Vacation or kid's birthday party... you pick!

I was talking to my friend Claudia the other day about my addiction to social media. She loves Facebook but has not embraced Twitter or blogging! She was asking me about my blog and whether I've written lately. I shook my head in shame and said I hadn't written for a while. She gave me a great idea for a blog post so today's content is brought to you by Auntie C!!!

For the month of April, little E has a birthday party to go to every single weekend. It's a really great thing for a few reasons: 1. It gives me a little break of a couple of hours on a Saturday where I don't usually have one. For some reason, I've been finding the time useful to do more work!! (When I really should just be getting a pedicure and massage!); and 2. More importantly, it means that my little guy has made friends. This is a huge deal for us in the Ingle house because after Christmas E started being really upset a lot and saying he had no friends and that no one wanted to play with him. So for me, each time that birthday invitation has come home in his school back or been left for him in his daycare cubby, I've just about broken down in tears I've been so happy for him. I haven't minded the slow decline in my bank account to fund all the gifts I'm having to purchase!!!!

But what I really wanted to write about was not the fact that E is coming out of his shell, it's more about the parties themselves and the pressure I feel as a mother to always throw the biggest and best parties of anyone! It seems to me that gone are the days of having a few little friends over to the house to play Pin the Tail on the Donkey and bobbing for apples! Now it seems that each year, we have to throw the shindig of the year. I could quite easily fund my entire trip to Vegas this September with what I've spent over the past 4 years on E's parties. (And I mean flight, hotel, limo to the airport, food, shopping, shows!!!!) And now, I've become my own worst enemy because I've set the bar high and the expectation is there each year to see what the party will entail and what the theme will be.

The pictures above show his last 4 parties (from top to bottom):

1. When he turned 4, we rented the entire ice rink at the Cambridge Centre mall for a skating party. The thing about this is that my mentality was "hey, we have the whole ice, let's invite everyone we know"!!!! So all of a sudden we were preparing 20 loot bags, instead of 6 or 8 and we were feeding 20 kids plus 30 or 40 parents. It was a great party and we all had a blast.

2. When he turned 3, we hired a company called Reptilia to come to the house for a reptile show. They come from Vaughan with a crate full of creepy crawly things (tortoise, lizard, big snake, alligator). We had 10 kids and their parents in the house! Again... a fantastic party, complete with personalized, themed lootbags courtesy of me, and a ton of food!

3. When he turned 2, we rented the caboose of the Waterloo-St. Jacob's train and took all of our friends and a clown to St. Jacob's and back. The train itself was fun (Evan was addicted to Thomas at the time), but we decided to have a clown to entertain the kids on the journey. Everyone had a great time!

4. And finally, when E turned 1, we had a party at Gymboree. Again, it was one of those "heck, we have the space rented, let's just invite everyone we know" situations!!!! Evan was really into a specific dumptruck at the time, so everyone took home a "lootbag" which was actually a dump truck filled with little toys and treats!

So, you can see that I really could have paid for a vacation or some special Tiffany jewelry or something with the cash I've spent on 4 birthday parties! Don't get me wrong... I absolutely LOVE throwing these parties. E LOVES them and so it's all worth it. I just wonder if I should be taking things back to basics and giving him an appreciation for all of the simple things we used to do as kids. I guess that'll have to wait until birthday #6 since I've already promised to have a superhero come to the house for #5!!!!!

Karma x 2!

As you all know, part of my life is devoted to doing some pretty cool stuff for a pretty cool company called Mabel's Labels. I was lucky enough to start working with Mabel's several years ago when I first started freelancing after Evan was born. For the past year, I've been working on a contract with them doing mainly project management, including helping with the launch of all of their fabulous products in full colour (check them out here... they're super cute!).

But the real point of my quick blog today is to tell you a pretty cool story so here it goes! One of the founders of Mabel's Labels is Julie Cole (check out her awesome blog here... she's a mama of 6 and has lots of interesting stuff to say!). She once sent an email to someone that was intended to go to me. Turns out, Julie Cole has 2 people with the same name in her email address book! Now this may not seem strange to you if your name is Lisa or Julie or Mike, but for someone named Karma, this is crazy! So, long story short, Julie Cole has now introduced me to my new friend, Karma Brown! (So, not only are we both Karmas, we're both Karma Bs!!!)

I'm not sure how crazy it is for the "other" Karma, but for me, this experience has been surreal. After all, I've spent almost 40 years of my life as the "only" Karma! But now, the "other" Karma has become my close Twitter friend. And not only is she super nice, with a super cool name, she has an amazing life story that relates perfectly to my last blog post about inner strength. She is an inspiration for sure. Check out her story here and you'll understand what I mean.

So, I definitely think karma was at work that day that Julie Cole made her email mistake!

Inner Strength - Where does it come from?

This past weekend I spent Friday night at home watching TV (okay... who am I kidding... that's how I usually spend Friday nights... This one was only different because I didn't have my laptop with me on the sofa!!!!). I tuned in to 20/20 and caught the most incredible story of human strength I think I've ever heard. It was the story of a British girl named Katie Piper. She was a model, and a beauty queen with her whole life ahead of her when she was viciously attacked by a boyfriend. Basically after he attacked her, he then coordinated having a stranger attack her by spraying acid on her face as she walked down the street. Her incredible story of recovery can be found here:

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/katiepiper

After you read her story, I'm sure you'll agree with me... she is an absolutely incredible woman with strength and determination not often seen.

When I hear stories like this, I always wonder how I would fare in a similar situation. I often wonder where people draw the strength from. Is it something all of us are capable of having if we need to? I don't know that it exists in me... I tend to really draw away from any difficult life challenging situations. There are a few examples of this strength that I've witnessed in my life that continue to amaze me. Here's one example:

I have a dear friend who about 3 or 4 years ago, when she was in her early 30's, was diagnosed with cancer. If it had been me, I likely would have curled up on the sofa and let myself be consumed with the illness. But not my friend... she faced the battle head on. When the doctors gave her the option of a big surgery or chemo and radiation, she chose the more invasive surgical route. When they told her after the surgery that the cancer was still there and she'd have to face the treatments as well, she did it. And now, my gorgeous, strong friend is alive and cancer free and has years and years of fun ahead of her.

So, I'm curious... does anyone know where this kind of strength comes from? Do you have stories of strength you'd like to share? I find them so inspiring and always love to hear them.

Hanukkah vs Christmas!

So way back in my first blog post I mentioned that one of the reasons that I didn't completely change my name when I got married was because I had a great family history behind the "Bryan" name. Well, each year, around this time, I am reminded of what that history is and what it means. So, I thought I'd take this opportunity to tell you all about it.



My family name is actually my paternal grandmother's maiden name. You see, my paternal grandfather was born and raised in Czechoslovakia and was Jewish. His last name was Loewenstein. His family were quite successful owners and operators of a small fine china factory. When WWII broke out, my grandfather and his entire family were sent to Auschwitz. My grandfather was lucky enough to escape, the rest of his family parished there.



When my grandfather escaped, he fled to England where he met my grandmother. In an effort to hide his identity, he married my grandmother and took her last name. After the war was over, he and my grandmother settled in England and maintained the Bryan name. So, you can see why I wouldn't want to give that up!



Now, this leads me to my topic at hand... if I had been raised a Loewenstein (imagine that mouthful... Karma Jennifer Loewenstein!!!) I would likely have been raised celebrating Hanukkah, not Christmas (or maybe I would have been lucky enough to have been celebrating both holidays!!!). So, I wonder what would be better... what would be more fun.



Hanukkah Pros

1. You celebrate for 8 days, not just 1. That to me says presents every day for 8 days!!!! How can you top that?

2. You don't have to pretend to be comfortable with the idea of a big, fat man in a red suit creeping around your house in the middle of the night!!!!! I mean really, who came up with that Santa guy anyway???



Christmas Pros

1. You have to also look at the positives associated with that creepy fat man... I can't imagine anything better than a 4 year old in a Santa hat. Oh, yes I can... I think 60 4 year olds in Santa hats is better than just 1 (can't wait for this afternoon's Christmas concert!!!!!)

2. I don't know what happens for Hannukah, but Christmas dinner certainly rocks my world!!!!!



So, I think either way, I would have done alright. I'll leave you now with one of my favourite Adam Sandler songs ever! We certainly don't have a Christmas song that matches this one!!!!



Happy Holidays everyone!!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrd9p47MPHg

How did this happen?

So, I can hardly believe it... tomorrow my "baby" is turning 4. How did that happen? I guess I blinked!

What now???

Well after 6 months of training and preparing for the big night, it's now done!!! Last Friday night, I danced my little feet off in an effort to win the title of HopeSpring's Dancing With the Stars Champion 2009 (and of course to raise money for an excellent cause). And, just in case you've been sleeping since Saturday, I did just that!!! Not only did I win the huge trophy... I was also part of raising $22,000 for HopeSpring. I can't even tell you how great it feels to know that I was a part of an event that did so well. That's the real reward (okay... so it did feel pretty good to win too!!)

It truly was a great night. I danced well (only made one mistake in my rumba) and my partner Don didn't drop me on the dead man's drop!!! All of the people who are closest to me (with the exception of just a couple) were able to be there to cheer me on. And trust me... I could hear them loud and clear as I spun around the dance floor!!! Even my sister and niece made the trek all the way to K-town to witness it! 

So, it begs the question... what next? How will I fill my Monday nights and Sunday afternoons? I'm afraid I just don't know. I'm thinking of starting a post DWTS support group so what better times to meet? Hopefully Trish doesn't mind us crashing her place twice a week. I for one know that Don and Marie would definitely join me, as would Bryn... just to name a few. So, to my dancing family (as Linda calls us), I hope everyone is enjoying the fame that came with Friday night and I'll see you this Sunday at Trish's from 11 - 5!!! (Trish... leave the key under the mat when you leave for Cuba!!!)

It's finally here!!!!!

Well after almost six whole months of training, the big day is finally upon us!!! We had our final rehearsal tonight and everyone looked great. Although it is partly a competition, we are all so truly dedicated to raising money for a great cause. Here's hoping we match or even exceed the $22,000 that was raised by last year's show. 

So, until tomorrow... I'm off to try to get some sleep. The primping is starting bright and early with my nails at 9:00am, right after I put Evan on the school bus! Then it's off to Trish's to start hair and makeup. 

I hope everyone who is attending enjoys the show. It truly is amazing what all of us have accomplished. I'm so proud to be a part of the show and really can't wait for it to begin. 

Nite nite!!!!

PS... the images are from one of our rehearsals about 3 weeks ago. Me and my amazing partner Don are rehearsing our Rumba!