Crazy Eights!

It's getting downright bonkers around here, what with us bloggers scratching our heads and trying like mad to churn out daily posts during National Blog Posting Month.

That's why I'm happy as stink to have been handed a topic to write on by virtue of a tag from MommyK over at Great Walls of Baltimore.

It's called Crazy Eights my friends and it goes like this:

Eight Things I am Passionate About
1. My son
2. My marriage
3. Writing – it’s my gift and I ain’t too humble to say so
4. Flying
5. Red wine
6. Music
7. Travel – I have been saving to go back to Africa with Graham since I was 5 months pregnant
8. My extended family

Eight Things I Say Often
1. I don't give a care
2. Mommy loves you
3. It's no skin off my arse
4. Gentle with Horace (our cat)
5. I am so friggin' tired
6. For real!
7. Why is everyone such an idiot?
8. Is it too early to start drinking? (only half-jokingly)

Eight Books I've Read Recently
1. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
2. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
3. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
4. Heat by Bill Buford
5. Frommers Travel Guide to Ireland
6. Why Mexicans Don't Drink Molsons by Andrea Mandel-Campbell (a great read written by one of my BFF!)
7. Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill
8. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (Hubby's currently working on the movie)

Eight Things I Want To Do Before I Die
1. Do non-profit work in the Third World
2. Help teach my son to fly an airplane
3. Design and build my own home
4. Spend the whole winter at our place in Mont Tremblant and ski every day
5. Learn to sew really well and make my own clothes
6. Hike the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island
7. Perfect my French
8. Dance at my 50th wedding anniversary

Eight Songs I Can Listen To Over and Over
1. Better Together by Jack Johnson
2. Seven Nation Army by White Stripes
3. Landslide by Dixie Chicks
4. Miss You by Blink-182
5. Virtual Insanity by Jamiriqui
6. History Repeating Itself - Propellerheads
7. At Last - Etta James
8. In My Life - The Beatles

Eight Things That Attract Me To My Friends
1. Loyalty
2. Sense of humour
3. Sense of fun
4. Curiosity
5. Common sense (I don't deal well with flakes)
6. Smarts (or idiots)
7. Empathy
8. Tolerance (mostly for me)

Eight Things I Learned In The Past Year
1. Worry does not change outcomes (I'm working on it at least)
2. My son is a genius (for real!)
3. The Internet can bring people together
4. You get sick a lot more when you have a kid around
5. Cheese on rice crackers rocks when sprinkled with curry and microwaved for 20 seconds
6. Parenting is sometimes harder and sometimes easier than everyone says it is
7. My husband is still not ready to get a dog :(
8. The hand that rocks the cradle really does rule the world

You're next Laura, Karen, Mac and Cheese, Gabriella,and Kristen

Deep thoughts

I was truly honoured to receive this little piece of hardware last week from MommyK over at The Great Walls of Baltimore.


She tagged me after being inspired by this post which got her thinking that Halloween is sometimes more about parents showing off their kids than anything else.

It's nice to be recognised for your humble contributions to the blogosphere, especially when there truly is so much inspiring stuff out there.

This award is also a meme and it works like this:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to five blogs that make you think.
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
3. Proudly display the “Thinking Blogger Award” with a link to the post that you wrote

So, in the interest of spreading love and deep thoughts, here are the people and the blogs that made me think this week:

Dayna over at A Bug's Life - I am constantly inspired by the strength, grace and wit she brings to the challenges of mothering three chronically-ill children. Today's post moved me to tears.

Slouchy Mom over at Slouching Past 40 - She writes exquisitely, is completely established and has oodles of fans, yet remains self-depreciating and wonderfully welcoming to newbies like me. This recent post on mean girls really touched me.

Laura at Lunatic Fringe - This women has 3 kids under the age of four and she is taking up the challenge of posting every day for the month of November? And cooking up cool things like this? She makes me think I should just shut up about how busy I am.

Catherine at Her Bad Mother - Man can this girl write. This post about Brittany Spears is probably one of the most poignant things I have ever read. And if you check out her best-of archives you'll find even more great stuff. Her skill inspires me and make me want to continue to push myself to be a better writer.

The always engaging Bub and Pie always has something that makes me glad I dropped by. I especially love this post about embracing the failure when it comes to parenting. I think I'll take her advice!

Seven random facts about me

They like me. They really like me.

Don Mills Diva was just last week initiated into a game of blogosphere tag when Laura over at Walking Lunatic Fringe said “You’re it” and challenged me to participate in my first meme by revealing seven random facts about myself.

Here goes:

1. I am essentially blind in my left eye. With my right eye closed I can see colours and vague shapes but that’s about it. When my right eye is open my brain disregards anything my left eye sees, because it is so weak. I have to be tested regularly by an ophthalmologist to maintain my pilot’s license but apparently my vision is actually very good because my right eye has compensated all my life and developed extraordinary super-powers.



2. I was proposed to while watching the sun rise over Machu Picchu in Peru. Rob and I camped and hiked the Inca Trail for four days through the Andes Mountains to reach the ancient city and shortly after arrival he sprung the ring he had been carrying in a secret compartment in his underwear (for real!)



3. I became the youngest-ever weekly columnist for the Haliburton County Echo about a week before my 13th birthday. They were advertising for someone to cover the community of Norland where I lived and I sent in some sample columns without telling them my age. I was hired and continued to write The Norland Natter until I left my hometown for university when I was 18.



4. I am a creature of routine. Big time. Every day must start with tea with milk and sugar. An hour later I have one coffee with four pieces of whole wheat melba toast with cream cheese. One hour and a half later I have one piece of fruit. And so it goes throughout the day. Do not, I repeat, do not mess with my routine.



5. I fully expect to live to at least 100 and that I will travel the world in my 80s and 90s. It is inconceivable to me that I won’t actually. My great-grandmother lived to 98. My grandma died at 93. She toured Europe, Asia, Australia and northern Africa in her 80s. I took her to Las Vegas for her 90th birthday where she stayed up 23 hours straight gambling. She rocked and I’m gonna too.



6. I have a mad crush on Jack White of the White Stripes. Don’t get me wrong, I adore my husband but if Jack were to come for me I’d have some very hard decisions to make. He’s massively talented, sexy and just really, really cool. I actually got a cup of beer thrown at me when I tried to sneak closer to the stage at one of his concerts a few years ago. I was seven and a half months pregnant. Boy did that guy feel like an ass when I turned around.



7. I was the organizer of the first-ever Terry Fox run in the State of Arizona. It was 1995 and I was living in Phoenix with an ex-boyfriend who was playing trumpet in a ska band. I was working as a nanny and freelancing for the Arizona Republic interviewing visiting Canadian bands and covering the snow bird beat. I advertised for volunteers to help and a lovely woman named Wanda showed up. Turns out she was married to Todd MacFarlane who’s massively famous for this. He came to the run and caused a sensation. Anyway, we ended up raising several hundred dollars for the Arizona Cancer Centre in Tucson.

So there you have it – seven random facts about me.

Hey Erica over at Ericacake – you’re it!