My car has had an engine transplant!!! Ok, so I'm putting my new mechanic's kids through collage, but at least my ride works. LOL. The heat works, the radio works,...Am I dreaming? Kelly's car has also gotten a new engine, but Kelly did that one himself. I was pretty darned impressed that my computer technician hubby actually did an engine swap all by himself.

It's funny how you can be soooo stressed out about some ongoing problem for so long, and then all of a sudden, the problem is resolved, and you have no stress. Besides, of course, the credit card that has been exhausted, and the looming monthly payments on it, at least I have my independence back. That's huge!

Today is my day off, and I'm still sitting here in my pjs drinking tea. I'll do my morning crossword, work on a little craft I've been working on, watch "All my Children," and then later, "Dr. Phil." Then I'll go do some shopping and maybe make a nummy dinner. It's a relaxing day. Kelly and I went to a friend's for cocktails on the weekend, and, I'm just not 20 years old anymore. I need some recovery time now. LOL

Hey Bloggers! Long time no blog! LOL I can't believe my last post was over a month ago! Where does the time go? I'm pondering what I should blog about...There are a few options, but the one that affected me the deepest may not be suitable. Oh well, I'll throw it out there...

About three years ago, I got a part time job at the beauty supply store that I shop at. After working only five shifts, I knew I would be miserable if I continued. The manager was probably the most unhappy person I have ever encountered, and she took it out on everyone around her. The employees, the customers, even her little 6 year old son. She was rude, impatient, and disrespectful. One day, I was working the till, and I had a computer question for her. She was in the back room, and I couldn't leave a lineup of people standing there with the till unattended, so I did what I saw everyone else do countless times. I sort of yelled to the back for her to come and help me. I had been employed by them about two weeks, but I had only worked five shifts and the computer program they were using was way more complicated than it had to be. So anyway, the manager...who we'll call Michelle...cuz that's her name, came to the front and began to reprimand me for interrupting her phone call. Well, I guess I embarrassed her by asking her in front of the customers what I should do in the future in this same situation. Well she spat out that I should just figure it out, or wait till she was finished on the phone. Well, I had said, "so I should leave the customers waiting while you finish your call?"

Well that was a big mistake. Later that day, she called me into the back room and ripped me a new one until I was welling up with tears. That's when I knew that I couldn't be happy working there. She was just so mean.

The beauty is, I already had my job as a hairdresser, so I didn't need this one. So I called her on the phone the next day and when she answered I said, "I won't be coming back to work for you because I think you need psychiatric help." I know, I'm cheeky, but she was a mean person.

After this happened, I started shopping at another branch of the same store. Unfortunately, her store closed down the following year, and she was transferred to the one I had started shopping at. Not as the manager, though. Just a lowly worker like I was. So for the last two years, every time I go in there, she is cold, rude, and unprofessional. I mean, I know what I said was cheeky, but quite some time had passed, so get over it. You know what I mean? So last week I went in, smiled at her (trying to keep things friendly) and even said hello. I'm thinking surely to God she isn't still mad after three years! She does not smile back and certainly no hello. She rings my order through, and shoves the bag in my direction and turns away. Well I'm just sick of this. I've been shopping there for 12 years. So this is the dialog:

Me: Well thank you for that great customer service and warmth. And then I walk away toward the exit. Then I hear her say

Michelle: Oh, you're just the same F**king b**ch you've always been!

Me in complete shock: I beg your pardon?

Michelle: I don't have to listen to this (and turns away)

Me: I AM a customer here, you know!

Michelle: I don't give a s**t WHO you are!

Note: there are other customers and employees in the store, and she's yelling across the store to me! I was so floored and caught off guard, I started to shake and sweat!

Me: It's been...(this is where she interrupts me to say...)

Michelle: Take that (gives me the finger) b**ch!

By this time, I'm so upset, I can't even think straight. I just wanted to blurt out the first thing that I could come up with. I wish it was more cleaver...I wish it had some wit...I wish it was more intelligent...I wish it was something that I could be proud of, but my emotions took me over and what flew out of my mouth was...

Me: TAKE THAT! (fingered her) YOU F**CKING WHORE!!!

and I stormed out of the store! I was so angry at her for saying the things she did, for interrupting me when I wanted to use intelligent argument, for inspiring such a crass response on my part, but I was possessed by my urge to hurt her.

On the drive home, my emotions were so mixed. A big part of me was so upset, I was still shaking and felt like bursting into tears! A small part of me wanted to laugh at how unbelievable what I had just experienced was. I did phone the manager the next day and told her after 12 years of shopping there, I would never set foot in that place again as long as she was there. She was shocked at what had happened (she was not there at the time) and told me Michelle was leaving that coming Wednesday. It's no wonder she felt so comfy blowing her top on me like that.

Anyway, that is what happened, and although I know I played a part in the situation, I don't care WHAT a customer says...there's no excuse for that kind of conduct. As far as I'm concerned it would be grounds for immediate dismissal. Never mind waiting til her last day. To be honest, I'm just glad I never have to see her face again. Frankly, I'm not a violent person, but that day, I wanted to punch her teeth down her throat.

Oh, and to top it off my car overheated on the way home...sigh.

The whiteboard

My family is definitely on the "artistic" side. One example of this is the rather fair sized white board we have hanging in our kitchen for important information. Well what could be more important than expressing one's creativity?



This is our white board. As you can see, we started with the best intentions of having Ali's work schedule at the top...then it all went downhill.


The duck was just a doodle by Alicia. I just like the expression on his face.





Then, for some reason, she drew this paranoid booberry...looks a little stressed.

Then she really got creative and made the "loo berry," followed by my personal favorite...the "moo berry."


















Of course, then Kelly had to throw his two cents in with the "shoo berry" and so Alicia went with the "Atchoo berry!" Then she went "screw berry," which could have been way
worse. .. such as Her "poo berry, " and Kelly's "Jew berry!" How un P.C!














Well, you knew I was going to add my own little something, so I went with the "spew berry." How many things rhyme with "blue" anyway?!? This last one, Alicia was grasping at straws with the "glue berry."
They can't all be masterpieces, I guess. LOL.


Sigh....There's no room left...we're gonna have to wipe it down and start again with something new and equally inane. Take care blogging buds!

So my car met it's new mechanic the other day. We had it towed to this guy who came highly recommended by a client of mine. It was the weirdest thing...we took it in, we waited until the next day, we gave him some money, and we drove away in my running, heated car. It was so smooth. sigh.

Well, there was one day that I had to travel by bus to the beauty supply store. I had no choice. Kelly was going to take me, but his car crapped out on the side of the road the night before. Can you believe our luck? Anyway, don't even get me started on that.

I was chatting with a client about my bus experience (two buses there, and two buses back, but whose counting?) and she told me a funny bus story about her friend.

This girl gets on the bus one day, and takes an empty seat to rest her bones. She glances around the bus half noticing that there are some people standing, even though there were a few empty seats. "mmmmmm, I smell parmigiana cheese," she thinks to herself as she ponders dinner possibilities. "I think I'll have pasta tonight."
Coming out of her thoughts, the girl looks down at her feet to discover she's had them sitting in barf for the entire bus ride.

LOL! Isn't that hilarious? I was laughing out loud while typing it. Poor thing will never be able to have parmigiana again without associating it with some strangers barf.

I got squashed playing squash!

OUCH! I should have gotten a picture before it started to heal when it was all swollen and purple. It was my own fault for standing too close to my opponent as she tried to return one of my shots in squash. I'm glad I got a shiner, though...I figure if I'm gonna get whacked in the head with a squash raquette, I bloody well want some evidence that I was injured. How else will everyone know to give me sympathy!?! LOL

Anyhoo, ya know how I was all pissed about my car having no heat since I had it in the shop? Well I took Alicia out for a driving lesson yesterday. Half way through, I was going to get her to venture into another neighborhood, and asked her if she had her drivers license with her. OOPS! She forgot about that, so we went home to get it before we could continue. We parked the car, ran in for her license, and by the time we got back outside, it wouldn't start! AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH! I think my head spun around three times!

So I was in a foul mood yesterday...foul.

On a lighter note, I had to share this story a client told me recently. I thought it was funny.
So one night, my client, "C" was in bed, waiting for her teen aged daughter to return home from wherever she was. It was getting late, and she was drifting in and out of sleep. When she awoke in the middle of the night and her daughter still wasn't home, she called her on her cel phone. She heard a groggy voice answer and she started freaking out on the girl. "Where are you!" she demanded. The girl's voice replied sleepily, "I'm in bed. Who is this?"
"It's your mother! Who do you think? And don't give me that! I know you are not in your room, I was just up there! Now tell me right now where you are!"
"I'm in bed!" she said, getting defensive, but still with a sleepy, bewildered tone. The girl was clearly confused. So my client demanded she get her ass home and hung up.

To be honest, I don't remember the part of the story that revealed where the daughter was....I was too busy laughing at the fact that "C" had dialed the wrong number, and thought she was talking to her daughter, when she was, in fact, yelling at some unsuspecting girl who she woke up in the middle of the night! I have the most vivid imagination, I can picture the girl being woken up out of a deep sleep, by some psycho mama on a mission! "C" was so embarrassed when she realized what she'd done! LOL

I love the part of my job that allows me to hear stories like this. There's never a dull moment when you are chatting with so many different people throughout the day.

Hey folks. It is a bright and sunny day here in beautiful BC, though it's pretty darn chilly. I've been in a fairly foul mood lately, which is probably why I can't decide on a color or style for my hair. I just hacked off about 7 inches and highlighted it. Change always cheers me up.

My car has been in the shop for two weeks now, and my mechanic doesn't listen to a word I say. I'm seriously irritated and feeling trapped at home. Kelly just called me saying he talked to the mechanic and told him we are going to pick up the car tonight regardless of whether or not it's done. I brought the thing in before Christmas because it was leaking coolant. A week and a half later he finally finished fixing it, and when I got it back, it had no heat! So I waited until after New years and brought it back, explaining to him that there was no heat since he had it. Well, a week and a half later he's saying he doesn't know what's wrong with it, so maybe I should buy one of those plug into the lighter kind of heaters. Well, talking to his son later, I found out that he thought I had NEVER had heat and was unaware that I did have heat before he got his hands on it. HELLO! I told him that 5 times! So then he wanted to take another look at it, which took a few more days. Ugh! So now we're just gonna go get it and take it somewhere else. What a pain in the ass.

Meantime, I've thrown out my neck, been on antibiotics for a painful bladder infection, AND had a very sore throat with swollen glands! I need a vacation. Anyway, enough of my whining. I just needed to purge myself of these negative feelings. Now, I must go and enjoy the rest of my day off. It's almost 12, so I'm gonna watch my soap opera (All My Children) I've watched it since I was a fetus (or listened to it.) It's not really that good, just comfortable and familiar. Maybe I'll fix a snack, too...

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.