Three more shifts and I'm done!  Woohoo!  I admit that Tim Hortons was a great place for me to re-enter the work force after a 10+ year stint of staying home with my girls, and they were versatile enough that I was able to be home on the days I needed to be.  And then after moving here, I used them as my guaranteed income, and was able to work only two days a week  while I nurtured my other job, and now I'm able to say my time has come!  I'm finally free of Tim Hortons!  My feet will thank me in a month or two when they have recovered from the abuse.

happy 13th

Hailey turns 13 today .. I repeat, THIRTEEN!  Omg, I'm Mom to a teenager now!!  Thankfully I have a very respectful, soft spoken, sweet natured, hard working, smart and curious 13 year old, and I can only hope those traits take her far in life. 

Last years wish for her upcoming year was for her little inner light to continue to shine, and she has done just that.  She has put forth the effort to make new friends in her new school, join some activities, develop a rapport with her new teachers and her efforts have paid off.  She moves on from grade 7 with honour role achievement under her belt!  I couldn't be more proud of her! 

Hailey's passions this year have been the bass clarinet, anime shows (hetalia being her fave), her new kitty Arizona, jeans/t-shirts, japanese music, different languages, her friends, nail polish/mascara/doing hair, and spending a lot of time in her room.  I think she's on to a very good start in acting like the typical teenager!

little sunday project

I've been staring at that horrible white rusted mailbox for 8 months and finally I couldn't stand it anymore.  With some suggestions on what paint to use, I picked some up today and went nuts on it.  Its not perfect, but it certainly is ALOT better then it was, and it only cost me a half a can of $5 spray paint.  I think my landlady is lucky that I get anal about certain things. :P

Hailey's party

Hailey's party idea was to go to the fair!  All of the kids had such a great time, riding all the adult rides over and over AND over again!  The bracelets were well worth their money!

And to explain Hailey's cake .. the flag represents her favourite character of an anime show she watches.  She was surprised! :)

Alissa's birthday.

The plans Alissa had decided on last minute sort of fell through and although disappointed that she didn't end up with the party she wanted, she did have a good birthday.  I got her the DSi game and puppy she had wanted since before Christmas, and a kitty leash because she always wants to take her cat, Kiggy, outside with her.  As it turned out, Alissa had alot of fun at the fair which was Hailey's party idea, and I've promised her that sometime this summer she can have a friend  or two over for a sleepover.

Happy 11th, Alissa!!

she did it!

Excuse me for a moment while I have a little mama brag moment.  Hailey came home today with some great news .. she's made the honour roll and recieved a certificate to prove it!!   I could not be more proud of my little over achiever!!  She's worked really hard this year since moving here, to fit into the highschool way of things, a new school and method of teaching/learning (its a Catholic school), new friends, all new teachers, new new and more new it seemed.  But I saw something more intense with her in the past 8 months .. a thirst to learn, do every bit of homework and then some, hand in assignments that had blood sweat and tears poured into them, as well as she became a wealth of knowledge herself.  She has so many random facts bouncing around in that pretty blonde head of hers, and subjects she used to struggle with (math, french) she is 'getting' it now.  I'm so proud that she was able to take her stumbling blocks and make them work in her favour.  :)

comfortable

I was able to make a big purchase of furniture and it arrived today.  It helps that I work at a furniture store and get abit of a discount and free delivery, so after months of looking, dreaming and wishing .. the finances came through where I was able to make the purchase.  This is only my second time to purchase a brand new couch .. the first being back in 1994 with my ex when we bough a living room set that didn't last terribly long before the cats reaked havoc on it.  Since then it has always been 'hand-me-downs' given to us when others replaced their furniture.  But when I moved from BC, I had to get rid of all big furniture and my old ugly green couch and chair was given to someone that desperately needed it. 

Upon arriving here, I borrowed my sisters old couch that was covered in a victorian style floral, but I put a slip cover over it and it did the trick.  I bought two faux leather chairs, ottoman/coffee table, tv stand and bookcase to fill my empty house. 

 This is my new oversize leather chair and fabric couch in the shade of steel grey.  I am simply in love!

 And finally I have the added grey to tie in all my browns and other greys.  I'm just so stinkin' proud of myself (I'm generally more humble then to admit that!) and am so ready to have people over now that I love my space.

Next on my big item list will be a TV, as you can see I currently have a dinosaur.

fathers day

I'm usually a woman of many words but I choose to say just a little today.  Happy Father's Day to my angel Dad who gave the best hugs, smelled of old spice, had a quirky sense of humour and a great laugh.  I miss you so much and love you .. forever!
 

circa summer 2008

happy 11th!

Today is Alissa's 11th birthday!  I know I say this every year, but it truly is hard to believe how quickly each year passes and time whisks my little girls farther away from toddlers, onward to teenagers. *sigh*

Alissa, you have spent this past year really developing into a different little girl.  Yes there still are the tantrums that hit me from out of the blue, but for the most part you are holding more mature conversations, owning up to your wrong doings, continuing to develope that unique sense of style you have, creating, learning, and growing.  In just 8 months time you grew a whole three inches! Those back on the Island are not going to even recognize you for the changes you've made!

Your favourite group is One Direction, your favourite colours are still lime green and sky blue, you desperately wanted icecream cupcakes for your birthday but the closest we could get was the cake, you still like playing with bratz, your dsi, card tricks, drawing, and riding your scooter.  I hope you continue to become more of the person you're inner self wants to be, and with that stubborn streak at least I know you won't just follow the crowd.  I love you and wish you much wonderfulness in this eleventh year.  xoxo

prom night

 

ooo lala

I was given this set of earings from my sweet younger sister for Mothers Day, but they just came in the other day and I love them.  I am not one to wear big dangly earings, but little droop ones work much more with my style, and so I decided I'd wear them today since I was working at my 'dress up' job. 

The lady that makes them is a local jeweller that has an etsy shop and was making this particular style/colour just for breast cancer where she donated all proceeds to the cause.  Now that I know who she is, and what other things she makes (she'll do custom work for you too if you have an idea and want it especially made for you) I'll keep her in mind for gifts and my own personal shopping.   

a june saturday

Every now and then, I get this itch.  An itch to get the hell outta dodge for a few hours or days.  My Mom had the travel bug too .. she used to just love going on drives, or trips .. either or had the same affect on her.  Its like a little bit of re-energizing that we somehow need to make it through the next stretch of life.

So with that itch needing a huge scratch, I whisked my daughters out of town for the afternoon.  We only went to the neighbouring town 1.5 hours east of us, but it was fun!  We had a picnic lunch, did some shopping, found the item I couldn't find here in town, and listened to some excellent tunes I had totally forgot existed on my iPod!

 And then yesterday, with help from my girls (Hailey the hands on helper, and Alissa the screw and accessory sorter/controller) we built the item we had picked up.  I needed something desperately for my microwave as I have very little counter space in this house.  I didn't like the look of the standard microwave stands, but came across this and loved the idea!  More cupboard space too!  It took us two hours, and I may have slipped a curse word or two, but hot damn, we did it! :)

Its funny how you can be just cruising along through life, trying to focus on the here and now and not really looking too far into the future.  Enjoying the moment, learning from bumps in the road but not focusing on the past, living each day as they come.  Feeling like you have everything under control, have dealt with hurt and sadness, but choose to focus on the happy sunshiny memories .. and then WHAM!  You have a dream that leaves you feeling like a pile of pouty mush upon waking. 

And that's when I find myself reminiscing of times gone by with tears spilling from my eyes and a heavy heart.
I have this horrible recent habit .. when a relationship ends or a life ends, I find myself perusing past emails, photos, posts, letters, anything I can get my hands on to make me feel closer to the person(s).  And usually that proves to just make things worse because you get so sucked down but you know how sometimes that's just what you want to do.  Forget about putting your thoughts to the back of your mind, putting on a smile and faking you're all good.  Today its my parents whom I miss terribly, and I find I'm almost making things worse by reading old facebook group 'in memory' posts from just after each of their passings and going through photos to refresh my memory of facial lines and sparkles in their eyes.  So much has happened in the past two years, that I would have loved to call either of them to share with.  They were the kind of parents that when their children were down, they were behind the scenes praying for a brighter day and when we were celebrating a milestone or event, they were the first to cheer us on and make sure we knew they were proud.  I miss calling and sharing my ups and downs with someone I knew would care, have the right words to say and that never judged me.  Even as an adult, my parents were 'home' and 'home' was my safe place to fall (even from miles away).  I miss my Mom and Dad!!

it's june!

So it's June!  June brings busyness to my life and I already can predict that summer is going to fly by far to quickly then I'd like. 

Both girls birthdays are in the planning mode, a school dance is next week, end of school activities are in full swing, work is super busy, it's hot outside and we're discovering all the local beaches .. day by day.

I've had an awakening .. I truly do love this place.  Sure it's not the Island.  It doesn't have the salty air, the crabs and other sea life, the rocky beaches, the driftwood or shells, the tall trees, the fierce greeness and wet winters.  BUT the summer here is beautiful and breath taking.  The beaches are sandy, the forest is green, the lakes is stunning and all the islands are just amazing, the cottages that I can see along coastal roadway are intimate and pristine, and I am getting to know so many people in this small town.  I wasn't sure how I felt about that at first, after going from being able to go shopping without seeing a single person I knew or recognized to seeing people I recognized or know (through work or through introductions) all over the place.  And the gossip in this town? Crazyness.  Anyway .. I love it and am feeling less homesick now that summer is here and we're able to go out more and explore our new surroundings. 

I've been working on making things more comfortable for us, and replacing some of the things we had to purge before our move.  So we now have a new patio table and 4 chairs set that works perfectly for us and sits quite nicely on the back patio.  We also had to pick up a couple floor fans to get us through the hot sticky nights.  Fortunately the downstairs living space stays quite cool, but the rooms upstairs are hot and we three were having difficulties falling asleep at night.