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I need to get a good - like really good - haircut before I go back to school. Ideas?

Rules:
1. I have a fat face so short hair makes it look even fatter - particularly if it tucks under my chin.
2. I need to be able to tie it back somehow to work out.
3. I’m extraordinarily lazy so it needs to look decent if I do nothing to it.
4. I will soon have 2 kids in diapers - one running and one breastfeeding constantly. Keep it in mind.

Currently my hair is almost all one length - mid shoulder blade - with long layers just to add some oomph. Easy, but boring.
It’s greying at the part (fun) and I do colour it regularly so no need to suggest that as an alternative to a cut. Unless you want to send money for a good colour. Right now I can only afford to cover the grey in my own shower with varying shades of brown, red, purple etc. And if you’re giving it out, I could really use a pedicure too.

Be descriptive or link to a pic if you think I might not quite understand.
And I’m kind of stupid in the summer so chances are I won’t understand.

Also, I’m 31 - not 20, which limits the appropriateness of certain styles. As in, bangs probably aren’t going to happen.

See my problem?

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Like taking a gorgeous and fun 15 month old boy to the spray park to play and read books on the blanket in the shade.

Back later!

This post is from from my other blog here

I’ve been reviewing some free samples of Glad Simply Cooking bags. I must admit I was leery of these from the start. Microwaving and plastic just don’t mix, and these are essentially plastic bags designed for microwave steaming vegetables.

The press materials accompanying these bags claim that because no PVC is used in the bags and they comply with FDA regulations that they are safe. I still wonder why they don’t mention Bisphenol A (BPA) and the other chemicals of concern. Is it because they don’t want us to know? Also, doesn’t everyone know that the FDA pretty much sucks? They approve drugs that kill people alll the time and they may very well be one of the reasons we don’t have a cure for cancer yet. (Them and the drug companies that would lose millions, of course.)

That said, I agreed to test the product and I did. And it works. But I didn’t give Ry any of the veggies from it because I don’t think kids need food cooked in plastic. Period. They stand up easily on their flat bottom making them easy to fill, which was nice. I can see these being useful when you’re camping (in your trailer with a microwave, of course) or in a hotel and you want fresh or frozen steamed veggies but the assumption that I’m too lazy to boil water and wash the pot after (which had…water in it) is a bit much for me and certainly not worth the risk of cooking in any kind of plastic, PVC or not. If you want to try them yourself, they’ll be coming to a grocery store near you in the next few weeks. Or you could (a) boil some water and put a steamer on top or (b) put your veggies in a glass, pottery or porcelain dish with 1 T of water, cover loosely with parchment paper and nuke them the same as you would in these bags. Neither of those options is difficult or extraordinarily time consuming, but people are definitely getting busier and if you try these & like them, feel free to tell me I’m wrong!

MMTaM Review Policy Reminder: When I do product reviews at this site, I generally save them for weekends when there aren’t as many regular readers so that those of you who hate them don’t feel obligated to read them. The exception to this is my Mother-Talk book reviews which are always pre-scheduled for weekdays and I don’t have a say in that. I do not accept payment for reviews, but I do accept sample products from companies who contact me. (Again, the exception is Mother-Talk reviews for which I receive a $20 Amazon.ca gift certificate to buy more books.) These reviews are 100% my (& my family members’) opinions and you’re going to get it all, good and bad. If you want to send me a sample of something to review, email me at muchmorethanamom@gmail.com with this policy in mind.

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My dad is, once again, cancer free!

Since the first time, he was re-scanned in April and the cancer was back in his lymph nodes. He’s been having harsher chemo for several months and it worked! His next re-scan will be in October. I really hope there’s nothing there, but at least we know chemo works!

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Thanks to everyone who continues to purchase from the Cancer Sucks Store. To Ruth in Minnesota who purchased a whole schwack of items last week, thanks - and bless you. We save our commission credits and and each time it gets to $50 we donate it to one of the many cancer research & support organizations. We’ve donated $450 so far thanks to all of you (and the many strangers who come upon the site) and are always accepting paypal donations to muchmorethanamom@gmail.com. We can no longer commit to matching all donations after the big campaign last year (just in case you put us into bankruptcy with your generosity!) but we are committed to donating a large chunk each year along with all of our commissions and site advertising profits here and there.

Speaking of there, we are still in a whirlwind of daily giveaways so be sure you go every day and enter! (And we’ll be looking for guest reviewers for the time we’re moving and have no internet. You can write a review of ANYTHING you like that’s parent/kid related. Please (please! please!) email me or leave a comment if you can help. Thanks!

(Anniversary post below…)

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Three years ago today, I married my best friend. It was the best thing I’ve ever done. He makes me laugh every day, makes me roll my eyes a lot, and makes me a better me.

He’s my partner in everything, he is the best daddy Rylan and baby #2 could ever ask for and I know he’s perfect because he’s also the best daddy our pets could ever have. Beside us in this second picture is a friendship bell in a Japanese garden. Friendship is the reason we know we’ll be together forever. We’re not just married - we’re best friends, and that’s what makes us live every day respecting each other and trying to make life a little better for each other.

Thanks for being my best friend, Big Guy. I love you more than words can say. Happy Anniversary!

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I’ve been previewing the upcoming series Word World and I must tell you that I’ve finally found a show on TV (well, soon to be on TV anyway) that I’d actually let my kids watch.

It’s an incredibly innovative addition to the preschoolers TV lineup that’s coming to PBS Kids in the fall of this year. The characters and animation are engaging enough, like all cartoons, but the coolest thing about Word World is that each character and (many other inanimate items in the show) is actually a word. See the dog and the house to the right of this post? Isn’t that cool?

As an early literacy teacher in the “real world” I can, for the very first time, recommend something that will be on the big black box for your children. Though…does PBS Kids have commercials? Because if it does your kids still shouldn’t be watching those (we believe no child should see a commercial until they’re at least school aged - preferably 8-10 - and you can teach them to be incredibly critical of marketing) and I’d recommend taping/downloading/Tivo-ing/insert your favourite method of commercial removal here instead of letting the kids actually sit & watch it when it’s on, but the show itself? Magical.

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Sorry I can’t come to the blog right now. I’m visiting my family but will return soon. Until then, leave a message and have a great day!

This post is from from my other blog here

I’m taking part in my first swap. Yes, I’m kinda nervous but I’ll deal. I have a few ideas but they’re not exactly creative so I’m appealing to your creativity and pure awesomeness.

Here’s the deal.

Summer themed items beginning with the letters…

S:
U:
M:
M:
E:
R:

that I can easily mail to the US. Please help me be the cool chick of the summer swap. Just copy & paste & add your ideas in comments (or, as always, you can email me for the 95% of you who are comment shy.)

Ready? Go!

Edited to add: I mailed it! Thanks for all of your comments & emails. I went with Jaime’s suggestion via facebook. I don’t want to give away the surprise in case the recipient is lurking but I’ll show you once I hear that she’s received it and I’ll also show you what I get from my surprise swapper!

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I’ve had about enough of this guessing game so here are the last two.

FALSE: I have had surgery six times in my life.

Three, actually.

1. In grade four I had my appendix out. I woke up in the middle of the night with horrible pains and went to my parents’ bedroom. My mom called the doctor and he came over to our house (small military town, remember?) and said “Well, whatever it is - it is NOT appendicitis.” Shortly thereafter my mom drove me the 30 minutes into the “big” city hospital and I had an emergency appendectomy. My appendix was rupturing as they took it out. That kills people sometimes. Apparently you don’t have to be intelligent to get a medical degree.

2. In my first year of university I ruptured the appendix scar weight lifting with crappy form and had the hernia repaired via the same incision.

3. In 2006, Rylan was born via emergency C-section.

Needless to say, my belly is really ugly & full of scars.

Only Damselfly & Julie got this one right so Julie joins the tie for second place!

Kris: 7
Karen: 6
Deb:6
Amy W:6
Damselfly: 5
Chelle:5
Josie:3
Sue: 2

And…just to get this damn thing over with…

FALSE: I have had 4 broken bones in my life.

Even with all of my accident prone stupidity and drunken escapades I have never broken a bone. Never ever. Even I find that hard to believe about myself.

Kris, Chelle & Karen got it correct so here’s the final tally:

In first place:

Kris: 8

A very close second:
Karen: 7

And honourable mentions go to…
Deb:6
Amy W:6
Damselfly: 5
Chelle:6
Josie:3
Sue: 2

Congratulations Kris! You win an advance copy of Gwendolyn Gross’ yet unpublished book “The Other Mother” and a photo of your choice morped into your choice of a sketch or a colourized image. Email me and I’ll hook you up with your prize!

Karen, for second place you were supposed to receive a photo edit as well but I’ll understand if you don’t want it seeing as you’re the design goddess and all. If you want to give it away to a friend, email me and we’ll chat.

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The folks at Wateroos recently sent me some samples of their products to review. When I first read their pitch, I didn’t even respond to the email because I thought “I have stainless steel sippy cups that I can fill with my own water. No chemicals. No waste. No problem.” When they sent a follow up email, however, I decided to give them a shot. What the hell - it’s free!

Wateroos are my newest “Duh! Why didn’t I think of that?” item. Purified water in a drinking box. Sounds simple but I assure you that there’s a touch of brilliance there. We rarely allow juice boxes in our home and when we do it’s fruit & veggie juice. Usually a shot of real juice is added to water when we need a kick. I’ve got one of those kids (you know, the normal ones) that wants what he sees other kids having. Hence, he sees kids drinking a juice box and he wants one. But he doesn’t care what’s in it. I’ve been giving him Wateroos at the splash park for the past few days and he loves it! No sippy cups to pack and lose, and the packaging recyclable. And since we don’t take our dwink out with us and he’s a major squeezer & dumper I’d much rather he have a plain Wateroos so I don’t have to spend any extra time removing stains. Ya know?

They come in pure plain old water or in 3 natural flavours. When I first heard “natural flavours” I was skeptical - especially because the package says “contains no juice.” So, I wondered, how the hell do you flavour something naturally with fruit if there’s no juice? Thoughts of hidden chemicals arose and I started to get mad that they wanted me to feed this to my kids. Like the dutiful reviewer I am, I did my research and discovered that the flavouring really is natural and this is how they make it: First they take the fruit and boil out everything but the crucial ingredients. What’s left is a concentrated extract or what can be referred to as “natural flavoring.” Smart, eh? The mom that invented these must be as picky as me! I also love that it’s reverse osmosis water and not spring water (which we refer to as “boiled fish shit” in our house).

The only problem is that they’re still kind of hard to find so I kindly request that the company please send me oodles more samples to tide my kid over until my shipment arrives from mybrands, and please get them into Canada Safeway stores. Merci beaucoup.

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Even though I’m on summer holidays, it’s been a crazy week and I haven’t had much chance to blog. Today, again, not much time, so here we go with the bullet points…

I had my 4 month (four months? WTF?) OB appointment on Tuesday and FINALLY heard the baby’s heartbeat. We saw it on our early ultrasound but hadn’t heard it yet since at 3 months our OB doesn’t even try so as not to scare patients if she can’t get it yet. Hearing your baby’s heartbeat? Never gets old. It was strong and amazing and a total miracle. The baby was flipping somersaults just like Rylan did. We may have two of the most active kids on the planet.

I’ve been babysitting one of Rylan’s friend a few afternoons a week again since being off of work. They’re having a blast together and it’s hilarious to watch them communicate in their strange toddler ways. There’s a lot of pointing and grunting, peek a boo playing and kicking each other. So cute!

Speaking of communication, we have a few more random words now…

Doos - juice (Booster Juice/smoothie)
Soos - shoes (”Take me outside NOW!)
Ananana/Nana - banana
Diepo - diaper

He also loves to shout at the dogs when they bark and at the BG when he’s downstairs (or at work, but Rylan thinks he’s always downstairs). It goes something like this: “DADO! Doh dah baba dado ta dado baba doo la baba dado DADO!” and is SO funny!

My BFF came up on Wednesday with her 7 year old kiddo who I love to death and we went to the spray park. Surprise! I won’t put a picture of her kid on the interweb without asking her, but here’s my favourite pic of Ry from the day.

Molars? They suck butt. Teething 5 times for one freaking tooth? That is SO unfair. We’ve got 3.5 corners through & the fourth is on it’s way. Now comes the big centre part. It’s just mean. Not only is Rylan in intolerable pain but I haven’t slept properly two nights in a row in weeks and I’m 4 (four!) months pregnant. At least he’s getting two at once. Only 6 to go, right?

A funny thing happened in my back yard this morning. My dogs went out to pee shortly before 7 am. Living on an open field, there tends to be many things for them to bark at, and they do. But - we always go outside and get them immediately so it lasts less than a minute. They saw some grass move or something and were barking to alert us (one time it was a coyote so I’m so glad they do!) so I ran outside to get them and I hear this horrible voice (incidentally, the same one my BFF and I heard swearing at a husband or child or someone random on Wednesday afternoon) shouting “It’s not even f*cking seven o’clock in the f*cking morning! You’d better get those f*cking dogs under control!” I, in my notorious inability to keep my mouth shut, said in a loud but very sweet & neighbourly voice “Why? You’re up. And your vulture voice is WAY more annoying than any dog.” I’m really glad we’re moving.

We’re off to the spray park with friends. Hope your weekend is fab! If you’re not doing anything, there’s lots of packing to be done at my place and I make a mean homemade popsicle.

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When I went back to work for the month of June, I ended up working at a different school for the month. A great school with great people.

One of the classroom assistants at that school is an amateur photographer and we asked her to come to our house last week and do a few pics of us in our yard because Rylan won’t have memories of this house and the nice big yard. Our next house has a postage stamp of grass. We wanted the pets in them but the dogs were dirty and being turds (surprise!) so we didn’t push it. Maybe next time.

She emailed me today saying that our CD was ready but that she wouldn’t accept any payment because she wasn’t feeling well that day & wasn’t feeling creative and thought they all looked like snapshots and weren’t worth money.

Normally, for a fee of whatever you think they’re worth (an average of $50-$75), she gives you a CD of all the pictures in sepia, b/w and colour in both 4×6 & 5×7 with no copyright for you to do whatever you want with. As someone who has done some paid photography work and will be doing more, I can tell you that she’s WAY underestimating what she’s worth. Tomorrow I’m dropping off a thank you card with a large-ish cheque for her regardless.

You be the judge:

This post is from from my other blog here

This post is from from my other blog here

The time: 2:00 am The BG, drunk as a skunk, gets home from the beer gardens where he’s been watching hot rod cars…um…drive around…in the hot sun for 8 hours with the guys from work. (Yes, I was invited but we have no family in town to babysit Rylan overnight. He first went last [...]

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I was born on a base in southern Saskatchewan in a town where their mascot is a freaking HUGE moose. I lived there until I was 5 when we moved to the base about 2.5 hours from where I am now. I went to school there from kindergarten to grade 9, bussed in [...]

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Best! Toddler! Art! Supplies! Evah! No art on walls, floors, people or pets. No “colour wonder” paints to eat or markers to suck. 1. The generic brand travel size “magnetic drawing doohickie.” $2.99 at Toys R Us. His first drawing experience. He loved it so much that he actually stopped to hug it several times. The final [...]

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Though I’ve always wanted to, I have never ridden on a passenger train. When we were young it was a common form of transportation across the west but we always drove. I’d still like to take a train trip one day with our kids. Sleeping on a train would be so fun! Karen, [...]