Dana over at Life Turned Upside Down has been dying to learn more about me and so she sent me these 5 questions to answer. Okay, maybe that isn't quite how it happened, but I'll continue living in my fantasy land for now.

1. What is your favorite part of living in Canada? **hands down it would have to be the health care. I love knowing that if in the middle of the night my kids are sick and I need to take them to the ER that i won't have to pay. That no money changes hands when I take my kids to the doctor. That when two of my kids had NICU stays there wasn't a bill waiting for me at the end to put me forever in debt.

2. If you could have any animal as a pet, what would it be and why? **Ever since i saw the movie "Project X" with Matthew Broderick, I've thought it would be cool to have a pet chimpanzee. They just seem highly intelligent (and cute lol).

3. You have just been named one of the 10 finalists in the Miss Canada Pageant. What is your platform for the coming year should you be crowned Miss Canada? **LMAO i think all the other Canadians vying for Miss Canada would be pissed that an American was wearing their crown. That being said, my platform would be childhood cancer research. There are just too many children in this world having to fight such a battle at such a young age.

4. What celebrity would you most like to enter the ring with for 3 rounds (only 3 because we know you will totally kick their butt in that time)? **I'm going to go with the first one that popped into my head, and say Britney Spears. Someone needs to take that girl aside and knock some sense into her. She has two young boys that need their mama to stop partying, drinking and showing her panty-less self to people. Seriously the girl boggles my mind with her behaviour.

5. God has sent you a secret message that your next meal will be your last but you can’t hint that to ANYONE. What are you going to eat and how will you explain your going off your diet to your husband? **Dude, if my next meal is going to be my last, I'm not going to eat for awhile LOL. Once I did finally get around to eating though I'd probably have a bacon cheeseburger with lettuce and tomato, baked potato, Caesar salad and a huge brownie sundae for desert. And as for my diet, I'd just pass it off as Aunt Flo was visiting, I'm always more likely to eat crappy when she's around and hubby knows it.

So there you have it, aren't you glad you asked?? Now its your turn.

Interview rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the
questions.
3. You will update your blog with a post containing your the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Trattoria Breve has requested a look into our medicine cabinets. Since I'm the kind of girl that loves to peek in other's lives, I figure its only fair if I let you peek into mine too.

Now when i was a teenager my medicine cabinet consisted of either the top of my dresser or one of the many shelves in my room. When i moved out at the age of 20 and moved into my soon to be hubby's first house he did not have a medicine cabinet in the bathroom. All my girly products had to find homes either in a drawer, a cabinet or the top of the bathroom sink counter. This scenario followed me through to our first condo together, then our apartment and finally our second house. It was at this house that I had finally decided that Canada must have a problem with medicine cabinets, since i had never seen one in any of our houses or any of our friends and family. On a trip to Home Depot however I finally found some, and promptly purchased two, much to my husbands chargin. I couldn't wait for him to get them installed so i could arrange all of our stuff in them. I was like a kid in a candy store...totally giddy with excitement. A year and a half later we moved out of that house and into our current house, again a house without a medicine cabinet. We were able to take one of the medicine cabinets from our former home with us, but as we were moving into a three bathroom home, i NEEDED two more. So i quickly went out to Home Depot and got me a few more lol.

So without further adeiu here are my medicine cabinets. First the cabinet in our half bath downstiars. This one is mostly full of kids medicines so i don't need to run all the way upstiars for drugs when one of the kiddos is sick.
Next we have the medicine cabinet from the kids bathroom upstairs. Again mostly full of medicine lol. I have four kids...they tend to get sick often, espeically in the winter. We like to be prepared.
Which brings me to the medicine cabinet in our master bath. Between my husband and I we have a lot of stuff. Meds and things that don't get used too often mostly are kept in here. All of my daily used stuff get shoved in a drawer, while the rest of my stuff is kept in a cabinet below the drawer. Yes even with three medicine cabinets i still don't have neough room for all my stuff.


Now its your turn. Show me whats in your medicine cabinet, and no cleaning it first!!

One of my most favorite times of the day is when we put the kids to bed at night. Peter gets a bit of one on one time with the girls, while i get to put my boy to bed. After he brushes his teeth and get his little glass of water, he climbs up into his bed with me and we read a few stories. After stories, we shut the blinds and he climbs into my arms and we hug and then he lays back and i rock him in my arms. While i rock him i sing, Rock a bye Lucas and at the end of i give him a hug and toss him down onto his bed. He rests his head on his pillow and i tuck him in. We then cuddle and play games. I pretend to fall asleep on hi pillow and he honks my nose to wake me up. Then we have one final kiss and i leave his room wishing him a good night.

Last night after reading him his stories he took the book back to his sister's room. He took a bit to come back, so i laid my head on his pillow and pretended to go to sleep. When he came in he climbed up on his bed and honked my nose, thus "waking" me up. I jumped up and he laid down across the full length of his pillow, tummy down. I laid my head on his bum and started to pretend that i was falling asleep. It was then that i felt the worse feeling ever. My lovable, hugable, cute son let one rip right into my ear!! I jumped up off his bed, and what do you think his reaction was at his mommy's horror?? Peals of laughter!! Pretty much the same reaction my husband had when i relayed the story to him. Like father like son.

So I've seen this floating around the blogosphere a lot lately. The first place i saw it was over at Her Bad Mother's and just today at mothergoosemouse. So I thought I'd dump out the contents of my purse and see what i had lurking at the bottom.

I like purses, but I'm the type of person that finds a purse and then uses that purse until it literally falls apart or all the crap i want to store in it no longer fits. I currently have three purses that i rotate between, two of which were made for me by the super talented Pink Trees. The one i use currently I'm madly in love with. I love the colors, i love the fact that i can put pictures right in the front, i love how it hangs on my arm, i love all the storage inside. I want to make sweet love to this bag and have little bag babies with it...seriously this is a super sweet bag LOL.

So here's what's in my purse from the left going clockwise (mostly anyhow).

1. A note from the hubby that says "My sweetest hunny bunches, love always Peter xoxoxoxoxo" He hid it in my purse one day and its stayed there every since. Its been in my purse so long its actually in two pieces now.

2. a ream of Imodium, cause you never know when you'll need to bind yourself up. We once had to hit every exit on the NY turnpike, i never leave home without it anymore

3. container of Tylenol, comes in handy for headaches when I'm out, or if I'm too lazy during the day to go upstairs and get Tylenol

4. zippered pouch with tampons for when aunt blood makes an unannounced visit

5. my wallet. The thing is a brick and I've had it for YEARS. It hold everything and i adore it. I pray that it never dies because I've never been able to find another one like it.

6. ear buds for use when I'm at soccer practice

7. a postcard i got in the mail back in APRIL, from a scrap booking store i used to frequent asking me "where in the world have i been" inviting me back in to use the card for a discount on my next purchase.

8. Ice Breakers Sours when you need a fresh mouth

9. Three Smackers Ice Creamies lip glossies: Cookie dough, Strawberry scoop and Vanilla dream

10. Keys to the minivan with my weight watchers key chains on it

11. Keys to the little car, Peter's commuter car and the car we use when we go out sans kids or with just one or two kids

12. My 30 GB Ipod that i got for my 30Th bday in July. I plug it in as soon as i get in the car and i rock out. Put the ear buds in it during soccer practice to pass the time

13. My killer Winnie the pooh key chain with my savings club card tags and house/mail/parent's house keys on it. I used to hold this key chain when i walked at night to wield as a weapon if someone tried to attack me. The thing is super heavy.

14. My stash of butterscotch candies and Kelsey's mints. These reside in that zippered pouch with the tampons (to keep the fresh lol)

15. Finally my phone, never leave home without it and its always in my purse (unless i forget it on the seat on the car which i do often).

So there you have it. Nothing really bizarre in there, especially considering I'm a mom to four kiddos. Now its your turn, what's in your bag?

So i told you how Daynah's scooter got stolen. But I left a bit of the after story out.

What i left out is that when i picked her up we drove around the neighborhood to see if we could find it, either left on the side of the road or someone riding it. Well i turn down this one street and the first thing i see is a kid, probably no more then 5 yrs old on a scooter. I stopped the car and rolled down the window shouting "HEY STOP". I throw the car in stop, get out and tell the kid to stop where he is. The kid seeing this crazy looking loud woman coming at him continues on his merry way. I yell again at him to "STOP right there" and he does. I asked him if it was his scooter and with a guilty face he said "no". I asked him if he had found the scooter in a yard and taken it and he said "yes". I told him that it was my daughter's scooter and that he has her in tears for taking something that was not his. I told him to get off it and called him a horrible child for stealing from another kid and that he should go home and tell his mom what he did. I picked up the scooter and brought it over to the van, at which point Daynah informs me its NOT hers. OMG!! Her's has a red fish sticker on it, and well this one obviously did not. By this point the poor boy has run across the street to his house to tell on the crazy white lady that had not only royally chewed him out but stolen his scooter. So i dropped the scooter back on the sidewalk from where i took it from him and hopped back in the car and drove off.

Yes thats right i tried to steal a scooter from an innocent child...not one of my more stellar moments.

Today i had to explain to Daynah that there are people in this world who do mean things to others for no reason at all. She was spending the afternoon at her best friend's house and we had brought her scooter over so she could ride it while they played outside. After playing outside for a bit they left their scooters and what not on the front lawn by the porch and went inside to play. During that time, someone came up to their house and made off with my daughter's scooter. Daynah was devastated. When I picked her up this evening she was crying and was just so utterly upset and crushed. It literally broke my heart to see her that way. What kind of person boldly walks up to someone's house and then makes off with another kid's belongings? We drove around the neighborhood hoping to see it lying on the side of the road, or to see someone riding it without any luck. She cried the whole way home. She cried once we were home. She sat on the couch, head in her hands, face all red and tear stained as i tried to explain to her that it wasn't her fault, that someone did a very bad thing. She asked why someone would take someone else's scooter, if it was because they didn't have one themselves or because they couldn't afford one themselves...and i said those could be reasons someone could use to justify stealing, but no matter the reason it was wrong to take something from someone that didn't belong to you. My darling husband stopped on his way home at Zellers and purchased her a new Razor scooter. We honestly didn't have the money to afford a new one right now, but luckily my husband remembered that at this store you can redeem your points for gift cards. We had over 600,000 pts, which turned out to be $80 in gift cards. New razor scooter purchased, and a smile finally put back on my broken hearted girls face.

Thursday Thirteen....

13 differences between living in the states and living in Canada

1. The way milk comes. In the states you purchase milk in plastic gallon jugs, or smaller cartons. Here in Canada the most popular way milk comes is in three 1 litre plastic bags. You can also find gallon jugs, but only in convenience stores.



2. Singing the ABC's. In the states we sing A B C D.......W X Y and Zee. Up here in Canada they sing A B C D.......W X Y and Zed. What the hell is a zed??

3. Everyone knows that an Oreo cookie is made by Nabisco. Not here up in Canada, we can say thanks to Mr. Christie for our Oreo cookies.


4. They add the letter u into words where its not needed. For example color is colour, neighbor is neighbour and check is cheque!! My husband (the Canadian) just says us Americans are lazy and leave it out.

5. Imperial system vs. the metric system. I have to convert the temperature each day from Celsius to Fahrenheit so i know how cold or warm it is. I gave up figuring out the rest though (Km-miles, litres-gallons, cm=inches, kg-lbs)

6. If you are a big fan of the game Monopoly, then Canada is your place to be!! Every denomination of money is a different color. Fives are blue, Tens are purple, Twenties are green, Fifties are red and One Hundreds are Tan. And you know the saying "fistful of dollars" well in canada its really true as our $1 and $2 are coins, aptly called the loonie and toonie. Sure the colors make it easier to distinguish one bill from the next...buts whats' wrong with just having some cool hard green

7. The government here is totally different. I've still yet totally figure out and understand it, and i've lived here 9 yrs. It seems they can call an election almost all the time (well not really but sometimes it seems that way). You don't vote for who you want to be the head of the country, rather you vote for that party. Whichever party holds the most seats at the end of the election, their leader becomes Prime Minister. I like just being able to cast my vote for the actual head honcho like we do in the states (although i abhor the electoral college). And i like knowing that there are set terms for figure heads in the states, it doesn't seem that way here.

8. Foods that are in the states, you can't find them here...almost like they can't cross the border or something. Starkist Tuna, can't find it here. Hormel Chili forget about it. And then even in the foods that we do have, we won't get the same variety as south of the border..its just WEIRD. And the states ALWAYS gets new things before us it seems. I still have to go grocery shopping in the states a few times a year to get my favorites.

9. Coffee....Starbucks is all powerful in the states. Here the lineups take place at Tim Hortons where people order a Large Double Double

10. It's not a winter hat...its a toque. Its' not orange soda but orange pop. It's not the bathroom, its the washroom. For a good portion of the year the national anthem is the theme song to Hockey Night in Canada

11. Holidays...when its a holiday here EVERYTHING shuts down. For example Canada Day is a statutory holiday (our july 4th), don't think you'll go out and hit the sales because the stores are closed.

12. Two official languages up here...so everything has french on it. Products one half is in english the other side in french. Roadsigns are also in french. And politicians...ya you bet they give their speeches in french too.

13. Healthcare plain and simple it rocks up here...which is just like a huge weight off my mind when it comes to like rushing your kid to the ER for stitches or sickness.

I'm proud to call both the states and Canada my home...and proud to be a citizen of each (although i'd gladly give up the canaidan winters LMAO)