All Blog Posts Tagged 'cole' (39)

Hallowe'en- Mama Style

I’m not a fun person. Let me qualify that – I’m not fun in the traditional sense.

I don’t dress up for Hallowe’en and I have never met an April Fools Day prank that I didn’t think was stupid. When people send me funny jokes by e-mail, the joke gets deleted immediately and the sender receives a message requesting removal from the group list since I have no time for such nonsense. There is a long list of things that prove that I’m not a fun person.

So imagine the surprise my… Continue

Added by Julie Cole on November 2, 2009 at 11:30am — No Comments

This is Lovely, But...

I have people send me this link regularly:

I’m always so chuffed when people take the time to forward something that might be of interest to me. Have a look – this clip is a beauty. A lovely teenager with autism gets his chance on the basketball court and absolutely shines – elevated to hero status by his supportive peers cheering him on. It is truly moving.

It also annoys the crap out of me.

When I see this clip, it makes me want… Continue

Added by Julie Cole on October 26, 2009 at 7:24am — No Comments

A Different Kind of Remembrance Day

Last week on October 15th, many mamas were lighting candles in remembrance. That day has been designated as National Pregnancy Loss & Infant Loss Awareness Day.

I had a miscarriage soon after my first child was born. My loss was accompanied with some guilt too – finding out I was pregnant while having a newborn left me horrified. I quickly adjusted to the thought of my “Irish Twins” and was devastated when I miscarried. Then came the guilt – how could I have initially greeted… Continue

Added by Julie Cole on October 19, 2009 at 7:53am — No Comments

When Our Children Grow Up

I was miraculously alone in my car the other day tuned into CBC, hoping to catch the dreamy voice of long- time crush, Jian Ghomeshi.

Being interviewed was Shane Earle, Mount Cashel Orphanage survivor. Something he said really resonated with me: the way we live each day as an adult is a constant reaction to how we were treated as a child.

That really spoke to me – although the majority of our years are spent as an adult, those childhood years are with us always. We carry… Continue

Added by Julie Cole on October 13, 2009 at 11:33am — No Comments

Sales Guy Survived Run In With Mom

I have wrapped up my maternity leave and am now enjoying my official Mabel duties. One of these duties includes overseeing the Sales Department, which is kind of funny since I almost killed a sales guy this week.

The other evening I was nagged by the sound of a faint knock at our door. I was just starting all the bedtime routines and it was a particularly challenging evening since daddy-o was out of town.

I ignored the nagging knocking as long as possible then finally… Continue

Added by Julie Cole on October 5, 2009 at 7:04am — No Comments

Have Breasts, Will Travel

I have this friend Steve who was recently on a flight. Across the aisle was a new mama with her babe and a very elderly man, who from here on in shall be called ‘old dude’.

As the airplane was taking off, mama started breastfeeding babe. As any travelling mama knows, it’s good if you can get babe to feed on the way up and the way down to relieve any ear pain due to changing air pressure.

As she is feeding, old dude is shuffling around, mumbling under his breath, clearing… Continue

Added by Julie Cole on September 29, 2009 at 11:42am — No Comments

Elia

I go to the Mabel’s Labels HQ about two and half days a week and work from home the rest of the time. I like going to the office for the obvious reasons – it’s quiet, no one interrupts me to say they want a snack, and I get to dress up a bit (OK, admittedly “dressing up” is only about a half step up from my mama uniform).

There’s something else about the office that I like that’s tricky to describe – a certain dynamic that makes ours not your average office.

One thing is… Continue

Added by Julie Cole on September 21, 2009 at 7:28am — No Comments

Summer in the Suburbs

Several years ago, I reluctantly moved to the suburbs. I missed my life as an urban mama cruising all the mama haunts with my three babes loaded up in a triple stroller. Suddenly every outing involved a mini-van. Since the move, my kid crew has doubled in size and like it or not, suburbia is the very best place for us.

This was reinforced last week when we held the Mabel’s Labels Staff and Family Summer Sizzler in my backyard. I gotta say, life is pretty good if you are a kid hanging… Continue

Added by Julie Cole on September 8, 2009 at 11:22am — No Comments

Lions and Tigers and... Chipmunks? Oh My!

Like any kiddos, mine are big fans of critters and creatures. They are particularly fond of chipmunks, and at the cottage they spend a lot of time feeding and basically domesticating these little creatures.

Turns out they have made fast friends with the little critters at home as well. That was all fine until I noticed the filthy little rodents started tunneling everywhere and patio stones were sinking all over the garden. Daddy-o… Continue

Added by Julie Cole on August 17, 2009 at 8:28am — No Comments

Out of the Mouths of Babes

My cousin just had her first baby, an adorable girl named Claire Maeve.

It was discovered at an early ultra-sound that the baby was going to have a cleft lip. Although minor on the scale of things that can go wrong, it is still news that parents need to digest. The mama and papa (to-be) were amazing - they digested the news quickly, did their research, met with professionals and spent the rest of the pregnancy excitedly anticipating the… Continue

Added by Julie Cole on August 10, 2009 at 10:15am — No Comments

Glamming Up!

I was in Chicago last weekend, attending the BlogHer conference for the first time. In the world of mama blogging, this is the biggie. I was in the company of 1,500 amazing women bloggers — attending great seminars and fabulous parties. It was great fun to see online relationships transform into real life friendships. Really, it was like one big reunion of people who have never actually met before.

In the build up to BlogHer, all the talk was about fashion. This fashion chatter… Continue

Added by Julie Cole on August 4, 2009 at 8:27am — 2 Comments

Vehicle Grief

I’ve been doing a bit of complaining about having to find a car that suits our family. I was whining about this on my other blog (www.thebabymachine.com).

The biggest issue has been that it seemed like no one wanted to help us out. I e-mailed contacts in the car industry and didn’t hear back. We went to a car lot and looked at a bunch of vehicles and the guy said he would call if something suitable arrived and we never heard from him… Continue

Added by Julie Cole on July 14, 2009 at 7:03am — No Comments

Summer Survival- Week One

One week down, eight more to go.

This week four of the kiddos were enrolled in a little tennis camp in the neighbourhood for two hours a day. The plan was that in those two hours I would have enough time to clear out my e-mail inbox, update my Facebook status, spend a few moments on twitter, read a couple of blog posts and run an errand. The rest of my day would belong to the kiddos.

It rained this week and while I don’t mean to carry on and complain about the rain, tennis… Continue

Added by Julie Cole on July 7, 2009 at 7:08am — No Comments

The Best Laid Plans

When you have kids, making plans is hard work. Even if you only have two kids, it seems that as soon as you are walking out the door, someone comes down with fever. Plans are never made with complete confidence.

When you have a bunch of kids, there are way too many variables involved. At any given time someone either has a cold, pink eye, fever, rash, the vomits, head lice, a broken leg, or all of the above. On the rare occasion that every single child is in perfect health, plans are… Continue

Added by Julie Cole on June 29, 2009 at 12:39pm — No Comments

Father's Day vs. Mother's Day

I’m never quite sure what to do about Father’s Day. Is it a time when daddy-o is supposed to spend the whole day bonding with his kid crew, or is it a day he should get a break from them?

After pondering the question for about five seconds, I decided to go with the bonding. Fact is, he spends a lot of time at work so doesn’t exactly need a ‘break’ from the kids. As such, I lined up a few dad and kid activities for the morning.

Breakfast in bed was not on the agenda, so the… Continue

Added by Julie Cole on June 22, 2009 at 6:49am — No Comments

Family Pets

The picture you see is of my beautiful nephew Emmett with his dog, Magnum. A picture of our family pet does not exist because we do not have, nor will we ever get a furry friend. My kiddos often complain about how difficult it is having a mean mama. I like to remind them that they may luck out in their next lives, but for now they are stuck with me.

Nagging for a pet is a hobby for my kids. Last summer I compromised and told them they… Continue

Added by Julie Cole on June 15, 2009 at 8:48am — No Comments

The NYC Autopsy

by Julie Cole http://blog.mabel.ca

I am attempting the autopsy of my journey to NYC while nursing a hideous chocolate egg hang-over, so excuse any oversights or omissions. I have a sugar high and the creature invading my uterus is going bananas.

In a nutshell, the trip was fantastic. I created an itinerary packed with amazing activities all done at a reasonable pace for little girls and women who are eight-months pregnant. Do not… Continue

Added by Mabel on April 13, 2009 at 7:28am — No Comments

The Celeb Factor

If you don't know this already, I'm hopeless with pop culture. Here is my list of admissions/confessions:

- I don't own an i-POD, MP3, and don't really know what a PVR does. And is Blu-ray just a fancy DVD?

- Despite my older children being ages nine, eight, and six, I have never seen an episode of Hannah Montana, heard a Jonas Brothers song or seen a High School Musical movie;

- I wouldn't know Adam Lambert if he sang a tribute to… Continue

Added by Julie Cole on March 30, 2009 at 7:58am — No Comments

The Childless Aunt

I'm currently writing an article for Mother's Day about mamas who don't have their own mothers around. It's fascinating to me that people can raise children when their own moms are not retired, living locally, emotionally involved or alive. So, you have that happy read to look forward to. In the meantime it got me thinking about another valuable player in the extended family - the childless aunt.

I had a childless aunt who we tragically lost to breast cancer a dozen years ago… Continue

Added by Julie Cole on March 22, 2009 at 12:24pm — No Comments

The Old Hag With the Babe

I felt young when I had my first baby. I was in my late-twenties but had always imagined I wouldn't get started until I was in my thirties. You see, I just had too much to do and didn't need a baby slowing me down. Turns out, sometimes they don't slow you down but speed you up. Regardless, as time passed and the number of babies increased, so did the number of candles on my birthday cake. Last week I blew out 38 of the damn things.

Generally I'm not bothered by aging. We all… Continue

Added by Julie Cole on March 15, 2009 at 7:56pm — 1 Comment