Credit where credit is due

For those of you who don't live in the National Capital region, we have endured a 51 day transit strike. Last night, after the threat of the federal government stepping in and forcing the buses back on the roads, the city and the transit union finally agreed to binding arbitration. FINALLY. The federal govt, in particular Rona Ambrose, our Federal Transportation Minister, is taking credit for the break through. But I beg to differ, lets look at the chain of events shall we:

Last week: Rona Ambrose stands up in Parliament and tells the country (if anyone was listening) that the Buses in Ottawa are not an essential service. Tell that to the thousands of people who have been trudging through the cold, have lost jobs and money and years on their lives due to the stress. She said the Government would not step in.

Two days ago: The White House announces that President Obama will visit Ottawa on February 19th. Much sooner than anyone thought he would. Bush barely paid any attention to us and I think he visited twice in his 8 years in office (I may be wrong on that number). If you live in Ottawa and have the misfortune of working down town (near the parliament and US embassy) you know that when the US President comes a visiting they shut half the streets down town (for security reasons). Then they ENCOURAGE people to bus it in to work to make life easier on everyone... HMMM

Yesterday: Rona Abrose stands up in Parliament and says that if no agreement is reached that the Federal Govt will impose back to work legislation.

Last night: The Union and the city agree to binding arbitration, the strike is over.

So I say: THANK YOU PRESIDENT OBAMA FOR ENDING OUR BUS STRIKE!!!!

Anything to make work more fun

My work has recently upgraded our phone system to an IP switch. We all received new IP phones in our offices. They look just the same as our old ones so nothing fancy there. The first time the phone rang I just about jumped out of my chair. It was some nasty screeching ring. HATED IT. I played around with the options and finally found the list of ring tones I could chose from. Lo and behold way down at the bottom of the list (there are like 50 rings on this thing and dam it they almost all sound the same) there was a ring called 24ringer. I was curious so I hit the button to sample that one. Well what do we have here. We have the ring tone from the TV show 24, the one from CTI CTU (thanks Holly, CTI is a department at my work). This one. I am a big fan of 24 (well, season one, two and this one) and I couldn't resist. Now every time my phone rings I pretend that its Jack on the phone, calling ME to help save the world...

Thanks Jeri for reminding me to post about this :)

ongoing

This weekend we tackled our master bedroom closet. It was a huge task. Last week we had worked on our master bedroom and it was all neat and tidy and clutter free. I emptied the closet while Kevin was at the gym. No word of a lie our room was FULL of stuff. We have a average sized walk in closet. It isn't huge but it is bigger than a normal closet. Kev and I can both stand in it and at the same time. As I was emptying it I found things that I hadn't seen since we moved in 4 years ago. In the rush to move in I must have just shoved them to the back and forgotten about them.

When Kevin got home we went to work. Anything that didn't belong in the closet was moved to its rightful spot. I give Kevin an enormous amount of credit because he went through his clothing and he was ruthless. The bulk of the stuff we now have waiting for the good will to pick up is his. I let go of a few more pants and some shoes that I hadn't worn in years. At the end of it all we have a very comfortable closet with nothing on the floor, other than shoes. We have 3 more green garbage bags full of clothing for good will (that's 4 and counting). And we have almost 70 wire hangers to get rid of. I don't want to throw them out. Do you guys know of anywhere that will take them?

Next weekend we tackle M's room. I am looking forward to this. I never thought I would enjoy this so much. I think the main reason I am enjoying it is because I have Kevin as my partner in this work. It makes it so much more manageable, it is almost fun.

I feel lighter

One short hour ago I had over 2500 e-mails in my work inbox. They didn't always allow us that much space on our mail server but some unnamed senior exec doesn't like to delete e-mails. And it's not me, trust me. But thanks to him (I am sure I know who it is)y I stopped getting reminders at the 1000 mark to clear out my inbox. Result - INBOX HELL!

No longer my dear friends, no longer. As of 1 minute ago I have 32 e-mails in my inbox. Only those that require my actual attention. Everything else has been filed or deleted.

Ahhhh, that feels GOOD!

Now I just have to keep this up.

Just in case you were wondering

If you watch those simplify your life/de-clutter shows they always follow a simple formula. When you are going through your mountains of stuff (for the record we only have small hills, no mountains in this house) you should seperate it all into 3 piles: Throw out, give away, sell.

If you decide to follow this plan, as I did, I give you one piece of advice. If you can't get the "give away/sell" pile out of your house immediately - HIDE IT!!!! If you don't, your 3.5 year old will find it, and he will go through it. And he will find toys that he didn't even know he had (they were buried under other crap) and say things like:

"LOOK Mommy, look what I found. Ohh I love it. I wonder who gave it to me? Look at this stuff in this bag..."

ARGGGGGGG! I just might have to resort to stealing those two beany babies back while he is sleeping. Or maybe I will let him keep them. OH GOD HELP ME!!! I need to get rid of this crap!

Corner of shame - revisited

Well well, what do we have here. A clean and organized wall. I have to say I am much more relaxed in the morning when I wake up and see this. Much more than I was before. And I hung up the art. Those are cross stitch works my Mom did when we were young, they are of barns. They are extremely well done and she had them professionally framed. Earlier this year in a fit of frustration I almost gave them away (to a cousin, I am not heartless). I mentioned this to my Mom and she looked so upset. The idea that her hard work would leave the protection of our immediate family, where it could be mistaken as worthless. She didn't say these words, but I read them on her face. I changed my mind. I knew I had to find a place to hang them. And I have. And I feel glad.

The pocket watch is a family heirloom from Kevin's side of the family. I dusted it off and made room for it. Even the dresser has a history. It is from a set that my parents bought when we were young. My mother still uses 4 of the pieces. Kevin uses this one and D has a short dresser, the one I had when I was a child. Although D's is at the end of its life. That's what happens when you are used by multiple children, you wear quicker. Hmmm I wonder if that applies to parents as well....

Corner of shame

MEC back pack circa 1984: She won't come near us, she never does. Even when she is cleaning she pretends we aren't here.
Knifty Knitter circa 6 months ago: She knitted 2 hats with me and I have been here ever since. All cozy in my corner surrounded by wool. She'll come back to me soon, I know she will.
Photos in the back: RRR RRR RRR, GET OFF ME

Mr Clean thingy: Oh Dam, she's uncovered me, now she'll throw me out for sure.
Teddy and Bunny: Oh noooooo, M has way too many teddy bears already. I see the Goodwill bag just over there. NOOOOOOOOOO
Photos in the back: Phew now we can breath. Do you think she'll actually hang us this time?

Dust Bunnies: RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This post is a Monday Mission brought to you by The Painted Maypole. This week's Mission is inspired by the fabulous posts at Ewe are Here wherein she imagines the conversations between her boys as she tries to get their picture. My Mission was to write a post with photos and give the conversation that goes along with them.

Please please ignore the nasty pink carpet. Its days are numbered. Oh and I haven't hung up those photos yet but I will. Today. And when I do I will post about it. Cause, well, why not!

clutter, what clutter?

I have neglected my clutter project for a while. Last night as I was hanging up laundry I ran out of hangers. I still had a few things to hang and I was annoyed. Where are all my hangers going!?!? Do I have a hanger thief in my house... I scanned my shirts and noticed that I hadn't taken the time to store my summer clothes (its only mid January, I'll need them again in a few months won't I?). I pulled all my summer shirts out and put them in my storage box (which I keep at the back of the closet, that closet is a mess whooeee). As I was removing my summer clothes I noticed some of the hangers were hung backwards. Then I remembered about my closet challenge. Hang all your hangers backwards and as you wear your clothes turn them around. At the end of the season, any clothing that is still on hangers that are backwards must be given away. I had 7 hangers still backwards. Bye Bye shirts. It felt good. Now I have a bunch of empty hangers and a slightly less busy closet (only slightly).

Over the holidays Kevin and I decided to make a de-clutter schedule and stick to it. The best part about this schedule is that we are both doing it. I don't know if you noticed the common thread in my other clutter project posts. I hadn't noticed until it was pointed out to me, by Kevin. When I decide to do these projects I do them on my own. I don't ask for help and I don't even tell Kevin what I am doing. Then I get overwhelmed and frustrated. I feel like I am trying to do it all. I had a "I do it all" blowout over the holidays and Kevin, rightly so, reminded me that I need to communicate with him. And we have been, and it is better. Starting this weekend we are tackling de-cluttering the house, as a family. I think this could work!

A large arctic air mass has settled over our region

Yes, those are the words we heard when our clock radio went off this morning. Of course we are prepared, we live in Canada after all. But we have been spoiled over the last few years. They are predicting true temperature reaching a low of -30C (-22F) with wind chills of -40C (-40F) (although today we seem to have settled on a balmy -26C, -15F). These are temperatures that we haven't seen in 4 years. Only 4 years, that doesn't seem so long now does it? Well it is over half of D's life and M has never experienced them. That would explain why he threw a temper tantrum as I tried to convince him that he did need to wear both his neck warmer and his hat.

I have a co-worker who is from Columbia, emigrated here 9 years ago, and these temperatures scare the crap out of him. It is better now. Last time we had this kind of cold (4 years ago) the cold snap lasted two weeks. He would come into work almost crying. It was kind of funny, in a sick Canadian humour kind of way.

Here's wishing all of you warmth today, unless you are Misty and it is perfect out and you are gardening, then I am just jealous!

Oh yes and thanks for all the comment love! You guys are great. I am a comment whore love comments. I some times stumble upon sites where the writer writes posts day after day with no comments logged. I don't know how they do it. The comments are what keep me going. So thanks!

Come out, come out, who ever you are

I know this is cheating since I haven't posted in weeks... But please, give me some comment love. I don't get a ton of visitors but there are a few out there that I don't know about. Say hi! I would love to hear from you.

what exactly

do you wear when you are running in -30 windchill? Well, since you asked ;)

As the day progressed I became more nervous about the temperature. I knew if I could just get running I would be fine. But that cold was pretty intimidating. Thankfully there was only a breeze. If it had been windy (like it had been for a few night prior, we lost shingles UGH) I am not sure if I would have gone.

My bottom half had 3 layers:
Thermal socks
Thermal long underwear
Thick jogging pants
Wind breaker pants

for the top half I had 5 layers:
Winter running shirt from MEC that has an awesome hood
Cotton long sleeve shirt
Fall running shirt, long sleeve with high collar
Fall MEC running jacket/wind breaker
Running Room running jacket/wind breaker - the one I got for participating in this run.

I also wore my sons head band and the hood. And an old pair of MEC fleece mits.

I was cold, but with the two jackets I was okay. Once we were in the crowd waiting for the start it got a bit better. Lots of people around (2000+), everyone bouncing to stay warm.

It wasn't my fastest time, actually it was my slowest at 40 minutes, but I think the cold, and the layers had a lot to do with it. Plus I haven't been training as much as I would like.

The finish was so exhilarating. I love crossing the finish line. I get such a rush. You would think it would get old, but so far it hasn't. I am still amazed that I can do this, and I still enjoy it, a lot.

I am already planning on doing it again next year. It was a great way to start off the New Year.