I'm still here.......!!!

Yes I'm still around in the blog universe. It's been a very weird summer for me and it hasn't been very productive creatively speaking. 

Also, I have developed tinnitus in both ears. To say that I was losing it mentally for awhile is understating my reaction LOL  I couldn't focus on anything. Really horrible. 

It's very difficult to describe what your hear.  I think it's different for every one who gets the condition. For me it's that buzzing noise the street light wires make in the summer when it gets really hot. Imagine that going on and on and only you can hear it. 

I have an app that has various sounds that I listen to with headphones that has really helped me. It sort of trains you to focus on sound I guess and then not focus if that makes sense.  My favourite is the "Birds By The Pond"....tweet tweet :) Reminds me of being way up north in the woods sitting beside a stream fishing with my dad.  

The Crazy Quilt Journal Project sort of staggered to an end. I'm not really all that bothered.  I'll go back to it eventually. 

Meanwhile, I'm getting hints about the unfinished Santa Claus from certain members of the family. So I guess I better finish him first. 

Take care :) 

An ode to grandmothers....sorta :)

I was looking through old emails and I found this from 2012. Gave me a chuckle.

 

Genealogy Humour or not.....

I mentioned the other day that I was working on my family tree. This is an ongoing project that I started about 20 years ago. Yes it is addicting.

Okay here is your chuckle for today. I have spent a wee bit of time (hours) looking for an Anastasia Ryan born about 1870 in Scotland not realizing I had her record since 2018. I twigged yesterday. LOL Take a look.

Anastasia = Hannah-Stacey!!!

 

I guess the poor registrar had never run across that forename before and just winged it. It's a very common name in certain parts of Ireland but not in the Scotland of 1870  it seems:)

Take care and keep safe !

The on going saga......and Merry Christmas

I haven't posted for awhile as I've been busy doing nothing in particular sewing wise.

We are putting our house on the market in the spring. The real estate agents are still banging on the door with potential buyers but they will just have to wait til we are ready :)

Down sizing after living in the same house for 40 plus years is a bit overwhelming. What to keep...what to give away...what to toss out.

We knew that we wanted to move for various reasons. We were a bit stressed because the timing of selling the house and finding a new place to buy. I can't tell you how many houses/condos I have viewed online. I have a very patient real estate agent :) We aren't even sure what we want. A condo or a house. We just know that we want to move closer to the rest of our family.

After a lot of thought and discussion we made a decision. We are in the process of moving in January to an apartment that is in the area we eventually want to live. Now we can take our time looking for a new place. Also it's a test run to see if condo living is for us.

We are about 5 minutes from the retirement residence that my brother lives in. It will be nice to see him more often and give him help when he needs it. Like tech support for his computer :)

And, more important than that we will will be about 10 minutes if even that from my grandkids.

Anyway it will be a new adventure for sure.

I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!!!!!... and I'll talk to you in the New Year 2020 !!!!!

Take care:)

Winter is coming????........................Winter is here!!!!!

Way too early though. Taken early this morning by my husband.

Take care :)

Winter finally came.....

We've been so lucky this winter with not too much snow. However, it had to happen...it's winter in Canada after all :)

This is what the top of our car looked like yesterday morning.

Right now it's -17 C with a wind chill of -28C. I think I'll just stay inside.

Take care:)

Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!

I heard my results from my doctor today with regard to my second surgery. The cancer hasn't spread to my lymph nodes....thank goodness.

I will have to have some kind of followup treatment along with the radiation but that's okay. I will be monitored on an ongoing basis regarding when to get future mammograms and so on which is fine by me.

Thank you everyone who sent words of support. You are the best.

Now to  get on with stuff. I feel like I've been holding my breath. It's been a dreadful time waiting to hear. 

Take care:)

There Is Nothing Worse.......

September 1st....Eeeek!!!

I cannot believe it's September already. Is it just me or has this summer flown past so quickly that I missed it?

Aw well....here is a bit of summer:)

My husband took some pictures of the hummingbirds that visit our trumpet vine. Almost impossible as they move so fast. The flowers are full of nectar which the hummingbirds can't resist.

I thought this one was interesting as you can see it's feet so they actually do land on some of the flowers though it's hard to tell just watching them.

Tail up coming in for a landing...so cute:) Look how fast it's wings are going. You can barely see them

The dead flowers are the ones that the hummingbirds took nectar from the day before. Trumpet vines are difficult to get started and it takes about seven years before a newly planted vine flowers but once it does it goes crazy. This one reaches it's full flowering season by mid June and continues to blossom prolifically during the warm weather. I can't remember when we planted this one but I think it's at least 20 years old.

Take care:)

It was a close call:)

I'm back.....

I want to thank everyone who sent me well wishes. I survived the surgery :)

What was supposed to be a simple procedure with a one night stay in hospital got a bit more complicated. I ended up with major surgery and I was in there for three days. I was on clear fluids the whole time. That was very hard when my roommate was eating lasagna, salmon and steak....sigh:(

Now I'm back at home with a four to six weeks recovery to look forward to. My doctor and the nurses were impressed at how fast I bounced back from the surgery. I was out of bed on the second day. I guess this old lady is a lot tougher than she looks....LOL

Take care:)

Summertime and the living is noisy......

Hello:)

I've been very quiet lately as I've been busy doing family tree research. I usually like to sit outside and enjoy the weather but the weather hasn't been all that great and it's way too darn noisy.

The construction has been going on full tilt.

Before....

...and, now.....
 It's hard to see with the trees in the way and I didn't want to seem too nosy obvious....LOL

There is one three story house now and another on it's way.

The road has been dug up for pipes and stuff and no one can walk on the sidewalk because of the mud. Right now it's quiet because it's early but when they get in full swing it's deafening.

My next door neighbour moved out on Monday. The good news it that they are not taking that house down right away. Someone will be living there for awhile. I'm not sure I like all this change:(

I've also been dealing with some medical issues. Nothing life threatening just inconvenient. I have to go in for surgery on the 28th and will have at least 4 to 6 weeks recovery to deal with.

Life goes on.

Take care:)

Happy Canada Day !!!!!!!!!

I tell ya it ain't safe some days......

It was a really nice day and I thought I'd sit outside for a bit on the back porch. My son came out to check out the weather too.

Beside the chair I was sitting on is a big plastic storage box that we keep stuff it. Ususally garden books and magazines that my husband reads occasionally....fly swatters...garden candles....ya know...stuff.

My son and I were chatting away and just for the heck of it I decided to look in the storage box. I have no idea why I did but.....EEEEEK.

Staring at me was this big fat male raccoon!!!! It hissed at me and I dropped the lid.

My son looked at me and burst out laughing. I guess my face must have been picture.

From the SMELL...YUK...this raccoon had obviously been stuck in the box a couple of days. It probably was able to lift the lid and get in but it couldn't get out.

I'm sorry I didn't take pictures of the racoon but it seemed a bit annoyed at me for disturbing it.


Needless to say the men of the house had to eject said raccoon from the box. All the contents had to be thrown out because either they had been chewed or pooped on......sigh.

I think it was a good thing I discovered it when I did. Can you imagine the pong if it had died in there? Geez.

Of course my family thought it was hilarious as these types of things happen to me. It's like I have a sign around my neck.

We are finally in spring mode here. The construction across the street has started in earnest as the weather has settled down at bit. Yesterday they poured the cement for the basement floor. Quite entertaining :)

Take care:)

That's me :)

The Sounds of Spring and Summer.......

We live in an area of prime real estate. The two houses across the street and the house next door have been sold for a very nice chunk of change. 

The two across the street were sold to developers to rebuild. They have already taken down one house and will be starting on the second one soon I guess.

The sounds of a back hoe digging up a foundation....IS NOT....music to my ears :(

The view from my sewing room window......

They are building mega houses. The two that are going in there are ugly in my humble opinion.

One around the corner sold recently....it had a nanny suite, a 400 bottle wine cellar, a 7.1 movie theater, a gym and a built in office. You get the picture at how large the new houses are. The neighbourhood is really changing fast. We've lived here about 38 years and the neighbours that sold next door even longer.

We get realtors are our door and on the phone asking us to sell...it's tempting:)

I think it's going to be a long noisy dusty summer.

Take care:)

Untitled...... because I couldn't think of a title :)

Merry Christmas Everyone.......

To you and yours from me and mine....wishing you an extra special holiday time!!!!!!!!!!

Take care:)

Crazy Quilt Basic Class (CQBC)

Exciting news!!!!

Kathy Shaw is offering her free Crazy Quilt Basic Class once again. Registration will be open until midnight CST on 12 October 2014.

Here is the link to Kathy's blog post about her class......LINK

It is a fabulous class for anyone who has wanted to try CQ and needs that extra push and motivation to get started.  

.......................................................................

On the personal front....I was summoned to attend for jury duty last Friday October 3rd. This was my first time and everyone told me what was to be expected....HA!!!

I got special treatment.

I was led into a huge courtroom There were so many of us selected that some had to be in another room to view the proceedings by camera. I sort of freaked out when I saw several policemen standing at alert. Having never been in a criminal court I wasn't sure if this was normal or not. The judge entered and started the proceedings. He then asked the accused to rise to be arraigned. I hadn't noticed that there had been a young man sitting between the policemen all that time. The counts were read and my heart sunk.

What a minute...what was going on! No one told me it would be like this!!!

It turned out I was one of 400 people selected for what will be a very sensational trial for us here in Toronto The Good. It involves gangs, shooting, two deaths and many injured. Lucky me:(

I so did not want to be there.

Random selection made me juror number 138/400. So Monday I went back for the next part of the process....the interviews. Each prospective juror was to be interviewed privately by the judge and counsel for the defense and the prosecution.

We all  sat there waiting to be selected in our own little islands of unhappiness. Many expressed dismay at being involved in such a sensational case. Time passed..... I was really starting to sweat it. They were just starting to prep juror number 126 to go in to be interviewed by the judge and counsel when the court clerk announced that the final selection had been made. We could all go home. Whew:)

So close. I can't tell you how happy I was to get out of there.

Take care.

A Personal Note......

I don't often talk about personal stuff on here because it isn't my thing but a recent occurrence really made want to share something that happened to me.

I don't know why or what triggered a sudden influx of letters addressed to me directly about Endometrial or Uterine cancer. It might be my age and the fact that effective January 1st, 2015 I officially become a senior citizen...according to the government that is:) I sort of ignored the letters and tossed them out.

After about the sixth one I did a wee bit of research and discovered that the most common age for this type of cancer to occur was between 60 and 70 years of age.

I asked my family doctor to send me to a specialist. That was in June.

You've guessed it......I had a problem. The doctor told me that he was very happy that I went to see him when I did. A biopsy was done and then the real hard part. I had to wait three weeks to find out the results.

The tests came back negative.....sigh of relief. I was very very lucky.

It wasn't over for me yet though. There was a benign polyp that needed to be removed. I had that surgery yesterday. So from now on my condition will have to be monitored. That's okay. I don't mind a bit.

So what I want to say to you all is go and get tested for cancer no matter what age you are. I was very blase about the whole issue but not anymore. It really came home to me about how very fragile we are.

Take care:)