Thank You!

To those of you who have sent your well-wishes and congratulations our way, I say thank-you! I think it’s fairly obvious that I’m thrilled and excited to be engaged to Rich. I’m not going to post all the details on the blog, as that’s something I want to share more personally. But…I’m sure the planning will add some interesting posts to this in the future. For now, I’m just letting it sink in and thinking of ideas, but nothing’s set in stone just yet. (actually – not even the ring….we’re getting that made!) Oh – and I received my first engagement item today. My darling Laural had waiting for me on my chair at work, a very fitting and pretty card, and a new issue of “In Style Weddings” magazine! awesome!

Who Knew?

Remember my post of December 20th? The 'forbidden question'? Well - you can ask me now! ;)

Update Number 2

Our little Jackson is a little weird. Or maybe he’s just being a cat. I dunno. This is all new to me. One day he’s wrapped around our feet every step we take…meow-ing to no end…being frisky and wanting to play….the next day he wants nothing to do with us and sits in the kitchen in front of the dishwasher and stares at the wall. Whaddup Jackson? He also likes to watch us shower. It kind of freaks me out a bit…he sits between the outer and inner shower curtains on the side of the tub (our inner curtain is transparent) and watches us. He eats, drinks, poops and pees (he’s healthy). He runs like a dog sometimes through the house. He plays “fetch” with his toy mice. He likes to cuddle and then he gives you ‘love bites’. I think maybe he’s bi-polar. Or, we’re just still figuring each other out. But his 5am wake-up calls are getting a bit hard to take. I wonder if they make sleeping pills for cats. Note to PETA – I’m kidding. I’m sure we’ll all adjust. The irony of it all is that it’s ME who needs the CAT-naps (haha…CAT naps – get it?...I kill me…k – not that funny…)…from him keeping me up at night. Funny Jackson…really funny. But mommy still loves you. So far.

Feeling Old?

I think it was Saturday evening when I was lying in bed – trying to nurse a sore back and aching shoulders from a day of yard work – when all of a sudden I was alerted to the sounds of fireworks and cheers and laughs coming from the waterfront down the road. Oh Right. It’s Victoria Day weekend. I remember this weekend – “MAY TWO-FOUR” – yee haw – party! party! party! - being with friends and heading to the beach to spend the day with our blankets and coolers to await the fireworks at night – laughing and being silly….oooohs and aahhhhs with each explosion of colour and light. Good times...good times…

However, this weekend I found myself bundling hedge trimmings, raking the grass and heading to the nursery to buy yukka plants and the like. Granted, we took in a movie and went out for dinner, but I have to say, I started to feel a little (...gasp…) “old”! Where we live, they do fireworks each night of the long weekend…so when I missed out on them on Saturday and Sunday, I said to Rich “I want to go to the lake Monday night to watch them and be around humans and have some fun and feel young….and you’re not getting out of it!” “Sure” he replied.

So…after another hard day of work in the yard on Monday, I headed in the house around 3 or 4pm. Rich soon followed. We ordered in some dinner cause we were both too tired to cook, and I anxiously awaited for dusk to fall. Except of course – it was Monday – a regular day for the good old U.S. of A, and our TV shows that we’ve been watching this season both had their season finalés on! Dang it. What to do? I wanted to feel like a kid again and watch the fireworks and be amongst the living – but we put in a faithful season of “24” (and “The Bachelor” for me) and we’d been looking forward final shows.

So, we decided to stay in and forego the festivities which were carrying on down the road. But as luck would have it – we live close enough to the lake that we were actually able to see some of the fireworks going off right from our bedroom window! So it worked out pretty well in the end. And even thought I don’t remember Rub A535 being part of my Victoria Day weekends, I still enjoyed my time at home, being with Rich and making our yard look nice for the summer. So, maybe I’m not (...gasp!...) getting old after all….perhaps I’m just (…double gasp!!...) growing up! I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later.

Ode to my momma

I know this is a day late, but I didn’t have computer access over the weekend. I wanted to pay a special tribute to my mom! She’s been the most outstanding mom for all of my life. She’s lovely and beautiful and funny and nurturing and just a really spectacular woman, let alone a terrific mom. But today I wanted to write about what makes her “her”. She’s hilarious and doesn’t even know it. It’s her fun spirit and lighthearted ways that make her so lovable. So I wanted to share a few of those moments with you. When I was younger, my friends and I made her the President of her own club. Granted, it was the ‘dick’ club…(not in that way!)…but it was because she would sometimes do “dicky” things, or get herself into ‘dicky’ situations. Now that I think about it – it’s not the greatest analogy, but when I was younger, it was more funny than crude. Anyway – what better place than here, to share a few of my fondest “dick club” moments of my mom!

1. She would often call me in for lunch for a yummy grilled cheese sandwich, only for me to bite into it and come out with a mouthful of plastic, which she forgot to remove from the cheese before grilling;

2. She was riding her bike once, just up and down our street while the rest of the family was waiting to go to African Lion Safari…we were all by the car waiting to leave and wondered “where’s mom”…when we heard a little scream and looked down the road to find her lying on someone’s lawn with the handlebars of her bike in her hands…and the bike a few feet away from her. My dad told her she was “riding too hard”…you had to be there – but it was the funniest thing I think I’ve ever seen;

3. She thought she’d take a relaxing bubble bath one night. She put the bath salts in the tub…got her book…relaxed and enjoyed…but then the water started to thicken around her and turned cloudy…she didn’t know what was happening, but eventually called for my dad to help her out of the tub…turned out the bath salts was actually a box of tile grout! poor mommy….

4. I used to be in gymnastics, and she’d clean my gym slippers (kind of like ballet slippers) in a pot on the stove with some hot water and bleach (not sure why she didn’t just put them in the washing machine now that I think about it)…but my brother came home from school one lunch time and my mom told him lunch was on the stove…he just about fell over when he thought she had made him ‘slipper soup’…

5. My dad was cutting down a tree in our backyard – a big maple – he yelled to her from the yard to make sure the dogs stayed in the house so they wouldn’t get hurt by falling branches…she couldn’t quite hear him, so she opened the door and asked “what did ya say hun??” and of course…at that moment, out runs the dog…so she ran out to grab the dog and ‘lo and behold! a huge branch fell right on top of my mom’s leg!! She couldn’t walk for a month and had to have surgery. Oh mom!!

6. She used to drive me and a few friends to school sometimes in our old green pick-up truck…I got the front (of course) and Steven was always in the back cab. Once at school…I’d hop out – mom would go home…Steven would still be in the back. THIS HAPPENED A LOT! Steven would bang on the cab window….but mom had the radio too loud, or was in her own world I think. Needless to say – he started walking to school after the fifth time.

7. Mom would sometimes get us McDonalds on Friday’s for dinner. She’d go through the drive through…place her order….proceed to first window to pay….then drive home. Um…..did you forget something mom? like the FOOD!??? aiy aiy aiy…(that’s a true story!)

There are many other little moments that hold a fond place in my heart…too many to list here…but mom – those moments are the best and they are what make me laugh and smile and love you even more. So I hope you had a lovely mother’s day – I enjoyed spending the day with you yesterday and I love you very much!

Update on "Action Jackson"

So Jackson has settled in. And very quickly I might add! He must be snoozing all day because when we get home after work boy does he want to play! Usually when I get home, I like to chill for awhile…maybe go for a walk down to the waterfront…have a glass of wine…just relax before even thinking about a leisurely dinner. That’s our life right now – very leisurely. But now there’s Jackson. And Jackson doesn’t get it. And rightly so – I mean – it’s not his fault he’s alone during the day so I can hardly blame him for wanting play time when we get home. We found one solution so far. After a bunch of cuddles and belly rubs, we reach for the Laser Pen! You know those laser pointers people use for presentations, etc. Well, they’re great for cats, because we can sit on the couch with our wine and still give the cat a real good workout. He loves the red ball that floats across the carpet and up the walls and it provides a really good ‘chase’ for him.

One problem though, it’s hard to get used to him jumping onto the bed, then from the bed to the window sill, back to the bed, onto the tv, back to the bed, then up on the headboard…..then across the headboard and over to the night table…and so on and so on…it’s cute and all, BUT NOT AT 4:00 IN THE MORNING! We’re just not used to this I guess. And I don’t have the heart to shut him out of our bedroom. So – Rich and I are both pretty tired – but I’m sure in time we’ll all find our groove and Action Jackson will chill out a bit at night. If he doesn’t…I’m going to strap him to my treadmill for a few hours each night and then see how much he wants to play with momma. But we love our boy and I *think* he loves us. And if anyone has other suggestions for 'active' cat toys that can exercise them...send them our way!

A New Addition…

So guess what!? The adoption went through! We have a new son. We got him on Saturday. He’ll be three in August and he has beautiful green eyes. His name was Richard actually, so we had to change it…it was getting confusing. Anyway – his new name is “Jackson” - after the Johnny Cash / June Carter song – Rich and I often sing and play that on our guitars cause we’re losers sometimes….but anyway…

Our new boy is doing great…he was obviously frightened when we went to pick him up. He was with a family who had him since birth, but then at the beginning of March they decided to drop him off a shelter to be euthanized…it was just awful. But luckily he was rescued by someone and was then placed in a foster home. He stayed with the foster mom for 3 weeks, and then she adopted him out to another family. It was during that time that I’d inquired about him because I saw his picture on a website and just fell in love with him after reading his story. I emailed to see how the adoption was going with the new family, and to my surprise they informed me that he was going to be returned to the foster mom, through no fault of his own. I was delighted! So – as soon as he was returned, we went that same day to pick him up, and after about a 30 minute meeting with the foster mom, she really liked us and knew we’d be great parents and let us take our boy home!

So – he’s safe and happy and loves us already! He’s adapted quickly considering what he’s gone through in the last 6 weeks. We thought it would take him awhile to trust us, but he’s doing great. He already sits on the bed with us and lets me kiss his head and rub his belly...he’s a great guy! Here he is…our son Jackson!