I’m Proud to Be Canadian, How About You? #TGCBB

I’m happy to be participating again in The Great Canadian Blog Bash(TGCBB), a celebration of Canadian Bloggers and All Things Canadian.

About Me

So first to introduce me. My name is Kathleen and I live in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. I’m a SAHM to three children:

1. Girl 6 years old
2. Girl 5 years old
3. Boy 1 year old

I’m also a Girl Guide Leader, playgroup enthusiast and nonfiction book lover. I love to blog and learn about blogging and blog with others.

I’m turning 29 very soon (June 28) and I’m happy to be sharing a Birthday Weekend with Canada!

Proud Canadian

I have always been a proud Canadian. I love living in Canada and I can’t imagine living anywhere else! I’ve always lived in Windsor, Ontario, Canada too. Well I was in Leamington for a while as a baby but I don’t remember and that’s pretty much the same places anyways!

Photo Above Taken at the Canada Day Parade Windsor, Ontario, Canada 2010.

About Callista’s Ramblings

First of all you should know that Callista is the name I used to use online. It’s still in many of my usernames and emails but when I was younger, I was told not to use my real name online for safety. Now that I share my name with all kinds of companies anyways, I figured I might as well go by it. I prefer Kathleen anyways. I contemplated changing my  blog name a few times, not just because of the Callista thing but I didn’t want to have to go through all that renaming such with all the links and references to my blog and such.

Callista’s Ramblings Over the Years

• Started 2003  - when I was a teen and was new to blogging. Posts from back then are mostly memes, personal thoughts and silly quizzes.
• 2004-2006 – I posted irregularly, mostly in little spurts.
• 2007 – Mid year I started taking blogging a bit more seriously and started trying to post regularly. Still mostly memes and such though.
• 2008 – late in the year I started getting contacted by companies and started out with small posts with product compensation.
• 2009 – This is when I consider myself to really be a serious blogger that works with brands. I started doing more reviews and giveaways with opinion and random posts mixed in. April 2009 I got my current design. I also accepted my first guest post.
• 2010  - Posted the post that has received the most pageviews and searches EVER on my blog, even to this day it is the most popular and it’s very simple and I wrote it on my own. Why is an Orange Called and Orange? I also got my first “gig” with Mom Central as a Majesta Mom. I also held my first special event: Camping Week
• 2011 – big year for brand work and building readership. I participated in my first cash giveaway and started doing blog giveaway hops and sponsored posts. I also did my first Christmas Gift Guide
• 2012 – Realized I was getting to be too much reviews and giveaways and not other content like I had originally hoped. I’ve lately started to write other posts (such as 6 Things to Remember When Hosting a Child’s Birthday) but have been catching up on reviews. I plan on unveiling more content soon.

So it’s nice to “meet” you  and thanks for reading this. I hope you will decide to Subscribe, Like or Follow me to keep up and please introduce yourself in the comments (or say hello if I already know you!)

(Windsor) INFO/GIVEAWAY: The Wiggles! Big Birthday! is at the WFCU Centre!

I've decided to host more local content on this blog. Local for me is Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Anything I post local to Ontario will start with (Ontario) in the title. If it's Windsor/Essex County Specific, it will start with (Windsor.) That way my readers who aren't local can skip it. Don't worry, there will still be lots of generic content too! To celebrate the local focus, I have some info to share and a giveaway for Windsor/Essex County readers.

NOTE: If you live in Toronto or the surrounding area, visit Toronto Teacher Mom, a great canadian blog, for your chance to win by June 28. 

Also Windsorites can enter at Whispered Inspirations too for another chance to win!

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The Wiggles! Big Birthday! Tour is coming to the WFCU Centre on Thursday, July 28 at 6:30 PM.

Tickets are on sale now, and go from $15 to $75 for VIP seats (additional facility fees and service charges may apply) $75 tickets are limited and will include the best seats in the house, an exclusive gift, an activity sheet and a chance to dance along with the Wiggles themselves.

Audience participation for the tour includes:

• Create a giant wiggly birthday card or sign at home
• Have fun with the Wiggles as they sing and dance through the audience.
• Dress up as your favourite character.
• Yelling "Wake Up Jeff" whenever he falls asleep on stage!

While you are waiting for the show date to get here, check out http://www.wiggletime.com, a virtual world for preschoolers and their parents. Parents can monitor their child's progress and will have access to premium promotional offers, contests, merchandise discounts and presale Wiggles tickets.

Click the graphic above to buy tickets!

To purchase tickets, click on the image to the right.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED

Windsor Women Working With Immigrant Women and NAP

Tonight I attended a performance of the Newcomer Art Project (NAP), a program funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada and a part of Windsor Women Working With Immigrant Women.

The mission of the WWWWIW is:

Assisting immigrant and first generation Canadian women and their families to become full and participating members of Canadian Society.

The NAP program:

Established in Fall 2009, The Newcomer Art Project came from a will to channel displaced energies of young newcomer women and direct them towards something creative and productive -- towards something participants could be proud of. The idea behind the program is to instill values of commitment, hard work, team spirit and fun while encouraging active participation in their communities in a meaningful way.

The show (at the Capitol Theatre here in Windsor, Ontario, Canada) was absolutely amazing. The girls really portrayed what coming to Canada from another country is like for them:

• The scary plane ride
• Leaving family and friends behind
• Going to a new school where they are often made fun of because they look, speak, act or dress different.
• Trying to find a job when you don't speak English well or have much experience
• Home life
• and more

The girls danced, sang, acted and showed who they really were. The music was beautiful, at least one song was an original composition by a NAP actor.

What's amazing is that the NAP program has only been around for 6 months but all the girls and the adult support team are close, they're friends. At the end, some of the girls thanked their support team with flowers and gratitude, explaining how they are surrogate moms for the time they are at the NAP program. It brought tears to my eyes.

I have no photos because we were not allowed to take any but it was beautiful. If I see they are putting on another one in the future I want to go.

You can find out more about Windsor Women Working With Immigrant Women but since NAP is so new, there doesn't seem to be a website or email directly for them. If you live in Windsor, ON and are a young women who immigrated here, contact WWWWIW at info@wwwwiw.org and ask about the NAP program