Snoopy

Tonight I went to spend some time with my beautiful granddaughter and the TV happened to have a Snoopy show on. I've loved Snoopy from as far back as I can remember. Tonight Snoopy became that much more special, I got to watch the show with my granddaughter!

A Cold Winter's Day

~ If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. ~
                                                                                     Anne Bradshaw
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today it was cold, freezing cold, but a good day to stay indoors and tackle my project of redoing my bedroom wall. Venetian plaster is tedious, time consuming but I think that it's going to turn out . Today I primed the wall and applied the first coat. It's hard to say what the final project will look like yet but I'm attempting to match colors for the other 3 walls and trim. I think that I'll wait to buy paint until this wall is done, once the final coat is on and it's burnished I'll know what the true color will be. 
~~~~~

This is coat one... 

Making A Mess

Well I managed to get this part of the wall taped but what a mess I've made. I know that I used to much mud on the first coat, the second coat wasn't as bad and by the third coat I was starting to get it. The only way to learn sometimes is to just dive right in and give it a shot, after all what is there to lose? 

Now that I'm this far into this project this push is on, I'm getting tired of sleeping on my couch and now that I've turned the spare bedroom into an office I have limited choice. Tomorrow I hope to have this project completed.

Precious

 
For this past 5 years I've been purchasing a special ornament for myself to celebrate another year of well being. This year is a special year, tomorrow it will be 5 years since I've been in recovery and what a journey it's been. This year I bought a Precious Moments ornament which seemed to leap off the shelves. This ornament has hope, something I carry with me day after day through each struggle I face as well as each obstacle I overcome and the successes I find in life. Each day is precious to me, especially after being in palliative care just over 5 years ago. 

Every day is a gift, a precious gift which I thank the good Lord for. So here's to hope, to love, and to serenity all one day at a time.

Help

I've never taped a single thing in my life before and now I see why. I don't like to tape, it's messy and a pain in the you know what. I'm going to attempt this again after this coat dries, see what happens next and if need be the heck with it, I'll call in some help.

I'd never have known if I didn't try and if I had more time and patience to wait for the guy to show up who is supposed to be doing this job I wouldn't frustrate myself. Such is life, like really, what's the worst case scenario?

Abbie's Christmas

Abbie wasn't in my family photo yesterday, today she gets to be the star of my P365. I love having Abbie for company, she's such a good dog and funny as well. I was getting her to pose for photos and she obliged me, we shot photos for about 15 minutes, now that's patience on her part. Naturally she received a well deserved treat.

Merry Christmas from Abbie! :-)

Merry Christmas

We celebrated our Christmas today and what a wonderful day. 

First there was the food...

The family visit and gift opening... 

Elyssa loved her pony! 

And what's Christmas Eve without a countdown? 

Both of my boys were into getting in on the boxing day sales which opened up online at 6pm, one of my sons was trying to get me a new laptop and my other son was trying to get himself a few things, the competition was on...

This was hilarious, it was what I'd imagine the stock market trading to be like on a much smaller scale. As soon as the timer hit 0 it was click, refresh, check on each other to see how they were doing, repeat, jump up and down (for whatever reason I don't have a clue but the entertainment value was worth the price of a new laptop!)...unfortunately neither got in. Later on my youngest son managed to log in and I have a new laptop on its way. Yipee! 

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree:  the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. 

                                                                                                ~Burton Hillis

And I'm going to speak for each one of us, (cause I'm the Mom and I can!), our Christmas wish...

Merry Christmas! 

Love It!

 Herb came into the city tonight and did I ever get spoiled! We went out for dinner then went out shopping, he let me pick out my gift. Our first stop was Bed Bath and Beyond, one of my favorite stores, and am I ever glad we stopped in there. I got a comforter set, drapes and valances. Our next stop was Home Depot, another favorite store, where I picked out something different for the main wall, it's Venetian Plaster.

I can't wait to get to this new project, my bedroom is going to be beautiful! I just hope that this turns out the way I have it imagined.

What a fantastic gift, one which I will see every morning when I open my eyes and it will be the last thing I see when I go to sleep. Thank you honey, this is the perfect gift.

Christmas Come Early

Well here I am into almost panic mode and I'm on Blogger. I have to get everything here done by the early afternoon of the 24th for our Christmas dinner,we're doing an early dinner, one day early. 

I still have the house to clean, cabbage rolls to make and all the extras that come with putting together Christmas dinner. Tonight I started, I did something which I've never done before... I made fresh cranberry sauce. It's so easy to make and delicious!

 

After work today I stopped off at the University to pick up my marks and papers and Christmas really did come early for me....

On one of my major essays I scored 35/35, the hard work is paying off which gives me the incentive and encouragement to go back and face yet another semester. I'm pleased with my GPA, 3.4 overall isn't bad at all, especially for my first ever exposure to University. I love the comment, if you can't make it out it says "Wow - amazing! Your paper exceeded my expectations. Thank you for submitting this level of quality!"

Yup, Christmas came early for me! :-)

The Boy Grew Up

My son who made me the Christmas tree ornament which I posted yesterday is now a grown man, he's been married for 8 years and him and his beautiful wife had my first grandchild on May 5th of this year. I am so proud of my son, he's a wonderful father and, from what I see, an amazing husband. 

The little boy who worked so hard to make me an ornament 26 years ago, now has his own home. Both my son and his wife are big on Christmas and I love it! I stopped off tonight to drop off some photos and here is what they have done with their house for the holiday season.

 

They always decorate their home so beautifully, last year they had 7 trees in the house, I'm not sure how many this year with having a wee one to tend to but I know that there's more than one. 

Merry Christmas Shayne, Sandy and Elyssa! 

I haven't had time tonight to look at everyones posts and now it's late and I have to be up early for work so I'll get to see double tomorrow night, that will be a bonus for me!

Childrens Art

The oldest ornament on my tree is one my son made for me when he was approximately 5 years old, he's 31 now which would make this 26 years old. 

 

I love childrens art and I'm looking forward to a tree ornament in a few years when my granddaughter, my sons daughter, can make me one to hang by her daddy's. 
I love Christmas!

Getting There

Where might "there" be? I'm getting ready for Christmas naturally. I baked today, cleaned a bit and things are coming together. Slowly but surely and one thing at a time we will have Christmas. 

Here's a few more baked goodies, or just goodies as some aren't baked.

 

Rocky Road Fudge made with cream cheese, yummm. 

Lemon Cheesecake Squares, there are also very good, lemony but good.

And this recipe is thanks to Cheryl rerouting me to a fellow blogger, the recipe can be found here

These are Peanut Butter Bon Bons with edible gold stars that are so cool, something new to me!

Why might I be doing all of this baking? Well for two reasons, the first being for my family and the other being my friends. I have two really good friends who are bachelors and every year I give them each a goodie tin, this year they get fancy boxes so I can get more in them.

The bonus today is that I got to see a sunset, thus I can post a Sunday Sunset picture, something which I haven't been able to do in quite some time now. Scott had inspired me to start with Sunset Sunday this past summer and I love taking photos of sunsets, so it works by me!

What are some of your favorite Christmas songs? I'm in dire need of some new tunes here! :-)

I Love Christmas

Christmas makes everything so beautiful... this shot is one which I've been looking at every since we got at least 2' of snow, we got a bit more today and I love the way the snow on my patio glistens. 

 A look behind the scenes, I made a few more Christmas goodies tonight. This one here is Cashew Clusters.

This recipe is thanks to Cheryl, you can find it here, it's delicious and easy to make. It's one of those Christmas treats that tastes like you've spent an entire day in the kitchen yet it was quick and easy. 

And this one, this is a part of my centerpiece which sits on my coffee table.

Yup, I love Christmas!

One Week til Christmas

Well now, I was up bright and early and on my way to work when all of a sudden the radio announcer informed me that I have one week until Christmas... ONE WEEK, seriously I thought that this guy was nuts. Then I started to count the days mentally, that almost hurt because it was just that early in the morning, and the bugger was right, one week, that's it.

Well I didn't freak out, I've learned that freaking out doesn't do much good. I worked my shift, drove an hour home on horrible roads and came home and went to bed. I resigned, for two hours that is. I got up and baked enough cookies to feed the entire block at least one each. 

Now I have a game plan to make this all come together, I just hope my plan works out. I work tomorrow and again on the 22nd but it seems that I thrive under pressure, so bring it on... I have my helper all decked out and we're ready to tackle anything...

Okay, let me rephrase that, ONE of us is ready to tackle almost anything.

Precious

Tonight I had the pleasure of spending time with my granddaughter, naturally that means that my camera came with me and tonight we had some fun. I bought along my Santa's hat, Elyssa loved it but wasn't too keen on keeping it on her head.

 

With such a precious subject I can't help but post a few photos. 

And one last one...

I think she had enough. :-)

The Gardener

A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life.

                                                                                                                  James Allen

( I tried at least 10 times to post this photo on Tuesday when I shot it but it kept on coming up sideways. I resized it, played with it in Picassa, also in Picnic, and what'd you know, here it finally is right side up. As this is cheating in it's own way I'll post a photo I shot today later on tonight.)

Snow, Snow and More Snow

It's been quite the snow day here today, if nothing else I sure got my exercise. I was out shoveling 3 times and not just a wee bit of snow. The snow hasn't let up all day and it's even still coming down, enough already!  I hope that this ends soon, I'm running out of places to pile the snow. 

The poor reindeer were stuck, Santa wouldn't have had the deer power to pull the sleigh...

Not to worry Santa, I've cleared the snow and now you've got your team ready to go.

Just another day in paradise. 

The way I look at it, any day where I'm above ground is another day in paradise. :-)

Blue Skies

What a welcomed site to see, a beautiful blue sky, a rarity these days in this neck of the woods.

The finals been written, the essay is darn near completed and it's home free. Then I can get some work done and prepare for Christmas, they way I like to prepare. 

Whew

One final mark came in today which I'm pleased with, three more to come. To earn this mark I had to score between 90-95. I am pleased with this one, if only the rest could be the same I'd be one happy camper. I already know that one class won't be this high, one other one might be slightly lower and one could come close. All of this hard work will pay off one day, I just know it will.  I'm keeping the faith and going to say a special prayer that I at least pass my final in the morning. If I aim to do this maybe some sleep would be in order. 

Thank you to all of you who have encouraged me along the way, I appreciate all of the kind words and support. Now to keep this up for one and a half more years and we'll have a degree! :-) 

Cowboy Christmas

To all of you cowboys out there...

although I believe that there's a message in here for each one of us.

Christmas For Cowboys

Christmas Poem

Tall in the saddle we spend Christmas Day,
Drivin' the cattle on snow-covered plains.
Of all the good gifts given today;
Ours is the sky and the wide open range.

Back in the cities, they have diff'rent ways,
Football and eggnog and Christmas parades.
I'll take the blanket; I'll take the reins;
Christmas for cowboys on the wide open plains.

A campfire for warmth as we stop for the night;
The stars overhead are the Christmas-tree lights,
The wind sings a hymn as we bow down to pray;
Christmas for cowboys on the wide open range.

It's tall in the saddle we spend Christmas Day,
Drivin' the cattle on the snow-covered plains.
So many gifts have been opened today;
Ours is the sky and the wide open range,
It's Christmas for cowboys on the wide open plains

                                                            Author unknown

Two Angels

Tonight I was going to take a photo of my Christmas centerpiece, get the Christmas spirit happening, but then I spotted two angels and my heart danced. One of the angels adorns my  tree, the other has captured my heart. I am blessed and for this I will be eternally grateful.

"Reflect on your present blessings
of which every man has many,
not on your past misfortunes,
of which all men have some."

                                   

                             Charles Dickens

Slip Slidin Away

We got dumped on, it snowed about 10cm and the roads were terrible this morning. I ended up taking an entirely different route to classes this morning, the one I normally take was totally congested and traffic was standing standing still, the streets were pure ice. I left early and showed up 10 minutes late but in this weather nobody says a thing, it's just good that we can make it.

I managed to find one street where there was barely any traffic which was fantastic, if I started to slide there was nobody to hit! That lasted for about 5 minutes, everyone else seemed to find my short cut.

After classes the roads were no better, still glare ice. I was following this one car and kept my distance. It would have plain out sucked to hit this particular vehicle. One of our cities finest... that without a doubt would have fined me if I rear ended them.

Now how's this for redneck, just check out this brilliant sign.

I shot this photo from my car, (okay so I shot all the photos from my car),  I was stopped, inching along because the traffic was once again totally backed up and barely moving, but a huge thank you to the city of Edmonton for this reminder.

Like seriously now... how can anyone speed when traffic is moving at a snails pace and the roads are so slippery that I could have skated home faster then driving. Brilliant I tell ya! I guess that this is one of the many good reasons city employees make such good money.

For all of those who are driving in winter weather, drive safe and please remember... DON'T SPEED on icy roads where it's impossible to even go the speed limit and stay on the road. 

A happy, safe and blessed weekend to each of you out there in bloggerville. :-)

One For All of Us Photographers

Today as I was making time to decorate my tree I found this adorable tiny figurine in my decorations, it was still in the original packaging and I think when I bought it I had in the back of my mind it was for the train set I plan on purchasing one day. I want to set up a huge track with a village, trees, skating rink or whatever makes it look like a village. I thought it's a cute picture for all of us photographers, it makes me smile! :-)

I was outside for a bit and the tree caught my eye so in I came and got my camera, me and my reflections... I love them!

Essays

Well here I sit, down to two essays and it's getting close, way to close for comfort, to have these handed in. I want to just quit, scream, freak out or do something crazy but I won't. I'll continue to peck away at this keyboard, write, change, probably say a few nasty words, edit some more, add new information and get to the required number of pages. That's all I'm aiming for at the present moment, get to the required number of pages, and hope to get a decent mark. One word at a time, one page at a time and this too shall pass... I hope.

This is rather embarrassing to post but I'm going to just the same, it's my reality right about now!

I'm sure that in my final draft I'm going to aim higher, in this present moment I just want it done! One more week, one short week and a few sleepless nights and this will be over and I can clean up this mess... to start all over again in January.

My Little Fish

I went down tonight to watch my granddaughter in her swimming lessons, she LOVES the water, just like a little fish.

 I only had my P&S with me, if I get the opportunity go go back before her lessons are complete I'll take my Rebel with me. At least I had a camera, the ABC rule that Rick has taught me. :-)

A No Title Day

Yup you know I'm tired when I can't even come up with a title for today's blog... oh well, here goes just the same... 

Today was another cold day, when I left the house this morning I believe it was -17c and that's without the wind chill. The afternoon sun was a welcomed sight, it didn't provide much warmth but a little bit of warmth is better than none at all.

I was driving by refinery row later on this afternoon and shot a photo, yes yet another one of my drive by shootings... 

Some call it progress, I call it pollution, yet  this is what makes our economy thrive. I often wonder what's in store for our future generations, what resources will they be left with and how will they sustain life once our natural resources are depleted?

On that cheery note, it's time to bid you all adieu, farewell and so long... until we meet again, goodnight and God bless.

Gift Exchange

The family Chinese gift exchange was so much fun yesterday, I blogged about what I had but didn't end up with. The pink gym bag and the pink warm and the fuzzy slippers which slipped through my hands, but what I did end up with is rather interesting I must say.

Yup, it's a Sauna Pro, it sounds like it's going to be awesome for my lower back when I occasionally overdo it and my back gets sore. As for shrinking an inch per hour, now if this is true I'll be amazed. I'm extremely skeptical but ya never know. Would I go out and purchase this for weight loss? Nope, not a chance but I'm glad to have ended up with this gift... it could be interesting to see what it does and does not do.

I also came home with a gingerbread house which I am looking forward to putting together. We played a game where we honestly answered questions and the one with the highest score won. The game was How Ready Are You For Christmas and it appears that out of the entire family I am the most ready. How this transpired I'll never know, and yes I told the truth! :-)