PINK SATURDAY

Well, my first "Pink Saturday" is almost over but I have one more picture to post of the scene in my living room right now....you have just gotta be worn out when you fall asleep with your hand in the popcorn bowl!! LOL Only problem is now I have to roust her to brush her teeth and take her fluoride pill. Life is cruel!

HO HO HO

Yup...you are reading that right...Christmas in these parts just never seems to end...today we got into something we never quite got around to at Christmas....there just seems to be too much to do and not enough time to get it done during that time period so today we made our gingerbread house. I have to say, things sure have come a long ways since my boys were young. The first (and actually only other) one I made came in a box...a big box...with pieces of cardboard you cut out for templates....to use once you baked the gingerbread yourself on cookie sheets, let it cool a bit and then laid the templates on it and hoped to heck you didn't mess up with the paring knife you were laboriously cutting around the bits of cardboard with. And that house was huge...and very labor intensive. By the time I got the entire thing together we decided it was too pretty to eat and instead we boxed it up after Christmas and kept it around for years... Our local IHOP had one they recycled year after year so why couldn't we?? Anyways, back to today's house, it came in a box from our local Michael's and was prebaked pieces....much easier! Only took us most of the day what with waiting for pieces to set and dry. We finally got it assembled about 9:30 tonight and Dakotah is happy with it!!

LAMENTS FROM THE COMPUTER DUMMY

At the risk of sounding like a complete idiot, I will explain why I do not have a pretty picture at the top of my post tonight....computers are not my strong suit. I have my one photo card full. I have downloaded them to my computer but I am afraid to erase them as I do not know how to back up the computer nor the pictures. I came up with the great idea of just burning the photo card to a CD...so I loaded all the pictures to somewhere and attempted to transfer them to the CD and it says the file is too large. So I went through and deleted images with half a head, limbs missing etc and still too much to copy. I am too technically challenged to figure out how to either do it on more than one CD or how to take some off...sigh....and I am not very trusting of technology and live in fear of my images being gone forever. So, my photo card is full. I have another but need to find it.

I have had a couple of great photo opportunities in the last couple of days...as is always the case when you don't have the camera with you. I went to Safeway yesterday to pick up an RX and you have to walk through the floral department to get to the pharmacy. Well, the smell just about knocked me over as I rounded the corner....and the sight was something out of my dreams..everywhere I looked were the bright yellow heads of pretty daffodils and tons of hyacinths in full bloom...which explained the fragrant smell. I could have stood there forever smelling and looking at that beautiful sight and it would have made such a pretty picture, too! I love the smell of fragrant flowers...especially after the winter we have been having. I am hoping this means spring cannot be far away....(I won't mention I heard a tidbit on the news of more snow coming..)

My next missed photo op was tonight when I took Dakotah to the mall for her dinner. We went through The Bay store and when we came out the mall doors into the mall, there was a group of young Chinese girls in bright, colorful attire. We stood and watched their performance, they are so talented and it was such a pretty show with their traditional bright garb on. They are with a dance troupe that will be performing at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver in April. I brought home a brochure so I could be sure and put their correct name in my post and of course I now cannot find it. I will add it to the post when it turns up. And now I am being summoned to help complete a project Dakotah and I started earlier today. I will delete something off that darned camera card so I can take a picture of our masterpiece when we are done!

Thanks to all the wonderful bloggers who stopped by my blog today for Pink Saturday and left comments. I am working my way through the comment form and visiting your wonderful blogs as well but it might take me awhile as there is so much to see and enjoy on each of them! Thanks for stopping by mine!

PINK SATURDAY

My friend Loretta at the House of Houben found a great thing to celebrate so I am going to join in with her and the many others to celebrate Pink Saturday. I do believe I am too late to let Beverly know I am joining in however I think if you click the logo on the side you will get to her website and the list of participants. Now I have to find something pretty and pink to post a picture of. Pink is my most favorite color so I am sure I can find a little something! OK...for my first pink post, I am going to post pretty in pink ballerina's! My granddaughter last June 8 and her little class mate.

DISNEY STOCKS

Awhile back I purchased one share of Disney stock. It was something I have wanted to do for years yet one of those things I never quite got around to. I have a lovely certificate that would look lovely framed...if I can remember where exactly I put it!! Well yesterday I received a dividend check in the mail...it is for .24 cents...too funny...but it is .24 US cents...haha. Today I received an invitation to the shareholder meeting on March 10, 2009. Really, really, too funny...I guess every share counts! I will not be attending the share holder meeting however I will send in my proxy votes as soon as I do a little research on the issues presented!

Survey's For Dollars

I don't know if I mentioned it before or not but I subscribe to and do a lot of surveys. They don't pay a lot but the one's I like best pay me paypal payments. One is called Dollar Surveys. A couple of times a week they have a survey up that I qualify for, usually they are pretty quick, and about a week later they deposit US dollars into my paypal account. It helps to fund my Ebay addiction...LOL I believe both Canadians and Americans can participate in them and they send me reminders so I don't forget. Here is the link if you want to have a try at them:
http://www.dollarsurveys.net

BLOGGER AWARD

Well, this was a nice surprise! Today I received a Blogger Award from my buddy Loretta at the House of Houben blog spot! Now I have to figure out who to pass the award onto!

http://houseofhouben.blogspot.com/2009/01/what-day.html

Here is the official info on the award:What this award is about...Bloggers who show great attitude and gratitude.What you have to do...Upon receiving The Lemonade Award, you also pass it on to other bloggers who you think show great attitude and gratitude.Here are the rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate at least 8 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!

3. Link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.
So here are the 8 blogs I will pass the award to:

http://houseofhouben.blogspot.com/2009/01/what-day.html

http://write2thepoint.blogspot.com/

http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/

http://cooltropicaljazz.blogspot.com/2007/04/point-after.html

http://midlifecrisis.honadvblogs.com/

http://blog.nbc.com/ross_blog/

http://happylovesrosie.blogspot.com/

http://mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com/

SNOW FALL...the sequel part two

The snow seems to have stopped for now. We probably got 2 or 3 inches and much to my delight, the salt truck came a couple of times and the road is clean and bare. I hope this was our last snowfall of winter...although it is still only January so that might be too much to hope for! I got up at 4:30 and checked out the road out front and although there was snow coming down, the street was bare. When I arose a few hours later the street was covered. It doesn't seem to terribly cold out though. I was browsing through pictures earlier and found one that looks nice and warm and friendly...of course it is the happiest place on earth so I am going to post it here to remind us of what pretty flowers and sunshine looks like!

SNOW FALL...the sequel

I am just blogging here briefly to note that the title above was the words of the weather man on the 6 o'clock news...I am no longer fond of weathermen...and when I took the dogs out after they ate awhile ago, much to my dismay it has started...sigh... They did say this snow fall is going to be "west coast" style and supposed to warm up and turn to rain by noonish and be gone in a couple of days but after all the wrong reports in the last 45 days...umm...I am skeptical.... I heard on the news tonight apparently December fell something like a millimeter short of being the snowiest December on record however it does hold the record for the most snow on Christmas itself. We are also breaking a record for the most snow on the ground at a stretch..I can't remember if they said 43 or 45 days with snow on the ground... and we have now hit the record for the second foggiest January on record...these kind of records I could do without!! Now I must go and haul a little girl who is getting heavier all the time down to bed...she is sleeping on her couch in the living room currently... I am making this post "red" like the colors on the weather chart I saw earlier!!

MY MULTI-TALENTED FRIEND

My multi-talented friend Loretta whom I have fondly nick named Martha Stewart of the North sent home a pretty container of dog cookies with me last weekend. She is the only person I have ever met who actually bakes her own dog cookies. My dogs have advised they are moving to her house. I took a couple of pictures of them devouring them. Molly actually stands up with her front feet resting on the counter whining for these decadent treats!

WHERE DOES ALL THIS LAUNDRY COME FROM???

These pictures were taken at Foreshore Park in Burnaby around this date last January....actually the 22nd of January but close enough. It was a day very similar to today with clear bright blue skies and yet rather chilly. The river in the background is the Mighty Fraser River. It is a working river with container boats and barges frequently travelling it. My Grandpa used to fish for sturgeon fish in this river many moons ago. He once caught a huge one...and brought it home to my aunts house and put it in the bath tub. When she got up in the morning and went in the bathroom you could hear her screams for miles...for anyone who has never seen a picture of a sturgeon, they are a very ugly almost prehistoric looking huge fish. My Grandpa died when I was 22 months old so I never really knew him. He was apparently notorious for showing up late at night to "rock the baby" who was already asleep, much to my mother's dismay. Both my Grandpa and my father's ashes are spread in this river.

Now where does all this laundry come from? I have been washing for two solid days and still there is more... Actually that could be a catchy song title "Where is all the laundry from" sung to the old song from the 60's tune "Where Have All the Flowers Gone"... Now those who know me know I love laundry....the washing and drying part. Even the stain part. I have been known to spend days removing stains and see them as challenges...no stain is going to beat me!! haha...so much so that when others who have something they can't get out, like my son's family, they bring it here for me to work on. I do not like the folding and put away part though. Maybe if I had a nice big counter to fold on it would be different but at present I do not and fold on the washer. I used to fold in the living room while watching TV in the evening...but those were in the days I had clothes baskets. I have given up on clothes baskets because as soon as I buy more, it seems Ben needs to clean out his car and of course what works better than my clothes baskets...sigh...so I do own lots of them however they are scattered throughout the basement and carport and filled with the contents of Ben's car that he never quite gets around to sorting out. So today I am determined to get the rest of this laundry done before more appears. One would think I am taking in laundry for the amount we seem to acquire around here. Of course having two little kids around daily does tend to add to the wash load....especially when one of them stays multiple nights a week and adds her clothes, towels and jammies to the mix. Ah well, it will get done...soon I hope!!

And while I am in "complaining mode"...has anyone noticed that "reduce, reuse and recycle" are a sign of the times yet at the same time the companies making stuff couldn't get more packaging if they tried? I am so darn sick of fighting with hard plastic coverings on things. Not to mention metal twist ties, tape, thread and whatever else the manufacturers can find to totally prevent us from getting the object of our desire out of the box. Take for instance straw cups for children. We went to the mall on Friday and found a really good deal on them. I love these things as they keep whatever the beverage of choice is off of my floors and carpets. My favorite ones are the Playtex ones and while at the mall we found some that were about 3.00 less than Walmart is currently charging or was when last I checked. We bought 4 of them and I just attempted to unpackage them for washing before using this week. Well, I am sure it took me all of 20 minutes to get the plastic off of them. And that hard plastic is not fun to deal with at the best of times as the edges are sharp and getting cut by it is usually inevitable. So, 20 minutes later I managed to saw, chop, pull and rip them out of the packaging and get them into the dishwasher and now I have a full bag of the refuse from the packaging...so much for the reduce, reuse etc.... so that is my gripe of the day!!! Cut down all this packaging, think of the environment...I know there is a risk of theft from stores however, doesn't anyone but me see this as a bit of overkill? Unless you enter a store armed with metal cutters, scissors and possibly pliers, this stuff is not coming home with you without going through the till first...

The Fabulous Krush - the Disco Era

Saturday Night Fever

Well, it brings back memories in any case!! I am sad to say the fever went out of Saturday nights many decades ago. Some 30 odd years ago, though, Saturday nights were pretty fun. I was very fond of the disco era...and if I look really hard, I am sure I can even find the clothes from way back then in a suitcase in the storage cupboard somewhere. Platform shoes, I loved them...dresses that made you feel like a real girl and music that made you want to get up and move. To this day if I am in a store and hear the Bee Gee's singing Night Fever or How Deep is your Love or Yvonne Elliman belting out More than a Woman.....I am right back there on the dance floor and I stop and listen until the song finishes. I was fortunate to live in Honolulu in that era in a city that never slept with lots of clubs that were open until 4 am which came in handy when one was working afternoon shift and didn't finish work until 11 or 12 at night. On other nights we would go to the Hilton and watch a show band called the Fabulous Krush...their show room overlooked the ocean and was open air meaning not a lot of walls...lol...they were a young band with a ton of potential. Their lead singer was a young man witha bunch of little children at home....I think it was 6... His name is Hal Bradbury and could he sing. They had a chart topper in the islands called Waialua Sky and another called Blame It on the Night... Edwin Ramones was the leader of the band and has put together a number of other Krush bands in the years since the Krush I once knew disolved. I have all their vinyl records and all are signed by the guys in the group. However I no longer have a record player so I went looking for a CD awhile back and found one on a website in Hawaii. When I listen to it I am transported to a very happy time in my life. The group eventually went on to become a main showroom act and became a lot less affordable for their local fans as prior to the move we could sit there all night for every set and just have a two drink minimum and no cover charge. Headline bands have cover charges and it becomes much more expensive to enjoy. Recently I heard they are doing 70's reunion shows at the Ala Moana Hotel in Honolulu on February 28, 2009 and some of the original Krush members are in one of the reunion bands. I would dearly like to have gone to the reunion show in February but short of winning the lottery that isn't happening and besides, I hear it was almost sold out prior to the ticket sales opening to the general public. I did have an opportunity to buy a presale ticket however I had no way to get there!! LOL Maybe another year... I found some file photo's on the Internet and will try and put a picture on of the group. Hopefully this does not annoy anyone for using them. I have literally thousands of my own pictures but they are regular photos and being scanner illiterate, I don't think I can get them on here. Also...Like the disco clothes, the photo albums of my "past life" are also hidden deep in the back of the storage cupboard..ahhh...memories...I wonder if I should also admit that somewhere in my vast collection of memories I also own a scrapbook of almost every newspaper clipping that was ever printed on this band...maybe I won't admit that part...haha...if I am fortunate enough and blessed to live to a ripe old age I will one day sit in my rocking chair with my CD blasting flipping through old photo albums and scrapbooks...aloha and mahalo Fabulous Krush for all of the wonderful memories.....

I LOVE FRIDAY'S

It is hard to believe but it is Friday again...yeah!!! We had a busy day which started with a doctor's apt at 8 am and continued all today. I am feeling quite proud of myself right now as I just went outside and managed to remove the wreath from the door, the garland around the door and all the Christmas lights outside....and I didn't fall off of the chair and break my neck so all is good!! That was my biggest worry as I am home alone and I don't think the three dogs here would be able to dial 911 should I fall....they are pretty smart but I haven't taught them how to dial the phone and that is probably a good thing. We always laugh and talk about how it is a good thing Molly cannot talk. I think a lot of the time we don't want to know what she is thinking. She makes noises, loud hrmphs to make her displeasure known when she is annoyed. And have I mentioned Max the dog who counts all his toys and wanders around the house crying if any are missing? Many a night I have crawled all over looking under couches and chairs trying to find one of his missing "babies". It is kind of hard to believe unless you have actually seen him do this. He is quite a character. Very set in his ways, a very nice dog.....most of the time....Molly may not agree...she is a fuss budget and moves around a lot when she is going to sleep and many a night Max has had enough of her and lunges at her making this high squawking noise while he nips at her head...he never hurts her, he is just warning her to cut it out, she is disturbing him.

I am having a hard time keeping things straight with the new calendar. Today apparently the dogs had a grooming apt. As I didn't yet have a calender in use when they had their last one, I forgot to write the apt down....sigh...so now I have to call and reschedule and apologize for messing up the schedule. I have a funny feeling I did this last January also...

Dakotah opened her Christmas gifts from "Auntie Retta" the other day and enjoyed them all. I don't think I have posted a picture of her with her gifts yet. It is hard to believe we are still having Christmas in these parts...amazing how snow messes up everything.

President Obama

Yesterday in the United States there was an inauguration for the 44th president. He is the first president of biracial/black heritage the United States has ever elected so it was an historic event. The new President has two darling little girls and apparently he was raised in Honolulu by his grandmother and went to Punahou School. In a funny coincidence, I did some quick mental calculations and I think he was probably going to that school around the time when I was caring for a young child who also went to that school and I picked her up following school each day. Who knows, I may have even seen the future President of the United States playing in the school yard when he was young!

This and That

Yesterday Dakotah and I managed to get to her little friend Ani's house...we haven't been for quite some time and we did not manage to get there prior to Christmas due to our inclement weather. I heard rumors that there is more snow in our forecast for Friday night, Saturday and Tuesday so before the hills become once again impassable, we trotted off to visit Ani. Her little brother is getting really big, he is 4 months old already and such a happy baby. And he has about 10 times as much hair as little Jaime....LOL... The girls had a lovely time and exchanged their Christmas gifts finally. Ani's Mom puts all her "special" dolls on the dresser still in their boxes and calls it her "collection"...I am not having much luck getting Ani a play doll as everything ends up in the collection. I found the cutest Hannah Montana dolls in a Barbie size that plays Rocking Around the Christmas Tree when you push a button...of course guess where Hannah is now located...on the dresser of course..LOL...but at least her Mom lets her push the song button and dance to the music!! As they have a large collectible collection of Elvis memorabilia (Ani's Dad is the collector) and due to the fact Jaime is a handful when I have him there, I had his Dad watch him so we could go. It worked well for us....and was much more relaxing.

MORE WARMER TIMES

PHOTOS FROM WARMER TIMES...

An incredibly hot day at our local fair...Loretta and I eventually rocketed our way back to her house on an incredibly hot and over full BC transit bus...an experience I am not sure I want to repeat any time soon....the heat, the smells, the insanely driving bus driver who was driving an express bus which made stops? ummm.... In any case we finally made it to Loretta's where we sat in her peaceful and shaded back yard under a neat gadget she has called a "mister" that attaches to a garden hose and sprays very fine water on you making you cool off but not freeze! Not that we were freezing on that particular day as the temperature was amazingly hot for this neck of the woods...we are not a "happy medium" kind of town...our weather always seems to go to the extremes....

Spray pool fun!

Ice Cream on a warm day in Harrison Hot Springs, BC

One of my very favorite Princess photos. I think I saw this exact same princess (ie the person under the gown) on a commerical on TV the other night for Disneyland. She was the best Cinderella I had ever seen and I suspect they will try and keep her for a long time as she is so good and she also has a very patient way about her with the children....who can be very impatient, hot, tired, cranky etc...LOL

Time For a Picture or Two of Warmer Weather

I should maybe entitle this blog the "BC Weather Woes" as that is what seems to preoccupy my mind these days! I finally bought myself gumboots in anticipation of perhaps more inclement weather. I had hoped we were done but the very much cooler morning now has me a bit nervous...again... In any case, I am going to look on my camera cards and find some pictures of nice warm weather to cheer us up!

Today is Monday...again...

Well, when I came upstairs this morning Jack Frost had visited the yard and cars on the street outside. Deep frost was covering just everything. The fog was swirling around but not nearly as dense as it has been of late. Nicci and the kids arrived early as she anticipated a long journey over here due to our main bridge being closed because of a fire late Saturday night. This is not good news for commuters or Wal-Mart shoppers like me as I am going to have a difficult time getting to the spot we like to hang out at some days because of the rerouted traffic on the bridge close to my home. Last I heard it could be 4 - 6 weeks to repair as a portion will need to be torn out. Of course this is Translink and government saying this...no doubt it will be months in actual time.

Hubby took Dakotah to school this morning as he was going out to do some things anyways. As soon as she was out the door I gave Jaime his Christmas gift from "Auntie Retta". He really had a good time opening it and he really likes it. Auntie "Retta" finds the neatest toys....this latest is a set of stacking cards with raised figures of animals on them that have to be stacked in the correct order in which to fit back together, It kept Jaime amused for several minutes...I helped him and after each card fit properly he brought his hands up and yelled "yeah"! I took a few pictures of him opening his gift.

American Girl Nellie in front of Loretta's gorgeous blue light Christmas tree!

Chatty Tea photos!

Quote of the Day

Here is my quote of the day:

THE BIGGEST ADVENTURE
YOU CAN EVER TAKE
IS TO LIVE THE LIFE
OF YOUR DREAMS!

BY OPRAH WINFREY

A Million Things To Do and No Energy To Do Them.....

I have a million things I SHOULD be doing yet I have no energy to do them it seems. Yesterday I went to a Christmas Chatty Tea at my friend Loretta's house. Yes, I know Christmas is long gone and a distant memory but at the House of Houben it is in full swing still! The tree is still up and glowing gorgeously with a back drop of snow out the windows. There is still a LOT of snow at the House of Houben. The tea party was such fun as they always are and the hours just speed by with us yakking about dolls, new treasures and life in our various homes. Loretta made a scrumtious high tea meal for us and the table was so pretty done up with her good Christmas dishes. We later watched a movie on her DVD player as I am DVD challenged and it takes me longer to figure out my machine than the usual movie takes to play. The movie was Molly by American Girl...probably a children's movie but for little girls at heart, it was perfect for an after tea activity. By the time I made my way home, the dense fog had rolled in. Getting out of Loretta's neighborhood was interesting but once I hit the main streets I was fine. Until I got to our neighborhood which was socked in with a deep pea soup kind of fog. I live fairly close to the Fraser River and the fog horns in the river were blasting every few minutes. It was a lovely afternoon and evening spent with friends, though. Now I really should get myself motivated somehow and get the house ready for the kids arrival before dawn tomorrow morning. Or maybe at least vacuum...maybe... Hubby mentioned earlier that he was talking to someone who said we may not yet be done with snow...I hope whoever it was is very wrong as I am very done with snow...for this year and next and next...just thinking about it makes me feel like taking a nap...but there is that vacuuming to get to...

Can It Possibly Be the Beginning Of The Week Again?

I am not sure why the hours on the weekends go so quickly and are gone in the blink of an eye while the weekdays seem to last forever. Funny how that works. I had an eventful weekend. The heavy rain on Saturday came and the ground was wet and deep with the falling rains. THEN....all of a sudden the rain looked a bit thick...and the next thing I knew it was WHITE...oh no...it just couldn't be...but I did not panic...despite the fact I had taken my Mom to Wal-Mart to shop..nope...no panic there...even though I had the truck...I was confident it wasn't going anywhere. I mean how could it? There was so much water on the ground it couldn't possibly amount to anything to worry about...Ummmm...wrong...we headed back across the bridge and discussed dining options..and settled on IHOP as their food is good and it is close to my Mom's place. Well, our end of town wasn't bad, the snow was falling but like I mentioned it was wet on the streets so nothing was covered. As I headed east, I couldn't help noticing cars with snow on them...lots of snow on them and briefly wondered if they had been up a mountain...apparently not..sigh..the closer we got to Mom's the more snow was accumulating and by the time we got to the library the street was covering. I started to get nervous as I am not a snow driver. By the time we got to 5th street and turned to go up to IHOP, I slid on the corner, the street was fully covered and I went into extreme panic and scared mode. IHOP was definately out of the question at this point. Right now all I could think of was home...so I told Mom I had to drop her fast and get to my end of town and the hills...in the TRUCK. We called my brother and he came down and grabbed her groceries and I headed for home. By now I am a nervous mess of quivering jelly. I headed for 8th avenue as the hills would not be so bad when I hit the other end of town. Luckily for me, the snow was not as bad on the roads at my end of town. I managed to get the car all the way to the drive way and parked..what a relief...but of course now I am home and no dinner. Anyways, hubby said no problem, if we take the car and go to McDonalds we will be ok. So off we go. Me thinking how insane this probably is. To my amazement there was no snow down there...none, nada, none. We had dinner such as it was and headed home. Later that night I decided in all my wisdom to take down the Christmas tree. It took me forever, it seemed. But it is all down and put away now. Each year it seems to be more work to get up and down...again it must be because "I am sooo old" as Dakotah is fond of reminding me!
Sunday the roads were clear and we finally go to go out with James family for my birthday dinner. We went to the Swiss Chalet. We had a nice time and they brought flowers and sweet cards for me. The kids had a good time and enjoyed it. Dakotah wanted a cake but we explained we had dessert with dinner so were not doing a cake this year. She wasn't too happy about that but accepted it. She came home with us and spent the night.

TGIF!!

Well it is kind of sort of Friday still...I haven't gone to bed yet so technically for me it is still Friday. I was very happy to see Friday. The day started well as Dakotah is now going to preschool three days a week and was very excited. Even more exciting, it wasn't raining, snowing and no hurricane force winds were blowing so we were able to walk up with relative ease. Before Christmas one of the local carpet sellers had a return on a special order carpet. It is child themed and very pretty in a bright royal blue with all kinds of kid stuff in pretty colors on it. Our preschool was the lucky recipient of the rug when the company decided to donate it to the New Westminster preschool programs. It replaced an awful very old one in the kids school room and was placed in the area they have story time. Well, when I arrived to pick up Dakotah today following school,she was sitting at one of the long tables in the room and not quite looking up...I pushed the stroller into the room and then had a good look at her and about had heart failure...the left side of her face looks like she has been in a boxing match with her eye half swollen shut, her cheek swollen and gouges in her skin on both cheek and eyelid. It turns out she ran across the pretty carpet and she was wearing her sneakers and I was told she tripped and fell hard face first onto a solid wood toy box by the wall that has big wooden blocks in it. The teacher came and explained what had happened and said they immediately got ice which remained on her face for the rest of the class. She also said she is a tough little thing. She had not melted down like most kids would. When I spoke to her about it later, her biggest problem with the entire accident was that she was embarrassed and also did not like all the attention she was getting as parents arrived to pick up the other children and saw her face! We came home and iced it some more and then she had a nap and felt better when she awoke. Never a dull moment around here! oh...and as a side note...by the time Jaime and I went to pick up Dakotah it was once again raining...but we walked anyways...well I walked and Jaime was in the stroller and I gave him an umbrella to hold over himself. He did very well with it and did not get soaked at all. I heard on the news that the end of next week may have some sunshine...but as they don't seem to be able to predict the next day or two's weather with any amount of accuracy, I won't hold my breathe waiting for the sunny days that are predicted so many days away!!
I am going to attempt to attach a picture of a doll that recently caught my interest. Her name is Katie Effanbee and she is dressed in a lovely outfit made by debbiegdesigns on Ebay. She is a lovely seamstress and her dresses are so lovely.

There was an orb in the sky today...could it be a sun?

I had hoped for a day off today but that wasn't to be...Dakotah bounded into my room saying "time to get up, Gramma"...I hoped I was dreaming but had a feeling I wasn't...and sure enough they were here... As I had slept all evening last night and only got up briefly to shower before going to bed I wasn't feeling too bad despite the early hour. I managed to get Jaime down for a nap about 11 and discovered it was not raining. So I headed outside and picked up litter that was previously snow covered and gathered bottles for the depot and other stimulating things while doing a million or so loads of laundry...one of which was my bedding so now I am looking forward to my clean bed. Jaime entertained me by pulling ornaments off the tree for a good part of the day. I think it is going to have to be put away soon as the constant activity of babysitting the tree is starting to get to me. Dakotah is now going to be going to preschool 3 days a week. Ballet is on hold for a bit, possibly until spring as I don't want the stress of having to get across town in snow or wind or torrential rain. preschool is only a block away so we can get there pretty much all of the time. Later this afternoon something was shining in the window..it was so bright and foreign, I debated finding some dark glasses...as I tip toed to the window to investigate, I couldn't help smiling...it was really, truly the sun...gosh it has been a long time. Of course about the same time hurricane force winds commenced but it was still so nice to see the sun for a change. That wind is very cold and feels like it is from the north...no snow in the forecast but it sure feels snowish...

Happy Wednesday!

I don't seem be be talking much anymore to real people and am wondering if the blog is going to isolate me further than I always have been...thoughts to ponder.
I had a big day today, I had my doctors apt at 8 am and unfortunately I am still nowhere near healed. I have started yet another round of even stronger and much more expensive antibiotics. I have been semi comatose since ingesting them and need to go to bed shortly although I have been prone on the couch all night dozing. The day was very busy and Jaime only having slept 4 hours on Tuesday night really put a dent in his behavior and humor. It was a tough and busy day but hopefully the new meds will kick in and i can start to feel better. Dakotah has gone home tonight, i am exhausted and could not manage another night with her in residence.and still no luck finding rain boots...sigh...who would have guessed this would be such an involved project!

Rain, Glorious Rain!!

The rain has started...dare I say "yeah"? After 25 days of hating the hill we live on, I am now thankful I live on a hill as the torential rain pounds down and melts all the horrible white stuff away. According to the news, there is massive flooding all over. Home Depot on Willingdon's parking lot has become a swimming pool apparently as well as any of the low lying areas. You still have to be very cautious moving around as the snow is now ice and a tow truck is sitting in residence in the Canadian Tire parking lot to tow out cars who are getting stuck in the piles of snow. We went out to McDonalds and made a short pit stop at the other mall in my quest to find gum boots or possibly hip waders if this continues. My feet must be awfully small although I wouldn't think so being a size 8 but everything I tried on could have held both my feet in one boot. Can you say Huge? We also couldn't walk past a Michaels store...no way...Dakotah is worse than I am about Michaels. We went in and found packages of gift tags for 89 cents....regularly 3.49 and they are quite nice. We also picked up a gingerbread house kit for 2.99 as little Missy wanted to make it so badly so perhaps that will be our project one day soon. I can see Jaime now... The last kid toys at McDonalds were My Little Pony's and we never managed to get the whole set. One day when we were in there a week or so ago and spoke to the manager and asked if we could buy the pink one when the promo was over. He said he would put the whole set away for us...however, not having been able to get down there recently I was sure it would be gone. I was very surprised and happy when I mentioned it to the clerk and she went in back and got the shift manager and they brought out the entire display and gave it to us. They only charged us for the ponies and not the boy toys as they didn't really want to take the thing apart so we have the complete set of boy mistika (whatever that is) toys as well. They are too old for Jaime as he tends to use them as weapons so will have to be put up until he is older. We had a nice little outting and managed to make it through the snow piles to get the truck back parked.

Snow Report...

The new stats are out and we have had snow on the ground since December 13, 2008. Apparently at the airport it was recorded that we have had 100 cm of snow so far. For the first time since 1964, dump trucks are picking up the snow in the city of Vancouver and dumping truck loads into False Creek. The worry is flooding with the thaw. The new mayor of Vancouver stated this has been a big learning experience and they will be having meetings to discuss new strategies to deal with winters like this. Apparently there is a possibility we could have several years of this type of weather...not a pleasant thought for me...I will keep buying those lottery tickets and hope for a way to leave in winter...haha...and soon another cow will fly over the moon too as that is probably a comparable thing to winning the lottery! But if one doesn't have a ticket one cannot win so I will keep trying!

SNOW, HORRIBLE SNOW

After more than 3 weeks of solid snow, ice and misery I am hoping the weatherman will be right for a change and the rains will miraculously appear...we will see...the current road situation is pretty grim with snow, ice and slush everywhere. Our car is parked across town after getting stuck last night on our way home from having dinner out. It was perfectly dry with clear streets when we left home so imagine our surprise to exit the restaurant and find 6 inches of fresh fallen snow and non-existant roads once again. I think the temperature is above freezing as there is now water dripping off of the roof so that is a good thing! School was on this morning so I tip toed through the slush and slime and made my way up the hill in my leaky useless boots and got the princess to her class...when I left there were only 2 out of the 9 registered present. It may be a light day for the teacher but at least Dakotah's best friend was the other child there. On a nicer note, I love Amazon.ca...the movies I ordered while snow bound arrived today...great service! Now if I can ever figure out the DVD player maybe we can watch them:) I much prefered the plug in and play videos..my old and addled brain has problems comprehending the intricacies of the DVD player...my granddaughter wonders if this is because I am "so old"....such a sweet child with a sweet way of putting things!