Much sadness for the end of the year in Toronto

At least once a month my 15 year old requests that she be allowed to travel into the city of Toronto, a mere 30 minute train ride away. To go with friends to an all ages club, to go shopping with friends at the Eaton Centre or in the summer to walk Yonge Street with her friends. "But Mom, it's only a train ride away and we'll be together! What could possibly happen?"

My response is always, "Let me tell you what could happen little girl! Lots could happen, you are young and you are cute and you are naive as hell! LOTS COULD HAPPEN! Lots of nasty, ugly things could happen and I'm not willing to take that chance. This year has been the worst for shootings in the fine city of Toronto. Our youth have lost all regard for human life and have simply determined that it's okay to wipe out an existence with a single shot or a beating or a number of awful horrible ways!

I cried yesterday watching the news reports on a random act of violence that took the precious life of a beautiful 15 year old girl. Some young person felt that it might be fun to start shooting into a crowded street on Boxing day and they killed this poor little one and critically injured six other lives! This happened at around 5 in the afternoon just down the street from the famed Eaton Centre. This could have been my child! This could have been your child. It was someone's child and that Mother must be dying a thousand deaths each and every moment since then!

With the beginning of a new year upon us, I pray for peace in our world! I pray for a generation of smarter, kinder youth. I pray for a world that we can all be safe in!

May 2006 bring you and your family much peace, happiness, good health and prosperous times! May you always have enough of what you need!

God Bless you all, my internet family and my many good friends and family!

Happy New Year!

Christmas' Past and Present

Well Christmas is over for another year...Thank Heavens! This year was absolutely wonderful and everyone really did get spoiled. You saw some of the pictures of the basement...well that was the best present a Mom/wife could ever have! Hubby and I followed tradition and very few gifts besides the regular socks and gitch for us...all available Christmas funds are reserved for the Girls and for table scraps for all. A couple of pounds or ten of Alaskan King Crab legs,some sirloin steaks and shrimp for Christmas eve and a plump turkey and stuffing for the day itself.

For Christmas Day it was just Rob, Aimee, Brianne and I. Jen was at Matt's family's for dinner. I guess as the girls get older I'll have to recognize that they will want to share the special occasions with people other than their Mom. On Christmas Eve the girls were all home. Their men joined us, as did Bert (my Father in Law) and my friend Kelly (who's little one's were with their Dad). Christmas Eve will always be mine...the food is too good to resist and with the amounts I cook they can always have leftovers of turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and veggies and gravy for days after Christmas. I missed having Jen with us and my father in law! Bert was complaining of sniffles so he didn't come over on the day of. He was here on the eve (see, it's the food I tell you!) Mom and Dad are away in Florida again this year, something I guess we'll get used to.

The day was spent lounging around playing the two new family games we got. You see we always get a family game. This year we got two and I think they have been the most enjoyed games ever. We got Sequence...a game that my Mom and Dad play all the time on a home made version that they've had for many years! We also got another game called Cross Crib, another game of strategy and cards that we have spent many hours playing!

So you see our holidays have been all about Family and this makes me very happy! Soon it will be back to school for the girls and back to work for me. Rob is already back at work this week and not very happy about it I might add. The last six weeks have seen him spending every last minute working on his wifey's present and now that it's done he needs a vacation! With no vacation time in the near future, I guess the least I can do is cook up the chili and ribs come Superbowl time so that he can enjoy the game in the comfort of his own basement surrounded by big screen tv, beer and friends. That's sometime at the end of January isn't it?

So I'm off to dream of my New Year's resolutions....but before I go, Happy New Year! May all your dreams come true in the upcoming year! May you and your family be happy, healthy and wealthy!
Cheers!

Bah Humbug and other usual Christmas Rantings

Okay, I'm at work with the 2 new people that had to come in cause they don't get holidays since they only started 3 weeks ago, Tracy and Michael cause they are dedicated employees that choose to celebrate the season in the office (I trained them well!) and maybe one or two others that because of client contractual obligations had to come in!

In other words the office is FRICKING QUIET! No Christmas carols, no Baileys Breakfast, no pancake brekky! What the hell is the matter with us!

In my new role with the company my job is to manage client expectations...my guess is they expect me to be at home celebrating my new basement with my loving family, not sitting here blogging about all the shit I still have to do because I AM A DUMBASS!

All this basement crap has left me a little behind in the Christmas department. Okay, lets be honest, fuck me, I have virtually no Christmas shopping done! Thankfully the kids want clothes and since they are all various shapes, sizes and tastes we agreed that we would take advantage of the post-Christmas sales and shop after Christmas. So today, I will venture to the local Wal-Mart/Zellers whatever and get the stocking stuffers that will bring all the joys that Santa brings. Since we agreed that there would be no regular gifts under the BEAUTIFUL tree in ouf FABULOUS basement I agreed that Santa would wrap all the damn stocking stuffers! Another big FUCK ME! What the hell was I thinking leaving this shit for the day before Christmas Eve? It was like I woke up one day with a penis and testicles, because we all know only men are that disorganized!

Anyway, ranting over! Let the shopping begin!

Pictures as Promised

Short post because it's late at night and we gotta sleep some time!!



Chaos before the beauty...



The other side of chaos....



Partway there....



Hubby hard at it....





Beauty after the Labour...(kind of like childbirth, nah, not so much!)



My beautiful area rug.... a great deal, courtesy of the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store

Next photosession will be the family room in all its Christmas Glory. The tree decorated and the room in festive decor.

Stay Safe and Have a very Merry Christmas!

My new found pet!

This is my newly adopted pet. Her name is Wiggles and she really needed a home for Christmas to ensure she wouldn't end up as a ham on someone's Christmas dinner table...(insert evil laugh)....

Youth are AWESOME!

This post is dedicated to my lovely daughters and their men and to my fab Hubby!

The Family Rec Room is complete!

It is absolutely awesome! Last night the final piece of flooring was laid. Hubby stayed up all day to get this accomplished so that my girls could get the room in order. When I got home it was clean, furnished and the Christmas tree was up!

The kids worked very hard to get this done for our family!

Aimee and Greg you guys get extra special HUGS and Kisses cause without you two it would not have happened!

I know I said I would post pictures (I took some) but the house is in such disorder that I may never find the connecting wire for the camera again!

So now that the tree is up...Santa better get her ass in gear and get to the mall!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas is upon us!

When I was growing up we had some pretty nice family times at Christmas. My Mom always decorated the house soooo beautifully, you couldn't help but get in the Christmas spirit. Christmas at our house wasn't about a multitude of presents, it's always been about the traditions that my Mom built for us.

Christmas Eve always found us around the Christmas tree and we would get to open one gift. Every year that gift was a new pair of pajamas. Always warm snuggly pj's that we would rush to get into and then onto snacks and whatever Christmas special that was on TV. Then off to bed.

That is perhaps my fondest memory of Christmas (besides sharing the crisp turkey skin with my Grandmother while she was carving the turkey). This is a tradition that I have continued with my children. A new pair of pj's on Christmas Eve so that everyone looks nice on Christmas morning when pictures are snapped.

Many things change as we grow older. While the children were young we would go carolling with distant cousins. As the kids got older we decided that we would add some tradition of our own. Now on Christmas Eve, the men in their lives come over, we prepare the seafood and the steaks go on the BBQ. We have a wonderful dinner that lasts for hours while we eat, laugh and share all the discussions of our plans for a brand new year. After dinner we tidy up, pour the Bailey's and Coffee and gather around the Christmas tree where we open our Christmas Eve present. We've added two presents to the pajamas. A new movie each (we're all too old for Christmas cartoons) and a family game. The girls get to open their gifts from the men in their lives and then a movie or a round of the new game is in order.

My Mom and Dad are Snowbirds now, each November, they pack up their lives and move them to the warm southern air. I miss my Mom.

For us we have continued to celebrate the traditions that my Mom lovingly began with my Brother and I as children and I hope that my children look back with as much love on these traditions.

Thanks Mom! Merry Christmas!
TTYL!

The Basement Warriors win!

Well, all I can say is "Good thing I have no money, cause I would have lost it all!"
Amy you were right! Never underestimate the power of Youth!

This morning I awoke to find my basement, sanded, primed and the first coat of colour on the walls! The kids do amazing work! The basement is one coat of paint and a floor away from being complete!

I'm sooooo excited!

I'll post pictures next time so you can see labour of love that has become our family room!

Have a great week!
TTYL

I have no patience, I have no money....My Family loves me and can't stand the thought that Mom might just cancel Christmas

One week till Christmas and the basement is coming along. The final coat of mud went on the newly dry-walled masterpiece and the dimmer switch was installed. I sat for ten minutes lovingly moving the switch up and down and admiring the various lighting scenarios! "OMG, what an ass!", you might say! "Can't you find something more productive to do with your time?" you might ask! Yes, I probably could, but frankly this process has been so long and drawn out that I dare anyone to come right out and say it to my face!

Today, my oldest children and their significant others, are at home sanding, cleaning and priming the walls in our new family room. I believe that this is because I have threatened to cancel Christmas, possibly New Years and proceed with funeral arrangements if this sucker ain't done soon! I have been told that they believe they can get all of the painting done, floor installed, room re-filled with furniture and a Christmas tree up and decorated by Christmas Eve.

If I had any money, I'd place bets that it just ain't happening! In the mean time, I will go to work and cheer the young people on from the sidelines!

Cheers! TTYL

Hey! Wait for me.....

These past two weeks in my new position have left me feeling a little like the gal that gets to the train station just as the train is pulling out with her family all safely tucked aboard and she frantically chases it, just to manage grabbing on to the railing with her fingers wrapped tightly around the cold metal and her feet flying out from under her! That's me...invigorated and happy to know the train won't leave without me but scared with the thought that I may have my feet flying like this for the whole damn trip because I can't quite make that first step. My role with my company is business relationships and the management and creation of them. I'm okay with relationships (as long as you don't count the termination of one marriage and one common law one!) I can be compassionate and I listen as long as you aren't talking stupid bullshit. I have little tolerance for stupid bullshit! Anyway, in retrospect the last two weeks have been okay. Although it is not my job to sell to new clients it is my job to upsell (would you like fries with that? kind of thing)and in my first two weeks I have SOLD a new account on full service. This is very exciting news for me!! I will keep you posted once the contracts get signed (they are going out today) and I really have my first official sale!!

On the home front, things are absolutely moving along. The basement is completely framed,electrical done and inspected, dry-walled, mudded and taped. We are now waiting for the mud to dry completely so that we can sand, prime and paint. Once that is done (hopefully by Saturday!) we can install my lovely new floor and my beautiful new area rug that I got on sale at Habitat for Humanity's Re-Store for next to nothing!! I have a lovely new ceiling, lovely new potlights complete with dimmer switches, lovely new walls and a fabulous office space.

If all goes as planned...there will be a Christmas Tree this year!

Keep your fingers crossed...or maybe you could grab a paint brush? Do you know anything about laying laminate flooring? Email me and I'll gladly give you our addy if you are willing and able!

TTYL!