December Happenings.....Merry Christmas

I know I am really getting bad at doing my blog but things just might change now I will have a bit more free time on my hands, or maybe not. I’m not sure what I got myself into but I will be working in the field of children again. It’s been a while since I sang the “Clean up song” but I still know it. I’m lucky it’s a very short song. I have taken on the job of Child care for my grand-daughter. Her mom ( my daughter ) has decided to enter the work force again, a bit sooner than what she planned. She had decided to take the full maternity leave her factory offers new moms and enjoy a full year off to bond and become “the best damn mother on the earth” as we all thought once upon a time. Well life doesn’t always work out the way you think it will and she was no exception. It turns out that she is pregnant again. My daughter along with millions of other women in today’s generation rely so much on the “bull pucky” that is written in the How to be the best mom ever books. Apparently she read that you can NOT get pregnant while breast feeding. The “fable” is that while a mother continues to produce milk her hormones also double up as a natural birth control thus making it safe to have date nights with their significate other. I tried to warn her that that was soooooooooooooooooooo not true, but I’m a mom of decades gone by and apparently things have changed. The books today are the Gospel according to whatever author has written it. Well my dear sweet daughter learned the hard way that what is written is NOT always the truth. I had to hold back giggles as she cursed herself for even picking up those books let alone believing EVERYTHING written in them was the truth. Well anyways it turns out ok for me since I get more time with my granddaughter and once the baby is born I will have more time with him/her since mom will definitely WANT to be at work once the house that was once two, became three and will soon be a house of four. Her last words on the baby issue were “she is NOT leaving the hospital this time without having a permanent fixture in place for herself and there is no romantic date night until her man has something permanent done as well. As she said, 2 permanent fixes is better than 1!

Here we are 4 days until Christmas. This year we are pretty much guaranteed a green Christmas and according to the weather station our temperature will be 10C that’s 50F for my American readers. I’m beginning to wonder if Canada is slowly becoming the New Age Tropics. I have no doubts that mid-January on we will be cursing the cold and snow, but it sure is different from the days when I was a kid. Climate change really is happening. This is the first year in a long time that I actually had fun fighting the crowds in the store as I shopped for a little one. I forgot how fun it was pressing all the buttons on toys and hearing the noises, songs and characters that come with the different play things. It’s now my turn to buy the noisy toys and send them home with my granddaughter giving mom and dad as much pleasure as we had while they were young kids!  I’m also pretty damn grateful that all my kids will be at the dinner table this year along with a dear friend. I think I’m just as excited as a kid this year, looking forward to the fun, laughter and love that will be at the dinner table this year.

I never did anything on my bucket list this year, but I did have a pretty good year filled with a few surprises and connected with a friend from way back. This year as in 2014 I did have time to look at myself as to where I am and where I am going. I learned not to expect change but to look forward to the future without any expectations after all I have always been a firm believer in the word Serendipity.

I want to wish all my blogger friends a wonderful and safe Christmas Holiday and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2015.

 

October Happenings

Time flies when you’re having fun! We are in the home stretch of October and things here have been busy. I’m awaiting a phone call to start a new job, the best paying job to date so I’m sitting on pins and needles waiting for the phone call to come in. There is still a few weeks before I start so I am excited. This one has benefits which I have never had before. I’ll be working for a place that has many companies throughout Ontario and I’ll be the front line once again. To say I am tired of the temp jobs is putting it mildly but finally it looks like my time has come to be on a full time payroll again, more to follow about this job when I am behind the desk with pen in hand.

 



Thanksgiving went well this year. We had dinner at my daughters place on the lake and what a wonderful day it was. The weather was perfect for a walk around the area surrounding the lakeside community. We even trekked through a wooded area leading to a horse farm. I had to laugh at my daughter because even though an electric fence sign was CLEARLY posted she had to check it out for herself and ended up down on her knees with a jolt that made her cuss loudly. A few others had to check it out as well and yes they were sent to their knees too. What can I say…trial by error? Dinner was delicious and filled with laughs about our walk and even Hanna joined in the laughter while putting in her 2 cents.

 

Halloween is just around the corner and this year I “swear” I am not buying candy to give out. The area we live in has no children so if we do get any kids; it’s just the odd teenager trying to scoop up some candy. For the past 3 years I have bought candy, chocolates and chips to give out to the Tricker Treaters and having so much left over I am “forced” to eat it myself, since I can’t let it spoil! So it’s going to be a candy free zone at my house this year maybe.

I think we are feeling the ends of Indian summer here. The weather has been gorgeous with afternoons being sweater weather and the nights giving us frost, but hey, we are Canada after all so it’s par for the course.

 

Speaking of Canada, we had some horrible events unfold over the last 2 weeks. Last week in Quebec, 2 members of The Canadian Armed Forces were purposely struck down by a vehicle. One of the soldiers died of his injuries, while the other soldier suffered some injuries. This week all eyes were on Ottawa when yet another unarmed young Canadian Soldier was shot at point blank range several times as he stood Guard at the Canada's National War Memorial in what has now been declared as being described as an attack on Canadian Parliament. The shooter was killed in a blaze of gun fire inside the Parliament Building. It was certainly a shocking and sad day for the family of this Soldier as they watched in disbelieve while the Media captured the attempt to revive their loved one on national television. This really P***ES me off but what is even worse is how some take this tragic event and compares it to the many tragic shootings in America. I’m speaking of Rosie O’Donnell’s remarks saying that many people lose their lives in America every day while one person loses their life by gun fire in Canada and the whole country morns. To me this was a total disrespect towards Canada and our Military since it was in no way comparable. Its heart breaking for anyone to die a senseless death but to make it seem like this Soldier's death should not be mourned by his country is beyond disrespectful. Shame on you Rosie! Shame on you!

 

This month we also have a Municipal election happening for all of Ontario. Voters in the province of Ontario will elect mayors, councillors, school board trustees and all other elected officials in all of the province's municipalities.

I’ll be so glad when it is over since I am tired of the phone calls from the different candidates asking for my vote. I’m tired of the constant posting of political views and being told “Don’t forget to Vote” on Face Book so I have started to delete any posts regarding this. Call me bitchy, but I am a grown woman who DOES vote and as far back as I can remember voting has always been a private thing since they have private booths where one can cast their vote in private. The political debates and constant political views on Facebook are really annoying. We get enough of that during the Televised Debates with all the Candidates. I often wonder if these people who insist on being political on a Social Network would stand at the voting booths and declare to everyone that enters who they are voting for…I think not! So why do it on a social network? Ok that was more a rant than anything, but oh well J

I hope everyone has a SPOOKTACULAR   HALLOWEEN

 

 



The "Green Thing" ...then and now!!!!

This was posted on my Facebook and I definitely thinks this should be shared!


 Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment.

The woman apologized to the young girl and explained, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

The older lady said that she was right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day. The older lady went on to explain:

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable besides household garbage bags was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribbling’s. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags. But, too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then.

We walked up stairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.

But she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.

Back then we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220volts. Wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that young lady is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Back then we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right; we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blade in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the "green thing." We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then?

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to really piss us off... especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smart-ass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much. — with Molly Day.

 

Well said Molly Day…well said!!!!!!!

Good-bye Summer 2014

It was good while it lasted but as they say, all good things must come to an end and the summer of 2014 has officially come to an end this weekend. I really didn’t do a lot this summer yet the time seemed to just slip away. I spent some time out at my daughters place and even did a weekend of dog sitting there. It was nice and relaxing even through the bouts of doggy back door scoots due to a very emotional dog missing his mom and dad’s attention. Since Hanna has arrived my daughter and her other half has been on the usual running around introducing Hanna to family members that are scattered over the entire Province of Ontario. We all know how hard it is to travel with a baby so putting two English Bull Dogs into the back of the car along with Miss Hanna was out of the question. They did as many day visits as possible so they would not have to leave the dogs alone too long, but there were times when they had to spend more than a few days away from home, leaving the dogs in very capable hands of friends and neighbours. It just so happened that Miss Ava (one of the Bull Dogs) decided that enough was enough and decided to let mom and dad know that she was not happy about all the away from home travels and she decided to have the back door scoots when she was in my care for the weekend (oh goody goody). I managed to keep things as clean and smell free as possible and was able to have some nice relaxing time as well. We had a few get together with family and friends as well. There is nothing like relaxing, laughing and having fun with a few drinks and a camp fire on a summer night.

My cousins from the States came up this summer and it was a real treat to have them here. My cousin’s husband is a retired U.S Marine and has such a southern drawl that you can’t help but have fun when he talks and jokes around. We had a few friendly discussions about the American accent of Pennsylvania. They insist it is us that have the accent yet when they say the word “wash” for some reason they include the letter r in the word as in “warsh”. Even my spell check could not figure out this spelling as I was typing this and kept saying it was the wrong spelling! It was a great visit for sure and they even want to come back next summer!

I had a few summer reads this season but my favorite was going back to my childhood and reading the book “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. For me Mark Twain always brings me back to my childhood and even though I am an adult I found myself on that raft sailing down the Mississippi River along with Huck and Jim. I’m not sure why but this summer I was filled with memories of my childhood from making tents out of blankets thrown over the clothes line to trying to catch fireflies at night and on a few occasions I was able to capture them in a jar.  I will be honest and tried once again to catch them this summer but was unsuccessful. I guess I was quicker and my eyesight was keener when I was a kid. I also did a Netflix Marathon of the show “Lost”. I had watched a few episodes when it was in TV but was unable to watch the series. Well I watched from Season 1 episode 1 to season six the very last episode. It was rather dumb but also intriguing. I became addicted to watching them and sat dumb-founded yet riveted by the adventures of the survivors of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815.

This year’s annual Labour Day fish fry has been moved back a few weeks since we had to attend a family get together this weekend. I’m hoping the temperatures won’t soar into the high 30’s with the humidity into the 40’s. We haven’t had too many heat waves this summer but when we do get them it’s been brutally hot.  That about sums up my summer of 2014. I hope everone had a great summer, stayed safe and were able to make some great summer memories.

Until next time my fellow bloggers and remember, tan lines will fade, but summer memories will last forever!

 

Summer Time Laziness!

It's been awhile since I posted and I have no excuse accept that I was being lazy. My granddaughter is growing like a weed and I am having so much fun with her. She is spending this weekend with us as mom and dad are going to a wedding out of town. I'm rather surprised that they actually have decided to go away without her since they dote on her hand and foot. She certainly is a little princess and even at 2 1/2 months I think she knows this already. I'm sure I will be getting many phone calls during her visit to check up on how things are going but as I told my daughter, I was a new mom once upon a time and manage very well. I am experienced in all ways so we will just be fine without her. Somehow I don't think that will stop the phone calls and I will definitely keep my cell phone close at hand just in case she calls and I am not close to the house phone.

 

 

 

About a week ago I ran into someone who I worked with at the community center. Apparently things have changed there, something's for the good and other things not so good. They asked me if I missed working there and in all honesty there are some things I miss but I don't miss the drama and backstabbing that went on. We had a fairly lengthy chat about the different things we both encountered there and both of us agreed we made the right decision in leaving our jobs there. We than went on to gossip a bit about some of the patrons that we knew during our time there. They caught me up on a few people that had life changing things happen and after our conversations I had a renewed sense of happiness inside. For the longest time I felt the anger inside me for the way things went down on the night I left that place, but I found out it's easier to let the anger go and focus on the good things, (something I always knew but didn't want to do). We hugged and went our own way to continue on our day.

 

 

 

 

This passed weekend I attended my Aunts 80th birthday party. She is the sister of my mother and since mom died when I was only in my early 20's my Aunt had become a close confidant becoming like a mother figure when I needed one. She suffers from osteoporosis and has become very frail and fragile but she's still as sharp as whip! The party was a huge success and it was amazingly drama free (accept for a few people that are a cracker short of being a full box). There was no family drama although a few could be seen standing in a corner whispering about this one or that one, little did they know that they were actually being whispered about. I guess most families have a few of those kinds of people and my family is no different. I spent most of my time going around visiting with family I hadn't seen in well over 20 years. It was a wonderful day filled with plenty to eat and drink, combined with lots of memories, tears and laughter.

 

 



 Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability. ~Sam Keen

 



Time Flies

I’m not sure where the time went, one minute it was the end of April and now is already going into the second week of June. I guess it’s true “time flies when you are having fun”. Work was finished for me the 1^st week of May and I have to say that I really am glad about that. This last job stint was a learning lesson to say the least, but at least I can say that I did it. I worked for a very well-known Taxation Corporation and even though the people I worked with were super friendly and very easy to like, the politics of this place was enough to make me regret my decision. The business it’s self is a great one, but the way they take advantage of people who have no clue on how to make tax season a little less painless is really frightening. I cringed so many times as people came to me to pay for the services they received and I had no choice but to smile as they handed over a ridiculous sum of money  and say thank you for choosing H&R Block and we hope to see them again next year. Had my supervisor not had the desk right behind me since she was also a Tax Pro and could also hear what I was saying, I would have discourage some customers into coming in to us and would have sent them somewhere cheaper. I was Front End Reception and was responsible for looking at the customers forms and Government slips, putting them into files and then assigning the right “Tax Professional” to the right customer. I was the one they paid once the service had been rendered, I was the one that would direct them to the proper places in order to apply for different services to help next Tax Season to be a better one and I was also the one they complained to when they were out-raged at the total cost of everything. This is a job that I doubt very much that I will ever do again for this company!

 

On a happier note, on April 30^th I became a “Nana”. This time it was to a human baby and not another English Bull Dog. Her name is Hanna and she is just perfect. Oh I intend to spoil this little princess so much and smile as I secretly whisper “it’s your turn now” when she is cranky and mom and dad have to deal with her. I now know the wonderful feeling of having a second generation begin as I watch this little princess sleep in my arms. This picture is my first born holding her first born. What an amazing feeling it is!

 

The first day of summer is fast approaching and I for one am going to make the most of it. I’m going to soak up the summer sun (being careful not to fry my skin) and just relax and let the days take me where they will! I have nothing really big planned, no bucket list items to do, but one never knows what will happen, so I’ll just take it day by day. I hope everyone has a wonderful summer season and remember;

 

Summer:

 Hair gets lighter. Skin gets darker. Water gets warmer. Drinks get colder. Music gets louder. Nights get longer. Life gets better and every summer has a story. ♥

2014 A-Z Blogging Challenge……….26th of 26 Pet Peeves

My Pet Peeve for the Letter Z

 

This pet peeve goes along with my Laundry Pet Peeve and that’s when people do not do up the zippers of their clothing when they toss their laundry into the basket. That makes more work for me since I’m the one that has to do the damn zippers up so they don’t snag on my sheer blouses and other items that share the same wash space. I honestly don’t know why some find it so hard to redo the zipper up after taking off that item of clothing.

And this brings a close to the 2014 A-Z Blogging Challenge. I had a great time and promise to visit everyone’s blog. I know I should have done so during the challenge but time got away from me. Thank you to all who visited my Blog and I hope you enjoyed or at least smiled at some of my posts. I look forward to the 2015 Challenge. Have a great day everyone!!!