Look what a friend made for me !

I just LOVE it ....thank you Heather and you really should do digi-scrapping !

Hang on tight.......

to your friends ........
and bring in a New Year together !

Happy New Year everybody and the best for 2008 !!!

Winter 2007

This is today ! More snow ( though only an inch or two today ).....................................................................................................................


Even the animals are tired of it and it is only the end of December !!!

Bring on SPRING !!!

A reflection of 2007

Christmas has come and gone for another year ! Was a special one this year as we have a 9 month old grandson to spoil and make memories with . The girls were all so cute as well . My family is my life and each year they help me get through . Sad that each year seems to go faster and faster though !

2007 was a very roller coaster year for us but the shining light through all of it was the birth of a healthy grandson to DD ! What a cutie he is and he is so smart ! LOL ! Wouldn't be long before he is graduating school .... okay maybe a few years but with how fast the years are going it wouldn't be that long !

Health issues seemed to have played a major roll in the year . DH has been fighting UC right through the year with one bout after another . He has been referred to a specialist out-of-town so hopefully we will get some answers and he some much needed relief , in 2008 . I sure hope that call comes soon ......... Dh still spends far too much time at his job but has managed to take another week off during the holiday season . He is rested ( I hope ) and I hope it stays that way for him as he has a busy January planned ( which is usually a trigger for another bout ! It is the nature of the beast ! )

As for me , well , it has been one silly thing after another and enough is enough ! Between rotator cuff problems , carpel tunnel and then pneumonia , 2007 hasn't been the best ! I just hope the shoulder is going to heal as I plan on making a major attack on a stack of photos in 2008 that have to be scrapped ! With all the supplies I have here , I should be good to go for the next year or so without any new purchases ! LOL ! Like that is going to happen ! DH bought me a cricut machine so I have to get something done after all he spent on it and the toys that go with it ! A Cricut is a computerized die-cutting machine ..... no more trying to use the handle of the Sizzix machine that just killed my arm ! Now I just have to figure out HOW to use it ! LOL !

Youngest DS hasn't worked in close to a year so I sure hope that 2008 finds him working and supporting himself ! At the moment , he has his foot in a cast as he tangled with a vacuum cleaner and the vacuum won !! He breaks far too easy !!!! This week he also goes in for a throat scope ......... and the stomach problems are getting worse instead of better which means he may have to have surgery this year ........THAT doesn't help with the job situation any either ! Just seems to be one bump in the road after another with him ........

Oldest Ds and family seem to being doing fine . They were here for Christmas and we gave Granddaughter #1 Avril Laveigne tickets for her tour in March ! I have a sneaking suspicion somebody told her she was getting them ans she didn't seem too excited about them ! Oh it is so fun trying to please a 12 year old !

Good news about BIL though . His cancer is " gone " in his brain after major radiation and a few more bouts of chemo should find the stomach cancer in recession ................ or we can always hope ! He is one very LUCKY man and he just doesn't realise how many people were pulling for him ! Miracles do happen when you least expect them ! His life has changed dramatically this year though and who knows what 2008 will bring to their household . hopefully only good things ( one being a small bundle in February in the form of a new grand baby - which is enough to make one get better ! They are hoping for a girl as they have 3 grandson's and 4 sons ! Definitely time for a girl in that family ! )

This year has been one of reconnecting with friends from the past and family that we haven't seen in years . Life really does come full circle . Hope to be able to stay in contact with all of them . Nice to share stories and memories and hear new ones !

As 2007 comes to a close and the optimism of a new year looming , I wish each and every one a safe , healthy and wonderful New Year .......

" Each day comes bearing it's own gifts . Untie the ribbons " ~ Ruth Ann Schabaker

In less then a week .......

Christmas will be here and I hope these cards get where they are supposed too ! LOL ! I wasn't going to send any and I sure wasn't going to make any cards this year with having pneumonia but I found last week that I felt well enough to sit for about an hour a day and play ! They are all pretty simple but I love these stamps by Black Penny " Christmas Critters " . The more I used them , the more I wanted to play ! I also tried a new product called " STICKLES " which is a glue /sparkle mix and perfect for added fun on some of the cards . All the rub-ons came from MM rub-on book " Christmas " .....work so well that I actually used the rub-ons in most of my cards interiors ! Thanks to Lisa's Scrap Shack for supplying most of my supplies ! I should just sign DH's cheque over to you every month for all the goodies I buy from you :-)







What Cat's look like after Christmas parties - or " When Cat's go bad ! "

Okay this isn't a card but my cat Tigger . The antlers were actually for the Yorkies but they hid every time they came out and there was noway we could get them to let us stick them on their heads ! As you can tell Tig is NOT impressed !



I have all my shopping completed ( until I hit a store and buy just one more thing ! ) but oh my , I am going to have to get cracking and finish wrapping those gifts ! I have a room downstairs that is loaded to the hilt .... the grandkids are getting spoiled by Grandpa and Grandma yet again !!! Boys are as much fun to buy for as the girls are ....or so we have found out ! The VISA has been smoking the past couple of weeks !!

I doubt that I will get any baking done this year .... just don't have the energy for it ! Besides , we don't need those extra calories . Off to DD's on Boxing Day after spending Christmas Day at home with the rest of our immediate family ! They will get just as spoiled as the younger kids . Every year we say the same thing ........ we are cutting back and every year we go way over board !!! Oh well , they can look at it as getting their inheritance early :-) .

Through all the craziness of being sick , new flooring and Christmas prep , our Kandi dog collapsed on the new flooring last week and we thought we were going to have to make the "call" this time . She couldn't stand on her front leg for 2 days and her back legs ...due to the hip and knee displacia ....wouldn't hold her up . On the third day , she limped gingerly to the door to be let out and went up and down the steps with no problem . Today she is walking on all four legs like nothing was ever wrong !!! DD told me not to write her off just yet as she has an amazing ability to heal herself ! Yes , this dog has many miles left in her !!!

" Christmas may be a day of feasting or of prayer , But always it will be a day of rememberance-a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved . " ~ Augusta E Rundel ~

New door , new floor and DANG it is cold !!!

This is the start of our renos .....a nice garden door to replace the sliding glass doors onto the deck . Already we notice a difference with them , first , they don't let in as much light but they don't have the coldness of the sliding door ! Even with the cold weather it is nice to be able to open the door to let the dogs out instead of having to fight the door open as it is stuck on the frozen track !
Ryder likes that he can still look in and out them .... and the nose prints on the glass attest to that ! The cat isn't sure about them though ... or maybe it is because there is now snow on the deck that makes him not want to go out ! Can't say I blame him ! Tonight the thermometer reads a balmy -28 C ............... thank heavens it is not snowing nor blowing like earlier in the week !
Kandi isn't impressed with this mess ! The floor layers discovered that they had to chip the old lino off the plywood as the contractor that built the house had glued the subfloor to the plywood .... made for a BIG mess and a lot of work ! The 2 day job of my flooring took 4 days and 2 days of the weekend that they didn't work ! I was not impressed to say the least and everything was covered in a fine dust .... I doubt I will ever get it out of my house and my ductwork !
All in all , it was well worth the mess and the expense as I love my flooring ! Oak laminate is now in the dining area , hall and front room while we went lino in the front entrance and kitchen area ! Easy maintenance with the animals too !
We cut the kitchen flooring back and did the laminate into the dining area which makes the living room & dining area all flow together much better .

This the mess in my front room while they were working removing the old lino ....Tucker doesn't look impressed ( he is hiding behind the vacuum ! )


And for some strange reason , I don't have a photo of the finished front room ! LOL ! Oh well , at this point , I don't think I was on my feet much as the pneumonia had just kicked in !

Thank heavens the house is almost back to normal and I am on the road to recovery ....now if I could just get my Christmas decorations up ! LOL !


"It never hurts your eyesight to look at the brightside of things "

And the snowball keeps getting bigger .......

Pretty flowers to make me feel better ! From DD and family and the dear Neighbor and her husband !

And the snowball keeps getting bigger ....................That is how it feels around here lately ! Not only has winter hit with a vengence and forgot how to stop dropping that darn white stuff out of the sky , it has turned cold and blustery which makes it even worse ! So our -15 C feels more like -25 C !!! Just darned nasty ! Pretty and white on the ground but the sky has been grey for so many days - so unlike the north in winter as usually if it is cold , then the sun is shining ! Not that I have seen much of the outside for the past 10 days or so ..................

What started out as a mild cold quickly turned overnight to something much worse . I came down with pneumonia .... something I have never had in my life and hope never to have ever again ! Thank heavens I have such a caring husband when things aren't going well . He spent many a night and day checking me as I was so sick . Thank heavens for strong antibiotics so it didn't get worse then it originally was ! Our weekend plans got abruptly changed from a weekend away to a weekend of sleeping away the most part of it . DH did head to his meeting on Thursday and phoned a dozen times to check on me . Instead of staying for his company Christmas party on the Saturday , he came home Friday night as he didn't want to leave me any longer then necessary ..... and the fact that he didn't care to go to the party in the first place was a big excuse to come home ! LOL ! 10 days I have spent either in bed or on the couch and the only ones happy about that are my fur babies ! Even the cat thinks he needs to lay on me ...all 22 lbs of him !!! Add that to 10 lbs of puppies , it is no wonder I am having trouble breathing !!! Tonight is the first night that I have actually felt human enough to spend any time on the computer ........so hopefully this is a turning point !

I need to get better quickly as I haven't done my cards yet ( sorry people it will be store bought this year as I didn't get any made and haven't the energy to even think of homemade at this point ! ) .....hopefully this week and the list is getting shorter by the minute ! LOL ! As for Christmas shopping .....well I really need to get more done but worse comes to worse I can pass with what I already have bought ..................... now to get them wrapped ! Uggg !!! Parcels have to be parcelled up and shipped by the end of next week too so time is moving quickly ! And somewhere I have to find the energy to put my tree up ...........................

Well all in all , that isn't the most exciting things to happen since my last post ....we had our new flooring put in and our new garden door ! I am so stinkin' excited about all of it ( though now we really need to win a lottery ! ) and once I feel better , I am sure I will appreciate all of it ! Now if the magic fairy would just come and unpack those boxes into my china cabinet and curio cabinet ! Ahhhhhh ....... fortunately DD had a friend that was willing to come and give the house a once over to remove all the dust from the flooring ( another nightmare story but it is in now so I wouldn't talk about it ! LOL ) as there was just NO WAY I could ever have got it done ! Thanks Lisa P. for being such a help !

DH had another flare-up just before all this was going on and spent 5.5 hr in ER just waiting to see a DR .( No wonder I refused to go the ER ! ) Fortunately this time they gave him some meds that seemed to help and tomorrow he sees the specialist - again ! DD told us she was going to put our names on the list for extended care at the rate we are going ........................... LOL !!!

So ends my tale of woe ..............hope your life is running smoothly !

" Things I need to do today .... Breathe in , Breathe out !!! "