Merry Christmas Bloggers!

Hello Bloggers! I was just reading my comments and I feel so bad for neglecting my blog! Now that all the chaos has passed, i will have more time to post and to read your posts. I won't lie...I haven't even looked at blogs for a month now. (oh yeah...and I'm brunette now;))


As I'm sure you all were, we've been busy preparing for the big day. Making the gingerbread house...



decorating the Christmas tree...



And preparing for company! My brother and his wife came on the 22nd with my gorgeous little niece, Sophia. Isn't she the cutest thing you ever did see? She has been the object of my affections since she came into the world 3 months ago. Adorable!!!






So Christmas morning my family came over and ate my sister Sheryl's yummy breakfast that she makes every year. Then we did prezzies followed by an afternoon of appetizers and goodies. Then in the afternoon, Kelly's family came over and we had dinner for 18 people. Kelly made some extra large table tops to affix atop our table in conjunction with my sis Sheryl's dining room table. The result was a 16 foot long 4 foot wide table!
Above is my brother Dennis, Kelly's parents and his uncle.


LOL Here's Kelly after opening a sweater I got him. So cute.

Here's Alicia with a couple of her prezzies and Sheryl in the background enjoying a champagne and OJ. mmmmmmmm.


Above is Kelly's Aunt and Uncle recovering from a hefty meal and below is my mom and dad sharing a squeeze.



Here's Sheryl and Kelly's Grandma Leona.

Then My brother Mike, his wife Glenda, and of course our little angel Sophia!


















Last but not least, Kelly's cuz Ryan, Alicia, Kelly's nephew Christian, and his other cuz Adrea goofing off for the camera. Work it!





Unfortunately it was Anastasia's year to be with her mom, but she's coming tonight to spend the weekend and New years with us. she'll open countless gifts and then on new years eve we'll have a little birthday party for her. She turns 10 on Jan 2nd. More family over...more food to be eaten...more chaos...more fun!

I hope your Christmas was as joyful as mine, and to all of you a huge New years hug! Take care all!

Moulin Rouge

So I went to this party last weekend that had a Moulin Rouge theme. I know Penny was commenting that I should get off of face book and get blogging, but now that she can see my face book profile, she's gonna know everything I'm writing about before I write it! LOL Anyway, everyone was all fish nets and corsets and it was really cute.



Rrrooowwwr! lol Saucy!

That was the weekend before Halloween. So on Halloween, we just stayed home and handed out candy to the dozen or two disinterested kids who came to the door. It's a fading tradition.

Alicia went and hung out with friends dressed as a doll.
Very cute!

Other than that, I've been insanely busy organizing the new place and painting my butt off. My Uncle John (Mom's brother) was in town, so he and my mom spent the night last night, making it easier to get to the airport on time this morning. So Kelly and I wanted to get the main areas of the place painted before the family came over. Phew! What a job!

I am finding it harder and harder to find the time to post these days, and to read my favorite blogs. I'm not giving it up, though! I'm just going to have to accept the fact that I can't post as often as I want to and just do it when I can. On that note, I'm going to read a few of my faves right now. Take care, all!

OK, so I was just looking back at some of the posts that I've missed while I was moving or sick, and I came across my Uncle Curtis' post about the "Nice Matters Award." What a nice idea that had been passed onto him from another blogger. I also noticed that Herman had a similar post in which I was mentioned. So I guess the five people who they chose to give this prestigious award to are now meant to pick five people that they would like to pass it on to. So here it goes in no particular order:



First I would like to give the award right back to Curtis. Honestly, he is a big teddy bear. He stood by my Aunt through illness and stayed by her side until she passed away. He loved her enough to follow her wishes, and now is left to pick up the pieces of his life without her. He always has encouraging words for people who need to hear them and has so much compassion for them. Also, he has a kick ass sense of humor.

Second, I will bestow this honorable award to Herman, who is a very sweet man. He has taken the time to send me extensive instructions when I have had trouble with my blog. He is encouraging and compassionate and I think has a huge heart. Herman is always eager to befriend fellow bloggers and help them in any way he can, and has been a true friend to me, and my Aunt Ellen and Uncle Curtis.

The third award I would like to pass on, is to my late Aunt Ellen. You all know how I feel about her from my previous posts. She was a wonderful woman whom I loved very much. I know she's looking down on Curtis and all of the wonderful people who cared for her, and if she's got any pull at all up there, she's putting in a good word.

The fourth award goes to Penny, who is just a sweet heart. She is always happy for people when they do well or have good fortune and is caring when they don't. She has a great sense of humor, and has a way of making a person feel missed when they aren't around as much, without putting pressure on. Even when times are tough for her, she still has room in her heart for others.

Last, but far from least, is Susan. Susan has a great family who enjoy each other's company. She has been there to help her sister back up after she spiraled down a dangerous path in her life. She is a continuous source of support to her niece, Kayla, who has been battling cancer for some time now. Susan really seems to love the beauty in life, anywhere from taking the perfect shot of a mountain side, to enjoying a boisterous meal with a house full of relatives.

I could go on and on about these five and many more wonderful people I've had the privilege to cross paths with. But rules are rules and I always follow the rules...snicker snicker. Now these five , with the exception of those who have already done it, can pass it along to five more super nice people.

Baby Sophia

This is my little niece, Sophia. I know, I know...she's adorable! She's saying, " I can't wait to see my Auntie Sharon on Wednesday."

Here's my brother, proud as punch of this little peanut, and my SIL lookin hot-hot-hot after having a baby!

Just wanted to include a few pics of this gorgeous little girl and her happy parents. Can't wait to see them!

busybusybusy

Hey blogging peeps.
Man, it's hard to keep up with everything sometimes. I haven't forgotten you guys, though.
After the move, I got knocked on my butt by a flu bug. So here I am, in total nesting mode, and I can't do a thing without completely exhausting myself or sending myself into a coughing frenzy. Thank God for Otravin (nasal spray) cuz if I had to mouth breathe my way through the week I would be ready to go on a shooting spree right now. My problem is that I have to nest after moving or I don't feel like it's home. So I'm the type that wants to surprise Kelly and Alicia by hauling the sectional outside, up the back stairs and into a cozy spot in the living room before they get home. I'm sure that helped the impending flu. Anyway, I'm feeling much better now, despite the 15 minutes of hacking I do first thing in the morning. And it's a good thing, too, because this Wednesday, I'm going to Whitehorse (The Yukon Territory) to visit my brother, his wife, and their brand new baby, Sophia.
I'm a thirty five year old youngest of four children with a seventeen year old daughter, and I'm the only one from our family who has produced offspring. I've waited a long time to be an Auntie and I am over the moon to have a little baby in the family. It means we get Santa back, and the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy and all of the other wonderful things that come with a little one. When we found out the gender of the baby a couple of months ago, the nurse said she would give about a 90% chance of it being a girl. So I ran out and O.D.ed on pink dresses and frilly overalls, and little denim dresses with leggings...it goes on. Obviously in the back of my mind I considered the 10% chance that it was a boy, but I thought I'd roll the dice on that. I kept saying, though, "This is either gonna be one well dressed little girl, or one screwed up little boy!"
Anyway, I'll be going away on the 17th for 5 days. I'm really looking forward to it, but at the same time, I'm gonna miss Kelly and Alicia somethin' fierce! We've already got a calling card so we can chat every day. LOL. Alicia was saying the other day how she and her boyfriend were out of that "honeymoon phase" now that they've been together almost two years. Here Kelly and are are, still all googley eyed and dreading being apart for a few days. LOL
Anyway, there's no shortage of things to do around here, so I better get to it.

THE MOVE

I know I haven't written for a while, but we've been moving all week. The problem was, I had painted my entire place that I was moving out of, and had to repaint before I left. Wow. I've never in my life been so pooped. cleaning, painting, hauling furniture...thank God we are officially out of there as of yesterday. we went to do the walk through yesterday and the manager was all, 'the oven is not clean enough.' well I scrubbed and scrubbed and I could not get another thing off! so he gives me this oven cleaner and Kelly and I go back to work scrubbing the damned oven. Well, in my enthusiasm for getting it done and getting the hell out of there once and for all, I let a couple of drops of this oven cleaner splash up onto my arm. two minutes later when I went to wipe it off, my skin comes off with it! Can't believe how strong this stuff is, but I guess it stands to reason since it took the grease out of the oven fairly easily, when I couldn't chisel the stuff out without it. bit of a duuuh on my part, but the oven...you could eat out of! So now that I'm back on line and completely moved, I can resume real life activities such as posting on my blog and reading the delightful posts of my blogging buddies. got some catching up to do!

Our camping trip

Kay, so you know how we went camping for labor day weekend, right? Well our biggest mistake was trying to drive to Harrison Hot Springs, which is normally about two hours away, on the Friday, when everyone else in the free world is going camping. We left here at about 2:30 to make our way into Langley, where my sister works. I had to stop at her work on the way out to grab a part for her bbq that I was borrowing. So it took us about an hour and 25 minutes to get there, when it would normally take about 45 minutes that time of day. Brutal. After that we made our way into Chillowack to do our grocery shopping and then pick up Anastasia. That took forever as well. The traffic was a nightmare and we were starting to worry about getting there after dark. Well after our shopping, stopping at walmart for an extra tarp, and picking up the rug-rat, we arrived at the campsite at around 8:30 at night! We had to shine our headlights on our site so we could put up the kids tent, fill the air bed, make their beds, put up our little dome tent, fill it with our junk, and then make a bed for Kelly and me in the back of the van. Phew! What an ordeal! Needless to say, it was happy hour after that.

Apparently, the night before we arrived, my buddies that we were meeting up there got reprimanded a couple of times for their loud partying. So the park security was hovering around a little. This one guy who worked security, Jim, actually stopped by after his shift for a beer. He warned us of the bears and how to react if one wanders into the campsite. He advised us about different breads of bear and their dispositions. he talked about food storage and how to protect our coolers and seemed really knowledgeable. Then he went on to say that there were big foots living in the park...hmmm.... so I say, "wow, Jim, you know a lot about this stuff...how long have you worked here?" And he says...wait for it..."A month and a half" LOL I almost fell out of my chair! It was so funny that this guy only just started working there. we were all expecting him to say 30 years or something. what a hoot. I just had to get a picture with Jim...

LOL anyhoo, we went to the beach the next day and played in the sand. Alicia drew in her sketch book and made a sand sculpture truck.

Kelly blew up a floaty for Anastasia to play with (you have to click on this picture to see the look on his face. too cute.) and, I gotta tell you, that little girl can take the cold water. It was pretty darn chilly but you wouldn't know it by how she jumped in.

OUCH! I stubbed my food and now it's all swollen!

Arrrrrggghhh I'm a monster with a claw foot!!!

Okay, so we got a little silly playing in the sand. LOL

And of course we played guitar in the evening and sang by the camp fire. Alicia is getting so good on that guitar and sings so nicely, it brings me to tears every time.

That's my girl.

So the following day we cleaned up our site, played a little badminton, dropped Anastasia off at home and made our way back to our little townhouse in Richmond. It only took a couple of hours to get home cuz we left on the Sunday rather than the Monday when all the other suckers were stuck in traffic. It was fun...but now I'm in moving mode.

I hope you all had a great long weekend! I gotta go do some packing now!

Hey Y'all!

Hey blogging buds! sorry I've been so stinkin' busy these days I haven't had time to post. Moving is still in the works, car problems, taking up my time...I will get my poop together though, and resume blogging. right now I'm in the middle of a set of highlights, so I cant write much. I'll be back soon.

Good Bye my Beautiful Aunt

Well, the time came this morning, for my beautiful Aunt Ellen to leave this world. My dad's baby sister has gone to heaven. There is such a sadness in my heart today. My only consolation is that she is finally free of the fear and the pain and the sickness. My grief is partly selfish that I got to know her so late in the game and didn't have the benefit of her presence in my life until I was all grown up. And then for such a short time. My grief is greatly for my dad, who loves her so much and will cry for his baby sis. It's greatly for Curtis, who loved her better than anyone ever could and will cry for his sweetie pie. It's for Ellen who lost her life so young and will not grow old with the love of her life. It's for the whole world, who whether they know it or not, has lost a precious treasure. One that gave love and compassion for everyone, and saw beauty in every day things. One that had magic in her words and got pleasure out of giving to others. She will always be in my heart, for evermore, and every good thing I ever do again will be in her name.

Summer Fun

Here are my two little sweeties at the skating rink.

I decided it would be nice to take the girls and have a little fun. I was pretty impressed at their abilities. I had Alicia skating since she was 2, but it's been a while and she still does pretty darn well. Anastasia has been a few times, but was really brave about letting go of the scooter (basically a walker on ice) and going it alone.

We managed to get out of there with very few injuries, which is a good thing, because the next day we went to Play land!!! This first one is on the scrambler. We tried to ham it up a titch whenever we spun close to Kelly, who was ready and waiting for the photo ops!

Here are our girls during the mini golf portion of our day. Fore!!!

Things started getting a little competitive at the golf course. Everybody wants to be Tiger Woods!Okay, you two...simmer down! LOL

Typical Dad ends up carrying everything. LOL I have the cutest little family!

Hey, how did I get roped into this!!!????!!!???

This one cracks me right up! This was on the big wooden coaster that has been at Playland for a few decades. I love it, obviously...

This one is on the last ride of the day...the log ride...should have been called the "sog ride" cuz you get soggy on it. It is basically a roller coaster in water...great for a hot day. Is it just me or is this picture hilarious!


We had so much fun we ended up staying for 7.5 hours! We played games and won stuffies, we ate warm mini donuts and burgers, we went on every ride we wanted to (for Kelly that was one ride and then he got queezy...snicker snicker)we played mini golf, and just had a really fun time.

this is one of my favorite pictures from our day at Playland. It was taken by a stranger that was behind us in the mini golf. He was all long black hair and piercings in his face, but the boy takes a great picture! I think I'll have this one framed. To me, it's the perfect picture from the perfect day.

I wrote this post when I first started my blog. My beautiful Aunt is so sick now, that she can't write in her blog anymore. She can't get out of bed without help. I know she's leaving us and sometimes I feel very logical about it, as though I've mentally prepared. But after reading Curtis' last two posts, I realize that there is no way to prepare. I sit here broken hearted, tears falling and just feel sick. I reread all about the crane project and cried my eyes out. So many people love this wonderful woman. She's an angel on Earth.

This is my beautiful Aunt Ellen, who has inspired me to start blogging. My first recollection of her was at her first wedding when I was about 7 years old. After that, I didn't see her again until last summer when she came to visit us in BC.
My Aunt Ellen has an energy about her that just makes me want to stop and smell the roses. I read her blogs daily to keep up with her thoughts and feelings, and she just makes me wish I could be near her. It's funny how you can see some relatives and wonder where the heck the genetic connection is. With her, I instantly felt a kinship. I felt like I was talking to a long lost sister rather than an aunt. This picture was taken the day she left BC. I had said my goodbyes the night before, but ran back over to my parents' house the next morning to catch her before she and her wonderful husband Curtis left. The reason, to get this picture.
As I mentioned in my last entry, my sis, my daughter and I made a calendar for my dad last year for Fathers Day. The calendar featured my dog Frisky in various costumes representing a significant event or holiday for each month. I figured, what could be more significant for that month than her visit with us?
My Aunt has been suffering with some pretty heavy medical issues in the last couple of years. Cancer is so cruel. It can take away so much, and yet she always seems to have time, energy, and concern for others. Just reading her blogs shows me that. Seeing the concern and love that pours onto her from former students, fellow bloggers, and friends is a direct indication of how many lives she has touched and continues to touch each day. She's a truly lovely person with an obvious passion (and skill) for writing stories of her childhood, and of daily events that can make you smile to yourself, or well up with tears.
We were all lucky enough to meet and get to know her husband Curtis as well. I rarely see a couple so much in love. It shows in the way they look at each other, talk to each other, and take care of each other. Truly inspiring to those of us who haven't found Mr. or Mrs. right just yet.
I was reading Curtis' blog the other day and my heart swelled so much I thought it would burst. He was talking about how happy it made him to see my Aunt happy, and I just thought it was the sweetest, most genuine sentiment. So heartfelt I sat there grinning from ear to ear while at the same time tears stung my eyes. Of course, I can't even get through an episode of Little house on the prairie without bawling, but still!
Anyway, I've only laid eyes on Curtis and Aunt Ellen a handful of times, but I love them both. Somehow, they move me, sap that I am.

The Vancouver Zoo

Warning! Dangerous animal! Do not tease or touch!





Well yesterday was pretty overcast, so there was no beach for me! I took most of the week off to hang out with Anastasia while Kelly was at work. She's with us for about ten days, so we thought we'd do some fun, adventurous things. Yesterday we went to the Vancouver Zoo. It's about an hour and fifteen minutes from my house, but it's well worth it. The place is huge and is constantly being improved. A couple of years ago I was there with a friend and, as we walked by the hippo enclosure, we marveled at the bravery of two zoo workers who were getting dangerously close to a hippo that was soaking in a pool of water. The next day in the news, it was reported that one of the hippos had died. That explained the bravery. Anyway, after an investigation, it came out that the conditions that the hippos were living in bordered on abusive and were most certainly neglectful.

Well, after all the finger pointing and threats to the zoo, there has been massive improvements that are ongoing and the hippo's enclosure is now a haven for these guys.

Here's the little lioness sunning herself with the girls.



It's hard to see in this pic, but I think these were the baboons. I just liked the pic cuz it's a nice one of this rare "blue haired booger nugget."

So for today's' adventure Alicia, Anastasia, and I will be off to the arena to go ice skating. Stay tuned for the riveting photographic evidence of our day! LOL