Halloween 2016 Edition

Halloween festivities are in high gear around here.  Thankfully the rain stopped this evening so the kids won't be getting too wet.  I drove the kids over to a neighbourhood they like to trick or treat in and now I'm just waiting for Sophie to text me when they are ready to be picked up.

Times have really changed since they were little.

This year Sophie is Minnie Mouse (a cute costume that only need a bit of taking in around the waist) and Fynn is Darth Vader.  For the last couple of years I have been purchasing the kids costumes online.  It is just so much easier, especially with work and all of the running around I seem to do.

Tomorrow afternoon I am off to Vancouver for a work meeting at Central 1.  I'm looking forward to it but it is just a quick trip (1 night) so no time to squeeze in any Christmas shopping.

In other news, I am taking an extension course through UCLA for Strategic HR.  It's a good course but like anything worth doing requires some focus and time.

hockey jersey day

Salmon Arm celebrated Jersey today where you could wear your hockey jersey to work or school to show your hockey spirit for Hockeyville.

Most of our staff wore wearing jerseys today, and here is a photo of Cherie and I in ours.  I borrowed a New Jersey Devil's jersey from a coworker.  Fynn wore his Canucks jersey (of course) to school.

In other related news, Fynn is enrolled in 6 skating lessons every Thursday afternoon.  We are trying to get him a bit more comfortable on the ice.

Go, go, go

Today was one of those days.
I had a full work day with a few added things into the mix.

I had my annual mammography through the mobile screening service. There is nothing wrong, this is purely just a regular screening. Good to have that out of the way.

Later in the afternoon, Sophie had her swimming lessons. To help her improve her strokes, I have signed her up for 3 private swimming lessons to supplement her regular group lessons. She is thrilled that her swim teacher for the private lessons is a girl. So, she was in the water for 45 minutes for her group lessons and then another 30 minutes for her private lessons.

Then we returned home for a quick dinner and off to my CPF monthly meeting.

A full day, and I'm pooped!

A visit to Toronto

I went to a work conference on Wednesday of this week that was in Toronto. My first time going there, so it was exciting to see new places, people and sights.

The highlights (apart from the conference) were a visit to the Art Gallery of Ontario (I loved their Canadian Art section and the guided tour of the Contemporary exhibits), eating Thai food with my work colleague from Vancouver, Marie-Claire who I met there, and going up the CN Tower.

I have told Vic it would be worth a visit with the kids. I'd like to see more of the waterfront next time and explore other areas around TO.

The Weekend Lens

I was in Vancouver last week from Wednesday to Friday at the HRMA conference

. It was a great conference - probably the best I have been to in 12 years or so. Rick Mercer was the opening speaker -- he loves Canada so much and is so funny and smart. Love to hear him speak. I went with my co-worker Cherie and we stayed at the Fairmont Waterfront. Great hotel and right across from the convention centre.

I got home on Friday night and then was up bright and early on Saturday as it was Fynn's first session of soccer. He loved it! Vic and I are so glad -- it is always hard to tell if he will like something or not.

Today we took it pretty easy and did a little trip out to Harold Park.

Medievil Night - Employee Awards

Tonight we had our staff awards at work. The theme was medievil - some great costumes.

Pink Shirt Day

Today was Pink Shirt Day.
My workplace supported the day, as did Sophie's school.

Sophie's Brownies group had their get together at McDonalds tonight. All the girls where in their pink shirts (which were covered up by their uniforms) but still a good show of anti-bullying support.

Here is a photo of Sophie and I that Vic snapped this morning just before I went to work and Sophie went to school.

Some accomplishments today

I met three goals today:

1. I completed the final exam in the 4 part exam series for my Work-Life Certified Professional certificate through World at Work. It was something I have been plugging away at for my professional development at work. Vic and I drove down to Kelowna today so I could write my exam. I passed and I am so happy to have that all behind me, although I did enjoy the program.

2. The other goal (much smaller, but more fun)was to get back to scrapbooking again. I did this page to document Fynn's first time on skis.

3. I ticked off another item on my to-do list and had Sophie's birthday invitations printed up. We are going with an art themed party. Here are her invitations that I had printed through the photo finishing dept at London Drugs. I am super happy with how they turned out - and so is she!

My work

This is a photo I took of my computer screen this morning at work. I wanted to capture a moment in time at work, one of the many moments were I am looking at information on a screen. My computer is such an integral part of my work, when the power goes out, we all sit at our desks momentarily stunned because we are not connected to anything electronically.

I am not saying it is good or bad. I don't really try to pass judgements on technology. It is a tool, plain and simple.

I am in the middle of budgeting right now at work. Working with spreadsheets for my operating plan, staffing worksheets and training budgets. It is all good, all part of the process and cycle.

down in the big city

I am in Vancouver today and will be here until Friday at the HRMA (HR) conference. It is usually a pretty good conference and the final speaker on Friday is Dr. Brene Brown who's website/blog I follow. She's quite amazing to hear (I have just heard her on TV) so it will be cool to hear her in real life. The flight down was amazingly quick. 39 minutes. You can't beat that when it is typically over 4 hours by car. I love flying to Vancouver. It's easy-peasy!

I wandered along Robson Street this afternoon and mostly did a lot of browsing. I found a little scarf for myself to go with my spring trench coat -- trying to find a scarf for $20 is a challenge, but I did it. The prices are typically high in most of the stores on Robson but there were sales to be had.

It's off to order room service for dinner and then to look forward to a full day of sessions tomorrow.

the next 5 years

My work buddy Linda gave me this great book today as a gift. I had been hearing good things about it so when I opened it up today and I was so happy to see it. I have been talking to her lately about what I think I need to accomplish.

Instead of about thinking about the "next promotion" or whatever that might look like and feeling like I am supposed to be somewhere with my career life right now, I want to think about the things I want to accomplish in the next 5 years. That is much more tangible for me and something that I can actually have some control over. I learned a powerful lesson these past few weeks when I was waiting for something in my work life to materialize (or not) and when it didn't I realized the time and emotional energy that I exerted.

On another note, Vic and I are SO proud of Sophie. Each of the students in her school have been assigned a little poem to memorize and present to their class. The best presenter (one boy and one girl) was chosen today to present to the whole school this Thursday. Sophie has been practicing and I could tell she was getting really good at it. Well today she came home and told us that she was selected to speak in front of her school reciting her poem in French! Considering the struggles she had back in the fall, this is a huge achievement and a great example for her of hard work paying off.

Day 7

Time. That slippery thing that is don't seem to ever have enough of. Today was an almost 12 hour day with respect to work.

I dropped Sophie off at her school early (which she actually loved since she got to hang out in the classroom with her teacher) and then headed out to Sorrento to do a presentation for 8:30am. Then back to Salmon Arm for a full work day followed by a credit union Board meeting at 6pm where I was doing another presentation. By the time I got home it was just after 7pm. Thankfully Sophie had done her homework with her afterschool daycare staff member so she didn't have that to worry about. I had some time to give the kids their bath and read them a Christmas story before bed.

I managed to get all of my Christmas cards stuffed, stamped and sealed.

Tomorrow is another day. One day at a time.

finishing up Ducks

Fynn swam his last session of Ducks today. He is an amazing little water guy. He's come a long way since the summer. Loves to blow bubbles.

I'm back from being in Calgary for two days at Queen's University Executive Education Program on Leading Organizational Change. It was a great program - high quality profs and content. I wandered around downtown Calgary a bit yesterday. I didn't venture too far but did manage to get a bit of a feel for the downtown and wandered into a few of the downtown shops. It tried to snow, but luckily didn't amount to much of anything.

these are the days....

Fynn is finally in his Duck Red Cross preschool swim lessons. It took a couple of failed starts this summer with classes not filling up and then being cancelled, but finally he is in his fall class. He is really starting to enjoy the water. I find it relaxes him and he becomes quite peaceful - a nice little change.

Sophie is full on with school. She had her class photos today and then tomorrow it is ballet again. She takes tap and ballet each week.

I love that the kids stay busy, but I do find it a bit of a grind when I take time off work during the day to taxi them around. Next week I'm off to a conference for 2days in Vancouver so dad is the go-to person for a little bit.

I passed my World at Work exam this past Saturday, so I've completed my 3rd course of 4 towards getting my Work-Life Certificate. Always another mountain to climb!

final video

Even though our program didn't win the HRMA Innovation Award, we were really proud to be a finalist.

Here is the final video that was shown at the Awards Night.

one tired mama

I'm going to Vancouver tomorrow for the HRMA conference and the pre-organization for a 2 day event is just crazy.

I was at work until after 5pm tonight sorting stuff out and making sure everything was okay with projects I had on the go.

Then I missed my workout, but I'm still hoping to get a walk in tonight.

I'm a full time butler to Sophie and Fynn....Sophie is supposed to go to ballet tomorrow but because Vic has a client appointment, we tried to arrange for our friend Patti to take her. She graciously offered but it seems Sophie didn't react well to a change in her routine, so rather than fighting it and having her create a fuss for Patti, we let her skip ballet. Only one more week of practice sessions and then her big year end program. The costumes she has for her two numbers are adorable! I'll be relieved to no longer have to worry about driving her to her lessons each week. Ah, a summer break. Of course, I've signed her up for a 1 week art camp in July, which she is thrilled about it, plus it is within a super short walk to her daycare, so it should make things easy. She gets to learn more about drawing and painting -- she does enjoy art, so nice to see.

Sophie also had swimming with her Kindergarten class today so that took so special prep as she needed to be wearing her suit under her clothes, bring her towel and have two carrying along snacks. On Thursday she has a field trip to the hospital. I tell you, that kid has quite the life.

Fynn has an upper respiratory infection so Vic took him to our GP today who prescribed an antibiotic and that seemed to kick it out of him quite quickly. Poor little guy.

show business

Well, my show business career continues :)....

Last night I flew down to Vancouver to be up for my 9am video shoot in a studio near Granville Island. My day started out fine until I realized that I had left my make up bag at home and only had lipstick with me. Off to grab a taxi who found a 24 hour drugstore nearby where I could buy 4 makeup essentials (mascara, cover up, eyeliner and some shadow). I still had time to eat breakfast and make it over to the studio in time.

Filming a professional video clip is hard work! Wow, it took us almost 3 hours to film 1.5 minutes of a video clip for our HR awards presentation. My co-creator of the project, Maureen and I realized how hard it would be to actually be a news reporter. We had no script, no cue cards or tele prompter. Just some general talking points that we were asked to cover. Half the time we would get it wrong or get tongue tied and need to start over again. We also had to stand in one spot (on our "mark") for a long time and my thighs became totally cramped up. I also couldn't wear my glasses since they caused too much glare on camera but fortunately I could still see the green mark I was supposed to be focusing on at the camera.

I think we ended up doing a pretty good job, but it certainly gave me a bit of insight into how hard it would be to do something live on air. The director/producer who did our piece was very good. He has done some horror and sci fi productions (I hope that isn't any indication of how our clip will turn out).

youTube

Well, I'm officially on YouTube.

At least it isn't for something illegal or immoral :)

This is a clip they filmed last week when I was in Vancouver answering some impromptu questions about our Corporate Moms Program that we were nominated for.

working mom

Okay, yes, all moms are working moms.

It is hard work, whichever way you slice it. Lately, I have been reflecting on howt how much I have been able to let go of and not feel guilty about.

This has been what's working for me lately:

1. My car is a mess inside. It has not been cleaned since, oh, I don't know when. But frankly, I don't care. I am pretty close to calling John the car detailing guy and just letting him go to town with it.

2. Do work at home; do home at work. I do this all the time. Breaks at work are good for scheduling kid appointments, ordering clothes from Lands End for the kids, or a million other things. On the flip side, I email myself work documents to edit, letters to write at home. It is just easier. I just need to accomplish a certain number of things and get them ticked off my list. Where I do it is sometimes besides the point.

3. My only goal each morning is to get to the gym if it is Tuesday or Thursday AND get Sophie and myself out the door before her school bell rings. My black, grey, brown dress pants are my godsends.

4. Have some secret weapons: mine are Flo (our housekeeper), an awesome daycare, Sophie's french tutor, a husband who is a good cook, and my debit card. If I see something that I know we will need, I buy it. I don't waste time debating little things like buying kids' birthday cards, socks, makeup, or stamps on the fly.

5. I can get a lot done while my kids are in the bath.

6. I don't worry about how Sophie and Fynn will turn out by being in daycare. They are good little creatures who have learned a lot of stuff at daycare. Not all good, but on balance, the goods are still ahead.

7. We live it up on the weekends. We've been known to take our kids to some pretty cool places on the weekend....indoor play gyms, water parks, Tube Town, movies. I don't think it is parental guilt that causes us to want to do this, but just the desire to make those moments really memorable.

8. The library is my friend.

9. I'm not going to miss out on any of it (wherever possible), but I can call in reinforcements. Today I was not able to take Sophie to ballet because I had back to back meetings all day, so Vic took her. But tomorrow I asked my boss if he could rearrange the order of our management meeting agenda so I could go to Sophie's school for her little mini concert and math workshop tomorrow morning. I'm not scared to push it a bit at work, but they know they get 110% of me.

I enjoy all of these hats. It's a lot of juggling, but the balls generally stay up in the air.

work

I am going to Vancouver in another week and a bit to present some information on an innovation award that myself and my colleague Maureen have been nominated for.

Here's some more info...scroll down...that's me in the green turtleneck.