Potty Training

I know, it's been awhile. Brian and I went on a Mediterranean Cruise earlier this month. We were gone from the 4th to the 15th of June. Brian downloaded our cruise pics as well as some from Jacob's birthday, onto his laptop the night before we left, and erased the memory stick. The next day, he left it on a train that was bound for Rome, so it's as good as gone. I took the erased memory stick in to someone who can hopefully recover the pics, so I'll post on the cruise later, hopefully with some visuals.
Anyway, the purpose of this post, is to find out if anyone out there has tried Lora Jenson's 3 Day Potty Training method. I just purchased a few minutes ago. I guess I should have asked before I bought it, but I am desperate!!! Avery took forever to train. I think he was 4 before he was really and truly "trained". Jacob has Autism, so it's been a real challenge with him, but during Christmas vacation, we just did it, and he's been doing pretty well, but lately, he's been having a lot of accidents. Isabella was nearly trained before we made the move to Yarmouth, but we were nomads for a couple of weeks, so it got abandoned. We trained again a couple of months ago, and she too was doing quite well, up until lately. You may think it's because we went away, but it was happening before that. Actually, they did quite well for my Mom, who was watching them while we were away. So that makes me think it's me. But anyway, this 3 day potty training is supposed to be amazing and guaranteed, so if anyone out there has tried it, or knows of anyone who has tried it, please, PLEEASE tell me how it worked out. Logan will be 2 in August, so I'll be trying to tran him soon. He has a real fascination with all things toilet, and even sits on the potty sometimes if Izzy is on the toilet, so hopefully he'll be no problem, right?
I am eagerly awaiting your replies.

TupperWare Party!!

Wow, I'm on a roll. Two posts in one day. I just downloaded some pics off my camera, that's why. I figure I might as well. So on Friday May 8th, I hosted a TupperWare party. I LOVE TUPPERWARE!!!! I can't even tell tell you how much. I addicted to it! You should see my cupboards, in fact I'll take a pic right now and show you.

Here is the stuff that I got from my party, this includes stuff I ordered, stuff I got free and
severely discounted. (Note: the orange pitcher was a free replacement for one that had cracked. Love that lifetime warranty!)
The four green bowls with lids was the attendance special, I'd been wanting to get the small spice containers for ages, and the Super Oval 5 Modular Mate for some tall pasta.
Holy cow, I just realized I forgot to put something in the picture! I also got a set of five vent 'n serve containers, all different sizes. They're for storing leftovers in the fridge or freezer, you can take them to work/school to warm up for lunch, and you can even cook in them, in the microwave.

Here's the stuff I got for free. (I forgot to put the bag in the first pic) I love reusable shopping bags!! So I was super excited. I got it for agreeing to host a party. I got the big green bowl for actually having the party, the fridgesmart (on top of green bowl) and the season 'n server (under bag, it's for marinating meats. It has grids on bottom so liquid flows around, and then you flip it over to get the other side) with my hostess credit, and the two little green pieces and the blue topped piece, (aren't they so cute and little?) for having a conversation about TupperWare (which lead to hosting a party), having my party on the original scheduled date, and for having 10 or more adults in attendance. How fun is that? I meant to take pics of the party, but I forgot.



I met the consultant, Sheri, at the Home Show in Exhibition Park in the spring of 2005. (We go way back.) Anyway, I put my name in for a draw, I didn't win, but she contacted me about having a party, so I was all for it. Almost three years later, in January 2008, she contacted me again, about perhaps hosting another party. The clincher was that Modular Mates were on special, big time. (They're probably my favorite product, see cupboard pics below) so I was all for it. I mentioned that we'd be moving soon, and she said that she'd love to come to Yarmouth to do a party down there once we got all settled in, so I said, sure. Anyway, a few months ago, after I had attempted to reorganize my kitchen (still working on it) I began thinking about TupperWare. I even had a dream about Sheri having a TupperWare party in my house, (weird, I know) so I e-mailed her, and said that it was that time again and the rest is history. So about my cupboards, I have been collecting TupperWare for years now. I had attended and hosted parties with other people before I met Sheri, so I have quite a collection. This isn't even all of it. I even have TupperWare not in use yet, but don't worry, I'm still unpacking our house and I will find a use for all of it. So, here they are.


This is my "baking" cupboard. These are Modular Mates, for anyone not familiar. I love them because they keep everything where you can see it, and they fit together so perfectly. Brown sugar does not go hard in the babies. I even labeled them with the labelmaker I got for Christmas. (Thanks again Keah!)
























Man, I still have trouble making pictures go where I want them to go. Sorry, this is all scattered about.

















This is my "Pasta/Rice cupboard" It still needs work, and I don't have my new Super Oval 5 in there yet.

This is my "cereal/breakfast/whatever cupboard"




The cereal storers are way fun. They keep your cereal fresher, longer than if just stayed in th eopened box. And, on the right near the top, I have ice-cream cones stored. They won't go stale in there!

And this little jewel is my "TupperWare cupboard", even though there are a few Rubbermaids, no names and the stack and twirl thing at the top right of the cupboard, it's still called "TupperWare" cupboard. Oh, and in the middle left, you can see some of the vent 'n serve containers I left out of my picture above.

My name is Tamara and I'm a TupperWare-aholic.

At least I can admit it. And the crazy thing is, I still want more!!

Crazy kids

Isabella got one of those "Little Tikes" cars for Easter, and loves it, as I knew she would. We don't usually make a big deal, presentwise, for Easter, but this year I wanted to get them stuff to do outside, as we actually have a decent sized yard that they'll actually have room to play with toys in. (More on Landscaping in another post) We go to a play group in town sometimes, and she just mostly likes to drive around in the cars. She actually hoards them. When it's snack time, she tries to bring the car over to the table with her, and just doesn't want to let it go. It's kind of funny. She's so afraid someone else will take, which they usually do, but that's where sharing comes in. Anyway, I caught my crazy kids pulling this stunt the other day (well, actually the other week, I'm a bit behind).

Yes, Logan can actually move the car with her on top. He really does have fun, even though it doesn't look like it.

And yes, Izzy can move the car with Jacob on top of it.

Some of you may think I'm a terrible parent for allowing such dangerous behavior. In my defense, I say this: they are having fun, they are not fighting, and we've only had one fall. Izzy fell on her butt, but didn't hurt herself, so I don't think it counts. She only laughed harder. Just thought you'd enjoy a glimpse into daily life.

The House Chronicles Part 2

The next most exciting pictures come at the beginning of January, 2008. Two stories on their way up, and rooms are starting to materialize!! Over Christmas, we had gone down to Yarmouth, and I had contacted an interior designer down there to help me out a bit, but there was a snowstorm and she lives pretty out in the country, so she couldn't even get out of hew driveway to come and meet me. I was pretty disappointed. So we planned to get together in January when we came down. We usually made trips every month. It was fun to see the progress. The workers were getting tired of having to shovel off the roof everyday, just to get some work done. Note to self, never build a house in the winter. We didn't actually plan to build it that late in the year. We thought they would start in October, and have everything tight by the time the snow started to fly, but obviously, that didn't happen. Here's a few of the roof going on.

It really looks like it might be a house now. Although, I have to share a few humorous stories we heard through the grapevine. Brian's sister, Sarah, and her family came to visit from Saint John, NB around this time. They took the Digby ferry across, and my sister-in-law picked them up there. Before she drovthem home, she stopped at our house so they could see the progress. When they started to drive up the driveway, my seven year old nephew said, "Woah! Are we staying in a hotel?" We really laughed when we heard that. Someone at work asked my sister-in-law, Coralee, "What is that "facility" they're building near your house?" I heard this one third hand. My mother's friend's old neighbors from the valley,(did you catch that?) went to Yarmouth to visit the husband's mother, I believe, in a nursing home. While there, someone suggested to them that they should go and see this house that's being built. They gave them directions, and off they went. This is what they said to my mother's friend. "You should have seen this house! It's huge! A doctor and his wife and FOUR children are moving in." The funniest part is, that these neighbor's have no idea who we are, and my mother's friend just assumed that it must be us, and so she told my mother about it. Boy, there aren't many secrets in small towns. Too funny. This next pic is one of a truck that slipped off the driveway. Wooops. I thought it was kind of comical. The second is our infloor heat being laid down. Oh yeah. I love it. We have in-floor heat on both levels.

So by mid to late February, we have a floor poured, rooms are being framed up, we have windows and doors in, and things are looking good.

HELP!! I'm computer illiterate.

As you can see, I tried to post a family photo at the top of our blog. How do I make it smaller to fit nicely? I seriously can't figure it out. Can anybody help me?

The House Chronicles

Since people have been asking to see new pics of our house, I decided I'd do a series of posts on the building of our dream house, from start to finish. So here goes. Brian and I have been planning on building this house since shortly after we got married. It has taken a couple of different forms through the years, but we couldn't be happier with the end result. It has been extremely challenging at times, especially with being three hours away from the construction site. Brian's dad lives a few doors down, so he was able to keep his eye on things for us. We met with an architect in the spring of 2007. Logan was born on August 18th, and ground broke in mid November, 2007. So I had a newborn to deal with as well as three other children while we were planning, shopping, overseeing, etc. So here are some pics of the groundbreaking.

We built the outer walls of our house out of Insulated Concrete Forms.(ICF) Nudura was the brand we chose. Anyway, it's these hollow styrofoam forms, and then they pour concrete down the middle. It's pretty fireproof, hurricane, proof and very energy efficient.

Here's a few of it going up. It's starting to look like a house now. Dec.2009

A view from the road.

Well, that's enough for one night. More to follow.

March Break trip to Pittsburgh

Let me first begin by saying that I still have a lot to learn about posting. I can't make my pics go where I want them to go, etc. Please be patient with me.

One evening in January, Brian's says "I've got a great idea!" My reply was, "Oh yeah, what's that?" I had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with hockey, as he had just come out of the room where he was watching a Penguins game. "We should go to Pittsburgh for March Break!" He then went on to explain that they had 3 home games in 4 days, and that there were tickets still available. I said I'd think about it. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. Not for the hockey aspect, but for the fact that I'd get to shop in the states. Not that I don't like hockey, it has grown on me, but I love shopping in the states. I really started watching when Sidney Crosby got drafted. Just 'cause he's a Nova Scotian and he's actually really good. I was a little hesitant, however, and suggested we take some help with us. If he was going to go to hockey games with Ave and Jake, that would leave me with the younger two, who aren't really big fans of shopping yet. So I suggested my youngest sister, Tangye (pronounced Tan-gee) and perhaps her boyfriend, Ryan.

Here they are in the matching shirts they bought for the game.

They were game, but the clincher for me was that the Yarmouth airport was going to become operational again, starting in February. There was a small airline coming in to do 2 daily flights to and from Halifax and 2 daily flights to and from Portland, Maine. YAY!! I'd been waiting for this. So the plan was to fly from Yarmouth to Portland, Me. on the morning of Friday March 13th, (scary, I know) spending the day shopping in Freeport (LOVE LL Bean) and Portland, spending the night (we stayed at a LaQuinta for $49 USD/per room-can't beat that!) and then caught an early (6am) flight to Pittsburgh (via Newark) on Saturday morning.

Here are Ave and Jake in front of the big boot in Freeport. How cool is that?

Pittsburgh is a beautiful city. Very clean, and it has a lot of history. I was very impressed, and would definitely go back. Here's a couple shots of the city.

The first Penguins game was at 3pm on Saturday. Ryan, Brian, Avery and Jacob went to that one, while Tangye, Izzy, Logan and I went to Burlington Coat Factory, which, by the way, was a disaster. The kids were both tired and cranky and just wouldn't go to sleep in their nice double stroller they were being pushed around in. I'd gladly go to sleep if someone was pushing me around in a stroller. They don't know how good they have it. So we tossed in the towel and got in our rental van and headed to IKEA!!! I had made a list of all the stores I wanted to go to, as well as a list of specific items I hoped to purchase, to keep my spending in check and to use my time wisely. I printed off directions to these places, so I was all set, right? Sure, if you know which way is north, in a city you've never been to before, driving a rental van you've never driven before, and are scared to death you 'll put even the slightest scratch on it. So when the directions said to start out going North on ......, I was like, what the heck? So with cars beeping behind me for me to move, I picked the way I thought, and went for it. Unfortuntely, it was the wrong way. Somehow we got in the lane that is reserved for vehicles with two or more people in it, which was between the right and left lanes. Tangye was freaking right out. After going about 11 miles the wrong way,we were able to find a way off the crazy lane, and got off t an exit, turned around and get going back the right way. It was a little stressful, and it cut into my shopping time at Ikea. Something that's very precious to me. (Anytime we go away on vacation, one of the first things I do is check to see if there's an Ikea nearby. Brian can't stand Ikea, and on past trips has given me 30 minute time limits in the store. He usually stays in the car. As anyone who's been to Ikea knows, 30 minutes just doesn't cut it. It's a tease. You might as well not even bother.) Well, the kids both fell asleep, so it was a pretty good trip to Ikea. Thanks goodness for my list to keep me in check. I also spotted a JoAnn Fabric store, so I nipped in there for a few minutes, to feed my new obsession of bowmaking. Izzy was not a happy camper, so it was shortlived. In hindsight, that was probably a good thing. The next day was Sunday. We had looked up the nearest church, which started at 9am, so we go up got breakfast (which was included with the room rate) and left. Just before we left our room, I said, "I think Logan pooped." Brian said, "You'll have to change him when we get there. We're going to be late as it is." So off we went, and we were only 5 min late. So after the opening song and prayer, I took him out to change him. What I beheld then, I hope to never ever see again. I took off his overalls and there were "chunks." Oh, and for the record, they were nice overalls. Churchworthy overalls, not denim, in case anyone was wondering. There was poop on his shirt, so I whipped that off. Unbuttoned his onesie, and all the way up to his freakin shoulderblades, there was a mess. That kid had the biggest poop of his entire life. Why he had to do it while we were on vacation, and at church (where I didn't have an extra change of clothes) is beyond me. So I folded up the soiled clothes, and brought poor Logan back into church in only a diaper and his socks and sat down. Fortunately, we were seated in the second to last row, so I didn't have to make a big production coming back in. I tucked the poopy clothes into the front pocket of my bag, (which thankfully had a zipper), which I hope diffused the smell somewhat. I felt bad for the poor missionaries sitting right in front of us. So Brian whispered, "where are his clothes?" and I whispered back, "They're full of poop" to which he made a funny, wrinkled up face. I put Logan's coat on, so he could be a little bit more decent. The rest of the meeting went well. There were some great talks. We just stayed for Sacrament meeting and then went back to the hotel.

Mellon Arena from our hotel.




The second Penguins game was at 3pm that day, and we were all going to it. We couldn't have picked a better game to all go to. It happened to be their 100th consecutive sellout, so we all got a special program and the kids all got a stuffed penguin to commemorate the occasion. When we actually had a good look at them, we saw that they were actually Webkinz. Pretty cool. Avery named his "Piplup" after some penguin Pokemon character, Jacob named his "Malkin" because his favorite player is Evgeni Malkin, Izzy named hers "Iceburgh" after the Penguins mascot and Avery named Logan's "Crosby" for obvious reasons. Wow, this is turning into a really long post. I hope I'm not boring anyone.

Monday, there were no games, so we headed up to Grove City, which has Prime Outlets. It was about an hour drive, but if there's anything I love more than shopping, it's outlet shopping. Everyone got some good buys. Can I just say how much better Payless Shoes is in the states. Love it! And I was reminded of how much I love J.Crew and Bath and Bodyworks. Thanks to my sis Keah for turning me on to B and BW.

Tuesday's game wasn't until 7:30pm. Brian and the two older boys were supposed to go, but Jacob insisted that "Three hockey games is too much!", so Tangye and Ryan offered to stay at the hotel with Jacob and Izzy while I went to the game, but I had to bring Logan.
Our seats were wicked!!! Four rows from the ice, right next to the middle section. Awesome!! And they won too!! It was a great game. Oh, I forgot to mention the scores of the other games. The first game the penguins lost in a shootout, 4-3 I think. I say it was because I wasn't there at the game, as they won the next two, 6-2 and 6-4. So during the day on Tuesday, we decided to check out the Heinz museum. Yup, that's right. Heinz ketchup's birthplace was in Pittsburgh. The exhibits weren't as good as I thought they would be. We got a late lunch, or early supper (depends which way you look at it) at "Olive Garden". Holy cow, how I love "Olive Garden" I want to open one in Canada. More specifically in Yarmouth, so I can go whenever I want to. We had some real good eats.

We headed for home early Wednesday morning. And I mean early. Our flight left at 6:18am. I checked the website to see what the recommended time was to be at the airport, and it said between 1 and 2 hours. We checked in online the night before, so we had our boarding passes, we just needed to check our bags. We had alarm clocks set for 4:30am and wake up calls too, just in case. But we didn't end up leaving til 5:15am. I forgot to account for the time it would take to get everyone awake and dressed. I was freaking out when I looked at the clock in the van as we left the parking garage. It was about a half hour drive to the airport and we had to return the van too. I was praying the whole way there, and Brian drove as fast as he safely could without drawing unwanted attention to us. Boy it was close, so without going through all the stressful details, they were doing a final boarding call for our flight just as we got to the gate. But at least we made it. We arrived in Portland at 10:35am but out flight back to Yarmouth wasn't until 7pm. So we hopped on the city transit and took the roundabout way to the Maine Mall, then walked to Target. Another one of my reasons why I love to shop in the states. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love Target. It was a bit of a hike, but soooo worth it. Unfortunately for me, it was raining when we came out. I had wanted to go to Burlington Coat Factory again, since my first visit didn't go so well, and I wanted to go the Maine Mall to go to this store called Forever 21. Nobody else wanted to humor me. They all wanted to take a cab back to the airport(which was only 3 miles away) and just wait til our flight and get something to eat. I finally caved, (after actually considering walking the 3 miles back to the airport, pushing a double stroller in the rain by myself) and took one for the team. We went to the airport and ate supper, paid way too much for it, and went to the building where our flight was to leave from. Since it's a small outfit, and the airline departs out of the same place where private plans leave. We didn't have to go through security or anything. It was great. And the airline service was superb! We will definitely fly with Skylink Aviation in the future. Well, that's it. It was fun, overall, but we won't be taking any family vacations again anytime soon. It's a lot of work and very stressful at times. Maybe next year.

-Tamara