Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! Hope everyone had a pleasant Easter weekend. We had eggs and ham for dinner today, that was our big celebration. Well on Good Friday, when I woke up and opened the bedroom door there was a bag off chocolate goodies hanging on the doorknob. That was from Mr. Easter Bunny Man. Sweet. He got one for me and one for Little R too. She also got some cute jammies in her bag. That was a pleasant surprise.

A few nights ago I went for coffee with SW. She picked me up and we went to town for Timmys. Then we just sat in the car and chatted. It was nice to get out of the house. That was the first time I got dressed in about 2 weeks.

I had mentioned to SW that I thought we need to get rid of Eddie. I had come to that conclusion that day. I decided that it was time to find him a new home. I just didn't think I was ever going to clean the house as long as he was here making messes all over the place. So we placed an ad on a site for this type of thing. The very next night SW had a potential home for him. She was spending the weekend at her cousins place and her cousin had asked her if she knew where she could get a Jack Russell! So SW took Eddie with her. From reports throughout the weekend it sounds like he'll be staying there. Meanwhile we got a ton of responses to our ad. We left it up in case it didn't work out. I deleted it last night. Sooo, no more Eddie. I think Bear misses him. He seemed a little confused. But honestly we all seem a little more relaxed. Eddie was kind of hyper. It seems so quiet without him, peaceful. He'll be fine and we'll be fine and I can keep tabs on him. I do miss the litte bugger. But we're all better off I think. Being the only pet in his new home he'll get the attention he needs. I'm glad it's someone we can have contact with to get updates and just find out how he's doing. I'm glad we didn't have to go through the process of picking someone responding to our ad. Ah, it's like a weight off.

That's about all the excitement around here. I see they're calling for more snow next week. That sucks. It has been slowly melting away and now we're going to get more. I hope to have the house cleaned by the time spring rolls around and its time to be outside in the gardens all day. I've been reading a ton of gardening blogs. That's got me itching to get out there. The one time I tried to start seeds indoors it didn't work out at all. I had no clue what I was doing. I'm learning a lot from these blogs. Maybe I'll try the indoor seeds thing again sometime but not this year. I can't wait for spring this year. Is it just me, or does this winter just feel endless?

Oh well I'm off to bed to dream of warm sunshine and crocuses blooming. Have a good night.

Here's a bunny I bought for a buck at a yard sale last summer. He lived in my front garden for the summer. Happy Easter!

Show and Tell Friday #4

It's Show and Tell Friday once again. I so enjoy participating in this event! To see others who have participated or to join in the fun yourself go to Kelli's There Is No Place Like Home.

Since Easter is a week away and there won't be a Show and Tell next week, I'm going to show a couple of my Easter decorations.

First is a wreath I made. Yes I used real jellybeans and candies.



Next is an Easter tree sitting on my mantle.



Last is another Easter tree sitting in my kitchen window.

These pictures were all taken last year. I don't even have my Easter stuff out yet this year. I do have other decorations, I just don't have pictures of them and they are still packed away for this year.

I hope you enjoyed my little Show and Tell. Have a great day.

Monday Morning Chatter

When I went out to start shovelling the driveway, while Mr. Man lounged on the couch watching TV might I add, I found that one of the neighbours had used a snow blower to clear away most of the snow in front of the car. There was still a mountain covering one side of the car. I didn't know what to do with that, so I just came back in. I didn't even take any pictures. Mr. Man never did go out to have a look at it, so he doesn't really know what to expect this morning. He is out there now, I assume, shoveling. He had to take all his pain meds and wait for them to kick in before going out to tackle it. We're expecting higher temperatures and rain later in the week. Hopefully that will do away with some of the snow. Unfortunately it will also mean a leaky basement. We should have a very wet basement this spring when all this snow melts.

So we set the clocks ahead this weekend. I didn't notice it staying light later yesterday. The truth is we slept most of the day and woke up around 7 p.m. So we missed the sunset. It should be still light out when Mr. Man comes home from work. Why is everything so early this year? Why is Easter in March? I know someone, somwhere changed the daylight saving time to make it earlier, but why is Easter so early? Easter is always in April, I'm confused.

My task for today is checking the level on the propane tank. I have to wade through 4 feet of snow to the tank, then uncover the lid and pry it open to see the gauge. Mr. Man insists on keeping the furnace down, it's cold in this house, and yet we are still going through propane like mad. It seems to always work out that we need propane after a big snowfall, so we need to clear a path to the tank. Even though we have a functioning furnace, I'm cold all the time. I guess trying to conserve has helped a bit, but I don't think it's made enough of a difference to be suffering all the time. In previous years I just kept the furnace cranked and we went broke filling the propane tank. And we bought a load of firewood. This is the first year we've tried to conserve and didn't buy a load of firewood. It has been most unpleasant. Mr. Man doesn't seem to feel the cold. We are opposites, he's always warm and I'm always cold. It sucks to be me.

This will be the second Easter that Little R is too old for the whole Easter Egg Hunt thing. Not having little kids around sucks the fun out of it just like Christmas. It's still a long weekend though so that's cool. It's still a time to celebrate. Last year, I don't know what got into Mr. Man, but he bought me a bunch of gifts. It was kind of weird. It was like a mini Christmas. That's when he gave me an electric blanket which was for me to wrap around myself when sitting at the computer, freezing to death. Seems I can't find it now. I think Little R has it on her bed. So we'll still buy Easter stuff for Little R, and have a special dinner I guess. I hope Mr. Man doesn't do the gift thing again, it was just too weird. It's coming up soon, being early and all. I'll have to dig out the little wreath I made to hang on the front door. I have all kinds of little Easter ornaments. Guess it's time to get them out. Jeez, a couple of years ago, we were having a bonfire and sitting outside at Easter. Obviously that won't be happening this year. I can remember Easters as a kid and it was springtime. It was sunny and warm outside. Now we're having it in the dead of winter.

Time to start my day. As usual I still have a ton of cleaning to do. Will today be the day I get off my ass and do something? Or will I let it go one more day? Honestly I don't know where to start. I know, pick a room, and just start.

Have a great day!

The Boys

Here's my guys. This is about the only time they get so close to each other, waiting for a treat. They more or less ignore each other. Well except when Eddie gets in a mood to pester.

One thing I've noticed is, whenever Bear comes in after taking off on me, Eddie will pick a fight with him. This has happened enough times that I've noticed the pattern. Is he mad at Bear for taking off?

They're pretty funny together. They're both possessive of me. If I'm petting one the other comes right over and butts in. I am equal with the loving and treats and attention. I have to be.

Eddie is still a playful puppy and Bear is becoming an old man. Not the best mix. They are polar opposites most of the time. But for the most part they co-exist happily. I was hoping they would get close, but so far that isn't happening. They will sleep on the same couch together but at opposite ends. There is no cute snuggling up together.

You would think, just with the size difference, Eddie would run from Bear. But not so, if anything, Eddie is the more aggressive one. He doesn't back down at all and in fact he starts it most of the time. They do play, chasing each other around outside, but it's rare. Hopefully there'll be more of that once the weather gets nice and we're spending more time outside.

So, Hubby got an email from the lady with the scooter. She said he can come pick it up if he still wants it. ??? Apparently she read the email I sent to her nieghbour about it. Now Hubby is making me and D.W go get it for him, ugh. Personally I would have said "no thanks".

We had our ham dinner yesterday. It wasn't so good. I didn't have all the ingredients for the raisin sauce and the local store wasn't open, so I had to improvise. It turned out ok, but not the best. We tried a new kind of Yorkshire Pudding. I don't know how to make it from scratch, so I usually buy these little mixes in a pouch and it turns out pretty good, just not homemade good. While we were out shopping we found frozen ones. You just put them on a cookie sheet and heat them for 2 minutes. Had to try that. But they were awful. Was going to say they tasted like cardboard, but I think even cardboard would've tasted better.

And today we're going over to S.Ws for a turkey dinner. She and her hubby came over here last night. It was fun. We exchanged gifts, just like Christmas I tell ya. We gave them a big rabbit statue for their garden and some chocolate. They gave us a lovely plant assortment in a basket. We played one game of darts and then just drank and chatted. The hours flew by.

And because of that, I slept in this morning and missed the garbage man. Dammit. I'll have to be sure to not miss him the next couple of weeks to get caught up again.

We finally used the camera tripod yesterday. Took a little fooling around and reading the manual again to figure out the delay on the camera, but we got it. They had me running down to the familyroom in the middle of cooking, thus the apron, sigh. Hubby set the zoom so the pictures all turned out grainy. But hey, we know how to use it now, there's always next time.

I Love Easter

I love Easter. It's the first long weekend in a string of several. It's springtime (or it's supposed to be). Who wants to think about war and Karla Homolka? I'd much rather have thoughts of spring flowers, sunshine, baby duck chicks, fluffy bunny rabbits, delicately adorned eggs, family feasts of turkey and ham, and of course CHOCOLATE. Lots and lots of chocolate.

It's like Christmas without all the stress. The kids get 4 days off school. You get to shop for gifts. You have a little holiday celebration. What's not to like?

A few years ago we had a pretty good one, when we first started hanging out with the neighbours. We got together and pooled our leftovers, there was turkey and potato salad, and wine. We ate our meal out by a bonfire. And then it started snowing on us. Not like this year though, it was just random light flurries. Good times...good times.

Last year, Big R and her entourage came up for a ham dinner, and they liked it!

I was hoping to have a bonfire this year, our pile of brush is quite extensive, but the weather is not permitting. We want to expand the firepit, but we need to burn what's in it first. Technically, we aren't supposed to burn until May, but I see people doing it all year round. Maybe they get special permits, I don't know. Burning season is May 1st? - December 31st. We didn't know that back in the day. Who knows, if the snowfall lets up at some point, maybe we can have a fire afterall.

I always feel good, well happyish, this time of year. I love Easter.

And I figured out how to wrap my heated throw around myself so it doesn't get tangled in the chair, yay me. I'm toasty warm now as it continues to blizzard outside.

It's Easter Sunday, I love Easter. It's STILL snowing, but nice and warm inside. It's a new day. I'm hoping to put that Freecycle fiasco out of my mind. How frustrating that the moderators won't even let me say anything about it on the board. I sent an email anyways and got a reply to that. I received a lame apology. I'll just have to remember the names and not have any dealings with those people. It's unfortunate that of the nearby towns that one is the largest, therefore it has the most activity on it's Freecycle site.

Ah well, new day, new mood. Enjoy your day.

The News From Paradise

On top of all his other ails, and without consuming any chocolate, Hubby got a toothache today. Apparently it was painful enough that he agreed to go to a dentist. We were lucky to find one who was open for business, and it just happened to be the oral surgeon who's in charge of extracting all my teeth. So off we went, down to Brampton for the afternoon. It was actually quick and painless, for me. I sat in the waiting room, perusing, of all things, a celebrity gossip magazine. I bet it said something in both our horoscopes today about doing something out of the ordinary.

Before that all started, we couldn't contain ourselves, and we opened our Easter gifts. Wow, was I surprised! Hubby and Little R gave me an electric-heated-throw-blanket-dooey. It's perfect for cuddling up in, when I'm sitting in front of the computer freezing. THEN, they produced, out of the trunk of the car, a deep fryer! I've never had a deep fryer before, or a heated blanket either for that matter. Which again made me feel lame for only getting them chocolate, which Hubby couldn't even enjoy because of his tooth, and some clothes and trinkets for Little R. I've been slacking in the gift giving department lately, ugh.

The snow continued throughout the day and I've joined another online gardening group. See? I AM optimistic sometimes! We'll see if any of these folks can identify my mystery flower. At least this group is for people in Ontario. Previously I was in one where most of the members were in Florida. Gardening there is much different from gardening here. We have a snow squall warning in effect this evening.

Hubby is resting peacfully.
I've since come to realize having this electric throw wrapped around me at the computer isn't such a great thing. The cord keeps getting snarled up in my chair. I do a lot of getting up and sitting down and shoving the chair around. It's starting to feel a little claustrophobic in this computer corner of mine.

I finally sat in front of the TV and played the new NintendoGameCube Zelda game. I'm not impressed yet. The beginning/intro is so long, it's like a mini-movie cartoon, and there is so much to read, it just puts you to sleep before you even get to start playing. But you have to go through it all EVERY time you start, until you pass a certain level. So I didn't play long enough to get far enough to skip the intro between games. It was brutal. Can see losing interest fast.

The nextdoor nieghbours to the right of us, put up a for sale sign today. I looked out the window and noticed a vehicle stopped out on the main road behind the house nextdoor. I was just in time to see the real estate agent adhering a sign to the fence. It was the same woman who had been here, going door to door handing out mints a week ago. We weren't able to find the listing online, probably because the agent hadn't had time to post it yet. Two houses within a week, hmmm. Hopefully we can find out what these guys are asking, it's good to know when you're thinking of selling also.

Ah well...that's about it for the news from paradise.
Sleep tight.

Good Friday

It's Good Friday and we have snow. It hasn't stopped coming down. The temperature went from +5 to -5 and the rain changed to snow. At this time last year we had Little R hunting for Easter eggs outside. There was no snow, it was springtime.
Hubby gave me an Easter lily yesterday. Easter lilies have a fantastic aroma, if you've never smelled one, do! I learned last year that I can plant it in my garden and it will bloom again later in the summer. In fact when I did that last year with 2 of them, they multiplied. Each one turned into 3 or 4 plants. But I wasn't successful with digging up the bulbs in the fall, I ruined them. I'll try to be more careful this year.
When I was out looking at my gardens last week, I noticed my mystery flower was coming up in it's usual location. This year I'll be sure to get a clear photo of it and try again to have it identified. I believe last year for the first time it had 2 flowers on it. I couldn't find it in any books at the garden center. No one I've shown it to knows what it is. It blooms in the spring along with the tulips and daffodils, same spot every year. When I asked about it at the garden center, they said maybe someone brought it from another country and so is not common here. They couldn't identify it from the photo I had. I've never seen it anywhere else myself.
We played darts last night, first time in a while. Ya win some, ya lose some.
Someone on Freecycle offered a mobility scooter and Hubby will be picking it up sometime this weekend. They actually offered two of them and apparently there were a lot of responses. Hubby was lucky to be chosen as one of two recipients.
I've mentioned my Easter trees on here and this year I got one for Big R. I like hers better than mine and may get one for myself yet. At any rate, I took pictures...





So there you have it, Easter trees. The one I gave Big R is shaped more like a Christmas tree. So it's a styrofoam cone covered in eggs, flowers and ribbons. Quite cute. I've had these ones for so long, it is time for a new one.
Upon looking at the photo of the wreath I made, I thought, it's awfully loud and busy. I think I'll make a new one for next year. I'll use a bigger wreath, tone it down, use more flowers and ribbon, or lace. I did notice in one store or another, they had fake Easter lilies, I could use those.
We haven't decorated any eggs yet, maybe we can do that today. It's always fun and we all like to eat eggs. Which is amazing, considering we once got very sick from eating bad eggs and wouldn't touch them for years after. If you've ever had food poisoning, you'll know how sick we were. It was an unforgettable experience.
Ok I'm outta here, have a lovely holiday.

Snow Snow...

...go away. Come again on Christmas day.

Yup, there's a big white blanket outside. Enough already. I need flowers and blossoms, blue skies and sunshine, gold finches and hummingbirds.

It started in the afternoon and basically didn't stop. I haven't checked the forecast lately, but the last time I saw it they were calling for several days of snow. At first it wasn't sticking, so I thought, good, it'll just melt as it lands and then it'll be like it never even happened. Wrong again.

Last night for dinner we had pork chops, rice and instant potatoes. I never used to like or use those instant potatoes, even now it's only once in a while, or when I feel particularly lazy. They are so convenient, no peeling, no chopping, no waiting, they truly are instant. I burnt the rice, that's a first and as I was standing right there, stirring the burnt rice, the pot for the instant potatoes boiled over, right in front of me. That happens all too often. In fact nine times out of ten something boils over on me. I so dislike cooking. Can that even be called cooking? I don't think so.

Not sure if I mentioned this already or not, one of our neighbours has put their house up for sale. As soon as we saw the sign we were online looking it up. At least they are asking a reasonable price. The last people who moved away sold very low. The higher the better for the rest of us. We still can't decide if we want to move or stay.

The first 4-H meeting of the season is coming up, like next week. We will have a new leader this year. The girls' trainer has decided to become a leader. He is much more accessible than the previous leaders. I think Hubby is going to be more involved this year also. So it should be a much better year for all of us.

Hubby bought me some new gardening gloves yesterday. He went to town while I was napping and came back with the gloves and a bunch of other oddball stuff. I can't wait to be able to use them.

Here is yesterday and today photos...

I will leave you with a picture of the Easter wreath I made last year. It was fun to make. It is now hanging proudly on our front door.

Easter And Too Many Dishes

I just realized, Easter is only three weeks away. It's too bad Little R is too old for the Easter Bunny fun. I'm sure we'll decorate the house and decorate eggs and shower Little R in gifts anyways. I'd like to have another nice Easter dinner with Big R in attendance. Then we can shower her with gifts too. We had a lovely dinner last year. I'd like to do it again. I just haven't received a reply from Big R yet.
I think we went to church at Easter when I was a kid. I remember frilly dresses, big hats and white gloves. I don't remember big dinners or much Easter Bunny fun. As far as decorating eggs, we make a bunch of hard boiled eggs, decorate them and then eat them with our Easter dinner. Decorating the house? I have an Easter wreath that I made and will put on the front door and I have a couple of Easter trees. I may hang plastic Easter eggs on a tree outside, that usually depends on the weather.
Today was very windy but mild. Hubby has been out all day again. I'm waiting for a truly nice day to go out and remove all the Christmas lights. And the garland from the back fence. It's just hanging on by a thread at this point. Those couple of nasty storms we had really did it in. All the LED (invisible) lights are going in the yard sale. We got them on sale so we won't mind parting with them cheap.
I think it rained some today too. Its very wet outside. The dogs are making a mucky mess of the floors every time they come in from a romp out back. But hey, the snow is disappearing, yay! We should be getting the bike back any time now. Cool, now that we have room in the garage for it again with that monstrous contraption gone.
I'm hoping to get rid of some dishes at my yard sale too. I've mentioned before that I just have far too many dishes. Most sets I have placings for 12 or more. I have at least one set I can get rid of and then a bunch of odd plates and cups. The set I'm selling was bought at an auction for $20 and we used them as our everyday dishes for years. I then bought new dishes for a Thanksgiving dinner one year and they have become our everyday dishes. Last summer I bought a set at a yard sale for $30, which I still think was too much, but I liked the pattern and it included a teapot, creamer, sugar bowl and a cannister. I haven't used them yet, but they are nice to have and I'm sure I will use them at some point. Then of course I have my mothers "good china", I've used it twice so far, once I remembered I had it. It mostly decorates my large china cabinet and will be used on special ocassions. I have two different sets of Christmas dishes, one has placings for 12 the other for 4. Then I have these odd dishes that were collected at different auctions, a couple at a time, they are very pretty, I have 4 plates, a couple of little plates and then several platters of various sizes. They also just adorn my china cabinet. I have many more platters than anyone needs.
I also collect tea cups and tea pots. That's just because my mother did too. I started out with a couple of her things and it grew from there. I don't even drink tea. Some of the tea cups I have are worth $100, just for a cup and saucer. I haven't bought any in a long time. My smaller china cabinet is overflowing with this stuff. One year for my birthday, S.P gave me a bunch of stands for my tea cup collection. I don't think I'll be parting with any of that stuff.
I have a ridiculous number of vases, I will be putting some of them in my yard sale. Same with candle holders, I have millions, they're going.
I know how it happened. This auction we used to go to, they sold things by the boxful. So if you saw something you liked in a box, you ended up with the whole boxful of stuff whether you wanted it or not. They also did tray lots with nicer stuff, so you'd end up getting six items in order to get the one thing you really wanted. I'm thinking of doing that with my yard sale, a box of vases, a box of candle holders, a box of dishes, rather than selling them individually. Or even mix them up, a box of vases and candle holders, a box of plates and cups. You get the idea.
I got another email from the lady organizing the community garage sale. It was kind of strange. No new information, no real reason for the email. It kind of seemed like she was asking me to try to recruit more people to join in on the sale. But she didn't say that exactly. Quite strange.
I've invited Big R up to help out with my yard sale, thinking it's a good excuse to get her up here for a visit and if she has anything she'd like to sell, here's her chance. But, no reply as yet. I think she's still mad at me. Mad because she didn't have a golden childhood and it's all my fault. At least she is talking to me again, just not recently.
I watched Titanic again last night with Hubby. He enjoyed it also. It was strange, the power went out for a second while we were watching it. Funny we never lost power at all during those blizzards we had, but a little bit of rain and it goes out. Just long enough to mess up all the clocks and the computers. I wonder if someone hit a pole out on the main road, what else could it have been?
Well, it's so nice to be sitting here and not freezing, not shivering, my old bones aren't aching, how nice. Hopefully it will be a trend. I realize it's still only March, but the damn groundhogs said it would be an early spring. I've seen Robins already. Today I saw Morning Doves too, which bugger Eddie promptly chased away.
K, I'm outta here. Have a great evening.