Last Half 2022 – November

Good Morning ALL! How are you this Thursday morning? We are doing well. I/We were so happy to spend some time with our girl. The time we spend together is always great. I am very grateful to have her in our lives. We miss our boy and the pups and cannot wait until Christmas to see them.

Amanda picked up a floral/plant arrangement for me to take with a card and a special Angel pin to our friends Norbert & Irene who recently lost their youngest son. One of the hardest face to face conversations. Broke my heart into a million pieces. I feel so badly for them. To lose a child of any age makes no sense. We always as parents believe that we will go first and when tragedy strikes and changes the “natural order” we are beyond disbelief and heart broken.

We, me and Alvin got to see little Betty Ann who belongs to friends of Amanda & Steven’s. Her parents dropped her off as she will be spending a week or so with the kids while they are away on business. I truly have the best kids, they have the biggest hearts and always have an extra pup or two in the household. I do not know how they do it because I always think I have my hands full with Mr. Alvin, lol. We all had a short visit before Amanda and Betty Ann were on their way to Alberta Beach.

Overnight the temperature dropped into the high double-digits. It was chilly outside when we were out earlier. Last day to the office for this week. I am very grateful that I can spend tomorrow working from home with Alvin by my side.

Last night was a blur with one minute driving with Amanda to cooking supper to eating supper with her, to going to see my friends, to Betty Ann being dropped off to them being gone. It seemed to happen so quickly. Almost makes me wonder, did it really happen? Of course, it did but it was an emotionally charged evening from happiness to sadness.

Well it be time to head downstairs and finish getting ready to leave for work. I am very grateful that I have a ride to and from work with a coworker. She is awesome and we have really got to know each other over the past couple of months. Carpool will do that!

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

PS: Amanda brought the tree lights and the toilet handle, so I have a couple of projects ahead of me. I think I shall wait until Friday after work. Should be fun.

Living … One day at a time

Hello,

There is nothing quite like being ripped out of a deep beautiful sleep than by the loud crack, crash of THUNDER and the room lit by LIGHTNING.

Well that is what happened to us in the middle of last night.

WOW.

Being both wide awake we decided to go downstairs and hit the sofa for the rest of the night.

Luckily it was quiet.

I love my sofa …. always get a good sleep …. no matter the length of time.

Looks like the sky is beginning to clear.

They are forecasting some rain showers for today.

Decision on what to wear for footwear as I am catching the bus for my last four days of work before my vacation.

I don’t want my new shoes to get wet …. argh.

The carpool is on vacation starting yesterday at noon.

Lucky girl.

So excited for mine to begin but at the same time I do not wish to rush it.

Teddy comes tonight for a couple of days.

So will be nice for Alvin to have company during the day tomorrow.

Our office closes at 3:00 p.m. so will be home earlier than normal which will be nice.

 

Last night after work my daughter and I hit COSTCO.

Man did we ever hit COSTCO to the tune of over $700 …. largest amount ever spent there between the two of us.

Not like we bought anything much out of the ordinary ….

Unless you call the one package of underwear that I picked up.

Love the JONES NEW YORK ones.

Okay, perhaps that was a bit too personal but what the heck.

Just between me and you, right.

Gotta have a sense of humour otherwise what does it matter.

My daughter also picked up some moisturizer.

It was one that only ever comes to COSTCO a couple of times a year.

Sold at one of those kiosks.

It was more than the underwear.

Anyway.

 

We even managed to get out for a walk before it rained which I will just say this:  the forecast was way off …. it did not rain at 7:00 or even 8:00 p.m.

Our walk was perfect.

We even saw our friends out for a bike ride …. of course, we stopped and chatted.

Also had time to mow the back lawn (which takes less time than it takes to take the mower out of the garage).

Cleaned up the front flower bed.

There was one flower that was getting a bit straggly.

 

I hope that I made you giggle just a tad on this wonderful Thursday morning.

Alas I must sign off as there are windows to close and have Mr. Alvin go outside one last time before I leave for work.

 

Happy Thursday.

 

With kindness and respect you WILL be joyful.

 

Always, Carol & Alvin

 

 

Living … One day at a time.

Hello,

Friday morning.

The sun is trying hard to burst through the rain clouds that have set in for the past few days.

We managed to have a beautiful walk with our friend P after my dental appointment (just a cleaning).

The wind is blowing.

I am running extremely late this morning.

I took some photos.

Pretty flowers from the front of our temporary office location.

The rain and early morning beauty of the green grass, trees and plants.

But I did not realize when I was snapping photos the phone takes almost like videos but photo bursts.

Anyway …. no photos ….

Have to run.

 

I wish you all an awesome Friday.

Be kind to yourself and to others.

Respectful….

 

Always, Carol & Alvin

 

 

Thought for the day …..

Good Morning and Welcome to Saturday the 27th day of April, 2019.

Well at 3:30 this morning we got up; we being Alvin, Teddy and me.

The grass was green and all was well.

We laid back down again until 5:00 a.m. and the pups had breakfast.

Went outside and did their business.

Then we got up at 5:58 a.m. and looked out to see what had happened below.

I took this photo with my tablet and had saved it to Facebook thus the size of the photo.

Now it is after 9:00 a.m. and there is several inches of the white stuff covering the deck.

The umbrellas on the patio tables are blowing in the wind.

I forgot about the plant that I had placed on the deck last weekend.

It is a type of grass so am hoping that it will survive the blast of snow and coolness.

 

So today is going to be a lazy day.

Will get some laundry going soon.

The snow has just made us want to sleep …. even the boys are thinking the same.

Movie day ……

It will be a quiet one.

Lazy day….. with my boys.

 

Wishing you all a great Saturday.

Hoping that wherever you are …. that you are safe and warm.

Good day to read a book …..

 

I am so grateful to my friend S who called to let me know that she had been trying to get us tickets to see the new AVENGERS movie ENDGAME but everywhere was sold out.

Just the mere thought made me feel like a million dollars.

Noticed that a few people had seen and were posting comments on FB, so I looked away.

I understand their excitement but I wished that perhaps they would not give details until the rest of us were able to see the movie.

Oh well, such as life.

 

Special Hello to: my sister ….

Always, Carol & Alvin

Thought for the day ….

Good Morning and Welcome to Sunday the 22nd day of July, 2018.

Happy Birthday to my younger brother’s youngest “Z.”

WOW, another beautiful morning with a BREEZE.

Perhaps more than a breeze but it is keeping it cooler.

Hopefully cooler at least until I have a shower and get out for a morning stroll with the boy.

What a busy weekend.

We, rather I cleaned all the blinds in the house (10 sets of them).

How often do you clean out the window wells in your garage?

Likely not often.

Figured good time to vacuum the bugs and then give them a good washing.

WOW, they look amazing.

So when I decided to that, I first had to move some things around so that I could get into the window properly.

The garage got cleaned up, once again and a good sweeping.

GARAGE done.

PULLED WEEDS, with all this rain they are everywhere.

Weeds between the garage and the fence.

Weeds in with my flowers in the front flower bed and the back.

Weeds beside the driveway in the back.

Now this is more than weeds as some of the neighbours chose not to take care of them.

Now there is grass of all sorts.

I do my best to pull them out but they take hold quickly.

We will have to use some WEED/GRASS control agent to ourselves of them.

ARGH

In between LAUNDRY ( always ).

Just as we were about to finish the garage, I saw that these LARGE rain clouds were looming in the sky so I turned down the umbrellas and moved my tomato plant into the protection

of the garage ….. then back inside to put away my cleaning stuff.

Only it started to RAIN, no time, turned off the light and yelled at ALVIN to run just as the HEAVENS opened WIDE.

We were soaked by the time that we reached the HOUSE – which is not far.

In the house we dried off.

 

I made a big pot of what I will call a CHILLI TOMATO SOUP (a mix mash of things but oh, it tastes so good).

USED up all of the bags of tomatoes left in the freezer.

They were from my friend’s garden last year.

Enough to freeze and to eat.

I have red tomatoes on my one lone plant.

The sunflowers are growing as well.

 

Finally after supper we crashed and watched a movie.

THE Agatha Christie movie “MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS” was to rent for $1.00.

Cannot beat that so that is what we watched before retiring at 9:30 p.m.

 

Good old fashioned “cleaning” can sure play one out.

Good exercise and good for the soul.

So today just odds and ends before back to work tomorrow.

I am making PANCAKES for breakfast.

Just have to shower, walk and then EAT.

PANCAKES with MAPLE SYRUP and raspberries & blueberries on top.

MMMMM

Well better get this show on the road.

I hope that you enjoy your Sunday.

Take some time for yourself.

 

Rainclouds are coming back in ……

ARGH, hopefully we get our walk in …..

Otherwise will have to try later.

 

Special Hello to: my siblings ……

Always, Carol & Alvin

 

Thought for the day ….

Good Morning and Welcome to Wednesday the 2nd day of August, 2017.

After a raining Tuesday – forecast is for sunny skies.

The next few days are to be lower twenties which will be nice.

The temperature has fallen substantially for Friday as was supposed to be 29, now 23.

You never know ….. weather changes frequently.

 

Alvin and I enjoyed our walk last night – just the two of us.

Not many people out walking.

 

Just a couple more sleeps and three days to work until VACATION.

I am so excited to have TWO WEEKS off ……

Time to relax, reflect and ENJOY my company.

Alvin is excited to see everyone ……

 

I am hoping that shortly I will have some tomatoes to eat from my plant.

It has grown so big.

My first tomatoes …….

 

Flowers, most especially the Snap Dragons are growing my mad.

The colours are so pretty ….. hues of yellow, pinks, purples and corals.

We love sitting on the patio admiring the beautiful flowers and gazing up into the sky.

 

Well time to get this show on the road.

Have a wonderful day.

Remember to take some time to breathe …. just sit, close your eyes and breathe.

 

Special Hello to:  my sister ….. soon …..

Always, Carol & Alvin

 

Thought for the day ….

Good Morning and Welcome to Friday the 14th day of July, 2017.

We had a lovely thunder and lightning storm last night.

Sunny skies this morning.

The first crack of thunder almost sent me flying…..certainly startled me…

The wind blew over my tomato plant but after the storm I managed to rig up a more substantial “post” for Mr. T to lean on.

The sky cleared and there was a lovely breeze as we went to bed which was great because earlier with the humidity it was 32 degrees celsius.

Thankfully it is Friday and our office closes early.

I am so grateful for that ….. great way to end the work week.

I took my own advice and what a difference in the day …..

Sometimes it may be hard to hear “not so glowing things about yourself” but sometimes it is just the kick in the pants you need to get back on track.

I am a great person.

I know that I am compassionate, kind, generous, loyal, intelligent and likely a slew of adjectives but you see the point.

We all get caught in that trap sometimes.

The negative blues ….

Woe is me…..

Blaming it on others…..

We all do it…..

Perhaps more or less than others…..

So give yourself a kick in the pants and change your life.

Start walking through that door with a new attitude.

Love yourself and be kind to the planet, to others, to every creature …..

We all have our “things” …. the baggage ….. we all have gone through CRAP……I have…..you have, too.

Happy Friday …..

Special Hello to:  YOU and ME.

Always, Carol & Alvin

 

Thought for the day …..

Good Morning and Welcome to Friday the 10th day of March, 2017.

YAY, ’tis Friday ….. so happy about this.

Another COLD morning here in Edmonton but I hear that the temperatures are on the rise.

YAY, about that good news.

 

In keeping with the CHOICES theme of my last few blogs.

I was thinking this morning about something.

How many days do you get a thought in your head about someone or something that bugs you?

That ticks you in the wrong way?

So you just keeping thinking about it, and it seems to get worse and worse.

You just cannot get refocused and even go to bed thinking about the someone, something or situation.

 

Can you imagine what would happen if you placed a thought in your mind about something that you wanted?

Kept thinking about that one thing or perhaps it is a person or situation.

I would not begin to suggest that you think about it constantly but planting positive good thoughts is always a better approach.

 

For example: if you think as you get out of bed in the morning and perhaps repeat say ten times – “I am having a great day.”

Chances are you will have a pretty great day.

It is all about making the choice early on and staying focused.

If something or someone comes along and things begin to change ….. just close your eyes and repeat “I am having a great day.”

Does not hurt to try, right.

 

Well time to hit the snowy road to the bus stop.

I hope that you have an awesome Friday.

 

Special Hello to: all my fellow positive thinkers …..

Always, Carol and Alvin

Thought for the day …..

Good Morning and Welcome to Saturday the 6th day of August, 2016.

The sun is shining.

The morning air still has a crispness to it with the coolness of the breeze.

I can hear magpies squawking away.

There is a hum of traffic from the highway that goes around our city.

This is Saturday morning in Edmonton.

My house is quiet except for the clicking sound from the keyboard as I type these words.

Alvin is curled up at the end of our bed waiting patiently for me to finish and get this day going.

 

Last night we watched part of the open ceremonies from Rio De Janeiro ….. very colourful and different.

I especially enjoyed how they incorporated a piece of the ceremony about the ENVIRONMENT.

The whole premise of the ceremonies was about us all, mankind.

Maybe with an audience of about three billion people it will open some eyes.

I love how they gave each of the 11,000 athletes a sapling to plant.

11,000 trees, how splendid.

We, I did not watch it all as it got too late for me but I recorded it to watch later.

Well done Rio.

 

Well two days before I am back to work for a couple of days and then off for the rest of the week.

Nice short work week – two days.

Wouldn’t that be nice for always.

 

I baked some bran muffins and infused them with hydrated fruit tea from my collection of Steeped Tea.

They turned out so yummy.

Who would think that you could add tea to muffins.

When they were baking it seemed glorious in the house.

Alvin really wanted some.

But did not think muffins would be a good thing for him.

He is such a foodie.

 

Well time to get going here.

Check the lotto tickets.

Do some laundry.

Change bedding …..

Make coffee for me and my neighbour “S” ……

 

Happy Saturday everyone.

Enjoy your weekend.

 

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

Always, Carol and Alvin

 

P.S.  Alvin is no longer on the bed, I guess he decided to be closer to me as he is lying outside the office door.  He truly is a Momma’s boy.  Gotta love that little guy.

 

Thought for the day …..

Good Morning and Welcome to Thursday the 22nd day of October, 2015.

Another beautiful morning.

Alvin has me wondering about something.

Just noticed this morning that he is “enthralled” by the plant that remains on the deck.

It is one of those grass type plants that you use to fill in with flowers.

Only thing is it grew so well – took over the flowers.

Anyway I noticed him sniffing about there before bed.

So I quickly moved him away and now this morning.

Guess will have to move it into the garage.

I want to see if it will winter.

Something about the planet.

He is not eating it but has licked it, I think.

Cannot see as it was dark in that corner of the deck.

Oh well ….. one of those things.

The kids will be stopping by today as Miss Penny has a Vet appointment today.

So they will keep an eye on the boy.

Well here it is almost time to leave for work.

How did that happen?

Well very quickly …. Al up at 4:00 …. had his breakfast and went out ….. we hit the sofa until 5:20 and then again until 5:40 …..

Oh well it is Thursday.

I hope that you have an amazing day.

Special Hello to: all those people who read my blog, I am very grateful.

Always, Carol and Alvin