Last Half 2022 – December 24th

Good Morning ALL! Merry Christmas Eve 2022. I am up and have changed bedding, trash cans in bedrooms, giving upstairs bathrooms a quick clean up and writing this post before I head downstairs where I will put on a big pot of coffee. After that I will wash some bedding and get to my final TO DO LIST before the kids and pups arrive about 2:30 p.m. There will be shovelling, baking some mincemeat tarts (lazy way, I purchased a ready made jar of mincemeat and tart shells), some tidying up and that final dust and vacuum and then have a shower and get “dressed up” before they arrive. I cannot wait to see Alvin, Aspen, Milo, Steven and Amanda. Today marks three weeks since I last saw Alvin and I sure miss him. He will be surprised to be home. Will have to fill up water dishes and put some of his wet food into the fridge. Exciting!

COUNTDOWN: We are here! Christmas Eve 2022.

Yesterday we were off at noon. I did a few things around the house and then went to the grocery store. One of my friends and her daughter dropped me off at Save-On-Foods while they went to Dollar Tree and then picked me up when they were done. The parking lot was full and the store was busy but not too bad. Once back home, a bit later, another friend and her Mom popped by for coffee and she picked up the folding chairs that I had borrowed for the Christmas party last weekend. We had a last coffee with some Christmas cookies before the big day! Last night I did a few more things, had supper and then watched a bit of the new Netflix movie: Pinocchio. I was tired so left part way through to watch later and then off to bed.

Merry Christmas 2022

May you be surrounded by the people that you love!

May you have more than enough good food to eat!

May you be in good health!

May your worries be small!

May your house be warm!

May your love be strong!

May your mood be jolly!

May you enjoy the time!

May this Christmas be memorable for all the right reasons!

Merry Christmas to ALL!

Wishing you safe and easy travels wherever you may go.

Merry Christmas 2022.

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Photos from Christmases past.

Christmas 2010 – Alvin’s first Christmas with me, with us. Playing tug with a new toy with Elton.

Christmas 2012 – colourful packages and our tree

Christmas 2014 – Alvin, Elton and Penny ………. toys, toys and more toys.

Christmas 2016 – Aspen and Milo (Mi-Mi) join our family.

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Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus, possibilities and coffee.

From Our House to Yours – Merry Christmas Everyone!

Always, Carol & Alvin

The New YEAR 2022

Happy Easter Everyone!

We woke up to a few inches of the white stuff covering everything including the Easter Bunny’s steps. I guess he missed our house. Me and the pups were very disappointed. We had been good and were thinking there were be treats waiting for us when we woke up. Maybe he got lost. I don’t know but very disappointing all the same. Perhaps he figured chocolate not being good for pups and that I didn’t need it – was not worth the stop. Oh well, maybe next year. I feel badly now that I did not pick up a little toy for each of the pups yesterday. I will give them some treats and we will be all good.

Yesterday I had a pleasant surprise. There was a knock on the door in the afternoon. I opened it to find a friend that we had met on our walks. She handed me some chocolate chip cookies (made with coloured Easter smarties). So sweet and thoughtful. She has a little boy but he was with his Dad and she was on the way to the gym.

Late morning I went to the store with another friend but we took a side trip to the Italian Store which I may have been to only once. So either it was the first or second time that I had been there. So many people and I did wear a mask. I picked up a few items including some orange and chocolate biscotti (not as good as my friend Val’s but tasty). I love biscotti. We were only gone about 1.5 hours and after returning home, my friend came in for a few minutes as she wanted some puppy time (her beloved Jazmin passed away just over a week ago). After she left, I took Miss Aspen for a walk followed by Alvin and Milo. It was snowing and a bit cool but we got the walks done. I wore the wrong shoes with Aspen and my toes were hurting most of the time. They are old shoes and are okay if you are not walking. Whatever possessed me to wear them, I will never know. But that is okay. I put on better ones and my toes felt find for the next walk. Alvin decided our walk would be shorter than usual so that helped me although I would have taken them gladly for the full walk.

Guess what we woke up to this morning at 4:00 a.m., S-N-O-W, when will this end. It isn’t going to melt as fast as the white stuff from yesterday. Oh well.

Time to go and have some coffee and take the pups downstairs. Aspen stayed downstairs in the big brown hair enjoying the view out of the window. Her happy place. The other two follow me everywhere.

I hope that you had a laugh from part of this post.

I hope that you are in good health.

I hope that you are surrounded by love and laughter on this day and always.

I hope that you have some chocolate in the house.

I hope that your hands are not chapped (mine are and I don’t know why)

Happy Easter.

Photo by ROMAN ODINTSOV on Pexels.com

Have a wonderful day.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus and possibilities.

Always, Carol & Alvin, Aspen and Mi-Mi

P.S. I bought a lotto ticket and a scratch ticket. Won $5 on the scratch ticket and look forward to winning on the lotto max ticket. Happy 2022.

The New YEAR 2022

Good Morning ALL! How are you this morning? It is light out but not bright. The sky is a grey blue color. Does not appear to be windy this morning what a nice change. We are doing great. Today is the first day of my vacation so we happily slept in. Of course, as per usual we were up at 4:00 so that Alvin could have his glucosamine chew and go outside for a pee and then back to sleep on the sofa until about 5:00 when we were up and he had breakfast. I happily laid back down and then we fell asleep until 7:30 but that is not the end of the sleep story, we dozed until getting up at 8:30 a.m. The family will arrive around 10:30 ish so I figured that we had better get mobile. Not that I have much to do other than write this post and have a shower and bring up the larger round doggie bed from the family room in the basement for Miss Aspen to sleep on in our bedroom. I have not made any plans for my time off other than being here for the grand pups and one having Easter dinner with my friends down the street on Friday. The plan is to walk daily and just relax with the pups. I truly am exhausted, my job just pulls the stuffing out of me. I do like my job and sometimes even love it but it is a demanding job not physically but mentally. End of story as I am on vacation. Yes, I am. So excited.

The forecast for the next couple of days is cool but then it is starting to warm up which will be great for us to walk. I will be spending lots of time walking as we usually go twice for per day and then I need to take Aspen separately from Alvin and Milo. Four walks. We shall see. Definitely Aspen will get two and the little ones even one will suffice. At the end of it all it will depend on the weather. Aspen is okay when it is cooler – she just likes to be outside. Oh, I just took a peek out of the office window and noticed that the trees are moving a bit. I sure hope that it remains calm as it gets chilly with the minus temperatures and gale force winds. We did not even walk yesterday. Even just going outside into the backyard gave me the chills and took what seemed like forever to warm up. I am glad that I did not give Mr. Alvin a haircut last weekend. He will be okay for a little while longer. If it jumps in temperatures, I will give him a trim. I wonder if having the pups here when he had a haircut would calm him down or not?

It is so quiet here in the house with just the click clack of my nails hitting the keys. Alvin is laying on the floor in the hallway. I took his other bed downstairs as I am not working upstairs now. He likes laying on the carpet in the hallway anyway so that is okay. I can hear him breathing in between hitting the keys. So quiet in our house. I love it. Much easier to calm one’s mind when it is quiet to begin with.

There is not much else new with us. I am thinking that I will work on making some jewelry while the pups are here as I have my supplies in the kitchen. I rearranged my ikea shelves and put the beads and things there and have some items on the counter. Because that is what you do when you are by yourself in the house except for the Alvin. I have room and can do what I like. There are definitely perks to living with no other humans. I also have my workstation in the kitchen. The good old kitchen table. Now it is packed up and put away out of sight.

Well time to head for a shower and then enjoy a mug or twoo of coffee. I hope that you have a wonderful Wednesday.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus and possibilities.

Always, Carol & Alvin

P.S. my office looks so empty without the work laptop, monitor and stuff. Makes me feel less cluttered and more creative.

Living … One day at a time.

Hello,

Beautiful morning …. no breeze but the air is cool so I have the windows open before heading out to work.

With the blinds closed – the house will stay cool most of the day.

We walked right after work last night in the rain.

Only did half the walk and then later after supper the sun came out.

But we did enjoy a nice walk in the rain.

Only got a bit wet.

Thankfully not a downpour.

But then again we wouldn’t go if it was raining hard.

There is something healing about walking in a nice rain.

Touching nature.

 

Looks like our services will be in high demand over the next little while.

Master Teddy is coming Thursday night until Saturday night.

My daughter asked if their two could stay with us Saturday till Monday.

Then next week the Humphrey.

YAY, my favourite thing to do …. is to be surrounded by the pups and the cat.

All of our four-legged fur babies.

 

Looks like the sun is peeping through the morning cloud cover.

Always a good thing to see.

 

Only a short time until my beloved sister comes for a visit.

She is my only sister.

My “little sis” …. my younger sister.

I am so excited to see her again.

We are going to have so much fun.

My sister, my daughter and I are going to take a short road trip.

YAY.

Then my sister and I will be joined by another brother to go and see our other brother.

Try and say that five times fast.

Not this gal.

So excited to be blessed to have this time together with my family.

 

I love our sibling get togethers.

Nice to catch up.

Looks like this girls road trip is going to be an annual event.

Happy about that.

 

Feeling so grateful to be surrounded by great family and friends.

Feeling so grateful that I, we will have all our fur-babies coming to see us over the next week and a bit.

Feeling so grateful that my daughter is giving me a ride home tonight (also going to COSTCO).

Feeling so grateful for the moisture and moderate temperatures.

Feeling so grateful to have Mr. Alvin by my side.

Feeling so grateful that I get up and swing my legs to the floor, this morning, and all others.

 

With kindness and respect I shall enter this day and do my best all day long.

 

Always, Carol & Alvin