Life is Good

This morning I received some fantastic news, I've been selected to receive an award from Canada Post! This is quite the honor, 24 students from across Canada have been chosen to receive this award and I'm one of them. 

The award is an Aboriginal Educational Incentive Award which I applied for. I wrote the personal essay and submitted my transcripts as did every other student who chose to apply and lo and behold I've been accepted. This is surreal, but I have the letter right here. The letter states that "The selection panel was impressed by your submission and chose you from many applicants."  And here I wasn't even going to apply, I thought that I had such a slim chance of receiving this award, that self doubt almost stood in my way but I pushed it aside. It's amazing what we're all capable of in life, totally amazing! What I have to say about this, if you ever think you can't do something put aside your self imposed limitations and just go for it, what do you have to lose?

And I can't help but post this next photo, it's cute not to post! 

Abbie tonight at bath time,  she's such a good dog. I still can't believe that she sat in the tub while I snapped a few photos.  I thought for sure she'd jump out and make a run for it... and yes, she got a treat for being such a good girl!

Night Shots

In the old days a shot for me was about an ounce, today my shots are much more rewarding and I have fun with them... plus I remember in the morning what I did! :-)  

Tonight I found a new way to procrastinate homework, I went out and actually made an attempt to take a few night shots, two to be exact, and I'm posting them both. Any helpful hints on night shots would be greatly appreciated. And yes Joseph, I finally used my tripod!

 

"He stayed with [me]. [I] prayed a little bit. It was great comfort knowing [I was] not alone. He didn't talk much. He just listened."

 Mark Broussard

All In a Half Day

This morning I glanced outside around 8a.m. and it sort of surprised me to see the moon still out. I knew it was there this past while but I guess that I chose not to really look at it, if it's not there it can't exist, right? Wrong... here's a photo from shortly after 8 this morning. It's time for me to face it, the days are much shorter than they were a month ago... or yesterday for that matter now that I've acknowledged this. 

I left the house shortly after I shot this photo, it was time to get to my morning class which starts at 9. It must be an "up" day for me, I was looking up and noticed the sun beaming down, cascading golden rays upon the city and it looked so pretty, especially after all of the foggy days we had last week. 

Shortly after class began we got our mid terms handed back to us, it's a good thing I can write, (you'd never know from my blog because this is my fun space!), because I bombed on the multiple choice answers. The one good thing about being a strong writer is that I find if I can't dazzle them with brilliance, I sure can baffle them with bull!

Even with this mark my final grade on the mid term was a 78%, this shows me that it's time to buckle down on the studies and get this grade up. I wrote this mid term in my Research in Social Work class and yup, it's a research course all right, something which I have very little interest in but I'm going to have to find an interest and soon... it's only another month and a bit and we write the finals! 

Once class was finished I went in search of some curtains for my unpainted bedroom (I'll get to it all in good time). I had seen these drapes previously, they're the same ones I bought for my living room but in a different color. The sales lady told me that they never have sold these particular drapes in Ivory, and she was adamant about this. I say bull.... to that, I have a photo from two months ago and you bet I'm going to take it in and show it to her! Hopefully I'll find these drapes someplace, I love them!

I don't know, but I'd say this looks pretty Ivory to me! Oh well, going to this store wasn't a complete waste, I picked up one Christmas gift and saved 20% on it which is always a bonus.

So now my day is about half done, I've got my post in for the day and I can still hit the books for the better portion of what's left in my day... and yesterday I was wondering where this year has slipped away on me. 

Note to self: Keep looking up, when it's dark or gloomy looking down, up is the place to be!

Normal is Boring

Yup, my photo of the day about says it all. Not only is pretending to be normal exhausting, it's bloody boring... no more normalcy in my life.. I QUIT normal! Hmmm where's the quitting normal lineup?

Well people, we have 60 days left of this years Project 365, and I'm sitting here wondering where in the heck has this year slipped away on me? Right, I've been a student, graduated from the diploma level and started university. I worked a practicum for 2 months, most importantly I became a grandma for the first time.  I've worked here and there, visited the farm fairly often, did a whack of landscaping, baked, attempted to tend to the garden, I canned, cleaned, moved, painted, got a dog, went out and had a blast numerous times, got to take in a hockey game, went to the lake a few times, and I've taken hundreds of photos. I'm sure that I've missed a ton of stuff but now that I've listed a few things I've done in this past 10 months, it's amazing that it's not the year 2014 already! Thankfully it's still 2010...and just remember that if being normal is exhausting, just be who the good Lord intended for you to be.

Halloween 2010

Today was beautiful! I think that we got up to +12c which is awesome for this time of year. I'm glad for the kids who were out trick or treating tonight. I didn't get all that many children at my door, but I did manage to get a few photos of some of them.

Here was a vampire, a funny witch, the other girl was one of those young teen idols whose name I can't remember and the fella in the back, I'm not so sure what he was but these kids were a fun bunch. 

This next little one was a devil, her grandmother never allowed her mother to be the devil when she was a child so now the mom allowed this cute little one to be whatever she wanted. Sometimes I think that we live vicariously through our children. 

Then this little one showed up, she got scared of Abbie and turned to run away. I held Abbie and these two became fast friends. I had to smile when mom seen my camera, she asked me if I was a professional photographer, I had to tell her the truth and told her that I was! Just kidding. :-)

 

And naturally I saved the most adorable little one for last, she was the cutest little butterfly I've ever seen in my entire life!  My precious granddaughter came over early and was she so adorable, I'm still smiling just seeing her photo!

Happy 1st Halloween precious Elyssa!

Happy Halloween

Today I stopped off at my middle sons house and this is what he's got set up next to his stairs. I thought it was pretty cool, they used up all of the leaves which were left on the ground and made the Halloween watch man.

My next stop was over at my oldest son and his wife's place. I went over to watch my little princess while mommy and daddy decorated their lawn for Halloween. They outdid themselves but I love what they did. Now I want to go and get some lawn decorations for my place after seeing what my son's did, I'll wait until next week when the Halloween decorations are on sale for super cheap and I'll have them for next year. 

Here's some of my oldest sons lawn.

I can just see the frightened little ones coming over here, the figures all talk and in a rather scary way. They're quite loud too so I hope that none of the little ones get too scared, they'll run away crying... Shayne I hope you video some of the kids walking up to your door, this I want to see! 

Wishing you all a wonderful Halloween!

Back In Business

Today we, Herb and myself, were out shopping and came across this 13' ladder. It was on sale for one heck of a good price so we picked it up. I really like that this ladder folds up and I'll be able to store it almost anywhere. 

Now I'll be able to reach the top of my stairwell, the painting can commence... there's only one wee problem, I'm scared of heights. So now it's either get up on this ladder and get the job done, pay somebody to do it or just leave it as it is. I want to do this myself and attempt to get over my fear of heights, hopefully I'll have time within this next few weeks. If (WHEN) I can get up this ladder and paint the stairwell, look out... next I'll be hanging Christmas lights! :-)

MJ

So if it's supposedly illegal to purchase and smoke marijuana why is it legal to sell all of the paraphernalia? I feel that our government should make up their minds...it is or it isn't alright to smoke MJ, none of this in-between stuff. I oppose it yet many disagree with me, we're all entitled to our own opinions thanks to freedom of speech. 

Blah

Today was one of those blah days, the sort of a day where I didn't even want to get out of my PJ's... so I didn't. The hot water tank was replaced today so that's a good thing. I have a roof over my head, a warm bed to sleep in thanks to an electric blanket, there's food in my fridge, my dog loves me, my house is clean for the better part, so why am I so darn blah? Do I take some things in life way to serious? Does my happy, positive cheerful self need a down day from time to time? Could it be the gray weather? I have no idea but I'm sure that after this homework is done and I get a good nights sleep that I'm going to be back up to my perky and grateful self in the morning... I'd better be or I'll go and get some counseling from one of my colleagues, let them use me as  guinea pig. ;-)

Irina, this photos for you. It's not a lot of snow but nonetheless it's snow.

Winter Already

We've had snow for a few days now, I was hoping that it would go away for a while but unfortunately it's looking like it's here to stay. We generally don't get our first snowfall until around Halloween and sometimes it stays, sometimes not.  Now all that we can hope for is that the -30 or -40 days don't hit for some time to come. That's when our city still moves but not nearly as fast as when it's like it is now sitting at about -3. Sometimes it'd be nice to be a bear, sleep the winter away but last time I checked in the mirror I seen a human looking at me so it's time to buckle up and hang on, we're in for a ride!