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 – October

Good Morning ALL! How are you this morning? We are doing well. Alvin is snoozing outside the office door as I click click away on the keyboard writing this post. I am so grateful that we had such an beautiful fall thus far.

Even though the wind is howling and sounding like it is blowing things away, the air outside is warm. Fingers crossed for another warm day. Yesterday was beautiful. 20’s for October is amazing. Makes me want to do a happy happy dance. My friend Pauline came over and looked after Mr. Alvin. They even went for a walk to the park. Good to know that if I am not at home, he will walk when someone tries to take him outside. After work, I so wanted to go for another walk (went for a walk at work) but someone had other ideas so it was very short lived.

Did I tell you that I was having monitor problems which have now been rectified? Did you know that the port can actually break? You learn something new everyday. Thanks to my friend and coworkers’ husband who works in IT for fixing the problem. I truly learn something new each day. So I am happy to have the monitor working again. I could work with just the laptop but much easier with a second screen/monitor.

I took tomorrow off and have a full day planned between vet visit etc.

The wind howling made me think that I should change out my closets and bring up my winter wear. I don’t think we will have many sandal/flip flop days ahead. Would be nice but not likely!

I am looking forward to a cup of coffee this morning.

My friend Val said that a surprise package is being delivered today. I can hardly wait. Did not tell Mr. Alvin as he would get overly excited and anxious. He loves opening packages. That makes me happy.

Well it is time to head back downstairs. Plug in the coffee perk. Get this day going. I am up early as it is only 6:28 but that is okay. I have lots to do so might as well get an early start. One more trip outside.

Have an awesome Thursday.

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

Always, Carol & Alvin

Thought for the day …..

Good Morning and Welcome to Saturday the 12th day of January, 2019.

The sun is beginning to rise in the east and I can see a beautiful array of oranges and pinks filling the horizon.

So excited to have a bright sunny day and warmer temperatures.

Up to stay for about 1/2 hour now and first up at 4:00 (give or take a few minutes before 4).

Oh my Mr. Alvin, what a guy.

We have a busy day ahead.

Master Teddy is coming at 9:00 a.m. to spend the day with us.

I always love having him as we brings more joy to our house.

If you were having a less than stellar day well Teddy would change your mood, definitely.

Alvin has his 2nd treatment this morning at the Vet.

So will have both the boys in tow on the walk over.

As I sit here the colours have expanded and there is so much colour on display.

So beautiful.

I can now see yellow in with the pinks and oranges.

It is going to be a beautiful day.

Beautiful, perfect.

 

I was listening to one of the morning shows that I record last night.

It is an American show and they were discussing a wide variety of topics.

SICK DAYS came up.

They were staying that there is talk of doing away with sick days.

Too many people have taken advantage.

Interesting and scary.

 

I wanted to mention this.

My daughter ordered something for me on AMAZON after Christmas.

The order was shipped out in several deliveries.

The first two arrived at my house while I was at home.

My daughter let me know that there had been a delivery only I did not receive that package.

I suppose someone decided that they needed that item more than me.

There are always comments and posts on Facebook and News Reports that packages delivered by Amazon and other on-line companies are stolen

I was grateful that my daughter contacted AMAZON and guess what – not only did they send a replacement but they placed it in CANADA POST.

This time I received the package.

Now I have the full order.

I had been worried and they have restored my faith in humankind.

Thank you Amazon.

Still kind of mad about the fool that stole the package from my front porch.

What kind of people do that?

If you needed the money, why did you not ask?

 

Well time to go and have a shower before Master Teddy arrives.

I am so excited to see him as is Mr. Alvin.

 

Have an awesome Saturday and if you are reading this while the sun is rising …. it is glorious.

As each minute passes it becomes more beautiful.

So beautiful.

 

Special Hello to: my friend V who is so helpful, thank you my friend.

Always, Carol & Alvin

 

 

Thought for the day …..

Good Morning and Welcome to Thursday the 1st day of December, 2016.

Yes it is December and yes there are twenty-three, 23 sleeps until Christmas Eve Day.

Are you ready?

Have you continued with your traditions or will you be starting some new ones this Christmas?

I am proud to say that every year we revamp our Christmas traditions.

Some years you may not notice but others you definitely would.

Last year Christmas was at my daughters and we had Christmas Dinner catered.

This year Christmas is at my house and I am cooking a turkey.

Nice change.

Last year we exchanged gifts and this year we had planned not to exchange them between myself, my daughter and son-in-law.

I came up with something different, not buying but still something to exchange.

Good for the recycle, reuse as we are all trying not to spend money on things that we at the end of the day do not really need.

So we will look through our homes and find items that we think each other would love.

Not too difficult.

There are so many ways to make Christmas extra special.

I think that the thing I love the most about this time of year is spending it with family and friends perhaps sharing a meal or just some treats freshly baked.

So when you are running around like the Mad Hatter stop and think about all of those purchases that perhaps you are putting on your credit card.

Do you really need to do this?

Does the person really need that $200 sweater?

Give more from the heart.

Start making things …. people love home-made.

It is the wave of the future.

For those people that you have no idea but want to give ….. bake some sugar cookies or fudge.

There are ways.

How about that vase of Aunt’s that you have had sitting on the shelf forever but your Sister loves it so much.

Give it to your sister.

The gesture will be priceless.

Think about your options.

Please do not get into debt over the holidays.

So not worth it.

Really I can tell you that from experience.

Well time to hit the frosty trail to the bus again.

Have a wonderful first day of December.

Don’t sweat things ….. make a list.

That is one of my tasks for tomorrow evening is to take a calendar and write down everything that needs to be done and purchased between now and December 31, 2016.

That way no surprises….

Bye for now.

Special Hello to: my friends and family all over the world.

Always, Carol and Alvin

Thought for the day….

Good Morning and Welcome to Wednesday the 25th day of February, 2015.

Well on top of the partially melted snow and ice we now have a fresh blanket of the white stuff.

Traction!  Sure hope so.

DISCOVERY:

I just wanted to share how important it is to read the expiry date or best before date on food items that you purchase at the grocery store.

Last night I went to make a “taco salad” and found on the Tofurkey package of “seasoned meatless ground” it had expired in March of 2014.

I almost fell over ….. one year ago and it was still on the shelves.

How did that happen?

My daughter and I decided that we really wanted the taco salad so we made a trip back to our neighbourhood grocery store ….

When I went to the “vegan” section of “meat” I found other packages of the same brand/type all with the same expiry date and no one had noticed.

WOW.

So I picked up a different one (one we usually buy but it had been sold out previously) and what do you think was the first thing that I did?

Checked the expiry date of course.

Now I am always going to make sure that I check.

The girls at customer service were taken aback by my discovery…..

They should be.

Several people would have touched these packages ….

Now we are all human and I understand oversights do happen.

This is a wake-up call to the store to be more aware of the dates.

So I told them about the remaining packages on the shelf so that they can dispose of them.

The question remains:

Did the manufacturer send expired product?

Did the store have this on the shelf without removing as it did not sell?

Did the store have some in the back?

Anyway ….. just make sure that you check.

I am sure that by eating something that had expired one year ago would have made us very sick.

So happy that I checked before we ate it.

Now if it had been our usual brand I likely would not have … I had never used it before so I was reading the package as I started to open it.

Well here we go … another day and the old adage .. another $1.00 ….

Have a great day everyone.

Special Hello to: everyone …. check those packages.

Always, Carol and Alvin