Catchup Fridays

(Sunshine) Today is Good Friday. We are meeting later for fish and chips. Today's venue will be at a Golf Course and there is a modest crowd of 27 of us. Unfortunately, Louise and her kids will not be able to join us this year.

For a short week, it seemed really long to me. Work was busy and life at home is busy as well. This weekend we will be at my brother in law's for Easter on Saturday and at my sister's on Sunday. I am off the hook and loving every minute of it. (Cathy) Good for you! You deserve to just go and enjoy for a change. Although, you did clean the house for all your visitors on Good Friday. Which, by the way was a great time! The food was great and the location was beautiful! Thanks again to Mr. Sunshine for making all of the arrangements. The fish was very good Mr. Sunshine.

My sister in law and her Hubby arrived from Paris just in time to join us all for Good Friday dinner. They had a great time and enjoyed meeting everyone. Maybe, they will drive out from B.C. to join us again next year! (Carolin) I think it is so cool that you can be eating breakfast in Gay Paris (as happy and cheerful) and then traditional Good Friday fare in a small town outside of Toronto. Our younger one was at his girlfriend's for dinner. Saturday he will have some friends over for homemade pizza and pop. We will have Easter dinner at my parent's home on Sunday.

Sounds like you two got out of cleaning and cooking this weekend, lucky you. I, on the other hand will have 17 for dinner on Sunday. I am cleaning and cooking. What are you cooking? Ham, roast chicken and scalloped potatoes. Oh yeah and two lemon meringue pies. The guests are bringing the rest.

I enjoy my conversations with Teen Sunshine yesterday and wish I tape recorded it. I love all the dreams and enthusiasm she has for what she would like to do in the future. I wish I could bottle that up and be able to give back to her and all the other teens I chat with everyday. Some of these dreamers will have their dreams come true, others will follow their plans and then realize it really wasn't their dream after all. Others will have life get in the way and their dreams will change. But I would like to take that bottle of dreams and enthusiasm and sprinkle it on them over the years when they feel discouraged, frustrated and just tired. That was so beautifully said!

I start my new shift this Tuesday. The alarm will go off at 4:00am. Oh, well, it's work. Keep it quiet would you when you are getting ready for work in the middle of the night, some of us will still be sleeping. (I promise to do my best, lol!)

It is a busy weekend for us as it both boys birthdays, Easter, and Earth Day. I hope it doesn't snow! Happy birthday boys!
Happy Easter everyone!!!!!!!!

Catch Up Fridays

(Cathy) Hey Sunshine..... where are you? Sunshine and I have been playing phone tag for a few days. It's shocking to think that we have not really had a good long chat since she's come back from Hawaii! I am so grateful for this blog so we can stay in touch as life seems to be moving along at a clip! I also love it as I can keep up with my girlfriend, Carol, in Calgary. So everyone...should I join Curves or not? That is my question for the week. I work a four hour shift in the morning and was thinking I could just go to Curves straight after work. I would then exercise for 30 minutes and go home. Is it worth the money? From what I can find online the cost is about $40/month plus a $150 start up fee? Would this be better for me than walking the dog for 30 minutes/day (when I walk him) and there is gardening starting up. I also have the Wii Fit, however, it continues to send me dirty looks as I look at it instead of working with it! Would I use Curves or would I stop after a while? I know only I have the answer to that one! I am thinking because I am driving straight there after work that I will go. If I were to go home first..... well there is the pull to sit and enjoy a cup of tea; one of my great pleasures! Where will my willpower come from? I do not want to wait for a "health event" to force me to comply. I want to avoid that consequence and I am trying not to take my health for granted. I am a Gemini.... I know, say no more.....please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Carolin) I have read your blog yesterday and today and Cathy I am pretty sure I have burned a few thousand calories. Holy exhausting go if you want to go, don't go if you don't want. But just make a decision and don't analyzed to death. If you go you could meet some new people which might be nice for all of us (jokes). Why Curves? Why not the rec centre or other fitness places. I would think the rec centre would be cheaper and during the day it would be filled with women or old men mostly. (Sunshine) Hello everyone. Cathy, any exercise is good for you. As long as you start somewhere and continue doing something. You are at a good place in your life. You are young and healthy and you want to stay that way and you have the good insight to find a positive way to continue that road of healthy living. I personally think that you are the kind of person that will get good use out of a membership because I really do believe that if you pay for it, then you will force yourself to use it. Also, I really think that if you pay for it, then hubby will certainly hound you to make sure that you go on a consistent basis. Take the plunge!!!!! It is going to be a rainy weekend. On a positive note, only two more months of work until summer vacation. I am so looking forward to being off. Carolin, are you off for the summer or are you filling every moment with work? Everyone here is dong well. Mr Sunshine is home after being away for two weeks minus about 12 hours so I am in a really good mood. Easter is around the corner and it looks like it will be a very busy weekend. Carolin I know that you are in for Good Friday annual fish and chips outing. Cathy I am still a little bit unsure if you are definitely joining us or not. How about Louise, has anyone talked to her? The next two weeks at work will be short weeks because of Good Friday and Easter Monday. yay!!! Have a great weekend everyone!!!!!!!

Catch up Fridays

(Sunshine) Hello everyone. How is everyone doing? It's been a very uneventful week. After the very busy birthday weekend, its been a very slow work week. It is so slow around there that I am so bored. Mr Sunshine is away all week and the girls are busy with school and sports and other activities. FYI, I think that we are now on day 24 of TMI. (Carolin) Day 24! Are you sure this is normal pre menopausal stuff? (Cathy) 24days! I think I would have no more hair on my head! I'm with Carolin, is this normal? No hair on your head! How do you have your periods Cathy? Work is work, busy like usual, I have been getting food ready for this weekend's 30 hour famine. Which sounds weird as it's a no eating thing. After it is over all the students have a big BBQ so that is what I have been ordering and organizing. I am enjoying "American Idol" this season. Love Steven Tyler and J Lo(is that how it's spelt?). The contestants are all so very talented. "Dancing with the Stars" is also somewhat entertaining this season. I am enjoying watching Kirsty Alley and the karate kid (Ralph Mucho (Macchio)or something like that). I, as usual haven't seen these shows but I have watched a couple of episodes of Celebrity Apprentice. And I am liking it! Nascar. It's all about Nascar in our home! I can't really think of anything else to say at the moment. My goodness can you be just a little more boring. Well, I am glad Sunshine that you are having a calmer week, albeit boring. At our home we did a bit of spring cleaning this week. Yuck! It was kind of funny when I asked the older one to dust the walls! He looked at me like I had lost it and said, "dust the walls?" He did go and dust the walls and was he ever surprised at the dust that sticks to vertical walls! Lesson learned! The younger one learned how to thoroughly clean a bathroom. It was interesting to see how tidy their bathroom stayed this week, lol! As for Good Friday, two things. One, it's the younger one's birthday and second Hubby's sister and brother in law are coming home from Paris that afternoon. So, at the moment I am not sure how it will all play out. Before we knew the arrival date we were game for fish and chips! I will keep you updated! Carolin, see you tomorrow morning! Good Friday fish and chips is good for us same place same time? Everyone is welcome back at our place. Let me know so I can be a little more prepared. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!!!!

Catch Up Fridays

(Cathy) Hi ladies! I am so glad this week is over! It was shift bid week and you know how stressful that is for all of us! Well, let's just say that the shifts continue to degrade. This will be life for the next six months: I will work five days with Friday and Saturday off. The shift is from 5:30am until 9:45am! Even less sleep! I will have to wake up at 4am! Ugh! (Sunshine) Sorry to here about that Cathy. I know how much we all love working five days a week, sucks!!! We are in birthday party mode as little Miss Sunshine has just turned 11. It is party weekend for Saturday and Sunday and Friday was her friends party. I am tired already just thinking about it. My sister in law had her baby last week. She is so cute and so small and everyone is doing well. (Carolin) Congratulations to all All is well around here, nothing new or different. Mr Sunshine is away all next week, so I am preparing myself for a busy and very moody week. Well I hope that I can control the moodiness so that the girls don't have to deal with it. I am usually pretty good until closer to the end of the week. That is usually when my exhaustion and frustration start to kick in, just before his plane lands. I think that your body instinctively knows that it can start to relax again and you finally start to feel what you have been suppressing all week. I suppose the good thing is that my period should hopefully be over by then as I have had it know for about 15 days. Pre menopause fun wow!!!!! I know, I knwo TMI!!!!!! 15 days! What the heck kinda crap is that? I got to the little ones Art Class early to pick her up so I thought I would spend the time doing some work. I am sitting in my car talking to a supplier trying to get some food prices for a Fundraiser Dinner next week. When this guy parks in front of me and gets out of his car I think wow that guy looks like Cathy's hubby. Well as he gets closer low and behold it is him. Seems his son in at the same art class. I couldn't get off the phone so Cathy went and got the little one for me, Thanks Cathy. In the car driving home and asking the little one if she recognized anyone at art class. Her friends from church Sam and Jasmine are back and yes she saw Cathy's son but she said they didn't talk. And then she said there was a girl standing beside her and she looked familiar so she asked her if they went to the same school? Seems they do and this girl is in grade 4 but she didn't know her name. I asked the little one how she felt being so popular and knowing so many people. She said she liked it. Have a great weekend everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Catch Up Fridays

(Cathy) Welcome back Sunshine! How was your vacation? Do you have photos?

(Sunshine) Hello everyone. I missed you all very much. Our vacation was amazing. We had a great time. The weather was beautiful. I love Hawaii! It is always warm and sunny with a gentle breeze and virtually no bugs. We lathered on the sun screen but we still got burnt and are all pealing except for Little Miss Sunshine. She has great colour and tanned beautifully. The tsunami part of the vacation was a little tense. It was the first night that we arrived and our resort was originally going to be evacuated by 2:00a.m. But then we were downgraded to only evacuation to higher ground within the resort itself, 3rd floor and above. The swimming pool and lagoon and all beaches on the island were closed on the following day mostly due to clean up of debris. We were on the Kona side of the island and certain areas within Kona were affected much more than we were. A short ten minute drive along the coast and you could see what was affected. Three days after the tsunami hit there were still store windows boarded up, trees in the ocean and a house floating in the ocean. This was the only area that we actually saw effects of the tsunami, although I am sure that there were many others. The crazy thing is that the news was reporting that they were glad that the tsunami was arriving at nighttime because it would be pitch black with nothing to see. Apparently, if it was approaching during daylight there would be big problems with people wanting to get close enough to see what was happening and most likely there would be some severe injuries. As the news was reporting this at about 1:45 am you could see someone on their bike riding by the shore on the beach that the camera was shooting. People can be curiously crazy.

Well, the rest of the vacation was great. I could feel a sense of calm and relaxation as soon as I started swimming in the salt water ocean and the sun hit my face! We really did have a wonderful time. On the way back, we spent two night in San Francisco. It is architecturally such a beautiful city. The cable cars are a little crazy though. Do you know that they manually turn each car at the end of the line in order to go back up the mountain? We had a great time!

Cathy, you would be proud of us. We travelled to LA with carry on luggage only.(yeah!) I had no clothes on vacation with me but we accomplished your goal. The rest of the trip, Mr Sunshine was not as concerned about loss of luggage so we checked our luggage on the next flight and both times on the way home. They did however take my bananas in Hawaii and would not let them on the plane to San Francisco. Strangely enough from San Francisco to Toronto, they let me keep the bananas and the apples and took a water bottle that we had forgotten was in our carryon bag. Little Miss Sunshine had to go through the body scan machine in Toronto and the rest of the trip was pretty easy. Thanks for all of your great tips Cathy!

Well, I was back to work this week and it feels as though I never left. Talk about sucking the vacation feeling right out of someone. As usual, it was drama, drama and more drama. Oh well, the work week is over and I am looking forward to the weekend.

OK, to change the subject. I have stepped on the scale and I realize I have "20" pounds to lose!!!
Where did they come from? I think my metabolism has come to a complete halt! So, I have determined that I cannot be trusted to "just do it" on my own. I try for a day and then the next life gets in the way..... or the couch. I get it has to be me, but can't someone come and be me for the next three months so that I can make a habit stick, please! (Carolin) Welcome to the other side Cathy. We have lots of room on our couch.

Well I am at the end of the my March Break :( . It has been a nice two weeks. The little one and I did a few day trips and on Wednesday we went to see, "Billy Elliot," with my mom. It was very good and we all enjoyed it. Then we met my aunt and went for dinner. The weather was very nasty and we had a mini blizzard so I didn't get home on Wednesday till close to 10:00 pm. The little one spent the night at her Grandma's house for the first time.

I went to work yesterday to set up and I had a delivery coming. But really all I did was clean up the kitchen from others who had used it during the break. What a mess! I don't understand, how people can just leave it they way they did! Floors were covered in food and spilled juice, counters had leftover food and dishes on them. One of the fridges was full of half eaten food. It had all been there for close to a week! Thank goodness my staff and I had locked everything we could think of or my stuff would have been used or taken. I guess it doesn't matter if you are a regular church goer or not, some people are just disrespectful pigs!

On a happier note, the teenager got herself a full time summer job. She is pretty excited and even though she won't give me the credit, I am taking some of it anyway. I was the one who told her to apply and how to apply. She will be working for the city (yeah, I know she already works for the city) but this summer job would be with the parks and maintenance division. She applied for numerous jobs on the weekend, they sent a email requesting an interview on Tuesday. She went for the interview Wednesday morning and they called Thursday afternoon! She said it helped that she new one of the interviewers from one of the pools she works at. Also, when she went into work Wednesday night her boss told her he had got a reference check about her. She does not know what her position will be yet. They told her the head horticulturist will call her next week as they have a couple areas they would like her to work. She is pretty excited.!Congratulations!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another Federal Election?

I have been following the politics of this week. It seems that Friday we will find out if there is to be another Federal Election called. This will be due to a non confidence vote by the opposition. How many federal elections have been held over the last ten years? It seems like quite a few. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the last election held for the same reason? Did anything change or get better? I have some questions. I will vote as I always do, however how do I decide my vote? Do I look at the qualities of the leader of the party? Do I just look at the policy of each party? Or do I look at past history?

How do you decide?

(Carolin) I know its not Friday. But I think by having so many elections in such a short period of time will reduce voters turnout. As it is a turn off to the people and by doing this the government then can do more with out the public knowing or even worse caring. I wonder how many people vote for the party leader, or for the party, or they vote for the person for their area. As we only get one vote but have to make three choices with that one vote.

Catch Up Fridays

(Cathy) Hi ladies, I hope everyone is having a good March Break so far. Carolin, you are so lucky that you get two weeks for March Break. Does anyone know if the year round schools get two weeks now as well?


Hubby took Thursday off and after I came home from work we all went for a two and a half hour hike up in Caledon. We hiked in to Cataract Falls. It was a great hike; the sky was blue and it was warm! We will definitely go back when it's not as muddy. After hiking we were starved so we voted to go out to dinner on the way home. We went to Heritage Fish and Chips! The same one we went to last Good Friday. The boys were reminiscing about sitting on the curb in the parking lot waiting for the call of #76!! We ate in this time and were the only ones in the restaurant for the first while. Hubby and I ordered the Fisherman's Platter! It had haddock, halibut, scallops and shrimp with fries........ yum! We were pigs and ate it all. I had thought we would have a doggie bag to bring home. I have never eaten in at Heritage but we get Fish and Chips from them once every few months or so.


Changing the subject, it's shift bid time again at work. I have yet to see them and I know I say this every time, however, this time we are in for some not very nice shifts. Also, we are working without a contract and have been advised that the company and union have had to request conciliation from the labour board. I'm not sure what this means. I hope it's a positive move. All I know is that we will have to wait longer to see the new proposed contract.


Sunshine and family come home this weekend. I look forward to hearing all about the trip. I really want to know if Sunshine survived taking carry on luggage only!!!



(Carolin) Wow the first week of March break is almost over. The little one and I went to the McMichael Art Gallery on Tuesday. She had done a project on Emily Carr and wanted to see some of her work. On Thursday my car was back in the shop for the day as the break lights would not turn off. Thursday night we went to a showing of the Secret Keepers Girls Pajama Party http://http//www.secretkeepergirl.com/. It was OK, seems it was the first time in Canada (might want to work on some of the jokes). They did this bit on what celebrities really look like which I wasn't to impressed with. Since we don't watch Family Channel the little one didn't know who most of the actress' where and then they showed a before and after picture of one of the actress from Desperate Housewives. The last photo was of Madonna, one shot as is and one with all the retouching. I sure hope that my daughter was not the only young lady who didn't know who Madonna or Eve Langoria were.

(Friday)The little one and I just got home from my most favoutie place to visit. Yes thats right we spent the day at Black Creek Pioneer Village. Just love that place, it holds so many great memories for me. I so want to live there.



Have a good week everyone!