I intended to have a super lazy weekend… staying in PJ’s, no house cleaning, no worries… just a lazy weekend doing whatever or nothing. Usually my weekends are filled with shopping for the household and visiting at my mom’s, and I just felt like I needed a calm and quiet weekend at home and spend time with hubby.

Saturday pretty much turned that way, it was a good lazy day, the best I’d had in a while. It was enough of a rest day to feel energized on Sunday. I got a call from my step-dad on Sunday morning asking me if I wanted to hitch a ride with him after he’d pick up some cigarettes and a few things in town so that I could come visit for the afternoon. I was still sleeping when he called though, which was about 11:30am, and he said he’d be over in about half an hour, and then my mom made him give me an hour to get ready. I was happy when he then changed his ETA to 12:30 because I wondered just how quickly I could get my ass in gear to get dressed and eat breakfast – I don’t like to be rushed, especially on a Sunday, but an hour, I could handle.

When I got there, my mom wasn’t dressed yet, and I wasn’t feeling well for the first hour or so of being there. I had horrible back “ovary” pain, and had to lie down on the couch until my 2nd dose of Ibuprofen would finally take effect. My mom got dressed and about an hour later, I finally started feeling better. We’d planned to take a walk in the woods, but we both didn’t feel well enough to go out and do that yet but wanted to take in some fresh air, so we took out a couple blankets and pillows and sat outside on the picnic table and just enjoyed the winter sunshine. My step-dad and I took a few pictures too.

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The wind was cold so my mom and I went in the house to warm up for a bit and find something better for her to wear. And then we went out for a little walk around their neighbourhood by starting off through a ski-doo trail in the woods at the back of their yard, and then walked a loop back to the house on the neighbourhood road instead of back on the trail. We took it slow, and stopped a couple times to catch our breath and just enjoy.

We felt really good when we got back to the house and finished our walk and felt proud that we’d taken the opportunity to do so even though neither of us were feeling the best to begin with. We felt empowered. Even though it wasn’t much, the point is, we did it.

Finally, we had an early dinner and just hung out and she brought be back home before it was totally dark around around 6 or so, and I still had the rest of the evening to spend with hubby and the puppy.

It was a pretty good weekend all and all, and I think just what I needed to feed my soul.

We constantly make fun of my step-dad because let’s face it, he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. He has us often roaring in laughter at his stupidity and unbelievingly ridiculous thoughts.

Hubby and I had a few thoughts this evening… but the one involving my step dad would be this…

a “DVD Rewinder”!

Now, of course, we all know we don’t have to rewind CD’s & DVD’s, but I just know that we’d be able to convince my step-dad that he REALLY does need a DVD Rewinder, just as we did with a VHS Tape Rewinder or had to rewind tapes in the VCR back in the day! And I have no doubt in my mind that would be rather easy it would be to convince him!

I think it would make a wonderful prank… perhaps worthy enough of catching on video even! I can already almost picture his face as he asks a few serious questions to see if we were telling the truth, and then having his bubbled popped as he heard the whole thing was bullshit!  

I think the whole thing would be even more realistic if we could possibly get a hold of one of these fake DVD Rewinders! That would make it into the Hilarious Hall of Fame in our family… and everyone would live to laugh at him all over again! We’re mean like that!

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Peter and I also had another thought, and this one’s for when we are in the dead of winter and when we have the most snow.

While our brain was busy thinking of other funny things to do…. we found this…

We’d love to re-create something like this!! We sure get a lot of snow here… and we have a huge yard to display it in!   Imagine all the honks, drive-by’s and conversations THAT would spark up!  Heck, maybe we could get some publicity and make a killing doing this!! HAHAHA!  

People are so silly & funny!! What would humans be if it weren’t for humour? I’m glad I’ve never lost my funny bone!

The world doesn’t laugh & smile enough! We take life too seriously. Life is what you make of it, and you need to take time to enjoy it & make fun of it!

Well, the day started pretty “blah”.   I did manage to sneak in a nap and cuddled with a comforter on the couch today before work started. I had some alone time while my MIL was at an appointment at the medical clinic, and while Peter was getting his work schedule for next week. He brought Stitch with him and for about an hour… it was just me and the cats like the good old days.   I finally got warm too and started work 2 minutes shy of the start time. As the evening progressed, I felt the time flying by reasonably quick.

Peter got our meat for the week from our neighbour next door who also just happens to be a butcher. He also has a golden lab named, Coco. He and Stitch have been getting to know each other through the fence lines, but today, Peter brought him to the neighbours place (house and business in the same building) with him to meet Coco. They supposedly sniffed each other out but Peter got uncomfortable since in the end, Stitch was the one doing most of the sniffing and he sensed a brawl coming on. Coco is older & Stitch is only a year old and hasn’t been neutered yet… so I’m glad he played it safe and took Stitch away from the situation.

Along with the meat we bought, our neighbour gave Peter a big bag of beef/pork bones to bring home for Stitch. We gave him one of the frozen bones late this afternoon, and he has barely let the thing go all evening… he loves it and I don’t blame him! Num Num! What a spoiled brat he is! Already!  

He truly lucked out today between spending time with daddy, getting a stack of bones just for him, a couple car rides AND a nice evening walk with daddy and mommy! Oh, let’s not forget the 2 girlfriends he made while waiting for Peter & his mom at the corner store in the car! 2 girls were going gaga over him and couldn’t get over how cute he was!   Not that I blame them!! Who could resist this face?

Well… I shouldn’t forget that I lucked out too – the peace and quiet off and on during the day, and the nice late evening walk really felt great.. and simply having my day being turned from down to up!

It didn’t rain today… what a nice little break that was since it hasn’t stopped for a couple weeks now. There was even some off and on sunshine included! What a nice change, even if not for too long. Tomorrow’s/Friday’s weather forecast predicts a “Partly Cloudy” day with a high of 8C/45F – not too warm, but a lil bit of sunshine… it’s bound to be a beautiful Autumn day – a good opportunity to go for an afternoon stroll to the lake’s promenade & beach me thinks! I’m looking forward to it!

Our landlord is suppose to come back tomorrow to *hopefully* finalize the installation of our gas heating system. He’s coming, but I’m weary that he’ll finish and we will fall to yet another week without proper heat. But here’s to hoping! *crossing fingers & toes*

I also just remembered that Monday is a holiday for us Canadians… it’s Thanksgiving (Oct. 12th). We haven’t made any plans, so I’m hoping it’ll go by under the radar and Peter and I can just consider it a free day off. If anyone is cooking turkey & stuffing this year… it surely isn’t going to be me!

siggie by Shannon

Fall/Autumn is surely here!! When it’s raining, humid, cold & pretty much miserable out on an Autumn day… I usually call it Fall, but on a nice day, it’s Autumn. But today is definitely a Fall kind of day!

The other night as we were getting ready for bed, I put the radio on as I got the Stitch comfortable in his bed on the floor with the blankets. He likes to be covered from head to tail… it’s cute! The radio announcer mentioned the weather forecast for the next couple days… I was paying attention to getting Stitch all set up so I didn’t hear what the radio announcer said when Peter said “Hey, don’t say the F word!!”… I was wondering what he was talking about, and which “F” word was he really referring to? and he says “flurries”. Oh goodness… say it isn’t so!! Not yet!

Well, every day this week, they’ve been calling for rain or snow. Thankfully, we haven’t had any yet, but that might change today or very soon. There was a “first snow fall prediction” poll on TalkTimmins (a local online forum), and I predicted it to be the week of October 12th, but I’m not so sure anymore given today’s forecast.

Can you say, BBRRRRRR?!?!?!

For the moment, we are going through this without turning on the heat in the house. We only have electric baseboard heaters, and electricity/heating bill from last year’s SUPER cold winter, is still sucking our wallets dry!! We will be switching the heating system from electric to gas this year, but it hasn’t been done yet. We’re expecting the landlord to come back tomorrow and finish the job with his plumber friend. He hasn’t come the 2 last days that he said he would, so I’m weary that they will come tomorrow, but I surely hope so… we need the heat to get rid of this humidity. The next best thing would be a dehumidifier, but we can’t afford that at the moment. The cheapest I’ve been able to find is $199. Between the phone bill (collect calls), the electricity bill we are still paying off, Peter’s dentist appointments, my low work hours & Peter’s low part-time hours from one of his jobs, we’re just barely hanging in there, and any extras are out of the questions – even his dentist’s appointments are pushing it. If it hadn’t been for some financial help from my uncle, we wouldn’t have had been able to get groceries, pay the phone bill & pay some of the electricity bill – but alas, we still have to pay that back – but the flip side on that, is that he’s not in a hurry to be paid back.

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Today marks my grand-pa’s 12th year anniversary since he passed on 01.10.1997. I had just turned 16 when he passed, and looking back, it was a rough year, it also changed the person that I became. I think of him often. I often hear his words of wisdom that he used to tell me as I grew up, and by relaying his words of wisdom to others, I feel I’m keeping his spirit alive. I know he’s always there when I need him the most… especially when I need a problem to be resolved – he was such a great problem solver. Always so giving & helpful to others! I like to think that I captivated those personality traits too, and it’s all thanks to him! Growing up without a father, and being that he was the only grand-father I grew up with, he was more like a father figure to me. Being that I was his first & oldest grand-child, I always felt like I was more like his 9th and youngest child.

I love & miss you so much, Pepere!! You’ll live in me forever!!

siggie by Shannon

It had been some time since Peter had been asking about getting a dog, but I always thought it would be best to wait until we had less cats in the house. With Hennah Penny, one of my MIL’s cats passing early in the spring, I thought it was still too early since we still have 4 cats in the house (Booty, Sinny, Buffy & Sammy). Peter kept finding posts about dogs and puppies being given away on a local online trading post website. He asked all summer, but I kept saying ‘not right now’. And with the end of summer fast approaching, and Autumn and Winter on the way, I thought we’d best get a dog early next Spring if he was still adamant about getting one. This was mostly for training and walking purposes. I know I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to potty train a puppy and fight with a puppy to go walking in the cold.

On Sunday, September 13th, Peter found another ad/post about a 1 yr old male dog being given away. The info and the lady said that he was a Beagle/Bulldog mix. We called her to get some info and to see when we could come see him and we set an appointment with her for Monday in the evening after Peter finished work. Until then, we googled the mix breed so we could sort of expect what we were getting into. Cute and small I thought. Just the right size.

Come Monday evening (9/14), Peter picks me up at home so we can go see the puppy. We get to the lady’s address, all the lights are on, the front door is unlocked, and there’s a dog in the back yard barking like we’re going to raid the place or come to fight with him. – Is that him? Is that the dog we’re possibly adopting? He seems sort of big for a Beagle/Bulldog! – We walked about, tried to befriend the dog as he barked his head off at us from the well-fenced backyard, we sat in the car waiting for the lady to come back home. We assumed she wouldn’t be gone long and hadn’t been that long since she had left either. But after at least half an hour passing, we give up and head back home, and Peter gives her a call to let her know we were just at her place. She says she had to do a quick errand in the city, and would be right there if we were still interested. At the same time, I had him ask her what the dog’s name was… and both our faces lightened up when we heard the name "Stitch”!

So back on the road we went and back to her house. She was there waiting for us when we got there. We went to the backyard and Stitch was happy to see his “mommy”, but also threatened that new people were coming around his territory. He was so excited to see her, but didn’t know what to do about us, so he was acting very peculiar. He was tied up in the backyard, so we knew he couldn’t really hurt us if he felt that threatened, but we were unable to befriend and calm him until the lady’s friend/family member brought him out from the yard to the sidewalk away from the yard. He was a completely different dog once he had some distance from his territory. His excitement rose and rose from all the attention and again, his “mom” being home.

I had my doubts to bring Stitch home with us because of his larger size than we had originally thought but I prayed for the best & that it would work out for both us & Stitch, but of course, especially Stitch! So we put our long 8 foot leash on him, the lady gave us his chain and the dog food, and she asked Stitch if he wanted go to for a car ride, and away he walked in excitement with Peter and jumped into the car like he’d done it a million times before!

Well, it’s been 2 weeks since, and he’s such a wonderful joy and great addition to the family! We’re all happy to have him!

He brings fun, playfulness, & positivity to us all. He’s already like a big baby that we’re all taking part in loving and taking care of. I’ve also noticed how much more time we spend outdoors because of him… whether it’s walking him, in the backyard, or even just sitting on the deck with him. He would much rather someone come out with him than be there on his own… so we go out with him a lot because we know he needs the fresh air, and when it comes down to it, so do we!

The cats, and I only speak about Booty & Sinny since they are the only 2 that run around the house – they are getting comfortable around him. Stitch runs after them a few times a day, but the cats don’t seem to get upset about it. They still continue to prowl around the house like they own it. They’ll allow him to get close, but if he gets close enough to sniff them, that’s a little too close for comfort… but I hope that they will continue to grow and get used to him.

This past weekend, Peter was working full shifts, so I took the opportunity to go to my mom’s on Saturday and continue my Birthday celebrations from Thursday. I left Stitch at home with my MIL/grandma since Muffin, my mom’s dog, doesn’t like Stitch at all – but then again, she very jealous and dislikes any dogs that come close to her mom & dad. Had a good day or just shooting the shit, relaxing & enjoying the last nice day before Autumn bit us in the butt. At the end of the afternoon, Peter picked me up from my mom’s to go home, got home to make dinner, and after dinner, we slipped in a movie, “Night at the Museum 2”. Both Stitch and I laid down and cuddled on the couch, and about half way through the movie, I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. I tried several times to keep my eyes open and start watching again, but soon to have them just keep closing. I was pretty mellow and sleepy to say the least… it took me over and I started snoring on the couch. But I wasn’t alone… I had company in my own comfort… as Stitch was at the other end of the couch, sleeping and snoring too!!

What a sight that must have been!!

He’s so funny… he also thinks he’s people! Sits himself in the backseat of the car like a person!

WE OUR PUPPY!!