Keeping in Touch

(Cathy) G'Day everyone! (memories of Bob and Doug McKenzie). I hope everyone is having a good week! It was great to pop in and see the Ladies last weekend. Miss Teen Sunshine had a birthday last weekend and Hubby and I interrupted the festivities when we popped in. It was really good to see all of her family. It made me remember the times when we all lived on the same street and would see each other and each other's family often. (Carolin) you forgot the 'EH', its G'Day Eh! (oops!) (Sunshine)  It was great seeing you and your hubbie Cathy.

How is the gardening coming along. I have been slow, but steady. I get Hubby and the boys to do my grunt work! It's fun directing them and hearing them groan and say, "why can't you move this or that yourself.......pause..... oh, yeah, you can't." Now it's the gardening tasks are just weeding and watering. I have three rain barrels that I use to water all of my plants in and out and because of the lack of rain they are all almost empty! This rarely happens. I am even thinking about purchasing another rain barrel and connecting it to one I already have. I think we are going to have a dry summer.   Wow, three rain barrels, I have one and don't think I have ever emptied it.  If your boys need more work send them over.  My front is done (just got to stay on top of the weeds) but the back is a mess!  My garden is a big disaster, both front and back.  There is no time and the little time that there is, there is no energy.


Have you heard about all of the forest fires up north? They are really bad and out of control. I have not heard how they were started. I hope it was Mother Nature and I also hope no one gets hurt bringing them under control.  Miss Teen Sunshine was informing about them the other day, apparentelly they are a direct result of not enough rain.


Well, this week the Older One sent in his acceptance for University. We have paid the deposit for residence and sent in the application for funding. (funding ?)He won't be too far away, however, it will be strange and new for all of us. But, that's a few months away yet so I still have time to live in denial that he's leaving the nest. (although, I'm sure he will be home on weekends for food and clean clothes!!!)  I think that I would be having a really hard time with the whole residence thing. 

Three weeks left of school!!! I am looking forward to the break.  We reached a milestone in our house this week.  The little one went away with her grade for three days and two nights without me!  This is a big deal as she has never done this and gets very upset when we suggest camp (without me).  Even sleepovers are a bit of a issue and it depends on who's house before she will go.  When she left Wednesday morning she was anxious but did say, "I want to go mom, I just want you to go with me".  Of course I could not go but I got No phone calls while she was away.  Her teacher did come speak to me when they came back.  Seems she had a melt down on the Thursday.  Crying, wanting her Mom, and she hit (!!!) another girl.  I was told it was all dealt with and things are fine but I don't know if I should get involved. (let it go, I'm sure it was an isolated  incident and will not happen again)  I know how difficult it is to have a child that won't do much of anything without you.  You must be so proud of her for managing to do those nights on her own. 

Well the husband is away this weekend and it is his birthday this coming Tuesday.  The girls and I are off to the mall to figure out what to get him as a gift. Happy Birhtday to the husband.


That's it for me!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Have a great week everyone!

Book Review:  A Mile in My Flip Flops by Melody Carlson.
http://melodycarlson.com/index.shtml

I don't know how this book ended up in my stack of to read.  I had finished the Hunger Games Trilogy and need something to read.  I wanted something light and the premise seemed fun.  A thirtyish women decided to buy a fixer upper and then flip it. 

I have never read Melody Carlson and didn't know she was a 'chiristan' writer.  I don't mine most christian books usually.  I would of enjoyed this book much more if the product placement wasn't so over the top.  I am not a big brand person, I wouldn't know a Jimmy Cho to a Payless shoe.  I do like quality but prefer quite quality over screaming brand name.  Anyway back to the book

Does the publishing industry get paid for product placement like the movie and TV industry?  This books name dropping was so over the top that I found it almost laughable.  It came to the point were I was counting how many brand names would be mentioned on a single page.  The most I counted was 8!
Sentence's like I needed to get more supplies but had maxed out my 'Lowes' credit card so I had to go to 'Homedepot'.  Good think I was wearing my 'Target' sandals and not the 'L L Bean' ones as I dropped paint on myself.   These are examples not actual sentence from the book

Would I recommend this book to others, if you want something easy and don't mind the product placement then sure.  Would I seek out a Melody Carson book to read in the future probably not. 

I am interested 'Benchers' is this style of writing (name dropping, product naming) normal in books now?  Should I expect more of this? 

I am 1/3 the way through David Cassidy's bio now. 

Carolin

Keeping in Touch

(Cathy) Yoo Hoo!!! Hey Ladies.... where are you?? This post is titled, "Keeping in Touch". I haven't heard from you Ladies all week. I hope all is well. 
Before I forget, I have a beefsteak tomato plant and a cherry tomato plant for each of you. If I can get a drive and if you are home I will try to deliver them to you both this weekend. Let me know.  I wish I knew sooner as I just bought a bunch tomato plants.  But you know me Cathy I can always take a few more.  The Husband cleaned the vegetable garden today so I hope to get some stuff planted tomorrow.  I still need to go buy a few more seed packs like peas, beans and carrots. The husband and I planted flowers at the front of the house today and also spread mulch in the front gardens.  (Sunshine)  Thanks so much for thinking of us and for dropping off the plants.  This will be the first year that I actually grow some kind of vegetable.  If it goes well, you may convert me for the future.

Arm update: no change and it sucks, (excuse my language). Today in physio my therapist did some doodad number on my neck and when I sat up I thought I was going to pass out! I had to rest still for almost twenty minutes until I felt almost normal. What does this mean? I do not even want to know. The medical community has deemed me an "interesting case". I do not wish to be an "interesting case". Feel better soon Cathy. 


Happy Victoria Day weekend everyone! What plans do you have? Tomorrow I am going shopping with my mom, sister and niece. My niece is in grade seven, however, the grade eight class at her school is small so the grade seven's have been invited to the grade eight grad to make up numbers. So, we are off to buy the "party dress". I hope we can find something that says "party" without being either too young or too old. (Carolin) Check out Sears, I have had good luck with dress' for the the TWINAT when she was younger.  The dress' are pretty, modest and under $100.00.  Have fun shopping  We celebrated Miss Teen Sunshine's Birthday on Victoria Day and I worked the rest of the weekend.

Yeah for a long weekend, only a month left of school!!!!!  I have gotten so much accomplished today but still have a list a mile long on what I still want to get done this weekend.  A few months ago I picked out of peoples garbage (yes that's me, a garbage picker) two bedroom end tables.  They don't match as they are from different homes.  I am planning to get one of them sanded down this weekend and hopefully ready to stain.  The second one needs to be sanded but will be painted.  The little one have been looking at different painting techniques that we are considering.  I will try to remember to take before and after pictures.  Of course only if I am happy with the results. Sounds like a good project. I have a plant pot that needs repainting, I had hoped to get it done this season. Hubby has been really busy with his "honey-do" list, so I have let the pot go for another year. Or I just might get a can of rust paint and spray it on. Only one hand is needed for that, right?  I love finding items in the garbage that I can breath new life into but Mr Sunshine gets very embarrassed when I drag things out of the neighbours garbage and bring them home.  Good luck with your project, if the results are good it will be very satisfying.


Ladies have you read the Hunger Games trilogy?  I finished the third book this past week.  That's probably why I have so much house work to do, as I have been ignoring everything and everyone for the past three weeks while I was  consumed by Katniss, Peeta and Gale. The Younger One has all three books and has raved about the movie. He wants me to read them, but the idea of reading about kids killing kids does not really interest me. I have been looking forward to reading them as Miss Teen Sunshine has raved about them for so long but my niece has borrowed the first book and I am waiting for it to be returned.  Caroline, did you like the book series? Yes I liked the series.  If KD hadn't raved about them I probalby wouldnt of bothered.  The first book took a couple of chapters to get into but then it was good.  I liked the second book the best, TWINAT liked the first book the best. 


Have a good week everyone! Play safe!

Keeping in Touch

(Cathy) Hi all. So what was different about this week? Well, with all of the rain and warmth the trees which I thought had taken a few steps backward came to life! It's amazing how much life can grow in a week! It feels good to be outside and smell spring and see so much in bloom! I hope that this week has you Ladies feeling ok.  Think about it, there is just one more month left of school! It was just Christmas yesterday!! The Older One is starting to believe that he "really is" going to University this coming September. Hubby and I are really starting to believe it, too! Does anyone have any answers as to why University has become so expensive? The Older One was accepted into the Engineering Coop degree program. We think this is really a good idea. This allows the student to work summers or fall/winter by adding a year to their program in their field. So many students graduate from University and are unable to get a job due to lack of experience. I hope this coop will allow the Older One to make connections and hopefully have a viable option for a job upon successful graduation. (I think I am getting ahead of the game here, lol). 




So what else is new with everyone?


Have a good week!

Keeping in Touch

(Cathy) Happy Friday everyone! I hope it was a good week. For me, it was a long week. I pushed myself too hard so paid the price. As the saying goes: one step forward, two steps back. 


Weather wise, it's nice to see warmth again. We filled the pool and have turned on the solar to start heating up the water. Let's hope for a good summer! In the garden my forget-me-nots are all in bloom. They look great now. Soon, they will go to seed then I will pull them out to make room for my perennials. I have no major plans  for my garden this year which is a good thing as I am the "one armed garden bandit". This will be a year of maintenance. I only planted lettuce and tomatoes and parsley from seed this winter. I am keeping it all manageable. (Carolin) Even with one arm you are way ahead of me.  I try not to even go in the yard and look at the massive out of control gardens.


I had a nice visit from Sunshine this morning. Thanks for breakfast, Sunshine! Carolin was at work and we contemplated dropping in on her but figured out she would be too busy. We miss her and hope to be able to get together really soon!


I received a letter from the MRI department from the hospital. My appointment in this coming July 15th. I hope to be better by then and not need it. I did call, per procedure, and placed myself on the "short notice" list. I'll keep you updated. Do any of you watch the television show, "House"? Hubby does and I watch and read at the same time. Whenever a patient has to get a MRI on that show, something drastic happens to them while they are in the magnet! If I have to go, I think I will just keep my eyes closed and pretend to sleep. 
(Sunshine)  Cathy, it was great seeing you.  Its amazing how months can pass by and we can just effortlessly pick up where we left off.  I want you to feel better as fast as possible so that you can get back to doing all of the things you love. 

Carolin we missed you and hope to see you soon. 
Nothing much is that new around here.  The girls are busy with school and Miss Teen Sunshine is also busy with work.  Mr Sunshine busy as usual and myself also busy with home, the girls and school.

This weekend we are seeing family on both days and I am looking forward to it as we seem to have less time for this because of everyone's crazy schedules and time restraints.    Family is a funny thing, I am glad you are looking forward to seeing yours.  The little one and I were at a baby shower this afternoon.  I have such a hard time with the snide comments from some.  I don't like going to family functions because of this.  I also probably don't help because I wont keep my mouth shut anymore and will respond back.  The TWIATA (The teenager who isn't a teenager anymore) wont go to many family functions anymore because of this,  you feel like you have to be on your guard all the time.

I just had a interesting conversation with TWIATA.  She was telling me she meet up with a friend from high school that she hasn't seen since graduation.  He was updating her on the group of friends she had in high school.  One has dropped out of university, one is in rehab, one is in university but is also heavy into drugs and is $20,000 in debt), one finally came out of the closet (wasn't a surprise), one is working full time, and two are doing nothing (no school, no working NOTHING).  Then she said she meet up (same night) with the 'Dancer' (teen sunshine will know what that means as they went to the same Arts school).  In high school they wouldn't give TWIATA the time of day.  She said last night they acted like they were long lost friends,  Again out of the four that were there, two work part time, one is in school and the other works full time.  We talked about how much things change and that high school is such a small part.  Having long term goals, staying focused on the goal, and living within your means by working, saving, and going to school were you can afford it is worth it. 


Have a good week, everyone!