One Organized Chick

That would be our daughter Cathy! She has been recognized by a huge LA organizer, John Trosko. Her blog was only one of four to be added to his blog.

Check out her blog One Organized Chick was added to a blog roll by John Trosko of OrganizingLA. He said that she could organize Canada. I'm inclined to agree with him.

Way to go Cathy. Now can youjut make some time and come and get me organized too?

I Have A New Layout

After speaking to Cathy earlier in the day about adding links, she informed me I needed to replace my old page with a new one. I'm not too sure I'll keep it this way, but at least I have my daughter's sites on my blog now, and that makes me happy! For now, mission accomplished.

The family bloggers!

Drats I've Been Tagged!

What Does Blogging Mean to Me?

OR,
What does blogging mean to me?

1) Name the person, with link, who tagged you.
2) Complete the questionnaire without changing the questions.
3) Tag other people.

This tag is a questionnaire to be answered on the topic "What does blogging mean to me?"

I was tagged by my darling daughter April Besth--Thanks April-grrrr http://thebesthblog.blogspot.com/

QUESTION 1: Are you happy/satisfied with your blog, with its content and look?

I'd say only satisfied with its look, when I feel adventurous I think I'll change it. And when I've begun the process, I back out of it! Too afraid something will go wrong and I'll lose everything! Just call me chicken!

The content-I think, should say I am certain, I come across too cheery (well maybe not lately), I think the time has come to get more real. Time will tell whether or not I can carry that out.



QUESTION 2: Does your family know about your blog?
Oh yes. I started blogging because of our eldest daughter Cathy. I just wanted to make comments on her site, and a few others also so I started this up. And then I think April followed up with hers. I have cousins in Winnipeg and Calgary who read it because I've shared the link, and of course my darling mom and beautiful niece, and friends at Our Saviour Lutheran Church who somehow discovered it. So it's out there and I'm pleased that they care enough to check in from time to time!


QUESTION 3: Do you feel embarrassed to let your friends know about your blog or do you just consider it I private thing?

No I'm not embarrassed, at least not right now anyway. I feel it's a good way to share news, life altering information and best of all pictures!


QUESTION 4: Did your blog cause positive change in your thoughts?

I don't think that it did really. I'm usually a pretty positive person so my blogs more or less reflect that. At least I hope they do.


QUESTION 5: Do you only open the blogs of those who comment to your blog or do you love to go and discover more by yourself?

I love finding new blogs, I store them on my favourites returning to them again and again. Blogs can be and are a fascinating insite into the lives of others. I dislike it though when you hit the arrow to go to another blog only to find is a semi-porn site or an ad, that disgusts and annoys me. Lately though I hop around Cathy's links which begat other links. I wish I knew how to add that feature to my blog!


QUESTION 6: What does your visitor counter mean to you? Do you care about put it in your blog?

I have tried and given up trying to get that counter onto my blog. Even with the instructions that sound so darn simple to follow when you are reading them, don't work for me. I am not very computer literate, that's a fact. That said, I haven't tried in ages, and because I don't have one, it doesn't really matter anymore. It might have been nice from the very start, but not now.


QUESTION 7: Did you try to imagine your fellow bloggers and give them real pictures?

That's the beauty of most blogs--the pictures and video steams. There are a few sites that I go to that don't have pictures and I'm disappointed. I mean look at how far our monitors have come, they used to just be black and white and we got so excited when they improved and you could actually see swimming fish or something floating across the screen and you'd go like, ohhhh, look at that. It's all about the visuals!



QUESTION 8: Do you think there is a real benefit to blogging?
For sure, it's a modern day version of Dear Diary with wonderful bells and whistles!

When you start writing, it helps put things in perspective. It allows you to laugh, cry, share, communicate and support others and receive all of that back ten-fold. Usually from complete and utter strangers who share your pain, rejoice with your successes, say prayers for you when you need them and bolster you up when you are feeling low. That is an amazing thing.


QUESTION 9: Do you think that bloggers society is isolated from the real world or interacts with events?

I think it is quite likely that some bloggers started out thinking I'm gonna just sit here and write what I want, when I want, which is absolutely fine. I also think that the first time someone makes a comment on your blogsite, you realize you are making a connection with someone. I know when I wrote in the early days about giving my sister some roses for her birthday, and within minutes someone far away made the nicest comment about it. I was truly surpised and delighted. That's real.


QUESTION 10: Does criticism annoy you or do you feel it's a normal thing?

I have been lucky so far, no criticisms at least in my comments box. But also, fair enough, if you put yourself out there and someone doesn't agree, you'll hear about it. Then you can choose how or if you want to deal with it. And that would probably be the starting point of a whole new blog!


QUESTION 11: Do you fear some political blogs and avoid them?

I don't fear them or avoid them any more than I would reading it in the newspaper. For me, it depends on the degree of it, extreme/ radical / whatever. I check them out and if I don't particulary like them, I ignore them.


QUESTION 12: Did you get shocked by the arrest of some bloggers?

I missed that story. Too much facebook lately I guess-ha ha!


QUESTION 13: Did you think what would happen to your blog after you died?

I don't care about it living on but, I would be and am more interested to learn how I can capture what I've written sofar and save it elsewhere on a DVD. It is a record and family history that would be nice to capture elsewhere. I believe there's a way, but again, there's that "techie thing gene" missing!


QUESTION 14: What do you like to hear? What's the song you might like to put in a link, in your blog?

That's a hard one for me to decide I love everything from classical, to blue grass. Now that our girls have moved away, I'm out of the loop where modern music's concerned. I mean I still miss Milli Vanilli, Girl you know it's true!


Tag You're It! Here are my three tags of choice. . .

This is where the rubber hits the lawn. I am on the end of the foodchain where bloggers are concerned. I only have two daughters that blog and one of them tagged me, and she was tagged by her sister. Of course there is my dear Cynthia, but she's gone too. So I can only tag one person.

Amber, dear Amber don't hate me, but I tag you! http://amberslilzoo.blogspot.com/

I look forward to actually meeting Amber face to face when she comes down to the lower mainland for tests. Glad about the meeting, but sorry for the reason. Amber is always so creative with her blog backgrounds, it's palm trees, it's beautiful pink flowers, it's polka dots! I roared with laughter over the banana video she posted some time back! She has a very full life with her three children, and if you want to see a talented cake decorator, check out her site.

So help you lurkers out there, be my number 2 and 3. If not, to quote my daughters, I'm hooped!

It's Friday, Where Did the Week Go?

On days prior to my retirement, the initials T.GoodnessI.F. were spoken with pleasure. The week of work was over, time to relax and refresh. Now that my beloved and I are retired it amazes me how quickly the days of the week fly by! And it's more like, holy mackerell, it's Friday already!

I guess when you get to an age when a nights' sleep is broken, you catch a few more minutes or hours of sleep, and begin your day's activities a lot later than when one worked. That pretty well explains away a half a day pretty darn quickly! The routine of retirement is established fairly quickly. A leisurely breakfast, a long walk, coffee and paper reading at a local establishment, lunch, a nap, checkout e-mails and blogs and facebook, make a few telephone calls, hang laundry on the clothesline, do a spot of tidy up and it's time to make supper. Pretty humdrum for sure, but also quite delicious!

This past week was good and bad. You know how you get in a knot about something and can't let it go? Well, for a day or two that was happening over here. I won't bore you with details, but it bogged me down good and solid for a while. Thankfully for my beloved and because of my beloved, I managed to climb out of the hole and got to enjoy several lunches on our back patio, enjoyed our Indian Summer, sat and read Little Dorrit with the tiniest print possible, I know I will need to renew this book at our local library!, made tea for our daughter Cathy so that she could sit and rest awhile, had the birthday girl fall asleep beside me on the couch and enjoyed the rewards of being a Nanny. I am ever so grateful for the small, and seemingly inoccuous things that make up our week. That is life! Shalom.

Happy Birthday Catie-Girl!

Dear Catie,
All of these animals are so excited, they been waiting to wish you a very Happy 3rd Birthday!

You are our sweetheart and our joy. We hope you have fun today with your brother and sisters and mommy and daddy.

We love you,
Nanny and Pappa
xxxooo

Happy Birthday Cliff!

Wishing our Number 1 Son and electrician extra-ordinare a Very Happy Birthday! Enjoy your day Cliff it only lasts 24 hours!
Love you babes,
Mom and Dad
xxxooo

(I wish I could have coloured the above picture-bright orange :)

My Sweetie Took a Tumble!

September '58 - the early years!

The Serious Cycling Years

For those of you who don't know it, my husband takes really great care of himself. He does situps every morning, walks 4+ km usually a day with me, swims like a fish, and before he did something to a ligament or or something to his knee from playing soccer, he played once a week. If that weren't enough, he is a serious bicycle rider. He dons his cycling clothes, fills up the water bottle and heads out on the road.

There are many perils on the road, but he is a skilled and careful rider. As in the Tour deFrance, dogs can be your enemy when you are riding (or walking!) But he has always made it home in one piece, safe and sound even if there was one time he came home with a bit of dog hair on his shoe.

Each time I always say, be careful. He always replies, "I will" and he means it.

It's just that today, as he was just starting out on his laps around The Grove, he made a quick decision to maneuver himself and his bike, and it went somewhat awry and down he went scraping up his right shoulder, leg and hip, and scraped his left hand. The newish jersey and cycling shoes are a bit scuffed up. The racing bike is somewhat battered, but my beloved is okay! When he went down, a kind lady stopped to ask if he was okay, and even offered to take him home (our home)! Fortunately he was alright and came home under his own steam.

I know after his bicycle comes back from the shop, he will be out and about again ready to hit the road. I just feel like we were very lucky, no broken bones, another story to tell, and for that I am thankful!

School Starts Today!

School Started today!

Three of our grandchildren stepped through the door of their elementary school today. They mirror the day that Amy started Kindergarten, but this time it's Carly, April went into Grade 1, this time it's Claire, and Cathy started Grade 3, this time it's Cameron. Where did those years go?

My beloved though now retired for 8 years, taught art for the Richmond School District for 29 years. I thank him for that and I am so happy he didn't have to go to school today too.

To all of our friends and family, teachers (Melonee!!) and students alike, have a great school year, and for all the lucky retired teachers (Brenda!!) enjoy your freedom you worked very hard to get to this day!