30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 1

This idea comes from a friend on Facebook, and my partner the Lovely C has taken up this challenge on her blog, Fat, Angry Blog. Here are the ground rules.

1. A picture of yourself and 15 facts

2. A picture of you and the person(s) you’ve been the closest with the longest

3. A picture of the cast of your favourite show

4. A picture of your night

5. A picture of your favourite memory

6. A picture of a person you’d love to trade places with for a day

7. A picture of most treasured item

8. A picture that makes you laugh

9. A picture of a person who has gotten you through the most

10. A picture of the person you do the most screwed up things with

11. A picture of something you hate

12. A picture of something you love

13. A picture of your favourite band or artist

14. A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without

15. A picture of something you want to do before you die

16. A picture of someone who inspires you

17. A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently

18. A picture of your biggest insecurity

19. A picture of you when you were little

20. A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel

21. A picture of something you wish you could forget

22. A picture of something you wish you were better at

23. A picture of your favourite book

24. A picture of something you wish you could change

25. A picture of your day

26. A picture of something that means a lot to you

27. A picture of yourself and a family member

28. A picture of something your afraid of

29. A picture that can always make you smile

30. A picture of someone you miss

And also 15 facts about myself, so here goes.

1. I am 43 years old
2. I have two daughters and 1 stepson
3. I am a Scorpio
4. I was 9lb 1 oz when I was born.
5. I grew up mainly in Scarborough, Ontario
6. Even though I was born in 1967, I wasn't born yet when the Leafs last won a Stanley Cup.
7. I love dogs, but they have to be a certain size.
8. I tolerate cats.
9. I love reading.
10. Currently, my sex drive is in overdrive.
11. My first job was working in bakery.
12. I thought I'd own a house before I was 30.
13. I still don't own a house.
14. I love comics, mainly DC
15. I think Scarface and Goodfellas are two of the best movies ever made.

Tomorrow, a picture of who I've been closest to the longest.

The New Year

Well, we did not have a great finish to 2010. While driving home on Dec 30 from dropping off Big Sister S at her mother's house, and a great meal at Mom and Dad's, the Lovely One gets a call on the cell from our friend, H asking if we are ok. "Yeah we're fine" with confusion... "Well I think your house is on fire, there's fire trucks outside your house!" Meanwhile, we are over 2 hours away on the highway. And Dog and Cat were in the house. Driving home we were both worried as hell, and it was probably the longest two hours of my life. And one of Lovely's blogging pals contacted her. She was worried because her husband was on scene, and she heard on the scanner that the fire was at our house number! It turns out, it was our next door neighbor. Her kitchen was on fire. A fire started in the oven overhead fan, and not her fault at all. The damage to her kitchen and house was fairly major. Between $60-70,000 was the estimate. Nobody was hurt, our furries are ok, many thanks to H for getting our pets out. Because of the smoke, H had to get an inhaler from her doctor because it affected her breathing. Thank you, H!! But our house smelled awful for the smoke that came in. Needless to say, our house was inhabitable. It smelled like a big campfire that had plastic bottles tossed on top. Ugh!!
Luckily, we have contents insurance. But "smell smoke damage" is kind of an intangible. There was no VISIBLE smoke damage. But everything just reaked. Our clothes, bedding, the pets, everything. We spent the night at our friend, H's house. And our most excellent friends, K&R volunteered to take Wee Man for a sleepover. We contacted our insurance company and an adjuster was there that night. The restoration company, ServiceMaster provided these huge machines called Air Scrubbers to purify the air. Oy vey!! And they took some emergency laundry for us, but because of the holiday weekend, it wouldn't be ready til Tuesday at the earliest. AAARRRRGGHHH!!
So, off to a hotel for who knows how long. Actually, it was sort of relaxing, once we were calmed down. Lovely and I relaxed and had a quiet New Year's Eve, which we celebrated *wink*. And the hotel served an excellent breakfast every morning. Wee Man had two more sleepovers (thanks K&R!!), S&J graciously lent us their laptop because we were bored of TV. The king sized bed was SUPER comfortable with awesome pillows. But the strange surroundings messed with Wee Girl's schedule and such. So we didn't get alot of sleep. So, $600 later for the hotel bill, right after Christmas, plus still having to pay our regular rent for January, the cost of eating out for lunch and dinner for 4 days, and throwing out about $150 worth of food when we finally got home, and gas back and forth from the hotel ($50)....+ + +
We're not sure what insurance is going to cover, but everyone is ok, and I guess we are going to have to absorb the costs. Our deductable is $1000, but even with everything, our losses may not total that amount. But at least it happened in 2010. And my wonderful partner, handled everything incredible, despite her anxiety and panic issues. She is the best. I can't believe she handled it so well. And we also found out what awesome friends we have!! We are slowly getting back to normal routine and we are very happy to be home. We are both feeling good and optimistic for 2011. Lovely was pretty bummed out because she is working hard to lose weight, and she gained a few pounds back during our hotel stay. But it was because of extraordinary circumstances, and now she is back on track, and happy. I'm happy we are back, and I'm pretty excited to see what 2011 brings.

Reading blogs

Sometimes when the Lovely One actually vacates the computer chair I look at different blogs. Ones she follows or our friends follow and I saw this Honest Scrap award and the person posted that they weren't going to give it out but invited people to give it out to other bloggers instead. If you read Fat, Angry Blog you will know that FAB is very honest so I am going to give this award to her and ask her to post 10 honest things about herself.

Winter Advice

Since we have had snow here in Waterloo for a few days, it won't be long until we can tobaggen!!! YAY!! This should be Canada's Official Sport. I love it. And the two oldest nose-miners in my house, love it as well. So I thought some winter safety tips would be appropriate. What better person to give us some tips than one of the Greatest Canadians ever?

An eventful weekend in Waterloo

This weekend we had Sister S and Saturday we had the chance to meet 2 of our Olympic Champions. So I loaded up the two older kids for the short drive to the new bank opening were the ladies were appearing. Cheryl Pounder and Becky Kellar of the Canadian Women's hockey team. They were very friendly and nice, and the Terror Twins were excited to meet the Olympians. They both received autographed hockey pucks. And we also had our first significant snowfall here in the 'Loo. We dressed up wee girl and took her out to see her first snow. She wasn't too impressed. Neither am I, the snow is still around on Sunday :(

My first blog hop

Never joined one of these before. Let's see what happens.

Justin Hines

An artist that I really like is Justin Hines. If you have never heard of him, here's a little bit of info on him. He is a Canadian singer-songwriter born in Newmarket, Ontario. He was born with a rare genetic disease called Larsen's Syndrome.
Because of this, he is confined to a wheelchair.
His interest in music started at an early age. Justin's first taste of success came at the age of 14 when he won a national contest against hundreds of others, and his first performance was in front of 17,000 people at a Toronto Raptors game. He has since released 3 albums, including a Christmas album, and his most recent, Chasing Silver was released in 2009. He has also founded the Justin Hines Foundation, which helps people with disabilities. Here's one of the songs from his most recent album "Chasing Silver", Courage (Come Out to Play). I hope you enjoy it.