Good bye, 2017!

I don't know if 2017 was a good year or a not so good year. Really crappy things happened to people that I care about.. but good things also happened to people that I care about. Let's just call 2017 a kind of meh-year. I was thinking of things to write about the past 365 days for this blog but, to me, it is best to say that it came- it went- and we will all be on to bigger and better. I can feel it...

Wishing you all a very happy 2018. May it be filled with health, love and happiness... Thanks for visiting my blog xox

Special request

A family that I know has received some very stressful news over the holidays. As a scientist, this is a bit outside my usual nature but it would be greatly appreciated if you can pass along your positive thoughts, prayers, a tip of your glass, good karma, some magical pixie dust or whatever else you would like to send their way. A heartfelt thanks....

May the last bits of 2017 smile on you and yours xox

Today

This is what Montreal weather was like today... apparently, it was colder in Montreal than Siberia, the North Pole and certain parts of Mars. Fantastic... I am beyond words ;)

Wishing you all a warmer night than we have... which doesn't seem hard to do... unless you live somewhere else in Canada ;)

xox

From the MTL blog (see here)

This point of the holidays

Today, I am officially at the point during the holidays where I have absolutely NO idea what day/date it is. In some ways it is nice (meaning that I am not actually required to know the date) but I am always worried that I am forgetting to be somewhere important ;) What am I thinking? Somewhere important? Probably not ;)

The W family boys slept over at our house last night and my children are in boy heaven. Imagine! Extended video game time, eating Christmas chocolates and making lots of noise... I am the sole adult in the house right now and decided to hide in the living room. If there is a mess downstairs and I don't see it, does it actually exist? ;)

Happy Wednesday December 27th! I had to look it up. You are welcome ;) xox

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! May your holidays be filled with love, health and happiness... wine and chocolate are good too! ;) 

Here is my absolute favourite Christmas song... from my heart to yours xox

... and to all a good night!

Santa had a glass wine and put all the presents under the tree. It took forever to get the boys to bed so Santa is pretty darn tired ;) By the way, we open our presents on Christmas Eve so it wasn't that Santa had too much wine and got the date wrong ;) There is no way the boys would ever let that one happen... even if 2/3 of the gang are a little doubtful about the man with the white beard ;)

Wishing you all a good pre-Christmas-Eve-eve xox

A Mother's Christmas

The other day, Nicka asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I told him that I wanted 1) no fighting, 2) a quiet cup of coffee and 3) to not have to listen to screaming guys on Youtube for a whole evening. He looked at me funny and said that was not a good Christmas present. My son, I told him, it is all relative and, to me,  my choices would make a WONDERFUL present. Oh yeah- I would also like to add to my list: the chance to order something off Ebay or Etsy and not get an eye roll from Andreas when it arrives (please note that he does not have the same appreciation for clothes as I do). There is nothing like an @@ to take away the pleasure of opening a package ;)

A magical unicorn wouldn't be so bad either ;)

Happy day to you all! xox

Why I have grey hair, part 3: being the only woman in the house

- No matter what, I do NOT get their sense of humour.
- I have a hard time with the need for noise, farting and wrestling on the couch.
- It is funny how I can repeat myself 50 times and they won't hear me but if I sneak a cookie in the kitchen everyone suddenly hears that!
- Apparently, sleeves make excellent napkins... and kleenexes ;)
- I am the only one who knows where the favourite t-shirt is.
- I am also the only one in the house who can see the dirty sock on the living room floor. Everyone else just steps over it.
- In boy land, food tastes better if you have been standing in front of the fridge, staring at it for about 20 minutes before you eat it.
- You are NEVER finished doing laundry... ever ;)

But I wouldn't have it any other way ;)

xox

Happy Third of Advent!

It has been busy... but good :) I promise to write a better blog post soon.

Wishing you all a Happy Third of Advent and a good week ahead! xox

Holy Crap!

It is COLD outside (insert bad words here). Suddenly, it feels like it is January... a crappy January.... with crunchy snow and all.  The dogs even cut our walk short ;) Haha! The whining is starting already ;)

Hope you are all staying warm xox

Guess who needs glasses...

Just because the holidays are not expensive enough as it is.... Oliver now needs glasses.. and, of course, the flashy ones. The glasses that he picked are black and bright blue... and actually suit him well. It was a step in the calm direction from bright purple sport glasses, shiny sunglasses, fluorescent Harry Potter look-alikes and red cats eyes (that I kind of liked for myself) ;)

Did I also mention that we got around 15cm of snow today? I am ecstatic (not) ;)

xox to you all!

His movie star pose ;) <3

Happy Second Advent!

We spent the day organizing and decorating the house for the holidays. My plan was to bring some old books and toys to the Goodwill centre and give our poor, ignored fussball table to some friends of ours but Oliver ended up having a big fit about the table. So much for my plans for making some extra space in the basement... ugh! I guess toys only become interesting when they are intended for someone else :P

Last week was the last week of classes and tomorrow I start the exam period. Honestly, I am dreaming of a day off... in pajamas... with absolutely nothing to do ;)

Wishing you all a good week ahead xox

Another 13 year celebration...

First it was Alexander who turned 13... now our marriage is also a teenager ;) Happy 13th anniversary to my darling husband. May we have many, many more xox

Happy First of Advent!

Happy First of Advent!

I know that I complain about winter a lot but- don't tell anyone- I find the Advents really cosy ;) We are spending the day not doing a heck of a lot, eating some cinnamon rolls and homemade banana bread, drinking coffee (not the boys, they have enough energy!) and putting a few Christmas decorations up.


Wishing you all a relaxing day! xox

The obligatory "before you open your Advent presents" picture ;)

Books... ok... at least we got chocolate to make up for it ;)

Happy Advent!

<3

Why I have grey hair, part 2: homework

The boys spend way more energy AVOIDING their homework than actually DOING it. In turn, I spend WAY more energy nagging them to do it than it is actually worth ;) When they eventually sit down and start working, they get mad at me. Like it is my fault they have homework. Only MY students can get mad at me... I deserve that ;) If they are not silently simmering, then they like to fool around. Homework is only fun when you can piss your brother off in the process ;) I am either the nag... or the ref ;)

Wishing you all a happy Monday xox

Asking for trouble....

I feel another grey hair developing ;)

Why I have grey hair- part 1: my husband

This past Saturday, I had to work. So- what does any normal OCD mother do when she is away and the house is full of boys? She texts them from work. Honestly, I should know better....

Wishing you all a great day! xox

Some of Andreas' message does not appear on my screen shot because it was too long... but you get the idea ;)

Today

This morning, I woke up to snow falling from the sky and a blanket of white covering EVERYTHING.... BOOO! Despite my initial tendency to go back to bed, I got up and have been miserable ever since ;) Actually, the coffee helped ;) To further torture myself, I cleaned off both of our cars and made sure that our ice scrapers were in the trunks. Thankfully, I came out of denial long enough last week to make sure that our cars had their snow tire appointments at the mechanic.

Here we go again.... ;)

Happy Sunday!

Views from work

Both yesterday and today were long days at work. We had a conference, where I had to present. Now I am back home and enjoying some relaxing time before the rush of putting the boys to bed. I am tempted to make some tea... but way too lazy to get up ;)

Boy, I remember when Saturday nights meant being out late. Now, I will be surprised if I make it until 8:00 ;)

Whatever you are doing, I wish you a good one! xox

The view from the conference hall was awesome!

Montreal!

The view from where I was sitting ;)

13?!??!!

Since it is after midnight, I can officially say that we have a teenager in the house. Alexander, born on November 13, is now 13. Although I have absolutely no idea where time went, I do know that we are very proud of the young man that he is becoming.... even though he sneaks his phone to bed to watch Youtube videos or play football games and needs to clean up his room ;)

We love you, baby boy... and I will always call you that even if you are definitely no longer a baby.... xox

Boys' night out

If you are from Montreal, then I am saying the obvious: we are a hockey city. Yes, even my very "soccer" family still watches hockey (you can love to play one sport but still appreciate the others, no?)... When I was in my early 20's and living downtown, one of our favourite pass times was to watch the first period of hockey on TV and then make our way to the Montreal Forum (yes- I just totally dated myself ;) but if you are not familiar with it, here is a link. It has since been replaced by the Bell Centre but is still in the hearts of Montrealers) to buy very cheap tickets off the scalpers to watch the rest of the game live. My apartment was only blocks away from the Forum so it was a perfect plan :)

Like I said, we still watch hockey (admittedly, on my part, not so much when the Canadiens are losing) but the boys in my family have never seen a game live. So, this week, when I was given some awesome tickets by an awesome person, I thought it would be a good way for Andreas to take Alexander out for his first "real" hockey game. Alexander will be turning 13 on Monday so it was perfect timing... kind of a Montreal-version of a right of passage ;)

Anyway, last night, the boys (Andreas and Alexander) went and had a great time. Their seats were so close that you could actually see the game (one of the last games I went to see, we were so far up that I started to get altitude sickness ;) ) and enjoy the atmosphere. A great boys' night out!

Photo credits go to Andreas because I wasn't there ;)

Wishing you all a very happy Friday xox

Turning back the clocks

Yesterday, between the time I left work and the time I got to the train station, it got dark. Not the late afternoon sun like I got used to during my post-work walk but a real night time dark. During my train ride home, it got even darker... and darker. Honestly, by the time I got off the train, I could have sworn it was at least 10 pm. From one week to the next, not only did we set the clock back an hour but it also feels like we lost another 5!!!
Winter time... here we come ;)

A friend of mine posted this image on Facebook. It was exactly how I felt yesterday so I had to steal it ;) By the way, I got home at 6:15 ;)

Wishing you all a happy darkness ;) xox

Signs of things ahead

Last night/this morning, we moved the clocks back one hour. The appointment with the mechanic to put our winter tires on has been booked. I made a big pot of pumpkin soup. My mother put her Christmas tree up (seriously- she is worse than the stores... and I know that she will read this ;) ). It is now dark at dinner time... and I am starting to feel the need to hibernate. I actually bought some Christmas gifts. Although it is still green out, I can feel winter sneaking up on us. Beware... weather complaining ahead.

Hope you all had a great weekend xox

Halloween humbug

Hello... My name is Celena and I am not a fan of Halloween ;) There- I said it! Terrible, I know ;)

See, I used to love Halloween. It was a time to hang out with friends... put on outrageous costumes that we put together ourselves... run around the neighbourhood... get some good candy... and enjoy the spooky spirit. Flash forward to being a mother of 3 boys (when I always imagined that I would LOVE the holiday): it turns out that I don't like it at all :(

Early in October, I always offer to take the boys to Value Village to pick up costumes. This year, Alexander is not into it at all so he doesn't come. The other 2 boys just want me to buy an expensive costume (which I refuse to do because that is way too easy). I propose that we hunt down something that we can be creative with and I get blank looks. We leave the store with some white face goop and a plastic sword. During the next 2 weeks, I ask again: what do you want to be for Halloween? Oliver talks about some cartoon character that I have never heard of... nor can I find him/it/whatever online... and I start to think that he invented the character... but he gets frustrated with me for not knowing him/it/whatever. Nicklas just grunts.

As per tradition, Andreas and I propose to decorate the front lawn. The boys are into it for about 10 minutes.... and then leave to do something else... which leaves Andreas and me to finish it ourselves. And this is usually the day before Halloween. And then we have to take it all down 24 hours later... by ourselves ;) This year, we were going to do it today... but it is pouring down :(

Unfortunately, we have NO kids left in our neighbourhood so trying to go trick or treating with others usually involves having to arrange something.... and none of the boys want to hang out with the same kids...and no one ever remembers what time we had agreed upon for pick up time. So I end up sitting in our car, looking creepy ;)

All this for about 3 hours of trick or treating... and a stash of candy that requires hiding if I ever want to get them to eat anything else.... and I usually forget where I put it... and find it a year later when most of the chocolate is kind of grey... or I eat it the night they come back with it... which is even worse ;)

And this year, Halloween falls on a Tuesday... with school at 8am the next day... that usually involves a sugar hangover ;)

Happy Halloween! ;) Wish me luck ;)

Please put on your sweater and jacket!

This morning, I kind of lost my marbles...

Around 5:30 am, I took the dogs out. It was cold... Not a snow/ice/freezing kind of cold but a "you-will-need-a-long-sleeve-shirt-and-jacket" cold. So, when the boys got up, I told them that they will- imagine this- need a long sleeve shirt/sweater and a light jacket AND that they could take the light jacket when it got warmer. Predictably, the boys all thanked me for my concern and put on the requested sweater and light jackets. HAHAHAHAHAHA! WRONG! Not only did I have to repeat myself 9 times (yes, I counted) but I had to deal with 1) blank expressions that signified a clear lack of understanding about sweaters and light jackets and 2) arguments about having to wear BOTH a sweater and a long sleeve jacket.

I am so unreasonable :P We were also late in getting to school because it took us that long for the boys to understand that I was not kidding.. but that is a whole other blog post.

Actually, I am being unfair to Alexander who put on his long sleeve shirt with a hoodie... BUT, in his head, he only put on the long sleeve shirt because he wears his soccer hoodie even in the middle of the summer so it does not count ;) It is now considered to be more of a second skin than an actual item of clothing designed to keep you warm ;)

Oh yeah- did I mention that Andreas is out of town until tomorrow evening? ;) He is in Winnipeg for a conference... where there is snow already... I bet that he was wearing his sweater and jacket ;)

Happy Friday! xox

The jacket belongs on your body and not on the floor!

Sunday in the sun

Lately, Alexander and Nicklas are really into football (American style). I would actually put Alexander in the obsessed category but, heck, I am not a football person so I probably don't appreciate it enough ;) So, in light of this new found interest, when I saw Montreal Alouettes tickets (our pro league) being sold for a school fundraising activity, I jumped on them. Luckily for us, instead of the usual crappy late October Montreal weather, we were blessed with 22C and sun. Even if you aren't a fan of the game (still not sure of my own status), you could still enjoy the beautiful weather outside.
Despite the TOTAL loss of the Als, we had a great day. Here are a few photos of the game, courtesy of Andreas because he hates the picture quality of my phone ;)

Happy Monday to you all xox