Stat holidays

Since Canada and the U.S. don't share allot of Stat days off through out the calender year, it can be quite difficult to conduct a full days work when most of the people you communicate with are not in the office.Instead they are sleeping in and sipping on beers.
On the same token, when coming back to work after a Canadian Stat day off ,one we don't share with our southern friends, you find your inbox is crazy full of work that the rest of the world carried on with while we (me) are sitting on our back porch sipping a beer.
We need to co-ordinate our beer times.
Happy Memorial day USA...to bad your inbox will be crazy full of my work requests when you get back.

aaaaand its snowing....

again......???

May 29th.

Not funny.

*UPDATE........still snowing...!!!

our new pet

Just had to be eaten. But not before his photo shoot.

And boy it was yummmmmy...mmmmmm good.

(The house kinda smells really bad right now, but its a small sacrifice...no guest this weekend)

Itchy.

Itchy. Itchy. Itchy. Itchy.
When oh when will my eyes stop being so darn itchy?
They are red and stingy and look a little like I have been awake for days, not a pretty site.
My wonderful husband keeps telling me how beautiful I am, we have mirrors so I know what I look like, he seems to really mean it though. huh.

It is so nice out right now. The sun is shining bright. Time to go outside run, breath, throw our heads up to the sky to soak up those yummy warm rays.
You eye glass wearers must be with me on this, you want to put on a pair of sunglasses. I know you do....I sure do. I bought a years worth of disposable contact lenses just before the warm weather hit so I would be ready for the freedom to wear sunglasses while driving, walking, playing.
These eye glasses feel like concrete sitting on my face ( yes, I do know that sunglasses also sit on my face in the same fashion) almost mocking me.
Maybe my eyes are trying to tell me something. Maybe they want laser eye surgery. Maybe, now roll with me on this for a second, just maybe they don't actually like it when I stick things into them every day.
Oooohhh...they are so darn ITCHY!
I am still to scared to let someone stick a laser beam in my eye. I am going to have to start asking around on this one.
Anyone know of someone or have actually had laser eye surgery yourself? I am looking for the side effects and the pain scale 1 to 10.
Itchy watery eyes.....you win today.

The long weekend at home.

Three days hanging around home, you just can't beat it.

Seriously, if I could get a three day weekend all the time, and I am sure you will all agree, the house would be cleaner more organised, the yard better cared for, fitness levels ramped up. Even our dinners would taste better, have more variety.

My internal relaxation tanks would be at a tolerable level helping me purr along getting way better mileage.

Sounds like retirement. hhhmmmm...

Funny though, as the kids get older and I am pushing them to be more independent (the older two seem to have lacked this for sometime) I am finding more and more that our time spent together is dwindling fast. It is hard to accept at times but we have to give them the space to grow and become their own person, find their own groove in this world. All of this under a very watchful eye of course, just from a little farther back than we are used too.

I am liking this space as well and it feels good when we can come together, although at times much to briefly, I am managing more me time with a good mixture of family time.

I feel I have reached the point of having all I ever hoped for, everything I need. What more could a girl want? This must mean its time to learn a little more and grow. Expand my wings a little bit further, but that is a whole other blog.

Also it seems that the youngest of the three, the one who still has to be home and around me more often has shown the most signs of independence and responsibility on his own as well he seems to be experiencing only child syndrome. He is spending more time alone now with his older siblings off doing their own things. He takes pretty good care of himself, helps me out more around the house and we get to enjoy more activities together then I ever could when he was a baby and the older two were younger and less independent.

The third child is now the one getting the long bike rides, quiet strolls and more one on one park time as well is picking up more lunch making and dinner skills.

I would sure like to bottle this weekend and open it up after every work week. It had such good balance.

Dinner and drinks with friends, home time, family time, relax time, me time, exercise time, husband time.

Freeze Frame.....

Team up Thursday: Hot/Cold

As we continue on with our fun project, teaming up to create a diptych inspired by Mental Inventory, we once again decided to play along with their theme.
Its really neat seeing the theme for the week and setting off on a mission to come up with something reflective of that theme, something creative, then what fun it is to go check out what other vision people had for the same theme.

With Hot/Cold being the goal for this week I didn't have too hard of a time since Terry and I were surrounded by mountain snow and glacier on our weekend getaway. I took the top photo of the Athabasca glacier and a sign showing where it was in years past. They say if global warming continues on this trend this glacier will be no more in less than 100 years.
Michel's photo below mine shows that her week end at home in her back yard was a comfortable 25 C and I know she was hoping for that needle to climb higher into the hot zone. Soon I hope.

I am already itching for next weeks theme.....your mission, if you chose to accept it...haha, I think we may need theme music.

Enjoy the ride

And that is just what he did....

This is the other fantastic view I got to see when I opened my eyes for a peek on the helicopter ride in the Rockies....

I blame my parents.

Ha! That got your attention hey!?
I also thank you.

In recent years it came to light that I have high blood pressure. I have had it for some time but it was generally washed under the table, so to speak, as a side effect of my pregnancies. And boy I had me some pregnant days.
As the years went on and I stopped being so pregnant all the time we started to see that this blood pressure thing wasn't going any where, actually it was getting worse.
After a year or so of tests and ultra sounds and trial and error it was decided I was going to have to be medicated. What?! How ridiculous, I am too young for this.

I worked hard at changing my diet and lifestyle, I exercised quite regularly, thanks to a wonderful new man in my life, and drove my kids nuts with fresh veggies and a lack of salt in our diets to help curb this hypertension monster that was hounding me.

Well, even with the medication, change of attitude and lifestyle it all comes down to genetics, hence the blame, and there is simply nothing I can do about it. So as I sit in the doctors office again last night three years after I first started medication she tells me it simply is not helping and we have to start more aggressive meds. Seriously? I started to protest but she got all serious on me, told me that I will always have hypertension, that is my reality, but if I leave it alone my life with be shortend with so much room left on my punch card, she looked me straight in the eyes and told me we have to get this under control, and now.
Fine.
So, I have to go buy a monitor for home, "AND USE IT", was how she put in sternly to me. I have to up my medication and go back to see her every three weeks for the next year or so until we find what will make me 'normal'.
The good news... everything I am already doing is fine. Don't stop living, and by living I mean drinking my morning coffee and evening wine....woo hoo....

This hypertension thing isn't too bad, hence the thank you, having it hanging over my head makes it hard to find excuses to fall off the exercise and mostly good diet wagon. It's also a good excuse to continue my pursuit of slow. I feel good right now and I intend to continue to do so.

A weekend in Jasper

Terry and I headed out on yet another wonderful weekend in the mountains. This time to Jasper.

Yes, we are extremely aware of how fortunate we are to live so close to the mountains and the cozy towns nestled within them as well as the fact that we can afford to make these little trips to our heaven on earth quite frequently. These, we decided, were going to be our continuing honeymoon getaways. We work hard, and besides the kids, this is what we decided we would throw our hard earned cash at for our time here on this planet...We couldn't be happier.

This trip to Jasper was actually planned around a wedding gift we received last year from Terry's parents. A 25 minute helicopter ride over the majestic Colombian Icefeilds.


Where most would be thrilled and excited for an opportunity to hover slightly above the peeks of our amazing Rockies, including my husband, I was more...hhmmm...terrified would be a good word for it.
After much anxiety and a pre flight beer we went for it.


As much as I would like to continue on with this story telling you I did it, loved it and wondered what I was so afraid of and just can't wait to get back up there...I can't tell you all that. I can say that I did it!!
I was so thankful that just as we were checking in a couple walked up, as we found out later, here from the UK looking for a Rocky Mountain adventure... I was thankful that they were put into our flight and because due to weight and balance issues in the helicopters, I would have had to sit by a window had they not joined in the 'fun'. So there I was, comfortabley placed in the back seat sandwiched between my husband and a nicely rounded European woman. I felt somewhat safer. Still I spent most of the flight with my eyes closed clinging to Terry's leg with some kind of super death grip (really sorry about that Ter) occasionally stealing a peek and sometimes holding my camera towards the front and side windows to see what I was missing. I had given up my super awesome camera to Terry so he could get the real deal caught in photos for us to enjoy together later. I was just happy to land.

Here are a couple of pictures from that trip.
Terry really enjoyed the ride so all was not wasted on us. Thank you for the wonderful experience Ma and Pa Bear.

Here is what we got to wake up with every morning...sooo peaceful.

We took many many hours driving back to our hotel after the helicopter ride doing something we both always want to do but never seem to take time for, stopping at all the road side attractions and turn offs along the way. We took many pictures and had so much fun but I will spare you, for now. One thing we were treated with was the vast amount of wild life spottings. We were blown away by various woodland critters we got to see. Here's just one.

Well, I finally did it.

It was actually a couple of weeks ago now. I purchased a DSLR like I have been wanting too.

It was quite the unexpected emotional purchase which is why I think I have kept it so quiet and underwraps all this time.

It took me hours to even take it out of the box, then when I did it spent the next week in it's new home tucked in the basement corner where I pulled it out every so often to wander the house, snap a few very awful, blurry shots then slipped it right back into the little hiding place I made for it.

When Michel finally convinced me to take my new friend out side I was extremely reluctant with a dash of anxiousness. I am not really sure why, when I wanted something so bad, did it seem so overwhelming and distant.

I went over to Michel's and she took me out side in the snow to play with it...I was shocked when I actually started to pull off a nice photo. I could actually take a picture with this camera. I felt some relief set in.

She had originally told me all this, the disdain and frustration I would feel when I first got the camera, she warned me I would feel like I will never be able to take a good photo and that frustration would set it. She told me to just shoot in auto for the first while until I felt comfortable, got the feel of the camera in my hands....but I didn't listen, I nodded my head and said yes, yes of course I will, but I had read the tutorials, I have researched apertures and shutter speed on line, I could DO this....insert Wa Wa Waaaaaaa,here.

Check this out, I am the blue line at the bottom right now.

I am seeing the light..punny...and have bought myself a camera bag to safely venture out with my new baby. Slowly, but I understand now that I have lots of time, a lifetime actually, and I am under no pressure to have to know how to do this perfectly right out of the box. That may actually be the real beauty in all this. Making it a part of my new and improved slower me.

I am snapping and feeling and ready to grow, I just had to be knocked down a peg first so I could start the real learning process.

metallica

The music comes blasting down the hall invading our senses as we open the house door after work last night.
The music is coming from my 15 year old daughters bedroom.

The same Metallica music that use to come blasting out of my bedroom when I was in grade ten. Not only is it the same music, it was my CD she had found.
My mix of Metallica favorites that used to pump through the school bus speakers on our 2 hr journey to school from the bus stop in Niverville Manitoba all the way to Steinbach. The trip isn't actually 2 hrs , its longer when taking all the side roads stopping to pick up kids.

I sure hope thats all thats the same.

Ba Da Ba Ba Ba

She's loving it!

Too cute....

Happy Mother's Day Mom

Talent-less Friday

I am finding it quite tough to stay put here today at work today. (as usual) Most of my work is done, not much for me to do at this time. I am daydreaming about our home and other jobs, I am wishing so darn hard that I would suddenly sprout some amazing writing talent that could have me working from home, having the time to spend in our home.

Being talent-less is a burden believe it or not…I am surrounded by people in my life with passions and real talents. It feels like I have nothing to offer and at times trying to make up a talent or interests, you know, just come up with something.

I should start my own support group! There must be others like me out there feeling lost and outside of things having no real passionate offerings that help to define them, make them who they are. Or am I all alone in this? *sigh*
I urge to be home right now.

Happy Friday, oh, and Happy Mother’s Day!!!

Team Up Thursday-Patterns

Boy this is fun.

Michel, the super fantastic photographer and equally fantastic friend, and I are at it again.

This weeks team up 'patterns' was fun and challenging.It was kind of hard to tell the difference sometimes between patterns and just shape really.

I am learning so much and am so appreciative to have a patient teacher so willing to share the love and passion she has for photography and not keep it all to herself! Ha

Please wander on over to Wishful Thinking and check out our diptych this week, and who knows, maybe you could grab youself a partner and join in!

Check out the world through the lens.

Snow

Lots and lots of snow.


May snow. Not good. Good for farmers, bad for tulips. Too cold. Why does it have to be so cold? May.
Let it rain instead. No more snow.
I refuse to shovel. Not gonna. Nope. I'm leaving it. That will show it. I can't shovel! I just mowed the lawn two days ago. It was growing. Green. Happy.
Snow.
It's really coming down out there.

I took some pictures but I can't load them at work. Terry usually does that for me. If only Terry was here.

It's still snowing.