Ramblings of TJR -- Marketer -- Mom -- TV Addict.

I made it!  Today is November 30 and I made it!   30 posts in 30 days.  Yeah some days were lighter than others.  But I made the effort to come up with ideas and write or post a thought everyday.  And that was my objective.    I hope to continue to blog more regularly, and in particular hope to keep up with  my follow blogger friday posts.

It was so nice to attend Momcafe last Friday without having to worry how my little guy was settling in with the child care. After two experiences of him having to sit with me through the presentations, I made other child care arrangements (convenient that Grandma was in town that day). So I was able to network with other moms and enjoy the presentations without distractions. Today’s speakers were Moms behind the Headlines : Andrea Vance , Publisher of WestCoast Families ; and Tamara Taggart , CTV Weathercaster. Andrea talked about her path to becoming an entrepreneur and publisher. Tamara talked more about how she makes it work today. It was interesting to hear Andrea talk about her late days and nights working at EA. How that lead to a late night life discussion over Rum and Cokes, with her now husband. And how that led to her quitting her high paying job with nothing to go to and no plan. The biggest transitions for her were: Learning to work from home. How to get out of ...

Hubbie and I had a date night last week. My mom was in town and so was Blue Rodeo, so we took advantage and had a night out.  I've seen Blue Rodeo about six times in my life, and they never fail to please.  My first time was during University and I don't remember too much about it except that I loved loved loved Greg Keeler's voice (Diamond Mine is still my favourite song). Then there was the time we saw them in Malkin Bowl at Stanley Park.  We were in the 6th or 7th row and we arrived just as Blue Rodeo was taking stage. I watched Jim and Greg eye my 9 month pregnant belly as I sidled into my seat.  Luckily for everyone there wasn't an unexpected and unticketed guest delivered that night.  He waited another week to arrive. But boy did he ever dance around in my stomach that night.  And then one year later, we celebrated one of our first night's out without the little man with another Blue Rodeo concert.  This time we saw them at The Centr...

IMG_5848 Originally uploaded by tjrossignol As my hubbie tells it the story is long and involved. I just say he was the right guy, at the right place at the right time. And all that equals Lego windfall. More photos of how full hubbie stuffed our vehicle with Lego . http://www.flickr.com/photos/17030737@N06/sets/72157622883243346/

This week I have three mom focused blogs to recommend. Raspberrykids.com  Run by Sue Sinclair this blog provides helpful tips, news about interesting products and the odd update on Sue's crazy life as Chief Executive Mom of Raspberrykids.com.  Sue is one of the few people I have met who really gets customer service.  She is all about building relationships.  To many it may seem she spends a lot of effort of 'non-sales' oriented relationships. But this is what she gets that other don't. She is building loyal relationships and that always translates into a stronger business in the long run.  Plus, she is just so darn nice.  @raspberrykids The Yummy Mummy Club .  This blog was founded by Erica Ehmn of Much Music fame.  Erica and her group of real life mommy bloggers provide a wealth of topics and blogs that all mommy's can relate to.  We are all moms, but we are also women, wives, girlfriends, daughters, party goers/givers, runners, dancers,...

My girlfriend Amy came back from her 2 month adventure in South America today.  I love my life, but I have to admit I'm rather jealous is her ability to take off for 2 months on some crazy adventure.  She posted FB pictures along the way so I feel I have a bit of insight into her trip.  But hearing her talk about it today made it all real for me - she really was on this adventure and not just in Vernon for a few months.  Her favourite moments were paragliding, hiking the Inca Trail and seeing the Bolivian desert & salt flats (she stayed in a hostel made completely of salt blocks - even the tables the chairs).   On the other side it was an adventure tour and I'm a girl who likes a shower now and again (even if I have to clear out the toddler toys first).  The tour stayed in hostels, and home stays and camped along the Inca Trail.  So very few of our usual amenities.  When asked what she missed most it was regular hot showers,  ...

Not a pure wordless wednesday, as this links to a video.   All I have to say is I 'heart' lindy hop and So you think you can dance .  http://vodpod.com/watch/2572597-sytycd-season-6-top-12-ellenore-and-ryan-lindy-hop-by-carla-heiney-ive-got-to-be-a-rg-cutter-by-the-boilermaker-jazz-band Thanks also to Mary Murphy for giving props to Frankie Manning.  

Once again I'm blogging about toilet training.  To try and keep this blog as poop free as possible click my cloth diapering blog  for further details.

So yesterday I did a fun yet superficial blog about shoes at the Women in Leadership Foundation SuperWomen & Friends Gala.  I had not planned on blogging about the event, as I was volunteering and figured I'd be too busy.  But the keynote speaker was so awesome and so funny I found myself taking out my notebook and writing some things down.  The keynote speaker was Andrea Holmes, a 2010 Paralympic Alpine hopeful.  I instantly liked her as we sat in the mini touch up bar (how fabulous was it to have a mini hair and make-up bar before the 'red carpet' photos).  She and my friend were having their hair done and we all easily laughed and joked about how 'only women' would think of such a thing.  Andrea's quick wit and sense of humour makes it clear she often uses humour to make other people comfortalbe with her disability.   She easily jokes about herself refering to wearing 3" heels with her prosthetic leg; her leg & ski dropping...

So I wrote the post below on Saturday and thought that I posted it.  It is a lame post, but I want to show that I had actually done the post on Saturday and didn't miss a day of Blog a day November.  ----- Today I'm just running.  Last minute pieces to organize for any media attending tonight's Women in Leadership gala and none of the technology seems to be cooperating. Thankfully FedEx Kinko's is open on Saturdays. Off to iron dress, hair, make-up, dress and then run downtown. Tomorrow I'll hopefully have some fun pics and highlights of the evening.

Last night was the big Women in Leadership Foundation gala I've been working on for months.   And the dress that I hand tailored Friday night didn't come up to snuff, so a bunch of other dresses got reviewed and finally one chosen. A pretty (if bit boring) black dress was chosen in the end.  And all because it went with the all important red shoes!  So it was the winner.  And while a lot of other women were dressed in black, there was a great array of lovely dresses at the event last night.   But top of mind for me was checking out all the fantastic shoes.  So this is a picture blog of the gala in shoes.  Early in the evening all the shoes are women I know... but after a drink from the martini luge I started asking strangers to take pictures of their feet.  The biggest trends seemed to be the pointy toed black, followed by red shoes with a black dress.  Couldn't figure out how to get the flickr album to show up inside ...

The November rain seems to be getting to me more than  usual these days, and I woke up with a headache.  So today's blog follow friday will be all about the escapism blog.  I love the pop culture analysis at mamapop.com  and snarky comments about silly reality stars or strangely dressed celebrities.    Run by and contributed to by a great group of parents. Somehow their analysis and comments seem to hit home more for me than lets say some other bitter bitchy gossips - can you say Perez 'get a life'.  These are people who love pop culture. Plus I never really feel that they cross the line into what isn't really my business.    For those on twitter you must follow their updates @mamapop. Plus you have to LOVE any sight that has herbadmother.com as a contributor.  I will follow that bloggess to the ends of the earth.  She gives her take on motherhood and life with her usual biting humour intact.  Be ...

For weeks I have had my new black chiffon dress hanging at the front of the closet.  The purpose was to remind me to get it tailored before the Women in Leadership Foundation gala this upcoming Saturday.  The dress isn't exactly new... it is over a year old. But I've never worn it because it needs to be taken in.   So I put it out front and centre to make sure I remembered to take it to a seamstress. I didn't! Gala is now in 2 days.  So my choices are: Hand sew it myself (my sewing machine is broken). Find something else to wear.  And yes, I do have other dresses, but I've worn them lots of times and really wanted to wear my new dress.  To add insult to injury I actually bought new shoes to wear with the dress.  Now lets call a spade a spade here. I haven't bought new shoes since last spring (those awesome orange fluevog sandles).  And these snazzy red shoes called out to me.  So the gala might - just might - have been an excuse...

I decided to write about experience so far with toilet training.  As I try to keep this blog as poop free as possible I did it over at my cloth diaper blog .  

Last night I got my Doctor Who Fix by watching the Doctor Who special "Waters of Mars" last night.  We had a couple of other Doctor Who fans over and it was great to watch with others who are long time fans. This was an exciting episode, with lots of action, gross looking villains and lots of running (although they never run like they did in the classis series - where they would run up and down the same hallway but they would try to make it look different cause they couldn't afford the extra sets).  While I love the funny, witty Doctor. I also love it when they show the potentially dangerous Doctor. He really does need a companion to help keep him back off the edge.  I mean who else is there... there certainly won't be a "Trial of the Time Lord" anytime soon.  There really is nobody to stop him from doing what he wants.  Who policing the last of the time police?   Really 'Doc' you need someone to talk some sense to you....

Today I decided to go the aquarium with the little guy.  It was pouring rain.  We spent most of the day at home yesterday.  Hubbie had been out late last night, so I thought the little man and I would get out of the house and give us all a break.  I have a membership at the aquarium, but it my first time going on a Sunday.  I can go any day of the week I want.  WHY did I pick a Sunday? So yeah, it was a bit busy.  Mostly with parents (and a large percentage of Dads) getting out of the house with the kids.  First stop was the kids area for the family time at 10:30 - and stroller parking. The stroller seemed like a good decision when I was racing through the wet rainy parking lot.  It helped us keep up a decent pace.  I didn't have to chase him everywhere and he could sit and snack between attractions.  But I had to lift him in and out of the stroller a lot of times.  Plus it was crowded and waiting for elevators is ann...

I started taking notes on the cute and funny things our little guy does... in part so I won't forget, as I seem to have stopped updating the baby book and realize I have forgotten a lot of fun details. So today's blog will be a list of little things our little guy is doing that make us laugh.  His relationship with his stuffed animals has recently ramped up to BFF... although the actual BFF changes several times a day.  He seems to take at least 1 stuffed animal everywhere.   He will go from putting a diaper on his purple monkey, to having a tea part with his bear in an instant (my favourite is when he takes the stuffed animal to the toilet with him, and they have to sit right beside him and 'try'). Begging for a treat and then not eating it - he carries it around like a little treasure.  Which is okay if the treat is an organic oatmeal cranberry mini cookie, but not when it is one of the few Halloween treats he has been given. He is careful to avoid any mi...

I've caught my son's cold. Not a big surprise - but the timing sucks. I also have an interview this afternoon, so my blogger version of follow friday is going to be short and sweet. One of my first bosses - Chris.  Always sees the glass half full.  Never does anything half way.  Always makes me laugh.  He has 2 blogs.  One is a lifestyle focused blog.  Although these days it is mostly about his upcoming Marathon in Jamaica.  He has been training for months.  But more importantly he isn't just running for himself. He has set a goal of raising $10K for Canadian Diabetes in honour of his Dad.   His blog talks about how he stays inspired and motivated - lessons for us all on how to attain our goals. What has been working for him in his training and his fundraising.  Check out That Running Guy: Races to Finish Optimistic observations and commentaries on life from my interconnected worlds of running, driving, working, ...

Yesterday I read this blog post from the Church of the Customer blog about fees being penalties.  In this case they were relating a lack of baggage fees with increased business.   They make a good argument - one with which I very much agree.  As I searched frantically in my wallet for my loonie to get myself a shopping cart (while restraining my rampant toddler who wanted to run amok through the store), I thought this might be similar.  Why am I paying a fee to get a shopping cart?  A basic necessity when shopping for more than 1 thing (leaving the other hand free for restraining said child).  I know the argument from stores is that it saves them money and in the end keeps their prices down.  Frankly it seems a cheap way to put the onus on the customer.  A penalty for being their customer.  And frankly a real pain in the butt for parents shopping with children (and who might not be so organized as to always have a loonie...

PB070699 Originally uploaded by tjrossignol Wordless Wednesday - practising celebrity incognito walk.

Today I met with two of my Women in Leadership volunteers. They are helping me with the PR and marketing for the upcoming SuperWomen & Friends Gala - NEXT Saturday.  What was I thinking deciding to blog everyday AND do final planning for a gala.  So my blogging may have a distinct Women in Leadership/Gala slant for the next 2 weeks.  What is left to do?  Everything it seems.  Media pitches for pre-event interviews. Media invitations to attend the event.  Design and assemble media kits.  Finalize signage.  Finalize program.   Confirm guest blogger (done @lovesocial is confirmed).  Tweet.  Twitter contest.  Facebook updates......  Thankfully I have two passionate and energetic volunteers who take direction well and work well on their own.  The last few weeks is always a rush of adrenaline.... then event night... then the post event let down.  The event is shaping up to be a really fun night of w...

On the weekend the little man and I took a trip over the Island to visit some of the Grandparents.  This was my first experience travelling on my own with a toddler. The trip didn't start out well when I bought tickets for the wrong ferry. Thankfully Dad had walked us to the ferry and could watch the little man. Meanwhile I SPRINTED back to the ticket desk to get them fixed before the 10 minute cut off.  I don't sprint often and certainly not that distance, so I was pretty out of breath.  But I got there in time.  I guess the run must have dried my throat out because as we were standing in the cafeteria line up I started to cough... just that gotta get that tickle out of my throat kind of cough. Which of course only goes away when you either get out a really good cough. Or you get water.  So the people around us in line gave us lots of space, leary that I was going to give them some plague or something. For both ferry rides we rode one of the new ferr...

PB070655 Originally uploaded by tjrossignol A few too many glasses of wine with some good friends last night and the blog inspiration seems to be a bit dehydrated today. So thought would be fun to post a picture from the very wet park near my Dad's place in Victoria. How the little guy kept his socks dry I'll never know.

Ten years ago I moved out to Vancouver, or the wet coast. I love it here. I even love the drizzly winters. The one time of year I hate though is November. It is so dark early! And because of the mountains it is often that pitch black dark by dinner time. And it rains - not the grey, drizzly weather we get the rest of the winter. But pouring cats, dogs and other small animals kind of rain. So we fill our November with activities to keep us extra busy. And we try to enjoy the nice periods when they come. All we have to do is make it to that first Holiday party or activity and we are usually golden.

I thought I'd take the twitter idea of Follow Friday into my blog world and recommend a couple of bloggers to follow each Friday. The first is a regular blogger - I don't know how she does it while chasing 2 young kids around - but she blogs almost everyday. She stirs the inner hippie in my urban girlie girl and she is just so darn smart. And real. The tagline for her blog is "keeping it real in the suburbs". http://www.strocel.com/ The second blogs infrequently, but when she does it is so worth it. She is a writer by trade, having just finished her first novel (to be published in 2010), so she has that working for her. But if can you read her recent blog about her library escapade without peeing your pants you are a better woman than me. http://savingtheworldinsensibleshoes.blogspot.com/ Finally, my favourite daddy blog. Often short in delivery. But always a great slice of Daddy life offered straight up - no mixer or ice required. http://jasperchronicles.blogspot.com...

Yesterday I got quite excited when twitter friend @jonbreisnes informed me the latest Doctor Who special will air Nov 15th in the UK. I met Jon in a photography class and bonded with him and his wife over our mutual love of Doctor Who. We will probably have a small Doctor Who tweet-up at our house to watch it. Then I began to wonder when this city girlie-girl got so hooked on sci-fi. Sure sci-fi isn’t new to me, I was a dedicated Buck Rogers, Star Trek and Battlestar Gallatica fan in the 70’s. But I never considered myself a sci-fi fan because I never read a lot of sci-fi, I was more likely to be pouring over a Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys book. But when I look at my favorite tv shows today it runs like a long list of sci-fi and fantasy (with a little vampire thrown in for fun). Those that know my husband well will likely blame him. One of my favorite memories is him walking down the aisle at our wedding doubled over laughing, because I played the Doctor Who theme for his procession (and ...

I realized today it has been about a year since I started working with the Women in Leadership Foundation (WIL). I saw an online ad looking for volunteers for their SuperWomen and Friends gala. I volunteered and I was swept up into the details of managing a silent auction for the gala. I had been volunteering at a variety of different events for different organizations, trying to find an organization where I wanted to dedicate my volunteer time. So when WIL asked me to take a role on their advisory board and help with their marketing & communications I said yes. Why did I agree to give up some of my valuable time to volunteer? I had both personal and professional reasons. Personally I have always had a strong affinity to supporting and mentoring women. WIL is a young dynamic organization that does not ‘preach’ down to its members. Its mission is to advance women’s leadership. They have a positive, collaborative approach which allows every person involved to inspire, support and emp...

Day 3 of National Blog Month We have been watching an interesting power struggle in our house recently. I never knew the policitics of stuffed animals could be so interesting. Since the little man was 6 months old he has slept with a little brown bear. Around a year a little bunny joined the ranks. These are his sleeping friends. He also plays with them around the house. They do not go outside to play. They stay at home. ( seen at right trying to escape outside through the cat door ) In the past month or so the little man has discovered more of his other stuffed toys. There is now big brown bear who likes to eat breakfast with the little man. The monkey with the long arms and legs that likes to 'hug' the cat. And the giraffe that enjoys juice and cookies. None of these are sleeping friends. Just casual play buddies. Until 2 days ago. When he discovered yellow bear. Yellow bear became his new BFF. And when it came to nap time he wanted him with him. Not wanting to add to his al...

Monday my son goes to Montessori. He spends the whole day with his friends playing, learning, listening, sharing, laughing – generally growing into an independent little person. He LOVES it! And so do I! It give me time to get some things done –job searching, networking, blogging, volunteer work and yeah sometimes even housework. Yes I miss him. But I know that he gains a lot being there. He is around other kids and is learning key social skills early in life. I am also an only child and I know he is already better at sharing than I ever will be. His teacher is better at some things than I am. She is consistent. She sets a structured set of boundaries. The kids know what is coming next and what is expected of them. I know it is because of her that he is such a good listener. He understands that certain behavior is unacceptable and he is much easier to manage at home. She works with us on behavior issues. When we came home from a recent trip he had picked up a few things from his cousin...

Realized today my blog was pretty much non-existent in October. Why? Busy traveling, visitors, lack of ideas, lack of time. The real honest answer is lack of discipline. Writing to me is a muscle that works better when it is exercised regularly. Upon the suggestion by a fellow twitter and mommy blogger @miss_scarlett99 I have signed up for National Blog Posting Month . The idea of writing a blog everyday scares the crap out of me. My little inner voice asked…. How would I find the time? How would I come up with ideas? Who would want to read me for 30 days straight? But then I asked myself why I write. Writing everyday would help me develop my muscle. Plus, if one of my goals is to write books someone might actually publish for people to buy and read – then I MUST write regularly. Plus if it scares me the crap out or me. So it MUST be worth doing!!! So here I am. Already 1 day behind.