Every Cat needs a Hat

No, it's not from Dr.Suess, but in Becky's world, it's a true statement! Isn't our Vinnie cute? Becky made this (her 1st) hat in about 1 hour with her new nifty knitter. Our friend Martin and his daughter got her started and she spent her $20 from Grandpa on it and the yarn. She's working on the second one, this one will have a brim and she may give it to her piano teacher who is almost due with her second baby.

? Scary neighborhood

So, yesterday morning I got up and out our front window was a police cruiser sitting beside our neighbors house. Not a biggie...maybe something was stolen. About an hour later, the picture you see is not one car but three. Eventually it was down to one car all day. As I left in the afternoon, around the corner was another car. It looked like they were waiting for someone!
Later around 4 when I was coming home with the girls there were about 1/2 a dozen ghost and marked police cars. So, I rolled down my window and asked if I should be concerned as I live the neighborhood. He said not really, they were about to enforce a warrant. Now I'm wondering....a warrent...for what? Must be realitively important as they used a lot of police hours to wait for the guy!

Wow

This is a picture of luxury and comfort. Daryl and I bought our 1st brand new mattress after 16yrs of marriage. I jokingly have said we wore the other one out, truth be told, the old one was a hand me down and was in dire need of replacement. This mattress is incredibly thick and if I were vertically challenged, I'd need a step stool to get into bed. I can literally swing my legs when sitting on the edge. If we have overnight guests anytime soon, I will be very hard pressed to give it up . I LOVE it!

Winter camp

I had the pleasure of attending winter camp for the past 3 days with the grade 5&6's from WMES. It was exhausting and a lot of fun all rolled into one. They had the kids very busy from breakfast to bedtime and more. Cross country skiing, winter skills (building a shelter...survivor like), tubing as well as using the very popular DOD's (disc's of death) and snowshoeing. Then the games...Spies and Chaos and today was capture the flag.
Becky and I are ready for bed and it's only 6PM. I was the only Mom to go down the tubeslide on the DOD, it was frightening and fabulously fast. A little jarring for old backs though! The dads were very competitive and tried to get distance, I was happy just to survive.

Top Ten 2005

Well, the year is almost complete. A time to reflect on what has happened in 2005. I came up with a list of a few of my favorite things of the past year, in random order.

#1 I tanned for the 1st time in a tanning bed and enjoyed it! In preparations for a trip to Hawaii, I bought some minutes to give myself a base as I am quite sensitive to sun rays, more specifically, developing a blotchy, itchy rash. So I wanted to prep my skin a little to enjoy the warm rays. A not so good memory was applying some of Daryl's tanning lotion (I think it's all about the smell) which resulted in a great rash a few weeks prior to leaving on our trip. The pre tanning did help and I really enjoyed the warmth of lying in the bed!

#2 Sledding with my sisters and girls in Moose Jaw. We went to visit my sister in Moose Jaw and decided to go sledding with my girls. Who knew 2 old ladies could fly that fast!

#3 Riding down Haleakela on a bike! That was a high light for me on our trip. Daryl and I got up at 2AM to ride down the mountain at dawn. Only about 10 seconds of pedaling was required. It was very cool.

#4 Playing in the waves. We learnt quickly how powerful the waves were and that sand can exfoliate everywhere!

#5 Snorkeling. Something I never thought I would do, I did and I enjoyed. Looked like a geek with a boogie board and waistbelt, but I did it!

#6 Painting Becky's room while she was gone at camp. She had no idea we were redoing her room and she was absolutely shocked when she got home.

#7 Daryl's 40th. Wow...it was fun to have a party for my old man.

#8 Matt and Cass's wedding. I can't believe my little ring bearer got married. He picked a great gal, what fun!

#9 Almost peeing my pants laughing at our girls weekend away in June. We went to the lake and some of the girls sunk on the rocks due to the moisture content underneath. Doesn't sound funny in print, one of those "ya had to be there" moments.

#10 "This is the best Christmas ever!" was what we heard Christmas morning from our kids.


These are only a few memories of the past year. There are plenty more. I know 2006 will bring many more memories.
Happy New Year!

Christmas 2005

Well, it's almost over. We have some gatherings on New Years but so far, Christmas has been pretty good. I would rather not be working to enjoy it even more but hey...someone has to do it.
So, I was spoiled on Christmas morning. Daryl bought me my own digital camera as well as a photo printer...I was shocked. It was on my list but I never really thought I would get it.

Jenny's injury is from a gift when she wasn't quite ready to catch.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Getting dressed is dangerous

I am supposed to be at work right now but I had a little incident this morning. I had a great sleep and I had showered getting ready for my 8 hour day shift. It all came crashing to a halt when I bent over to put my socks on. Ahhh! the old excruiating pain to my low back/hip area. I've had worse pain to the area where I couldn't move, but today it totally aches in any position I try. Standing isn't great, sitting has to done carefully and lying down is OK, it's the getting up that is scary. So, anti-inflammatories are my friend today. It's going to be a finish my book, have another cup of coffee and pass the Advil please day!

Funny for the day

Sent to me from my lovin niece Kristin. (This made me laugh)

My husband, not happy with my mood swings, bought me a mood ring
the other day so he would be able to monitor my moods. When I'm in a
good mood, it turns green. When I'm in a bad mood, it leaves a big red
mark on his forehead.

Nutcracker

My sister sent me this picture, a rare one of myself and Daryl together. As she pointed out...who's the nut? Daryl can't let go of the nutcracker!

Christmas & more is around the corner

Well, the snow has fallen and mostly stayed, although we are experiencing some pretty mild weather this weekend. So, I took advantage of a slightly larger paycheque to start the Christmas shopping! Wahoo! It was good. Fun to pick stuff out for the girls and get some other smaller gifts. Today I asked Jenny what scent she was wearing as she was fragrantly different after they picked me up for work. She said it was about 20 different scents together as they were at Fruits and Passion looking for a birthday gift. A birthday gift....hmmmm, "for who?" I asked...fully knowing she had let something slip. After that she was much less talkative and couldn't answer anymore questions! Reminds me of when I took Becky shopping for a Christmas gift for Daryl when she was about 4. Daryl asked her when they got home what we bought. She flat out told him.....

And for something totally different, check out what my good friend Charlene and her family saw today...I'm totally jealous!

wielersafrica.blogspot.com

Halloween 2005

Well, the girls and Daryl dressed up and were eager to get their goodies. I handed out treats to just over 60 kids, one of my favorites was a tiny pink poodle, she must have been about 2. We have enough candy to last until the May long weekend, although Jenny will make a good dent in hers at every opportunity. Apparently Daryl made some small kids cry with his costume....Becky sang when asked to "one for the money, two for the show...." and Jenny's face is still a little orange this morning. I've had an O'Henry bar for bedtime snack as I head for bed this morning after working the night shift. Oh the sugar high!

The old peanut butter trick....

After going to church and having a nice quiet lunch with good friends, we came home and the adults in the house tried to have an nice afternoon nap. With all my sniffling and coughing, and even with an extra hour of sleep due to the time change, I was pleased to put on my comfy pants and lay my congested head down. When I was just dozing off, my 8 year old was tearfully waking me up. "I've got gum stuck in my hair!" I really wanted to roll over and deal with it later, but I could see she was quite distressed. So, off to the computer to google "how to remove gum from hair". Almost all of the sites came up with peanut butter. So, these were tried by other desperate families...let's give it a try. As the dog lay drooling at our feet (he loves peanut butter) we smeared it in and low and behold, it did work. Some hair was pulled out but it worked. I'm surprised this happened the day before Halloween!

Lesson learned

Well, my last post was about how I was feeling fine even though I had lost my voice. Well, the cold virus turned it's ugly head and attacked. I've been battling head congestion for the last 3 days, I don't know how many kleenex's I've gone through and I'm living in my comfy pants. My voice did come back yesterday.This morning the cough started, not just a gentle cough, the all out face turn red, eyes watering, I might puke kinda cough. So, being early morning, I thought I would nip this in the bud. I found some cough/cold syrup in our bathroom cupboard, not having any proper measuring device in the bathroom and seeing as the bottle was about 1/4 full, I decided I could guestimate the 2 teaspoons I needed by taking a dose straight from the bottle. This is where that slit second decision would come back to bite me. About 40 minutes later while lying in bed, I began to feel horrible, sweaty, cold, the room was spinning and no....not nausea...and yup...I threw up. With a cold facecloth on my face in bed, I informed the girls that they would probably need to make their own lunches for school today, I could barely get out of bed without extreme dizziness. So, I have spent the morning "sleeping it off" and half watching TV. I've learnt my lesson.

Peaceful

I have come down with my first head cold of the flu/cold season. It's not the worse cold I've ever had, in fact, i feel OK. Yesterday I was at work and did a double shift, triaging people all day. Suddenly in the evening, my voice became squeaky and progessively worse, getting through the shift on decongestants. Today, it's pretty much gone. I just squeak a little and when trying to sing along to the radio...nothing comes out. It's quite disappointing!

Wilderness

Well, it's been a strange week walking to the bus. I cross over into the subdivision next to us to catch a direct bus to work. This area is developing so there is a lot of construction going on. It used to be a field where you would frequently see deer. Since the construction started, the deer sightings have dropped dramatically, not to mention their field is now a maze of houses and streets. Well, I was on my way in the dark as at 6:30 in the morning to catch my bus. Half way down the little path to the street, I hear what sounds like a cat hissing. I stopped dead in my tracks and looked around to see if I had crossed the path of a cat, maybe skunk or racoon. I wasn't looking high enough, I had scared a deer! It looked at me and took off. I'm not sure who's heart was racing more. I was glad it ran in the opposite direction! So that was Monday. Tuesdays walk was uneventful. Wednesday rolls along and I take a slightly different route as it rained on Tuesday and the path is mud, I did that once and had 18lbs of clay on my shoes by the time I made it to pavement. I went across a grassy park and while standing at the bus stop, I saw a dog running by itself down the sidewalk, hmmm, no owner or leash, but wait...that is the bushiest tail on a dog...it's not a dog...it's a fox! I don' take the bus til next week. I'll keep you posted if there are other animal sightings!

Old and Chubby

I found a good way to feel old and chubby. Go to a pool with 4 of your nieces who are in their early 20's. Man...I hope I looked like that when I was their age! First of all, all of their bathing suits material put together probably made up my one one piece bathing suit. And then the comment, 'But Aunt Janet, you've had 2 kids"...I don't remember carrying my kids on my thighs! And my supportive husband.."look around, there's a lot worse than you", translated, move aside honey, you're blockin my view.
Well, at least I could be proud of them, lookin good at the pool! If you need me, I'll be over here in the hot tub kids!

Good Friend

I've had one too many...
Originally uploaded by Jalosa.

The lady in green is Charlene. She's a good friend, in fact she's a great friend. She and her family are taking the opportunity of a lifetime and moving to South Africa for 3 years. They leave in just over 2 weeks and they have been madly getting their house in order for renters and "purging" many a valued thing from their house. Today I literally brought her garbage home to put on my curb...that was a first, but for Charlene, I'd do almost anything. She's a great lady and you should all have a Charlene in your life, you'd be much richer for it.
So Charlene, I wish & pray for health, safety and many great experiences as you & your family travel the world. Know that you will be greatly missed as you are always available to go out and I feel that my "girls night outs" are going to diminish in number while you are gone. Love ya!

Auntie

I have a great little nephew named Josh who for some unknown reason, doesn't like me. I haven't done anything to scare him, I don't pinch him, in fact, I try everytime I see him I try to make him like me but it doesn't work. Yesterday I had a small breakthrough. He sat with me for about 5 minutes before realising he was sitting with the horendous Auntie. It was great timing actually, he went to Grandma shortly after this picture and promptly threw up some nasties on her and not me. He does have that pre vomit look on his face!

Birthday boy

Birthday boy
Originally uploaded by Jalosa.

Yesterday was my husband's 40th birthday party. We had a lot of fun at his expense. Being a good sport and sensible at his age, he was able to laugh with us. Today he is walking around the house with one of his birthday gifts, an i-pod shuffle, stuffed in his ears. I've been instructed that if I'd like to speak with him, I should raise my hand. I think he likes it....thanks M & K! He'll be the cool old guy on the bus.

Dancing with the bride

Dancing with the bride
Originally uploaded by Jalosa.

Jenny and my niece Jessica and a new little friend got to have a dance with their new cousin Cass. She was a beautiful bride and we had a lot of fun at their wedding.