February 2010 - Elaine, Ian, Francine & Carmen!

* I never truly understood what “tired” meant until I became a mom *

My name is Elaine & I’m a proud mom of two awesome girls. Francine (4.5) is such a happy artistic kid who loves to be chased & tickled. Carmen (2.5) is ubber cute and squeals with delight whenever she sees a dog—or as she calls them “goggies”. She shakes her bootie (just like Shakira!) to all kinds of music. Both girls like to help me cook by stirring or adding “shake shake”.

Besides the mom thing, I enjoy working part-time as a graphics operator for live TV production. At Global BC, I create maps, animations & other graphic elements during local & national newscasts. At Canuck games, I’m the one who calls up the penalty & scoring stats on the jumbotron. I’m super excited to be working the hockey games during the Olympics.

I’m really lucky to have a husband who’s involved in raising our children. After a long day at work, he’ll play games, give them a bath, sing songs & read bedtime stories. It’s rare but sometimes we actually get a chance to mountain bike the North Shore--we have a blast riding up & down ramps, ladders and teeter toters. Before we went into kid “lockdown”, my hubby & I used to backpack places like Thailand, Laos, India, Vietnam, & Central America. Our latest adventure found us buying a new house. We’re so excited to finally have a place of our own!

Recently, we took the family to Maui—it’s SUCH a great place for young families. We rented a condo & had all the comforts of home. It was so great to spend our days on so many child-friendly beaches. I went snorkeling and saw lots of turtles & even swam face-to-face with a 7 ft manta ray…it was so cool!!
We are proud supporters of Children’s Hospital & Doctors Without Borders. As well, for each of our children, we sponsor a World Vision child---Bernadette (Democratic of Congo) and Cindy (El Salvador). Our kids enjoy drawing pictures, letter writing and putting together the care packages giving us a better appreciation for our lives. If we ever complain about life, we remind ourselves of the many who go without food or water. After the Haiti earthquake, it lifted my heart to hear our four year old state that she’s giving half her piggy bank money to help the poor children. To which our two year old followed suit. Seeing how my children have learned to care about others has been one of the best gifts given to me as a mother.

Elaine Verrier is an identical twin and is a huge believer in the cycle of Karma. Her motto’s in life are “Be positive” and “you don’t get if you don’t ask”. She encourages everyone—especially those who can spend money on lattes every day, to support Doctors Without Borders www.msf.ca