Crazy Day, Crazy Articles

Misty Morning

The Barn

The season's first tulip in the Garden

Health and Safety First!

From crazy hot yesterday - 27 degrees C, to a tad bit chilly and rainy today - 7 degrees C, the weather's just been crazy.

Trying to compile all the Health and Safety information for my department's quarterly H&S meeting today has been insane too... all of it is starting to catch up on me as I'm not feeling too hot. :(

I read these today: all I can say is... both articles are disgusting and Common Sense is not so common!!!

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2399352.ece

http://www.newsdurhamregion.com/article/124888


Hope you enjoy today's photos.

Traumatic Weekend

Ker-ash!!!

Base of the Tree

Well... the weekend started promisingly enough... nice and warm, the sun was out. Off to swimming class for the little boy and then to go shopping for clothes for said boy as he has outgrown ALL his clothes! The kid's a poster child for the benefits of milk! He's only turning 5 at the end of May and is now outgrowing 7/8 and is now hitting the 10/11!!

As we were shopping for Spider Man swimming shorts, I get a text from the daughter stating "I've got to go to Vaughan Mills TODAY because I put my PROM dress on hold and she's not even supposed to put it on hold." Prom = university/college soon. I have been accidentally-on-purpose trying to forget that the former baby of the family has been accepted to one university and is hoping to get into another for this fall. Empty nesting already!

So off we trot to Vaughan Mills at 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon and do we not drive into a full fledged lightning-thunder-wind storm that knocks out power in good portions of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). Get to the mall and dash in, get soaked and then fork over the $197 for the dress, dash out, get soaked again and spend 2 hours going home as a good chunk of the intersections had to do the 4-way stop (no lights).

Add all that insult to injury... I get woken up by the hubby this morning with the statement of - a tree broke and fell on the garage. BRILLIANT! How does one bring down a tree off a roof?

I hope the week goes up from here. Positive thinking! Positive thinking!

April's almost done!?!

It's hard to believe that the first of May is next Friday! April has just been a blur.

I recently read a blog about photography, and his advise was to choose a select few photos to publish so as not to be a bore.

Taking that to heart, here was my April... (minus the ones I already posted in earlier blogs, of course.)

And as always, I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to leave comments! :)

On one of our drives to get the daughter from work... 8 deer! A herd even!!

Sunrise on the way to work

Trees in our backyard (a.k.a. Hacienda's Jackpines)

Garden Flowers - taken while BBQing dinner

Tyler's Easter Resurrection Garden (his JK teacher is THE BEST!!)

Our tour through the country for Hubby's Birthday

The cold snap we had the first week of April

Glorious Day! and Happy Birthday to the Hubby!

What an absolutely gorgeous spring day we had today! Sunny, 21 degrees C, light breeze... perfect timing to take a day off work! It's also the hubby's birthday today so.... he dropped the kid off to daycare/school, and we jumped into the truck and took a tour.

Headed toward Peterborough to pick up our pellet stove - which in and of itself is a story and a half, however we finally got it! Yay! The dudes (and dudettes) at Friendly Fires are AWESOME! http://www.friendlyfires.ca/html/ I finally got my Harman 25 year anniversary pellet stove and I can't wait to have it installed and have one of our Ontario winters - um, wait a minute... actually, I CAN wait, we just finished winter didn't we!

Anyway, since we were up there, kid-less for the day, we drove up to Curve Lake and one of the First Nation's reserves. A whole lot of barns, cows, fields, and a little bit of crazy currents and, of course, the Peterborough locks. http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/on/trentsevern/visit/lock21_e.asp

And a drive through downtown Peterborough and the colleges as well. All in all, a really relaxing, out of the rat-race, long overdue, day.

P.S. After preparing for hubby's birthday and getting his gifts early, what do I do? I forget them at work!! Then after asking some colleagues to bring it home with them as we were seeing them last night, what do I do? I forget the bloody things in THEIR HOUSE!!! What a total twit I am!! Oh well, he'll have to wait until Monday to get the gifts now.

The puppy below, Baron (Red Baron) is Ty's new friend. Rolling around and peals of laughter as Baron gave puppy kisses and nibbles.

Baron - our little boy's new friend

Barn somewhere near Nestleton

Peterborough Busker

Peterborough Building

Mmmmm! Maple Syrup!

Curve Lake Woods

Curve Lake Welcome

Glorious Spring Day

Spring Buds

Cookie Wednesday!!!!

It's cookie Wednesday! It's cookie Wednesday!!!



Dug deep into the sofa to gather my change for Cookie Wednesday!



A colleague, John Atkins, is going his annual walk to fight MS. It's a personal journey for him and his family and as co-workers and friends we do what we can to support his cause. So, bakers in the office, generous souls that they are, provide the baked goods and the rest of the office enjoys their generosity by buying the delicious treats (and I mean deee-lish-ous! scrumptious even!) and all proceeds go toward the MS Society of Canada.



Please consider a donation to this really good cause and send positive vibes to John as he does his walk this Sunday 10th April 2009



http://www.mssociety.ca/en/give/default.htm

Johnny's Thank You

John Atkins and the fantastic cookie organizer - Aurora Manalo





Luscious Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chewies

Butter Cake

Birthday Gifts and Losing weight

It's the hubby's birthday this Friday so I toddled off to buy his birthday gift at lunch, he's turning a nice odd number (starts with a 4-).

He's lost a considerable amount of weight - which I SERIOUSLY DO NOT get!! I've been slaving and labouring to try and lose 1 pound and all I have to do is look at a cupcake and gain 5 pounds! So, I have to do a double take at those sweets to even out the weight gain and side of cellulite!

I even coordinated a "Biggest Loser" 3 years running - I've GAINED weight every time! +0.8 lbs. last year! This year, the leader is a guy who's lost 6 pounds in 1 month, then 4 pounds the next month! Is it a woman thing, this difficulty to lose weight? ARGH!

Going back to hubby's birthday gift, and how we got to this weight loss rant, I got him a nice belt at Danier, which I hope he likes. It's not a tool, so the chances of him REALLY liking it are slim. .

So, for those that know him, send him good vibes on his birthday this Friday!

Easter Monday

Monday Morning blues is an understatement.

I killed the alarm clock for 45 minutes! before hauling myself out of bed. Dragging my feet from the shower, to the kitchen, into the truck for my 60km commute into work... light traffic - did I miss the memo? Is there no work today too?

Alas, all too quickly I'm at work. MUST... see... positive... side.... It's a gloriously sunny day in Toronto, a tad bit chilly, but the snow's all melted and the signs of spring are all around!

So, I bring my camera with me, as I always do - with plans of walking at lunch and taking portraits of the geese that hang out in the area - they obviously don't work here, those crazy geese! They just generously leave their bombs for the human suckers to dodge, jump over, and generally avoid...

Then I think, what better photo to take first thing in the morning than that of my dragging feet! Two things - 1. I have the wrong lens on, I'm so short that the camera can't focus on my feet, 2. I forgot to put my CF card back into the camera after downloading my easter shots last night.

Happy Easter Monday!

Last of Winter - we hope

My Birthday gift from Aurora

My "Baby"'s shoes v My flip flops.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all! May we be blessed with much love, health, and happiness.

It's been a glorious weekend! The sun's shining, the birds chirping, the weather actually cooperating - Sunny and 7degrees C. The Easter Bunny has yet to visit the house, I'm pretty sure after dinner we will stumble upon some eggs in the back yard. The turkey is in the oven, yes - turkey and not ham, an 8 pounder at that! Potatoes (and the hidden cauliflower - shhhh) will be mashed closer to dinner time, at the same time the veggies will be steamed.

Spent the weekend setting up a site to flog my fledgling photos - am I too presumptuous to assume that there is someone out there that would love to have a photo of mine grace their walls in their home? I truly hope not - that I'm presumptuous I mean, however I have posted 23 photos and have been surprised to get some "fans" on the site - imagine that! What a pat to my ego!

I hope you can take the time to check out the site, as it's only the basic membership, I will have to rotate my photos - of which I've decided to do it every 2 months...

Peace and sunshine!
C.