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!

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 Snow

Other than the snow, yesterday was uneventful. Man did it snow. At one point I looked out and I couldn't see across the street, it was a whiteout. There is a drift in front of the house that's 5 feet deep. We had to go out and uncover our propane exhaust vents. Little R was nextdoor babysitting, she was there for nine and a half hours. So around 10 p.m we went out to shovel a path for her to get home and we went over and checked on them. It was the nastiest storm we've had yet. Today we'll be out there shovelling the driveway so Mr. Man can go to work tomorrow. Luckily it's the light and fluffy type of snow. I took pictures, but they just don't seem to show the enormity of it. The first picture is the drifts in front of the house and the second picture is part of the path we shovelled.

Doing the driveway will be the worst. Once the plow goes by, the car will be completely buried. We won't be able to get into our garage until spring. I don't remember ever having this much snow here before. Unfortunately I think there is more in our future. We'll get a break for a few days anyway. I'm sure I'll be taking more pictures when we're out there today. We have to shovel out the car, no choice. I don't know where we'll put the snow though. Wish us luck. Amazingly the road wasn't closed. I don't know how that's possible but it's true. And people were out driving in it. My friend SW had to drive in it. Her furnace died so she had to go to town to buy heaters. Talk about terrible timing. Glad she made it safe and sound though. Sorry to hear she was freezing her ass off in the worst storm yet. It's a long story but it actually died a week ago, she's been without a furnace for a week. Good thing she at least has that lovely woodstove.

So that's it for now. Check back for more snow pictures later in the day. Have a great day.

A Day In The City

We had to go down to the city yesterday. But before we could go anywhere, we had to shovel out from the dumping of snow we got. Man there's a lot of snow out there. And now they're calling for more tomorrow and Saturday. It's hard to see spring at the end of the tunnel at this point.

So it was still snowing as we were shovelling out. We had to go down to renew our mortgage. We left early and got down there early, so we popped in at my sisters and had a little visit with her and my dad. They were happy to see us. We had a nice visit. My sister gave me a bag of books.

Then it was off to the lawyers office. We got there early too. We spent most of the day sitting in the lawyers office and running between the lawyer and the mortgage broker. It was a long day. Just glad it's all taken care of now. The problem was we had to find a new lender. Our old lender didn't want to renew with us. After signing our lives away, I feel a big change in lifestyle coming on. No more frivolous spending for me. We're really going to have to tighten our belts.

By the time we were heading back home, the sun was shining and the snow was melting. They had a lot in the city too, but nothing compared to what we've got at home. It was a snow day so Little R was home alone all day, she didn't want to come with us. We bought coffee on the way down and coffee on the way back home. Out of the 4 "roll up the rim to win" cups we won 1 lousy donut.

It was a lot of driving for Mr. Man and a lot of stress. When we got home we just kind of flopped for the evening. In our travels I got to see where Mr. Mans new job is. I had no idea. He seems to think that when I have my car back I'm going to go down there to take him out for lunch or something. Driving in the city is intense. I don't know if I could do it now, it's been so long. We saw lots of cars in the ditch on the way down. The roads were pretty bad in the morning. But coming home the roads were all cleared. The sunshine was fabulous.

The meeting with the Vice Principal the other day went well. I am hoping Little R will get back on track now. She used to love school. I think she still likes it, she just has all this new freedom and the peer pressure to skip. She's going to do what her friends are doing. Hopefully the meeting was helpful. If we can get her to finish high school, we'll have done our job as parents. I'd like to see her go on to college, but I'm not holding my breath for that.

I'm off to start my day. It was another day that Mr. Man got up and went to work without waking me up. It feels strange to get up at 7 a.m and to not see him in the morning. I wish he wouldn't do that. I guess I was pretty tuckered from yesterday. And I took my sleep aids kind of late. Oh well, have a great day.

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.

My Crocuses

These are my crocuses, as of midday today. It's still snowing out there, hasn't stopped in days. I sure hope this is the last hurrah for old man winter. Though I'm not letting my hopes for that get too high.
Hope everyone is having a lovely Easter weekend.

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.