Not Just Baby Brain » Life Outside Of Baby

Wordless Wednesday – Gingy

Stacey — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:00:05 +0000

I came home from a weekend away to find this little guy in my garden.

Ashlyn helped Daddy pick him out for me and I love him. Bring on the Christmas decorations!

Wordless Wednesday – Tea Time

Stacey — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 00:30:50 +0000

My husband gave me this fabulous tea pot for Christmas almost 2 years ago and it gets used almost daily from fall through spring. I need my coffee in the morning, but I’m a tea girl the rest of the day!

30

Stacey — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 08:00:53 +0000

Today I turned 30. A whole new decade is ahead of me. It’s strange, because I truly think I’m one of the very lucky ones – I’m actually exactly where I hoped to be at this age. Now to find some new goals to achieve in the next 10 years!

Because of my husband’s work schedule, we celebrated a little early. He made me Ben Starr’s Pumpkin Carrot Cake for my birthday and it was devine! If you watch MasterChef, he was one of the contestant’s this year and there is a reason that judge Graham Elliot said gave his mouth an orgasm. Happy birthday to me

Surprise Wedding: Operation White Cake

Stacey — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 20:03:05 +0000

It’s our fourth wedding anniversary today, so it seems appropriate to post a wedding-related video. This was posted on a forum that I’m on and it’s so sweet and touching: a groom who spent a year asking his wife-to-be casual questions about what she’d like to have for her wedding, just so he could surprise her with her perfect wedding. Keep the tissues close for this one!

Canada Day aftermath

Stacey — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 03:41:23 +0000

Tonight my 2 year old asked to go to the park. It was a little later than we usually head out, but she’d had a good nap this afternoon and it was still light out, so at 8pm we walked down the street to our neighbourhood park.

The park that the many children in our neighbourhood use.

The park that was probably full of kids all day because the weather was so beautiful today.

The park that was full of garbage from exploded fireworks that *someone* set off in celebration of Canada Day yesterday, but couldn’t be bothered to clean up once the fun was over. All of those red circles in the first two pictures show where there was debris in the sand – that’s not all of it, just what I could easily identify.

This a public park in an area full of children; I’m betting it was someone who lives in the neighbourhood who decided to use it as their own personal fireworks launching area. Yet almost 24 hours after the fireworks went off – plenty of time to have come back and cleaned up – there was so much garbage that we almost turned around and went home.

Instead, I walked home and returned with gloves, a large garbage bag and my camera. While my older daughter watched, my husband and I put on the gloves and starting picking up as much as we could. Poor Ashlyn just wanted to help but I didn’t want her to touch any of the firework debris, and she kept saying “Ashlyn no gloves, no touch” very sadly as we worked. She couldn’t even play in the sand like she normally does because there wasn’t a section that didn’t have fragments of the detonated fireworks in it.

I am disgusted that someone would leave a park in this state. I am saddened that children were clearly playing amongst all of this trash all day long. I am bewildered that other parents MUST have seen the state the park was in today and chose to let their young children play there as it was, instead of helping to pick up the mess.

To whomever left this mess, I hope you had a great Canada Day. I’m sure it was a lot of fun – we had a great time at all of the local events ourselves. Next time, clean up your own mess; I have 2 kids, I clean enough as it is. Because the next time that I hear fireworks, I’m heading to the park with a camera – not to take pictures of the display you’re putting on, but to get your faces on record. If things look like this the next day, I’ll be taking those pictures to the proper authorities. My 2 year old knows she needs to clean up after herself when she makes a mess so grown adults have absolutely no excuse for this ignorant behaviour.

Crazy Dog T Shirts (giveaway)

Stacey — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:06:33 +0000

Father’s Day is fast approaching (June 19 in case you weren’t sure) and I know my husband isn’t the only man who is hard to buy for. Crazy Dog T Shirts has a huge variety of t shirts that would make a perfect present!

I was checking out their Movie T Shirts when I came across the Shop Smart T Shirt and knew that it would be perfect for my husband. It references one of his favourite movies (Army of Darkness) and it has a fun retro vibe to it. I can already tell that this t shirt will be in heavy rotation this summer!

I ordered my husband a size medium and it is a slim fit, so if you’re not sure it’s best to err on the side of caution and go up a size. I didn’t notice any shrinkage after washing and drying it which is great because believe me, if it can be shrunk I’ll do it. They have a variety of Funny T Shirts for everyone!

One lucky reader will win a $15 gift card from Crazy Dog T Shirts!

To enter, look around Crazy Dog T Shirts and leave me a comment saying what t shirt you’d pick if you won (required).

*the winner must not have won a promotional item from Crazy Dog T Shirts, Nachomamatees or Costume Squad in the last 90 days and may not run their own review/giveaway blog*

For additional entries (leave a separate comment here for each):

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Follow @NotJstBabyBrain on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway (RT 1x per day and leave me the link to your tweet in your comment) #Win $15 #giftcard for Crazy Dog T Shirts via @NotJstBabyBrain http://notjustbabybrain.com/?p=2557 ends Jun 20 #giveaway #fathersday #clothing
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Contest closes JUNE 6 @ 10pm EST; open to US and CANADIAN RESIDENTS only.

Please make sure that your profile is public or leave me your email address in each entry so I have a way to contact you. I will use And The Winner Is… to chose the winner and email them. The winner will have 72 hours to contact me or a new winner will be chosen. Good luck!

Wordless Wednesday – Tulip Festival

Stacey — Wed, 25 May 2011 01:38:54 +0000

The Tulip Festival is an annual event here in Ottawa, so we took advantage of the fantastic weather on Saturday to spend the morning downtown, including the very popular LEGO Community Garden.

Slave Lake is burning

Stacey — Mon, 16 May 2011 16:52:59 +0000

(Image from CTV Edmonton)

A few years ago, when we lived in Northern Alberta, I worked for the Forestry division as a Logistics Coordinator. I didn’t work in Slave Lake itself but all of the different Forestry departments in the province worked together to fight fires all season long. Watching Slave Lake literally burn to the ground is heartbreaking (as of the last news report that I heard, 70% of the town has burned down); I have former coworkers who are working around the clock fighting the fire on the scene and in the many offices around the province, not to mention thinking of all of the 7,000 people who have had to evacuate from Slave Lake as their homes are endangered. Thankfully, so far no deaths or injuries have been reported.

On Facebook, you can find out more information about the fires at Alberta Wildfire Info and there are pages to direct you on where you can make donations of clothing/food in the Edmonton area and Grande Prairie , as well as a general page for donations and aide for the Slave Lake Area fire victims. If you aren’t local but want to make a donation to help the victims of the fire in Slave Lake, you can visit Red Cross online.

Our thoughts are with everyone in Alberta as they deal with this devastating event and we hope that everyone is able to stay safe!

Wordless Wednesday – Beautiful Bouquet

Stacey — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 23:24:15 +0000

We have been lucky enough that ever since Rowan was born, we’ve had beautiful bouquets arriving from friends and family. The best part is that somehow whenever one bouquet dies we seem to get another the next day. These beauties are from my dear friend Amy (creator of Splendid Events and her husband.

Wordless Wednesday – Winterlude 2011

Stacey — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 01:00:34 +0000

Every winter, Ottawa has a huge event called Winterlude. There are lots of things to see and do, such as an ice sculpture contest that attracts competitors from around the world; skating on the world’s longest outdoor skating rink; and of course, eating. My husband, daughter, father in law and I went to check out a few of the sites today and even though it was freezing outside, we still had a good time for a Tuesday morning!

Weekends are much busier, so going during the week meant that our toddler could run around and not get in the way (or worse, trampled!). Here’s some of what we saw! Check out Winterlude’s website for more information!