their twins or someone else’s twins DIED. My husband was furious but I didn’t let it bother me.

I was secretly hoping that my babies would be born on Christmas Day. That wish didn’t come true. As the days wore on and Christmas came and went I knew that these babies didn’t care about arriving early. So much for averages. I was so large that my 2 year old daughter could hide herself under my belly and I could use it as a shelve to rest my cup of tea on.

As we got closer to the end of the month, my doctor and I decided to prebook the surgery for my C-section. We always knew that it would probably end up this way unless the babies came early and were small enough for me to deliver naturally. The date was set; December 30th, 1981.

The morning of my surgery I started to feel that things were different. I often wonder if the twins would have come on their own that day or on New Years Eve but I was happy to finally have it over with. I didn’t know if I was having two boys or two girls or one of each. For some reason I really didn’t want two boys. I grew up in a family of all girls and I think I was a little leary of raising boys. I also hoped that If I had two girls that they would be identical. I can’t imagine the conflict that could ensue if one sister was prettier than the other.

As I was being prepped for surgery my doctor informed me that these babies would be small. Famous last words. I was awake for the procedure so as soon as each baby was pulled from my womb they were held up over the drape so that I could see them. The first baby was a girl and I felt a sense of relief. She was beautiful and weighed 6 pounds 8 ounces. The second baby was a boy. I remembered that he was long and not as round as his sister but he weighed in at a respectable 7 pounds and 4 ounces. So much for small babies. I had carried almost 14 pounds of baby in the last month of my pregnancy.

So the day is memorable on many counts. I had two healthy babies, one boy and one girl. My son was the first male born on my side of the family in over 50 years and my husband’s father was happy because he finally had a grandson to carry on the family name. It would be another 7 1/2 years before another child would be born into our family but once the first cousin arrived the other 3 followed soon after.

The miracle of birth is just that; a miracle. It doesn’t matter how they’re born, where or when. Each child is special and brings new life and hope to this sometimes bleak world. Wishing you all a very happy, healthy and productive New Year in 2013.

Spreading a Little Joy

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….I decided to save my rant for another day

One of my new followers inspired me to write about events that bring me joy or in her words ‘what delights’ me. Earlier today I started writing about political issues that I feel passionate about but after my delightful afternoon with my husband I decided to put that piece on hold and share with you some of the happier events that I’ve attended in the last two weeks.

My youngest daughter has been working with a friend to promote their blogs and businesses. Earlier in the year I wrote about the stamp making workshop that they hosted. This time around they created a workshop around creative Christmas wrapping and featured numerous ideas for creating your own ties, tags, embellishments and paper. As always they were highly organized and personable and offered their eager clients all the materials they would need to experiment with. My daughter also made some delicious shortbread to serve with a variety of teas.

The group enjoyed the evening so much that the owners of the art store where the event was held allowed us to stay an extra half hour to finish our projects. Some of the things people made were package toppers, tags, bows, tree ornaments and stamped paper. Unfortunately the battery in my camera gave out and I didn’t get any pictures of the finished projects.

The next day my book club had their annual Christmas dinner. Since the book we were discussing was Erik Larson’s In the Garden of Beasts and was set in Berlin, we decided on a German theme. I was in charge of dessert so I brought a tray of German stollen and other festive cookies and chocolates. I posted a review of the book earlier in the year. In the Garden of Beasts: A Book Review On average the group gave the book a rating of 4 out of 5, much higher than what we gave his last book, Devil in the White City.

A week later another group of friends got together for another annual Christmas dinner. We lovingly call ourselves the “Over the Hilltop’ gang because we worked together at Hilltop Middle School over 15 years ago and continue to meet three or four times a year. My friend L hosted the party and cooked the entire dinner. What a lovely gift. Again the food was amazing, the company warm and joyous and presents were exchanged.

The Sunday before this last dinner my husband and I treated our daughter, A, and her partner to a day of wine touring and dinner. We managed to visit 6 wineries, each unique in its own way. The winery that intrigued me most was the one called Organized Crime. The owner explained to us that years ago in the area there were two orders of Mennonites, a traditional ‘old’ order and a more modern order. The traditional order didn’t like that the other order played music during their services so in the dark of night they got in their buggies and stole the organ from the modern church. Hence the name ‘Organ’ized Crime.

The day before the wine tour I found myself at a fantastic craft show in the city. The crafters were all local and predominately young, although there were a few people there closer to my age. The crafts were original and beautifully made and displayed. The show was held in the Great Hall and in two other stores, all in the same block on Queen St. W.. I spent hours browsing and buying.

Today K and I attended the Toronto Christmas Market but I think I will save this experience for tomorrow’s post. Till then, cheers!

More Art and DIY Arm Warmers

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Mama Cormier

…..going around in circles

The projects that I call “Going Around In Circles” are finally coming together and I’m starting to display them in the hall. These were done by my grade 3 class.

Lately I’ve had the urge to sew something useful and work with felted wool. I follow a blog called The Renegade Seamstress, created by Beth Huntington, and Beth recently posted a tutorial on how to make these great hand warmers.The Renegade Seamstress

If you’re interested in knowing how to make these great fingerless hand warmers check out her site. You might also be interested in making the felted clutch bag. Felted Clutch

Felted Clutch

I gave these hand warmers to my principal and friend who celebrated a special birthday today. She is always cold and she loved them. Happy Birthday, M!

A New Week, A New Start

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Mama Cormier

…. I must confess that after my birthday I let things slide

I was so close. Probably only 1/2 pound off of my 30 pound goal. Now I’m 3 1/2 pounds away.

It’s amazing how quickly I put weight back on. A glass of wine here, a serving of pasta, a couple of slices of bread and a few pieces of dark chocolate and the spiral begins. This wasn’t all in one day but over the course of the week I wasn’t as diligent about what and how much I put into my body. I haven’t been getting as much exercise either.

All this changes now. Calorie wise my day wasn’t bad but some of my food choices involved foods that I have avoided for most of the summer. Food combinations is critical for me. Years ago I remember thinking that this theory was ridiculous until I tried it. It worked.

Tomorrow morning, cross country running starts at school. I’ve already made a commitment to run everyday with the kids. I’m actually looking forward to it.

Now that I’m back to work I need to plan out our meals for the week. Coming home tonight without a plan could have been disastrous but I pulled together a meal of oven baked salmon, braised onions, celery and portabello mushrooms with a small side of whole wheat pasta in a pesto sauce. I probably could have done without the pesto but I did limit myself to a small portion.

One of my ‘red light’ foods has always been pasta. I love it but I can never seem to get enough of it once I start. Tonight I packed the leftovers away immediately after finishing the food on my plate. It will be a long time before I allow myself pasta again. It is definitely one of those foods that I can only allow myself once in blue moon.

The last time I reached this weight I became complacent about continuing on my weight loss journey. I felt good, people complimented me on my appearance and my clothes fit well. I can’t let this happen again. I want to fit into smaller clothes, continue to feel well and stay as active as possible as I get older. This won’t happen if the weight goes back on.

The best part of being back at school today was interacting with all the kids. None of them said anything about how I looked but I could tell that they all noticed that something was different about about Mrs. C..

Until next time, cheers!

Surprises – Part 2

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….. the best was yet to come

Walking into the restaurant amid cheers and clapping and flashing cameras.

As we were driving to the restaurant I knew that K had planned something; I just wasn’t sure of the size and magnitude of the event. I didn’t want to think about it for fear of being disappointed.

I wasn’t disappointed. As we approached the restaurant I could see some of my best friends sitting by the front window. When we walked in the welcome I received was heart warming and I had a hard time containing my emotions. Everyone asked me if I was surprised. I was on two counts.

First I was surprised that K and my girls had pulled it off and secondly I was surprised and delighted by the diversity of the people in attendance. My immediate family was there and my best friends, our oldest friends from Calgary, my sister from Chatham and her family, some of my colleagues/friends from work and some of my neighbours.

K socializing with the guests.

The chef, Amato and the owner, Tony came to greet us and dinner started. It was like an Italian wedding. The menu looked something like this:

Carol’s Special Birthday Dinner

Pizza

Salad

Pasta – Rigatoni with a red sauce

Tortelini with a white sauce

Calamari

Chicken with a Citrus glaze

Veal with Mushrooms

Rapini, Yellow Squash, Red Peppers

Oven Roasted Potatoes

Chef Amato welcoming me to my party.

As you can see from the menu, there was a lot of food. K asked them to cut back on the portion sizes but that fell on deaf ears. I had to leave food on my plate. It was delicious but too much.

Both K and I walked around in between courses to talk to all the guests. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

And just when you thought there couldn’t be any more food, they brought out the dessert. It was the biggest tiramisu I’ve ever seen and it was aglow with candles.

Thank goodness your 60th birthday happens only once in your lifetime. All the leftover food went straight to school the next day to be shared by the staff. I’m back on track with my eating and thank goodness I only put on 1 pound. I’ll be down again by the end of the weekend.

Cheers!

Beetles, Tomato With a Nose and Too Much Salt

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Mama Cormier

…. great party but up 2 1/2 pounds since yesterday

I know that the weight fluctuation has to be water but 2 1/2 pounds!!!!

My daughter, A and her partner, J hosted a family BBQ to celebrate J’s 30th birthday. I wasn’t too worried about my food choices but I didn’t count on the salt content of the foods that I chose to eat.

As you can see from the picture there were healthy choices but the BBQ’d meats were loaded with salt. No sense in dwelling on the past. I drank mostly water but did have 1/2 glass of cider and a sliver of birthday cake. Started the day with eggs and K made sure that there wasn’t any salt in them at all.

While sitting in the backyard, we enjoyed the garden and discussed successes and failures of our own gardens this summer. I learned some new tricks on trimming my tomato plants.

One of the things that I like about living in the city, where your neighbours live in such close proximity to each other, is the sharing that happens. During the party A’s neighbour leaned over the fence and handed her some of the vegetables he had harvested that day.

One of the tomatoes, literally had a cute little protrusion that looked like a nose.

On the fence, the other neighbour’s Rose of Sharon had some blooms spill over into A’s yard. Well into the party J became agitated by what she saw sitting in one of the flowers. Upon closer inspection I could see that a very large beetle was the cause of her anxiety. I quickly grabbed my camera and took a couple of pictures of this lovely beetle. Does anyone know what kind it is?

Feeling a Little Melancholy

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Mama Cormier

April 18th! This would have been Mom’s 81st birthday. Hard to believe that she’s been gone for 19 years. She taught me everything; how to cook, knit, sew, clean a house (how I hated that) but more importantly how to love and be patient with the ones you love. We had our differences over the years. The teen years were particularly hard but as a young woman and wife (pretty much happened at the same time) we became closer.

I remember in the awkward preteen years she always told me I was beautiful and I always responded by saying “you’re my mom, you have to say that!” She encouraged me when I tried to lose weight but she didn’t realize that it was never going to happen until I was ready to do so and that it had to be my idea. I know she only wanted the best for me. She herself struggled a little bit with weight, especially as she got older.

After the birth of our first daughter, I did lose a lot of weight and got down to 132 pounds. An all time low for me. Many of my family friends thought I was too thin but in hind sight I think it was a good thing because soon after I became pregnant with twins. That’s a story for another time.

Thanks Mom. I miss you. I know you’re watching over me.

In the 60’s with Mom and my sisters.