Last Half 2022 – December

Good Morning ALL! How are you this morning? We are well. Perhaps a bit sleep deprived but otherwise ready to get this day going. I was surprised when I started this new post that the words “What are your favourite things to wear?” come up under my header of this post. I did not type them. Not sure what is going on? But definitely creepy. Does that mean that I was hacked? Yikes. Anyway, moving on and I am not going to worry about that. I will take it as a fluke, perhaps I accidentally had something to be pasted, not that I remember saying “what are your favourite things to wear.” Never a dull moment.

I am excited because my daughter, Alvin’s sister is coming for a sleepover tonight. She said that she would stay tomorrow and help me with the baking. That would be great. I do not often have help with the Christmas baking so I would appreciate her assistance. Amanda also mentioned about perhaps taking Alvin home with her tomorrow to Alberta Beach. That would be basically three weeks away from home. I am not sure. I know that I will miss him terribly and I think that he may think that I am not coming back. He has been very clingy as of my three day each week return to the office. But maybe it would be good for him. I worry about him with him approaching 14 years and do not wish to cause him additional anxiety. He knows them and the pups very well so that is not it but it is not home. I guess we will see what tomorrow brings. I will speak to my daughter and see what she thinks.

One of our friends lost their pup this week, he was 14 years old, I believe. Always incredibly sad when a doggie passes on. Truly they are family and the hole they leave in your heart stays forever. We just learn to live without them.

I will need to shovel the driveway as there was a slight skiff of snow a day ago and I did not go back out to clean it up. My daughter will park her car in the garage. It is very cold outside this morning. I decided to remake the dish that I came up with two nights ago and then apple crisp for dessert.

We are down to 23 sleeps till Christmas EVE!!

Have a great day.

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

Always, Carol & Alvin

PS: even was texting with two friends from Regina last night individually at the same time. Great to have friends near and far. I am so blessed.

2021

Good Morning ALL! Welcome to Tuesday, December 7 and we are “17” sleeps until Christmas Eve. WOW. I missed the boat doing the daily countdown. I would imagine most of you do not need me to tell you how many sleeps it is until Christmas, lol. For sure not. How are you today? I clicked on the SNOOZE twice this morning. Last night was like a Sunday night and I tossed and turned and turned and tossed and then Alvin was up and it was 3:00 a.m. Downstairs we climbed. He had a glucosamine chew and outside to pee. Then back to the sofa for some more sleep. Pretty much right away into a deep sleep. It was about 4:30 when Alvin woke up and wanted his breakfast but I coaxed him back into the sofa and we then slept until almost 5:30. He ate and went outside. Then back to the sofa. I know that I was dreaming but I have absolutely zero recollection on what. I had good feelings when I woke up and wanted to continue to be in that place. But where was it? Do you ever wake up and want to go back to wherever the dream place was? This was the first in a while but I felt so good there, in that place, so relaxed and joyful. I will try and keep in that zone for every minute of this day. When I find myself going to the “dark side” – I will simply close my eyes and feel GREAT.

I sure hope that the temperatures are warmer this week so that Mr. Alvin and I can get out for a walk or three. We haven’t been out since last week. I think that he misses them for sure. My trusty companion is laying on his belly on the hallway floor. He is so darn cute. I noticed that usually once a day he grabs one of his toys and tosses it around and then carries it either to a resting spot on the sofa or onto his dog bed. What a guy! Sometimes I wished that I had been able to have a companion for him. In hindsight, it is always 20/20. I guess I just have to try to be a better companion for him. Play more. I am a good snuggler but playing hasn’t always been my thing. But for his sake – it needs to be. Now that being said if I am in the same room when Alvin grabs his toy, I do play tug with him and then toss the toy if he will give it up. So I guess I do play. Just have to play more. Likely good for me, too. Right. We all need to take life a little bit less serious. I know that I am way too serious. How about in the next 17 days – we have fun. Each day. Laugh more. Toss that doggie toy about. Do some funny dancing. Maybe I could dance with Alvin. We used to dance. Dancing was me holding him in my arms with his head at my shoulder and swaying to the music and there were some good steps in there, too. But he is a solid 30 pounds so makes it a bit more difficult. But I need to bring my core back. Just like in the summer when he had his surgery and I had to carry him outside and everywhere and then carefully bend over and place him on the ground. I found my core but over the last month or so, it has been misplaced. So I am on the hunt to bring my core back. Oh, that CORE!

Well it is time to get back downstairs. Work is calling in a bit and I have to put on the coffee pot. I can smell that STARBUCKS Christmas blend calling my name. It is so yummy. My favourite blend of all time.

Have a wonderful Tuesday! Remember to LAUGH and if you have lost your core, start looking for it.

Continuing to live each day with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding and gratitude.

Always, Carol & Alvin

P.S. my lips are chapped and I used Burt’s Bees Lip Balm everyday. How can that be?

AND I iced 18 dozen sugar cookies yesterday and wrapped some Christmas presents. Alvin was sniffing around under the tree looking for something for open. Will have to watch the boy.

Almost Christmas 2020

Good Morning ALL. How are you doing on this Sunday morning? We are now at FOUR sleeps until Christmas Eve Day. As I look out of the office window there is a breeze as the bare tree branches wave back and forth against the painted yellows, pinks and blue colours of the sunrise. What a beautiful morning sky. Well folks here we are four days away. Four days to work with one of them the late shift of 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday. I am grateful that I am ready for the big day. I baked more Sugar Cookies on Friday night and I will be icing them today. Between Friday and yesterday the laundry was done. Most of the cleaning done. Today I am going to steam mop the floors, ice the cookies, give Alvin a trim with just the scissors and trim my bangs. We are going for a walk. We elected or rather I elected not to yesterday with the ice. So our virtual Christmas party last night with my friends Signe and Gillian was awesome. We laughed so hard and chatted. Just like we always do. There was a bit of drinking happening and gift opening. I love my friends. I never would have thought that we would be having our annual Christmas get together virtually via TEAMS. Heck this time last year I had never heard of TEAMS and the word “virtual” was not used regular in my vocabulary. It is strange how things can change in almost a blink of the eye. Yesterday, our friend Pauline called and dropped our Christmas gift off (front step short visit) and we gave her theirs and some baked treats that I had waiting in the freezer for her. Funny how two of my gifts from my girl friends were two items that I had been saying that I would like …. one being new pj’s and the other hand cream. I got them both. Maybe I need to think bigger than hand cream and pj’s. LOL. I guess it does not hurt. Perhaps time to do a vision board. I have this massive bulletin board that almost fills the wall behind my computer. I would see it everyday. I think that I will do that during my Christmas break. We are on restrictions that will take us through Christmas and into January so there will be time to fill in where we cannot visit with friends. Back to the “virtual Christma party” – I highly recommend it. Done from the comfort of your own home and no driving necessary. I am not saying that I would prefer this but when you are not able for whatever the reason to see each other in person – this is the next best thing. Can you imagine if this pandemic had hit even a decade ago we did not have near the technology that we have now! We are blessed.

Well I have a friend stopping by at 10:00 to pick up a bag of tea. You see I had placed a tea order near the end of November and it still has not arrived. So many companies are struggling to get product and then to have shipped out in some semblance of good delivery times. When my friend texted me last night as one of the items she had ordered was meant for a gift – although I did not have that exact tea in my “tea cupboard” I did have something else that she could replace it with. She is picking it up this morning. Good customer service at anytime is important. I hope the orders come soon but in the meantime she will have something to give to another friend with her Christmas gift. As I told my friend, “this is on me.”

I believe that this year, this Christmas it is more important than ever before to be generous and go above and beyond. Everyone is suffering in some capacity this season. We need to step up. Be supportive and be giving. We all need a bit of light during these somewhat dark times.

So on that note, I am going to get dressed and get this day going. Get those cookies iced, wash some floors and lasso Mr. Alvin for a bit of a trim. That should be interesting.

Be safe out there. Only go out if you really need to, okay. Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Continue to live with kindness, respect and compassion for all others.

Always, Carol & Mr. Alvin ……

Welcome to December 2020.

Good Morning ALL. How are you today? We are at “6” sleeps away from Christmas Eve and one week day is Christmas Day. Wow, where did the time go. Thankfully I have all of the main things ready and if we had to celebrate today – I would be ready. Of course, with a week to go there is time to tweak things a bit if need be. A little off topic but so on topic is what we are wearing. You might be shaking your head or lifting your brow, thinking where on earth are you going with this? Well, last night when I was laying out / choosing my clothes for today (which I have done for all of my adult life), I was thinking “what am I going to wear?” All of my sweat or comfy stretch pants are in the laundry and all I have left is dress pants or work pants as I like to refer to them OR blue jeans. To tell the truth most of my jeans have some stretch so they are pretty comfy. I ended up choosing a pair of blue jeans that have some stretch and of course my usual tank top and cardigan/sweater combo. So this morning when I went to put them on – it was like an ah-ha moment. I was thinking here are all of my work pants just “collecting dust” so to speak in my closet and seldom do I wear any of them. There are a couple that I wear once in awhile but truthfully since I have been home and more recently since fall/winter – I have been wearing sweats with a sweater /tank combo. So I have decided that if perhaps I start wearing my work clothes during the week and change after work, that possibly it will be more of a reminder to exercise more and eat less goodies. Nothing like slipping on your work pants and finding that even though they do have a bit of stretch in them ….. the waistband folds over. ARGH, yuck. I am not very happy with myself. Not this is not a major revelation as I can certainly see and feel how much I have added to this body over the years and not just this last year. It does not happen overnight although sometimes it seems that way. So I have made a promise to myself that from this day forward I am going to dress top to bottom in work appropriate clothing. Maybe it will give me more of a professional attitude as well. Let’s face it being at home has reduced that “office” mode a bit. Also might as well be wearing that half of my pant/slacks/bottom collection that I call “work attire.” No point having them hang there doing nothing. I am hopefully that this new mindset will be good for all things considered. Cannot hurt that is for sure. I have also started to wear more jewelry. I have so many pieces and for months they sat collecting dust. Usually I would wear some rings and sometimes earrings but not bracelets, watch or necklace. So I have started wearing rings, necklaces and earrings. I will work into the bracelets. It is definitely worth trying. Besides if this will be my new norm which by the way I am totally okay with, I want to make use of my wardrobe. No point wasting what you have. This will be good for body, mind and soul. The days of sweat pants are gone for now. Now perhaps once in awhile on that morning when I wake up and it is minus 30 with a windchill, the sweat pants might get called to duty but otherwise I am “dressing it up.” Yup, I am. So that was my ah-ha moment. The light bulb went off. I will keep you posted as to my progress over the next days, weeks and months. If you work from home – perhaps you may like to give this a try. Also on that day once every couple of months that I do go to the office, I will at least have something work appropriate to wear – that still fits. If you don’t wear something – sometimes by the time you do, it does not fit. Food for thought. Perhaps I even brought a smile to your face. Hope so.

Well that Mr. Alvin is sitting impatiently at the office door …. whimpering a bit so I guess that means it is time to head back downstairs. Not like we haven’t been up already – several times. 3:00, 5:00 and 6:45 and then 6:53. That is a typical morning in our household.

Time to go and plug in the coffee which I prepared earlier when I was UP.

Wishing you a wonderful Friday. We will continue to live our lives with respect, kindness and compassion for all others.

Always, Carol & Alvin

Welcome December 2020

Good Morning ALL. How are you doing this fine Friday morning? Some of my work colleagues are going to enjoy this as their last day before vacation returning to work after the NEW YEAR. I wonder how many folks out there that are employed did not take any or much of their 2020 earned vacation? Our immediate area found several staff with vacation days that must be taken before the end of 2020. I will admit that I am a bit envious. By take two weeks starting on Monday the return date is January 4, 2021 and with our office shut down time you end up with three weeks off. How lovely. Oh well, maybe next year. I did enjoy a couple of weeks vacation in August around my birthday and it was great. I am not really “upset.” Just wondering what other things we did in excess during this crazy year of 2020.

1. Many folks started eating to find comfort hence the term “COVID-15” was penned.
2. While others baked banana bread, cinnamon buns and bread like there was never going to be flour and sugar on this earth again. So evident by the bare shelves in the grocery stores.
3. We (not me) hoarded bathroom tissue as if it was more important than food and water. Making it difficult to find any if you ran out. Which I ran into that situation. Luckily I had family and friends that came to the rescue. Definitely something you don’t want to run out of but not necessary to buy in huge bulk.
4. Folks started ordering from online venues such as AMAZON in record high numbers. Really, how much of that stuff did you really need?
5. We saw the increase of businesses delivering food that had been prepped and only required to be cooked such GOOD FOOD and CHEF’s PLATE and others.
6. We saw the increase of online communication platforms (is that the correct language, I’m old so I am guessing here, lol) such as ZOOM and I have forgot the others now. OMG. There are a few.
7. Increase in pet adoption. My hope is that when this is over that these pets remain in the homes and that they are all being well provided for ….
8. Diamond Paintings. I hadn’t realized that this was even a thing before my friends told me. There are a great many websites where you can purchase pictures of anything. They are pre stamped with the picture, and a sticky covering and you match the coloured beads and with this pen like apparatus you pluck the matching coloured bead on the matching number and in the end you have a beautiful picture. I finished one and they finished tons. I started a fall one in late summer and it has been placed in the basement. Somehow I lost interest. Fun but not really my thing. Maybe it is old eyes. Okay that was poor wording.

Well time to go. I did come up with 8 things how about you?

I wish you a great Friday and I look forward to picking out new glasses later today. Not exactly sure how this is going to work but I will let you know tomorrow.

Remember together living with kindness and respect and compassion it will be a better world.

Always, Carol & Alvin

Countdown we are at “13” sleeps until Christmas EVE DAY.

Thought for the day …..

Good Morning and Welcome to Thursday the 6th day of December, 2018.

Well I guess we had better start the countdown.

Right!

18 Sleeps until Christmas Eve Day

That means 19 sleeps until Christmas morning.

YAY …..

I have been a pretty good girl this year so I think that Santa will swing by our place.

Now I cannot be so sure of Mr. Alvin.

“Alvin, have you been a good boy this year?”

Nothing, no sound.

I will take that as a resounding “Yes.”

That means the jolly old elf will be stopping by.

I will have some of my world famous, okay Western Canada famous SUGAR COOKIES ready for him to snack on, along with a glass of “milk.”

Can hardly wait.

I could set up a camera and take some photos of his arrival?

Surprise, Santa.

 

Well today is payday, a dental checkup and mail Christmas cards day and work, of course.

A short work day as I have a visit to the dentist in between it all.

 

Well the carpool is coming early again today and then tomorrow.

So better sign off and get downstairs.

Cannot go outside without a coat and boots and stuff.

I saw a recreational vehicle with a snow blade on it go by.

It actually looked like a supped up golf cart with a blade to push snow on the front.

He was steaming down the road.

Wondering where he was going?

Our roads are a mess.

It will likely be awhile before the City plows them.

 

Keep warm and stay safe.

Be kind to others and to yourself.

 

Special Hello to: my sister ….. hope you are warm, my darling sis.

Always, Carol & Alvin

Thought for the day….

Good Morning and Welcome to Tuesday the 18th day of November, 2014.

WOW …… Christmas is sneaking up on us ……

“37” days until it arrives.

Well I still have to write my Christmas letter and order photos to add to the Christmas Cards.

I cut back on the amount of baking that I do ….. after all we really only need a bit …. right?

Last night Alvin and I went for a walk with my daughter and grand-puppies …. it was so beautiful ….. minus 4 degrees celsius.

Great temperatures for mid November.

I love walking as the sun sets and the streets lights flicker as they come on.

So nice ……

Our house guest “Casey” went home last night ….

I shall miss the little guy.

So cute.

I am reminded by a certain events that I must keep my positive feelings and thoughts flowing and as of late …. they have been crowded out by negative ones.

Somedays it is not an easy task but we must keep trying…..

Life is meant to be good and true.

Full of fun and laughter ……. most of the time anyway…..

I hope that you have an awesome day …..

I am going to fill it with good feelings and thoughts……

Let us send the good stuff all over the world.

Thank you for reading my blog….

Special Hello to: all those people who are having a less than stellar day …… take a deep breath, close your eyes and smile.  It helps.  Think of puppies and babies …… anything to bring goodness and laughter to your heart …. it will melt away the bad stuff…

Always, Carol and Alvin