Today was race day for Hubby.  I know I wanted to run the 10k this year, but since it was sold out when I went to get my ticket, I decided to go and photograph an amazing team instead.

Everything worked out in Hubby’s favour this morning. After our scorcher of a week last week, he was getting worried.  Hubby does not fare well in heat.  So when the clouds rolled in and the temperature stayed cool he pushed on.  We met him at the 30km mark with a bottle of water, a towel and lots of noise makers.  We got there really early so that we wouldn’t miss him, since the weather was so good we weren’t sure how fast he would be going.  Two days ago he thought he would be lucky to come in on the 5 hour mark.  When we saw him he was about ten minutes ahead of the 4hour pace bunny.  He finished up at 3:56:51.  An amazing time.  We are so proud of him even if he is dying slowly on the couch right now.

We met a few people in our cheering section.  One lady running needed a cell phone because she didn’t think she could keep going.  Between me and the people she called she carried on.  I am not sure, but I am wondering if she is the lady who collapsed in front of Hubby with only a kilometre to go.  I sure hope not, I hope she got to finish.

I also met a lovely Mom and Dad cheering their son on. This was his first marathon.  They were a great cheering section.  He was running a few minutes behind Hubby.  “Brodie from Boston”, we hope you got in a good time.  Your parents were very proud.  And I hope they found parking and made it to the finish line.

When the weather cooperates, I hate and I mean HATE to stay in the house.  Although I prefer lounging surfside with a good book and some sand between my toes, I make do with what I have.  Every year I spend countless hours outside with my laptop.  When the kids nap, I take this opportunity to catch up on things and get a bit of work done.

This is one of the three spots that I use.

Today I am sitting here because I have a large quantity of photos to go through from the weekend and since I am just sorting and tagging (as opposed to doing any editing) I prefer to sit under the canopy in the lounging chair with my coffee and water and the sounds of the birds chirping in the trees.  The canopy gives me just the perfect amount of diffused light on my flat screen so I don’t get any reflections and can sit here and enjoy the great outdoors.  If I were doing any editing, I would suck it up and take it inside but for now I can enjoy this gorgeous day.

And as you can see I have extra seating if need be.  Grab your laptop and head outside!  That was the first reason I ever got one.

To see what I have been up to be sure to stop by my photography blog.

ETA: This post was inspired by @ErinBlaskie and her Tweet this morning.

I feel like blogging about our family and fun is so wrong at a time like this.  There are so many people in Haiti that would be happy with some clothes and food and here I am trying to think about what to write.  Trying to keep on going like nothing is going on in the world.  That is what I usually do, I keep on going.  I can do my small part by donating money and supporting charities.  But, it doesn’t help the helplessness that I feel.

Far away from our land of ice and snow there are children without parents.  Babies without their Moms and Moms without their babies. If I could bring them into my home, make them some soup and clothe them put them to bed and tell them all will be OK tomorrow, I would.  But, I can’t and it won’t all be OK tomorrow.  It will be a long time before these peoples lives are even remotely normal again.

So here we go on with our daily adventures and I hope in these adventures, I can use some of these fun times to remind J and Apple that we are truly Blessed. We have a warm house, food, clothing and quite frankly, more toys than most children should ever have.  And even more important is that we are safe here in our warm homes.

So as you look at these photos of us at the Canal on Saturday taking the kids for a skate and a Beavertail, know that we truly feel Blessed in all that we have and know that we are trying in our little way to play a part in helping those in Haiti get through this tragedy.

How I really enjoy you.  I have used many of your ideas and done them up in my own special way.  Your recipes have been made in our house year after year, cookies, rolled turkey with todd, cakes…  I even almost applied for a job in your offices just after my husband and I got married.  I chickened out at the thought of going to New York for the interview.

So today, when you (or one of your assistants) Tweeted that you were taking questions live on the air on Sirius Radio, I figured, why not.  I dialed the number and had the question ready that I have wanted to ask you for several years now.  But, your assistant wasn’t sure you would want to or know the answer so she encouraged me to think of another question. The only thing that came to mind was to ask you how to keep my fresh greenery fresh.

You probably thought, who is this Canadian girl asking me about a fresh tree?  Go artificial already!  You were quite sweet though and gave me a few suggestions including using prelit artificial garland that you are selling through Grandin Road and appropriately had on your show today.

But, just in case you drop by my little site, here is the real question I wanted to ask.  Why do you reuse so many of your photos in your magazine?  Sometimes you have a new recipe or at the very least a new spin on an old recipe, but instead of using a new photo you (and I mean your magazine, not you personally) reuse the same photo year after year.  Since I am a photographer it really plays on my heartstrings that a new photo can’t be taken to freshen things up.  That was my real question.  Bear in mind that I have many years worth of Martha Stewart Living gracing my bookshelves that I reference often and I still get inspired by your magazines.

Thank you for the opportunity to call in today, I never thought in a million years that I would get the chance to ever talk to you and certainly it wouldn’t have been about my Christmas tree and garland.  It was fun and truly made my day.

And most of all, I was so happy that these guys didn’t start fighting or screaming while I was talking to you.

Thank you,

BeachMama  from Ottawa, Canada

 And all this H1N1 stuff just fits in with that soliloquy.  Do you or don’t you get the shot.  There are pros and cons to both and for the most part we were waiting.  We have discussed with our Doctor and were going to wait.

Hubby is in Vancouver this week and when we were chatting on the phone last night he asked how J was doing with his fear of H1N1.  I told him it was pretty much the same, he cries when the news comes on, he cried on Monday when I was feeling like I was hit by a truck, basically the boy is living in fear of dying from the flu.  So when Dani sent an email out last night and told some of us that her whole family got the shot yesterday and that it was quite a painless process at Walter Baker Hubby asked me to go.

We are usually on the same page when it comes to parenting and shots and when we aren’t Hubby usually lets me decide.  But, this time he asked. You know when your Husband does one of those rare things and asks you to do something that you are not sure about, it almost solidifies it in your mind.  As much as I am still not 100% on board with this vaccine I now feel like the decision was taken out of my hands.  Hubby works with Emergency and Pandemic preparedness in Ottawa, he worked at the Hospital when SARS happened and all through this he never thought we needed to do anything different or get any shots.  We don’t even get the annual flu shot now that he is no longer at the Hospital.  So when he asked me to take the kids and get our shots today, I was not going to argue.  In his mind, this H1N1  thing is bigger than what we know.  I am not sure if I agree yet, but if he thinks so then who am I to say?

We picked up our bracelets at 9am this morning and were told to come back at 4:15pm.  Will see how the afternoon plays out, but it sure seems like who ever is running things at Walter Baker, knows exactly what they are doing and should possibly be running all of the clinics in the city.

*William Shakespeare.  Hamlet, Act Three Scene One.

I am having one of those days.  One where I just have too much in my mind that I need to get done.  And all of the things require me to sit and work on something.  Whether it be editing photos, a craft, a sewing project or taking more pictures.

I need a few more hours in my day please.

I have also been participating in the 7 Days project on Flickr.  The object is to take a self-portrait each day for 7 days. Here is what I have so far.

So far I have to say that I am not an expert at taking a self-portrait.  Something to work on for me.  It is fun though to think of the one thing I want to capture about me for today.

 Last year, I chose to participate in the CIBC  Run for the Cure.  It was the very least I could do for two of my close friends who were going through treatment for breast cancer.  In two short weeks I was able to raise over $350 in support of finding the cure.

This year, due to my travels and the fact that October 4th is coming faster than I could imagine, I am less prepared than last year.  However, one week from tomorrow morning, I will be running. It was a very emotional run last year, reading all the participants bibs to see who they were running for.  I hope to feel the same emotions next week when I lace on my running shoes and join the other 5,000 or so participants.

Both of my girlfriends are doing well and are now either getting ready or going through their reconstructions.  Both are strong amazing women whom I am proud to call friends.  Their strength this past two years has shown me that we all face different challenges, but we can all get through them.  It is for them that I will run.

Should you find that you too want to do a little something or that you have a little extra pocket money you can donate (by clicking here, I am registered as BeachMama {first name} Anna {last name} in Ottawa-Gatineau).  Or if you live in Ottawa and are already running, let me know I would be happy to run beside you and offer up support for those who can’t.

Thank you.  I hope that by running today, we won’t have to when Apple is my age.

Thank you to everyone interested in Meeka.  She has found a new home and hopefully will be very happy with her new owners.

For those of you still interested in a puppy (since Nina had such a wonderful response to Meeka) from a rescue resource, Nina has given me a list of places that she found while researching finding a home for Meeka.  Apparently there are many puppies out there that need to be rescued.  B.A.R.K, N.A.R.C., Tiny Paws Rescue, Canine Rescue Team

Thanks again everyone.

Yesterday Premier McGuinty announced his plans for All Day Kindergarten and today Dani wrote an excellent post in support and praise of it.  I think Dani brought up some really wonderful points about why sending children to Kindergarten all day as opposed to half day is a good thing.  I, however, want to play the other side of the field.

When the Premier first started talking about this last year, I was not in favour of it and hoped that it would not come to fruition.  I am one who feels that our children already spend way too many years in school and that these early formative years would be better spent at home with their family.

I should also remind my readers that I am a Stay at Home Mom, by choice and by sacrifice.  Hubby and I decided before J was even born that we were going to try to do it.  It would not have mattered which one of us stayed home, but since Hubby made more money than I did and really loves what he does, it was decided that I would stay at home.  In the last six years that I have not been out in the field working I have had to bring work in on occasion to make ends meet and would do it again if the need should arise.  My current venture into Photography, is one of passion and desire and at this point does not pay the bills, but hopefully one day will.

From listening to Premier McGuinty on television it was pretty clear to me that his intentions for all day Kindergarten is to supplement childcare.  Having the schools offer before and after care means that the children could be at school as early as 7:30 in the morning and as late as 6:00pm, that is a long time to be in one place.   I understand that there is a need for childcare, but do we really want the Government running daycare?  Do we really want to give them that much say in how our children are being raised?

I guess I just don’t feel that a four year old, who possibly still needs a nap, should be at school all day long.  I see the teachers twice a day, five days a week.  I know that they will not be thrilled to have the same four and five year olds in their class all day long.  It is very difficult to teach 20 four year olds for half a day, let alone a whole one.  And with more children in classes that need extra attention, I can certainly see some of the teachers changing to higher grades.

I am putting my thoughts out there and would love to hear what you think about it, whether you strongly agree or disagree.  Each Province is different for Kindergarten so it would be interesting to see what others think who either already have their children in all day Kindergarten or if you live in Quebec or Saskatchewan where there is still only 5yr old Kindergarten, how did or does that work for your child?  For those of you in Manitoba or Northern Ontario where school is a full day for two or three days per week, did you enjoy this for your children?

I would love to hear from all of you on this as it is a subject dear to my heart.  I cannot believe that my little girl will have to leave me for an entire day in just over two years, it just doesn’t seem right.

Some of you may remember way back when Apple was a teeny tiny baby and I had an incident with Officer Olaf.

Well two weeks ago, after making more than their share of cash, they upped the speed limit to 80 km/h.  Absolutely nothing else has changed on that stretch of road since October of 2007.

I think the City should offer us a refund.  I mean I still slow down to 60 km/h out of habit as do most people, but thankfully they finally saw that there was no reason to keep it so low for one little stretch in between much longer stretches of 80 km/h.  And most important of all, the officers can now spend time concentrating on what we really need them for instead of sitting in a speed trap for a .25km stretch of roadway.

Thank You!