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Couch Surfing

What is CouchSurfing? from Jan Keck on Vimeo.

I have been a host for couchsurfers for over a year now, and I hang out with the Toronto Couchsurfing Group. For more information please go to www.couchsurfing.com

Why God Made Moms

Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions:

Why did God make mothers?

1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.

2. Mostly to clean the house.

3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

How did God make mothers?

1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.

2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.

3. God made my mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.

What ingredients are mothers made of?

1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.

2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?

1. We're related.

2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's mom like me.

What kind of a little girl was your mom?

1. My mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.

2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.

3. They say she used to be nice.

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?

1. His last name.

2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?

3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

Why did your mom marry your dad?

1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my mom eats a lot.

2. She got too old to do anything else with him.

3. My grandma says that mom didn't have her thinking cap on.

Who's the boss at your house?

1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because dad's such a goof ball.

2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.

3. I guess mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.

What's the difference between moms and dads?

1. Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work.

2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.

3. Dads are taller and stronger, but moms have all the real power 'cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friends.

4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.

What does your mom do in her spare time?

1. Mothers don't do spare time.

2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

What would it take to make your mom perfect?

1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.

2. Diet. You know, her hair. I'd diet, maybe blue.

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?

1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.

2. I'd make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it not me.

3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

WHEN YOU STOP LAUGHING --

SEND IT ON TO OTHER MOTHERS,

GRANDMOTHERS, AND AUNTS....

and anyone else who has anything to do with kids or just needs a good laugh!!!

SICK and TIRED!

Well the new month begins much like the last month ended, I am still sick with something! It seems that I have not had a full week at school since just before March break due to not feeling right. Last week, even though I had a sore throat and runny nose, I did see the whole week through. But I am pretty sure, as I write this, I will be taking Monday off to try to get my body back to normal.

I went to the doctor and had a host of tests done, blood work, ECG, a carotid Doppler, and all is normal. I don't feel stressed and I don't have reasons to be either. Yesterday I woke up and scared myself when I looked in the mirror, as a blood vessel in my eye had broken. I checked online for causes, and it was either from sneezing, coughing or plugging my nose and blowing to fix my blocked ears! So now I will look freaky for about 2 weeks until it disappears.

I have been ridiculously tired for a few weeks now. I came home Friday after work instead of working out, and slept on the couch. Yesterday after taking a few kids from school to the Toronto Football Club, I came home and slept again. I'm sleeping during the night too, and I am still tired.

Up until this past week, I was eating very well, using my new Blendtec to make green smoothies and soups, as well as adding more fish and eggs to my diet. This past week though, I was just too tired and had a poor appetite. Having said that, I did have gluten-free pancakes and syrup this morning and then for lunch I had rice and Indian stir fried veggies. But I still feel shaky, as though I am hungry.

So what more should I do? I am sleeping, sort of eating properly and getting fresh air, and this morning, because I couldn't take it any more I took a pain killer to try to feel better.

HELP!

Karina's Kitchen- Recipes from a Gluten-Free Goddess: The Gluten-Free Cheat-Sheet- How to Go G-Free

Karina's Kitchen- Recipes from a Gluten-Free Goddess: The Gluten-Free Cheat-Sheet- How to Go G-Free

Congratulations Sophie

My niece Sophie and her partner Mark delivered their first baby today in England. Their little girl, Talia was born at 7.21 pm England time, weighing in at 6lb 12oz. My sister text me to tell me that the grandparents are so happy and that Talia is perfectly beautiful.

Great Job Sophie, I'm so proud of you.

(I just realized that this is my 100th post!)

Amazing James

I called my dad to have my weekly chat with him, and in the process I told him that I had chatted online with my brother, his son, David. My dad then asked me if I wanted to talk to him as he was there with my dad. I was surprised, and asked if David was visiting him. That's when my dad realised he was thinking James, his grandson was his son David.

I spoke to James for almost 45 minutes talking about what is happening with my dad. James moved in with my dad while the family awaited caregivers to come and help him out. Now that the caregivers are there, my nephew doesn't feel comfortable leaving as on more than one occasion the caregivers have forgotten to come. Essentially their job is to come three times a day to make sure he is taking his pills. One woman came and filled in the paper work stating she had watched him take the pills with water, but when James came into the kitchen he discovered the pills on the table. Also it seems that they are really only there to make sure he takes his pills. Only one person stops to have a little chat while they are there. The others are in and out.

I am extremely happy that James is there. He has managed, single-handedly to clean up my dad's house, even his bedroom! My dad won't allow anyone to touch anything, as he wants it left the way my mum had it when she died. Anyway James had removed cobwebs and dust and dirt and grime from everywhere. He is now working on trying to get him to bathe more often, good luck on that one!

I can only call in to check up on my dad, so it is very comforting to know that someone is there during the day. James drives a cab at night, so he can spend the daylight hours with his grandpa.

My Mum 08/16/1929 - 07/21/2004

Eileen Hicken was born August 16, 1929 in Cape Town, South Africa, daughter to Isabel and Frank Voges. She was sister to Joyce, Audrey and Yvonne. She arrived in England for a holiday with Joyce in 1950.

Eileen started her nurses training in the same year, at St. Mary's hospital. She worked a year at St. Mary's (54 -55), a year at St. Albrights (55 - 56), and 23 years at Colchester Maternity hospital (69 - 92). Her contribution in providing a vital service to mum's and their babies was phenomenal. She gained personal satisfaction and made many friends throughout the duration of her career. She retired in 1992 after 26 years of nursing.

Eileen met Phil a soldier, in Colchester and after a romantic courtship, married on March 7, 1953. They enjoyed 51 loving years together, enhancing their relationship with a son David, and three daughters, Mary, Lorna and Yvonne.

Eileen was an aunt to Kathy in Ireland, Ann in Australia, Della in New Zealand, she had a nephew, Johan in South Africa, and her closest nieces and nephew, Marilyn, Felicity and Glen in England.

Throughout her life Eileen loved to broaden her knowledge of the world. She took in students from all over who came to Colchester to learn English. She traveled to many places in the world and returned to visit her home, Cape Town after 48 years.

Eileen had many friends who admired her. Her three closest friends were Millie, who became an aunt to all of Eileen's family, Connie who nursed with her from the begining, and Anne who nursed with her at the maternity hospital.

She loved her grandchildren and they loved to visit her. They were always surprised with her latest find from a car boot sale.

Vanessa enjoyed having her grandma as her hair dressing model.
Megan and her grandma enjoyed each other's company, having a chat and a laugh.

Jack loved adventures at the beach hut and Friday woods with his grandma.

Jenna's last visit with her nanny was full of laughs and funny sketches nanny thought her very talented.

When nanny visited Folkestone, Chris looked forward to his visit with her at the Burstyn Hotel, especially watching a show with her.

She was proud of Thomas in all his endeavours, including his studies at university.

James would willingly drop everything to drive his grandma wherever she needed to go.

She knew Sophie's love of chocolate, and would always appear with a big bar of Galaxy to Sophie's delight.

One of the most fun filled family events that was enjoyed annually, was the Boxing Day trips to the Mercury Theatre to watch the Christmas Pantomime.

Eileen knitted many sweaters for children in Africa. She collected money to buy goats for the poor families in Africa. Her family will continue to collect donations in her name for this very worthy cause.

Eileen enjoyed the volunteer work she did with the seniors at the Activity Centre. It gave her pleasure serving tea to the "old dears" and listening to their tales.

Some of Eileen's loves were:

Her family
Her grandchildren
Her career
Roses
Travel
History
Helping children and their families in Africa
And watching sports and athletics on television

Rest in Peace, Mum

BASKETBALL

Here I am many years ago sitting on the left end of the bench. Only 5 feet tall and still I managed to play on the girl's basketball team. Way back then (circa 1970) there were only a few other schools that had girl's teams.

Our coach was David Cook who was our geography teacher (not pictured here). He was pretty good, we did pretty well I think. I also used to score for the boy's team. The boy on the right end is Julian Castle who scored for the girl's team.

Last semester I watched all of my school's girl's games, they did really well. They got to the semi finals that they won, and then on to the finals. They won the finals and went onto the regionals. They did really well however lost the last game by one point. The girls are amazing.

This semester I am following the boy's team. The two teams play very different games. The boys so far are in the middle of the semi finals. Next game is sometime this week.

At the last sports awards assembly the girls showed off their pennent for the finals win. All the kids who played on any team got awards of some sort. The parent's of the girls who played basketball surprised the 2 coaches with basket balls signed by the team. Then I was surprised when Vanessa, another teacher, and I received an award for being the best teacher fans!

Sad News

Yesterday I told you about sweet little Cora fighting a tremendous battle. How sad I was today when I read that she lost that battle. I can't imagine the sadness her family is going through now. Keep them in your prayers.

The Macs

I came across this blog quite by accident from a scrapbook blog who commented on the story. I sat and read the story and cried. Then I went back to the beginning of the blog when Jess and Joel gave birth to their little Cora 11 months ago.

After an ear infection and little Cora not feeling herself, he parents took her to the doctor who quickly saw things were much worse than an ear infection. Late in January they took her to the hospital where it was discovered that she had Neuroblastoma. She has had 4 surgeries since then, removing the worst, having tubes put in her ears, releasing fluid build up around her heart, and her parents and uncle have been updating their blog to keep everyone informed. The family have a very strong religious belief, and are asking everyone to pray for them. If you are interested or can help with prayers, please go to their website and make a comment to help the family know that others are concerned for them.

It is when we read things like this that we realise how lucky we are, even when we think things are bad, someone else, somewhere else is battling much worse scenerios and are doing so with dignity.

I just wanted to blog about this in hopes that others would read it and then send their prayers to whomever they think can help.

http://themcclenahans.blogspot.com/

Dad's upcoming birthday

While I was talking to my dad on the weekend, I was wondering how fast his Alzheimer's would progress. He was hit by a car last week while crossing the street. He misjudged how far the car was and thought he had enough time to cross before the car came. He left the dog outside for 6 hours in the snow in December, having forgot that he had let the dog out. Someone brought him back home the week before last, explaining to a neighbour that he'd forgotten where he lived.

This particular phone call he only repeated himself once, which was unusual. However on about 6 occasions during the call he forgot simple words. "The thing with grated carrots and stuff," I reminded him was salad. "Those things I take in the morning and at night," medicine. My brother had been over that weekend explaining to him that he would like to be the Power ofAttorney for him. I'm hopeful he understood what it was, but said what a great thing that my brother wanted to do that for him.

Aging is hard enough, but watching your parent slowly decline is awful. We all try to keep a positive outlook, but at the same time we have to remember that it's his disease when he sometimes says hurtful things, it the disease when he forgets to bath, its the disease when he forgets his keys and can't get in his house, (only to discover that when you show up to let him in, that the keys were in his pocket all along).

On February 3 he will turn 82. He is the only one from his own family left. His parents, step mum and both sisters died many years ago. His wife of 51 years died 4 1/2 years ago, and he now shares his home with Lucy, his faithful dog. My 2 sisters visit him weekly, my brother makes it there when he can, and all that I can do is call him once a week. We talk for about an hour, and often he has very little to tell me about, but I try to fill in the gaps with memories of old times, or stories of my kids at work.

This is the card I made for him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

I was all prepared to sit at home and work on a few scrapbook pages when I got a text from Glenn saying that he had a spare ticket for the play Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I checked out the time of the show and realised that I had 10 minutes to get there. I got my boots and coat on and rushed to the Canon Theatre. I had been there a few weeks previously to see A Chorus Line.

Glenn met me there and we went up to our seats to watch the show. I was a little disappointed with the singing, and the play itself lost a lot of the story, so for those who were unfamiliar with the story, they didn't quite understand it. But it was a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon and I was given the ticket for free.

I did however manage to get a couple of scrapbook pages done earlier in the day. I haven't any journaling on either one, as that is not one of my strong points. I have made notes on the second one though.

January 1st

So after over 2 months I finally got a scrapbook page completed today. I have been working on Thank You cards for the kids at school.

Then I decided to make a gift tag for my friend Vanessa. I think she'll like it, I figured she can use it as a book mark. It is 6 x 4.

So when I finally pulled out some page kits I put together in the summer I found one that was relatively simple to do.

Well it's a start anyway, I'm pretty sure I will add more to it, but I am happy that I found some creativity to get me going again!

New Year's Eve, couchsurfing style

I arrived with Beatriz around 9:30 at Mita's home and offered the food that I made.
Then we got drinks and left the kitchen and went into the living room.

There was food there too.

Just before midnight we all gathered in the living room.

Here is Mita's New Year's Eve Ball:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

After the ball dropped.

Even Bugs had a great time.

I celebrated with my good friend Beatriz.

Thanks Mita for a wonderful party.

Hanging out with friends

It has been a year since I last got together with Debbie and Louisa, but we try to meet at least once a year. We all worked together over 10 years ago in Daycare. But we've remained good friends.

Louisa moved sometime ago to the outskirts of Toronto, and is presently living in Whitby working as a social worker.


Debbie lives only 25 minutes from me, and is training to be a midwife.

Louisa wanted to do something different, so after meeting at the Eaton Centre, we walked to an Indian restaurant for dinner and then on to Second City to watch a comedy show. I enjoyed most of the humour, and one comedian in particular. After the intermission they did a little improve. Louisa was worried about the 2 extra chairs that had been set next to her, concerned that they were adding more people to the table. As it turned out both Debbie and Louisa became a part of the show. The 2 seats were occupied by a couple of the troupe and the scenario was a car stuck in a traffic jam. It was very funny, especially having them both in the skit. Debbie was mortified that they chose to sit there, but she attempted to pretend to drive the car and honk the horn!

After the show we went to Gabby's for some drinks and to laugh about our fun we had just had, and the silly things we used to get up to!

Friends, no matter how often or seldom you see them are the spice of life.

Christmas Day Events

This is likely the last post for 2008.

I just wanted to document my Christmas day.
Thomas and I opened our gifts and I was surprised by a beautiful cup and infuser that Thomas brought back from Korea, as well as 4 delicious herbal teas. Kay also sent me a gift of rice cakes for Korea. I had requested a bath robe from Thomas and he found the greatest robe that I will try out tomorrow. He also gave me a mouse for my new laptop, and loads of candy and chocolate and chips from an English store I just found.
WOW it was great.
I gave him clothes and boots that he picked out as well as a pair of slippers that clean the floor while you wear them!

Later that morning Thomas made himself a nice pancake breakfast and I just fasted as I had an upset stomach and wanted to feel better for dinner.

I called my sister Lorna and spoke to her. Although my dad was there I didn't get to speak to him as he was sleeping. They had a great Christmas and were just chilling and were going to watch Lorna's favourite DVD Weekend At Bernie's.

I made dinner later. Thomas had bought a whole roasted chicken for himself that I heated in the oven. I made roasted vegetable lasagna for myself. We also had peas, broccoli, carrots and roast potatoes. For dessert we had apple crumble which is Thomas' favourite.
Later that evening we were watching my all time favourite movie, Lost Horizon (1937) and I had just finished making a cup of tea when there was a bit of commotion in the hallway outside my door. I heard a child calling out that there was a fire in the building. We opened the door saw and smelled smoke and then got ready to leave the building.
It was a fire in the garbage chute that the fire fighters had out quickly. We had the same fire in the summer time.

Of course I took my tea AND my camera!

Some of the good natured residents smiling when I said, "Merry Christmas"

(Yes there were a number of good looking fire fighters around)
When we got back into the apartment we finished watching the movie and watched t.v. and ate our chocolates.

Now I am preparing myself for 2009 and another great year. This year I predict a big change in my single status!

Novemeber photos

Well so much for this great idea! I tried and then when I uploaded the pictures onto my computer, I somehow managed to delete them. So now I am a few days behind. Oh well here are the ones that I managed to save!



My metropass

My desk

Tomatoes

Scrapbook supplies



Omlette

Box in a bag

November pictures

The plan is to take a picture each day and then cut a 2x2 piece of it out and make 12 x 12 scrapbook layout for the month of November. So far I have taken 2 pictures and this is what they look like.
A very late dinner
Laundry..... it must be Sunday!

What MARY means

What Mary Means

You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated. You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want. You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way! You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You are a free spirit, and you resent anyone who tries to fence you in. You are unpredictable, adventurous, and always a little surprising. You may miss out by not settling down, but you're too busy having fun to care.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?