Lots of Company

So, I had lots of company this weekend, some expected...some, not expected. This is my nephew Drew. He was the unexpected company. He fell off a piece of playground equipment yesterday and ended up taking an ambulance ride to Halifax with his Dad to the Children's hospital. His mom Velvet and twin brother Brett followed and came here. We all went down to see him at the hospital as they put the cast on and got him settled in for the night. His Mom and Dad spent the night at the hospital with him (I'm sure they got a lot of sleep) and Brett came out here and stayed with Uncle Ralph and Aunt Doris. Anywho....everything is okay now they are all back home as Drew was released this morning. So Drew you get to go to school tomorrow and have all of your friends draw on your cast. Take care Buddy and stay away from the playground for awhile:)

My expected company was my niece Debbie and her two daughters Jill and Janeya. Janeya is the family's hockey player. She is twelve and enjoys playing hockey very much. She was in a tournament just down the road from here so they stayed with me and since Ralph was away all weekend curling (the last game!!!) I was glad of the company. Jill, Sandra and I did some shopping on Saturday in downtown Halifax and Jill bought her prom shoes.

Beautiful, beautiful weather that we are having. I don't like to talk about it because I am so afraid that it will go away again. Well I guess that is it for tonight, I don't have much more to talk about so will check in later.

Friday night

I am typing in a different font colour. Let me know what colour these words are when you bring them up. Well, it is Friday night again and I must say it is a much nicer night (weather wise) than it was last week this time. When I took Jake out for his walk after I got home from work it was sunny and like.....are you ready for it....12 degrees!

We have had such a terrible Spring weather wise that we really appreciate days like this. I think that I must have tired Jake out because he has been on the mat asleep ever since we got home. Ralph is in Greenwood for the weekend. He left this morning to go to a curling bonspiel. He will be home on Sunday.

My niece Debbie and her two daughters are coming to stay the weekend as her daughter Janaya (I hope that is spelt correctly) is in a hockey camp here in Tantallon. I thought they would have been here by now but they must have gotten tied up at the rink.

Just spoke to Mom on the phone. She said it was a lovely day in Shelburne also. She was anxious to get off the phone because a granddaughter of one of the other residents was in visiting with her little baby girl. Mom kept commenting on what a little cutie she was so I told her that I would let her go so she could visit with the baby.

Not a Great Week

So, I think that I will be able to chalk this week up as one of the not so good weeks we've had this year. First of all....the weather. Don't get me started. Wind, rain, fog, cold, snow, more wind, rain, fog, cold and then more and on and on and on. Some of the weather forecasters are promising a glimpse of sun tomorrow but I don't believe them anymore. I think that I am going to be freezing and wet even in my house, right through from now until July:)

Second thing was a death in our Nova Scotia Community College family. Doyle Rhodenizer, a Trades Instructor at the IT Campus who worked out in our area some and whom we all knew, was the person killed when a dump truck overturned on his car while he was stopped at a red light, on Monday afternoon on his way home from work.

Then we have that horrible school shooting in the States. Then I had to go to the dentist today for a "deep cleaning" and anyone who has had one of those know that it is not pleasant. Okay, that is enough of that. As San believes, and I do too, if I keep thinking about all of these negative things I will attract more. So on to much more pleasant topics.

We have booked our trip to Europe. We leave Saturday, July 7th and return Sunday, July 22nd. You can go here http://www.affordabletours.com/search/it/?t=9010 and see the trip we are taking. I am so excited about this. We had such a good time when we went on that trip to Europe in 1999 and I am sure that this one will be just as memorable.

Hi to Flo and Carol in Toronto and Mary too. I know that Flo will be checking out the blog from there. Hope your flights yesterday were not too bumpy with all the wind. Email and let me know how you made out. Well Folks I must go. Will check in again soon.

The sun has finally come out!

Good Sunday morning everybody,

Beautiful sunny day here in Halifax this morning. I just said to Ralph that I don't remember when we last saw the sun. I think that I would title the picture here "Can we help Ralph?" That is Ralph assembling the new bar stools we got for our kitchen area and it looks like San and Jake are ready to help him:) Well actually San did help, Jake.....not so much.

I went down to Shelburne yesterday with San and spent a good day with Mom. We went out for lunch and did some visiting. Our first stop was Marty and Kim's in Jordan. They got a new computer and are now reading this blog so welcome aboard Kim, Marty and Kyle. Happy 9th Birthday to Kyle today. We then drove to Lockeport and had lunch at a diner there and then over to Surf Lodge to visit with Mom's friend Mildred. We had a lovely visit and I bought a pair of pretty yellow socks from Mildred. She spends a lot of her time knitting socks and slippers. She and Mom had a lot of catching up to do as they reminisced about going "yard saleing" on Saturday mornings etc. On the drive back to Shelburne Mom commented that she had not thought while she was in the hospital that she would ever see Mildred again so I am so glad that I took her down. All in all we had a great visit.

San and I got back here to Halifax around 6:30. Ralph had been up to the Branch visiting Jean and Louise and fishing for the first time this year. Now I don't know how he stood it out there fishing as it was so cold yesterday but I guess he probably didn't even feel the cold when he caught a couple and saw "a big one" or so he says:).

Housework today and then grocery shopping. I am booking our European trip tomorrow so am quite excited about that. Hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend.

Happy Thursday

Carla sent me this picture today to show that it is not only Nova Scotia that is suffering through this terrible Spring weather. This was taken as her girls were waiting for the bus this morning. Something is on the way for us tomorrow and I pray that it is rain this time and not snow. To make matters worse the news tonight said that there is a Nor'easter on the way at the first of next week.

I am listening to the music that San uploaded to my IPod. I got the IPod for Christmas and I just love it. It is so small and I can take it on my walks. Jakie sings along with the songs with me:) My favourite ones on there right now are Sarah McLaughlin singing The Rainbow Connection and Calling All Angels by Jane Sibery.

I signed up for facebook but don't really go there much. I'm not much for that form of communication. The blog I can handle because it is just me typing as slow as I want and I can ramble.

Well must go and organize myself for tomorrow. Just got off the phone with Ralph's Mom Jean and she told me that she and Louise (and everyone else in the Branch) have been without power since about 4:30 pm. NS Power says it will be back on within the next hour. That would be nice as it is dark now and will be getting colder in preparation for the snow coming tonight. Goodnight everybody, stay out of the snow if you can and on the bright side my poor little tulips are up through the ground. This next snow will probably send them back in for the rest of the year:)

Easter Sunday Snow

Well here is a picture of 387 Norman Blvd., Hammonds Plains on Easter Sunday morning, April 8th, 2007. Television is saying that Halifax area got 31 centimeters. Ralph and Jake are just getting ready to go out in it. This will be only the third time this year that Ralph had to get the snow blower out. The snow was deeper on the railings when we went to bed but the wind came up in the night and blew it all off.

Happy Easter everyone, hope that the Easter Bunny is able to get through the snow to the Maritime children.

So this is April

It has started....as you can see from the pictures. Needless to say we did not go down and get Mom to bring her up. I was afraid that we would get her here and lose our power and not be able to get her back etc. They are now saying 20-25 centimeters. Great...the most snow we have had all winter.

Good Friday

Well here it is the start of the long Easter weekend. I really appreciate being a Provincial Government worker when you get Good Friday and Easter Monday as holidays. It has been such a long......cold winter here in the Maritimes that everyone has been looking forward to this long Spring weekend. However it doesn't seem like the Weatherman is going to co-operate and give us nice sunny, warm weather. It is hovering around freezing most days. Snow flurries yesterday and Ralph said that the wind was very cold when he walked Jake this morning.

The pictures were taken last weekend. We bought a new barbecue so the kids came out to try it out for supper. The other picture is Trish and her Dad playing the boxing game on her Nintendo Wii. Pretty funny.

Mom has agreed to come down this weekend so tomorrow morning Ralph and I will go pick her up and then take her back to Shelburne after dinner on Sunday. Can't get her to stay more than one night:) Hope everyone is going to enjoy their Easter with their family. The girls are going to come out for a barbecue on Monday. San has patients until six so it will be after that. When you have your own business as San does you get no extra long weekend so she doesn't have Monday off. They say that they are coming for the Barbecue but I think that it is really for the Easter candy. Speaking of Easter candy I cannot beleive the amount of choice for candy you have now in the stores. I remember as a kid having only those pastel coloured eggs with the icing sugar like filling and even when my girls were little it was a solid bunny and a few eggs, a bottle of bubbles and maybe a skipping rope. Now...they are going out with bicycles and other big ticket items as gifts for Easter. I really don't see how or where this commercialization of every religious holiday is going to stop. Oh well...someone is making a living off of it that is for sure.

Haven't heard from anyone much so don't have much news to write. Oh yeah, Ralph and I are planning a trip to the British Isles this summer. No details yet but when we have decided exactly when and all that I will have something to write about on here. I am going through the hassle of getting a passport( Dummy let her's run out). Got my picture done at Superstore yesterday for the passport...let's not go there. Suffice to say that it is not one of my better pictures :) I also applied for the Master of Education Program in Lifelong Learning at Mount Saint Vincent University here in Halifax. If I get accepted I would likely start taking courses part-time again in September. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Well, "Happy Easter" everyone. I hope you have a great long weekend.

Good Sunday Evening

Hello whoever out there is reading this:

Not much going on here. Ralph has been travelling a lot and I haven't :) Jake's hair is getting longer and everytime that he goes outside he comes in dirtier and dirtier with leaves and mud etc.

Easter will soon be here. Ralph and I will run down on Easter Sunday to see Mom and then the kids are coming over either Saturday or Monday for dinner. We bought a new barbecue last week so will have a barbecue Easter Dinner instead of a traditional one. Don't know any news at the moment. Haven't heard from anyone much in either family so nothing to pass on. It is very cold here still. Temp only gets up to around 2 or 3 degrees most days. Last week we had a wicked wind that made it even colder.

Ralph is a happy camper..He may be finishing curling this week but he got his fishing license today:) So now his Mom will see him more as he will be up in the Branch more.

Take care and will try to check in more often.