Since Dad died 2 years ago, I dont think she has really had a break. With remodeling her condo and moving, then her sister having cancer. She really hasnt taken time to just sit and catch her breath. Now she has no choice. I totally understand how it feels to have to just stop. When I hurt my neck, it was the same for me. I had to stop, and watch the world move on without me. It’s a terrible feeling to know that your life has suddenly changed.

She will adjust, as we all do. Hopefully the doctors can help her in some way. With time, she will learn how to live with her poor eye sight.

What else has be going on? Well, Gregg is still working, but not sure for how long. Might only be another month and then back to job hunting. He is hoping that the company will hire him on full time. That would be great. To finally have all those years of schooling paying off.

We pout the cats on a diet..lol. Well, Duncan was going in and eating the cat food. So now we feed them twice a day. They seem to be fine with that. They might even loose a few pounds. Baby REALLY needs to loose about 10lbs. He is huge! Bunny has a tiny muffin top…hehe

Well, thats about all I got for today.

Been a while since I blogged. Let’s see, we found a new home for Yas. Duncan has been busy getting hurt and sick. Poor little guy. Last week he ripped off the nail of his dew claw. and then this week he did the other one. Then last night he was sick, puking for a few hours and today he was scared to death of the fire alarms going off all day.

Other than that there really hasnt been much to blog about. I’ve been sick a lot, but that is nothing new. I did have my wrist surgery last month. Had a ganglion cyst removed. It’s still healing. I think it will take a few months before I will be able to use it properly. Still dont have all the strength back and I cant bend my wrist too well. It was a challenge to walk 2 dogs..lol

Gregg started his new job and he seems to really like it. It was a bit odd getting use to him gone everyday again. At least I have Duncan and the cats to keep me company.

As soon as the weather getting better, Duncan and I will be doing a lot more walking. I can feel that my back has gotten very weak from all these months of doing nothing. Would be nice to try to get him to run beside my bike this summer.

Anyways, that’s it for now.

Image by ___federico___ via Flickr

I finally talked to Colby. He has just been too busy to call. When I asked what he was doing, he said “not much”. LOL, ok so he hasn’t been too busy. He just never remembers to call me. Typical for a growing Boy. He wants to come down for a visit, but doesn’t want to miss out any work. He will try to come down for a weekend next month and I told him he has to come down for his Oma’s 75th Birthday in May.

What else? Oh, as you know Gregg and I went to Matt & Bree’s for dinner on Sunday. We had a very nice time. dinner was good and I brought over some leftover Christmas baking that I had in the freezer for dessert. Their place may be small, but they have it organized well. I guess its our turn to have them here for dinner soon.

As for me, I have spent all yesterday afternoon and still now in a bad IC flare-up. I had a a rough night with all the pain. Even been doubling my meds. I’m not sure why it has started up. I think it might be either the ice tea I have been drinking too much of, or the new lotion I have been using, or just the stress of wondering where and what Colby was doing. Well I don’t have to worry about Colby, he is fine.  I’m not drinking any more iced tea and the lotion was returned to the store yesterday. Now I just wait for the flare-up to stop. This could take hours or weeks.

On a happier note…. I have lost a total of 5lbs this month. Gregg has lost 8lbs. Slowly going down for both of us.

What else? Survivor started last week and so did Amazing Race. Both are shows that Gregg and I watch together. We like to pick apart the shows and say that we could do better…lol. I have other shows I watch while Gregg does his homework. Lost is back on too so I’ve been watching it. Waiting for Prison Break to start in April.

I did hear a rumor… Dippy might be moving soon. I can only hope and pray that it really is true and will happen before summer is here. Supposedly, he has been approved for a mortgage and is looking for a place in Chilliwack. If this is true, I hope that they sell the condo to some nice older people with no kids.

Oh,  Matthew and Bree have moved into their new condo and they have invited us for dinner this Sunday. This will be a first. I’ve offered to bring dessert, just have to figure out what to make. I’m looking at low calorie recipes today.

Well, that’s whats happening around here.

So in the mean time, I have been reading to keep my mind busy. Doing stuff around the condo. Playing on my Wii. I’m not able to to the Wii Fit since the back pain, but I will start again soon. Gregg and I are both back on the diet. I have lost 2 lbs this week so I’m happy about that. He has joined at work, the Biggest loser program. I’m hoping that it will help him keep motivated. Soon as the weather is better and warmer we can start riding our bikes again.

On other news, Mom is having a great time in California. Says the sunshine is nice and toasty. I sure hope she brings the sunshine back with her. We need some! What else is going on? oh! I talked with Matthew and he has decided to stay in town at his job and is working things out with his girlfriend. I was so happy to hear this news. I really hope that things work out for them. I think she is good for him

As for Colby, haven’t heard from him in 2 weeks. He did tell me that he had to put his dog to sleep cause he was very sick. I’m sure it was hard to do. He was my dog and when I had to move out I left him there for Colby. They were best buddies. I guess we all have to deal with live and death through out our lives. Its just hard when the decision is put on your shoulder to decide your best friends fate.

Well, the day goes on….

I realized that today is Gregg’s Mom’s Birthday. She isn’t here to celebrate this day anymore. She died many years ago in a terrible car accident. It’s sad, I know, but we go on. Anyways, the last couple days Gregg has mentioned how at Christmas time his mom would bake cookies. So I am on the hunt for her recipes. I know they are in the storage room in a box. I just have to find the right box…lol

He says that his Mom made the best Bird’s nest cookies ever, along with a few others. So I want to start making these for Gregg so that he can have some and remember the good times of Christmas. Just like I remember all the good times I had as a kid. I think the one thing that always makes Christmas better is all the smells of baked goodies and the turkey cooking. Christmas music playing in the back ground and people laughing and enjoy themselves.

Well, I will go hunt these recipes down, then share them with you all.

We don’t have many plans. We have the dinner at Mom’s on the 20th to celebrate living in Canada for 40 years. Then on the 21st we are all invited to go to my brother and his wife’s baptism in Vancouver. Which we will be attending as long as I feel good and there is no snow. Then we have Christmas dinner at my Sister’s house on the 25th.

So really this year is a slow one. Usually half the family gets together on Christmas eve to go out for dinner and then go to church. I think this year might be the start of something new for Gregg and I. We really dont have any “traditions” of our own. Since we don’t have kids together and my boys are older and want to do their own thing. Gregg and I have talked about possibly doing something just for us. Sure anyone can come and join us. What is it that we want to do? Go see a Christmas movie.

LOL… yup I know it sounds weird. Seriously, I thought it was too. But have you noticed that there are new Christmas movies that come out on the the 24th and 25th? So why not go see one? If we aren’t snowed in and have nothing else to do then we might as well go have a good time.

Yup, that’s me with blond hair. Wow, been a while since I was blond.

How about when Gregg was blond? do you remember that? LOL

I’d say we have changed a lot over the 8 years together.

My day started off great. Had coffee with Gregg and then went to shower and there I thought about what to do for the day. I do a lot of my thinking in the shower. I got out and told Gregg I would love to hang out with Mom. He said sure. So I called Mom and asked if she would like to go to Ikea. Yup, and the plan was made.

We picked her up at 1pm and headed out. Ikea is about a 30 minute drive from home. We got there and I could see that Mom was excited. She hadn’t been to this big new Ikea. We started in the showroom area and followed the big blue arrows on the floor. Mom got a bit confused a few times as to what direction were headed, but I kept telling her “follow the blue arrows”.

I think she was a bit overwhelemed. There was so much to look at. Plus 100′s of people. Normally it would be me getting confused and dizzy. We both saw a couple items we wanted. She even picked up a mirror for her new condo.

We stopped at the cafeteria for a drink and to rest our feet. We then headed down to the checkout. We paid and got out of there. The three of us decided it was dinner time and off we drove to the Cactus Club 2 blocks down the road. When we got there they told us we would have to wait about 15 minutes. Instead Gregg saw a table open in the bar. Off we went!

It just so happened that it was Hockey night and the bar was very loud and full of people. It was a bit hard to talk. We each ordered a drink, yes, even Mom. and then ordered our food. It was all very good. We were there about an hour. Afterwards, we headed back to Mom’s place.

Once there, we relaxed and watched the DVD we brought over for her of all her slides we had scanned into my PC. I could see that it brought back a lot of memories for her and me too. Its not see to see Dad in them. It must be really hard for Mom to see her whole life with dad in those pictures. But she held it together and didn’t cry. We finally were ready to leave and had a group hug and said good night. It was just after 9pm when we got home. I was still feeling good.

I am so thankful that I had this day with Mom and Gregg. I don’t get many good days like that anymore.

Image by Grant MacDonald via Flickr

I’m a bit blah today. I’ve been sitting here trying to think of something to blog about and I keep coming up blank. So I guess I will babble a bit.

I think I am finally over the flu. Gregg is still coughing a little. We had my cousin Doug’s funeral yesterday. It was a beautiful service. Bagpipes and all. Every sad, but happy he is at peace and no more pain.

Oh, I got a Wii console for my birthday. Plus Wii Fit. I had been wanting one ever since I tried it at my brother’s house. I dropped hints for a month! LOL.. I guess Gregg finally got it for me so I would shut up. So now Gregg has figured out a way to get free games. Its great having a geeky hubby!  We played Wii Music last night and had a few good laughs.

What else? Oh yeah, at 1:30am Dippy came home and I guess he was drunk. He was yelling and punching walls and kicking what ever was in his way. We put up with it for about 20 minutes, but when I heard his girlfriend start saying “no! stop it!” I had enough and called the police. I will NOT put up with that type of shit. I can handle most of the other crap Dippy does, but not that.

Listening to him last night brought the memories rushing back. Its like reliving life with Bob. I hate it! I try so hard to not think about all that shit that happened with him and then Dippy has to bring it all back. I wish Dippy would move.

Anyways, Gregg and I finally got back to sleep after an hour or so. We had to let the police in. After they left it was quiet again and has been since. It wont be the end. Dippy will act up and he will get drunk and rip his place apart again. I wonder how many holes he has punched into the walls down there?

I am off to Wii. Have a new game to try!

To see all the other pics click here

Image by The Gordons via Flickr

Friday and I am still feeling crappy. I had hoped that this flu would almost be gone, but it seems to want to hangout with me. So I will be cuddling Mr.Flu all weekend. I will hug him, and love him so much that he will WANT to leave. I will smother him with my blanket! (Mahahaha!)

Then on Monday I will feel great and have a perfect birthday!   Monday is also going to be a bit sad for me and Gregg too. Last year we were in Mexico. I wanted to be on the beach having a drink on my 40th birthday, and I did just that. We flew out that morning from Seattle and were on the beach by 5pm. It was the best!

It felt so good to have that white soft sand between my toes again. I felt all my worries and stress wash away. I know that I will never forget those 3 weeks we spent there. It was the best holiday I have ever had.

We met a lot of great people down there that we now are friends with. Some live there and others wish they did, just like us. I hope that we will all meet there again in the future. I enjoyed hanging out with all of them. I miss that afternoon beer at La Ranita.

Anyways, I feel bad that I never got around to doing a trip report about our vacation. So I will work on it this weekend.Yes its a year late but oh well!

Oh yeah, I got my 4th sample of makeup. I’ll be doing a review as soon as I feel better. Wearing makeup while sick in bed doesnt work very well.

Image by mbonocore via Flickr

As you can see, I’ve been doing some changes to my blog theme again. I really like this one. I think this one will be the one for some time. I like that I can put my own photos in the header. Yes, all the different headers are pictures Gregg and I took. At the moment they are all from your last trip to Playa del Carmen. They might change on special days.

Other news… Gregg is finally job hunting. He is out there spreading his resumes all over Abbotsford today. I hope that he gets a responds. I’ll let you know how it goes when things start to happen.

Tomorrow its ladies lunch once again. We are celebrating my Aunt Anny’s birthday. Its also my brother’s birthday, but he isnt invited. I think he would look a bit out of place at one of our hen parties…lol

Also, Heroes starts this evening which I have been waiting for. There are bunch of shows all starting this week. So I won’t be online in the evenings.:)

To Gregg,

There are many things I could say, but the only thing I really need to tell you is…. you complete me.

Well it was a nice evening. Gregg didnt know that we were meeting with Mom and Waltrude and Wally. He knew that Matt and Bree would be there. I think he was surprised. Dinner was very yummy, but we were shocked at the cost. Prices have gone up. Something must of happened with our bill, cause we only had to pay 8.12 for everything.??? Did mom pay? I dont think so. I didnt notice. Oh well. After dinner we came back to our place for coffee and cake. I made a chocolate cake for Gregg. First one I have made in 18 years! LOL.. Last time was for Colby’s first birthday. It turned out good.

I got Gregg a stainless steel necklace. He needed one for his Mexico charm. It really looks good on him. Other than that we are planning a BBQ dinner with his dad for tomorrow. Dad is bringing the steaks and we supply the rest. Should be a nice relaxing afternoon.

Today we are staying in our cool condo. We turned on the A/C last night before bed. Good thing we did, otherwise it would be really hot in here. So thats all for now.

Seven years ago on Gregg’s birthday I quit smoking. It was my gift to him that year. Since then I tried 2 times to smoke in that first year and each time I puked my brains out,…lol. I smoked for 22 years, that half my life if anyone is counting. I did quit with both pregnancies, but started up soon after again. I tried many times over the years to quit. It just never happened. I guess I was too stressed out in my life to every be able to quit. It was my stress relief. I owe it to Gregg for helping me quit. He wasnt too sure I would do it at first, but he supported me through the rough spots. It was also a big pain with my IC. Made it a lot worse.

I’m so happy I dont have that dirty disgusting habit anymore. When you are a smoker you dont really know how bad it is. Your clothes stink, your hair stinks, your breathe stinks, even your skin stinks. Perfume or cologne doesnt help, just gives it a funky stink. Then there is your home. Everything stinks inside your home and car. Even your pillows in your bed stink. Your fridge absorbs the odor every time you open it. You can wash your clothes over and over and they still stink. I think you get the idea.

So if I can quit after being a 2 pack a day smoker then I am sure others can too. Get help from your Doctor if you have to, but to be honest, cold turkey is the best way. I did it and it was hard the first few weeks but then it slowly got easier. At 6 months I took all the money I saved and bought a fish tank and some fish as a gift to me.

You know the best out of all of this? Gregg and I have saved so much money and been able to own a home a new car and even go on 2 trips to Mexico. If I was still smoking I would be spending 500.00 a month. What a waste of money that would be. Cant hardly wait till we are back in Mexico!

The smile on your face
When things don’t go your way
Your smile stays with me
As I start my day

The warmth in your heart
I feel it all the time
And knowing that the love in it
Truly is all mine

The loving words you speak
Make my problems disappear
You make me feel so good
I always want you near.

Happy Birthday My Love.

I hope that this day is filled with fun and happiness!

We headed to Walmart to see what we could find. I found a great deal on a set of 3 Starfrit fry pans for 20 bucks. Usually 1 pan costs 20 bucks. I also found a pair of sandals that were 39 bucks regular but were priced down to 5 bucks! They fit great and will look good with jeans.

After Walmart we headed for Zellers and met up with my sister inlaw Gizy for lunch. I got my Jane lipstick and even got Waltrude to try out a new color, 2 in fact. Gizy took off back home, probably to jump in her hot tub. After we said goodbye we walked across the parking lot to the Shoe Company. Where all 3 of us found something we had to have. Waltrude found a nice purse, mom found sleek white shoes and I found cute red sandals. Regular price was 39.99 and on sale 29.99 and I used my points and go them for 22.95 including taxes. Not too bad!

This is the first pair of red shoes I have every bought. I like to stick to neutral colors, but I just could not resist these cuties. I did debate with my inner self for a while in the store. My sister and mom looked at me a bit funny. I finally gave in and did it.

After all the shopping we stopping at Costco for gas 1.29 L. is a good price. Then around the corner to the recycle depot to drop off an old monitor. Finally back here to kick me out and mom and Waltrude are still doing a bit more running around.

We did come up with a few ideas. We have decided that since Mom will have room in her new condo, we will be doing a ladies movie evening once a month. No hubbies and no kids. Sounds like fun to me! I will email all the ladies with the details and we can start doing this in September. Also  I was thinking we can do a “make-up” party. Clothing exchange party, and so many more parties. We will figure it all out.

We are home. I just climbed out of the tub. My I.C. started at noon. I was stressed out about doing the M.R.I. Normally I dont have a problem doing any of these scans but the minute I was inside the tube I freaked out. I felt like I couldnt breathe. So I was taken out and I relaxed, closed my eyes and went back in. I kept my eyes closed the whole time. I knew that if I opened them I would see how close the walls were and I would want out again. It took about 30 minutes and it was done. I’ll get the results in about a week. So that tiny bit of stress started up all this pain. Stupid, I know.

After that we drove into Vancouver. Went to Kitsilano beach and had a snack. Watched all the day camp kids playing in the water. Reminds me of when I was a kid in the summers and how we used to go to day camps. Not because we had to, we just went along for the fun. Back then we would go to the Sunset community center and hang out and do stuff for free.

After that beach we drove down the road and stopped at Jericho Beach for a few minutes and then drove all the way down to UBC and then back to downtown. We parked under Pacific Center and  we headed for a quick drink at the food court. Then I went to H&M while Gregg went to the Apple Store. I saw many items I wanted to buy, but the line up for the fitting rooms and the cashiers were at least a dozen or more people each. Maybe next time. My I.C. was getting bad by this time. I walked out of the store and told Gregg I needed a drink and to relax for a bit.

We grabbed a cold drink and headed back to the car. I had taken my pills when we arrived at the mall, but they werent helping. We decided I needed to get home. When it hurts this much there is nothing I can really do. I just want any clothes that are touching me to be removed and to have a warm bath.

So now we are home and Gregg is making some bread that I can smell already. Not sure what flavor it is. I think he feels like a Baker man with that bread machine…hehehe Anyways, I’m off to lay down and read a new book I just picked up. Ta-Ta!