Beach Dogs in Salinas Grandes

There is no shortage of skinny stray dogs in Nicaragua.  When we arrived at the beach in Salinas Grandes to check on our build the first thing to take our hearts were these gorgeous little puppies!  I  hadn't even seen the beach or our lot yet, you would think I'd be running to look, but no, I got all caught up in puppies!  Who can resist a puppy in paradise especially with a three year old girl's sheer delight at her discovery of them?   

There were two pups with a gentle mama and another female pup about a year old from her litter last fall.  Papa dog was floating around, although, he was not nearly as social as the ladies. Ha-ha!  Sounds familiar.

Finley is absolutely smitten with the puppy.

Fin petting / trying to pick up a pup.

The next day when we returned to the site we were with our friends Sasha and Shamus.  They brought along a big bag of dog food for those puppies and their family.  The dogs wasted no time plowing into the kibble.  I swear when we came back again the following day we could see the puppies had filled out, we could see a few less ribs.  Of course the workmen building the three houses are caring somewhat for the dogs. They do get the odd scrap and we fed  beach dogs some pieces of fish from a delicious dinner put on by our builder. Check the next post for that spread!

We can't wait to get down to Nicaragua and have some beach dogs to love.  It's been a long year here in our house since we lost our dog Cecil last January.  A home is just not complete without a dog to love!

Granada & Las Isletas

We took off from Apoyo Lodge  on a Tuesday morning to head into Granada to explore the city center and to take a boat tour through Las Isletas.   This day will forever be remembered as the day our three year old talked non stop from sun up to sun down.  She was so excited and fascinated by everything we did and saw.  She asked us a bazillion questions piled on top of questions, begged me to make the voice of her doll, different from my own,  and even when she was entertaining herself she was lost in her imagination talking away to her babies and singing little songs.  At certain points in the day we asked her to just please try and be quiet for five minutes so we could gather our own thoughts which would just make her laugh at us ..... have you ever asked a three year old to be quiet?  You have.  So you know how successful that was.... 

Our super enthusiastic Finley Mae

Our walk through the main drag of Granada showed off the colonial architecture which is well maintained for the tourists.  There were lots of little outdoor cafes and a good number of tourists hanging out drinking quart sized bottles of Tona. I haven't seen quarts of beer since I lived in Ottawa and we guzzled quarts at The Lafayette!  What I would give to sit and order one of those beers. Instead I'm the gluten intolerant nerd who has to sip on Flor de Cana.  Not so bad a trade.   Donaldo, our driver/ tour guide told us this street was called Calle de Gringo by the Nicaraguans.  We laughed because looking around it was true!

Granada 

New paint for an old building... cafe in distance.

The Main Square in Granada was so beautiful.

Beside an iron gate or a big heavy wooden door were the family name and or addresses of the home painted on tile.  This one photographed below caught my eye.  I would like to get one for our house whenever we land on it's cleverly chosen name...

Sometimes the big wooden doors leading from the side walks into the residences were open and then we could peek into the courtyards.  The courtyards are filled with tropical plants, fruit trees, big heavy wooden rocking chairs, hammocks and art work.  All the house hold rooms are completely open leading off the center gardens.

Interior of one of the upscale residences in Granada.

Donaldo took us to look at several churches but we stopped and went into this one.  The Guadalupe Church was built in the mid 1600 's was really neat but the main attraction was not to be seen from the ground.

Fin, Big Daddy P and Donlado entering the Guadalupe Church

We paid a small entrance fee and then climbed up and up the scary spiral stairs into the bell tower.

Taaaa Daaaa!  Look at that view.

The view was spectacular! You can see the inner courtyards from here.

Guadalupe Church view from the front bell tower.

Big Daddy P was under the impression Finley could ring the bell...

Fin trying to ring the bell

Then when Big Daddy P and Fin got the bell ringing Donaldo jumped up and asked them to... STOP!  Oops, it was pretty fun and totally worth the photos! 

Steve putting a stop to the bell ringing. 

Donaldo is laughing at us after the bell ringing incident.

I'm posting this day upside down just because that's how I imported the photos ... we actually started our day with the boat ride of Las Isletas. We didn't want to be on the water in the high heat of the day.

We hired a boat and took a water tour of some of the over 300 islands on Lake Nicaragua.  We were told by friends who have been on these tours that we would see an island of monkeys, so we packed some very ripe squishy bananas in my bag to feed the monkeys and that we would see a fortress built to protect Granada from pirates...so cool!  We saw neither of these things on our tour.  We did, however, see lots of birds and some fishermen catching a fish that looked an awful lot like tilapia.

Everyone rows wooden boats to get around ... even small children going to school!

From the water we had a pretty amazing view of Mumbacho volcano ... not so impressive in my photo!

We started our boat ride off with Fin getting stung by a bee, or something, just as the captain had pulled us under a low over hang of trees.   The captain pulled what looked like a seed pod out of the tree.  The seed pod looked like a skinny banana.  While Steve was tending to Fin trying to calm her down and dry her tears the captain of the boat was insisting I take the seed pod and pull the top off.  I was half paying attention to the captain because I was so caught up in my kid crying her head off - he clearly was not reading my social cues to wait until my child was settled. 

I pulled the top off the seed pod and out came the most amazing flower we've ever seen!  It looked like strings of  fiber optics and I laughed in spite of myself.  The captain was beaming.  Finley leaped across the seats to hold the flower and her bee sting was quickly forgotten!  My bad, I do know that when you are on a boat the captain knows best. 

Finley and the fiber optic looking flower.

So I like to take photographs and I really was selective about sharing - they can tell the story better than I so these Nicaragua posts will be filled with them.  All photos are taken on my iPhone 4S and edited with camera+.

The Writing Floodgates Are Open

A year ago I wrote a post about our 2012 plans ... then I lost it when I was trying to edit the post from my ipad. That pretty much sums up 2012. Buh - Bye.  So this past year flew by and in it's rush some pretty monumental developments occurred right beneath our noses.  Okay, they were all things we had set into motion, but, after two years of limbo we are starting to move people!

Let's back story a bit so you can see where we've come from so where we are going makes sense.

In February of 2008, we closed on a beautiful house in the historic district of small town NC - it was our dream house.  We had a five year plan to live here then sell and move on to travel - pulling our money out of our house and using it to travel with.  We picked up a beautiful property for what we thought was a song given we now had 3200square feet  for a mortgage payment less than we paid in rent for our 800 square foot one bedroom apartment in Toronto.   The United States housing collapse pretty much occurred a millisecond after signing our ownership papers.  Pretty quickly we realized we had made a grave mistake.  Apparently real estate is not the secure investment everyone thought it was.  It's hard to settle into a home when you know you've just lost all the money you put down in it.   

In the mean time life evolved.  In spring 2009 we added a beautiful daughter,  Finley Mae, to our family and our life's focus began to shift.  We celebrated her birth and two of her birthdays in this house with our neighbours who have become friends.  

In September 2010 we put the house up for sale for 270K which would have had us coming out of the house with a slight loss - a year later after several drops in price, and an educated decision to cease paying an over-valued mortgage, we consulted a lawyer and went after a short sale so we could sell the house at "new fair market value."  The new list price on our house was 169K. Over the next year we continued to drop the price. We had a couple offers  the bank turned down, 160K, 105K and finally at 155K we finally had a buyer. The buyer went all the way through home inspection and bailed. Historic homes take special care and in the end this house was not for them. So we put the house back on the market.  A short sale runs alongside foreclosure, so taking this road was not without risk, we went into the whole deal with our eyes wide open.  We were not willing to lose any more money!

January 2012 started off pretty rough with the loss of our family pet, Cecil, my almost constant companion for 13 years.  Late January we left to renew visas in Toronto and upon return were served foreclosure papers.   That set us on the path of uprooting and uncertainty.  The last year in our home was shrouded with loss and it was punctuated by the sudden death of our next door neighbour Jake, who had become such a dear friend.   In August 2012 we gave our dream house, now affectionately called Casa Albatross, back to the bank and walked.  The house by the way is still for sale and is now reduced to 114K.  OUCH!    

In the midst of all this USA housing nonsense, in the fall of 2011, we had an offer we couldn't refuse and bought an ocean front lot in Nicaragua alongside three of our best friends lots and we are currently building a modest house.  It's the wild west when it comes to building there.  Our house deal was made over several glasses of Flor de Cana and a hand shake in May of 2012 and after a six month delay our house began going up!  

This is the first photo we received October 2012

Let me tell you that all of this Nicaragua business went down and I had not yet ever been to Nicaragua!  We had been almost constant winter residents in Costa Rica so we knew the landscape and knew it was where we would surely love to live out our winters but I had yet to experience Nicaragua.  A year after the lot purchase and with a house framed out I got to see this amazing country for myself!

Steve, Finley and I spent just over two weeks in Nicaragua late November and early December of 2012.  It was a really cool experience.  Nicaragua is NOTHING like Costa Rica and I love that!  Our travels this time took us to several cities and towns where we visited with a circle of expat friends who currently reside in Nicaragua and we got to go see our build.  

Steve entering the front door of our house.

The ocean is right through the trees and scrub.

For the first time ever I got to stand on our lot and stand in our house and walk along our beach!  It was a brilliant feeling that set the the past year straight.  2012 ended on a high note knowing all of our crazy maneuvers in the past two years to get us the life we wanted was surely looking like it will pay off for us.  Is it scary?  Yes, a little, but life is no fun at all if you are too comfortable.  

Happy New Year Everyone!  

Here's to a tremendous 2013.

What I Do

Honestly, this has been a real question mark for me in the past year. Everyone you meet wants to know what you do, meaning for work, money, career of course.  I used to do all kinds of amazing projects in my line of work.  I am a TV producer by trade.  There was always a next project lined up to go to upon wrapping the first one - even if I spaced them out to allow for a brief holiday in between.  Series format, comedy, lifestyle, celebrity, ego - that is what I do - it became who I was.

Suddenly a grey area exists between what I do and who I am.

Then the grey turns black.

A divided line between what I do and who I am.

This has never happened before.

Like a shedding of skin the what I do feels as though it's become a part of my past. What do I do now? I spend my day with my toddler sharpening my negotiating skills, making snacks, building towers, playing troll, reading books, singing songs, doing laundry, taking walks, meeting friends, exploring, sifting through gravel for shark's teeth, enforcing time outs, washing Barbie mermaid and daughter's hair,  having dance parties in the kitchen, doing groceries, cleaning the house, practicing and teaching yoga.

What I do I can't pin point. My days are full, at night I am tired.   Perhaps it's not as exciting to an acquaintance at a gathering to say I'm a stay at home mom - but to me it's far more impressive than any TV series I've ever produced.  It's pretty cool to have the opportunity and luxery to fill my days with my toddler's related activity.

My new reality is this, I get to be in the present, because the present is the only time a toddler knows. Perhaps this is the greatest gift my daughter has given to me  - the ability to just be here in the now. It doesn't matter too much what's next for in life we are fluid and as long as our most basic needs are met what's next will work itself out.

So for now this is what I do.

It's A New Year. It's A New Post.

For the first time in 4 years of blogging I went to edit a sentence and LOST my post.  I blame my inexperience using my ipad. Anyway ... it's gone ... bye bye post!

Thank The Stars For Aunties

In the whole world there are no greater relationships than those you can have with an Aunt.  I have two very special Aunts.  I've always known and loved them of course, but, our relationships solidified after the passing of my mother.  I think we all provided a link to my mom for one other in a way.  We've developed relationships of our own outside of my mother over the years. We all helped each other heal after our loss and then we built our own very personal relationships.

My Aunt Ann and I write weekly and sometimes two or three times in a week when there are lots of exciting newsy events going on. She has been an ear for me and a constant support.  My Aunt Dianne is my mom's sister and just being with her I'm reminded of the little things my mom did on the daily,  they share too many similarities to count!  Both of these women love and sacrifice always putting family first. They always make time for me and for that I'm forever grateful.  

Women need one another and although the family unit may look different in this day and age the fundamentals of family have not  changed and our roles as women in our families don't change.  My Aunts are my support and my wings and they have had such a hand in shaping me.  I hope they know how much I admire them and have learned from them, I'm forever grateful.

Aunt Dianne & Ann

Grandpa

My dad visited recently.  Nothing can quite describe watching my dad with my little girl. Finley had a cautious curiosity about him which lasted only hours and then they were quite taken with one another. Here they are sharing ginger cookies... the picture says it all!

Finley & Grandpa at I Can't Believe It's A Book Store in Washington NC

I'm Thankful

This Thanksgiving I'm very thankful for my little family.  

They are my heart and my sunshine. 

Where ever we are together is HOME.

Photo Courtesy: Karoline Ouimet 

Goodnight Irene

Since arriving in the Carolina's we've battened down the hatches to prepare for some good named storms, but, luckily have not had to face their wrath.  Last year's Earl was like a fart in the wind. It barely rained.  This year however, we were on target to get Hurricane Irene as a category three directly on top of us.  The stores were stocking tons of bread and water.  The isles usually full of camping equipment were stripped bare of propane came stoves, coolers, and kerosene lamps.  The flash lights were sold out and so was the milk.  The calm before the storm was seen only in the air as the energy from all the people was electric.  Some worried, others shrugging the whole storm off. It was kinda fun to wait and see what would transpire.

Of course my final assignment for University was due on Monday and Irene was expected on Friday night...she didn't leave until late Saturday night.  So I had to rush to get the house ready and get my assignment handed in before we lost power for who knows how long!   We contemplated right up until Friday afternoon as to whether we should drive to the next town over to stay at Steve's mom's house and then we decided not to.  All our neighbours were staying put, our house has been standing here since 1910 boasting original floors and most original windows, we felt we wanted to stay and ride out the storm.  So we put the bed down in the yoga studio and camped out in there for the next 24 hours. 

Here comes Irene.

Saturday morning at 7:35 AM we lost our power and it was out until 5:30PM. Apparently our house is on the main grid that facilitates the third street pump house and it HAD to be operational to clear out the flooding. Lucky us.  We sat in the kitchen watching the trees bend with each wind gust.  I tried to take video and pictures but they just don't do any justice to the 100 mile an hour winds.   Inside we listened to trees crashing and we kept Finley entertained by reading books, playing with Play -Doh and painting.  

Finley wanted to paint the BIG BAD WOLF and Swiper the Fox.
 It must have been due to all the wind huffing and puffing our tree limbs down!

Without power we began to eat the contents of the freezer...ice cream FIRST.

The next morning we awoke to pristine Carolina blue sky, no humidity and the largest mosquitoes the size of horses and as hungry as an out of work actor at a True Blood audition....and we began to assess our damage.  The car lost it's side mirror, we lost power line to the garage outbuilding, we had an entire yard filled with tree limbs and a terrible leak in the bathroom. Otherwise we were fine. Our neighbours a few block over were evacuated and they suffered flooding. There is nothing as destructive as flood water.  Everything had to be thrown out, bleached and rebuilt.  Most of our neighbours were awaiting the insurance company to asses. 

Down town the roof blew off a prominent historic building and all the contents of the apartment and stores were destroyed. The roof landed a block away in a parking lot. How fortunate for that! 

This is the day after Irene. 

The Pecan limbs lined our property and our neighbours to both sides.

Steve had to go to work - our neighbours were awesome to come and help us out.

Finley sang "Clean up, Clean  up, Everybody Cleeeeeaaaaaaan up!"  

While we all worked - she was very helpful.

Finley Walking Up Sidewalk
ALL these limbs are from OUR two Pecan trees!

We thought we had some trees down and then we took a drive and saw this....

So many hundred year old trees just toppled, onto houses, power lines, streets, barns, boats and cars. 

The hurricane stayed on top of Beaufort County for almost 12 hours.  The locals say it's the longest hurricane in their history to stand on top of them.  Of course there were tornado's wreaking havoc on the outsides of the hurricane too...but these trees down are all Irene. 

This is our neighbours house.  She wanted to take this tree down but the historic society wouldn't allow it.Irene didn't ask permission.  I wonder what the historic society thinks now?

Luckily it fell right into a small space in the driveway and did not even take out the stone fence.

The storm surge raised the river ELEVEN FEET.  These boats didn't have a chance.

This my friends is the EXACT dock 
we used to keep our sailboat on.

UCLA Week 5: Memoir

Eight weeks into working for The Comedy Network, I’m sitting with my boyfriend Steve at a VIP table at a comedy club. It is my job to meet talent, pair them with producers, meet producers, take pitches for TV series and take them all along the production line from development to on air. I love comedy, I love socializing, and this new job is a perfect fit! Most of all it is the perfect distraction from the life I lead outside of work. Outside work, life is not funny.

Concentration failing me, I miss most of the comedy. A shock of applause brings me back to the room, clapping I and throw a smile of encouragement toward the performer. I grasp at the neck of my shirt feeling as though don’t have enough air.

Arriving home from the club I surrender to bed. The phone rings, Steve still awake answers.

“Hello, yeah? Oh, okay. Michelle it’s for you. It’s your sister.” He hands me the phone.

“Hi.” Sue says.

“Hi.” I echo, a silence comes over the line.

“The nurse called and told us mom looked like she might be going. We were just there. We left the hospital to go out for dinner. The phone was ringing as we came through the door at home. Dad said to sit tight we’ll call ya with an update.”

“Okay.” I hang up.

Repaying the conversation to Steve. He comes over to hug me.

“Hon, she’s gone. Hospitals tell families that so they can safely drive back, so they are not overcome when they arrive.”

“Oh.” I break from his grasp and calmly head to the armoire to pull out all the black clothes I own and begin to stuff them into a suitcase. Steve watches me. Next, I move toward the sink and begin to wash dishes. When my world spins out of control I clean. I can control the dirt.

A telephone ring cuts the silence. Quickly I grab the extension before it rings a second time.

“Hello.” I say.

“She’s gone. Can you come? They’ll hold her here in her room until you can get here.” Sue’s voice is shaking.

The drive from Toronto to Ottawa is fast. We pull into a vacant spot on the street in front of the building. The wet shiny road is sprinkled with the cheerful reflection from Christmas lights. The dark night sky is broken by the waltz of large fluffy snowflakes. It’s almost five o’clock in the morning. Steve places a hand on my back encouraging me forward. I look up at the hospital and see a giant black raven perched on the overhang of the front entrance. It takes off into the night. I move forward again with a little coaxing from Steve.

“I’ve never seen a dead body before. Like, not before they are done up at the funeral home.” I say to Steve.

“Hurry sweetie, a body can only be held so long before it must be moved and they’ve already been waiting five hours. You’ll be okay, your family is here.”

My father ushers me into the room, “She told me I was handsome, then she was gone.” He hugs me tightly pulling Sue into our embrace. “Your mother loved you both so much – the only thing she ever wanted was to be a mother.”

Looking over his shoulder the vision of my mother in bed shocks me. She is so tiny, considerably smaller than she was when I saw her last. She is not peaceful looking. Her face shows signs of fight and struggle and her mouth hangs open. Tucked under her hands is the little bear in a bee costume along side a Beanie Baby that looks just like my sister’s son, little gifts from my sister and I.

“Let’s not let anything ever come between us.” Dad says hugging us tight. We hold each other and cry both out of sadness and relief. After six years it is finally over. I replay this scene over and over in my head wishing his statement rang true. So much has come between all of us.

Good Bye Sweet Alice

June 10, 1918 - April 22, 2011

My Grandma Dodie's BFF since girlhood was Alice. For as long as I can remember Alice was a part of our holidays. We called her Auntie Alice and it never occurred to us that she was of no relation. I don't think one needs to be a blood relative to be family and I'm pretty certain Alice would concur. Alice passed away this week. She was two months shy of her 93rd birthday. All of her Easter baking, including cheese cakes, cookies, poppy seed and Easter breads were complete and her table was set to host Easter dinner.

Alice on her 90th Birthday.

The last visit I had with Alice was in September. She looked well and made us a cup of tea. She gave Fin a little white plush lamb. Finley calls it Baby Baaa and totes it all around the house. We talked a while and then she and Finley looked tired so we headed off - back to NC. Letters went back and forth and I sent her a parcel including her favorite hair colour. It had been discontinued in Canada and so I'd send it from the US. Last week while my sister was visiting I was talking about Alice. I owed her a letter. She had written to tell me she'd had a fall. It was a surprise to get this letter as her hands were becoming so stiff with arthritis she was writing very little. I had also mentioned her several times in the past few weeks to other friends of mine, recounting stories including Alice. It's weird - it's like she was sending me a vibration and I didn't pick up on it to call her or write that letter...

My sister was laughing today at Alice's wake telling the story of the time I brought Granny Dodie and Alice wind up hopping penises, bought as a souvenirs, while on a school trip to New York City. Alice and Granny laughed and wound up their new toys sending them hopping across the formally dressed dining table at one another. I've got photos of that some where. HILARIOUS.

When I got my driver's licence I was able to borrow the car and scoot into town to pick up Alice and Granny Dodie to bring them back to the house for dinners. Usually we'd take a drive around the market down town to see the lights on Parliament Hill or the tulips along the drive way.

When I was modelling I'd pick up Alice and Gran to take them to the local malls to watch the fashion shows I was modelling in. They would sit in the front row beaming up at me whenever I came out onto the stage and later we would eat lunch and they would tell me which outfits they liked or didn't like and which models they thought walked funny. They were quite a pair.

I remember when I bought my first car - a red Geo tracker with a white soft top - I went to pick up the ladies and take them for a spin. There was a handle in front of the front seat attached to the dashboard. Alice asked what it was for and Granny told her it was a "Holysh*t Handle." Granny then went on to tell me about the time she and Alice took one of their beau's cars on a joy ride and when it started raining they didn't know how to turn on the windshield wipers to keep the water off the windshield so Granny Dodie made Alice take off her bloomers to dry the windshield. I laughed really hard at that one since Granny Dodie never ever had her driver's licence.

When I first started out in the TV business I worked on a comedy series as a locations manager. Which meant I had to source the locations to shoot the series. Alice let us use her house as the leading lady's house for the series shoot. We invited her out to the wrap party where she danced the night away with all our actors and crew. Everyone loved her!

Granny Dodie died 15 years ago and Alice and I kept up our relationship. When ever I rolled into Ottawa I made a point to visit with her, we'd go walk the mall, take her lawn mower in for repair, pop into the drug store to get her personal items, things she wouldn't get while out with just anybody and by anybody I mean a man. Alice talked to me about all kinds of things in her life and although we were decades apart she always made me realize how similar we all are. How family influences us and what is or isn't important in our lives.

Me and Alice Summer 2008

Alice baked the most amazing breads and cakes famous for her poppy seed cake. She refused to give the recipe to anyone... except my mom. She always made me my own tin of gingerbread at Christmas time, she probably made a variety, a good two dozen beautiful and delicious little cookies, rum balls and other delights. I wish I had a photo of them. They never lasted long enough to shoot!

Alice always had her hair fixed and makeup on everyday regardless if she was going out or not. She always wore a matching pant suit and had really good jewelry on. She wore a huge diamond that her husband Joe bought her as an anniversary gift. She had a cubic replica made because she was afraid to wear the real one. As a kid I remember how glamorous Alice always looked in her fur coats (back when fur was not frowned upon) she was so chic.

When Alice's husband Joe died he had just purchased a bitchen red Camaro. It was a 1973. Alice kept it stored in the garage under all her old fur coats for safe keeping. She did get her drivers permit and drove that beautiful car out to see us in Richmond once. I doubt she drove it after that. It remained in the garage for some 20 years until she gifted the car to my father. When my mother was in and out of the hospital in her last year battling cancer Alice felt my dad needed a pick me up. She didn't say so, she just gave him the car. It had 6000 miles on it and the original tires. Dad spent that whole summer detailing the car, going between drive nights and the hospital. He was so happy to have that car. It was a good distraction and I think just what he needed at that time. He too parked it, when he lost the love of his life, just as she had.

Alice at 91 meeting Finley 3months old

Summer 2009

It's going to be very strange to come back to Ottawa and not drive over to Alice's ... I'm fortunate she invited me into her life for so many years. I'm so happy she got to meet my husband and daughter. I'm fortunate to have had so many written correspondences with her over the past few years. I will forever regret not writing her back on time after her last letter arrived to me in February. I'm usually good with replies but we left on a family holiday and then I wanted to print current photos of Finley to include in my return letter. I left that letter unwritten for too long. She won't get it now and was asking why she hadn't heard from me and where I was......I hope she knows how much I cared even though that last letter was unanswered.

Alice was an incredible woman. She was strong in mind and body. She had guts and gumption telling off anyone who asked her to slow down. She was still cutting the lawn with her push mower last summer at the age of 92! She was a fixture on Plymouth Street in Ottawa - where she lived to her last day in the house her dad built, independent and surrounded by wonderful friends.

And Then She Said

It was Christmas Day 2009, Steve's Mom, Aunt and I took the Pare' Family kids up to the bonus room to chillax for a while after a wild morning of tearing into presents, playing with new toys and general Christmas morning mayhem.

I had ordered the original 1964 version of Rudolf The Red Nosed Reindeer narrated by Burl Ives from Netflix as it's one of my favorites and hoped the kids would enjoy it as much as I do. I popped the movie into the DVD player snuggled some kids in around me to take a rest while watching the film. Everything was calm and peaceful for 50 whole minutes. Then little attention spans shifted, the boys left the room Grandma chased after them, the Aunt had fallen a sleep on the couch, my three and a half year old niece Kaylee, my eight month old daughter Finley and I were the only ones left in the room.

When the movie ended I picked up Finley and took her over to execute a quick diaper change. Kaylee came along to watch. She was pretending to be Princes Lillis, a character from her imaginary world repertoire. Kaylee transforms into some of these imaginary characters and others are just hanging around so I have to be careful where I step lest I squish one.

Kaylee's mom Jen arrives in the room.

Jen

Hi whats going on up here?

Michelle

Well Princess Lillis was just dancing for us.

Jen

Princess Lillis show me your dance!

Kaylee aka Princess Lillis

F#ck, F$CK, F*CK, F******CK

Jen and I are totally taken aback and look at one another. I'm repacking the diaper bag while Fin crawls off to play. I tuck my face into my shoulder so I don't give away my smiles because while I find this hysterical it is clearly not a funny parenting moment for Jen. We'll have a good laugh over it later but not now. Not in front of the cussing three year old.

Jen

That is not a nice word we don't use that word Kaylee.

Kaylee aka Princess Lillis

F#ck, F$CK, F*CK, F******CK

Jen

Where did you hear that word?

And that's when Kaylee (points at me)

Aunt Shell!

Michelle

You DID NOT!

Aunty (who has now woken up from her nap on the couch)

She most certainly didn't hear it from anyone in here in the last hour.

Kaylee aka Princess Lillis

F#ck, F$CK, F*CK, F******CK

Michelle

I admit it's one of my favorite words but I have not said it even under my breath since I was getting in the car this morning to come here.

Jen

You were just the closest in proximity to blame. She could have heard it days ago.

There Is NEVER A Bad Day...

...At The Beach!

Avon, North Carolina