Block Building 101

Soooo what did you do this week... WELL i went to a week long block building class and i'm a convert(be thankful i didn't say a convert to Scientology)! I don't even really know how to start explaining the amazing things about blocks, but if you're interested to hear me go off on it give me a shout. All i can say is that it brings out the most amazing things in children!

Anyways, there were 4 Child Life students in this class of 15 and of course since we looooove each other we did our final-grade determining (just kidding) block building project together. We were told we could build ANYTHING within 30 minutes (do you know how hard that is!...such pressure). We chose to create a fantasy hotel resort. Our resort had a grand entrance with elaborate driveway, a semi circle hotel with a view onto the pool which has a water slide and swim up "snack bar"(read pool bar). There are colourful towels and floating raft to relax on, oh and of course the cabana with cabana boys to wait on us...this is a resort aimed at da ladies...but we do need some handsome single boy guests to keep us company too ;) ahhh girls can dream. During these chilly winter days enjoy and drift into our fantasy resort... the more the merrier.

CAN I REALLY!? hehe

"you could WIN A TRIP TO NEW YORK CITY"
Always nice receiving mail directed at those NOT living in the city...and yes if i ever won i would use it on those who are DYING to come to the city again!! (cough Jodi)

3 more down!

I started up calling the title of this blog 12 down with 6 to go, but i found it kinda depressing because i still have soooooo many left!!

BUT because i'm always an optimist i called it 3 more down...yes i'm referring to the turkey legs STILL!

Just call me Martha because this took me FOREVER to do, but isn't the crust so goldeny!!!

Next on the list of things to make...turkey soup, for now i'm loving the turkey pot pie, so far it's been 3 solid meals and i'm not bored yet! Anyone wanna come for dinner?!

Home is where you lay your head...the debate

During my visit in Toronto i had a friend kinda get upset after i made the comment, i can't wait to go home to new york. She asked how could i call NYC home when i had only been there for 4 months. It made me think, at what point do we start calling another place our home? Is it as basic as the place we rest our head, a place to call our own for a certain period of time, or is there a bond that forms between city and person.

I'm still thinking, but i'd love to hear thoughts

nothin' like a little texas fun!

Some of you may know that just about my entire family lives in various parts of the great (vast) state of Texas. We rarely get to see everyone and this year we made a quick and dirty visit. We hit up 3 cities (actually it was 4 when the weather in Amarillo proved too difficult for the plane to land and we landed in a city 2 hours away, to then drive to Amarillo).

Right, so in Austin we celebrated an early Barnett Christmas with 20 of our family members...actually that would be a small part of our rather large family. I think we average around 40 or 50 people when we are all in full force, who knows when this will actually happen (possibly never). Many of my cousins and I haven't seen each other in over 10 years and now they have babies. We Barnett's have growed up good!

Next off to Dallas where one of my mom's brother lives, as well as my grandmother. My memaw (my (me) grandma (ma)...get it?) was taking a wee vacay to Canada and sadly we missed her, but we took advantage of all her pre-made food and cozy house. Since my memaw was out of town and we were in Dallas for Christmas day my mom (update: dad thinks/claims it was his idea) thought it would be funny if we stayed at this over the top hotel called "Gaylord Texan". The Gaylord family is responsible for the Grand ole Oprey and a few other "classy" joints. Well, at the Gaylord Texan they are BIG into decorations! Huge trees, big "interesting" displays of longhorn cows in outfits, and a miniature train village all decked out as a snowy winter in Dallas (although there is generally no snow in Dallas, it was pretty chilly!) Well mom did a great job because evan and i started referring to it as Texas Disney world, or a long lost Vegas hotel because it was quite the site with daytime tourists. We wouldn't be surprised if a ride is put into this hotel in the near future because it's just so ridiculous. Oh and if staying at the Gaylord Texan wasn't enough Christmas dinner was had at the hotel sports bar. A 54 foot flat screen tv, lots oh margaritas (oh wait this was every night here in Texas) and my favorite was mom having a chilly cheese dog. Meeeerrrry Christmas!

As i said already we initially planned to arrive in Amarillo by plane, but in classic Amarillo form wind, ice fog and general nasty weather forced our plane to land in Lubbock. Lubbock is clearly an important airport and I know why. Any plane trying to get to Amarillo lands there as it is only a short Texas drive away. Although is has a measly 4 gates and one baggage claim it does have a well stocked Starbucks (NO dunkin donuts), which means it gets enough customers willing to pay inflated coffee prices in that airport they want to keep happy (Amarillo has one Starbucks for the entire city). I was only too happy to get off that plane and drive to Amarillo to get our luggage at 11:30pm that night via greyhound bus, don't ask, it's just too ridiculous.

Amarillo has raised many Barnett's and a few Chisholm's (my mom's side). Therefore there are lots of memories and stories from locations all over this city.
See that house, that's where i grew up, oh and that house is where my friend ___ grew up. Oh and there's my high school, Oh and there's the place where Mimi ran over the cat, and there's where Jim had his store and granddad's practice.......
It goes on and on and on and for the amount of times I've driven around this town/city it is still a mess of roads and memories, much too confusing to follow. It is guaranteed that while in Amarillo there will always be lots of laughing. It never disappoints!

As my Texas tornado of a visit wraps up i think about the the slogan for Texas, "Everything is bigger in Texas" and it couldn't be more true. Bigger to go cups, bigger servings, bigger hair, bigger cars (SVU's!) and sadly bigger people. I'm going to add a few more to this...bigger smiles (straighter thanks to my granddad and uncle), bigger hugs, and bigger love. The people I've met in Texas and the family i have here has shown me what passion and love really is. If only there was a way to spread this type of love...we will call it Barnett love.
Well during the holiday season and the approach of the new year i send you all lots of Barnett love because we Barnett's love bigger since we are from Texas.

xo

Hula Queen

There is a book that I read to E. called Ella sets the Stage (my birthday prezzie to her and now the most over read book in her bookshelf, this is beside the point). The premise of the story is a talent show. Ella doesn't think she has a talent like all her friends who can sing, dance, perform great puppet shows etc. What ends up happening is that her talent turns out to be helping people with a bunch of random things. I have to admit I identify with Ella with her lack of talent...until Friday night... i may have found my only talent.
HULA HOOPING!!
Yes i found my talent AND also managed to help out some of my friends. At this restaurant we went to the other night (Tortilla Flats) they have a hula hooping contest. Anyone who can hoop for 2 minutes straight (on the restaurants doubled up hoop) gets a round of tequila shots for all their friends. While watching all these girls (one boy) try and fail i was feeling like i'd be another fool to attempt, but with a few drinks under my belt i was fearless (that is what tequila likes to do). I started gyrating my hips, bumped a table while starting, recovered and i was on a roll...all i have to say is 8 people were mighty happy with my talent. A few people at the bar were so proud they bought a few more rounds.

My friend recorded the whole thing and if i'm talented enough i'll try to post the video...but I think we know my talent doesn't lie in computers, but in colourful plastic hoops.

tongue twisters

So i realized that some of you may actually be entertained by my adventures with E. and N. (the kids i nanny for) and i thought i'd give you a funny/ bizarre E. story. It's been a while and they are pretty much the other half of my life these days.

So E. hasn't been sleeping much. She's supposed to be a light sleeper and the baby will still wake up in the night crying ie: no sleep for the whole family. Today during one of her many melt downs when she was trying to tell me something and i couldn't understand through tears, she starts with her jibberish which sometimes combines a hebrew song (I've since learnt this from her mom) and today it was
"MAH MAH MAH Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers MAH MAH MAH"...riiiight, okay. So my response was,
"HEY ELLIE....mellow out....She sells seashells by the seashore"...she stares at me, laughs and tries to copy it, but opts for peter again.
I'd like to remind you all that she turned 2 a week and half ago.

The End

Is this really necessary!

So this is the building i live across from...it's gorgeous but someone thought it would be great to mess up my view by postering their window in not white or black bristol board, but FLORESCENT GREEN!!
I have had guesses that maybe the person has a festive picture on the other side you know a Christmas tree their little kids have made, but how do you explain the duct tape then? Bright blue zig zagging across where their pretty tree would be...i don't know, but the amount of rules that exist at the apartment at home in Toronto would mean this would be vetoed so fast their head would spin..
Oh and at night while thankfully the florescent window is muted there is a Christmas tree recently erected which has coloured lights (not my choice) and then has flashing green lights...that's great, good for you your tree is bright and colourful, but it's so bright and colourful i can see it out of the corner of my eye when i'm sitting on my couch.
Wow...rereading this i realize i sound a bit cynical (bah humbug?)
On a lighter note my white lights are up as is my Christmas wreath..oh and the Christmas carols are aplayin'

SEX and the CITY

Sunday morning i did what all smart new york women do...got on a tour bus with her girlfriends and got driven around our own city seeing the spots where one of my favorite shows was filmed, Sex and the City.
For 3.5 hours i heard a great comedy routine by our guide Lisa, saw the sites filmed in the lower east and west side of town, had a cupcake and drank a cosmo at "Scout" aka o'neils.
It was absof@ckinlutely the best 3.5 hours spent with da ladies and the 5th lady of the show...New Y0rk.
A photo of us on Carrie's stoop is to come...just wanted you all to see what i've been wasting my precious essay writing time on and it's worth it!

Cannot contain myself any longer!

So i did something that some of you may find surprising...i bought concert tickets to...
The Spice Girls!

They were big when i was in early high school and I had a closeted love for them, but now that i am grown up (debatable) i can admit my obsession. Anyhoo today i made a major indulgence, or at least a major indulgence for someone who is working off a small budget, i bought tickets to the Madison Square Gardens concert. Side note: yes, a month ago i bought the same tickets at a venue outside of the city(which are now for sale), but comeon it's Mad.2 gardens <--am i cool or what ?! haha
I'm over the moon because my friend Lauren and i will be Spicing up our life on Feb.18...be prepared to get a post concert write up...i've only hearing AMAZING reviews, could they actually be back?!

Spice Foreva
xo
Shannie Spice

http://www.thespicegirls.com/

Elf Yourself!

This is soooo not New York, probably tacky NY, but this is me and you're all here to read about me these days, so feel free to bypass this posting, or check out what i've been wasting my time on!

It all began as a gift from my fabulous friend Kimmy...the following people are elfed...Shannon, Carmen, Linz and Kim
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9595729881

Evan elfed courtesy of ME
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1162073835

Some of my Child Life ladies...i'm so sad we couldn't all elf together
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1162773558

Guess who's in the holiday spirit!

23 days until xmas

Do you ever wonder where new yorkers get their Christmas trees...well i just learned. Straight off their street corners. exhibit A. make shift shed, sidewalk lined with trees, machine to wrap them up with plastic mesh.


The next question i had was how do they get them home. Well today i saw a few people strapping them to their cars, but I have seen people push/pull them home in those fold up carts. Cabs don't generally let people put anything that large or sap covered on or inside. I'll be sure to let you know if i see any especially creative ie: top of baby stroller with baby inside, or pulled by a dog...who knows this is new york nothing surprises me any more!

Early happy holidays to all, i'm feeling festive

So it's been a very busy week playing host, site seeing and eating eating eating. Oh and if you all didn't remember, i'm now down to 9 turkey legs, yeah for brothers who eat lots oh meat!

Anyhoo, i'm not about to attempt at informing you of the past few days and the great times i've had with my visitors, but here are a few thoughts.

1) Who remembers "Parenthood" with Steve Martin, 1989 movie, yes you all remember it...you're sliding into first when you feel a sudden burst, ____. This is probably one of my favorite movies, so funny, so real, sooooo bad and not to mention some classic actors. Now who remembers Martha Plimpton...yes who is she...she played the daughter who dates Keanu Reeves, shaves her head in the classic undercut, oh and her mom is the one with the vibe. Well i've had my most recent celebrity sighting, if you can call her a celebrity. It was one of these i looked at her, looked away because man, she isn't aging well and then was like, saweet, just saw Julie Buckman. Sorry, so not exciting, but still what do you think it means, i'm a huge celebrislut and this is who i see...yeah, i hope it's not a reflection of me.


2)Northface-the city is finally getting cold and now people are pulling out their heavy duty jackets. I'm the type of person who really doesn't like joining trends, but every so often it makes sense (ie: northface long down jackets which will undoubtedly keep my constant freezing a$$ warm all the time). I may be retiring my northface jacket it's too much to bare. Evan pointed it out to me the other night...did i notice how much northface gear was worn in the city? Maybe it's one of these things that since it was pointed out and it's one of these things that really bug me i've now started to notice it everywhere. Ie: you buy a new car, dog, pair of shoes and then bam, you realize so many people have the EXACT same item as you. Anyways, New York is a HUGE advertisement for Northface winter gear of all kinds, hats, vests, jackets, fleece...the items are everywhere!!! I may need to buy Patagonia. Ps: has anyone (minus those from Denison or C.L.C) ever heard of Patagucci?

3) The day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year. It is also the first day people start playing christmas carols and also pull out their xmas trees. I have to admit i love the holidays (please refer to my halloween posting asking what point is too early to decorate, oh and once for halloween i dressed up as xmas...i looove the holidays). Righteo, i have yet to hang lights or put up a tree, but my wreath will be hung December 1st and i will be playing Mariah Carey's holiday album while i do it. Back to the point while surrounding myself this weekend with the shopping mayhem and waiting patiently for subway cars i let my mind relax, in the background of all the chaos and over heated stores i heard Christmas carols and inside i had a little smile. Maybe i'm being sentimental, nostalgic or overly in the spirit, but i feel like spreading the holiday cheer a bit early.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

So many of you may have heard of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It's a big freakin' deal here as it has HUGE balloons, floats, broadway show performances, marching bands (name it, it's probably there). If you've watched the movie Miracle on 34th St. you know of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Right, so it takes place on Thanksgiving and wraps up just in time for a big family feast.
The night before the parade all the balloons are blown up and put on display for people to see. As we weren't about to go and watch the parade (it's a bit insane) we went to see the balloons. It may have been comparably crazy because after walking one direction due to crowds, and then the cops say go another direction(due to crowds), and treking through the park (due to crowds)and then crossing the street with cops saying don't do it (due to traffic/crowds) we finally cut a line and saw the balloons with hundreds and hundreds of people. Not really sure how else to describe it other than, HUGE...absolutely massive, the balloons and crowds. I wouldn't be surprised if the people who walk with the balloons have to be a certain weight to ensure they don't blow away...big A$$ balloons! Oh and did i mention the crowds!
Here are some of the 20 balloons we saw

Shrek (first appearance)...he weighs 600 lbs!


Ronald McDonald (Creepy huh!)

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Ah Thanksgiving the holiday to gorge yourself on delicious things like mashed potatoes, pie and turkey legs...yup 3 are cooked and enjoyed. There were no surprises like Evan saying he's a vegetarian this month, more like he's a carnivore and wants me to send him home with more cooked turkey (we are researching the possibility of taking meat on the plane...i just may be down a few more legs after his departure!). I hope you all enjoyed your turkey day, or veggie day as my friend Erin likes to call it.
I just wanted to let you know how thankful i am having you as family, friends and readers. Take care and i look forward to seeing you all soon. XO

Fall

So my friend E and I were walking yesterday in the park when we came to a pond that had at least 10 people standing on the other side taking pictures. We assumed there was something/someone doing something amazing. Movie stars and strange animals/animal behaviors have this effect on people, turns out nature does it to (i'm glad). Isn't fall beautiful!

6 down 12 to go

So last night was the Child Life thanksgiving dinner. It was amazing! Everyone brought delicious food, we had some beverages (some of us a bit too much...seriously i wasn't that funny E.) and we had a grand time laughing and chatting.


As you know i made some turkey, 6 of the 18 i purchased the other day(you may have noticed the total number decreased...i finally got up the guts to count my total, still a lot, but that's one less week of turkey to eat! I'm an optimist, can't you tell) . Right. So I had no idea how much would feed us so i figured make 6 (since it would go bad in my fridge anyways, remember no room in the freezer these days) and i'd have leftovers. Well it turns out that 7 meat eaters only managed to consume 3.5 of the turkey legs cooked, YEAH! What the heck is wrong with my friends, damn women!

Anyhoo now i've got 12 frozen drumsticks in the freezer and 2.5 shredded turkey legs in my fridge. I will of course document everything i do with these 12 remaining legs, how else do you think i spend my time...not writing papers, that's for sure!

I'm either a turkey, or will become a turkey after this

I don't even know where to begin because i'm clearly a huge idiot, and i'm sharing this because i'm either a bigger idiot for opening myself up like this or i think everyone could get a good laugh and learn a lesson read read READ!

Part One:
I guess i should start at the beginning. Child Life "club" has Thursday night dinners each week and we decided that since we all go our separate ways for Thanksgiving we should have our "family" dinner a week early. I volunteered my apartment and therefore took the main course (turkey). I had decided to make everyone two turkey drumsticks each (9x2=18) because i'm at work all day and drumsticks don't take too long to cook=good plan.

I get most of my groceries at the store down the street, but there are some things i just can't swallow when it comes to shopping there, one being the price (Store a) and the lack of option/variety (Store b). Freshdirect is the best thing for those of us who live next to a bad grocery store and a very expensive grocery store, have no muscles to carry mass amounts of food home and are attracted to the idea of online shopping for food and having it delivered by sometimes cute boys (seriously not the biggest selling point for me because i do love going to the store, but it's all for fun right!).

Part Two:
So this morning at 7:30am my freshdirect order arrived (i planned for this early arrival...perfect for work). The guy came out of the elevator with 5 boxes (huh, didn't think i ordered that much, oh well they are safe packers and i have veggies and eggs, maybe? (sound of apprehension))
He gives me a look, i think it's "WOW this girl looks really tired or she's pretty cute in her pj's or wish i was still sleeping too (probably this one)"

He leaves, i crack into box one and right away i realize i have screwed up big time. I step away and realize he was NOT thinking i was cute he was thinking "WOW, what is this girl going to do with all of this meat". Some of you may have seen this coming once i said 19 TURKEY drumsticks, but here i am thinking while placing the order 19 a bit bigger than chicken, turkey drumsticks. Pictures are the only way to describe the situation i'm in....













YEAH i know, what the hell am i going to do (ps: there are 6 more drumsticks defrosting in the fridge...because i ran out of room!)



Sooooo as i'm cursing myself while i unpack my food, thinking where am i going to store all this meat, i start thinking who can i pawn all this meat onto. Thinking it could be thanksgiving leftovers, that they cook themselves!? Thinking what food banks would take frozen meat like this and then i think, HOW AM I GOING TO COOK THIS!!! MY OVEN IS TINY!!

After rearranging the freezer and fridge i go back to bed to laugh and cry at myself, what am i going to do...start thinking of recipes because i'll be eating turkey for the rest of my life, or at least on average the next 15 weeks (1 drumstick per week, yeah that's about right!)

After mellowing out i started to think, how did i not realize i was getting 32.42 lb of meat! How did i miss this? The cost was only $30 so that wasn't a give away and really this comes down to reading or my lack there of...right on my order form it did say 32.42 lb. I will blame this on how busy i am, too busy to read the small print, but realistically i deserve to turn into a turkey for this.


Things i've learned:
Who knew $30 worth of turkey drumsticks was so much food
How many poor turkeys sacrificed their lives for my stupidity (9)
Some local farmer/freshdirect is benefiting from my stupidity
WOW New York has big turkeys


All i can say is thank goddess all this meat came with my bag of clementines, they fix everything!

Playing with Kids in the Big Apple

So there is always this buzz about the pros and cons about raising a kid in NYC. The biggest problem is where do they play as houses/apartment are very small and where do they play when it's cold, wet or too hot outside for the playgrounds. Which leads me to Appleseeds, an indoor play area for kids. The theory is amazing, places to play, classes and they really do their best to keep it clean. Really they do because i do work for a very germaphobic person (there isn't anything wrong with this within reason) and she wouldn't be okay with her E and N playing in germies.
So today E and i went to appleseeds as it's getting chilly and dark at 4:30 and the scene was insane. They claim there is 2500 square feet of playground space, but i doubt that...feels like 1000 at most and today 600 (really i don't even know square footage, but i try)! Anyhoo today in this 600 square footage there were probably 50 +kids and their caregivers...very tight. I constantly felt like i was about to walk on a child or bumping into a person. Lots of slobber, stinky diapers and screaming. Someone remind me why i've decided to devote my future to working with kids. yeah
check it out for some pictures of this place...oh and did i mention it's not free (of course not!)
http://www.appleseedsnyc.com/gallery.html

clementines!

I'm betraying my new york fruit, but certain things really make me feel in the spirit and that would be clementines. After a major melt down from E. the other day i thought i deserved a treat, clementines. They are perfect! If a time machine exists, it's in a delicious piece of fruit. In one segment I was instantly teleported to xmas. mmmm. Happiness in a tiny bite