Life

In 2010 I started a blog. I was in the first year of homeschooling Roo and it seemed to be the thing that many moms in the homeschooling community did to keep themselves accountable. It worked for the most part. It was great for a beginner like me to have Continue Reading →

Photo courtesy of Michael Hurcomb

My husband always referred to himself as a musician. Any job he worked he considered secondary. A means to allow him to continue playing music. He is an extremely hardworking guy with a huge passion.

When we first met and were married he worked for his family business as a goldsmith. He worked in the shop daily with his mom and dad for as long as he could remember. It was his fail safe, his security that he had to fall back on. No one thought about the bad that could happen that would mess up this fail safe.

His dad got unexpectedly sick and died shortly after in April 2007. It was a shock and rocked our world both emotionally and financially. His dad who was the one sure thing in his life and in the shop was no longer there. Neither Tom or his mom wanted to continue working there without out him and it was really tough for all while they struggled through the many obstacles and decisions they faced.

During this time Tom had talked with a close friend about music and this friend showed him some songs he wrote. Tom loved them and forwarded them to his friend who was in the industry.

This escalated very quickly and the band Before The Curtain formed with Tom being the bass player. Bass is his instrument. They recorded an album and had a hit on the radio called I Want it All. It looked promising and so him and his mom decided to close the goldsmith shop so he could focus on this music.

We knew it was a gamble but I had to let him pursue his dream. I would expect him to support me and this type of opportunity rarely comes around. He toured with this band in the summer of 2012.

But due to unforeseeable circumstances and the unpredictability of the industry it didn’t propel further than that. During this time he also met a guy who was a fan of the band. This lead to friendships and connections and then to a job working in the tv/movie industry.

In 2013 Tom’s close friend left a band of relative size and popularity unexpectedly and wanted to branch out on his own. He asked Tom to play bass for him in this solo band. Because the closeness off their relationship he said yes, he really wanted to play with him.

This was the development of The Adam Gontier Band in which he was once again a bass player. Being in this band involved leaving the country a lot for shows which led to him being unable to work. This period of time was financially our lowest and we were struggling very, very badly during it.

So badly that we were close to going to the food bank on several occasions and were only saved from this by selling off some instruments. He was still determined to make a go at it though and had faith in this friend so we trucked through the hardships with our fingers crossed.

Fast forward to today. Tom is no longer a part of The Adam Gontier Band. We just couldn’t do it financially. Not with two kids to support. If he was single the story may have played out differently. Maybe not. Being away from his family for extended periods of time was really hard on him emotionally as well.

That tied with the money problems made him pursue the tv/movie job full force. It has been our most stable year to date although he works up to 85 hours a week sometimes. It’s hard for him, and for us but he does his best. He is an extremely hard worker and for that I am so proud and grateful.

Lesson learned from this: Don’t be foolish enough to put your dreams in someone else’s hands, because they will never care about yours as much as they care about their own.

Keep dreaming guys. Sometimes they work out, sometimes they don’t. But you will forever regret it if you don’t try.

This is the asshole window via horrible cellphone photo.

I have a vampire aversions to the sun when I am sleeping and need some help with a problem. I am having what most would consider no big deal but to me it is on the verge of crisis.

Well, maybe not crisis, but I would like to find a solution to this ASAP. I need dark to sleep well. I need the sun to not be able to blind me and light up my room in the morning*. I used to be the person that literally pinned down the sides of my curtains so the sun couldn’t get through any crack.

My room was as dark as a vault and that is what I like. I’m pretty sure my then boyfriend, now husband thought I was weird. But over the years he has adapted and prefers the darkness too. But I haven’t had it dark in here since we moved in here and it is slowly driving me bat shit.

Every other window in the house we were able to hang curtains no problems except my bedroom. My room has a corner window making it angular and I can’t figure out how to hang drapes.

Thank god for the built-in blinds but they really only help battle morning sun and minimally at that since the sun rises on this side. I thought maybe we would hang the Ikea Dignitet wire hanging system with the corner support piece. We would have had  to attach the corner piece to the ceiling because of the way the blinds are.

I was excited by this solution until I realized that the ceiling was cement and the corner guide couldn’t be attached. When we tried to drill into the ceiling we ended up with small chunks of plaster breaking off which is not good in a rental so we stopped. Does anyone have any kind of creative solutions?

I am getting to the point where I want to just staple gun the curtains across the top of the blinds and call it a day. Which would be bad since we would damage the blinds and have to replace them when we moved.

*I can’t use a sleep mask because I find they make me breakout. Damn skin.

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A rare team work photo. 

Last Tuesday I woke up with the beginning of a headache. You know that slight pulsating pain that runs up from your neck and radiates behind your ear that can get bad really fast. I’m positive it is a tension headache and one of the causes is because I am a jaw clincher.

My dentist gave me a mouth guard for sleeping during my late teens/early 20’s and it helped. Then I hit college where I spent an embarrassing amount of time partying and a mouth guard isn’t a priority as you are passing out so it became lost in the shuffle. It was expensive too, sorry mom and dad 🙁

Back to Tuesday though. It was an annoying pain but wasn’t terribly bad. I didn’t have any Tylenol or ibuprofen left so I just tried to up my water and drink caffeine since that sometimes helps me.

By that evening I thought it was going away. Nope. Wednesday morning I got out of bed with a wave of nausea, and a full-blown migraine. I couldn’t even walked standing up straight. So I went into Roo’s room hunched over and told her I had a migraine, was going to throw up, then going back and lay down.

She said “Don’t worry mom. Go back to bed”. So I threw up and went back to bed.*  The thing with my migraines is that they usually make me throw up for a minimum of half a day and this one was a doozy. Every 30 minutes for 12 hours straight which was tons of fun.

Roo was my champ that day and I am so thankful for her. She stepped up to the plate and took great care of Merle. She made them lunch and dinner, gave them snacks, dressed her, brushed her teeth, played with her, and got her ready for bed. They even did the dishes side by side.

There were several questionable things that I noticed when I got up like a bunch of damp towels scattered about. Plastics bags hanging off all the door knobs, and then I later discovered that one of them ate half of my Valentine’s chocolate. The perpetrator is still pending.

*For what it’s worth, our condo is only about 700 sq ft. My bedroom opens right out to the living room and when I lay in bed I can see directly through the living room into the girls bedroom. So although I was in bed most of the day I was no more than a sideways glance away.

I’ve mentioned many times how much I love Etsy. It’s filled with amazing things that make original gifts, perfect pieces for your home. I can get lost on there for hours browsing through pages and pages. My favourites list is growing rapidly and I always refer to it when it is time to by a gift for someone. Every once and awhile I am going to post a few of my favourites things from Etsy. Todays list includes some decorative pieces and epic wineglasses. The links to each piece are provided below the picture. Leave me a comment with your favourites findings from Etsy too, maybe you can help me add to my wishlist!

1. Senet Board Game – from buxaina
I am a history buff. Actually, I am probably more than that. History is one of my favourite things in this world and if time travel ever came to pass I would be first in line. I like to have pieces of history integrated in to my decor and this replica Senet game is from Ancient Egypt and one of the first documented games.

2. Pink Elephant Bookend – by ShopFierce27
Animals and bright colour, some of my favourite things. This book end would add some fun to a white bookshelf or desktop.

3. Sagittarius Pillow – by mybeardedpigeon
Mybeardedpigeon is one of my favourite stores on Etsy. They have amazingly beautiful pillows of which I have bought several. I want this Sagittarius one because both of my girls are born under that zodiac sign. I also want every single one of their map pillows….

4. Antler Rack – by NearAndDeer
This rack would look awesome on my wall to hold purses, hats and jewellery. I really like the gold finish but you can message them if you want alternate colours to what they offer. I might want this one on a nice sunny yellow.

5. Handpainted Wine Glasses – Set of 4 – Golden Girls – by LoveGoodThings
Golden Girls, need I say more. How epically cool would it be do drink your nightly wine out of a Blanche, Rose, Dorothy, or Sophia. These would be treasured that’s for sure.