Bluebird's Nest

Yesterday was the first day that I rode to work. It felt guuuuuuuuuuuuuud. 15.8 Km’s round trip. Approx 23 minutes each way.

I park near the Monkey Tree Pub (in residential parking), hop on the goose and ride all the way to the ledge.

The day before yesterday, I had checked my weather app on the phone. Ok, it wasn’t clear skies (after all this is the wet coast) but there wasn’t a drop of rain in the 24 hour forecast. And wouldn’t you know it – I woke up to rain. Not hard rain. But it was wetting out for sure.

“Let’s do this thang!” I declared. I had loaded up the bike the night before, pack my saddle bags, helmet in the car, and off I went to drop the wee babe off at my mom’s house. After that pit stop, I drove to said parking spot (I sure hope I don’t get busted parking there), unpacked the bike from the back of the car, and off I went.

First thing I noticed: I wasn’t clad in anything that the other riders were wearing. Rain proof, wind resistant, bright yellow, red, blue jackets and lets not forget spandex of all shapes and sizes. Picture me in a fleece hoodie, with shorts and the only thing bright blue were the fancy gloves my hubby had bought for me from MEC. Oh yeah baby, I looked H.O.T!

Second thing I noticed: I don’t have any fenders. That’s fun in the rain. Thankfully, I didn’t have to ride in the mud (I was on pavement the whole ride) but the underside of my chin got a nice soaking when I hit a puddle. Thanks honey for taking those off my bike.

Third thing: I just have enough time to park, get on the bike, ride 22mins, unpack, sponge myself off, change and sit in my chair (actually I was 15 mins late today – but my time and swiftness can only improve right?). And then on the way home, the whole thing in reverse, in time to get the wee babe. Phewf! It’s a lot of work just trying to get on you bike and get some excersize (and save $$ in gas and $7.50/day in parking).

Items to buy:

1. New helmet. Pretty sure the thing would shatter if I dropped it it’s so old.
2. Fenders. Cuz let’s be honest. When isn’t it raining in Victoria?
3. Bike seat cover for my patookas. I have one but it’s falling apart.
4. Neon coloured jacket and spandex. Actually, I’m feeling a bit like non-conforming to the worker bees that pass me decked out in the bike gear so I don’t think I’ll be buying one of those. Call me a hippy.

Today, if it’s not pissing with rain, I will bike again. Because if I wait for the rain to stop – I’ll be waiting a really long time.

Do you bike to work? Do you bike in the rain or are you a fair weather rider? What’s your excuse for not riding? Working from home is a good one.

Notice the shiny red jacket, the spandex, the fenders? Isn't she pretty riding in the rain?

Today we let loose on Ottawa. I was imagining a clean, capital city with well laid out roads and sidewalks. I wasn’t disappointed.

I actually really liked Ottawa. It is a pretty city situated around a canal and there seems to be water everywhere. Not unlike Victoria.

So we set out on foot. Today was the first day we didn’t use the Sube since we started.

First stop: tourist info booth to get our bearings and figure out how to pack in as much sights as possible in one day and not tire our feet out too much.

En route we just happened a chance to see the changing of the guards that occurs in the mornings in the summer. A lot of marching and music playing. It was interesting.

Then we walked around the parliament buildings and scheduled a tour for later that night.

The weather was pretty interesting. As you can see from the photos, it started out as a blue sky day. Then it turned ugly and mean out and rained and then later that night it was beautiful blue skies again. Tres bizarre.

We walked along the water way for a bit until I realized that I was supposed to get the wee babe’s 6 month shots in Toronto. Oops. So Allison came to our rescue again and suggested we stop by Appletree Medical Centre and we set up an appointment with a pediatrician for the next day.

Back to the parliament buildings where a peaceful protest was being staged for China and where we stopped for sandwiches.

Then we headed over in the direction of the Mint with a stop off at a viewpoint where we could see the Parliament really well and snap off some photos.

We did a tour in the Mint. It was cheap which was nice and pretty interesting. We picked up a 3$ coin with the tweenager’s birthstone in it as a memento and another 3$ coin for the wee babe’s birth year. (The certainly didn’t cost 3$ though J) We looked for the hockey quarter that they tweenager is missing from her Olympic collection, but no luck. If any of you find a hockey Olympic quarter, please let me know. It’s the last of the quarters we need to find.

And then just in time for a rainstorm where we had nowhere to take cover. It was windy! The storm didn’t last long before we found a patisserie where we took in some delicious sweet goodness. A nice afternoon treat after all that walking.

And lastly onto some shopping in the mall.

We picked up some frozen dinner again to cook at Allison’s and Dave’s place. We retreated back to their condo where we had showers and ate and enjoyed a bottle of wine. A nice break before heading BACK out for the night.

We had a 7:30pm appointment to do the tour through Parliament. If you ever make it to Ottawa, you MUST check out the Parliament tour. It’s impressive to say the least. I’m astounded that the entire building burnt down save for the library and they rebuilt it back up during world war 1. The interior stone carvings are amazing. I only wish that our tour guide had told us a lot more about the inside of the building as I think there is a lot more to know and I feel like we only just scratched the surface.

Allison and Dave met us down on the front lawn of Parliament Hill to watch “Mosaika” that started at 10pm (it was a really long day but well worth it).

Mosaika is simply stunning. The weather was perfect and the light show was amazing. I don’t know how else to describe it. I was actually almost moved to tears while watching it. If I can explain what it is, it’s a half hour animation of Canada’s history, it’s people, and it’s land all projected onto the front of the Parliament. I think the thing that moved me so much is that we’re on this huge once in a lifetime voyage across my country and the show really had me feeling very much in love with my Canada. How lucky I am to be a Canadian and proud too. I don’t want to get all patriotic on you but it was, as Dave put it, very timely for us.

After that, we trucked back to the condo and passed out in the bed.

EXPENSES:

Sleeping: Free again! Thanks Allison and Dave
Wee babe disposition: Wonderful as usual.
Weather: Overcast and about 24, rain, clear skies at night.
Stress level: Fab.

Yippee! Yahoo! Woopie!! I just received my first bloggy blogger award since I started blogging 2+ weeks ago. I’m so honoured. The recognition was bestowed upon me by my boss/colleague/friend: MamaRobinJ at Farewell Stranger.

According to the rules of the award I must now tell you 7 details about me. (I’m feeling the pressure of trying to be interesting so here goes):

1. I’ve owned 3 Volkswagen vans in my lifetime.
2. I once drove down to Tijuana and Death Valley with a bunch of friends on a whim where I had a near death experience.
3. My favourite food is french fries. Deep fried potato = yum.
4. I tried scuba diving and failed miserably (even puked in the process).
5. I’m an only child and ALWAYS wished I had a brother or sister. Still to this day.
6. I’ve only needed to get stitches once (unless you count an episiotomy) and that was because I cut my finger on a tupperware knife.
7. I love spicy Ceasars. The spicier the better.

Now the hard part. I’m to nominate 15 bloggers and pass on the honour to. Since I haven’t been at this for very long, and I’m quite new to the blogisphere, I don’t think I even know of 15 blogs let alone nominate them for their versatility. But I do have to say that while doing my research I have found some great mommy blogs! Additionally, it’s becoming hugely obvious to me that there is a monstrous bloggy community out there that I wasn’t too familiar with (living in my own little world I guess).

(Oh and a side note: I have found that if you don’t have a “subscribe” feature on your blog but I want to follow you, that makes it difficult for me as I don’t do RSS)

Here goes:

1. I’m starting with the woman who introduced me to blogging. The person who nominated me. MamaRobinJ at Farewell Stranger opened up my world to blogging when I began reading her communications blog (not nearly as nifty as her personal one IMHO) over a year ago. I find her writing is soulful, passionate and versatile to say the least. We both have a tendency to cry as well She also gave me a lot of advice when starting this blog so hats off to her.
2. My tweenager. When I said that I wanted to start a blog to keep track of my memories and the huge trip we’re about to embark on she chimed in with “me too!”. Since then she’s changed her site look about 5 times (talk about versatility). She will write more when we embark on our voyage to keep up her writing skills and to keep her friend informed on where she’s at.
3. I adore Family Feedbag for yummy recipes! She is what inspired me to put on a recipe of my own. She’s versatile in her cooking selection to say the least!
4. The Take the Pledge Campaign is also very versatile in the bloggers that then have within their community. I enjoy reading about the featured blogger of the day and supporting the campaign to end online bullying between mommy bloggers.
5. The Red Dress Club is new to me but I’m really excited to write my first Red Dress post (it will be one day soon). I like the idea of being versatile in my writing and having a club to inspire me works well for me!
6. The 21 Century Mrs.
7. Mommy is in Timeout
8. Bluebonnet and Breakdowns
9. Accustomed Chaos
10. The Endless Rant of a Multitasking Mumma

I didn’t make it to the 15 nominations but I’ll get there slowly but surely. When I find 5 more that I feel like I “know” and can speak to their versatility I’ll add them on.

Stay tuned!
xoxo

My talented tweenager wrote this for me on a day where she got in trouble for a few things. It’s so touching and beautiful I just wanted to share it with you all. It’s also a keepsake for me to look back on when the craft that she made me is old and tattered or lost even, I’ll still have this momento.

I love you too ma belle.

Mama

A gift is not always

sealed with a nice ribbon

sometimes you can’t even see it

or touch it

even feel it

you don’t even know that it’s there

but it always is.

In the darkest times

to the most beautiful

love is always present.

There is one person in my world who is perfect

I love her to the extreme

and she loves me back.

She is my mama.

For all the things I did wrong

I am sorry

and for all the good times

I’m thankful.

I say I love you.

- The tweenager, age 11 (2011)

“Soul Surfer is a 2011 American drama film about the life of surfer Bethany Hamilton, who lost her left arm in a shark attack when she was 13 years old.”

Stars: [rating=4]

Review:

Our family went to see this movie (based on real life) yesterday. I don’t know if it’s me or my mommy hormones but man oh man was I moved during this flick. Inspiring is to say the least. I cried 3 times in this movie. Seriously, bring some hankies.

What is so inspiring is that this young girl faces one of the hardest challenges of her life. Let’s face it, if that happened to me, I would need some therapy, drugs and I should probably take stocks in Kleenex. She faced her challenge head on and it wasn’t easy. She gave up. Momentarily. And to gain perspective she went and volunteered by helping the tsunami victims in Phuket, Thailand (I think someone is trying to tell me something).

She came back with a vengeance after realizing that she was an inspiration to people all around the world. “I don’t need easy, I just need possible.” She thanked her competition for not going easy on her.

For me, I’ve faced challenges in my life, not as extreme as losing an arm, but I feel like I have a little of this drive that Bethany has. I think it’s important to watch and read stories like this to encourage you to be all that you can be. It’s also about your path through life. You can make it to be whatever you want it to be and yeah, it’s gonna be hard, life throws curve balls – otherwise it’s no fun! But you always must remember that it’s whatever YOU make it to be.

Sometimes it’s hard to remember that. Sometimes you need to gain perspective. Sometimes you need to remove yourself from the situation – and remember to breath.

YouTube – Soul Surfer Official Trailer.

“When 12 year old Libertad’s mother is killed while working in the Guatemala City dump, Libertad decides to take his 7 year old brother Julio away from the dangers of the dump and on a journey to America in search of their father.”

Stars: [rating=4]

Review:

My tweenage daughter and I belong to a Mother/Daughter book club that meets approx once every month and a half. This time it was our turn to pick a book and she picked “Libertad”. It just so happened that she was reading this book when we took on the hosting of the club and she said that this particular book was a Red Cedar Book Award Winner .

With 2 days until the book club meeting, I realized that I should probably pick up the book and read it before all the mothers and daughters showed up at our house.

I was amazed. First of all, it’s written in free-verse so it’s a very quick easy read. My tween and I read it in 2.5 hours outloud to stop for a diaper change and to write down some questions for the girls to answer at the meeting. Oh and to wipe our eyes. We were moved to tears.

This book is so inspiring to me. One of the things on my Life List is to volunteer in a third world country. This book touched my heart and really encouraged me to look at how incredibly lucky we are. In doing some further investigation “Safe Passage or Camino Seguro is a non-profit organization that provides school enrollment and after-school support for poor children whose families scavenge the Guatemala City Garbage Dump in Guatemala City. Safe Passage was founded in 1999 by the late Hanley Denning. The organization assists over 550 children. Safe Passage relies on child sponsorships to keep the program running.”

I hopefully will find myself one day volunteering for this well-deserving organization.

Alma Fullerton’s Website.

Questions:

1. How does the Cobblers glue and the solvent affect Libertad and his journey?
2. Why doesn’t Libertad want to go to school?
3. What do they do with the cardboard and plastic bags? And why?
4. How was The mothers death play a role in the path of Libertad?
5. What is the significance of the chicken cage and feather?
6. Story is about choices. What are some good choices that Libertad makes? What are some bad choices?
7. How do the people they meet along the way impact their lives?
8. How did the story make you feel?
9. If you were Libertad, would you have done anything differently?
10. Why did Libertad’s father leave? Why did they have to leave their village?
11. Did the way the story was written interest you or irritate you? Why?
12. What is the significance of the marimba? Of Guerrero?

YouTube – Safe Passage Camino Seguro Garbage Dump Relleno Sanitario.

YouTube – A Recycled Life.

YouTube – kids on the dump.