THANK YOU

Thank you everyone for being great friends. I don't often get "sappy" as I call it, that's Michael's department :) but I can't let the outpouring of support from you go by without a warm thank you. It means a lot to me to be able to just let rip with what is in my heart and on my mind "in the moment" without having to worry what you would think of me. That is a precious gift.

Today I am breathing again. Metaphorically anyway. Some, not all of the pain is gone and I had a good sleep last night. Things are looking up!

I'm giving myself a bit of a break from biking, but I will get back to it soon. I'm still so stuffed up, my ears are popping and my head's a bit achy - believe me, I'm the worst "sick" person ever. I actually feel indignant when I get sick, like "why me!?!" "What did I do to deserve this?" "I eat my veggies, take my vitamins, wash my hands etc, I shouldn't be sick...this must be a mistake!!"  It never does any good but I whine anyway. I get very cranky and stomp around the house looking for the kleenex box. I'm telling you I should have bought shares in Kleenex the way we go through it around here. My daughter can go through a box of Kleenex in a day, easy. The garbage can in the bathroom is full yet they don't even look like they were used. I know, gross topic eh?

I can be sick for about two days tops, then I just want to get back to normal life. One day is kind of nice...lay on the couch, stay in my jammies all day, drink gingerale, spend hours on Pinterest or read a trashy novel...it's wonderful.  Day two and I'm starting to get restless...maybe I should get up and vacuum as I'm feeling really useless.  I watch a movie or two and then I'm really getting stir crazy. But I can't put my glasses on because my sinuses hurt so I have to stay in...but there's nothing good to eat so I should go to the store...because when you're sick you know that calories don't count.  You didn't know that? It's a well known fact - you can eat whatever you want when you're sick because the extra calories work hard to fight the nasty sick cells in your body. So now you know. You're welcome.

Well, it's time to warm up my Anti-Stress Microwaveable Neck Pillow with Lavender and Chamomile and go lay down so my sinuses will clear. Now THAT's too much information!!!

But, before I go, here's a few pictures of my snowdrops now blooming. I know you folks out east buried in snow will be sooooooooo jealous but they just make me smile so thought I'd share:

Exhale

Today I am exhaling...trying to let go of all of the toxins in my body...especially my neck which feels like it's in a vice right now, even after taking a bunch of ibuprofin. I've been holding my breath for about a week now. Last week I got the nastiest email ever from a parent. It really threw me for a loop because only six days earlier she had sent me a very nice email. I had sent her an update on her son along with my new email address because I was told by staff at the group home where this boy lives that his mom had tried to reach me. Realizing that she might not have my new email addy I sent it to her. No problems, all is well, she's happy with how he's doing, yadda yadda yadda.

Fast forward six days to last Wednesday. I had another email from her and all of a sudden she's withdrawing her son from school and lists about 10 reasons why I'm the worst teacher that ever lived. Now, I'm a very conscientious teacher and care very much for her son. To have someone slam me like that after just recently telling me how happy and satisfied she was...well, I was gobsmacked to say the least. And totally stressed.  My admin team said it was up to me whether I replied or not and after talking to Michael I framed a very brief email setting the record on a few things and sent it off.

Today I get another email which this time is friendly and warm in tone. WTF??? I could barely sleep all weekend and kept waking up filled with anxiety. How could anyone feel their son was not well cared for in my program?!? I took her criticism very personally and felt attacked...and slandered. So with this new email I was literally turned on my head. What gives? So later today I showed it to my Dep't Head - who says to me...."I thought you knew...sorry I should have mentioned this to you before but I thought you knew!"  Turns out she's bi-polar;  last week was a manic phase.

Exhaling...........................

I guess my email caught her at a bad time and I became the object of her attack. Apparently she has done this many times in the past not only to her son's teachers but to family members and most of all her ex-husband. I sure wish I'd known all of this before I let her words affect me so deeply. Would have saved me a lot of grief. I don't know a lot about this illness but it must be devastating in its effects on those closest to her.

I carry my feelings close to my chest - I always appear happy and carefree even when I don't feel it. Since Michael was away this weekend and I was home nursing my cold I held the pain even closer. It feels good to let it out. It will take me a few more days to get over the effects of her diatribe but at least I can feel pity for her instead of disturbed bewilderment, hurt and yes, some anger. As in "how dare she?!"  Isn't it terrible how much comments from another human being can wound us? I know that I, for one, will try to measure my words more carefully in future. I have never spoken to anyone in the way in which she spoke to me but even a carelessly tossed comment can be so hurtful, we just don't know sometimes.

Anyways, that's enough of that, just do me a favour everyone and go hug someone, I know I'm going to...right now!

Sunday Night Chit Chat

My dad, holding a chicken! 

Hey ho it's Sunday night and time for a little chit chat. That is, if you can drag yourself away from the Oscars!  Don't forget to check out our fearless leader's Carla's chit chat too!

What am I watching? as if you didn't know...Bill Crystal is really funny this year!

I'm so pleased Octavia Spencer won for Best Supporting Actress! She was amazing!








What am I listening to?
Just the TV and Kazi texting away constantly on her phone as she watches the Oscars with me.

What am I reading?

The Fear Place - I'm reading this for school - I have a student who will be doing a novel study on this book. Our unit right now is Emotions and I think he'll really relate to the main character in this book. (And I'm really hoping he won't be too scared by the story!)









Cooking/baking?
Not a darn thing but I'm hoping that tomorrow I'll be baking Carla's gluten free banana chocolate chip cake if I have the recipe by then!!  Check it out HERE!

I wasn't too inspired to cook this weekend - I've been resting and nursing my cold - I did heat up some soup lol!

Happy I accomplished this week?
Tons of paperwork at school - feeling somewhat more organized, still a ways to go, am never totally caught up as more just keeps  a-coming!

Looking forward to next week?

A NEW MONTH!!  A NEW BUDGET!! IT'S MARCH FOLKS!!

Thankful for today?

Time to spend with my daughter scoping out all of the beautiful Oscar dresses - such a girly thing to do!

And that's it for tonight! Have a great week my friends!

Rolling in the...

money!

Now THAT'S tempting fate isn't it?  I think I can hear the car falling apart this very second! However, I do feel fairly confident that I'm going to reach the end of the month before I reach the end of my money!  And I feel darn right ecstatic about that!

Although I had a few extra expenses - ink cartridges for our printer ($82), oil change and new air filter for the car ($67.00), the final payment to Reliance for new pipes to connect our new hot water tank ($302.00), a new Netflix charge ($7.99) and a wildly insane $27.00 splurge at Giant Tiger two days ago (a shower liner, a $3.00 hat, $6.00 for new socks and a $10 summer top for MOI!) I still have about $110 left for the month!! I usually NEVER have $$ left at the end of the month so I think I'll celebrate by putting more gas in the car and doing a little extra grocery shopping! My life is so thrilling these days!

I had a few little "bonuses" this month that helped me pay for those other expenditures: my Line of Credit interest was lower than anticipated, my Union Gas was $22 less than budgeted for, my condo fee was a little less than I thought, my London Hydro was $6 less than budgeted for, Kazi and Michael helped out with the printer cartridges and gas for the car, AND I stayed out of TALIZE (my neighbourhood thrift shop) AND out of CHAPTERS (my local bookstore)!!  I really did have good control over my spending this month!

Oh, and I almost forgot!! I put an extra $88 on my mastercard this month - it was my financial goal for Carla's Double Challenge and I did it! I will put $88 on my mastercard every month til June which is when we'll pay off our new TV that we purchased at Tepperman's. So Carla my dear - I have met all of my challenges for February. My challenge for March is just to stay on budget for the month. And hopefully get my taxes finished. Just waiting for Kazi's tuition credit. My refund will be around $1,000 and I plan to pay down my line of credit with it. This time next year it will be completely and utterly PAID OFF leaving me with only a small mortgage on my PEI home as debt. I have NO car payment and NO credit card debt and NO mortgage on my current home. I am in the final couple of years before retirement and am right on track with debt reduction and savings. Come September my SEVEN year plan becomes a TWO year plan.

I'm getting there!

Early morning mist at Crofters Lane, PEI

Death and Taxes

They say that there are two sure things in life: death and taxes.

Yes, I am getting a refund. Probably around $1000. I love how we've been brainwashed to think we're getting money from the government. HAH! I paid almost $20,000 in income tax alone let alone all the other myriad forms of tax I pay like: property taxes, sales tax, harmonized tax (sounds nice doesn't it?), goods and services tax etc. So really what it amounts to is I OVERPAID my taxes so they're giving some of my own money back to me....without interest of course.

I'm still not done however. My daughter rummaged around in the two feet deep pile of clothing  and debris she calls a floor in her bedroom and found her T4s. Then she went online to get her tuition receipt but it wasn't ready yet. So another delay. If she doesn't need all of her tuition to bring her income down below the minimum income amount I'll be able to use the rest but I don't hold out much hope for that. In fact we just may carry any leftover tuition forward to next year in case she gets a high-paying job for the summer. One that pays more than minimum wage plus tips. She does have a big interview coming up for a job promoting her university over the summer. That would be very cool and would support her post graduate program next year in Corporate Communications and Public Relations which she was accepted into - yippeeeeeeeeeee!!

I'm coming down with a cold - yuck! Both Kazi and Michael had terrible colds so it was inevitable. What is it about one's family members that they want to drape themselves all over you when they're infested with germs?????  I did my best fending them off but to no avail. I'm going to drag myself into work tomorrow (it's CASUAL FRIDAY!!) and then have a quiet restful weekend.  Yes, Michael is going out of town. It will be a NO Spend, NO getting off the couch, NO getting dressed kind of weekend. As my decluttering is all done (grateful now I got my challenges done early!) I will get caught up on a few books from my overflowing "to be read" pile and entertain myself with a selection of Netflix movies. Sounds kind of heavenly! Now, if someone would just bring me over a pot full of chicken soup!

Toodles for now!

Taking a Night or Two OFF!

Howdy y'all. Just to let you know I'm taking a day or two off from the blog - I finally got the tax form I needed so I'm going to tackle my taxes tonight AND I have a novel to read for a novel study one of my students is going to be working on. If I don't get that all done tonight then guess what?, I'll be doing the same thing tomorrow night too!  Do I know how to have fun or what?!?

So until then, adieu!!

Hopefully I'll be doing the tax refund happy dance soon!

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This!

Yesterday was a gift from the gods, and also from our Premier Dalton McGuinty - thanks for giving us Family Day Dalt! The sun shone so fiercely yesterday, the sky was bluer than blue and I found much evidence of spring! Ain't life grand!

 Let this be a lesson to you: do not act silly on the top of a hill.....

Because you could soon find yourself at the bottom of it with a broken hip....luckily I still have good bone density and after a minute of belly busting guffaws I got up and shook it off.  There were more pictures of me  limbs all akimbo but I thought your opinion of Michael might drop if you knew he was zooming in for closeups while still unsure that I was all in one piece.

 Don't think I wasn't tempted to accidentally give him a good push right about now....

 or hurling a rock or two in the general direction of his head while he crossed a branch to a little island in the stream...(suddenly I feel like singing...)

 Even without the greening of spring Coldstream looked radiant!

 Still a few morsels of ice here...

 and there....

 Perfect reflections in the stream...

 Peek-a-boo! Alright, I forgive you...

Michael's creation...

Watercress sandwich anyone?

Something's growing!! Not sure what...Marguerite - you're my go to gal for all things growing...Sarracenia?

Another picturesque bridge...

Eeeek, someone help me down...!!

 It's like a postcard!

Michael took these from the other side of the stream... the little boy first tried adding a piece to Michael's inukshuk...

then had a better idea....build one of his own!

It was a great day for building, exploring, having adventures, playing and rolling down hills ass over teakettle!!

Big News

There is BIG NEWS coming into our blogging world but I am keeping it to myself so that you can all be surprised!! And yes, it's a GOOD surprise. And yes, that's all I'm going to say...tee hee....

Moving on...today, in the province of Ontario and a few other places, it's FAMILY DAY!! I, for one, thank our provincial premier - Dalton McGuinty - for creating this provincial holiday. At least he kept one of his election promises!

My New Family - tee hee!

So, that begs the question, where is my family?? Here it is, 10:56am and I've been up for several hours and have yet to SEE a family member except when Michael walked by MY ROOM to use the washroom (I know, TMI!!).  Aren't we supposed to spend FAMILY DAY with our family?? Sheesh!! Therefore, since my family members are still in their beds I am selecting a substitute family with whom to spend the day!! They look like they could really use a bit of FUN in their lives, don't you think??

So, on the agenda for today:

• the sun is shining so we are going to head out in the car to a local trail for some hiking - I'll be sure to take LOTS of photos for your viewing pleasure! It should be a hoot because my NEW family hasn't ever been in a car!!
• next, since the kids are looking a little peak-ed, I thought I'd take them for some great treats at Tim Horton's!! Some caffeine and sugar ought to put a little pep into their step!
• And can you believe they've never gone to the movies?? I know eh? So we're off to Silver City to see "John Carter: A 3D Imax Experience" - go big or go home right?? This movie takes place on Mars - this should really blow their minds!!
• At this point we're going to come home as for some reason they seem to be a little out of it. I'll put some "DISTILLERS" music on so they can relax while I whip up a little dinner. It's really too bad that Kazi is still in bed because I'm making her favorite: it's called NO PEEKING CHICKEN and involves chicken, wild rice, cream of celery soup and sour cream. You throw it all in the oven for 2 hours and then voila - DINNER! I really hope my NEW FAMILY will enjoy it - then I'll give them the rest of our cookie dough/brownie nuggets icecream. By then I'll bet we see some smiling faces!!

OK, gotta go get ready for hiking!! This day is too beautiful to waste for a second longer!!

Challenging Challenges

Besides Carla's double challenge of No/Low Spending and Decluttering my little piece of the universe I am taking part in two other challenges - The 10 Pound Challenge with Erika at Newlyweds on a Budget and The Sealed Pot Challenge with Sft at Travel, Mortgage Freedom, 101 and Life Goals. Also, once Little Lamb at Little Lam Wants to be Debt Free  becomes debt-free (very very soon!!) I will be joining her celebration by dedicating a 25km bike ride to her amazing accomplishment!

You could say that I'm challenged.

Here is a look at my Sealed Pot:

Now, I don't weigh mine like some people I know (Carla), but then $5.00 bills don't weigh very much! I'm keeping it well fed. I have a feeling I might need to make another pot or find something a little larger. But I'll wait and see. I've been thinking a lot about what I'll do with the money and I think I've finally decided. I'm going to put the money into something I really need for my home in PEI. I don't know what that'll be yet, but by December I will have made up my mind. Some possibilities are: a tankless hot water heater, new deck, new fence, leveling the driveway, commissioning a headboard from Jeffery Kerras at Back Road Folk Art, or another piece of furniture for the house.

I'm glad I didn't make a firm decision right off the bat about how I wanted to use the money once opened. It's nice to have something to dream about and I can keep changing my mind right up until December.

The 10 Pound Challenge is a different story:

I haven't been as successful with this challenge as I would like. There have been a lot of ups and downs, lots of temptations - invitations to dinner, eating out, Valentine's Day dinner and so on. I would say that 5/7 days per week I'm sticking to my "eating plan" (stole that from Gill - it's so NOT a diet!!)  Hence the ups and downs.

Now, if it were a TRUE eating plan I'd be able to stick to it even when I eat out, but I haven't been. I've been indulging myself. My only saving grace is I still have until April  16 to lose the ten pounds. I have lost a solid seven pounds and do notice the difference in the waist band of my clothes. I would like to lose at least another seven pounds for a total of fourteen pounds. Sooooooooooooooo I will keep trying. And trying. And trying. I won't give up. I'm pretty confident I can get to ten pounds by April 16. Then I'll try for another four to five pounds more by summer. I have hung onto a big pile of summer clothes from skinnier days - if I can't wear them THIS summer then out they go. I really don't to do that, hence the CHALLENGE!

Sigh......OK, time to get my but in gear...I think I need to go have some lunch...I'm suddenly feeling very hungry!

Double Challenge Month Update

Time for a little review (gee, I sound like a teacher don't I?). Just what HAVE I accomplished so far this month? It's a good thing I wrote down my goals on a separate page at the top of my blog!! LISTS are NOT for the feeble-minded, they are for the PRODUCTIVITY QUEENS like US - ya hear that Carla? - I said PRODUCTIVE!!
1. Financial Goal - set aside $88 towards the $440 I need to save for my half of the new TV! DONE!! (In fact I might end up saving a little extra and if I do I am going to put that money on my Line of Credit! Although the month got off to a rocky start (had to spend over $80 on ink cartridges plus my income has decreased by $500 per month) I have to say the last two weeks have been much better. I've had quite a few No Spend days AND I've stuck a few $5.00 bills into my Sealed Pot!

Decluttering Goals: (Carla - I did my decluttering challenges in a slightly different order - I hope that's ok!)
1. Personal Space Challenge: I chose to organize and declutter the ROOM OF MY OWN!  DONE
2. Family Space Challenge: I decluttered and organized our TV Room/guest bedroom/cat's room/my dressing room. DONE
3. I did the Dreaded Challenge in the 3rd week as I just wanted to get it over with! I chose to clean my itsy bitsy teeny weeny linen closet which of course doesn't come close to being as huge or messy as Kim's was but I still dreaded it all the same!! DONE!
4.  The Productivity Challenge: I chose to change my laundry habits by a) co-mingling my laundry with Kazi's and Michael's and b) doing it after 7pm on week nights instead of spending my Saturdays doing it. Partially DONE - happily I still have another week and a bit to change this habit. I only did a load of laundry Thursday night - I had one ready to go last night but something came up (plans changed - we went out!) so here I am again on Saturday doing my laundry (though it is co-mingled!)  HOWEVER, you wouldn't believe how PRODUCTIVE I'm being Carla!! In addition to laundry I've made a huge pot of soup, have cooked up a 1/2 package of chicken bacon (Carla - I could eat bacon everyday too!) AND have made a new batch of oat squares (this time I used brown rice flour instead of whole wheat) AND I've read two newspapers!! This is even more AMAZINGLY AWESOME AND PRODUCTIVE because I didn't go to bed til 2:30am AND got up to drive Michael to work. Maybe that's the answer to my productivity challenges - I should sleep LESS! So...next week I will continue with the productivity challenge and do my laundry in the evenings thereby leaving my weekend free for other things - like listing some items for sale on kijiji! 


Mini-Challenges:
1. Donate food to the foodbank or a similar needy program or family. DONE! I donated juice boxes and granola bars to our breakfast program at school.
2. Write a card/note/letter to someone using snail mail. DONE! I sent out two cards to my sisters who both live in Bracebridge.
3.
4.

Carla - have you given us the 3rd and 4th mini challenges yet?

I can see the light at the end of February! We're quite well stocked up on food and Kazi and Michael have been paying for gas for the car we all share. I think that overall February has been a great month thanks to Carla's challenges - I've been pretty frugal, I've spend my time organizing and getting rid of unwanted stuff and I've had a lot of fun besides! So Carla - THANK YOU!!

Valentine's Day Photos

Just a few photos from Tuesday's fantastic meal, followed by a fantastic movie, followed by a fantastic....
bottle of wine...just kidding...about the wine...we had it with dinner!

Cinnamon hearts on the table runner, flowers, wine...

Jerk chicken smothered in onions...

Chef Michael of the Wild Mountain Honey Cafe...

One of our favorite wines (from South Africa), salad with yummy mango and our smiling faces looking on...

 Candlelight of course...

 A bit of the east coast for starters - I was sooo surprised!!

In addition to receiving flowers at work Michael purchased more for the table...

He's a KEEPER! 

My request for dinner was: jerk chicken, potatoes browned in olive oil and herbs, veggies...and icecream!

It really was lovely! Thank you Michael!

Susanna - this is for YOU! (and anyone else who happens to wander by and wants to try my adapted recipe:


Oat Squares
1/3 cup olive oil                  3/4 cup of milk (I have used skim and/or vanilla soy milk
1/2 cup brown sugar           1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour      1 cup Quaker oats (not the quick kind!)
1/2 tsp baking powder        3/4 cup raisins (I actually use 1/2 cup raisins and then add whatever else I might have on hand such as chopped walnuts or pecans, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, dark chocolate chips - about 1/4 cup of each)
1/2 tsp of salt.
Heat oven to 350. Grease a 8x8 cake pan. Mix oil and sugar together. Alternate between adding flour/baking power/salt with milk and vanilla. Stir in oats, raisins etc. Put in pan and bake for 30-35 minutes; cut in squares. Eat them the way they are or you can spread a little jam or honey on top! Delicious and healthy!!!

ENJOY!!

Catching up is Hard to Doooooo....

Since I left my camera cord at school today I cannot upload my photos from yesterday's Valentine's Day feast so today I will catch up on a couple of things, like the VERSATILE blogger award, thanks Debby! (you really must visit this amazing woman's blog called Nanny's Place!!) !!

So, about the Versatile Blogger award which I so humbly accept! The RULES are nice and simple! I must pass on the Versatile Blogger award to five other very deserving VERSATILE bloggers! So can I get a drumroll please?

http://thatbritishwoman.blogspot.com/
http://halfdozendaily.typepad.com/my-half-dozen-daily/
http://eboolifejourney.blogspot.com/
http://saving4later.blogspot.com/
http://slaythemonster.blogspot.com/

I just realized these bloggers all live in CANADA!! Woot woot - Let's hear it for CANADA!!

The second and LAST rule (isn't this easy?) is to tell you 7 random things you don't know about me, so here goes...

1. Prior to being a teacher I held a variety of positions (teller, head teller, secretary, data entry clerk) at several branches of The Royal Bank of Canada (Tillsonburg, Calgary Alberta, Simcoe and finally in London, Ontario. This is exciting stuff, no?
2. I was 28 when I decided to go FULL-TIME to university and work PART-TIME at the Royal Bank which I did for the next five years (yes, I switched my major so needed an extra year to complete my four year degree in VISUAL ARTS!! It took me til Kazi was 10 years old to pay off my student loan of $16,000. (That equalled $250 per month for a total of over $26,000 - isn't that crazy!?!?
3. I almost lost my daughter when I was five months pregnant. I was hospitalized and had to wait three days for an ultra-sound which showed she was still alive and well!! Those were the longest three days of my LIFE!!
4. One of my favorite time wasters is playing Sudoku on my iPad. I'm hoping I'll stave off senility for a few extra years by keeping my mind active!
5. This is hard - I don't exactly keep any secrets from you guys...I'm the youngest of five children and four out of five of us have been teachers and two were married to teachers!! Two of us were art teachers (me and my brother Kim) and three of us were special ed teachers (me, my second oldest sister Dale and my oldest brother Gord - who just happens to write for the Londoner, a weekly London-based newspaper!) 
6. Such thrilling stuff eh?  I always wanted to be a ballerina when I was growing up but could only take either piano lessons or skating lessons in the village where I grew up. I chose piano lessons. The closest I got to ballet was when my my friend (also named Jane) and our two mothers brought us to London to eat at the Latin Quarter (long gone) for dinner and then to the Grand Theatre (still there) to see The Nutcracker (no snide comments folks lol!) performed by the National Ballet! I was about eight years old and can remember every single moment of it. To this day I don't know how my mom paid for that excursion! We weren't exactly well-off.  She did sell some of her children's stories to magazines so I'm guessing the money came from that!
7. My best friend growing up was our dog Boots, a real Heinz 57. She was with us from the time I was 4 til I was 18.  Bootsie died when she crossed the highway on her way to visit my gramma - a daily jaunt. She went to about 4 different places each day (she was only tied up when a neighbour would call us to say he'd seen the dogcatcher's truck in town!) and at each place she would receive some kind of treat. She'd scratch at the door and then get let in. She always thought she was a human being, not a dog. After she died I spent several nights outside in our backyard sleeping by her grave. At 18 it was the saddest event in my life. I still have a locket with her picture in it. Yes, I am a sentimental old fool and miss her madly to this day. We went everywhere together except to school and as soon as she heard the school bell ring for lunch or the end of the school day she'd run from her doghouse in the barn to sit by the sidewalk waiting for me to appear. I have SO many stories I could tell you about my dog, stories that would just break your heart and move you to tears so someday I'll have to honour her with her own post. 

All righty! I am outa here!! I need to make a pot of soup, eat some leftover jerk chicken for supper and go ride my bike. My weigh-in on Monday left a little to be desired so I need to renew my efforts to stick to my diet and exercise! So stop inviting me to dinner people, and stop buying me treats and icecream etc!! I'm doing my best but stop with the temptations!!  I am only human!

Change of Plan!!

As Michael left for work tonight he said "be sure and check your email!" Well, being the  curious creature that I am I immediately whipped out my laptop and signed on. Here is what I found:

"Dear Jane,

I was thinking, since I am off on Tuesday (Valentines Day) I could make us a lovely meal/dinner instead of going out to Waltzing Weasel.

If you were to have dinner made for you on Valentines Day, what would you like to have?

Email me a wish list (no later than 7am Tuesday February 14, 2012) for what you would like for dinner.

 Plan to dine at the Wild Mountain Honey Cafe at 5pm. on Huron St. Bring your appetite and love in your heart."

Oh my! What do you think I should order??

Sunday Night Chit Chat...chit chat

http://halfdozendaily.typepad.com/my-half-dozen-daily/
Don't forget to stop by Carla's blog for this Sunday's edition of CHIT CHAT!!

Sunset - Lake Huron (Bayfield, Ontario) Summer 2009

Reading?

Just finished this book - it was a quick read, very entertaining - about a typical American family and the deep hole they dug themselves into by spending without thinking about the long term consequences. It made me feel pretty darn good about the choices I've made over my lifetime. If anyone would like to read it I'd be happy to mail it to you!

Now I'm going to start this book by one of my top five favorite authors of all time - P.D. James!

Can't wait to get into this one!! Yippee!!

Watching?
the Grammy's of course!
Listening to?
The Beach Boys - YES!! singing this song!





I'm rather nostalgic about the Beach Boys - they were the first band I travelled to see in l974 and l975 at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto - I knew every song off by heart as my older brother had bought all of their songs on 45's and practiced his guitar skills by playing them over and over about 1,000 times a day - my mother almost killed him!

Cooking/baking?
Not a darn thing - Michael is cleaning the oven!!

Happy to have accomplished this week?
The dreaded linen closet decluttering challenge is done! Woo hoooooooooooooooo!

Looking forward to this week?
Valentine's Day with Michael - we're going out for wings (what else? hahaha) and then going to see the new Denzel Washington movie "Safe House"! I LOVE me some Denzel!!

Thankful for today?
Thankful for a snowy blowy day that kept me inside with my family - reading, eating, talking, blogging - it's all good!
And now to link up!!