February 8, 2019

Date night: Tributefest 2019 Vitalogy. (Pearl Jam)



Date night with my sweetie!

January 8, 2019

January 8, 1999.

A day forever etched in my mind. I can hardly believe what I am about to write...that day was 20 years ago. Twenty (!) years ago I lost my dad. 💔 The best dad I could have ever asked for.

Dad:
I am grateful for the 23 years we had, the adventures, the quiet times, driving the long way, exploring under rocks to see what lived there, changing tires...everything...but I miss you. I talk about you with Darcy and Cameron and try to do things you would have done with them. You would have so much fun with them - I’d probably be missing them instead - you would have them off on adventures all the time!

How can it possibly be 20 years without you? It feels like an eternity and yet like yesterday at the same time.

Gone, but never forgotten. 


top left: Dad, me and...Ronnie? Cathie? Mom? at Lake Barron. Mom maybe you can help identify who is in the boat and the date? The little red boat in the background is at what is now my wharf.

top right: Dad and I at his cottage, on Lake Barron, after water skiing.


Dad and I at Granby zoo

high school grad

top left and middle right: Dad at Nanny and Grandpa’s cottage at Lake Dawson. We probably had supper there and then played poker!

top right: Dad with one of Uncle Wayne’s cats

I came across this picture, of Uncle Wayne, too. This was taken on the ferry in BC in 1999. My mom, Uncle Wayne and I went to Vancouver for his son’s wedding. He is gone now too, soon to be 9 years. He was my mom’s brother and my dad’s best friend. I know there are a lot of Uncle Waynes out there, sorry, but this one was the best.

For you Dad!

2018 craft sale

Ballerina Elf

Boy elf

Marc's Memorial

July 29, 2018 · 

I took this photo this morning before having to leave the lake again. The grey clouds blowing in aptly reflect my mood leaving for something I really didn’t want to do. The flowers are the celebration and the water is life; today I celebrated Marc’s short, but intense life.

It was good to see his family and old friends and especially great to have Melissa and Johanne at my sides.

Thank you, girls, and thank you Mom and Kevin for your encouragement and support.

Fly on to the great blue sky, Marc. 💙

Will Morning Ever Come - a book by my cousin!

I just received my own copy of Darren Tomalty's first book, Will Morning Ever Come.

It is a coming of age story on two levels - present day Kyle and 1930's Dot, Kyle's late grandmother. There is drama, conflict, sex and love! Two great stories and how they connect in middle via Kyle's father. I recommend reading it.

It is available on Amazon.ca.

(I do not gain anything from this link or purchases made via this link)

Goodreads

November 2017

Snow is always beautiful at the beginning of winter.

Discovered that mice got into my old school books and notebooks. I had about 1 box left to keep after cleaning out the badly damaged stuff. So many years of work (12 years in all!), gone in a moment.

A scene in preschool.

I helped host a movie night at school.

Waiting for Darcy outside dance class.

Fall moments in the garden.

A day in the life of a sub. I replaced the gym teacher on Friday (Nov 10) and injured my foot. This was taken on Sunday (Nov 12), as I started to be able to at least limp around. It's about 10 weeks later and I still have a lot of pain in my foot. I can walk, with a slight limp or sometimes none. It takes a few minutes to walk properly after being seated or sleeping. Also, I have to wear shoes in the house most of the time and can only wear shoes with good support now. No more cute sandals. 😢 I suspect a rupture or very bad tear of the plantar fascia, again!

For Thursday - I mean it

I love animals. All animals, except cockroaches, I really don't like those. And some humans.

After some undesirable gestures and some purely unacceptable comments towards my dog, Thursday, this summer I intend to get  or make a sign like this and post it where everyone can see it.

Thursday is a quirky, weird, high strung dog. I know people like that and no one threatens to do the things to them they want to do to my dog. I bet those people, both the quirky and the rude, haven't been through half of what Thursday has been through.

I'd growl and bare my teeth, too, if I lost all of my family within 18 months and been taken from my home. No warning, no explanation and I suspect it's hard for her to look at her home everyday and not be able to go there. Thursday is very fortunate that a loving, tolerant family that was familiar to her took her in, but it's still not easy. She never lived with a cat before, let alone 3, and then there's the birds, too. On top of that, just as she was getting used to our habits and routines, we all moved to another house for a few weeks! So yeah, she can be in a bad mood sometimes. She is getting used to us and to our guests. We're training her and LOVING her to teach her to trust us.

Thursday and Clover on the bed at the same time and they are not fighting!

Thursday doesn't look too happy about it, but she is tolerating it.

We are learning, too. I had one dog in my life and I wasn't at home about 80% of the time, so my mom looked after her. Kevin had one dog in his life. We are not experts, but we ask questions and do our research. We have learned that she is fearful in the dark, maybe because she can't see well in the dark, and that causes her to be on guard. She will growl, snarl, or even snap at anything that startles her. Now we know that when we are at the bonfire at night with her, you have to make sure she can see you before you touch her. 

We have learned that she is very protective. If someone is holding her or she is sitting on someone's lap, she will protect that person, so don't touch them, their chair or the dog! This is not a desirable trait, but again we are working on it with the people she loves and trusts. 

We have learned that she doesn't like feet and will snap at them, especially near her food dish. So the food dish is as out of the way as possible to avoid this, but we can't stop walking around the rest of the place! We have been working on showing her nice feet. Touching her gently with our feet, teaching her "footsie" (which is to give her paw, but on an outstretched foot instead of a hand), and Darcy has even been able to pet her with her foot. Progress!

I am impressed with the changes in her in less than a year. When she was our neighbor she could not be trusted off leash, but now she is regularly off leash in our back yard, which is not completely closed in. She walks off leash with us to the car, to bring out the garbage, to get the mail, etc. She comes when she's called. Her protectiveness used to extend to the whole couch or the whole bed, but that is almost gone now. She still has her moments, but we are all learning what works and what doesn't, and as such we need your cooperation, too. So when we ask you not to touch her with your foot, it's because we don't want to undo all the progress we've made, we don't want her to get hurt and maybe we don't want you to get hurt, either! 

Watching a movie with Thursday. Don't touch me!

I have made a commitment to her and spiritually to Dave to look after her, and I intent to honour it, so if you don't like it, don't come over. As my mom would say, if you don't like my gate, don't swing on it!