Out With the Old

...in with the new! Not that this past year hasn't been

a wonderful year, it's time to begin a new chapter and see

what tomorrow holds in store for me. 

A photo appropriate for tonight? Hmmm let me look in my

tickle trunk and see what I can pull out...

Here's one I shot tonight with my phone; I went out

to a dinner and dance and loved the way the path looked...

a path which I wasn't sure where it led to, but it's 

a path I chose to take. Life is like this path, it's all

about choices, each choice I make comes with

consequences, good or bad, something will 

transpire... I try to make wise choices, I've made my fair

share of poor ones in my past. Yet, without making

poor choices I wouldn't know what I now know. 

These are the words of T.S. Eilot; these words talk to me,

I feel I have something to learn from them.

"For last year's words belong to last year's language

And next year's words await another voice.

And to make an end is to make a beginning." 

Cheers! Here's to new beginnings! 

(As for continuing my blog for another year, I'm not quite 

sure yet. I'll make up my mind tomorrow after I've slept on it.)

7 Years

7 years ago I began a new journey and while on 

this journey each year which passes there is a 

celebration... today was this celebration!

With a celebration there's the cake,

and what a cake this was!

A dear friend gave me some beautiful roses!

And yet another friend gave me this stunning Serenity Prayer 
cross, which I LOVE! 

I thank God for my sobriety and for such wonderful

friends, for an amazing family and for miracles! 

The countdown is on for a New Year to begin; what's

your New Years resolution, or do you make resolutions?

My resolution is to no longer make resolutions, this

way I know I can stick to it! ;-)

Faith

I have on my wall a framed print which says:

"I believe in the sun even when it is not shining,

in love even when I am alone,

and in God even when He is silent."

This is an inscription which was found scratched into a wall

in Germany by someone hiding from Nazi concentration camps.

I believe in the power of prayer,

I believe in miracles,

and I believe love has healing powers.

Today Awesome Austin underwent major surgery, he had a heart 

transplant. The surgery lasted approximately 8 hours in total and it 

went great, there were a few complications but the skilled 

surgeons had everything under control. Tonight Austin is sedated, 

he is in stable condition and doing well. 

Thank you all for your kind words, for your prayers, for your support

 and positive energies. I believe that Austin will have a full recovery,

 thanks to miracles, the power of prayer and the abundance

 of love he is receiving. 

This Christmas tree at the hospital I viewed differently tonight,

I view it now as a tree of hope and faith! 

Awesome Austin Update

Today my nephew went to visit Awesome Austin, Austin is my great 

nephew and he sure is an amazing young man. On November 11th 

Austin was admitted to the Stollery hospital, he has had open heart surgery

 and a VAD device was put in to keep his young heart beating. The VAD is 

a temporary measure until a heart transplant can take place. Before any of this

 Austin was a healthy young man, he was active in sports and leading 

an active healthy life. 

Since the VAD has been put in place Austin has also suffered from a 

stroke, the surgeons went in and successfully removed 98% of the clot which 

caused the stroke. Since the last surgery Austin has been making progress

 in leaps and bounds, thankfully so. Tonight we've received news there's 

a heart available for Austin, this in itself is a miracle! The surgery 
will begin sometime between 8am and noon in the morning. 

This is a photo of Austin taken today, my nephew sent this to me,

thank you Michael for the photo. I haven't been down to visit at the

hospital since before Christmas, I haven't been feeling all that great

and don't want to take my cold germs in with me and risk passing

on these germs to Austin. 

It's a true miracle that Austin is doing so well, I believe that God

will keep Austin in His loving arms while he undergoes surgery

tomorrow.  I'll update how the surgery went tomorrow night after my 

day ends. 

Tonight I thank God for miracles and for the gift of life. 

Start the Car!

I'm not a Boxing Day shopper, I tried that once and learned my lesson. 

However, on the 27th I like to take a gander at what's left over 

and today I found some pretty amazing sales. I bought a few new items of 

clothing, it was one of those "Start the car" sales, the prices were almost

 to good to be true.

Now how's that for justification to buy new clothes? ;-)

I'm Back!

Today my oldest son and his wife went out to take in the Boxing

 Day sales, Elyssa came to spend the day with me and I couldn't think 

of a better way to spend my day.  When Elyssa walked in the door she said: 

"Grammy I came back!" ... and my heart melted. 

Self Portrait

So what do I do Christmas day? We celebrated yesterday so this leaves me 

free for the day. I tidied up the house in the morning, cooked breakfast

for Herb before he headed back to the farm, then in the afternoon I

made my rounds of spreading cheer, joy and baked goodies. 

When I got home I thought it was time to update my Christmas photo, 

so there I was, by myself with my tripod and a stool in front of the

tree... 

My practice shot to ensure I was in the frame...

Yup, that should work.

Now lets try getting a shot...

Oooops, have to adjust the timer, I can't move that fast, well not

unless something scary is chasing me! 

A few enhancements and walla, a self portrait! 

Wishing you all a very happy holiday season, from 

my home to yours. 

Merry Christmas

From my home to yours, wishing you a very Merry Christmas! 

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=christmas+cartoons&view=detail&id=C73357DA508B314E0A6D189D455E28E0A3DA3CFF&first=1

It's been a busy few days,
 but soon I'll catch up on my blog.  
I hope your day is filled with tons of love
and plenty of laughter! 

Christmas

It may be Christmas Eve, but this is the day we celebrate our Christmas. 
I have a few reasons for celebrating a day early, the main one is all 
of my children can be here and it sure wouldn't be the same if one (or more) 
of them wasn't able to attend. 

A few of my favorite shots from our Christmas:

Dinner

Okay Grammy, I'm ready for dinner.  

The joy of Christmas! 

It was a wonderful Christmas; I'm blessed to be surrounded by love, 

joy and a beautiful granddaughter to spoil a wee bit! Unfortunately
I didn't think of a family shot until after dinner, by then it was
too late, nobody felt like moving! Next year I'll get in a few
family photos... if I remember. 

It's a Wrap

Today was a fantastic day, a late night, but a productive one. 

I went and tried out an infrared sauna early in the afternoon, the experience

was phenomenal and this is something I'll do again! With it

being as cold as it has been I could have stayed in here all day.

Tonight I put together all of the tins of baked goodies

I'm giving away, this was time consuming but it feels good to 

have this done, I even delivered one already.

After the mess was cleaned up and everything organized in the kitchen,

I moved into the living room where I listened to Christmas music 

and finished wrapping presents. I believe I'm almost ready

 for this celebration, as they say... and that's a wrap and I'm feeling

tired but good. 

Some Things Just Shouldn't Count

Before I post tonight please remember this...

Yup, I was back in the kitchen today. I bought some Candy Cane Hot Chocolate

this year and I don't like it so I was trying to figure out what I could do with it.

I found a recipe online for Mini Hot Cocoa Cookies and it calls for Hot Cocoa Mix, so 

I figured why not try the Candy Cane Hot Chocolate power... this is what happened:

I didn't have the Mallow Bits this recipe called for, I'd never even heard 

of them before, but these cookies are perfect just as they are! 

There's a hit of mint from the Candy Cane Hot Chocolate Powder, 

I doubled what it called for trying to use as much of the powder as 

I possibly could and presto, I now know what to do with something I

won't drink. 

My nephew who is visiting also got put to work, we made Rice Krispie

 Snowmen... errrr, I mean Snowwomen! 

This solo Snowwoman was feeling lonely so we had to make her

some friends...

It's been a fun day, I'm enjoying my nephew's company, he's as

silly as his Auntie is and we share a lot of laughs... the way I believe life

should be! 

And you bet, there are some things in life that we just shouldn't count, 

calories at Christmas is one of them! :-)

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas

It's sure beginning to look a lotlike Christmas around here! Today I 

received a card from England; thank you ever so much Saz! 

I met Saz via blogger, she's an incredible young lady, 

one whom I'm proud to call a friend. 

My outside decorations are up and lit, they have been for a while now

thanks to my nephew who helped me...

I've baked up a storm, too much to share in one post but

I'll share what I did tonight. These are called Millionaire's

Shortbread Bars, I haven't tried them yet, but they sure look good!

And tonight my son sent me a photo of my precious

Elyssa with Santa, now it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

And the Beat Goes On

Another part of my day spent in the kitchen...

The beat goes on...

(12 small tins of Nanaimo Bars)

The beat goes on

I'm trying out this Royal Icing for the 

first time this year and it's interesting to work with...

And tonight my son set up his tree I picked up for

 him and sent me a photo; its too cute not to share! 

La de da de de, la de da de da

Busy Busy Busy

Tis the season to be busy

Fa la la la la la la la la 

Bars, squares and cookies I'll bake

Fa la la la la la la la la 

Photos for friends I will take 

Fa la la la la la la la la 

Fun with my granddaughter will be had

It's time to be celebrate and not be sad

Fa la la la la la la la la 

Yup til the season to be busy! 

Go ahead, help yourself to one of these delicious

shortbread cookies, bet you can't stop at just one! 

Naughty or Nice

I like to believe that...

And it really wasn't me who broke the glass to get a clear

shot of this saying on the T-shirt!

A Night With A Special Girl

I have my favorite little lady spending the night with me tonight; before

dinner I wanted to get my yearly photo in with Elyssa by the tree.

It seems that as long as she's going to allow me to do this, then this will

be a yearly ritual for us.

After dinner we decorated our Christmas cookies. Elyssa told me that 

yellow made her feel better; mind you so did the red, blue, green, 

white or whatever color she was working with!

When Elyssa had enough of decorating cookies she picked one out for

Santa, she also asked for one for the reindeer. I found this cute box and put

them into it so she can take them home and put her special cookies in the

freezer, she told me that Santa won't have them until Christmas Eve. 

Out of the mouths of babes, Elyssa never ceases to amaze

me with what she comes up with and she sure keeps me

on my toes! 

Update on Austin

Austin is out of surgery, they removed about a 2cm blood clot and he's in recovery in ICU. The doctors are optimistic he will fully recover and regain full motor skills as this was caught very quickly. Thank you all for your support, prayers and/ or sending positive energies.

I want to share what Austin said this morning while he was experiencing the onset of this stroke. Austin told his Mom and Dad he loves them, he also said "I love you God."

I feel I have so much to learn through this, Austin isn't saying 'Why me God', he isn't blaming, seeking pity, or questioning; this amazing 8 year old boy continues profess his love for God. I have immense admiration, respect and gratitude in this particular moment in time and I would like to thank each of you who sends words of support, love, and encouragement...they are being felt on this end.

Please Pray

Our little Iron Man had a stroke early this morning, I'm not too sure 

yet all of the details but please pray for our little man. Just last night 

we were visiting, Austin went to the children's Bingo and cleaned house, 

he won the first three bingo's (with a bit of help from his bingo gang!). 

He was doing so well and hopefully this too shall pass.

There are angels among us, I pray that these angels are 
with our brave young man. 

Organization

 After yet another busy day I stopped off at Staples, my nephew who 

is visiting was looking for a specific item. While he shopped, I browsed. 

I found an excellent way to organize my discs and after bringing 

this home I'm thinking I just might have to go back and get another one. 

This storage box is a filing system for CD's and it's going to make my

 life a bit easier when I'm trying to find specific photos or videos. 

What's better yet these are on sale! 

Never Too Busy

Elyssa hasn't been feeling well for this past week or so, she's on the

 mend thankfully but wasn't quite up to going out to her dayhome 

yet so I went and spent the day with her and we had fun! 

Elyssa surprised me, she put this puzzle together by herself, what was 

so surprising was that this is a two in one puzzle, if you turn it over it's 

a photo of Santa Clause but she knew what she was doing so I watched.  

We did plenty of fun stuff, it was a wonderful day and I think

that Elyssa will be back to her dayhome tomorrow. 

After Elyssa's Mommy came home I stopped off at my place,

picked up my nephew who is visiting for a while, then we

went and I picked up Austin's Mom, my niece. We went out shopping

for things she needed, for things I didn't need and I finally made it

home by about 11:30 last night. 

While I was waiting at the hospital for my niece I spent 
a bit of time enjoying the lights.  

I can never be too busy to appreciate the finer things in

life; children's laughter, Christmas lights, quality time with

family, and the warm weather we're experiencing. It was only 

-6c last night... darn near summer weather here! 

Spa Day

I belong to an organization called the Aboriginal Women's Professional Association (AWPA) and each year they host a day known as Spadacious Day. There's services for women which range from nails, hair, reflexology, card reading, and a few other things which aren't coming to mind right at this moment. I shot tons of photos from this event and will share a few of my favorite.  Right there were vendors there as well, some were crafters and I so wanted to bring these gloves home with me, but I behaved and resisted.

There was a ladies handbag which was raffled off and I had one of the

 ladies model the bag for me, I'm very pleased with this photo!

It was a fantastic day, I got to spend time with ladies I haven't

 seen in quite some time,I got fed, and enjoyed a few of the services; 

right and I also got to spend my day doing what I love... taking photos!

This is me on the right and a good friend on the left. I trusted one of the

 reflexologists with my camera for two shots... that was enough of that! lol

Galaxyland

This morning I was up at 3:30am and to work by 5. I helped my friend 
cater a children's Christmas party, this is the 3rd consecutive year we've
 done this. The company we catered for rents Galaxyland for 3 hours, 
this is a huge indoor carnival with rides for children of all ages. 

Today there was approximately 800 people we fed, there were
 tons of children, grandparents, parents, bosses, office and 
there was one special guest...

The Jolly Old Fella himself...

Yup, it's been a very long day and tomorrow morning I'm up with the... hmmm was going to say birds, but all the birds are smarter than I am, they've all flown south!  I have an all day photo shoot which I'm looking forward to. From catering, to shooting photos, a far cry from what I'm now educated to do, but what the heck, I'm having fun! 

Amazing Awesome Austin

Austin is progressing in leaps and bounds, he no longer uses a wheelchair and goes for walks, he's in physio, he's now attending 'school' in the hospital, he goes to the 'beach', plays bingo with the other children and today Austin told me he even skyped with Santa! It's surreal to think that Austin had major heart surgery on November 17th, they installed a device known as VAD which is like a pump which keeps his heart beating. Amazing Awesome Austin will need a heart transplant and is on the list, but for now it's amazing to see how he's progressing and how fast he's coming around. 

This is our little Iron Man, Austin Auntie loves you and thinks you are an amazing young man! 

For The Record

Every now and again I like to post gas prices, why you might wonder... 

well pull up a seat, make yourself at home and I'll tell you. 

I'm curious what the price of gas will be in about 10, 20, maybe 
even 30 years, this way I'll have a way to compare the prices

 and when my grand-children's children think I'm off my rocker and 
don't believe what the price of gas was in 2012 I can show them. 
I might also need this photo in the future so I can remember! 

Today gas was at $103.9/l. The temperature tonight is

-17c and it's going down, it'll probably hit at least -20c but not to 

worry, I have my car plugged in and I'm not wasting power, I even 

hooked up a timer!

And More Snow

This morning my walks were clear, well as clear as they could get with all this snow we've been having. When the mail arrived at my door at about 11am it wasn't even snowing, but within a matter of about 2 hours we got at least 5" of snow, if not more. It was crazy the amount of snow we received in such a short period of time. 

My sidewalk, somewhere under all the snow!

It looks pretty but what a mess to drive in!

Reading (And Iron Man Update)

I haven't had much time to enjoy reading lately, once the holidays pass I'm going to get off the computer a bit more and spend time savoring books. Not all educational books but ones I've started and put aside because a paper had to be written, a test had to be studied for, or there was always something going on. I want to have a mellow month in January, I'd love to spend at least 2 hours a day reading, and at least 3 hours a day writing. Today I was in an awesome second hand book store, I've been here once before, but today I took a really good look around and there's tons of books I'd love to read...

I behaved today and only bought two more books, not bad at all I'd say. 

Here's the latest update on Austin's condition, my niece, his mother,

posted this on the site she started for Austin on fb...

"Austin had a really busy day getting swabbed, x-rayed, poked, going to 

physio, etc. His doctor was very strict and wanted him to walk all over the hospital

for his appointments but when he got really shaky going to X-ray his

nurse ran and found the nearest wheelchair which happened to be a double

wide for him to ride in a bit. By 8pm he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer.

Austin is IV free today! He still has his feeding tube, PICC line, EKG and O2 monitors

and his drive line  when he's in bed but when he leaves the unit he will have

only his drive line connected to the VAD battery pack..."

Austin is doing quite well considering he underwent major heart surgery

16 days ago, he's an amazing young man and is healing in leaps and bounds. 

There's been setbacks from time to time, but overall his doctors and nurses

are extremely impressed with how well our little Iron Man is doing! He even went to
school in the hospital for a brief period of time today and got his books. 

Way to go Austin! Auntie will continue to pray for you.