Last Half 2022 – October

Good Morning ALL! We went to bed last night as my daughter stopped by after work and after her trip to COSTCO for a few things including some items for us. I bought a new vacuum. A Shark something or other. I cannot wait to give it a try – most especially on the stairs. It is cordless and has handheld for the stairs. Very exciting. We had a great supper. My daughter loves roasted root vegetables so they were a hit. YAY. Amanda had also picked up a pair of blue jeans from COSTCO for herself and decided to try them on here and found out they were too big for her and so she said “you try them on.” My first thought was they would be too small but guess what they fit. I have noticed that my regular pants are fitting a bit loosely lately, so I can now fit a size 12. Perhaps that sounds large to some people and that is okay but for me that is great. Always better when you are a bit older to lose some weight instead of adding to the number. So now I have two new pair of blue jeans which is great. I have not bought new jeans in a long time. They are high waisted and I LOVE THEM, they are skinny cut which I find laughable but they are very flattering, I must say. Who knew, I am feeling like a “semi sexy woman of a certain age.” LOL. Life is good. Between new jeans and a new vacuum, I feel like a million dollars. My order also included a box of poop bags (which should keep someone going for awhile), light bulbs (because you cannot see in the dark), some grocery items which included some red seedless grapes which are so yummy. I could have eaten the whole container last night and then decided not a great idea at 9:45 p.m. (I had just finished cleaning up and putting things away and did not realize how late it was). I am so grateful to have one of the BEST daughters on the planet. She also gave me a black skort (which happened to be the same one that I bought this summer except this one fits perfect) and a black skirt. The black skirt fit but was very short and I thought, we thought, not likely too appropriate. If I bent over – it would not be pretty, lol. So a great evening. YAY.

Today is bright, sunny and windy. I was looking out of the bedroom window and saw that the eavestroughs are full of leaves. OMG, perhaps I could get someone to climb up on the ladder and clean them out. Will have to see if that is a possibility or not. Yesterday late morning and into the afternoon, I spent almost 2.5 hours helping my friend Signe trim her tree. I supplied the tree trimmer and ladder (although we did not use it in the end). We managed to cut down most of the black rot from her tree. She is going to call the City and see if they can help her with the last branch which is several inches thick and not something we could do. I helped her with the cutting up and bagging of the branches so that she can dispose of. It was fun helping a friend and manual labour yet!

I am wanting a cup of coffee at this moment. Nothing like the first cup of coffee on a Saturday morning. I have changed the bedding and collected the laundry to be washed. Before heading downstairs I want to water my plants which are in the office and spare room. All doing well. Signe helped me move the plants from the main floor to the basement. I had a Canna Lily in a big ceramic pot and a Citronella in a small ceramic pot. They have to be winterized. Cut back a bit. But I want to check out exactly what to do with my “plant friend Pauline”. Also I will clean all of the blinds on the main floor and do the upstairs tomorrow. Oh and vacuuming with my new machine. So exciting.

Well I hope that you are doing great. Have a wonderful day. Hopefully the temperature is warm today. There was no frost last night.

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

Always, Carol & Alvin

PS: there is nothing like sharing a meal with your wonderful daughter, walking with your pup, receiving an unexpected new pair of jeans in a small size that fit and buying a new vacuum. Happy Saturday to me.

I almost forgot that I wanted to share something with you, the Health Properties of PUMPKIN. Some of you may have bought a pumpkin for Halloween to carve. Did you know that the flesh of a pumpkin can: help keep your joints limber, good for your eyes with the Vitamin A, Immunity booster Vitamin C, has Potassium, good for weight loss, skin saving antioxidants and helps with pooping (or at least it does with dogs). Eat some pumpkin. You can add to a stew or a sauce, make muffins or a loaf or just roast with potatoes, carrots and onions. So many great benefits.

Last Half 2022 – October

Good Morning ALL! Well we made it, today is Friday, October 14, 2022. So excited for the weekend. What a great way to start with last night my good friend Gillian came over for a visit. We always have such great conversations. I always feel so much better about life in general after we are together. She has good energy. Thank you Gillian. Mr. Alvin was excited to see her…..

We also went for a walk after work. Alvin’s “caregiver” was outside her house with her daughter and a friend as we were going by. Mr. Alvin made a beeline across the grass to see her, tail just a wagging. Safe to say that he loves her very much. Yesterday she brought her pup Cookie for a visit one of the times she came to check on Mr. Alvin. He, we are so blessed to be surrounded by loving, caring and supportive friends and neighbours. My neighbours do not just beside me – they are my friends. I am very grateful for each and every one of them. Alvin had some love and attention while we chatted and then we were on our way. Down the street a little bit we saw other friends out cleaning out their motorhome. We stopped for a quick visit and then headed out to the park. It was such an absolute lovely walk. There was no wind and the temperature was about 21 degrees celsius, perfection. We didn’t make it quite to Pauline’s house before turning around to come home. I always have Alvin decide how far to go and he was ready to go home.

The leaves are so gorgeous now. Reds, oranges, yellows and still a lot of green. My impatiens and other plant out front are still blooming but I will pull the impatiens this weekend. The other plant I will leave out as it is more of a fall plant and I believe is an annual so will wait till we have a good frost and then cut it back / pull the plant. November 7th is the second and last pickup of yard waste. Good to recycle.

This weekend I will put away the patio furniture although next week we are supposed to have temperatures well above seasonal values. But better to get done before something happens! You know what I mean. I really do not want to say the word before it happens. I know that yesterday I mentioned it in my blog.

I am also trying to stop the negative feelings and thoughts that I have been having during this return to the office. Getting used to the earlier rise, the noise levels, being around so many people and so on, has made me a bit cranky and a little anxious. Starting today that stops. I am so grateful to be employed, to have great people to help look after Alvin while I am at the office, I am grateful that we are both in great health, I am grateful for my life. So no complaints. My life is pretty blessed and I do that!

Happy Friday everyone.

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

Always, Carol & Alvin

2021

Good Morning ALL! How are you this Sunday morning? I will admit after a pretty good night sleep, I found it hard to get my fanny farkle off the sofa. Thank goodness for Mr. Alvin’s persistence otherwise I would like still be curled up under the blanket on the sofa. Oh well, I am up and getting to things. Figured better to write this post first and then have a shower and get on with this day. I am going to make lemon pancakes for breakfast (something different) and I have a short list of things to do. Big thing on the list is to clean the upstairs bathroom ceiling fans and the main floor light fixtures. We will get a walk. Oh, I forgot to tell you that yesterday when we went for a walk in the afternoon – Alvin wanted to keep on walking so we did our usual route. We haven’t done that walk since June. We saw someone that we knew that we had not seen since June and he was surprised to see us so we chatted for a few minutes to catch up. Funny how many people you get to know while out walking. We were home for a little bit when I noticed that the boy was limping just a little but it was short lived and hasn’t happened since that moment (thank goodness). We slept upstairs last night and as I have been doing I carried both up and downstairs. Better to be safe than sorry. I cannot go through this all over again, once is enough. Having an injured dog is not much fun for him or for the owner. It seems like forever since we had any kind of normalcy and I guess that could be held true for the last almost two years now. I guess timing is everything in a way. Had this happened before the Pandemic, I am not sure what I would have done. Taken a leave of absence and had no pay. How would that have worked? It would have been brutal. I am over the moon grateful that we are working from home. Not because of the reasons why. The sun is up and shining brightly. Earlier when we were outside as the sun was rising. The sun was coming up on the horizon and shining on the deep blue clouds giving them the appearance of a top coat of pink. Absolutely breathtaking. I could see my breath again this morning but no frost on the ground.

Yesterday I cleaned out my front flower bed. I snipped off the marigolds and dainty yellow flowers (do not remember their name) and make a small bouquet for the kitchen table. I laid down some fresh coffee grounds in the bare dirt. Cultivated the dirt somewhat. One more thing off the FALL TO DO LIST. I still need to put my summer sandals and shoes in the basement. I sure do not wear many different shoes or use many purses since I have been home or jackets. So many choices and not enough times to use them. I will leave the front closet until the bitter end …… because we all know that once you put the you know what in the closet ….. those things will be there till next May or so. LOL.

Today is the One YEAR ANNIVERSARY of my friends and neighbours Jessica & Eric who tied the knot on this date last year. It was a small wedding but so beautiful and I am so grateful that I was able to attend their special day.

I am so grateful to be surrounded by wonderful people. Truly I have the best neighbours on the planet. Last night I spent some time with Humphrey and Bogart and Cynder as their parents were out and about.

Time to hit the shower. I hope that you have a wonderful day. Have a nap if you need it. I am looking forward to tasting lemon pancakes.

Happy Sunday.

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

Always, Carol & Alvin

Second Half of the NEW YEAR – last quarter

Good Morning ALL,

I could see my breath outside earlier this morning. Looks like Mr. Alvin may have another ear infection as he was shaking his head lots earlier but seems to have stopped for the last few hours. Will keep an eye on him. We had a good Monday. One of my coworkers stopped by to pick up her Norwex order and stayed for tea. We social distanced. It was nice to see her as I do not work directly with her ….. it has been March since I saw her last. After she left I spent the next couple of hours or so cleaning up, rearranging the garage and then moving in the deck furniture. I also broke down a bunch of cardboard boxes. I had to enlist my neighbour to help with a couple of heavier deck pieces of furniture as I am realizing that I no longer have the strength of my youth. Humphrey wanted to come for a visit as it was his Mom who came to help me with the heavier items. So over he came for a visit.

Sometimes I like to see what happened on this day last year so here goes:

Hello, Welcome to Sunday the 13th day of October, 2019.

We had rain overnight but now the sky is beginning to clear.

Last year (2018) at Thanksgiving it was raining and I believe it turned to snow.

Argh, I surely don’t like to say that word before Halloween.

It would be so wonderful if it would remain “brown” until November.

Change of plans, Alvin’s friend Teddy is arriving this morning instead of for a sleepover.

He should arrive in 30 minutes or so.

Yesterday we had Humphrey over for a bit.

We enjoyed a beautiful walk but were sad to leave Humphrey here at home.

I decided to take my phone so that I could snap some photos and am happy that I did.

My family are planning to come for supper.

We are always happy to have them over.

Keeping this short this morning.

But I wanted to share some photos of our walk late yesterday afternoon.

It was so lovely.

I also raked the front lawn as it was covered with a thick blanket of leaves.

Also cleaned out the middle area that has stones as it was covered in leaves as well.

So many leaves.  I filled two big black garbage bags.

Alvin and Humphrey watched from the living room as I cleaned away.

Here are some of the shots from our walk yesterday.

In the park not too far from our house.

Alvin sniffing away.

The fountain still running.

Leaves covering most of the trees but so many different colours.

So beautiful.

One cute story to share from near the beginning of our walk yesterday.

We had just arrived at the park when a car slowed down and pulled over.

I realized it was some neighbours.

Mom and three small boys.

The boys were screaming with delight at the sight of Alvin.

The older boy was out of his seatbelt and trying to get his head out of the window.

Mom and I were trying to speak to each other but all I heard her say was “I can’t hear anything but ALVIN.”

The boys were all screaming his name.

It was at that exact second that I came to realize something.

“Alvin is a ROCK STAR.”

Everyone loves him.

Everyone knows his name.

The kids get so excited to see him and even some adults.

So I have a ROCK STAR living in the house.

Doesn’t get better than that ….

Unless he had the finances of a Rock Star …. but I am happy that he is so loved and adored.

Makes me proud.

Now I also realize something …. he does have that mindset of a celebrity.

Okay almost time for Teddy to arrive.

Time to get that coffee perking.

I need a cup.

Happy Sunday and if you are celebrating Thanksgiving on this day …..

Well Happy Thanksgiving to you.

I find it interesting that my life has not changed much from last year or the year before except perhaps the weather. Well time to head downstairs and put on the coffee. The sky appears to be clear as the sun begins to rise in the morning sky.

Continuing to live my life with love, kindness and respect.

I/We shall remain,

Always, Carol & Alvin

Living … One day at a time.

Hello, Oh it is a lovely morning here in Edmonton.

There was NO frost on the windshields this morning.

The sun is up and the sky is blue.

What a glorious day it is and will be.

Me and Alvin slept in as we were up early yesterday morning.

That is not to say that we were not up during the night and then around 5 a.m. for someone’s breakfast.

But we did not get up to stay up until a bit later …. just nice to lay about and dream and think …..

 

As you know Teddy spent Friday night yesterday with us.

We had a good day.

The boys played.

We went for a nice walk.

Crunching some leaves along the way.

I managed to get laundry and some cleaning done and one more thing but will show the photos.

Humphrey joined us in the late afternoon.

It was just me and the boys.

In some ways it is pretty sad that I am always at home on a Saturday night alone except for a minimum of one fur baby.

But on the other hand, I love being at home.

The trees are looking out from my front door.

I just loved the different colours of each tree, so pretty.

 

Halloween has arrived at my house.

One of my fav times of year.

The THREE AMIGOS just hanging out.

Alvin would not drop that chew treat.

It was a quiet day at the house.

We did have a knock at the door after supper.

It was the little boys from two doors down with their JENGA game.

I asked them if we could play tomorrow afternoon.

They are coming at 1:00 p.m.

A good weekend.

Well time to go and have a cup of coffee.

Wishing you all a Happy Sunday.

 

 

Always, Carol & Alvin