A New YEAR 2023

Good Morning ALL! Well it has been quite the weekend so far. We, me and Alvin had a good sleep last night even with couple of times up. The wind is blowing so hard that it feels like the snow will be swept up from the rooftops and the ground and be a snow storm. Yesterday ended up being quite different than the way that I had planned it to be. I walked over to have my eyeglasses adjusted. Perhaps I should start at the beginning. Maddie, my friend’s daughter who was going to stay with Alvin while I attended the New Year Eve’s Dinner at my friend Lucy’s house – well I asked her if she could come and stay with Alvin while I went to have my glasses adjusted. Things went well so I stopped at the Shoppers Drugstore to pick up a couple of items (deodorant as do not wish to be smelly). Then back home. Alvin and Maddie did well and it was then, that I asked if she would be available to stay with Alvin while I went out for supper. She said yes. I had earlier advised her that I had changed my mind because of Alvin and work, if I am being honest. The week from HELL, I will say. I texted everyone to tell them of my changes to the plan. For sure I wanted the Hostess to know that now she would have four people including herself for supper. As it turns out she had not seen my text saying that I was not going to attend, lol. I guess she was busy with all of the calls/texts coming in from family and friends back home in China.

After Madeline (Maddie) left, I did a couple of quick things and then grabbed Alvin’s harness and some poop bags and with only a sweater (instead of coat), we were on our way for a walk. Alvin did not need a jacket and I was so warm from my walk that I wore a warm sweater. He stopped and sniffed along the way. We both enjoyed the warm air and sunshine. Divine. We went as far as just into the park which is the longest we have walked together in a long time. Then back home. We had some quiet time before I got Alvin his supper and then changed for the dinner party celebrating Chinese New Year’s Eve. Next thing I knew it Maddie was there, Alvin was happy to see her. When she arrived earlier his tail was wagging so much and the same this time. Then I was off with my gifts for Lucy to acknowledge her tradition and the New Year. It was starting to get a bit icy by this time as the sun was going down. So I walked semi slowly and carefully. When I got to Lucy’s house, our friends who live two doors down were also just leaving so we walked over together. We had a great evening. Lucy had her house decorated with red decorations for which I forgot to ask if they said “Happy New Year” or something else. All the food items for supper had a meaning. “Blessings,” “Abundance” and so forth. The dishes were so yummy. There was a noodle dish with mushrooms and beef, fish dish, shrimp, a type of meat ball with carrots, great soup and so much more. We laugh until we cried (almost). We had the best time. Ate way too much but the food was amazing. We took a selfie of the three of us without Pauline’s husband. He took a photo of us gals together earlier. In hindsight I do not think I took one of him. I was home by 8:17 p.m., I think. Pauline drove me home as it was dark and the sidewalks were icy in places. Very grateful for the ride. At home Maddie and Alvin were hanging out. She had been studying and Alvin was “watching” a Disney movie.

Photo by Adi Perets on Pexels.com

Photo by mahe haroutinian on Pexels.com

Photo by RODNAE Productions on Pexels.com

Happy New YEAR

Photo by Angela Roma on Pexels.com

Photo by Angela Roma on Pexels.com

Wishing you a Happy New Year and a great Sunday.

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

Always, Carol & Alvin

My gifts to Lucy were tea and chocolate.

Last Half 2022 – October

Good Morning ALL! How are you this morning? We are doing great. Best news – we turned out the lights at just after 10:30 p.m. last night and Alvin did not wake up until 5:46 a.m., feeling on top of the world. We were up and did our early morning thing including feeding Mr. Alvin and going outside. So great to actually get more than 3-5 hours in a row. We had about 7 hours of continuous sleep. So happy.

So today is Sunday. We had a great Saturday. I did laundry, we went for a walk and I took photos with my new phone. My daughter and her husband upgraded their phones and she gave me her old one which is the equivalent of an iPhone 10. The new phone sure did the upload of photos quickly. Amanda did the transfer from my old phone to the new one yesterday morning before she left for home. So I have a new phone. Costs a bit more but that is okay. Everything has gone up – I do not expect things to be less expensive or perhaps I should give that more thought, lol. I also moved the “spring/summer” ornaments to the basement (store until next year) and brought up my fall/Thanksgiving/Halloween ornaments. More Halloween than anything but it looks good and my opinion is really the only one that matters. Not like there are others in the household that care, do you care Mr. Alvin? He says “nope.”

Playing with my new phone. Photos from our walk yesterday. On the way home we stopped, well Alvin stopped when he noticed that Humphrey looking out of the front door. They are so cute. Nose to nose and I did not react quickly enough to take photos. Next best thing, Humphrey came over for a visit.

Alvin

Humphrey

Front yard

My attempt at a selfie

Oh, the colours of fall

Fav shot

Love the background

We had a great walk. The weather has been glorious. If I could have held Mr. Alvin in my arms and taken a photo of us, I would have. Perhaps I should have placed him on one of the benches or sat down beside him. Next time.

Well time to head downstairs as I have been working on these photos for some time now and I need a cup of coffee. Alvin is patiently waiting or me outside the office.

Have a wonderful Sunday. Tomorrow is officially Thanksgiving Day but for most of Canada the whole weekend is celebrated. Family time and lots of food. Which reminds me I have not had pumpkin pie. Oh, how I wished that I had some pumpkin pie with whipped cream.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend.

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

Always, Carol & Alvin

Last Half 2022 – October

Good Morning ALL! How are you this beautiful October morning? Alvin and I are doing great. We are enjoying another absolutely gorgeous morning. Standing outside in the backyard in my pj’s is not uncomfortable on this lovely day. I did have a sweater on as well. Still feels warm. I believe the temperature is to be about 24 degrees celsius today.

We have been enjoying a great weekend. Yesterday in addition to some cleaning, putting away laundry, Alvin and I had an enjoyable walk, I went for groceries. This time my list included items that I would need to make specific recipes so that I am not without an ingredient. I am also going to bake some apple muffins this morning. The coffee is perking so when this post is finished, I will have a mug of coffee and bake some muffins. Muffins will be a good snack for me to take to work to have for breakfast. I cannot believe that it is time to return to the office three days each week. I miss the time at home already.

Last night after supper Alyaa, her husband and daughter came over to discuss instructions for looking after Alvin. I also found out that Alyaa did get the casual/part-time job. Good for her and I was worried for us. But for this week her husband who has to come home for his daughter at noon will come and look after Mr. Alvin. They are hoping that her hours will not be as many as this week. The job was supposed to be only a few hours each week, and is turning into more. So we will figure it out, I guess week by week. It may involved asking some other friends and neighbours to come and check on Mr. Alvin. I will definitely need to get more keys cut. It will work out but may require some further planning on my part. Oh, what an interesting life!

Definitely will get some of those apples used today that are taking up real estate in my fridge. The crispers are full of apples so I cannot put any vegetables in them. I will make a huge apple crisp as well. I was planning to give the boy a bath today and possibly with scissors just trim his paws (if I can get close without him freaking out).

Yesterday I was looking out of the living room window and with a big gust of wind, it was raining leaves from our tree. So pretty but incredibly sad. I would like the leaves to stay on the trees for awhile longer. There are still several trees that have not turned colours as yet.

Oh, I got into this movie series yesterday while putzing in the house and last night: Fast & Furious. I was pleasantly surprised by how good the movies were and enjoyed them a lot. The amount of well known actors in this movie was crazy good. Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Paul Walker, Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, and so many more. I only watched two or three of them and not in full but I want to for sure. The cast is long and interesting. There were about three of them on yesterday maybe four so I have recorded them to watch in their entirety at a later time. Looks like there are at least ten in the franchise so I will be playing catch up. Great story lines and if you like action, which I LOVE, you will definitely enjoy them.

Well time to head back downstairs. Have that first mug of coffee and start baking some muffins.

Enjoy this beautiful day. I will be bringing “BOBI” upstairs to vacuum as well. Definitely will have to stay upstairs with her.

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 Thursday the 16th day of October, 2014.

Yesterday was an exciting day for us, finally some great news about my nephew.

Twice yesterday he opened his eyes and once was with my daughter and myself present in the room.

He did not move this eyes around but just the simply act of opening them is cause for great hope.

He also squeezed the heck out of my right hand from the time we got there until we left ….

Of course, breaks in between.

I sincerely thought he might break my hand he was squeezing that tight ….

Anyway more cause for hope and that is all we can ever ask for ……

Rained late yesterday afternoon and throughout the night.

We are still to have some beautiful warm days for the next week or so …..

I am so grateful that all of the positive energy and prayers were taken to him.

Well almost time to leave for work.

I “hit the snooze button” so to speak a couple of times this morning.

I guess I should say “hit the sofa” a couple of times extra this morning.

Thank you for reading my blog and for your support it truly means the world to me.

Have a great great day.

Special Hello to: my nephew “J” who is in the hospital and is on his way back to us.

Always, Carol and Alvin

P.S. I think I mentioned that Alvin and I finally had our annual photo taken ….. so excited to see the final product.  My daughter always does a crazy good job.