A New YEAR 2023

Good Morning ALL! Well today is another day. Alvin is doing okay. There is a bit of change in his poop, less blood but he still has diarrhea. I know not really the kind of thing one wants to see first thing in the morning. I still feel kind of blah but likely due to the up and down during the night. Missing two days is a lot so back to work today. Hopefully things are “quiet.” I am grateful that I can work from home during this time. Between going outside with him to monitor him and giving him medications, one cannot do this from the office and also it would mean having someone stay with him and that is not possible. So I will work from home. Thankfully today is Thursday, it is Thursday, correct? I am totally lost on the days at this time.

Thankfully the weather, the temperatures have been nice as sometimes we are outside for a bit as it takes Alvin time to be done. I am hoping that by tomorrow there is a major difference in his bowel movements, if not we may be going back to the vet. For now, medications and keep an eye on him. Thankfully he is eating and drinking water and his pee is clear.

I am still figuring out this new computer and some of the new updates over the last few years have changed things quite a lot. Hopefully on the weekend I can get things figured out. My daughter is coming for a sleepover tomorrow night. She will help get the external hard drive set up (formatted) so that we can put all of my photos, almost 50,000 of them on the HD. I will be so happy when they are on something that can be easily accessed. YAY.

Hard to believe that today is January 5th, 2023. Almost one week into the New Year.

A reminder of Christmas Eve 2022. Aspen at the window looking out to see where her Mom & Dad are or perhaps at someone out for a walk, I do not quite remember. Alvin and Mi-Mi watching her. The fireplace, the mantel with stockings. We had a great Christmas. A good memory.

Time to head downstairs. Put on the coffee, I need a boost this morning.

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

Always, Carol & Alvin

Last Days 2022 – December 29th

Good Morning ALL! How are you this morning? I would say that I am okay, we are okay. Not sure why but Mr. Alvin was up basically every two hours last night. He did have to pee when we first were up at 12:30, then at 2:30 (just up), then 3:00 (gave him his glucosamine chew), then I don’t remember if it was 4:00 or 5:00 then it was 6:15; needless to say we were not up to stay up until 9:15 a.m. I hope that we get our schedule worked out before next week. Working with such disruptive sleep is not much fun and I can say that from experience. Fingers crossed.

We had a quiet day. My daughter ordered a new iMac from Costco for me. It is to be delivered on next Tuesday. I also placed an order to Ricki’s for some new items. There is no way on this planet that I would pay their ticketed prices so with a massive sale; it was the perfect time to pick up a few things. I am very excited to have a new computer. This computer has served me well. She has been here with me for the past 13 years, I purchased her the summer after I moved to Edmonton. The poor girl is no longer able to take updates but that is okay. She is able to do what I need for the most part. A new computer is a huge deal. This will be my third iMac or is it the 4th? Oh my, now I am not sure. I do think it is the third one though. LOL.

Alvin and I went for a short walk yesterday. I had planned to walk at least to the park but not Alvin. So grateful for this nice weather. There appears to be clear skies developing on the horizon. Sunshine would be wonderful as it has been cloudy here for the past few days. I did some shovelling yesterday. Yes, I also went and paid for my eyeglasses and they should be here in a couple of weeks which is about the same time as I go back for another eye pressure test. Hopefully it has gone back to normal. I was reading that coffee is not good for high eye pressure. I also went to Shoppers and cashed in my “winning” lotto tickets/scratch tickets from Christmas for the grand total of $44.00 and a freeplay on the Lotto 649. YAY, me.

In a little while, I will give Mr. Alvin a haircut and bath.

Christmas Eve 2022 hanging out with Alvin, Aspen and Mi-Mi (aren’t they adorable). Alvin was snooping under the tree looking for his gifts to open.

Alvin looking for his presents

I will post more Christmas photos tomorrow.

We hope that you have a great Thursday. Tonight, I am invited to a neighbours home for a visit.

Fingers crossed that Alvin’s haircut goes well.

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

Always, Carol & Alvin

Last Half 2022 – December 27th

Good Morning ALL! I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas Day and Boxing Day. I cannot believe that it is already Tuesday and that Christmas Day was Sunday. The days are already passing by so quickly. I am very grateful to be off from work this week. Alvin came home on Christmas Eve. I have a few days to catch up on in my post. Back to Christmas Eve, my daughter and son-in-law arrived late afternoon with all three pups with their SUV full of gifts, pup stuff, Alvin’s stuff, food and their sleepover bags. I was ready. We put things away and then Amanda & Steven were on their way to St. Albert to have Christmas with his side of the family. I was excited to spend the evening with the pups. I guess that I watched way too many movies because when Alvin saw me he just ran, not from me but all over the main floor. Sniffing and looking as if he wasn’t sure where he was at the moment. There was no running to each other with tears streaming down faces. He was anxious but not in a good way. Is there a good way to be anxious. Not sure about that. Anyway, even though I was disappointed that he was not happy to see me, I just carried on with things. It was almost time to give them supper, so I fed the pups, all three. Feeding did not go well. Alvin ate his supper but Aspen and Milo, not. I tried hand feeding them which worked to some degree. In the end some of Aspen’s wet food sprinkled on top of her wet food was agreeable. Milo, seemed to like it as well. I found out later that her wet food is more of a treat but they have had to resort to sprinkling some on top as well or she won’t eat. I have never had a problem with Alvin eating his food, thank goodness. Or I should say only once and he wasn’t feeling good. Once pups were fed, I prepared my supper. Leftovers which were roasted vegetables and chicken breast. Of course, Alvin wanted some of the chicken. ARGH. After supper was over and clean up was done, we settled down on the sofa. I snapped some photos of the pups. Watched a Christmas movie. I had raised one of the blinds and secured it so that Miss Aspen would be able to look out of the window. She likes, no loves to check out things. At one point all three were barking at some dogs that went by and Miss Aspen almost took out my Christmas Tree. Not on purpose – just because there was not much room between the chair, the tree and the windows to turn around. She is a yellow lab shepherd cross so she is long. I forgot. Just a little moment of panic and then all was good. Amanda texted around 8:00 saying they were on their way which was perfect as it had started to rain and no one wants to be driving in freezing rain on highways or anywhere. Such massive relieve when they arrived a short while later. Once they were in the house, we nibbled on food, made drinks and then times for pups to open their gifts. Alvin is such a master gift opener that we always watch in awe and always take a few videos. By the end Miss Aspen had decided that she wanted to open hers, too. We did our stockings next. So much fun. There was a massive amount of gifts to open as we had all gone overboard. I felt like we needed to or at least I planned as I figured with the way things have been for us all, we needed some extra gifts. Everyone was over the moon with their gifts including me. I received a “fire stick” which gives you more apps. I wanted to have Disney+ and now I have it thanks to my kids. YAY. I am so excited to watch all the Disney movies new and old. I have watched “Finding Nemo” and my very favorite “A Bug’s Life.” That was yesterday. Some of my gifts were “Kelly Ripa’s book “Live Wire,” navy cardigan, notebook, package of scratch tickets, candle, relaxation items and I am sure that I missed something but I was spoiled. Christmas Eve was a blur. Christmas Day was quiet. We took the pups for a walk in the early afternoon after a late breakfast. I should say we girls, took the pups out as my son-in-law was so excited that his fav football team was planning so he was watching the game. Slowly Alvin was becoming more comfortable. The walk was awesome. All the pups were happy to be outside. The past week or so was too cold for them. Time for a new paragraph!

The kids went to pick up the Chinese Food which had been ordered a couple of hours earlier by Amanda. They left the house about 4:00 p.m. and I fed the dogs about 4:30 p.m. They were back about 5:00 p.m. and I had the table set and was ready to unpack the food so we could eat. Amanda told me of a close call while they were out. She was driving and making a left turn, the light turned red for the through traffic and she noticed a car coming fast and thought it was not going to stop, so she waited (people behind were not happy). The car ran the light. Had Amanda not waited and just gone without checking they would have been broadsided. I am grateful that she is such a good driver. She said that she was grateful that she took lessons and part of it was defensive driving and her instructor said to always look, even if you have the right of way, always check. Being in the right and being dead. Anyway we had a lovely dinner. I did the clean up as I did not have to cook. I had made an apple crisp for dessert. We girls, had it much later while we were playing a new Christmas game.

We had a great Christmas. So much to be grateful for and about. I am going to head downstairs now as I need some coffee and to start laundry and then start taking down the Christmas tree and ornaments. I think this is the earliest that I have ever taken the tree down but feels like time. I have to call the vet and make an appointment for Alvin. He needs his nails trimmed and stuff.

I will post photos later.

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas. The sky is overcast so we will need to walk sooner than later, I think. Need to check the weather report.

Happy Tuesday.

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

Always, Carol & Alvin

P.S. I forgot to mention that I won $24 on lotto tickets that I bought and a freeplay and on the scratch tickets from Christmas another $20. YAY me. When I used the scanning app, and it told me I won, felt like I won a million dollars with the balloons flying and the happy noise. Time for coffee.

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

Last Half 2022 – December

Good Morning All! How are you this Wednesday morning? I am grateful to be working from home today. We had a small amount of snow last night, actually I think before I went to bed. So the once cleared sidewalk now has a light sheet not even a blanket covering.

Last night right after I arrived home from work, I set my backpack and work things inside the house, locked the house and then carried on for a walk. It was so nice last night that I thought it would be a great idea to get out for some fresh air and exercise. On the way home, I stopped by the mailbox and picked up the mail. Inside were some Christmas cards from family and friends. I was doing an internal happy dance as I love to receive Christmas cards in the mail. I love to receive them period but most especially in the mail. Once inside the house, I took off my boots, set down the mail and carried on to the garage where I brought in the garbage bin as yesterday was trash pickup. Back in the house, I had a few things to do before supper so got them out of the way. Then supper (leftovers from Saturday’s Christmas party) went into the oven to warm. Once supper was done, I sat down on the sofa and munched away at my delicious supper. Missing my boy thought, it is way too quiet in the house and I have no one to snuggle with and not having him to go to bed with or to wake up to, seems very odd. My daughter sends pictures and videos often and he is definitely thriving in his new temporary surroundings. I think he is loving having two friends (Aspen and Milo) with him all the time and of course, his sister and brother-in-law. No stairs. New toys. Someone home all of the time. Good setup. One more week from Saturday and he will be back home. It was a good idea as I believe that we both needed a break but I will be SO EXCITED to have him home.

After supper, I did the dishes and turned on the dishwasher to wash the load that had been accumulating over the past couple of days. Then I just relaxed and watched some t.v. Quiet evening.

Countdown to Christmas: 10 days until Christmas Eve (and Alvin comes home with Aspen and Milo while the kids go to St. Albert for Steven’s family’s Christmas.

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

Always, Carol & Alvin

P.S. have a wonderful Wednesday ……..

2021

Good Morning ALL! Welcome to Friday, December 24, 2021. Are you excited? I am so excited. I am so grateful that I am off work at noon which will give me proper time to get ready for our company. I am close but there are some finishing touches that I like to do before receiving company. You know what I mean! Alvin and Cookie are doing well.

My Christmas Story

It was quiet in the house as I worked my office job from the kitchen table, no sounds of pups.

The tree was decorated and the fireplace ready for the jolly soul in the red suit.

All of a sudden there was clanging and banging noises coming from the living room.

I sprang from my chair to see what the matter!

There I found little Miss Cookie surrounded by Alvin’s toys,

Sitting in the big chair by the window.

How this little one had got those toys all up in the big chair, I will never know.

Alvin sitting nearby on the sofa, watching in amazement.

The pups settled in,

All ready for tonight.

They will be surprised by the treats in their stockings,

The gifts under the tree.

From Our House to Yours We Wish you a Merry Christmas.

May your New Year be filled with Good Health, Joy and Abundance.

Written by CYLewis on December 24, 2021.

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

Merry Christmas

Love Carol, Alvin and Cookie

P.S. we are all so excited for tonight. I cannot wait to see Alvin open his gift.

2021

Good Morning ALL! We are officially one sleep away from Christmas EVE. I am so excited. Feeling, I must admit like a small child excitedly awaiting the arrival of SANTA CLAUS. Do you remember when you were a child at Christmas time? I understand that not all of us had the same experiences. Good or bad or indifferent. For me, I remember putting on Christmas concerts with my siblings for my parents and grandparents. I loved going to the Christmas Concerns at church, the music was my favourite part. We sang “Joy to the World” and “Silent Night” (which was my favorite all time Christmas song). I guess it was the innocence of things at that moment in time. The feelings that were in the air no matter what was happening in your household at the time, if you went elsewhere there was joy, simple absolute joy. You just felt it. I felt it. I wish everyone, everywhere whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I wish you the “joy” that we all should feel in our lives every day.

Well Miss Cookie is settling in, I would say. We had a great sleep. Everyone cooperated. Even Mr. Alvin. Last night my friend Pauline popped in to Wish Us a Merry Christmas and we exchanged gifts. I gave her a beautiful tea cup and saucer which she loved and she gave me the most glorious little tree with lights in a teacup surrounded by two pups ornament. Hard to explain but it is so sweet, I absolutely love it. She said when she saw it – it reminded her or me. As I sold Tea, (cup), loved Christmas (the tree with lights) and loved dogs (pups by the tree). How thoughtful. It is my new favorite ornament. Poor Miss Cookie was so wound up and it was loud so we could not have much of a conversation, we tried. I even held Cookie to calm her down. She was running, biting and just being annoying. I almost thought she was jealous of me having company! Just a few minutes after Pauline left, both pups laid down on the sofa and were quiet. WOW. Another mystery of the world. I was happy and grateful to have time with my friend no matter what was going on. I miss our walks and our great chats. She is a wonderful friend. I do have the best friends. Hopefully will get to see more of them in 2022.

Well time to get on downstairs and see what the munchkin “Cookie” is up to. WE all know exactly where Mr. Alvin is.

I wish you a sparkly, happy, fun, joyful, happy, healthy, wonderful, fantastic Thursday, December 23, 2021. Have a great day!

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

Always, Carol, Alvin and Cookie

P.S. I have my fingers crossed that the skies stay clear and the snow stays away. There is more shovelling to do again. I have to shovel the driveway which I forgot to do yesterday, argh. lol.

Christmas Morning 2020

Good Morning ALL. Happy Christmas one and all. The air is warm outside. The house is quiet as my fingers clack away on the keyboard. Alvin is stretched out on the carpet in the hallway just outside the office door. My daughter, son-in-law and pups are snoozing in “the master suite” (okay perhaps not what you would consider to be a master suite but for me a bedroom with an adjoining bathroom, is pretty master, lol). What a glorious Christmas we are having. The family arrived in the later part of the afternoon on Christmas Eve, that would have been yesterday. We make some snacks, ate some snacks and ate more snacks and more snacks and then decided to open gifts. We always have enough food to feed about 20 people and there are three of us. Likely we should have gone for a walk but it is Christmas and who thinks of exercise when there are presents under the tree and food all over the place. Even before we sat down to open gifts, actually not long after the kids and grandpups arrived – we heard some rustling in the living room. We were busy snacking in the kitchen. Amanda went into the living room and there was the Alvin getting a headstart opening his gifts. He had found one of his gifts that was way back under the tree, without causing disarray to the other gifts or knocking over the tree – he pulled the gift back out onto the middle of the living room and was beginning to tear apart the tissue paper that covered his gift. How he knew that was his gift we will never know. My son-in-law joked that perhaps he knew how to read. What a guy. After we had some goodies, we settled in to watch the Christmas movie “ELF” which is another little story. Steven wanted to watch the movie which I happen to have on DVD in my massive Christmas movie collection. When the kids gave me the new television just before Christmas – we decided to disconnect the DVD player and put it in the basement. We would have had to hook it up which is not a big deal when the light bulb came on and I checked my PVR recordings and voile, I had recorded it. So no need to bring up the DVD player. We chatted and watched the movie. Drank coffee and eggnog. Throughout the movie, someone was whining so much. Not loud but clearly not happy. When the movie was over and we started preparing to open gifts, guess who was the first one to the tree? Three guesses and the first two don’t count. Mr. Alvin. He was so excited. I think with all of the gift opening that we have been doing and the parcels from our friend Val, he is beginning to put two and two together. He definitely understood about the gifts. I will note that he has been going to tree over the past few weeks once I wrapped gifts and we remember when he pulled my son-in-law’s stocking from under the tree and started to open his gifts. Note to self for next year. I made sure that I safely tucked all gifts with food related items and the stockings in a basket in the basement landing until time to open. We certainly were entertained by Alvin. He was frustrated with me at times. What can you do? He, me, we were all super spoiled. The perfect year to be spoiled. I received clothes, books, special pens, several items from my favourite store “Bath & Bodyworks”, chocolates and more chocolates and more chocolates, a hand held blender with more gadgets than I know what to do with and more. Definitely crazy spoiled. My son-in-law received from my daughter one of those projectors for indoors so we did some star gazing for part of the evening. A great night. Merry Christmas.

Well time to head back downstairs and have some coffee. I am going to call my sister and chat. It is beginning to get light outside. Hopefully the sun will shine. We definitely need a walk or two, today.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. I hope that Santa was good to you. Not sure that me and Alvin deserved all the lovely gifts that we received but we are grateful to all those folks who showered us with them this year. We are grateful to have all of you in our lives. Truly, we are blessed.

Have an awesome day. Be safe, go for a walk. We will continue to live our lives with kindness, respect and compassion for all.

Merry Christmas 2020.

Love, Always from Carol & Alvin

Welcome to Christmas 2020

Good Morning ALL. Merry Christmas Eve. We made it. So excited to see my family later today. Alvin and I were blessed to have his buddies Teddy and Kobi over for a visit yesterday. They kept him company while I worked. It was a win/win. They are so cute and we love them very much. Miss Kobi follows Alvin everywhere he goes whether inside the house or outside. Teddy and Alvin are happy to see each other and just be in the same space with no need to be close. They have a great relationship. Life is about relationships and friends for sure. Both Alvin and I are so blessed to have so many dear and wonderful friends. Friends are family and family are friends. We are blessed all the way round.

I just want to wish each and every one of you, the most special Christmas.

I hope that you are safe and in good health.

Alvin would like to thank you for taking the time out of your busy lives to read his Momma’s stories.

I totally agree with that statement, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I hope this day brings you joy and comfort.

I hope that you are able to enjoy each and every moment.

Continuing to live each day with kindness, respect and compassion.

Merry Christmas.

I am so excited for this Christmas!

Always, Carol & Alvin

Almost Christmas 2020

Good Morning ALL. Well we did it, only one sleep to go until Christmas Eve Day. I am so excited. The plan is on for my kids to come for Christmas. There was a possibility that they may not but it has been confirmed they are coming. Alvin and I are over the moon. Our pod will grow by four, my daughter, son-in-law and the grandpups Aspen and Milo. We are happy. Today is my late start and I am happy to report that the two of us that are not on vacation have managed to keep the mail current to this point and hopefully the phones will remain quiet today so that we are able to do this for our coworkers. What a great Christmas gift that would be. I am hopeful. Also today Alvin’s BF Teddy and his little sister Kobi are coming to spend the day. I told Alvin last night and I would like to think he understood that they were coming this morning. He will be over the moon to have one last visit with his buddies before Christmas break. Christmas break will be quiet as we will remain on strict restrictions. The only visitors in the house we are allowed will be our POD which is my daughter, son-in-law and grandpups. I am pleased that we are allowed to have someone although I have said this before – I would be okay with just Alvin for some time. If that time alone meant that the virus would disappear hopefully forever. We would still see people when they dropped off food and stuff and can always video chat. There are ways not to be completely alone if you choose. Back to Christmas. Are you ready? Food in the fridge and pantry? Baking done? Gifts wrapped? Movies selected and games? I am quite certain that you are. I am except for changing the bedding on our bed as the kids will have the master bedroom, changing out the towels with Christmas towels in all three bathrooms, one last clean of the bathrooms and then prepare the food for us to snack on tomorrow night. Well less than one hour before the pups arrive. I need a cup of coffee. We went for a walk but only went just inside the park yesterday as the wind was cold. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be warm, I believe. We won’t get out today as the pups will be here and I cannot walk all three at the same time and I am not sure that I want to leave anyone behind while I walk the others separately (gifts under the tree). But we will get exercise with the pups here anyway. I work until 7:00 p.m. tonight. Last night I made a pan of chili not a big pot. It was delightful. Just scaled it back. I wanted to mention that I noticed the number of “followers” is now over 900. So exciting. Maybe by the 2021 I will have 1000 people reading or at least signed up to read this blog. Makes me over the moon happy. When I was a small child I did not dream of this …. although I think think that in the future we would be able to see people’s faces when we spoke to them on the phone. That would have been in the early 60’s. I guess I can see the future. LOL.

Well everyone time to head on downstairs. Put on the coffee to perk. The sky cleared yesterday and I was happy to see the moon last night from my deck.

Be safe, continue to live your live showing kindness, respect and compassion to all. Truly it is the only way for us to live our lives.

Always, Carol & Alvin

YAY, it is almost here. I feel like I am 8 again. Best Christmas EVER is coming. So excited. So excited.